On Synarchy (Synarchism, Synarchie, Synarchía; Global Synarchist Movement)

© 2003 Joseph George Caldwell. All rights reserved. Posted at Internet web sites http://www.foundation.bw and http://www.foundationwebsite.org . May be copied or reposted for non-commercial use, with attribution. (13 July 2003, updated 27 July 2003)

Origins of the Term Synarchy and Its Derivatives (synarchism, synarchic, synarchical, synarchist)

In my writings on a long-term-sustainable system of planetary management for Earth, I have variously used the terms “Platonic” and “synarchic” to describe the nature of the planetary management system. Neither of these terms is exactly “right” to describe the system that I am proposing. Plato wrote his Republic in the context of the Greek city-state of 500 BC, and Saint-Yves d’Alveydre developed his concept of Synarchy in the late 1800s. Since Saint-Yves’ concept is most closely aligned with what I propose for the management system of the planetary management organization, that is the term that I generally use. It should be recognized, however, that the terms synarchy and synarchism have been used by many different people over the years, and the particular concept that the user had in mind may differ from what I have proposed. In fact, the particular implementation is likely to differ from mine, because many users of the word in the past (excepting Saint-Yves) were not addressing the concept of a single world government, but of a local or regional government.

Some day, when I have more time, I will write a detailed description of my concept of synarchy, as it relates to management of a global minimal-regret population. In the meantime, I shall, in this brief article, present some background information on the origin and original meaning of the term, as introduced by Saint-Yves, and some references to its use since its introduction.

In an earlier article, I referred to a few Internet web sites that discuss some of the myths and legends associated with synarchy:

Saint-Yves d’Alveydre: Synarchy and Secret Societies, by Milko Bogaard, at http://www.rennes-discovery.com/Rennes_Alchemist/synarchy__by_milko_bogaard.htm

New World Order: The Secret History, at http://www.geocities.com/newworldorder_themovie/theosophy.html .

New Dawn Magazine: Mystery of Shambhala, Part One, by Jason Jeffrey, at http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/mystery_of_shambhala_part_one.html .

An Introduction to the Ordre Martiniste et Synarchique, at http://www.orderofthegrail.org/introduction_om&s.htm .

These sources provide many references on synarchy, including references to Saint-Yves’ seminal works, Mission de l’Inde en Europe; Mission de l’Europe en Asie, Intro. J. Saunier, Nice: Bélisane, 1981 (1^st ed. 1885/1910). See also Jean Saunier, La Synarchie, ou le vieux rêve d’une nouvelle société, Paris: Culture, Arts, Loisirs, 1971.

Saint-Yves’ concept of synarchy is inextricably linked to the legend of Shambhala – Agarttha, since synarchy is the form of government in that legend. In the early part of the twentieth century, many Americans had heard of Shambhala and Agarttha, but today relatively few have. In the past twenty years, with the rise of the New Age movement, many books have been written on this legend, but even still it is still relatively unknown. After a very brief summary, I will list a number of references that are in print and in English, along with a few comments.

The legend of Shambhala (or Shamballah or Shamballa or Shangri-La; Kalapa in Sanskit) is a very old part of Tibetan lore. Shambhala is a utopian kingdom (a small, agrarian city-state, usually hidden in a mountainous region) in which people live in peace and good health. There are a number of variations on the legend. Shambhala may refer to a mythical kingdom or an actual one. Its leaders are believed to control the world. The term Shambhala generally refers to an above-ground kingdom, and the term Agarttha generally refers to an underground one. Like Shambhala, the term Agartta has many alternative spellings, including Agartha, Agarta, Agharta, Agharti, Agarthi and Asgartha (I generally use Agarttha, the form used by Saint-Yves d’Alveydra, unless quoting someone who prefers another spelling).

Although the term Shambhala is very old, the term Agarttha is recent. Its first use is traced to the writings of the French writer Louis Jacolliot in the late 1800s. The term Agarttha was introduced by the French philosopher / mystic Saint-Yves d’Alveydre via his Sanskrit teacher, Haji Sharif (or Hardjji Scharipf). In 1922 the Polish-Russian scientist Ferdinand Ossendowski included a description of Agharti in a book, Beasts, Men and Gods, describing his travels in Asia. (The term Agharti is used to refer to the kingdom or to its people.) In 1927 the French mystic Réné Guénon published a description of Agarttha in Le Roi du Monde (The King of the World). In 1929 the Russian Nicholas Roerich published an account of Agharti in the book, Altai Himalaya: A Travel Diary.

Following is a list of books, in print in English, that discuss the legend of Shambhala – Agarttha.

1. Ossendowski, Ferdinand, Beasts, Men and Gods, IndyPublish.com, McLean, Virginia (undated, originally published in 1922)
2. Roerich, Nicholas, Altai-Himalaya: A Travel Diary, Adventures Unlimited Press, Kempton, Illinois, 2001 (originally published in 1929)
3. Roerich, Nicholas, Heart of Asia: Memoirs from the Himalayas, Inner Traditions International, Rochester, Vermont, 1990 (originally published 1929)
4. Guénon, Réné, The King of the World, Collected Works of Réné Guénon, Sophia Perenis, Ghent, New York, undated (originally published 1927)
5. Bernbaum, Edwin, The Way to Shambhala, Shambhala Publications, Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts, 2001 (originally published 1981)
6. LePage, Victoria, Shambhala, Quest Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1996
7. Godwin, Joscelyn, Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism and Nazi Survival, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996
8. Maclellan, Alec, The Lost World of Agharti: The Mystery of Vril Power, Souvenir Press, 1982, 1996, London

The last three are the most interesting from the point of view of providing a comprehensive overview of Agarttha, Shambhala, and related items. A visit to the Amazon.com web site (http://www.amazon.com or the Barnes and Noble web site (http://www.bn.com ) and a search of books using the key words agartha, agarta, agharta, agarttha, agharti, shambhala, Shangri-la, Ferdinand Ossendowski or Nicholas Roerich will find many others on the legend of Agartha (curiously, the words synarchy, synarchism, synarchist, etc. turn up little).

Since the concept of Agarttha was introduced, a large number of books has been written using the idea of subterranean worlds. The most famous are perhaps H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar series. Others (listed in Godwin) include: George Sand’s Laura, ou le voyage dans le crystal (Laura, or the voyage in the Crystal); Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; Alexandre Dumas’ Isaac Laquédem; Bulwer Lytton’s The Coming Race, Jules Verne’s Le Sphinx des glaces (The Sphinx of the Ice); William Bradshaw’s The Goddess of Atvatabar (1892), Robert Ames Bennet’s Thyra, a Romance of the Polar Pit (1901), and Willis George Emerson’s The Smoky God (1908).

