Lost Star of Myth and Time

Walter Cruttenden. Lost Star of Myth and Time. 2006. St. Lynn's Press.

Walter Cruttenden's book Lost Star of Myth and Time is well written, a lively text and obviously heavily researched. It is a grand synthesis of the last 14,000 years of world history, used both as a condemnation of millennia of human progress and a search for the spirituality of human life; and although it is not science, it is an interesting and entertaining read.

The premise of the book is that the entire history of planet earth is fixed, with the best parts of human civilization having occurred 8,000-14,000 years ago, and going to occur in another six or seven thousand years. Cruttenden takes his cue from the Vedic manuscripts, specifically the Yuga Cycle. The table below provides a listing of the Yuga Cycle as described in Lost Star; for my own curiosity, I compiled a brief listing of the civilizations that fall within these dates.

Descending Yuga Cycle

• Satya (Golden Age), 11,501-6701 BC. Hunter-gatherer societies
  
• Treta (Silver Age), 6701-3101 BC. Mehrgarh, 7000-2500 BC; Catal Hoyuk, 6300-5500 BC
  
• Dwapara (Bronze Age), 3101 BC-701 BC. Harappa 3000-1500 BC; Shang Dynasty, 1500-1000 BC; Mohenjo Daro 2500-2000 BC; Minoan, 3000-1200 BC; Helladic, 3000-1200 BC; Egypt, 3000-2300 BC, 200-1800 BC, and 1500-1100 BC; Caral-Supe, 2600-2400 BC; Olmec 1200-400 BC; Chavin, 1000-500 BC
  
• Kali (Iron Age), 701 BC-AD 499. Qin Dynasty, 200 BC; Han Dynasty, 100 BC-100 AD; Classical Greece, 300-100 BC; Roman Empire 100 BC-650 AD; Byzantine 400-1400 AD; Hopewell 200 BC-500 AD; Nasca, 0-700 AD
  
  

Ascending Yuga Cycle

• Kali (Iron Age), AD 499-1699. Three Kingdoms, 500 AD; Byzantine 400-1400 AD; Islamic Empire 620 AD-1500; Ottoman Empire 1517-1917; Monte Alban 400-1500 AD; Teotihuacan 250-700 AD; Toltec 700-1300 AD; Classic Maya 400-800 AD; Moche, 300-800 AD; Wari, 500-900 AD; Tiwanaku, 300-1100 AD; Inca 1400-1600
  
• Dwapara (Bronze Age), AD 1699-4099. Western civilization, the Third Reich, expansion, Enlightenment, Cultural Revolution in China, Industrial Revolution, World Wars I and II.
  
• Treta (Silver Age), AD 4099-7699
  
• Satya (Golden Age), AD 7699-12499

Gold is better than Iron, at least in Cruttenden's use of the words. At first glance, the list suggests that we humans were at our best when we were primarily hunter-gatherers, and that we fell out of cosmic favor when we started building our cities. There's something to be said for that: that premise is the core to most religions in the world, anyway. What were Adam and Eve if not hunter-gatherers? The loss of the perfect world began when we started living in cities; disease, human struggles, crime, all the Pandora’s box of evils the human race suffers were begun about the time we got ambitious; or, more likely, over-crowded. (I'm kidding, of course: I wouldn't give up my wireless internet for the world).

Lost Civilizations

But that’s not what this book argues. Cruttenden’s argument is that 8,000-14,000 years ago there was a mightily sophisticated culture that scientists just haven't recognized yet. It was based on spiritualism, not materialism; but it was still highly advanced, with a grasp of science and engineering far above what we moderns have attained today. The lack of scientific evidence for a sophisticated civilization so long ago is believed in this book to be caused by inaccurate dating techniques. So, the pyramids, according to Cruttenden, are actually much older than archaeologists think they are. There’s also a discussion of a missing binary star of our sun (the “Lost Star” of the title) that completely went over my head, and wasn't very interesting anyway to me as an archaeologist.

At its worst, Lost Star uses selective data from disparate sources to erect a wobbly structure supporting the existence of an advanced civilization 14,000 years ago we haven’t found yet. Cruttenden points out that science has recently found evidence of previously unknown advanced civilizations, such as the Caral Supe in Peru, discovered within the past five years. Caral-Supe still fits our existing paradigm, however, pushing back the dates of advanced cultures several centuries at most. Although it doesn't seem likely to me given the sum total of the growth of civilizations so far, it could be that we will eventually find evidence of an ancient civilization at the 14,000-8,000 year old mark. But, we don't have that yet, at least nothing that follows from scientific observation, which is still my religion of choice.

Longing for a Spiritual Existence

At its best, the Lost Star expresses both an optimism and a longing for some spiritual core, some connective tissue that both explains our failings as a race and attempts to build a purpose, a grand scheme for the existence of human beings on the planet. This is not a trivial pursuit, and is central to most human beings today who feel a spiritual lack in modern society. To use an old term from my misspent youth, I can certainly grok that.