Naacal

Naacal is the name of an ancient people and civilization first claimed to have existed by British-American archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon and subsequently by British occult writer James Churchward.

Augustus Le Plongeon's description of the Naacal

The first recorded use of the term "Naacal" is contained in Augustus Le Plongeon's work from 1896, "Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx." From pages xxiii - xxiv of the preface:

"Perhaps also will be felt the necessity of recovering the libraries of the

Burmah, where they became known as Nagas, established themselves in the Dekkan

, whence they carried their civilizing work all over the earth."

According to Augustus Le Plongeon, the Naacals were the missionaries of Mayan religion and civilization.[1] Le Plongeon advocated that the original, great civilization was in Central America, which contrasts with Churchward's view.

James Churchward's description of the Naacal

The next known published use of the word occurred in 1926 when James Churchward used the term in his book, The Lost Continent of Mu, Motherland of Man.

According to James Churchward, the Naacal were the

Churchward claimed to have gained his knowledge of the Naacals after befriending an Indian priest, who taught him to read the ancient dead language of the Naacals, spoken by only three people in all of India. The priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets, written by the Naacals, and Churchward gained access to these records after overcoming the priest's initial reluctance. His knowledge remained incomplete, as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text, but Churchward claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples.

Churchward claimed that the ancient

In volume 2 of "The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East," Baird T. Spalding makes this remark about the 'Naacals':^[3]

"The teachings that Buddha received came from the same source as did those of Osiris but in a different way. The teachings that Buddha contacted came from the Motherland direct to Burma, brought there by the Naacals. Osiris' teachings came direct to him, as his forefathers lived in the Motherland and when he was a young man he had gone to the Motherland to study."

David Bruton, Spalding's biographer revealed in "Baird T. Spalding As I Knew Him" (IEP, 1956) that Spalding's books were a magical autobiography and essentially fiction. Therefore, the inference that the Naacals themselves are a fiction or modern myth is strengthened.

Critiques

At the time of Churchward's publication, his work and sources were discredited. Historian Curtis Wilgus from George Washington University noted that Churchward's books read like 'the strangest of fiction', with 'imagination' mixed with 'mystic fanaticism' and 'not the slightest erudition'.^[4]

Engineer and writer L. Sprague de Camp dismissed the idea of the Naacal in an article written in 1946 on the subject of lost civilisations.^[5]

In modern fiction

• In the H. P. Lovecraft story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", the occultist Harley Warren is said to be an expert linguist of the Naacal language.
• In the Malleus Monstrorum Volume I Monsters of the Mythos, a Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game) bestiary, the language of the serpent people is said to be derived from Naacal.^[6]
• In the anime series RahXephon, Ernst Von Bähbem, a Mulian, is sometimes called the "Brother of Naacal" and was the founder of the Naacal Company, which eventually became the Bähbem Foundation.
• In the Visual novel Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, Coco uses a supposed directive in the Naacal Tablet to call Takeshi father, and Tsugumi mother.
• In
  Central Asia novels, two main characters are Naacals. She identifies Draupadi from the Mahabharata and the Hindu deity Ganesha
  as Naacal survivors who advise humanity. She describes two warring factions among the Naacals who have different aims and pursuits. Her Naacal civilization existed as islands in an inner Asian sea which eventually perished.
• In "The Dweller in the Tomb,"
  Zanthu Tablets
  , which are written in Naacal.
• In the Italian comics named "Martin Mystère", by Alfredo Castelli, Sergio Bonelli Editore, the Archeologist M.M. discovers the ancient reigns of "Atlantide" and "Mu", the second of which was inhabited by the Naacals.
• In the cartoon series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Naacals were said to be sages and advisors to the ancient kings of Mu.

References