In 1871, Edward George Bulwer Lytton, the author of The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), wrote the novel, The Coming Race, about a subterranean world. It is in this novel that Lord Lytton introduced the concept of Vril power. Alec Maclennon relates the interesting note that “In a biography, The Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton, by his son the Earl of Lytton (1913), we are told that when he was only eight he announced one day to his bemused mother: ‘Mamma, are you not sometimes overcome by your sense of your own identity?’” Victoria Page (in Shambhala) describes Vril as a sort of “terrestrial Kundalini.” She writes, “The nature of the spirit that animates the earth, “subtle, omnipresent, yet ever indefinable in terms of the dimensions apparent to our senses,” says [John] Michell [writing in Earth Spirit], ‘forms the ultimate problem for modern physicists as it did for their predecessors, the magicians….Yet we can be certain that this force, formerly identified with the holy spirit, provided the power and inspiration by which the ancient civilization was sustained….It was held to be what some now call the life-essence, the pervading flow with which at death the spirit becomes merged, and from which arises the vital spark that stimulates new growth. Its names are legion. It is the prana or mana of eastern metaphysics, the “vril,” the universal plastic medium of occultists, the anima mundi of alchemy.’ Wilhelm Reich called it the orgone force, the Chinese call it qi or chi and understand its causal relation to all other forces.”

One of the most comprehensive books on Shambhala is Edwin Bernbaum’s The Way to Shambhala. In discussing the fact that guidebooks to Shabhala are difficult to follow, Bernbaum includes the following interesting passage. “An old Tibetan story tells of a young man who sets off on the quest for Shambhala. After crossing many mountains, he came to the cave of an old hermit, who asked him, “Where are you going across these wastes of snow?” “To find Shambhala,” the youth replied. “Ah, well then, you need not travel far,” the hermit said. “The kingdom of Shambhala is in your own heart.” Chögyam Trungpa follows this same concept in his book, Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior (Shambhala Publications, Incorporated, Boston, 1988).

Some writers use the terms Shambhala and Agarttha interchangeably, while others distinguish between them. The latter may refer to Shambhala as the “left-hand path,” or “black occult,” or “Wheel of the Black Sun” group, and to Agarttha as the “right-hand path,” or “white occult,” or “Wheel of the Golden Sun” group (and source of the Vril power, which some suggest is the Kundalini power). The leader of Agarttha is The King of the World (Le Roi du Monde). The leaders of Shambhala have various names, as described in this passage from Victoria LePage: “Alice Bailey calls them Ascended Masters, Idries Shah calls them Guardians of the Tradition, John Bennett psychoteleios or “perfected ones,” and they are also known as the Ancient Ones, the Watchers, the Immortals, the Monitors, the Hidden Directorate, the Children of Seth. All follow what is known as the Ancient Path. According to esoteric tradition, in remote times before the advent of the Mystery schools they lived in more open communication with us, but as the age advanced were compelled to withdraw into their present obscurity, so that now they are accessible to only the most highly purified souls and with rare exceptions are known to the rest of us only through the grace of mystical vision.”

The purpose of this brief article is to present some additional information on Synarchy and the legend of Agarttha, from sources that I have not seen quoted on the Internet. Please note that while the word synarchy (or synarchism) has been used for over a century to refer to actual types of government, the origin of the terms synarchy and Agarttha stems from legend and myth. This article presents information about legend and myth, viewed and represented as such, and makes no assertions concerning verity in historical fact or religious dogma. This information is presented because it appears that relatively few people alive today have heard of the term “synarchy,” and may be interested to know its origin, just as they may be interested in the origin of other forms of government, such as anarchy, monarchy, democracy, plutocracy, theocracy, fascism, dictatorship, and communism.

The first source from which I shall draw is Umberto Eco’s book, Foucault’s Pendulum. This international bestseller (written in 1988 in Italian, but translated into and still in print in many languages) contains a great deal of information on the Knights Templar, who are regarded by some as representing the best example of an organization governed by synarchy. I shall simply quote, without comment, a few passages from Foucault’s Pendulum dealing (directly or indirectly) with synarchy and the legend of Agartha. (The phenomenon of synchronicity never ceases to amaze me. I notice the book Foucault’s Pendulum a few months ago for the simple reason that during my college years (over forty years ago) I had been a guide at the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Apart from the planetarium itself, the major exhibit was a Foucault pendulum. As a guide, I often gave talks on the pendulum. During slow periods, I would sometimes watch as the pendulum made its slow turn, knocking down the small wooden pegs that, each day, were placed in a circle around its “domain.” I picked up a Spanish copy of Foucault’s Pendulum on a recent trip to Buenos Aires. Since my Spanish is “slow,” I subsequently purchased an English edition in Pretoria. The quotes that follow are from that edition (Vintage / Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch / Random House, London, 2001.)

“Race – or culture, if you prefer – is part of our unconscious mind. And in another part of that unconscious dwell archetypes, figures identical for all men and in all centuries. This evening, the atmosphere, the surroundings lulled our vigilance. It happened to all of us; you felt it yourself. Amparo discovered that the orixás, whom she had destroyed in her heart, still lived in her womb. You must not think that I consider this a positive thing. You have heard me speak of the supernatural energies that vibrate around us in this country. But I have no special fondness for the practices of possession. An initiate is not the same as a mystic. Being an initiate – having an intuitive comprehension of what reason cannot explain – is a very deep process; it is a slow transformation of the spirit and of the body, and it can lead to the exercise of superior abilities, even to immortality. But it is secret, intimate; it does not show itself externally; it is modest, lucid, detached. That is why the Masters of the World, initiates, do not indulge in mysticism. For them, a mystic is a slave, a site of the manifestation of the numinous, through which site the signs of a secret can be observed. The initiate encourages the mystic and uses him as you might use a telephone, to establish long-distance contact, or as a chemist might use litmus paper, to detect the action of a particular substance. The mystic is useful, because he is conspicuous. He broadcasts himself. Initiates, on the contrary, are recognizable only to one another. It is they who control the forces that mystics undergo. In this sense there is no difference between the possession experienced by the cavalos and the ecstasies of Saint Theresa of Avila or Saint John of the Cross. Mysticism is a degenerate form of contact with the divine, whereas initiation is the fruit of long askesis of mind and heart. Mysticism is a democratic, if not demagogic, phenomenon; initiation is aristocratic.”

“Because if the Masters of the World exist, they can only be underground; this is a truth that all sense but few dare utter. Perhaps the only man bold enough to say it in print was Saint-Yves d’Alveydre. You know him?”

“He is the one who told us about Agarttha, the underground headquarters of the King of the World, the occult center of the Synarchy,” the taxidermist said. “He had no fear; he felt sure of himself. But all those who spoke out after him were eliminated, because they knew too much.”

