Shasta, Mount

Mount Shasta is an awe-inspiring volcanic cone in northern California. Long a sacred site for Native American tribes, it became a magnet for many occult speculations in the twentieth century. As early as 1899 Mount Shasta was an element in the Spiritualist world created in a channeled book, An Earth Dweller Returns, by Phylos (the pseudonym of Frederick William Oliver), an early text discussing the lost Pacific continent of Lemuria. After the publication of this book, California and Mount Shasta began to be seen as a remnant of Lemuria. The Lemurian hypothesis was developed by H. Spencer Lewis, who, under the penname Wishar Spenie Cerve, wrote a text for the Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis, Lemuria, the Lost Continent of the Pacific (1931).

Two years before the publication of Lewis's work, Guy W. Ballard, walking the slopes of Mount Shasta, had an encounter with a mysterious person whom he later identified as Saint Germain, an ascended master of the Great White Brotherhood (the spiritual hierarchy believed by many occultists to be guiding the destiny of humankind). Out of this encounter, Ballard later led in the founding of the I Am Movement. The story of his encounter appears in Ballard's 1934 book Unveiled Mysteries, published under the penname Godfre Ray King. In recent years, the "I Am" has presented an annual pageant centered upon their unique interpretation of the life of Jesus.

Over the years since the Rosicrucian and "I Am" publications on Mount Shasta, numerous authors have described mystical experiences associated with the mountain and offered their speculations about its significance. The resort community of Mount Shasta, California, became a unique gathering place for metaphysical people, a trend further spurred by the beginning of the flying saucer era.

Sources:

Andrews, Richard. The Truth behind the Legends of Mount Shasta. New York: Carlton Press, 1976.

Cerve, W. S. [H. Spencer Lewis]. Lemuria, the Lost Continent of the Pacific. San Jose, Calif.: Supreme Lodge of the AMORC, 1931.

Chaney, Earlyne. Secrets from Mount Shasta. Anaheim, Calif.: Stockton Trade Press, 1953.

King, Godfre Ray [Guy W. Ballard]. Unveiled Mysteries. Chicago: Saint Germain Press, 1934.

Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta, Home of the Ancients. Mokelumna Hill, Calif.: Health Research, 1985.

Shas·ta, Mount / ˈshastə/ a peak in northern California, the highest point (14,162 feet; 4,317 m) in the Cascade Range within the state. Shasta Lake lies on its south.