them naturally, but also spiritually, thus in conjunction with the angels of
heaven.” (Warren 26) What is more, in both cases, this perfect vision seems to
be the source of their direct communication with the heavens.
It seems to be written into the very concept of a Golden Age that it cannot
last, and this holds true for both Swedenborg’s Most Ancient Church, and the
Popol Vuh’s “first four human beings.” In the Popol Vuh, the fall of man seems
to be caused by a hubristic lack of humility:
This was the peopling of the face of the earth: They came into being, they
multiplied, they had daughters, they had sons, these manikins, woodcarvings. But
there was nothing in their hearts and nothing in their minds, no memory of their
mason and builder. They just went and walked wherever they wanted. Now they did
not remember the Heart of Sky. And so they fell. (Tedlock 70)
Swedenborg describes a similar lack of humility, but in psychological
terms. Instead of glorifying God for their gifts, the people of the Most Ancient
Church began to internalize these gifts, glorifying themselves. In this way,
the biblical flood might not be viewed as a punishment, but as a self-inflicted
consequence:
“This development, symbolized by the Flood in Genesis, caused evil desires
and twisted thinking to inundate their minds, [... so that] they ‘drowned’ in
their inability to separate thought from desire.” (Rose 66) This interpretation
is enough to make one suspicious of a pre-Latin etymological connection
between the words “deluge” and “delusion.”
Students of comparative mythology will not be surprised that the Popol
Vuh also contains a mythical deluge. “And so they accomplished nothing
before the Maker, Modeler who gave them birth, gave them heart. . . . The
manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for
them.” (Tedlock 71)
There are even references which are virtually indistinguishable from the
biblical covenant of the rainbow after the flood. (Genesis 9:13): “The sky-earth
was already there, but the face of the sun-moon was clouded over. Even so, it is
said that his light provided a sign for the people who were flooded.” (Tedlock
73)
It is clear from both texts that the people of the Silver Age were not simply
the survivors of the flood. Instead, we are given a fascinating description of how
the Divine changed humanity’s nature, perhaps even on a neurological level.
It is therefore not the flood, but the alteration of the human mind that began
the Silver Age, which Swedenborg calls the Ancient Church, to distinguish it
from the Most Ancient Church that preceded it. (Rose 66) In the Popol Vuh,
this “alteration” has an almost surgical nature:
Let it be this way: now we’ll take them apart just a little, that’s what we need. What
we’ve found out isn’t good. Their deeds would become equal to ours, just because
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