In certain regions of the Himalayas, among the twenty-two temples that represent the twenty-two Arcana of Hermes and the twenty-two letters of some sacred alphabets, Agarttha forms the mystic Zero, which cannot be found…A colossal chessboard that extends beneath the earth, through almost all the regions of the Globe. – Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Mission de l’Inde en Europe, Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1886, pp. 54 and 65.

I asked him what he could tell me about Agarttha and Saint-Yves d’Alveydre.

“Saint-Yves d’Alveydre…” he said. “A bizarre man, beyond any doubt. From his youth he spent time with the followers of Fabre d’Olivet. He became a humble clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, but ambitious…We naturally took a dim view of his marriage to Marie-Victoire…”

Agliè couldn’t resist shifting to the first person, as if he were reminiscing.

“Who was Marie-Victoire? I love gossip,” Belbo said.

“Marie-Victoire de Risnitch, very beautiful when she was the intimate of the empress Eugénie. But by the time she met Saint-Yves, she was over fifty. And he was in his early thirties. For her, a més-alliance, of course. What’s more, to give him a title, she bought some property – I can’t remember where – that had belonged to a certain Marquis d’Alveydre. So, while our unscrupulous character boasted of his title, in Paris they sang songs about the gigolo. Since he could now live off his income, he devoted himself to his dream, which was to find a political formula that would lead to a harmonious society. Synarchy, as opposed to anarchy. A European society governed by three councils, representing economic power, judicial power, and spiritual power – the Church and the scientists, in other words. An enlightened oligarchy that would eliminate class conflicts. We’ve heard worse.”

“What about Agarttha?”

“Saint-Yves claimed to have been visited one day by a mysterious Afghan, a man named Hadji Scharipf, who can’t have been an Afghan, because the name is clearly Albanian…. This man revealed to him the secret dwelling place of the King of the World, though Saint-Yves himself never used that expression: he called it Agarttha, the place that cannot be found.”

“Where did he write this?”

“In his Mission de l’Inde en Europe, a work that, incidentally, has influenced a great deal of contemporary political thought. In Agarttha there are underground cities, and below them, closer to the center, live five thousand sages that govern it. The number five thousand suggests, of course the hermetic roots of the Vedic language, as you gentlemen know. And each root is a magic hierogram connected to a celestial power and sanctioned by an infernal power. The central dome of Agarttha is lighted from above by something like mirrors, which allow the light from the planet’s surface to arrive only through the enharmonic spectrum of colors, as opposed to the solar spectrum of our physics books, which is merely diatonic. The wise ones of Agarttha study all holy languages in order to arrive at the universal language, which is Vattan. When they come upon mysteries too profound, they levitate, and would crack their skulls against the vault of the dome if their brothers did not restrain them. They forge lightning bolts, they guide the cyclic currents of the interpolar and intertropical fluids, the interferential extension in the different zones of the earth’s latitude and longitude. They select species and have crated small animals with extraordinary psychic powers, animals which have a tortoise shell with a yellow cross, a single eye, and a mouth at either end. And polypod animals which can move in all directions. Agarttha is probably where the Templars found refuge after their dispersion, and where they perform custodial duties. Anything else?”

“But…was he serious?” I asked.

“I believe he was. At first, we considered him a fanatic, but then we realized that he was referring, perhaps in a visionary, figurative way, to an occult direction of history. Isn’t it said that history is a bloodstained and senseless riddle? No, impossible; there must be a Design. There must be a Mind. That is why over the centuries men far from ignorant have thought of the Masters or the King of the World not as physical beings but as a collective symbol, as the successive, temporary incarnation of a Fixed Intention. An Intention with which the great priestly orders and the vanished chivalries were in touch.”

“Do you believe this?” Belbo asked.

“Persons more balanced than d’Alveydre seek the Unknown Superiors.”

“And do they find them?”

Agliè laughed, as if to himself. “What sort of Unknown Superiors would they be if they allowed the first person who comes along to know them?”

“You must be able to distinguish occultism from esotericism. Esotericism is the search for a learning transmitted only through symbols, closed to the profane. The occultism that spread in the nineteenth century was the tip of the iceberg, the little that surfaced of the esoteric secret. The Templars were initiates, and the proof of that is that when subjected to torture, they died to save their secret. It is the strength with which they concealed it that makes us sure of their initiation, and that makes us yearn to know what they knew. The occultist is an exhibitionist. As Péladan said, an initiatory secret revealed is of no use to anyone. Unfortunately, Péladan was not an initiate, but an occultist. The nineteenth century was the century of informers. Everybody rushed to publish the secrets of magic, theurgy, cabala, tarot. And perhaps they believed in it.”

“….Hitler at this point was convinced that the King of the World was himself and that the Nazi General Staff members were the Unknown Superiors. Where does the King of the World live? Beneath; not above. This hypothesis inspired Hitler to change the whole direction of German research toward the concept of the final map….he contacted the synarchic groups and put them into the Vichy government.”

For that matter, where else could you find someone able to wait on the rock for six centuries, someone who had actually waited on the rock? True, Alamut eventually fell, under the pressure of the Mongols, but the Ismaili sect survived throughout the East: it mingled with non-Shiite Sufism, it generated the terrible sect of the Druzes, and it survived finally among the Indian Khojas, the followers of the Aga Khan, not far from the site of Agarttha.

“Belbo! Think what a depressed area that was after the battle of Lepanto. Sebottendorf knows that there is something to be learned from the Turk dervishes, but Alamut is no more; those Turks are holed up God knows where. They wait. And finally their moment comes; on the tide of Islamic irredentism they stick their heads out again. Putting Hitler in the Plan, we found a good reason for the Second World War. Now, putting in the Assassins of Alamut, we explain what has been happening for years in the Persian Gulf. And this is where we find a place for our Tres, Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici. A society whose aim is to heal the rift, at last, between the spiritual knighthoods of different faiths.”

“Whoever out of ingenuity, submission, conversion, calculation, or bad faith has been initiated into any lodge, college, priory, chapter, or order that illicitly refers to obedience to the Unknown Superiors or to the Masters of the World, must this night abjure that initiation and implore total restoration in spirit and body to the one and true observance, the Tres, Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici, the triune and trinosophic mystical and most secret order of the Synarchic Knights of Templar Rebirth.”

The following passage, by Agnès Lejbowicz, is taken from the preface to Volume I (The Second Birth) of the Complete Works of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov (Prosveta, Paris, 1975; Offprint title: Maître Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov and the Teaching of the Fraternité Blanche Universelle).

