Ashtar (sometimes called Ashtar Sheran) is the name given to an extraterrestrial being or group of beings that a number of people claim to have channeled.
UFO contactee George Van Tassel was the first to identify Ashtar and claim to receive his messages in 1952, which are collected in his first book.
After the introduction of Ashtar by Van Tassel, other mediums began to claim contact. At one point, dozens of people were claiming contact with Ashtar and presenting conflicting messages.Reece, Gregory L. (2007) p. 138 The most widely publicized of these messages were met with failure when they predicted civilizations flourishing on the other planets and an imminent landing of space ships on Earth.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp168-173
Due to his common depiction as a humanoid with blond hair and European features, Ashtar may be considered a Nordic alien.
The Ashtar movement is studied by academics as a prominent form of UFO religion.
An example of a religion incorporating Ashtar is the Czech Universe People who venerate Ashtar alongside Jesus and Krishna among others; one of their site domains is "ashtar-sheran".
History
Background With the advent of UFO religions, "Ascended Masters" from the esoteric teachings have been described as reappearing in space suits. The space concept was not entirely new however, as the more arcane teachings of Theosophy contained references to extraterrestrial masters.Grunschloss, Andreas (2004) p422-3.Partridge, Christopher (2003) pp10,12,19Lewis, James R. (2003) pp96,126-7Denzler, Brenda (2001) p46 The concept of the Ascended Master is particularly clear in the Ashtar teachings.Partridge, Christopher (2003) p19 The very word "ashtar" appears in Helena Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine (1888).Grunschloss, Andreas (Partridge 2004) p373 However, this reference is to the Sanskrit term ashtar-vidya, meaning the technology of advanced warfare of the type mentioned in the Mahabharata.Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine Vol. 2, p. 427.
Brenda Denzler observes that "in the long run, probably the most important person for the propagation and perpetuation of the contactee movement was George Van Tassel".Denzler, Brenda (2001) p43 In 1947 Van Tassel moved to Giant Rock, near Landers in the Mojave Desert, California, where he established a large UFO Center. This became the most successful and well-known UFO meeting center of the time.Helland, Christopher (2003) p162Denzler, Brenda (2001) pp43-4Ellwood, Robert S. (1995) p395
As one of the founding "fathers" of the modern religious ufologies,Grunschloss, Andreas (2004) p422 Van Tassel also created arguably the most prominent UFO group established in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although not as influential or well-known today. This was the "Ministry of Universal Wisdom" begun in 1953, which evolved out of two previous groups he had organized at Giant Rock in the late 1940s. The organization investigated and encouraged the healing arts, but its prime focus was to collect and analyze UFO phenomena and interview contactees. Due to radio and television interest, Van Tassel became the most well-known promoter of contactee experiences and something of a celebrity in the 1950s.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp162-3
Purported contact with Van Tassel In 1952, Van Tassel claimed to receive messages via telepathic communication from an extraterrestrial and interdimensional being named "Ashtar".Helland, Christopher (2003) p163Flaherty, Robert Pearson (2011) p592Clark, Jerome (2007) p26 This source became the "first metaphysical superstar of the flying saucer age". Van Tassel also interpreted the Christian Bible in terms of extraterrestrial intervention in the evolution of the human race, and claimed that Jesus was a being from space. The Ministry of Universal Wisdom taught that all humans have the power to tap into the "Universal Mind of God", which facilitates evolutionary progress such as that exemplified by Jesus and Ashtar. Van Tassel also claimed that by accessing the Universal Mind he could receive messages not only from Ashtar but from humans who had died. Van Tassel even reported having a physical encounter with an alien. At two a.m. on August 24, 1953, as he recalled, Van Tassel was awakened by a being from Venus named Solgonda. The alien wore a one-piece gray bodysuit, spoke impeccable English, and otherwise resembled your average human man—if your average man is 700, looks no more than 28, and sports a killer tan. According to Van Tassel, Solgonda beamed him aboard a spacecraft and declared that the greatest problem restricting mankind was the propensity for early death: just as we acquire the wisdom to do something meaningful, it’s all over, finito. He bequeathed to Van Tassel a formula—F = 1/T, or frequency equals one over time—to enable the construction of an antigravity time machine that would allow age reversal, antigravity, and time travel. For the next quarter century, reportedly with financial backing from Hughes, Van Tassel worked on constructing the Integratron, so called because of his belief that it could integrate the healing power of electrostatic energy into our cells, thus inhibiting aging. When he died in 1978, the contraption was still unfinished. The integratron was said to work by combining Lakhovsky’s electromagnetic principles with theories from Nikola Tesla and Moses’ Tabernacle. Lakhovsky theorized that human cells are electrical conductors that receive and transmit impulses, and that disease or aging occurs when these cell vibrations slow down. Van Tassel designed the Integratron as a massive electrostatic generator and rejuvenation machine meant to bombard the body with electromagnetic fields to restore cellular health.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp 167-8Reece, Gregory L (2007) p132
