Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (1887), Her Findings

I read The Mystery of the Ages for the claims a later writer can set beside Plato, Donnelly, and the pyramid chronologies. The copy in front of me is the third edition, published for the authoress. The title page names her Marie, Countess of Caithness, Duchesse de Pomár, and the book The Mystery of the Ages, contained in the Secret Doctrine of all Religions. London: C. L. H. Wallace, Philanthropic Reform Publisher, 1887. She also names an earlier book, Old Truths in a New Light. The text is out of copyright. The quotes below are her sentences. Page numbers are the printed headers.

Most of the volume is a tour of one secret doctrine through Egypt, India, Persia, the Druids, Buddhism, China, the pagan philosophers, the Kabbalah, the Sufis, and Christianity. She reads myths as soul-allegories. The findings I would carry into a comparison are narrower: three sentences on Atlantis, and a date, 1881, which she hangs on the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid.

The book at a glance

• Title: The Mystery of the Ages, contained in the Secret Doctrine of all Religions.
• Author: Marie, Countess of Caithness, Duchesse de Pomár.
• Edition I read: Third edition. Published for the authoress. London: C. L. H. Wallace, Philanthropic Reform Publisher, 1887.
• What she claims: The Hindus may be a branch of a pre-historical Atlantian world. Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru may all derive from one primeval system on the lost Continent of Atlan. The Hebrews, and possibly the Persians, may be tribes of ancient Atlantis, and the Hebrews a remnant whose fear of God comes from the catastrophe that destroyed their continent. She gives that catastrophe no year and no shoreline. Separately, she makes 1881 the last year of an old dispensation, and 1882 the first of a new one, which she dates Anno Dominæ 1. A footnote says the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid terminates at the number 1881-2.

Findings worth setting beside other writers

• Three origins for the Hindus, and she does not choose. From the heights of Tibet, a colony from Egypt, or a branch of a pre-historical Atlantian world that left colossal vestiges in cyclopean architectures. Affirmative arguments, she says, could be brought for each (p. 91).
• The lost Continent of Atlan. The Egyptian hypothesis does not cancel the Atlantian one. Similarities among Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru justify the suggestion that they may all derive from one primeval system which flourished on the lost Continent of Atlan (p. 93). She names cave temples at Ellora, Elephanta, Salsette, and Carli, and remains in Cabul, Tibet, Ceylon, and Borneo. She says the date of the cave temples has been as little ascertained as their symbolism.
• Hebrews and Persians. On p. 202 the supposition is almost justified that in the Hebrews, and possibly also the Persians, we behold tribes of ancient Atlantis, who preserved monotheism and soul-worship in greater purity. On p. 203 the monotheism of the Hebrews could be accounted for by the supposition that they are a tribe descended of a remnant of the Atlantian people, and that the terror of the catastrophe that destroyed their continent inclined their idea of God to fear rather than love. The same event, she suggests, may have made the Persians revolt from Hinduism.
• No year for the catastrophe. I did not find a date, a sea, or a map for Atlan or Atlantis on these pages. The name on p. 93 is Atlan. The name on p. 202 is Atlantis. The adjective on pp. 91 and 203 is Atlantian.
• 1881 and the pyramid. Many believe the new dispensation commenced in 1882. The year 1881 was the last of the old, shown, she writes, by many prophecies and particularly by the testimony of the Great Pyramid. The Grand Gallery, followed by the low and narrow entrance into the King’s Chamber, terminates exactly at the number 1881-2. The fractional 2 is supposed to indicate the first two months of the following year (p. 132, footnote).
• Her own era. She is living at the end of the second cycle or calpa of 600 years since the crusaders’ time. The change literally began with 1882. She has adopted the custom of dating from that year as Anno Dominæ 1, feminine, because the new dispensation was foretold to be the advent of Divine Wisdom (p. 316).
• The arithmetic of 1881. Abraham was 99 at the covenant in Genesis 17. Ninety-nine multiplied by the 19 years of the Metonic cycle gives 1881 again. Summing the digits, 1 + 8 = 9 and 8 + 1 = 9, or 99 (p. 319).

For Plato’s island, see Timaeus & Critias. For a pyramid reading that is about the stones rather than the year 1881, the Great Pyramid pages already on this site are the place to set her footnote beside. For the flood tablet she does not retell, see Zénaïde A. Ragozin’s The Story of Chaldea.

Whence are the Hindus? (pp. 91, 93)

Chapter V turns from Egypt to India. She will not enter the mazes of Indian theosophy. She asks one question, and she leaves it as three questions.

are they a branch of that mysterious pre-historical Atlantian world, which left its colossal vestiges in various cyclopean architectures?