The most extraordinary place that the Maître has told us about is Agartha, in the center of the earth. Twenty-eight years ago he first spoke about it in a series of conferences, even giving us the names of the countries where entrances exist. At that time, it seemed unbelievable, but now people are beginning to investigate the mystery of Agartha, in the works of Saint-Yves d’Alveydre and Ossendowski.

According to the Maître, the inside of the earth is hollow and not, as science would have it, a fiery mass. The extraordinary culture of the Agarthians is located there. A race of people far more evolved than men, they possess the finest political organization ever known: synarchy. Their land, including mountains and lakes, rivers, flowers, and animals, like the earth, is lighted by an interior sun. The inhabitants are, unlike us, not weighed down by gravity, and are in possession of a technical knowledge that far surpasses our own. It is highly probable that it is they, and not visitors from another planet, who, worried about the fate of humanity ever since the bombs of Hiroshima, have come to visit us in what we call flying saucers.”

The following passage is taken from Volume 26 (A New Dawn: Society and Politics in the Light of Initiatic Science, Part 1) of the Complete Works (Prosveta, Paris, 1990; from a speech given in Vidélinata, Switzerland, March 17, 1974). (Today, Saint-Yves’ description of Agarttha, and in particular its library, would generally be referred to as the Akasha Chronicle, and his or others’ revelation would be described as a reading of the Akashic Records.)

I have already spoken to you, many years ago, about the underground kingdom of Agharta and the fantastic civilization that has flourished there for thousands of years. This hidden kingdom is in communication with the surface of the earth; there are openings in many different countries in the world: at the Poles, in South America, Mongolia and Tibet, and even in France, in the Pyrenees. From time immemorial, especially in the countries of the north, there have been legends that tell of a land beyond the icy wastes of the Pole in which it is always springtime. And, according to a tradition known to Initiatic Science, the aurora borealis is produced by very highly evolved beings who dwell in that kingdom with the light from the center of the earth.

There have been people who were aware of the existence of Agharta. There was even a film, Lost Horizons, which was about Shangri-La, the land of perpetual youth. In every country the tradition has existed and, whether in Greece, India, Egypt or elsewhere, this mysterious subterranean kingdom has given rise to belief in a land of eternal youth and happiness which has been know, sometimes, as Agharta and sometimes as the Land of the Holy Grail, Thule, or the Garden of the Hesperides.

Today, more is being said and written about Agharta but, not so many years ago, it was virtually unknown. A Russian writer, Ossendowski, published a book called Beasts, Men and Gods in which he recounts what he learned about Agharta in the monasteries of Tibet. But it was the Marquis Saint-Yves d’Alveydre who made the most striking revelations in his book, The Mission of India in Europe. Saint-Yves d’Alveydre was a writer, a scholar and an Initiate; he was capable of out-of-body travel and, in his book, he tells of how he visited and saw Agharta for himself. He gives many extraordinary details about this subterranean kingdom, about how it is lit by a kind of internal sun, about the trees and flowers growing there and about the animals and men who live there, just as on earth. He describes the libraries and archives which stretch for miles and which contain the whole history of the human race. Yes, there are some amazing books there, books written by great Initiates and containing great secrets. These books were taken away from human beings but they are still there, in Agharta, and only for those who sufficiently evolved have the right to go and read them.

Everything that has happened in the world since its beginning is recorded and preserved in these archives. All that has disappeared from the face of the earth and that we believe to be lost to us forever, is there, in those archives. If you wonder what some historical figure was like, this is where you will find the answer. And you, too, are there, in miniature. For there is a copy of every one of us and it is kept there so that we can be studied. Every single thing that happens here is reflected in miniature in Agharta; in fact, at this very moment, the Aghartans know that I am talking about hem.

Some people, who have done some research in this connection, think that the first Gypsies (or Romanies) were banished from Agharta and that it is from there that they draw their special knowledge of the Tarot, for example, which they hand on from generation to generation. It is also believed that the Aghartans first came from Atlantis and Lemuria. Before the continent began to submerge – some researchers put this at fifteen thousand years ago – they are said to have fled in their extraordinary machines and taken refuge in the bowels of the earth, where they built cities and settled down.

To be sure, there are all kinds of extravagant theories about Agharta, but I am not interested in knowing whether they are true or false. What does interest me is the underlying philosophy, the principles on which this kingdom is founded and how to propagate this philosophy amongst human beings. And what interests me above all is how to get human beings to understand that if they continue to follow their false philosophies, they will soon come to a bad end.

The kingdom of Agharta is organized and ruled with immense wisdom and its millions of inhabitants live in prosperity, peace and happiness, free from disease and old age. Saint-Yves d’Alveydre describes this organization in detail. At the top, he says, is a trinity of beings: the Brahâtma, the Mahâtma and the Mahanga (whom Ossendowski calls the Brahytma, Mahytma and the Mahynga). Authority belongs to the Brahâtma, power belongs to the Mahâtma and the Mahanga is in charge of organization. And, as the government of Agharta is patterned on that of the universe, below this supreme trinity is a group of twelve persons that reflect the twelve signs of the Zodiac; under them is a group of twenty-two, reflecting the twenty-two principles of the Logos with which God created the world, and finally, there is a group of three hundred and sixty-five, reflecting the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, etc.

I have reflected and meditated for years and years about Agharta and worked constantly to make contact with this invisible kingdom and, although you may not believe this, the time has come to tell you that I am bringing you the same pattern of organization that prevails there and which is known as synarchy. It is high time that human beings realized that they have never yet found the best type of government and that only a synarchy, a government of Initiates, can solve all their political, social and economic problems.

I am offering you the same culture as that which exists in Agharta. I have never been in a position to reveal it fully because I know that if I divulged it, it would seem so remote, so unthinkable, that I would be in danger of being locked up. I assure you, if I were to say all that I know I would soon find myself in an asylum. This is why I dare not reveal certain things to you. But it is all here, in my head and, little by little, I am leading you into this world of Initiatic truths. In any case, if you are honest, you cannot help but admit that everything I have revealed to you so far has been true. I leave you free, therefore, to do as you wish.

But one thing is absolutely true, and that is that I am bringing you an entirely new culture. The Teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood has the mission to introduce the philosophy of Agharta into the world. There is a tradition that after Râma had established the Golden Age on earth, he went to live in Agharta. Many other great spirits such as Buddha, St John, even the famous alchemist, Nicholas Flamel, also went to Agharta when they left this world. But one thing that people don't know is that there are Aghartans who have reincarnated on earth in our day in order to bring us their science, their organization and their form of government: government by Initiates.

