The Hopi Third World and Atlantis: Echoes of a Forgotten Past

Across cultures and time, there are stories of worlds that rose, flourished, and then fell. Though separated by oceans and centuries, the Hopi account of the Third World and the Western tale of Atlantis carry strikingly similar lessons. Perhaps they are not two stories at all, but one memory, refracted through different lenses.

The Third World was washed away by a great flood, and humanity now lives in the Fourth.

The Hopi say we live in the Fourth World. Before this, in the Third World—Kuskurza—humanity grew powerful. Cities rose, technologies advanced, and abundance filled the land. Yet people turned away from their spiritual responsibilities. Greed, arrogance, and misuse of knowledge spread like wildfire. In the end, fire, floods, and upheaval swept away that world.

Only a few, guided by Spider Woman and Sotuknang, were saved and carried forward.

Atlantis, as described by Plato and echoed in countless esoteric traditions, follows the same arc. A great island civilization, blessed with wisdom and knowledge, fell into corruption. They misused their power, seeking dominion instead of balance. The gods—forces of cosmic order—destroyed the island in a single cataclysm, remembered as a flood. Survivors scattered, carrying fragments of wisdom across the globe.

Two stories. One theme. Humanity builds, expands, and ascends—only to collapse under the weight of its own excess. Those who hold to balance survive and carry seeds into the next age.

What if the Hopi Third World and Atlantis are not just myths, but ancestral memories of the same event? Oral traditions in the Americas and written traditions in Greece may both point back to the same fallen civilization, one whose lessons still echo today.

Atlantis, once a thriving and advanced civilization, fell into corruption and conflict, and with the misuse of powerful weapons, it was ultimately swallowed by the sea.

If that is true, then the question is not whether Atlantis “existed” or whether the Hopi “imagined” their worlds. The deeper question is: what are these stories asking of us, now?

We live in the Fourth World, yet the signs of imbalance surround us—unchecked technology, environmental collapse, and spiritual amnesia. If past worlds ended in flood and fire when humanity strayed too far, what of ours? Are we nearing the threshold of another ending, or can we finally break the cycle?

The Hopi prophecy teaches that survival depends not on power, but on balance—between human and nature, body and spirit, self and community. Atlantis warns of what happens when wisdom turns into arrogance. Together, they ask us: will we repeat the mistakes of the past, or carry the memory forward into a new way of living?

The story of the Third World and Atlantis is not just about what was lost. It is about what can still be saved.