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 91

The other two answers on the same page are a descent from the heights of Tibet, and a colony from Egypt. She says affirmative arguments could be brought for each. For Tibet she cites Buddhist temples pronounced anterior to the present avatar, worshipped exoterically as Buddha, and colossal monuments said to have been built centuries, if not millenniums, before Gotama Buddha was born. She also says there was an ancient wisdom-religion prior to Gotama. For Egypt she points to vegetarian priests in the higher degrees, pyramidal temples, and caste. On the next page she names Dawlatabad and Tanjore among the places where the Egyptian order of architecture is reproduced, and she says not a few Sanskrit words have an apparent root in ancient Egyptian. I am not quoting that page. The Atlantis sentence I would set beside it is on p. 93, where she refuses to let the Egyptian theory cancel the other.

the traits of similarity existing between the systems of Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru, justify the suggestion that they may all be derived from one primeval system which flourished on the lost Continent of Atlan.

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 93

India, she says, is as rich in pre-historical monuments as Egypt. The cave temples are at Ellora, Elephanta, Salsette, and Carli. Their date of construction has been as little ascertained as their gigantic symbolism. Remains of temples and pagodas, with the same emblems, are also in Cabul, Tibet, Ceylon, and Borneo. She calls that system a pre-historic Hermetic theosophy which once united all initiates, while the outer peoples were divided into clans and tribes. The Vedas, and the poems she spells Ramayana and Mahabarat, are sealed without the esoteric key.

Tribes of ancient Atlantis (pp. 202, 203)

In the chapter on pagan theosophy she divides the field into three. Heathen theosophy is love without fear. Semitic theosophy expresses more fear than love. Christian theosophy, she says, holds both. Syrians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans were, on the fragments, heathen in theosophy even though linguistically related to the Semites. Then the sentence I would copy.

in the Hebrews, and possibly also the Persians, we behold tribes of ancient Atlantis, who preserved the tradition of Monotheism and Soul-Worship in greater purity

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 202

The sentence continues onto the next page, “than the surrounding nations.” She adds that without Moses and the prophets, and without Zarathustra and the Magi, both peoples would have lost that tradition, which she calls their Kabbala, and fallen to the worship of spirits. Ahriman was abhorred, not worshipped, so the system of the Magi was practically monotheism. The Kabbalists worship the One without a mediator.

the Hebrews are a tribe descended of a remnant of the Atlantian people; and the terror of the catastrophe that destroyed their continent may have impressed itself on their minds so hereditarily, that their conceptions of God were more inclined to Fear than Love.

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 203

The same event, she says, may have appeared like a divine judgment, and caused the ancient Persians to revolt from Hinduism, making devils of the Hindu gods. Phoenicians were Semites and heathen in religion. The Persians were guided to a Semitic monotheism. She allows an interchange between the Magi and the schools of the prophets.

1881, and the Grand Gallery (pp. 132, 316, 319)

She expects a time when esoteric truths, kept secret from the beginning, are published. The new dispensation, which many believe commenced in 1882, she calls that of Our Lady of Light. On the material plane she points to international exhibitions of electric light in London, Paris, and Vienna. The date itself is in the footnote.

whose grand gallery (followed by the extremely difficult, low and narrow entrance passage into the King's Chamber!) terminates exactly at the number 1881-2.

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 132

The year 1881, she writes in the same note, was shown to be the last of the old dispensation by many prophecies, and particularly by the testimony of the Great Pyramid, the pillar of witness to the Lord on the borders of the land of Egypt, which she ties to Isaiah 19:19. The fractional 2 is supposed to indicate the first two months of the following year. The narrow passage is said to point to a short time of great trouble on earth before a very happy one. She does not print the inch-count or the pyramid’s base on this page. The number she prints is 1881-2.

Later, writing of the crusades and of prophecies that the end was at hand in that age, she measures her own time from theirs.

We, who are living at the end of the second cycle or calpa of 600 years since their time

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 316

1881 being, according to many coinciding prophecies, the last year of the old Dispensation, and personally we have adopted the custom of dating from that year as Anno Dominæ 1

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 316

She uses the feminine ending because the new dispensation was foretold to be of feminine import, the advent of Divine Wisdom, Theo-Sophia, the age of making known what had been kept secret. She points the reader to the sevenfold constitution taught in the Orient. Genesis 17, Abram renamed Abraham at ninety-nine, is her other key. The age printed at the top of p. 319 is 99.

which multiplied by the 19 years of the Metonic cycle gives us again the eventful date 1881

Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 319

The age multiplied is 99. Summed again, 1 + 8 = 9 and 8 + 1 = 9, or 99. She says the numerals can be read backwards or forwards and still give 1881. The footnote names two further pamphlets: How the World came to an End in 1881, published by Hamilton, Adams and Co., and 1881 and 1882, by the Countess of Caithness. I have not read those pamphlets. This page also quotes the Bhagavat Gita, which she spells Baghavat Gita, and Christna saying “I am the fire! I am the victim!” She treats AUM, OM, and the letter M as the same mystery, the monogram of Mater, Maia, Maria, Mary.