I can tell you about how the Aghartans live, how they are bom and how they understand love. They know how precious sexual energy is, for instance, so, instead of squandering it, they use it to rise to greater heights of perfection and become divinities. As a matter of fact, the true doctrine of Tantra-yoga, which is so widely known in Tibet and India, comes from Agharta. Very few Westerners understand - still less practise - this form of yoga correctly. Many of those who have tried it, in fact, have only succeeded in making themselves ill and destroying their emotional balance. Be careful, therefore: I don't advise you to embark on experiences in this area. Study well, prepare yourselves, purify yourselves and, when you are ready, the extraordinary science that these beings possess will be revealed to you.

The science of the Aghartans also includes the most advanced discoveries of physics. They are capable of seeing and controlling all that happens on earth. In fact, if they wanted to, they could unleash the power of the four elements and wipe out the whole of humanity. Fortunately, they are too peace-loving and much too highly evolved to do so. It is also very likely that flying saucers, whose existence is no longer in doubt, come not from other planets but from the center of the earth via the North or South Pole. Many observers in the Arctic and Antarctic regions have seen flying saucers coming or going in the direction of the Poles.

In any case, the Aghartans have some extraordinary means of transport and it is particularly interesting to note that it was in 1945, after the atomic bomb that wiped out Hiroshima, that they began to manifest themselves more frequently. They come to keep an eye on us; they are concerned because they know that human beings are quite capable, in their folly, of wiping out humanity and, of course, if this happened it would also affect them. It is possible that, within the next few years, they decide to show themselves and give human beings some messages, some warnings. And it is also quite possible that they will take some of you back with them so that you can see the splendour of their land for yourselves before coming back to earth. So far, none of those who have visited Agharta have ever come back. But the Aghartans are very, very kind and generous: you need have absolutely no fear of them. They have overcome all human weaknesses.

To be sure, quite a number of pilots have tried to pursue their flying saucers but they are surrounded by a magnetic field that makes them invulnerable: if they are pursued by a plane, they can throw out rays that make its engines cut out. They always work with light. Their source of power is light, and it is with this that they neutralize all hostile forces. They apply the Initiatic rule that it is light that must be our protection against harmful elements. Before very long, human beings will begin to discover many of their secrets.

I have been telling you this for years: the only thing you must study is light, for light is all-powerful. Science has recently discovered the power of the laser, but there are many more discoveries to be made. One day, all the revelations I have made to you will be recognized and published at large. So far, they have not been taken seriously because they have not been confirmed by orthodox science. Instead of sensing their authenticity inwardly, instead of touching them, as it were, with their soul and spirit, human beings are so over-intellectual that they prefer to wait for the verdict of science before believing even the greatest truths. But, I repeat: sooner or later, all that I reveal to you in my lectures will be scientifically proved. This is already beginning, in fact, with experiments that are being made in Russia; the other countries are behind Russia in this but they, too, will come to accept the reality of the aura, clairvoyance and the power of thought. Technicians have perfected instruments that can now measure some so-called 'para-psychic' phenomena and this means that people will be obliged to accept the results recorded by them. Human beings don't trust the instruments placed in them by the Creator: they ignore them completely, preferring to wait for the verdict of an external instrument, whereas it should be just the other way round.

As I have said, I am interested in Agharta from a philosophical point of view, because of the pattern of organization, government and collective life it presents. We, too, should work for the collectivity with the same disinterestedness and the same tireless love as the Aghartans so as to form a single family on earth, so that there shall be no more boundaries, no more war, no more poverty. When this is achieved, the interests of individuals will be protected. In a prosperous, healthy collectivity, each individual member also thrives, whereas, if only a handful of individuals prosper within a collectivity riddled by poverty and dissension, they will always be at risk, for their prosperity is not built on anything firm and lasting. This is why, when we see that every individual is interested only in his own well-being and cares nothing for that of others, we can be sure, in advance, that is an unstable situation. If human beings would only make effort to forget about themselves a little more and devote themselves to the good of the collectivity, the interests of every individual would be protected. For the good of the individual is in the good of the whole. This is why I keep telling you that you don't know where your own best interest lies; your behavior proves this and, sooner or later, it will be your downfall.

The life of the collectivity surrounds, dominates and rules us. We can never be free and independent of it. This means that you must stop trying to find a comfortable little niche for yourself because it can never be anything more than a stop-gap. Unfortunately, human beings are still a long way from this expanded consciousness. They are like insects: as soon as something goes wrong they scuttle off into their little hiding places thinking that they will be safe there. Well, that is fine, it is something that we have inherited from the insects, but surely we are capable of changing just a little. To be sure, human beings have already made progress where the collectivity is concerned, but not enough: they continue to massacre each other. Their consciousness has expanded slightly, that is true, but the situation has not really changed much. In the past, one man would be killed where, today, millions are killed at one stroke. That is progress for you! Ah, yes; human beings have made great progress. They have built much bigger towns, for instance, but their inner nature is unchanged: each person remains isolated in his own little hole. They are still 'troglodytes' just as they have always been: isolated, divided and hostile.

The solutions men need must be sought on a higher level, in the spirit, in light. As long as they keep trying to solve their problems without that light, even the most far-reaching political and social transformations will never be truly effective for they will always contain the germ of a personal interest which runs contrary to the collective interest and which will end by contaminating all the rest. Men must consult that eternal wisdom that the Aghartans consult and that I myself always consult, and it will show them what to do. As it is, even the Church doesn't consult this higher wisdom; it has substituted its own interests for the interests of the Lord. This is why the prophecies of Fatima are so terrible for the Church. But people no longer believe in anything; self-interest and money have priority over everything else.

I know very well that, because of this, the system that I bring you has no chance of being either understood or applied. In fact, if certain authorities realized that our Teaching was based on the synarchy, they would be quite capable of trying to close us down. They hate the synarchy! But conditions are going to change and, before long, no one will be able to stop these truths from spreading. No one! The Age of Aquarius is coming closer and bringing with it its Teaching of the collectivity.

The synarchic order will be established and will prove itself. Every system has to prove itself and, when it turns out to be ineffective, is replaced by another and then another, and so on. This is how men grope their way forward until, eventually, they find the right solutions. In reality, instead of continuing with an endless succession of painful and very costly experiments, it would be possible for men immediately to adopt a system that has been in existence for thousands of years. Unfortunately, at the moment, everyone wants to experiment and discover the great truths for himself. True, this is one way of doing it. Eventually, everyone will reach his goal this way, but it will take a very long time - hundreds if not thousands of years. The Creator has given all human beings the same ability to arrive at the truth, but the time that this takes is not the same for all. Those who accept to be instructed and guided by a Master save themselves a great deal of time, expense and suffering, whereas those who refuse this rapid and effective means will arrive at the same truths but thousands of years later. They prefer to tread a lone path; they want to be free and refuse to submit to or follow anyone else and, although they will eventually reach their goal, it will take them a very long time.

