• Esotericism of the Popol Vuh:
  The Sacred History of the Quiché-Maya [top]
  Written by Raphael Girard; translated from the Spanish with a foreword by Blair A. Moffett
  First published in Spanish in 1948 as "Esoterismo del Popol Vuh" by Editorial Stylo, Mexico City
  Reprinted in 1979 in the United States by Theosophical University Press in hardback and paperback. 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. The whole merit of an investigation of this kind depends on the native elders, unlettered but shaped in the school of oral tradition. When they give us access to their inner thought, they reveal a world until now unknown to us."

Contents:
Foreword
1. Introduction
2. Esotericism of the Popol Vuh
3. Cosmogony and Creation of the Universe
4. The First Three Ages of the World
5. The Marvelous Story of Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué
-Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué Conquer the Giants
-The Four Hundred Boys
6. The Biography and Genealogical Tree of Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué
-The Life and Trials of Their Parents, the Seven Ahpu
- Origin and Significance of the Ball Game
7. The Parthenogenetic Conception of Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué
8. Infancy of Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué
-The Third Regent
-Origin and Significance of the Palo Volador
9. Youth of Hunahpu and Ixbalamque
-The Hunahpu Codex
-Development of the Social, Economic, and Religious Practices as Explained by the Quiché Document
10. Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué in Xibalba
11. The Deification of Hunahpu and Ixbalamqué
12. Cosmogonic, Astronomic, and Chronological Meaning
13. The Fourth and Final Age: Era of Quiché-Maya Culture
14. The History of Maize and of the Quiché-Maya Civilzation
15. The Original Maya, Quiché, and Lenca Tribes
-Panorama of the Prehistory and Peopling of Honduras Quiché Emigration
16. The Dance of the Giants
Appendix A
Appendix B
Glossary; Index

About the author: Raphael Girard spent a lifetime in direct contact with native American cultures, and is perhaps best known for his work among Mayan peoples of Mexico and Central America, especially the principal spiritual elders of the Quiché and Chorti Maya tribes, with whom he studied for more than twenty years, making his home in Guatemala. A member of numerous European and scientific bodies, Girard is renowned as an Americanist whose ethnological contribution to our knowledge of the authentic spiritual foundations of Amerindian cultures has been rewarded by fifteen decorations and honors by governments and institutions of the Americas. A number of his major works have been published in French, Italian, and German, as well as Spanish