Shambhala, Agharti (Agharta) and 2012, central Asian myths. What do they have in common? While doing some research for an article relating to the mysteries of the number 7, I came across references into Shambhala, Agharti (Agharta) and 2012. I thought it was quite bizarre to find that there was a legend surrounding Shambhala and Agharti which brought the date of 2012 into the picture as far as coming world changes are concerned. I was reading a book called “The Ancient Wisdom“.1 Imagine, a central Asian myth that could tie in with other legends surrounding 2012.
A quick review of the power of this legend
Shambhala is linked to the shamanic roots of Lamaism and the Lamaistic temple at Shigatse in central Asia. This region, near the Himalayan mountains, is rich with tales of returning ‘world kings’ and culture heroes who will appear and lead chosen people to a world-spanning empire and a golden age. An early 20th-century writer and adventurer, Ferdinand Ossendowski, wrote about Shambhala and Agharti. He mentioned that Shambhala and Agharti were believed to be real places that existed and could only be found by those who believed in them. Ossendowski was writing about the legend of the coming ‘world king’ some 30 years after his apparent appearance at Narabanchi in 1890. At this time the world king was said to have uttered a prophecy of things to come.
The prophecy
The world king is said to have predicted a series of horrors which appear to relate to the terrible ordeals faced by both sides of the conflict between 1914-1918 or World War I. The king explains that in the aftermath of this conflict he will send his influence to an unknown people to ‘tear out the weeds of madness and vice with a strong hand and lead those who still remain faithful to the spirit of man in a fight against Evil, founding a new life on earth purified by the death of nations’. In the 50th year (circa 1940) three great kingdoms will come together and flourish for 71 years. There will follow 18 years of warfare and at the end of this the peoples of Agharti would ‘come up from their subterranean caves to the surface of the earth’.
World War II
This prophecy seems to have been seized upon by General Karl Haushofer, a German military commander, who is credited with ‘inventing the concept of Geo-Politics’. Haushofer was particularly concerned with the area of central Asia as being crucial to any attempt Germany made to ‘recover its rightful place in the world’ because of its magical implications. He believed that the mystical source of future world power was concealed within these two cities. Haushofer believed that both cities were underground and that a split had occurred between the founding masters. This lead Agharti to being a place of retirement and meditation while Shambhala was a ‘city of power and violence’ where you could gain power over elements and humanity. From 1926 onwards, expeditions were mounted by the Germans into the Tibetan region of central Asia to locate the city of Shambhala. The story goes that German emissaries made contact with the ‘Society of Green Men’ and that some Tibetans were actually found in Berlin by the Russian advance in 1945 wearing German uniforms without insignia.
Tying it together
In 1940, see the prophecy above, Italy, Germany, and Japan formed the Tripartite Alliance now referred to as the Axis powers. Could this have been the three great kingdoms? If the war had been won by the Axis powers we would now be in the 69th year of their alliance. According to the prophecy, we would then have 2 years left before everything falls apart and we have another conflict. This would make the date 2011. Now the great cycle of the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. Very close don’t you think? Hypothetically, what if the 3 great kingdoms were not Italy, Germany, and Japan? If we look at the current facts then the following emerges:
- Britain, France and the USA (3 great kingdoms) came together to fight the axis powers
- we are in year 70 since that alliance
- the global financial crisis has brought economies great and small to a grinding halt
- China (which covers most of central Asia) is an emerging powerhouse of military and economic might
Does the situation fit the prophecy of the ‘world king’ as uttered in his appearance at Narabanchi in 1890? It may well. Shambhala and Agharti are linked to central Asia and China is emerging as a world leader. Could this be the re-emergence of the peoples of Agharti which will be complete after 18 years of war (2029)? Why not? I don’t know the answers to these questions, I have only speculated on one interpretation of the prophecy. However, I find it coincidental that the Mayan calendar and the Narabanchi Prophecy contain a similar date for the ending of a cycle. Leave your thoughts and comments below.
You can get your copy of “The Ancient Wisdom” at Amazon. This article originally appeared on Beyond 2012 HQ which was a sister site until recently. It has been moved here as it fits in with the number 7 series of articles beginning with 7 Chakras, 7 Sacred Directions – part 1.
***UPDATE 2 March 2010***
In a comment below, it has been noted that Ferdinand Ossendowski “…never wrote a single word about Shambhala. He wrote only about Agharti, which is an entirely different mythologem.”
I am always happy to have my work corrected and will do the necessary research to ensure that these ‘suggested corrections’ are accurate. My additional research on this statement lead me to two books referencing Ossendowski’s “Beasts, Men and Gods.” The following are the extracts I located.