This attitude is particularly prevalent amongst intellectuals. Every now and then, one finds an exception to the general rule, but they are rare. I myself am one of those exceptions. Fortunately for me, Providence saved me by depriving me of all kinds of intellectual faculties that others have received in abundance. This is why I have been so ready to accept the wisdom of others who were more advanced, whereas those who have great intellectual gifts believe themselves to be capable of doing things by themselves. It seems to me that Providence has not been quite so kind to them: they refuse every authority and rely exclusively on their own resources, with the result that it will be thousands of years before they discover the truth.

In a few years from now some very important discoveries will be made. The only question is whether there will be enough human beings capable of understanding and feeling them and putting them into effect in their lives. It says in the Bible that everything will be revealed at the end of time. And this time is near. Of course, when it says 'the end of time', we must not imagine that it means the end of the world. The end of the world has already been announced time and again - even the date has been specified - and people have been struck with terror and prepared to die. And then the fateful day arrived and passed ... and the world went on as usual. Occasionally some minor upheaval occurred, but the world continued to go round. Mankind will never completely disappear. Human beings are tough, don't worry! They can survive anything. But there is no doubt that there will soon be all kinds of upheavals and changes and that it will be the end of an era. In his book, Beasts, Men and Gods, Ossendowski tells of how, one evening, he was with a caravan of camels, crossing a great plain in Mongolia when, all of a sudden, everything fell silent (Saint-Yves d'Alveydre mentions the same phenomenon): men and beasts stood still, even the birds did not fly. His guide explained that this awed silence fell over all things in nature whenever the King of the World entered the sanctuary in his subterranean palace in Agharta to pray. Very few human beings have ever seen the King of the World but, every now and then, he has appeared on the occasion of a religious holiday and his appearance is always accompanied by great prodigies. He has also made certain prophecies, some of which have already been realized and others of which are still to come. Yes, the King of the World does exist and he is waiting for the right moment to manifest himself. Also, as I have already told you, some beings from Agharta have incarnated in the world today in order to carry out the plans of the Invisible World. Many of them are working, even now, for a world government.

Try to understand what I am telling you: above is the New Jerusalem, the Ierouschalaïm Hadascha of which St John speaks, and below is Agharta whilst we, human beings, are between the two. When the New Jerusalem descends and Agharta rises from below, the Kingdom of God will be established amongst men. Agharta, like the New Jerusalem, denotes the inner life. It was to Agharta that the alchemists referred when they used the word VITRIOLUM, each letter of which is the initial letter of a word in the Latin sentence: 'Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam', which means, 'Visit the bowels of the earth; rectifying you will find the hidden stone, the true medicine.' Agharta is also this inner earth into which we must penetrate', for man is made in the image of the universe and all that exists outside him exists, also, inside him.

In the preceding description, Aivanhov makes reference to the lost continents of Lemuria and Atlantis. For more on these, see Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man (several chapters from the Akasha Chronicle), available on the Internet at http://www.elib.com/Steiner/Books/ (written in 1904, 1981 edition by Harper and Row). These continents are associated with some of the five root races (or epochs) of man, viz., the Polareans, the Hyperboreans, the Lemurians, the Atlanteans, and the Aryans (the current, or fifth, root race – which includes all people now on the planet, i.e., the entire species of Homo sapiens).

Synarchist Concepts Since the Time of Saint-Yves

After writing the preceding part of this article last weekend, I came across an article written by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, authors of The Stargate Conspiracy. It is entitled “The Rise of the Rough Beast,” and was adapted from a lecture given at the Saunière Symposium, Conway Hall, London. Below follows a part of that article dealing with synarchy (for the complete text, see http://www.pharo.com/intelligence/starcon_hypothesis/articles/ifsh_106_rise_of_the_rough_beast.asp ). See Picknett and Prince’s The Stargate Conspiracy (Berkley Books, 1999) for additional material on the history of synarchy.

In Britain, Synarchy is not widely known even among those interested in esoteric movements and secret societies. This is very surprising, as Synarchy and its founder have been extraordinarily influential.

Synarchy was founded in the early 1870s by Joseph Alexander Saint-Yves d’Alveydre (1824-1909). This was a period in which many new political ideas were taking hold. Like many of a conservative mind, Saint-Yves was alarmed by the rise of Anarchy, and he developed Synarchy specifically in order to counter it. Whereas Anarchy believes that the state should have no authority over the life and behavior of an individual, Synarchy took quite the opposite view. In other words, the more control the state has over the individual the better. This, as you can imagine, was an idea held an attraction for many.

Essentially, Synarchy advocates government by secret society – or, in its own terms, by an elite of enlightened initiates who rule from behind the scenes. It therefore doesn’t matter which political party holds power in a state – or even what political system that state has. Synarchists would step in and take control of the key state institutions. St-Yyes identified three key pillars of society that, once under the control of his elite, would allow them to rule without the population even being aware of their existence. These were the political and social institutions, the economic institutions and the religious institutions.

Although Synarchy can therefore rule in any kind of state, for obvious reasons it finds itself more at home among totalitarian regimes (power is held by less people, and the ruling regime doesn’t change as often as in a democracy). It has therefore always attracted a greater following from the right. Synarchy is totally opposed to ideas of democracy and social equality, as it believes that some people – i.e., Synarchists – are natural leaders.

However, Synarchy as devised by St-Yves was not a purely political movement. St-Yves was active in the esoteric world of 19th century Europe – he was, for example, a friend of key figures such as Victor Hugo and Lord Bulwer-Lytton - and so incorporated specific mystical and occult ideas into his system.

St-Yves believed in the existence of spiritually superior beings that could be contacted telepathically. His elite would be made up of people who were in communication with them. He himself claimed that he was in touch with these beings, and that they actually gave him the principles of Synarchy.

Saint-Yves drew upon many esoteric systems, from both East and West, in developing his ideas. For example, he regarded the medieval Knights Templar as the ultimate Synarchists of their day – after all, they exerted control over the political, financial and religious life of medieval Europe, his three pillars of society.

Consequently, Saint-Yves incorporated ideas from the many neo-Templar societies that were flourishing in his day. In particular, he borrowed from a Templarist Masonic society, the Strict Templar Observance, the concept of Unknown Superiors – a group who directed the order but whose identity remained unknown to the members. However, he expanded this concept and made his ‘unknown superiors’ spiritually advanced beings that lived in a remote part of Tibet.

Although Saint-Yves himself is hardly known in this country, he was incredibly influential in the development of 19th century occultism. For example, he was the person who introduced the concept of Agartha, the mysterious underworld realm peopled by initiates hidden somewhere in Tibet. The Masters with whom he claimed to be in contact lived there.

