Review of Michael Tsarion's book -
"The Irish origins of Civiliation" - Vol. 1
I (Jim Cairns) and Michael Tsarion have family
roots in the townland of Newtownabbey, which is a
suburb of Belfast on the NE side of Belfast Lough,
Northern Ireland. It seems we lived quite close to
each other, but because of religious, political,
ethnic and age differences, are paths never crossed.
We both have spread our wings and have settled in
places far away from the places of our childhood. I
live now in Southern Ireland in the townland of
Templemore in North Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, a
predominently catholic and Republican area,
(admittedly with a substantial protestant population
- the remnants of English settlers) far away from the
strict reformed church settlements of the Scots-Irish
of South Antrim. Michael is now residing in Seattle,
Washington, USA, which is also a long way from the
passive climes on the shores of Belfast Lough.
Firstly, can I point out that I am not a scholar
of Irish, Irish history, ancient history,
archaeology, etymology, theology, anthropology,
ethnology, Egyptology and Biblical scripture!
However, like most people, I have a little knowledge
of many tthings.
...................................................................................................................................................................................
M's Introduction talks about the misused term
"Celt" - to describe the native Irish. M
then briefly touches on the basic premise of the book
- that civilisation did not flower in the
Mediteranian basin or in Mesopotamia. M claims
civilisation has its roots in the west - in Ireland,
Britain and Scandinavia, which he claims were, in
pre-diluvian times, part of the mythical lands of
Atlantis or Lemuria. M's premise is not the views of
most historians and is certainly very controversial,
but many writers and scholars have taken similar
stances in the past and were latterly proven correct.
M sets out, with a good deal of success, to show
that the Bible contains little proof that any of its
books are based on historical fact and in some cases
in the Bible, there is no evidence that Biblical
events ever took place or places ever existed. M
discusses whether the term Jew or Hebrew denotes an
actual tribe or race rather than a religious group of
people. He has a great way of interpreting and
understanding word and name derivations - etymology.
M claims that the words Jew or Tudah have their roots
in the word yew or yew tree, a sacred tree of the
Celts and many cultures in ancient times. Theres more
on this later!
M has several mentors who have inspired him in his
views on the "west to East" theory of human
civilisation, these are the historians and writers by
the mames of Anna Wilkes, Conor MacDari, Ignatius
Donnelly and Comyns-Beaumont. Most claim, like M,
that after a great catastrophe, which swept the whole
of the world, the tribes who lived in Atlantis
(Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, which were all joined
together by land bridges at that time) moved eastward
and mixed with many tribes and cultures in the
Caucasus and Meditaranian regions. About 7000 years
ago,(some claim) after the catastrophe or the great
deluge (Noah's flood), the survivors emerged from the
Ukranian Steppes or the Ural mountains and spread
once more westward into Europe, Britain and Ireland,
amongst these were the ancestors of the Irish. M
claims that the people who built the ancient
megaliths in Ireland, Scotland and England, were the
same tribes who returned after the flood.
I find this point hard to accept because as far as
I know, no one knows who bulit Stonehenge, the Orkney
sites or Newgrange. This is a tenuous thesis, which M
proffers.
M explains that most of written knowledge of
Ireland and the Irish stems from scripts written by
"christian" monks after the 12th century,
with books such as the Book of Kells, Book of Armagh,
the Annals of Clonmacnoise and the Book of Durrow and
various others. The monks record the mythical or
otherwise invasions of the Fomorians, the Iberians,
the Tuatha da Dannann and the Milesians (Goidelic
Celts) who were the last to arrive about 500BC. M
also describes the physical characteristics of the
typical Irish - body size and shape, hair and eye
colour. M describes two types of Irish - the tall
fair type, nordic appearance - the Fir Bolg, and the
smaller round headed and darker type with
mediteranaian features.
To this day these are the two main images
foreigners hold of the Irish. However, the tall fair
or blond type could just as well describe a mix of
old Irish and the later Norse viking invaders.
NB: Not contained in M's book! There is evidence
of the old Irish from the mumified body found in a
Cavan bog. He was small of stature and his features
were small faced or round and was brown or dark
haired.
As mentioned before, M explains that the word
Ireland, Erin or Eire (the land of the Ers or Irs)
derives from the word Arya or Aryans. M is not alone
in this belief as I found out recently whilst
listening to an RTE radio program. The Iranian
ambassador to Ireland was talking on a program about
immigrants to Ireland. The ambassador pointed out
that the Irish name originates from the word Aryan.
So the Irish are Aryans just like the English - pity
the English in the past didnt appreciate its
significance and had given the Irish the respect of
being a fellow Aryan! Huh! However, M must be given
credit for his exposing the nazi ariosophists of the
19th and 20th centuries such as Guido von List, Jorg
Lanz and Alfred Rosenberg the occultist friend and
mentor to Adolph Hitler. M explains how the nazis
twisted and misinterpreted the term aryan to suit
their evil purposes. M claims that the term aryan
originally described an enlightened initiate, a
person spiritually aware - of knowledge.