“It is small wonder that the Russian traveller, Ferdinand Ossendowski, hearing about Shambhala on every side as he journeyed across Central Asia, declared that he could regard it as nothing less than “the mystery of mysteries.”2
This information referenced from page 300 of Ossendowski’s book, “Beasts, Men and Gods” 3
In another portion of page 300 in his book Ossendowski exclaims surprise at how from time to time men and beasts seemed to stop breathing and silence reigned for a short time as if “…thrown into prayer awaiting their fate.” Victoria LePage, quoting Ossendowski writes:
“Thus is has always been,” explained an old Mongol shepherd and hunter, “whenever the King of the World in his subterranean palace prays and searches out the destiny of all peoples on the earth.” For in Shambhala, he said, live the invisible rulers of all pious people, the King of the World or Brahatma, who can speak with God as I speak with you…”4
Finally, I located the following:
“Even if Ossendowski refers to his magic empire under the name of Agarthi, it is only a variant upon or supplement to the Shambhala myth.* His “King of the World” is identical to the ruler of the Kalachakra kingdom. He “knows all the forces of the world and reads all the souls of humankind and the great book of their destiny. Invisibly he rules eight hundred million men on the surface of the earth and they will accomplish his every order” (Ossendowski, 1924, p. 302).
(*Marco Pallis is of the opinion that Ossendowski has simply substituted the name Agarthi for Shambhala because the former was very well known in Russia as a “world center”, whilst the name Shambhala had no associations (Robin, 1986, pp. 314-315.)5
While I thank my commenter for providing the ‘suggested correction’, in the end, it would appear that opinion may be divided on whether or not Ossendowski “…wrote a single word about Shambhala.” It would also appear that he used the term ‘Agarthi‘ interchangeably with Shambhala to reach a different target audience.
Either way, the myth about the prophecy is still a fascinating example of how the date of 2012 may tie into yet another culture and its legends.
Image: Shambhala
- The Ancient Wisdom written by Geoffrey Ashe (1972) ISBN 0333198670 ↩
- Shambhala: the fascinating truth behind the myth of Shangri-la, p. 6; Victoria LePage: ISBN 0-8356-0750-X ↩
- Ferdinand Ossendowski, ISBN 1-59547-969-4 ↩
- ibid, p.40 ↩
- Tibet: THE SPEARHEAD OF THE SHAMBHALA WAR: Victor & Victoria Trimondi ↩
Hey I wouldn’t feel bad about mixing up Agartha and Shamballa and I don’t think it diminshes your arguement one bit. First of all Ossendowski based his book on someone who preceeded him whose work is not easy to find today. It doesn’t diminish the truth of the message. What happens is there is a lot of purposeful naysaying by the paid detractors of the group that stands to lose the most power from all of this and that is the secret govt. Enjoyed your article don’t let netpicking detract you from the truth.
Welcome to Timberwolf HQ Susan
Thank you for your support of this article. My own research did not come from Ossendowski, however. It was from a book by Geoffrey Ashe called Ancient Wisdom. An interesting read if you can find it today.
Timberwolf
I read Ossendowski’s book back in 1996 when I first stumbled upon the prophecy.
You have to remember that the prophecy by the King of the World was made in 1890. Counting “in the 50th year” which would be 1940, the three great forces would be the Capitalist West, the Communist east and those countries who were part of the Non-Aligned Movement, who live in peace for 71 years (1940 +71 = 2011)–> very close to 2012. Then there is the expected 18 years of war, WWIII, and if Nostradamus is right, it will involve China and the Middle East.
Another prophecy you should check out is by Serbian mystic Mitar Tarabic. His description and Ossendowski’s description of this mysterious King of the World figure have many commonalities. Another spiritual master who believed in Agartha firmly was the late Bulgarian mystic Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov. Several of his books talk about Agartha, but Aivanhov does not say that Agartha exists in 4 dimensional reality but exists on the astral plane.
Furthermore, Aivanhov asserts that UFO don’t actually come from outer space but rather come from Agartha and the fact that UFO viewings only increased in the advent of the invention of nuclear power and technology. This worried them so much, the fact that we split the atom, that we found the secrets to existence, that they usually appear in areas of high nuclear activity and right after disasters to keep an eye on things. They are extremely benevolent beings.
Last two lines of second comment should be:
“Whatever else may be said about Agartha, it seems to have been a source of delusion, of not certifiable insanity, to almost everyone who has written about it.”
Obviously I have been dwelling on Agharta too long . . . My mind has been affected . . .
One last, and I hope amusing, comment on Agharta. This comes from Joscelyn Godwin’s Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival, a chapter of which provides what may be the best summary of the Agharta mythololgem:
“Whatever else may be said about Agartha, it seems to have been a source delusion, if not certifiable insanity, to almost everyone who has written about it.”
At the risk of belaboring a point, I repeat that Ossendowski never wrote anything about Shambhala and never even mentioned the word. A text reference is available in the Gutenberg Project copy of Beasts, Men and Gods. I am fully aware that dozens of authors conflate Agharti and Shambhala, includIng Victoria LePage.
In the first excerpt of hers she simply inserted Shambhala for Agharti. On page 300 of Beasts, Men and Gods, Ossendowski says nothing about Shambhala. He says only:
From this, apparently, LePage comes up with the quote about Ossendowski hearing about Shambhala from all sides . . .
