Which mountain is the "Prophet Mountain" Anne Catherine Emmerich mentions in her writings?

Question

In writing down her visions of the Creation and Fall of Man and of all Biblical events, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich mentions a Prophet Mountain from where she has seen Paradise, she writes. Is this a mountain in/near Jerusalem? Which mountain is or may be meant? She mentions Mount Olivet later on.

Answer 1

Which mountain is the “Prophet Mountain” that Anne Catherine Emmerich mentions in her writings?

Adam and Eve had been only one day in Paradise. I now see Paradise far, far off like a strip of land directly under the point of sunrise. When the sun rises, it mounts up from the right of that strip of land which lies east of the Prophet Mountain and just where the sun rises. It looks to me like an egg hanging over indescribably clear water which separates it from the earth. The Prophet Mountain is, as it were, a promontory rising up through that water. On that mountain, one sees extraordinarily verdant regions broken here and there by deep abysses and ravines full of water. I have, indeed, seen people climbing up the Prophet Mountain, but they did not go far.

No mountain near Jerusalem or Israel fits this possible description: Seeing “people climbing up the Prophet Mountain, but they did not go far” implies an extremely high mountain.

The truth be known, we may never know for sure which mountain is indeed the Mountain of the Prophets!

Emmerich had many mystical visions which she spoke about. The following seems to be mirrored in many traditions as truth: She wrote, for instance, of ‘a Mount of Prophets, which she clearly identified as the Himalayas, where live Enoch, Elijah and others who did not die in the ordinary way but ascended, and where animals which survived the Flood may also be found'. - Anne Catherine Emmerich

As simple caveat before continuing: On 3 October 2004 Anne Catherine Emmerich was beatified by Pope John Paul II. However, the books produced by Brentano were set aside, and her cause adjudicated solely on the basis of her own personal sanctity and virtue. Peter Gumpel who was involved in the analysis of the matter at the Vatican stated that "since it was impossible to distinguish what derives from Sister Emmerich and what is embroidery or additions, we could not take these writings as a criteria. Therefore, they were simply discarded completely from all the work for the cause". See: A Movie, a Mystic, a Spiritual Tradition

Catherine Emmerich in her visions saw that the Garden of Eden, with all it contained, was a perfect picture of the Kingdom of God.

Her revelations revealed that Enoch and Elias are in Paradise where they await their return to the world to preach at the end of time.

The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries. Among scholars who consider it to have been real, there have been various suggestions for its location: at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; and in Armenia.

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. - Genesis 2: 4-14

How the four rivers that flowed out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden and from there divides into the four named rivers came to be named as we may never know.

The Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, gives us an interesting point of reference for the Himalayas. In the beginning of his Antiquities of the Jews (1st century AD) identified the Pishon with the Ganges. Later on the medieval French rabbi Rashi identified it with the Nile.

Could it possibly be Mount Kailash, known also as Mount Meru? This mountain, in some Buddhist texts, seems like a logical point of departure for a general possible location of Eden, if we were to take the Revelations of Blessed Catherine Emmerich to be an actual real account of the Genesis story concerning the Prophet Mountain and the Garden of Eden.

The mountain is located near Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal, close to the source of some of the longest Asian rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, and Karnali also known as Ghaghara (a tributary of the Ganges) in India. Mount Kailash is considered to be sacred in four religions: Hinduism, Bon, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Mount Kailash is considered by many as the central part of the earth surrounded by 6 other mountain ranges from the sides. The campus of Mount Kailash is considered to be the focal point of the whole universe.

Apart from being a beautiful place, Lake Mansarovar is the highest freshwater lake in the world standing at a height of 4,557 meters above sea level, making it one of the highest lakes in the world. The place is best to go deeper into samadhi. Lake Mansarovar is the point of origin of four major rivers namely Brahmaputra, Ghagra, Sindhu,and the Satluj

This Lake Manasarovar is steeped in much Buddhist traditions and folklore.

The earliest known mention of Manasarovar in European writings is found in the report of a Jesuit traveller named Antonio de Monserrate. He wrote that he met Indian yogis who claimed there is a "very old city" on the banks of certain lake "Mansaruor" on a plateau over the Himalayas. He added that these "yogis visit many territories but tell many lies and mix legends with facts". The 16th-century report of de Monserrate was forgotten, rediscovered in the 20th-century, states Alex McKay. Typically, major historic pilgrimage sites that were frequented by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains attracted a discussion in their respective texts and the construction of infrastructure by wealthy patrons or kings. In Hinduism, these were the mahatmya chapters in the Puranas, and the infrastructure include temples, dharmasalas, ashrams and pilgrimage facilities.

While there is no explicit mention of this lake or the nearby mountain in ancient Sanskrit texts, there is indirect mention of this region of Tibet in hymn 2.15 of the Rigveda. There it says that Indus river keeps flowing north because of god Indra's power, a geographical reality only in Tibet. This is in the context of Himavant (or the Himalayas). According to Frits Staal, a Sanskrit and Vedic studies scholar, this makes it likely that some among the ancient Vedic people had traced the Indus river route and had seen the valley near Mount Kailash. However, there is no mention of this lake or it being a tirtha (pilgrimage site).

