In the kiche popol vuh, the head of hun hunahpu is likened to a calabash. Esotericism of the popol vuh is published by theosophical university press as a service to all englishspeaking students of the ancient wisdom of humanity. A swissborn ethnologist, raphael girard came to the new world in 1919 as the director of a sixman french scientific mission to study the native forest peoples of honduras. Well, in the highlands, the popol vuh starts with the creation of the. The popol vuh is the quiche epic of mayan cosmic philosophy. The original book, written long ago, existed, but its sight is hidden to the searcher and to the thinker. So it is that the nests of the animals are on the earth, given by the bearer, begetter.
Esotericism of the popol vuh by rafael girard book resume. The popol vuh proceeds step by step, and the gods sow seeds, the seeds of evolution. The popol vuh is an epic of mayan cosmic philosophy. Many religions have a central holy text that sets out the main beliefs of their faith and, very importantly, describes the creation of the world. Popol vuh popol wuj in modern kiche, the sacred ook of council of the kiche maya. Jul 26, 2010 popol vuh describes the mayans creation myth, its epic tales of the hero twins hunahpu and xbalanque and other spectacular stories. Dennis tedlock and barbara tedlock interview night fire films. It begins with the deeds of mayan gods in the darkness of a primeval sea and ends with the radiant splendor of the mayan lords who founded the quiche kingdom. Four hundred years ago, in the manuscript known as the popol vuh, a quiche wise man wrote down the ageold traditions of his people.
The popol vuh kiche for council book or book of the community. In the 16th century, the conquistadors, accompanied by intolerant and fanatical monks, systematically eradicated all traditions and destroyed by fire all the documents of the mayanquiche people. We have various sufficiently acceptable literal translations of the popol vuh, and this is shown by the agreement between the text of the codex and the native customs, rites, beliefs, and theater in which the myths are dramatized so as to bring them within reach of the popular understanding by means of easily comprehended allegories. Popol vuh simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Popol vuh the sacred book of the maya creational story. Popol vuh also popol wuj or popul vuh or pop vuj is a text recounting the mythology and history of the k.
Popol vuh curricula overview and objectives the centerpiece of the mesoamerican unit of hots world mythology program is the popol vuh, a long creation story and epic narrative of the maya quiche people of guatemala. A simplified version of the complex text is now available in english and spanish. It begins with the deeds of mayan gods in the darkness of a primeval sea and ends with the radiant splendor of the mayan lords who founded the quiche kingdom in. Download the popol vuh in full text here, english pdf ebook. The theme of origins, customs, and the mayan culture in popol.
Paperback published in 1996, 15714687 paperback published in 2018, paperback, 0806122668 paperback published in 1991. It contains mythological stories and a genealogy of the rulers of the postclassic quiche maya kingdom of highland guatemala. What is the significance of the sport ball in the popol vuh. The book was written in quiche maya but in the roman alphabet. Esotericism of the popol vuh is published by theosophical university. Popol vuh, the quiche mayan book of creation, is not only the most important text in the native languages of the americas, it is also an extraordinary document of the human imagination.
In the nineteenth century a copy of the the popol vuh the book of council surfaced in highland guatemala. Here we shall gather the manifestation, the declaration, the account of the sowing and the dawning by the framer and the shaper, she who has borne children and he who has begotten sons, as they are called. Chapter 15 the original maya, quiche, and lenca tribes. The title popol vuh translates book of the community, book of counsel and has been mentioned as the bible of the mayans. The preamble states the intention of the author in writing the work, sets the time period as postconquest, and makes the point that the original work takes a long performance and account to complete the lighting of all the skyearth 63. The theme of what it means to be human in popol vuh from. Popol vuh for kids the mayas believed they were created from corn. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in popol vuh, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The next paragraph in the popol vuh has great historical interest because it gives the names of the peoples which, besides the three quiche lines of descent, proceed from the same cultural trunk and probably occupied the same country, beginning with the fourth creation. The work is divided into a brief preamble and four books. Popol vuh preamble 34 part i 38 part ii 64 part iii 126 part iv 149 appendix a a note by sylvanus griswold morley 191 b a note by adrian recinos 192. Read esotericism of the popol vuh by raphael girard for online ebook. The popol vuh, preserved in various transcriptions since the 16th century, was lost for many years and rediscovered.
University press as a service to all englishspeaking students of the ancient wisdom of humanity. Deer and rabbits, for example, have short tails because hunahpu and xbalanque pulled the tails off of deer and rabbits when they found the creatures destroying their garden. Most of the maya books were destroyed by zealous priests during the colonial era. The translations of the popol vuh 16 a pronouncing dictionary 21 the book of the people.
The maya believed that the 4 different colors of corn represented the 4 different directions, north, east, south, and west. In allegorical form it describes the origin of the universe and of the gods, as well as their offspring mankind and the complex evolutionary cycles they experience. Besides symbolizing the suns relative position in the order of its rising and its daily trajectory, hunahpu and ixbalamque, playing alone for a long time on opposite sides of the court, represent the position of the sun and the moon at opposing solstices, just as this continues to be depicted on chorti altars. Popol wuuj in modern spelling is a book written in the classical quiche language. Esotericism of the popol vuh the theosophical society. Esotericism of the popol vuh cosmogenesis library of. Popol vuh translated by allen christenson preamble this is the beginning of the ancient traditions of this place called quiche. Popol vuh describes the mayans creation myth, its epic tales of the hero twins hunahpu and xbalanque and other spectacular stories the title popol vuh translates book of the community, book of counsel and has been mentioned as the bible of the mayans. Esotericism of the popol vuh by raphael girard, homepage. The present translation, from the 1972 mexico city edition, is the first to appear in english. Appropriately excerpted, the popol vuh gives students in grades six through twelve an opportunity to study, over. It has not been possible until now to penetrate into the esoteric meaning or even the historical validity of this document because, to put it simply, it is written in a.
The hermetic nature and esoteric content of this document continues to. The sacred book of the ancient quiche maya, bandelier wrote that the first part of the popol vuh seems like an evident fabrication, or, at least, accommodation of the indian mythology to christian notions, a pious fraud, but the bulk is an equally evident collection of original traditions of the indians. The maya ceramic book of creation universiteit leiden. He transcribed them in his own language, but used roman letters. The popol vuh is a sacred maya text which narrates the maya creation myths and describes the early maya dynasties. The document was written down sometime between 1554 and 1558, by authors that stayed anonymous christensen 2007, 37. They think, they look at the results, sometimes come to the conclusion that it is good and it is time for the next step, and sometimes that the effort is unsuccessful and the result should be degraded or even destroyed. It was her love for the maya people and passion for their language that reminded me why we take on overwhelming tasks such as this, and why its worth the price in life and heart that we put into them. The themetracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of what it means to be human appears in each part of popol vuh. A swissborn ethnologist, raphael girard came to the new world. Similarly, the popol vuh provides the reasoning behind the geological landscape, from the origins of the mountains to the reason the land is so dry. As mysteriously as it appeared, it disappeared but was available long enough to be copied. The popol vuh is a lifeline thrown into the sea of our history by an unknown scholar, at the time of the spanish conquest.