The second quotation from LePage is even more bizarre. First, the quote from LePage appears to have left out some quotation marks, making it sound like it was Ossendowski and not LePage speaking some of the words. Then LePage seems to have combined at least two different quotes from Ossendowski to come up with her own. This is from page 300 of Ossendowski:
The second part of LePage’s quote seems to come from this passage on page 304 of Ossendowski:
As can be seen, Ossendowski says nothing about Shambhala. LePage inserted the word Shambhala, making it sound like it was Ossendowski speaking.
One might wonder how this confusion began. I would point to the writings of Nicholas Roerich, who may have been the first to conflate Agharti and Shambhala. Ashe, in his Ancient Wisdom is clearly following Roerich on this. As for the Agharti Mythologem, Ossendowski lifted it from the 1886 book Mission de l’Inde en Europe (Mission of India in Europe) by French occultist Joseph-Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveidre. This book was recently reprinted as The Kingdom of Agarttha: A Journey into the Hollow Earth. Compare this book with Part Five of Beasts, Men and Gods, in which Ossendowski discusses Agharti and draw your own conclusions. I myself would say it comes dangerously close to outright plagiarism.
In any case, the legend of Agharti does not seem to exist in Mongolia. I myself have traveled over 30,000 miles through Mongolia by jeep, horse, and Camel (see www. doncroner.com, the RoerichExpedition for more details) and questioned hundreds of people, including many knowledgeable lamas, about this. I have never found anyone in Mongolia who has ever heard of the Agharti mythologem.
Finally, I would have to question the statement (by whom it is not clear) that:
Please read Ossendowski’s description of the King of World in his own book and not what other people wrote about Ossendowski’s book, then compare it to the Kalachakra Tantra and decide for yourself. You can see a description of Shambhala itself a www. shambhala.mn, The Kingdom of Shambhala.
The Shambhala “War” will be fought between those who practice compassion and those who lack compassion. Those who practice compassion can never engage in violent acts which bring harm to other beings. Their only “weapon” is the power of Love. Those who believe in Shambhala believe that in the end compassion and love with triumph. On a purely esoteric level the “war” is within ourselves, between the impulse for compassion on the one hand and the violence and hatred which dwells in each of us on the other. This is the ultimate Shambhala War in which all of us must engage.
I might add that Ossendowski never wrote a single word about Shambhala. He wrote only about Agharti, which is an entirely different mythologem. And in fact he stole the whole Argharti legend from Occidental occultists. The legend of Agharti does not, as Ossendowski, claims, exist in Mongolia. Occidental occultists also invented the whole business of Shambhala being a “city of power and violence” See Ravencroft’s The Spear of Destiny, for example. There is nothing in the traditional teachings of Shambhala, as expounded in the Kalachakra Tantra, about this.
Don, thanks for the fascinating insights. I checked on the details and added an update.
Thankyou Timberwolf for reinstating this article re “Shambhala” ….it has been very revealing and inspirational for me, perhaps not as one might expect however. My interest in Shambhala is that as a relative spiritual neophyte many years ago I named my ( very loved) 33 acre haven/home not at all aware what it meant. I have enjoyed the material that spoke to me of Shambhala as a mythical sacred city where a utopian existence of peace, equality and mutual respect was reflected in the perfection of the relationships between Shambhala’s people. The place where the very best of us could be made manifest.
I have lived here twenty plus years, I attracted this place magically by the power of Love, how my home came to me is in itself an extraordinary story, such is the nature of love. Living here has afforded me the peace and space to clear and cleanse many of my inner egoic resistances to pure love, and what I have learnt is that there is only one power in the universe and it is called LOVE. What humans call darkness, evil or hate doesn’t exist at all, in fact it is just the human perception that there could be such a thing as the absence of love….in fact this is untrue. We are terrified of the places where we think there is no love.
So reading about Shambhala as a place of power and violance, battles and violence, WOW!! And then the following quote ” Keep in mind that even if the Shambhala War does begin in 2012 we will probably not notice any immediate effects in our three-dimensional world. The War will be fought in another dimension, and subsequent events in our mundane world will be a mere shadow play of a much vaster cosmic conflict”
I see how all of our human struggles, battles, wars, violence….all man made as outer reflections of the inner battle ( we all must endure) between the part of us that is the vastness of who we are that knows….all that is LOVE and, and the egoic lesser part of us that lives in the shadows, lives with the notion of evil, with the fear of death, because it experiences the absence of Love as the most horrific existence possible…yet it is delusional at best.
NO more battles for me…..done with that!!! Cheers And thanks again Ursula
Ursula, once again, I thank you for your words. Whether, as Don says, Ossendowski ‘stole’ the story from Occidental Occultists, or not, it appears to me that you have both hit on the ‘proper’ message in the article – that of the inner battle between our ego/intellect and the presence of love in us all.
See the Ruins of Narabanchin Monastery and the Diluv Khutagt at www. doncroner. net. The Diluv Khutagt is the lama Ossendowski met with at Narabanchin Monastery. Also see Shambhala and 2012.