Mount Shasta

Indigenous peoples have revered Mount Shasta for over 11,000 years. New Age significance developed from the 1930s. Both traditions continue actively.

The Modoc people say that G'mokumk, the creator, resided on Mount Shasta. The original bones of the Modoc are placed there. The Wintu trace their origin to a sacred spring on the mountain's slopes; their ceremonies ensure those springs continue to flow. The Shasta people knew the mountain as Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki—'walk around and around, but never on top'—a name that encodes a prohibition against ascending to the dwelling place of sacred beings. Archaeological evidence confirms human presence in the area for at least 11,000 years, making this one of the longest continuously inhabited regions in North America. European contact in the 19th century disrupted but did not end Indigenous relationships with the mountain. The California Gold Rush brought prospectors and settlers; conflicts with Indigenous peoples marginalized traditional practices and lands. But the Winnemem Wintu and other communities maintained their connection to the mountain, continuing ceremonies that persist today. The New Age chapter began in 1930 when Guy Ballard, hiking on Mount Shasta, claimed to encounter Saint Germain, an Ascended Master alleged to be an 18th-century alchemist. Saint Germain began training Ballard as a 'messenger,' leading to the I AM Activity movement. The movement combined theosophy, spiritualism, and new religious elements; some scholars consider it the first UFO religion. Lemurian legends had earlier origins—Frederick Spencer Oliver's 1905 novel 'A Dweller on Two Planets' described an ancient civilization connected to Mount Shasta—but the I AM movement catalyzed the mountain's emergence as a New Age pilgrimage destination. Through the mid and late 20th century, belief in Telos, the crystal city inside the mountain, elaborated into detailed mythology with named Lemurian leaders and described social structures.