of savage,
barbarian crew; there was but little trace of anything like that which
we call "civilization," although in the latter periods of the Second
Cycle the foundations for the coming civilizations were firmly laid.

After the cataclysm which destroyed the works of Man of the Second
Cycle, and left the survivors scattered or disorganized, awaiting the
touch of the organizing urge which followed shortly afterward, there
dawned the first period of the Third Cycle. The scene of the life of
the Third Cycle was laid in what is known to Occultists as Lemuria.
Lemuria was a mighty continent situated in what is now known as the
Pacific Ocean, and parts of the Indian Ocean. It included Australia,
Australasia, and other portions of the Pacific islands, which are in
fact surviving portions of the great continent of Lemuria, its highest
points, the lower portion having sunk beneath the seas ages and ages
ago.

Life in Lemuria is described as being principally concerned with the
physical senses, and sensual enjoyment, only a few developed souls
having broken through the fetters of materiality and reached the
beginnings of the mental and spiritual planes of life. Some few indeed
made great progress and were saved from the general wreck, in order to
become the leaven which would lighten the mass of mankind during the
next Cycle. These developed souls were the teachers of the new races,
and were looked upon by the latter as gods and supernatural beings, and
legends and traditions concerning them are still existent among the
ancient peoples of our present day. Many of the myths of the ancient
peoples arose in this way.

The Yogi traditions hold that just prior to the great cataclysm which
destroyed the races of the Second Cycle, there was a body of the Chosen
Ones which migrated from Lemuria to certain islands of the sea which
are now part of the main land of India. These people formed the nucleus
of the Occult Teachings of the Lemurians, and developed into the Fount
of Truth which has been flowing ever since throughout the successive
periods and cycles.

When Lemuria passed away, there arose from the depths of the ocean the
continent which was to be the scene of the life and civilization of the
Fourth Cycle--the continent of Atlantis. Atlantis was situated in a
portion of what is now known as the Atlantic Ocean, beginning at what
is now known as the Caribbean Sea and extending over to the region of
what is now known as Africa