Van Tassel's early purported messages from Ashtar contained a great deal of apocalyptic material, which focused on concerns regarding the development of the soon-to-be-tested hydrogen bomb.Helland, Christopher (2003) p164 It was claimed that on July 18, 1952, Ashtar entered the Solar System as Commander in Chief of the Ashtar Galactic Command to warn humanity of the dangers of detonating the H-bomb, including the destruction of the planet.Helland, Christopher (Lewis, 2003) p498 The messages stated the space command was determined that humans would not destroy the Earth through the wrong use of nuclear power and that the Command was helping the human race.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp164-5 Van Tassel also claimed that Ashtar had provided specific messages that he was expected to pass on to the U.S. federal government regarding the potential negative impacts of the proposed upcoming bomb tests.Reece, Gregory L. (2007) p136Grunschloss, Andreas (2004) p423 After the actual explosion of the H-bomb by the U.S. and Russian governments, the channeling claimed that the space forces had assisted the planet to survive the bomb tests.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp165-6Reece, Gregory L. (2007) pp136-7
Although his purported method of communication with extraterrestrial intelligences resembled what is commonly referred to as "channeling", Van Tassel claimed to have established a new form of telepathic communication with these "sources", utilizing a method which included both natural human abilities and the use of an allegedly advanced form of alien technology, rather than the more traditionally religious, non-technological, spiritual medium-based approach taken by many other early channelers of the era. Van Tassel maintained that the method he utilized was not a paranormal or metaphysical activity, but required being "in resonance" with the messages being sent. It was an example of the application of an allegedly advanced extraterrestrial science, that anyone could implement with the proper training in meditation techniques.
Giant Rock Space Conventions Van Tassel held weekly channeling sessions at Giant Rock at which people could "ask questions" and "channel answers" from extraterrestrials. According to Jerome Clark, these gatherings coalesced the scattered contactee subculture into a recognizable movement in January 1952. This led to the annual Giant Rock Spacecraft Convention organized by Van Tassel, which began in the spring of 1953 and continued for at least another 24 years. It marked Van Tassel's most important role in UFO history. In 1959, up to 11,000 people attended these conventions and heard channeled messages claiming to come from space.Helland, Christopher (2000) p38 Most of the well-known UFO contactees attended these conventions as speakers and channelers.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp 163-4 J. Gordon Melton states that almost all of the 1950s contactees became involved in the two ecumenical structures founded by either Van Tassel or Gabriel Green.Melton, J. Gordon (2002) p798 Most of the early messages Van Tassel claimed to have received from Ashtar were first presented to the public at these events.
Ashtar Command
As the weekly channeling sessions at Giant Rock continued through the early 1950s, the concept of an "Ashtar Command" was appropriated for use by a number of prominent early contactees and channelers, based on the figure of Ashtar, originally promoted by Van Tassel.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp168-9
Robert Short (AKA Bill Rose), editor of the 1950s UFO magazine Interplanetary News Digest, was a member of Van Tassel's group. He began to popularize the messages, but as Van Tassel did not agree that other Ashtar messages were authentic, Short broke away and began his own group called "Ashtar Command".Helland, Christopher (2003) p169
By the mid-1950s, the concept of Ashtar and a galactic law enforcement agency preparing an imminent rescue of humanity had become well-established, and included various well-known, esoteric channelers of the era. For instance, Elouise Moeller predicted that a space fleet would arrive in the near future; and Adelaide J. Brown claimed that flourishing civilizations existed on the other planets in the solar system.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp169-170
However, as time and scientific knowledge progressed, the public failure of these predictions had an enormous negative impact on the expansion of the Ashtar Command movement due to the lack of a central authority that could undertake damage control. Although Robert Short had spent a lot of time promoting the Ashtar message, he was neither the leader nor the only interpreter, as by this time dozens of Ashtar channelers were presenting conflicting messages.Helland, Christopher (2003) p170
Development into spiritual religion (1990s onward) The initial account of the Ashtar message as channeled through Van Tassel was not a spiritual message as such but "an early contact account between extraterrestrials and humankind". It focused on intervention in human scientific development, and was described as technological communication from a real space being on an urgent interstellar undertaking. However, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as many individuals in the spiritualist movement began to claim contact with Ashtar, the space being began to play more of an Ascended Master role in the narratives.
The Ashtar Command evolved into a movement that had a central authority for several decades up to the mid-1990s, and has been described by Robert P. Flaherty as "the common property of a diffuse New Age Spiritualist milieu". During this time the teachings claiming to be channeled from Ashtar varied immensely.Helland, Christopher (Lewis, 2003) p497 Part of this movement metamorphosed when Tuella founded Guardian Action International.Tumminia, Diana (2007) p309 Guardian Action Publications was founded by Tuella who claimed that Ashtar approached her. Several books were published through the 1980s.