Esotericism of the Popol Vuh

Published in 1979 in hardback and paperback as the First English Editions; 'Esotericism of the "Popl Vuh: The Sacred History of the Quiché-Maya" was originally published in Spanish in 1948 as Esoterismo del Popol Vuh by Editorial Stylo, Mexico City. This is the 359 page paperback edition, ISBN 0911500146. About this book: The Popol Vuh, or Sacred History of the Quiché-Maya, is the most complete native American spiritual epic we have. It contains the Quiché rendition of the millenial Mayan cosmic philosophy that explains the origin of the universe, of the gods, and of their offspring - mankind - as well as the complex evolutionary cycles experienced by these productions of the Supreme. It tells the story of the initiatory trials and triumph of the redeemer-twins, Hunahpu and Ixbalamaqué: the paradigm of Everyman's experience on the pathway toward divine illumination. And it sets forth the ancient Mayan culture's perception of the sublime ethical mission of the individual and the human community as a whole. But this esoteric information is hidden within cyptic metaphor and allegory, requiring certain keys of thought for its comprehension. In this book Raphael Girard offers such keys in language that all - layman and scholar alike - can understand. In the author's own words: "Quiché-Maya culture is essentially mythological, science and history have not yet become divorced from religious mythoi. The Indian still lives in a mythological age, the fourth of his reckoning, that is, in a sacred space and time. Thus his culture has remained impervious to Western Influence, and the explanation of its features is found in the myths...Until now no investigator has been able to enter the secret convolutions of the Maya soul owing to the Indian's systematic concealment of it in defense of his sublime cultural values. The correlation between the present and the past, between the real, the existential and the mystical, is settled thanks to the presence of the myths in the rites