On p. 355 she returns to the pyramid as a symbol, not as a measuring rod. The head stone of the corner, refused by the ignorant builders, was placed by the master builder at the top of the Great Pyramid, again the pillar of witness in Isaiah 19:19-20. The footnote there is about quarry marks and Paul’s corner-stone in Ephesians. I did not find a dimension in it.

Where I leave the book

The pages I would carry are p. 91 (Tibet, Egypt, or an Atlantian world), p. 93 (the lost Continent of Atlan, and the caves whose date is unknown), pp. 202 and 203 (Hebrews and possibly Persians as tribes of ancient Atlantis, and a remnant marked by the catastrophe), p. 132 (the Grand Gallery at 1881-2), p. 316 (the second calpa of 600 years, and Anno Dominæ 1), and p. 319 (99 times the 19-year Metonic cycle).

The rest is her argument that the same divine wisdom sits inside every religion she surveys, and that the myths are to be read inwardly. Chapter XI, on her contents page, promises a theosophic reading of Eden, the fall, Noah, the ark, and the tower of Babel, with the ark as the man who is the microcosm. I have not entered that chapter as history. I did not find a flood year, a ship, or a landing place there that I have read on the page. She does not, on the Atlantis pages, tell how the continent was destroyed, or where the remnant sailed.

Druids, in the section that follows the pyramid footnote, are of Oriental family, Pythagorean or Brahminical, and no historian can record the date they settled in what she calls the lonely isles amid the ocean. She names bowing stones in Wales, remains in the Orkneys, and monuments on Salisbury plain, and she says they brought the doctrine of reincarnation. That is a migration claim with no year. I would not fold it into Atlan.

Where to read it

This is the third edition, London, C. L. H. Wallace, 1887. The text is out of copyright. A scan that identifies itself as this book is on the Internet Archive under the identifier mysteryofagescon00cait. The page numbers above are the printed headers.

FAQ

Where does she place Atlantis?

On p. 93 she calls it the lost Continent of Atlan, the source she suggests for the systems of Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru. She does not give a sea, an island, or a latitude. On p. 91 the same tradition is a pre-historical Atlantian world that left cyclopean vestiges. On p. 203 it is a continent destroyed in a catastrophe, from which the Hebrews are a remnant.

Does she date the catastrophe?

No. The years in this book that I would put in a table are 1881 and 1882, and a calpa of 600 years running back to the crusades. Those belong to her new dispensation, not to Atlan.

What does the Great Pyramid do in her book?

On p. 132 its Grand Gallery terminates at the number 1881-2, and the passage beyond is the entrance to the King’s Chamber. She calls the pyramid the pillar of witness of Isaiah 19:19. On p. 355 the top stone is the head stone of the corner. She does not print a base, a height, or a casing measure on the pages I used.

Is Noah’s flood in this book?

Her contents promise an allegorical reading in the chapter on the Bible. I did not use that chapter for a date. The catastrophe on p. 203 is the destruction of the Atlantian continent, told as a supposition about the Hebrew idea of God, not as a flood narrative with a ship and a mountain.

Related on this site

1. Timaeus & Critias: Plato’s island. Her Atlan has no pillars and no 9,000 years.
2. Where Was Atlantis: other proposed locations. She offers a lost continent as the common source of Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru, and she does not draw it.
3. Zénaïde A. Ragozin’s The Story of Chaldea: the deluge tablet, Mount Nizir, and Sargon at 3800 B.C. Caithness does not use those dates.
4. Paschal Beverly Randolph’s Pre-Adamite Man: a flood chronology in the tens of thousands of years. Her dated claim is 1881.

Sources

The book

• Marie, Countess of Caithness, Duchesse de Pomár, The Mystery of the Ages, contained in the Secret Doctrine of all Religions. Third edition. Published for the authoress. London: C. L. H. Wallace, Philanthropic Reform Publisher, 1887. Page numbers above are the printed headers.

The claims, as she prints them

• Hindus possibly a branch of a pre-historical Atlantian world (p. 91). Lost Continent of Atlan as a possible common source of Egypt, India, Persia, Mexico, and Peru (p. 93). Hebrews, and possibly Persians, as tribes of ancient Atlantis (p. 202). Hebrews a remnant of the Atlantian people, marked by the catastrophe that destroyed their continent (p. 203). Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid terminates at 1881-2 (p. 132). Second cycle or calpa of 600 years, and Anno Dominæ 1 dated from 1882, with 1881 the last year of the old dispensation (p. 316). Abraham’s age 99, times the 19-year Metonic cycle, gives 1881 (p. 319).