Lemurian Fellowship

The Lemurian Fellowship was founded in Chicago in 1936 by Robert D. Stelle and Howard John Zitko and named for Lemuria, a continent first hypothesized in the nineteenth century as a Pacific counterpart of Atlantis. Shortly after the fellowship formed, it moved to Milwaukee and then in 1938 to Chula Vista, California, near San Diego. In 1941, the group purchased land in rural San Diego County near Ramona.

The teachings of the Lemurian philosophy were initially presented in two books, An Earth Dweller Returns and The Sun Rises. The former was written as a sequel to A Dweller on Two Planets (1899). Claiming to be channeled through Frederick William Oliver by an entity known as "Phylos the Tibetan," The Earth Dweller Returns was one of the early books to discuss Lemuria. The Sun Rises, written by Stelle, goes into great detail concerning the ancient Lemurian civilization. Its philosophy is summarized in several basic laws, notably the laws of precipitation, cause and effect, compensation, correspondence, and transmutation. Zitko's early presentation of the philosophy in The Lemurian Theochristic Conception became the basis of the fellowship's correspondence lessons.

According to the fellowship, Christ visited Lemuria and there enunciated the Lemurian philosophy. The following also teaches that Christ reigned for 1,000 years as Melchizedek, the emperor of Atlantis. When Atlantis was destroyed, all that Christ had taught was stored away in archives of the secret brotherhoods such as the Essenes and Rosicrucians. The oldest of these brotherhoods was the Lemurians. The Lemurian Fellowship is a mundane organization designed to release the information contained in the Lemurian Brotherhood archives.

The Lemurian Fellowship, which sees the New Age as the kingdom of God, believes that the kingdom will have a communal social structure in which the individual's and society's prosperity mutually support each other. New members in the fellowship are expected eventually to become complete participants in it.

The fellowship is located on 260 acres on two tracts of land eight miles apart. Groups of members live communally, and facilities for their welfare and fellowship administration worldwide have been constructed. Besides Gateway, the headquarters building, there is a chapel, school, dining hall, laundry, member residences, and Lemurian Crafts, a business that helps support the community. Most students to the group begin with a set of correspondence lessons. Leadership comes from the higher plane through the Council of Elder Brothers and the Advanced Ego (Stelle). Stelle led the group until his death in 1952 and was succeeded by a board of governors. Zitko left the group to found the World University. The fellowship may be contacted at Box 397, Ramona, CA 92065. Website: http://www.lemurianfellowship.org.

Sources:

The Lemurian Scribe. Let It Be Resolved. Milwaukee: Lemurian Press, 1940.

Phylos the Tibetan. An Earth Dweller Returns. Milwaukee: Lemurian Press, 1940.

Stelle, Robert D. The Sun Rises. Ramona, Calif.: Lemurian Fellowship, 1952.

Zitko, Howard John. The Lemurian Theochristic Conception. N.p., n.d.