[mythistorian]

Thank you so much, our dear sunbug,

I’m so glad that the lightning of the Popol Vuh fired your imagination and soul!

You are right to pick up, once again, on the metaphor of lightning and light. “Let there be light” and “let there be lightning” have great similarity and difference.

There is definitely a more shocking and electrifying aspect that is borne out by the lightning metaphor when compared with the simple light bulb that turns on with “let there be light!” It is both shocking and electrifying to meet the awesome power of creation in the form of a lightning bolt or a thunder strike, probably in no small measure due to the fact of the tremendous sound that accompanies the light of lightning in nature. This is also related to the primordial song, analogous to the Om, that brings forth the order of creation—but in a much more shattering way.

Let me share with you and the rest of the forum my own unpublished translation/interpretation of the passages leading up to the manifestation of the Creative Word, and let the Popol Vuh speak for itself on the matter of this return to the Void, what seems to be a requisite to understanding the First Dawn of Creation and the peculiar concept of Light involved in the Popol Vuh as “the light that shines out of its own darkness!”

This is the first account, when all was in suspense, all in repose, when all was quiet, all motionless, all peaceful, all hushed—where everything still ripples, everything still murmurs, everything still sighs—in the great emptiness of the Womb of Sky.

[…]

There was only limitless water, only a calm sea —alone and without limit; nothing had come to be. Only immobility, only silence, existed in the Darkness, in the Night.

Only Tz’aqol, B’itol—the Creators, the Formers— with Tepew and Q’ukumatz—the Sovereign Majesty and her Plumed Serpents—were there with Alom and K’aholom—the Mothers and Fathers of all life— hovering over the waters and scattering their light; they were sparkling bright, wrapped in the blue and green feathers of the Majestic Quetzal.

Behold the signs of the Sovereign Plumed Quetzal Serpents—the power that hides and reveals itself in the light of its darkness—the light that shines out of its own darkness!

These are the Great Sages, the Great Thinkers of Nature. Such is the sky, such are also the Spirits of the Heart of Sky—Uk’u’x Kaj—as we call the name of the Supreme God.