In later chapters M writes about the Druids and he
holds firm that they were a sophistocated caste,
comprising judges, teachers, historians, poets,
astronomers, prophets and political advisors. He also
claims that the Druids (Irish) had an alphabet or
script - this is something I was not aware of! M
describes how the Romans in Britania exterminated the
Druidic priests wherever they were found and we know
this from Roman accounts of the wars with the
Britons. But as one of M's quoted authors admits, JA
MacCulloch - the Celts left no written record of
their beliefs or religion. One interesting point M
made was this: St Patrick we are told drove out the
snakes from Ireland - or so the myth goes! M's
interesting interpretation is, this was the early
christian church's hidden meaning of the
extermination of the Druidic priesthood in Ireland,
given, according to M, no snakes were ever found in
Ireland. Could be!
In one of the chapters the author deals with the
Egyptian/Ireland connection, which is interesting. He
quotes several authors - describing how the Celts had
once lived in Egypt; strange as this might seem to
such as I! However, he tells of the findings of an
archaeologist called WB Emery who found blond haired
mummies with fair complexions whilst excavating
burial tombs at Saqqara in Egypt. Most interesting of
all, is a long list, made by researcher Mary
Sutherland, of examples of mummies, which show the
caucasion/white/nordic influence within the genepool
of the Egyptian Pharoahs and nobility. Apparently,
the mummy of Amenhotep 111 had red hair! Red hair was
common in many mummies found in Egypt! M's premise is
that the ancient pre-diluvian Irish moved eastward
after the great catastrophe and settled in Egypt,
amongst other places. M mentions somewhere I have
visited in the 1980s and that is Knockmany in County
Tyrone Northern Ireland. M claims that there is a
stone of antiquity called the Knockmany Stone near
the village of Clogher and there are Sumerarian
inscriptions on it linking it with King Menes the
first Pharoah of Egypt.
On the Knockmany Stone M references 19th/20th
century historian and writer Henry Cairnes Lawlor.It
happens that I have a copy of another book by Lawlor
called the History of the family of Cairnes or
Cairns.
It seems Egyptian seafarers must have visited
Ireland in the distant and murky past. Well even I
know that in pre-Roman times, the ancient Britons
traded tin from the mines of Cornwall with seafarers
from North Africa and the Mediteranium area. M also
shows photos of many Egyptian pharoahs, which have
caucasion or even nordic facial features, nothing
Arab or African about them!
M discusses the Chaldeans and the Phoenicians in
later chapters but after that he discusses the
American Arya - (Irish). M touches on one of my pet
interests - etymology, the study of the origins of
words, how they change in spoken language and mix
with other words and parts of words over the
millennia. M explains that there are numerous mounds
in the USA, Canada and latin America, which are
similar to mounds or cairns found in Ireland. It is
said that there are scripts found in New Hampshire
sites, which biologist Barry Fell claims are of
Iberian Celtic origins! Fell and others say that
Celts, Basques and Egyptians had settlements on the
American continents, north and south. Well again this
is news to me but then we have not been told this in
school, in the press or media. I can imagine in
ancient times when trading ships from north Africa or
the Mediteranium ports could have been blown off
course, ending up in the Trade Winds, which blow from
east to west from the Canary Islands across the
Atlantic to the Bahamas. Thor Heyerdahl proved that a
reed boat of Egyptian type could survive the crossing
of the Atlantic from east to west. But the most
interesting part refers to Barry Fells book
"America BC" in which he shows the
similarity between the language of the native
Algonquian tribe and Irish Gaelic.- one example ::
Algonquian - nock = Irish cnoc = hill in english.-
Knockagh Hill near Belfast where M and I grew up! And
there are many other similarities in words and place
names. M goes on to show the similarities between
Gaelic (Celtic Irish or Iberian Celt) and sanskit,
latin, greek, hebrew and persian.
In the latter chapters M discusses the
"British/Israelites", which is a subject I
find uncomfortable because some present day Ulster
loyalists espouse these strange theories but I dont
want to get into them.
The Goddess problem which M mentions is one that
he and I might differ on! I have a problem with
modern day goddess worshippers amongst the
"pagan" community! Many claim that they are
into "white" witchcraft or "white
magic" but I am convinced that some of these
"white witches" are "wolves in sheeps
clothing"! Ill discuss this anon off line with M
sometime in the future!
And I would just like to end this summary with one
item M touches on in the last chapter on
Comyns-Beaumont. He shows a photo of Edinburgh, which
is in the shadow of two small hills, called Arthurs
Seat. The family name of Cairns was originally named,
possibly around 1100/1200 AD, because the Cairns
family in those times lived in the vicinity of two
hills, Easter Cairn and Wester Cairn, about 14 miles
from Edinburgh. I think Arthurs Seat are Easter and
Wester Cairn. If anyone can tell me otherwise, please
let me know!
To sum up- Michael Tsarions book is full of
detail, much of which are unknown to people in
general. There are lots of things, which I have
learnt from this book and it certainly is an
interesting read and for those into Irish and ancient
history, it is a must read, even though M's thesis is
controversial and even, if he doesnt mind me saying,
so far not proven!
Nevertheless - its well worth the read!
Jim Cairns
The
Irish Origins of Civilization, by Michael Tsarion...
The
Occult History of Ireland...An Introduction, by
Michael Tsarion