Saint-Yves’ doctrines included ideas about the evolution and history of the human race that were, at the time, novel, but which have since become commonplace in Esoteric and New Age circles. Central to his reconstruction of history was Atlantis as an advanced, global civilization. He believed that the Sphinx was not built by the ancient Egyptians, but was created by the Atlanteans many thousands of years before the rise of Egypt. Saint-Yves placed the end of Atlantis at around 12000 BC.

St Yves also promoted the idea of root races – a succession of dominant races each allocated a period of supremacy, but each destined to be supplanted by the next, superior race. It should come as no surprise to learn that the current dominant race is the white Aryans. [This example of “root race” is incorrect. The Aryan root race is comprised of all human beings currently on the planet, i.e., the entire species Homo sapiens.]

It must be stressed that it is impossible to separate Saint-Yves’ version of history from his political ideology. The history is used to justify the ideology and vice versa. Also, his version of history was the result of ‘revealed’ information – it lacked any historical or archaeological proof. For his followers, accepting these ideas was a simple act of faith.

All these ideas have become, of course, part and parcel of subsequent occult beliefs, mainly because they were taken up, embellished and popularized by Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891), that larger-than-life Russian magus – some call her a charlatan – whose love affair with the mysteries of the East led to her founding the Theosophical movement. These concepts were, in turn, incorporated into the teachings of Alice A. Bailey (1880-1949), which have had a huge influence over the beliefs of the New Age – and on the development of the Stargate Conspiracy.

But perhaps more significantly as far as this article is concerned is that some of Saint-Yves specific ideas appear in the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce. For example, Saint-Yves, in his reconstruction of history, describes a great Celtic warrior named Ram, who conquered the ‘degenerate’ black races in 7700 BC. According the Saint-Yves, it was the superhero Ram who created the first Synarchist Empire, which extended from Europe to India. This marked the beginning of the period of domination of the white races over the black. Curiously, in a discussion about far distant events, Edgar Cayce said that this was ‘some years before the entry of Ram into India’. But Ram could only have found his way into Cayce’s writings via St Yves, who had, in fact, invented Ram and all his works.

Of course, the idea that the world should be run by secret societies went down particularly well with… well, secret societies. Consequently, many of them adopted Synarchist principles. In fact, St-Yves’ ideas transformed the esoteric underground of Europe, particularly France. Some of the greatest figures in subsequent occult history were devotees of Saint-Yves, which is not surprising because occultists, with their love of hierarchy, tend to be naturally totalitarian and unegalitarian. For example, Papus (real name Gérard Encausse, 1865-1916) called Saint-Yves his ‘intellectual master’, and when he died founded a society known as the Friends of Saint-Yves to promote his work. Papus, of course, had an enormous influence over the world of esoteric secret societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Another important movement that became closely associated with Synarchy was Martinism. Although this predated St-Yves by several decades, the principles of the two were very close – St-Yves was himself a member of the Martinist Order, so there was a lot of cross-fertilization of ideas.

This is interesting because in our last book, The Templar Revelation, we traced the connection between the Martinist Order and other secret societies that make up a network of groups, all ultimately descended from the Strict Templar Observance, which includes the Priory of Sion. It is now becoming clear that an understanding of Synarchy can shed light on the origins and activities of the modern Priory of Sion – but that’s another story...

By the beginnings of the 20th century, the Martinist Orders – and many others – were firmly aligned with the ideology of Synarchy. In 1921 the Martinist and Synarchist Order was founded in France. There were also explicitly Synarchist Masonic lodges formed in France.

However, Synarchy has not only had influence over the occult world, but also over politics.

As we have seen, Synarchy outlined a specific program for the take-over of states. But Saint-Yves’ aims went much further than that – he wanted the whole of Europe to be governed by Synarchy. Right from the start, an important part of the Synarchist agenda was the creation of a United States of Europe, advocating the removal of national boundaries, customs duties, and so on.

This continued to be a central objective of Synarchy. In fact, a Synarchist document published in the 1930s refers to one of their key aims as being ‘the formation of a federal European Union.’ It advocated a United States of Europe – although it would be a Europe that, for economic reasons, would be dominated by France and Germany.

As we saw earlier, Synarchy favours undemocratic and totalitarian regimes – they are, after all, easier to gain control of. And there is a definite connection between Synarchist groups and the origins of Fascism in Europe in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

An organization called the International Synarchist Movement was created in response to the Russian Revolution of 1919. According to French researchers, this was largely behind the rise of Fascism in Italy – and the creation of the Pan-European Movement in 1922.

As might be expected, Synarchy also had some influence on the development of Nazi ideology, although Synarchists had reservations about the Nazis emphasis on German nationalism and the Messianic cult of Hitler.

Synarchy continued to thrive in Saint-Yves’ native France. Synarchist groups were behind a wave of right-wing terrorist attacks in the 1920s and 30s. In the 1930s a Frenchman named Viven Postel du Mas (of whom more later) wrote a notorious document called the Synarchist Pact, which became their manifesto.

In 1932, a society called the Synarchist Empire Movement was founded in France, which was described by one commentator as ‘a secret society with very specific and limited membership, following a definite politico-economic program’. This was behind right-wing terrorist groups such as the CSAR (Secret Committee for Revolutionary Action) – most of the CSAR’s members were part of the Synarchist Empire Movement.

In 1941, in Vichy France, a report by the police warned of a plot by Synarchists to take over the government, which noted the close relationship between the Synarchist movement and the Martinist Orders. In fact, during the trial of Marshall Pétain, the President of the Vichy government, in 1945, questions were asked about his connection with the Synarchist Pact.

The point is that Synarchy was taken very seriously by French authorities in the 1930s and 40s. The term has entered the French political vocabulary (although the French press often use the term ‘synarchy’ to refer to any political or economic conspiracy, such as price-fixing cartels).

After the War, Synarchy adopted a lower profile, but it is still very active. In fact, in recent years Synarchist groups have begun to act more openly both in Europe and in Britain.

Some Concluding Remarks

The preceding segment describes some of the history of the synarchist movement since the time of Saint-Yves. At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that the term synarchy (or its derivatives, synarchism, synarchic, synarchical, synarchist) has many different shades of meaning. A very brief definition is “joint rule,” and in some instances it has been viewed as a “consortium” of nations ruling jointly or ruled by a higher authority. I have presented the discussion above to reveal some of the history of the term. In my use of the term, I am restricting consideration to operation of a planetary management organization in charge of a global minimal-regret population of ten million people. I have used the term synarchy (and its derivatives) to refer to this type of management, since it is close in basic concept to what I have in mind, and it is less cumbersome than “Platonic-Republic-type” government. My use of the term is generally consistent with the usage by the New Age movement (i.e., as conceived by Saint-Yves, government by a group of Enlightened Initiates who derive their power from a spiritual source).