Texts mention Meru and Kailash, but in many texts these are two different mythical mountains. One is linked to the churning-of-ocean creation mythology, and the other as abode of Kubera (Kailash gets associated with Shiva later, c. 8th or 9th century). Kailash is one of many mountains that are declared "sacred beyond all others" in Hindu texts. For example the major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, mention "Kailash parvata" where gods and goddesses gather, mortals cannot reach, with the exception that this place can be reached by yogis who have reached the state of inner serenity, have no ties to the world, are explorers of the soul, on whom neither anger nor joy appears. These texts make no mention of a lake or the mountain's location in Tibet. The Puranas, particularly the Bhagavata Purana mentions Manasa, but again in the sense of mythology and a simile with human mind. A 13th-century manuscript of the Brahma Purana mentions Manasarovar as a pilgrimage site for ascetics, but does not mention mount Kailash in that section. In contrast, the older Shiva Purana lists twelve most important Hindu pilgrimage sites for Shiva, but this list of twelve does not include either Kailash or Lake Manasarovar.

Satellite view of lakes Manasarovar (right) and Rakshastal with Mount Kailash in the background.

Catherine Emmerich at one point made the following remark in her Revelations. The beginnings commences with the visionary’s account of Creation, the Fall of the Angels, the formation of the Earth and Paradise, and the mysterious Mountain of the Prophets. The second part presents Adam and Eve, the Trees of Life and Knowledge, the Fall of Humankind, the Promise of the Redeemer, Cain and Abel, the Children of God, the Giants, Enoch, Noah, the Tower of Babel, and such ancient figures as Hom, Jamshid, Nimrod, Derketo, Semiramis, and Melchizedek, concluding with Job. The third part offers fascinating new insights into the lives and missions of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Dec. 22. I know why I went to the mountain: my book is among the writings that are on the table: I will be made for me to read the last five leaves. Man sitting at the table will return in time. His chariot stays there as eternal memory. On this chariot he mounted at that height, and men, to their amazement, the will descend on this tank. This is, on this mountain, which is the highest in the world and nobody can happen, what have been secured, when corruption has increased among men, treasures and sacred mysteries. Lake; file, the towers are only available for these treasures are preserved and secured against damage. It is by virtue of the water on this summit is that all things are refreshed and renewed. The river that goes down from there and from which water is the subject of such veneration for the men I’ve seen, really a and strengthens virtue, which is why they consider more than their wines. All men, all goods are down from this height, and all things that should be guaranteed the devastation has been preserved.

Dec. 26. I saw again the mountains of the prophets. The man who is in the tent had a figure from the sky, hovering above him pamphlets and books, and he received other instead. This spirit was different from the first one outside. He who hung in the air reminded me forcibly John. He was more agile, quicker, kinder, more gentle than man in the tent, which was something more energetic, more severe, more strict, more inflexible. The second was related to him as the New Testament to the Old, which is why I would call John and I would call the other Elias. It was as if Elijah had revelations to John who had their accomplishment in and received fresh.

At the moment of creation Eden may have actually been on the highest mountain in the world, but not necessarily Mt. Everest. In any case, the Mountain of the Prophets is east of Jerusalem, in a location filled with mystery and awe. It can not be pin pointed to with any accuracy as God desires it to remain hidden from mankind...

I would like to point out just one liturgical tradition of the Carmelite Order here. The Feast day of the Prophet St. Elijah is celebrated on July 20th. On the day the Carmelites celebrate their liturgical Mass with priests donning red coloured vestments. According to Catholic tradition Elijah is one of the two witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse of St. John the will be martyred in Jerusalem in the end days. Early Christian writers such as Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus of Rome, have concluded that the two witnesses would be Enoch and Elijah, the two prophets who did not die because God "took" them according to various Biblical passages.

This is my own take on this mysterious possibility as to where the Mountain of the Prophets may be located. Other opinions surely exist.

According to Catherine Emmerich the Garden of Eden and the Prophet Mountain are not far apart.

Mysterious Kailash in the sunset

Remember what Bl. Catherine Emmerich stated about this Prophet Mountain: The Prophet Mountain and just where the sun rises. It looks to me like an egg hanging over indescribably clear water which separates it from the earth.

Due to its religious significance, Kailash remains an unclimbed mountain.

Addendum on Adam’s language:

The Adamic language is a term for the hypothetical proto-language believed spoken by Adam and Eve in paradise, either identical with the language used by God to address Adam, or invented by Adam as nomothete (name-giver, Genesis 2:19).

It is unclear whether the Bible assumes that this language was preserved by Adam’s descendants until the confusion of tongues (Genesis 11:1-9), or that it began to evolve naturally as a consequence of original sin (Genesis 10:5).

In previous centuries, many scholars believed that the Adamic language was Biblical Hebrew, and that all languages are descended from it. The Bible does not make a direct claim to that extent, however, and some Early Modern scholars based on Genesis 10:5 have assumed that the Japhetite languages are rather the direct descendants of the Adamic language, having separated before the confusion of tongues, by which also Hebrew was affected. The same is claimed by Anne Catherine Emmerich, that stated in her private revelations that most direct descendants of the Adamic language were Bactrian, Zend (Persian) and Indian languages. In this way Emmerich identifies Adamic language as Proto-Indo-European language. - Proto-Indo-European as Adamic language (or first human tongue)

Mt. Kailash is within the midst of the ancient Bactrian region of old!