It stands alongside the Vedas of Hinduism; it stands alongside the Popol Vuh of the Mayan tradition; it stands alongside traditions we have from the Epic people in Nigeria, the Yoruba people, Edo people of Nigeria, the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa.
Source: Popol Vuh, sacred text of the K’iche’ Maya (circa 16th century, translated).
In the Maya Popol Vuh and other creation myths, the gods attempted to create humanity multiple times.
What follows is a reconstruction using traditional mythology (mainly from the Popol Vuh) and astronomical calculation:
The end of the third world in Maya mythology is primarily preserved in the Popol Vuh, a K’iche’ Maya text from the highlands of Guatemala.
While not written during the Classic Maya period, the Popol Vuh reflects widespread Mesoamerican traditions about cycles of creation and destruction, which align broadly with the Long Count calendar structure used in the lowland Maya world.
According to the Popol Vuh:
Mayan Popol Vuh: A flood drowns wooden men, followed by fiery rain—Hero Twins rise from the ashes.
In the 18th century, Dominican friar Francisco Jimenez translated the "Popol Vuh," an ancient K’iche’ Mayan text detailing human origins and the succession of Mayan kings.
The Popol Vuh contained a creation narrative similar to the Genesis story but framed it as a planetary reboot orchestrated by extraterrestrial entities.
By exploring Edgar Cayce’s readings, the Sumerian King List, the Turin King List, the Popol Vuh, and Norse mythology, we see a lost global civilization—Atlantis—and its lasting influence.
The Popol Vuh, a creation epic of the K'iche' Maya, mirrors other global myths of divine beings, floods, and cycles of destruction.
The Popol Vuh’s flood and cosmic resets suggest a shared memory of catastrophic events preserved independently by the Maya.
Ragnarök and Floods: The Norse apocalypse, Ragnarök, includes a great flood and cosmic reset, paralleling the destruction of Atlantis and the Popol Vuh’s cycles of creation and destruction.
Floods as Divine Resets: The Biblical flood, the Popol Vuh’s destruction of the wooden people, and Ragnarök’s flood all point to catastrophic resets of civilization.
Advanced Knowledge: The Atlanteans, Æsir, and other divine figures are often depicted as bringers of wisdom, from the runes of Odin to the agricultural knowledge of the Popol Vuh’s gods.
From the Æsir to the K'iche', and from the Sumerian King List to the Popol Vuh, myths across cultures share striking similarities.
The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in a note to his translation of the "Popol Vuh," says:
Popol Vuh, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1985.
The story of Samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named Zipanca, told of in the "Popol Vuh," who, being captured by his enemies and placed in a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had assembled, and killed four hundred of them.
And we find some corroboration of the latter theory in that singular book of the Quiches, the "Popol Vuh," in which, after describing the creation of the first men "in the region of the rising sun" (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol.
The "Popol Vuh" proceeds to tell how this first home of the race became over-populous, and how the people under Balam-Quitze migrated; how their language became "confounded," in other words, broken up into dialects, in consequence of separation; and how some of the people "went to the East, and many came hither to Guatemala." (Ibid., p.
The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in one of the notes of the Introduction of the "Popol Vuh," presents a very remarkable analogy between the kingdom of Xibalba, described in that work, and Atlantis.
We find in the Chaldean legend something of the same kind: Khasisatra says, "I looked at the sea attentively, observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud." In the "Popol Vuh" we are told that a "resinous thickness descended from heaven," even as in Dominica the rain was full of "thick gray mud," accompanied by an "overpowering smell of sulphur."
He referenced the Mayan story from the Popol Vuh, where early humans were made intelligent enough to work but not too intelligent to become unmanageable.
Evidence: The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya describes a great flood that wiped out a previous creation.
Connections: The migration from the East described in the Popol Vuh has parallels with other myths of survivors traveling great distances after a flood, suggesting a possible shared origin or cultural transmission.
The Quiche (K'iche') legends, particularly those recorded in the Popol Vuh, describe the history and cosmology of the Maya civilization.
Popol Vuh: The Popol Vuh is the most comprehensive source of Quiche Maya mythology and history.
Flood Narrative: The Popol Vuh describes a flood sent by the gods to destroy the wooden people, a previous creation that displeased the gods.
These studies suggest movements of peoples over time, although specific migrations linked to the Popol Vuh are challenging to pinpoint.
Flood Narrative: The Popol Vuh details a flood sent by the gods to wipe out a previous creation.
Popol Vuh
The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg draws significant parallels between the descriptions of Xibalba in the Popol Vuh and Atlantis.
The presence of negroid features in Central American statues and the tradition of a peaceful, mixed-race origin in the "Popol Vuh" points to a historical blending of populations, likely facilitated by Atlantis as a central hub of ancient civilization.
In the Cakchiquel Annals, as in the Popol Vuh and the Maya Chronicles, we hear of the city of the sun god, Tulan or Tonatlan, as the place of their origin, of the land Zuiva and of the Nonoalcos, names belonging to the oldest cycles of myths in the religion of the Aztecs.
This aligns with the Chaldean legend where humanity returned to mud and the "Popol Vuh" describing a "resinous thickness." Historical volcanic eruptions have shown similar impacts, such as the eruption in Iceland in 1783, which covered the sea with pumice, and the Sumbawa eruption in 1815, which impeded ships with floating cinders.
Popol Vuh: One of the most significant mentions of Camazotz is in the Mayan sacred book, the Popol Vuh.
The House of Bats: In the Popol Vuh, the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque encounter Camazotz in the underworld during one of their trials.
While Maya tradition in the Popol Vuh shares similarities, depicting four creations focused on forming humans from mud, wood, flesh, and maize, the Five Suns framework is distinctly Aztec, possibly influenced by earlier Mesoamerican ideas including Maya ones.
Popol Vuh
The story of Samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named Zipanca, told of in the "Popol Vuh," who, being captured by his enemies and placed in a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had assembled, and killed four hundred of them.
In the early colonial period, an unknown nobleman from the Kʼicheʼ Maya people transcribed the Popol Vuh, using the Latin script.
The Popol Vuh tells the mythical story of how the world was created, the adventures of the Hero Twins, and the history of the Kʼicheʼ kingdom during the Postclassic period.
The deities mentioned in the Popol Vuh include Hun Hunahpu, possibly seen as the Kʼicheʼ maize god by some, and a group of gods led by the Kʼicheʼ patron Tohil.
But according to the Popol Vuh, the Book of the Maya, man first emerged only in the fourth divine creation, after three previous worlds had been destroyed by awesome catastrophes.