On several important points, however, my use of the term is very different from previous usage, including recent usage. In no way do I consider the possibility of “joint rule” by a community of sovereign nations as a suitable basis for planetary government. In my concept, there is but a single organization (“nation”) in charge of the planet. There is no room whatsoever for more than one planetary management organization on the planet – the alternative is industrial development, war, and destruction of the biosphere.

A second major difference relates to the entire substantive content of Saint-Yves’ concept, viz., that there are three major institutions of social control: religion, politics and economics. In my concept of a single planetary management organization, there is no room for economics, politics, or religion as social institutions of control. With respect to economics, the primary role of the planetary management organization is to prevent industrial activity anywhere on the planet outside of the high-technology single-nation city-state. With respect to politics, the planetary management organization is operated as a mission-oriented business or military organization or a church, not as a political entity. There is no room for politics in this organization (although the hunter-gatherer tribes over the rest of the planet are free to adopt whatever political system they prefer). With respect to religion, although there is a fundamental and profound role for the spiritual, religion plays no role in the organization (once again, the hunter-gatherer tribes are free to establish whatever religions they desire).

In summary, the basis for the planetary management organization in my concept of a synarchic government of a minimal-regret population will not be political or economic or religious in its principal aspects or basis – it will be spiritual in nature. It will be committed to maintaining a long-term-sustainable system planetary management, one that will ensure the continued ecological diversity of the biosphere. It will be made possible and derive its authority and power from the support of people who desire to bring an end to the destruction of nature that the industrial age has wrought, and who wish to live in harmony with nature. No longer will humanity allow the operation of a multiplicity of sovereign industrial nations whose objective is to generate material wealth and wage war (apart from sex, the two favorite pastimes of “civilized” mankind) at the expense of nature, at the cost of extinction of tens of thousands of species per year.

In recent years, the use of the term “synarchist movement” has often referred to the concept of control of the world’s sovereign nations by a powerful group of behind-the-scenes individuals or organizations – in effect, a plutocracy. In view of the points made in the preceding paragraphs, this concept is totally alien to mine. Under my concept of planetary management there is no room for sovereign nations, there is no room for industrial development, and there is no room for industrial activity anywhere on the planet outside of the high-technology city-state. Since my concept of synarchy differs so much from the concept underlying current use of the term, it may be argued that I should have used a different term. (In fact, I initially often referred to a “Platonic-Republic-type” government.) My concept does correspond to Saint-Yves’ original concept (and Plato’s concept) in one key respect, however, namely, that of government by Enlightened Initiates (Plato’s Guardians), and it was on that basis that I decided to make use of the term (albeit without the capital ‘S’ that is generally used when referring to Saint-Yves’ original concept). Moreover, my usage, as noted earlier, is generally consistent with that of the New Age movement, which includes untold millions of people.

Although today’s usage is not at all consistent, the words synarchy and Synarchy are generally used when referring to Saint-Yves’ and the New Agers’ spirituality-based concept of government, and the word synarchism more frequently refer to the global-plutocracy-conspiracy use (à la, e.g., David Icke’s …And the Truth Shall Set You Free or The Biggest Secret). The words synarchic (an adjective) and synarchist (an adjective or a noun (an adherent)) is used in both contexts. I use the terms synarchy, synarchic, and synarchist to refer to my own concept (i.e., a single planetary management organization in charge of a minimal-regret population, using a Platonic-Republic form of government; I do not distinguish between control by human Enlightened Initiates vs. by spiritual Masters). Note that in Plato’s concept, religion (the Greek pantheon of gods) was an integral part of society and education, and not really considered or discussed as an entity separate from government. In Saint-Yves’ concept, religion formed (along with politics and economics) one of the “three pillars” of society. The New Age concept centers on government based on spirituality, as distinct from religion. Some might view that, because of the key role of religion or spirituality, Synarchy is a kind of theocracy. This would, however, be misleading. In Saint-Yves’ concept, religion is used (as are politics and economics) by the powers that are running the state, and in the New Age concept, religion really has no role at all (since the New Agers view spirituality and spiritual beings in a quite different sense from that of traditional established religions – focusing on freedom of (physical and spiritual) experience by the individual rather than acceptance of a prescribed dogma).

Although most Americans have never heard of the word “synarchy” and are totally unaware of Saint-Yves d’Alveydre and the political battles that raged against synarchy in the early part of the twentieth century, the term is starting to appear more and more in the press. And not just in “New Age” writings, where it has been a common term for over a century. The “radical right” is seeing more and more evidence of a global synarchist conspiracy to establish a world banking system and government. Former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche and many others speak out regularly against synarchism. (They are directing their attention to synarchism in the sense of government by a consortium of nations or by a world banking or governmental system, not to synarchy as envisaged by the New Age community, i.e., planetary government by spiritually motivated people with a concern for nature, peace, and human spiritual development.) Many fundamentalist Christians are against the establishment of a world government and banking system, while others see it as part of God’s plan, prophesied many times in the Bible. As the human population continues to explode and industrial activity continues to destroy nature, battles (“resource wars”) for control of dwindling resources (petroleum, water, arable land, fisheries) will become more and more frequent, widespread and intense. We will see a lot more of the term “synarchy” in the days ahead.

[The following note has little to do with synarchy, but it does relate to the issue of globalization and planetary government.] This past weekend I read the June 28, 2003 issue of The Economist. This issue was a “Special 160^th Anniversary Issue” on Capitalism and Democracy. The feature article, entitled, “Radical thoughts on our 160^th birthday: A survey of capitalism and democracy,” was written by Bill Emmott, editor of The Economist. The 18-page article summarized the current status of capitalism and democracy, and discussed of a wide range of topics relating to capitalism and democracy, including liberty, poverty, inequality, free trade, globalization, executive compensation, the distribution of wealth, foreign aid, and disease. Never once did it mention the role of capitalism and development in contributing to global environmental destruction and the sixth mass species extinction. Never once did it mention that the modern industrial world is totally a product of the petroleum age, and that it will disappear within a few decades when the petroleum age comes to an end. It never even addressed the issue of energy at all. It stated that progress was being made in reducing poverty worldwide (“poverty reduction has just had its best few decades in the whole of history”), when in fact the number of dismally poor people on Earth has more than doubled in the past five decades, from about two billion people (out of three billion total) to about five billion (out of six billion). That the world’s leading economics magazine would present a global assessment of the state and impact of economics, and omit any discussion of these very important considerations is appalling. Since society is not blind to what is happening – the destruction of nature is taking place everywhere, and on a massive scale – this shows how profound a state of denial it is in concerning what is happening and where we are headed. The emperor is indeed fiddling while Rome burns!