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Nax,

to shine in the darkness, as fire; the divine spirit floating on the surface of the waters; or the phosphorescence of the water in tropical seas.

Xaab, the abyss of water in which took place the generation xab. This may be one of the reasons why the wise Maya priests selected as emblem for god of the ocean the mastodon, that, like the elephant, could propagate only in water.

Now, if we consider the by two, its meaning

2

as a composite sign formed is then "power, "wis

dom," "knowledge," since it gives us the word ca-n, which, as we have seen (p. 95), is always significant of might, power, intelligence, as all vocables allied to it. Such, for instance, as:

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The doctrine contained in the three signs that form the inscription can therefore be epitomized in the following words: "In water, by fire the vivifying power of the universe, were created the male and female forces of nature, and they produced all things."

A glance at the sculpture of the dying warrior that adorned Prince Coh's mausoleum1 suffices for us to see that the ancient

'Plate LVIII.

Mayas, like the Egyptians, Greeks, Chaldeans, Hindoos, and other civilized nations of antiquity, held that the vital principle, the soul, in man and animals, was an igneous fluid that escaped as a blue flame through the mouth at the death of the material body. "This blue flame," says Baron Charles von Reichenbach, in his work "Physico-physiological Researches in the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, etc.," is "often seen escaping from dying persons, by sensitives."

We learn from the Hermetic books the ideas of the Egyptians regarding the composition of the soul. Fire, a constituent part of divine intelligence, becomes a soul when immersed in organic water, and a body when it enters into organic clay, hence the old philosophic saying, "Corpus est terra, anima est ignis." Hermes Trimegistus teaches that "at the moment of death, our intelligence, one of God's subtle thoughts, escapes the body's dross, puts on its fiery tunic again, and floats henceforth in space, leaving the soul to await judgment."

Among the prayers and hymns of the Yajur Veda, there are passages in which the unity of God is taught. One of said prayers begins thus: "Fire is the original cause; the sun is that; so is the air; so is the moon; such, too, is that pure Brahm, and those waters, and that Lord of creatures." (Asiatic Researches, vol. viii., p. 431.)

Macrobius in his work "Somnium Scipionis" (cap. xiv.), resumes the doctrine thus: "There is a fluid luminous, igneous, very subtle, called ether, spiritus, that fills the whole universe. The substance of the sun, of the stars, is composed of it. It is the principle, the essential agent, of all motion, of all life. It is, in fact, the Deity. When a body is about to become animated on earth, a globular molecule of said fluid gravitates through the milky way toward the moon. There it combines with

grosser air, thus becoming fit to associate with matter. It then enters the body that is forming; fills it completely, animates it, grows, suffers, expands, contracts with it. When this body perishes and its material elements dissolve, this incorruptible molecule escapes from it. It would return immediately to the great ocean of ether were it not detained by its association with lunar air. It is the latter that, preserving the shape of the body, remains in the condition of shadow or ghost, a perfect image of the deceased. The Greeks called that shadow the image or idol of the soul. The Pythagoreans said it was its vehicle or envelope. The rabbinical school regarded it as its vessel or boat. If the individual had lived a righteous life, his whole soul-that is, his vehicle and his ether-ascended back immediately to the moon, where their separation took place. The vehicle remained in the lunar elysium; the ether returned to God. If, on the other hand, he had lived an unrighteous life, his soul remained on earth until it became purified, wandering here and there in the fashion of Homer's shadows."

While in Asia, Homer had become acquainted with this doctrine, three centuries before its introduction into Greece, according to Cicero (Tuscul., lib. i., § 16), by Pherecides and his pupil Pythagoras, who pretended to be the inventors of it, if we believe Herodotus. He positively asserts that the story of the soul and its transmigrations had been invented by the Egyptians. Did these receive it from the Mayas ?

Kak is the Maya word for "fire."

Ка

Ku

is the Egyptian for the double; the astral shape; existence; individuality.

is the Maya for the Divine Essence; the God-head.

'Herodotus, Hist., lib. ii., cxxiii.

Khu Akh is the Egyptian for intelligence; spirit; manes;

light; God-head.

Kul, Maya, to worship; to adore.

Khu Akh, Egyptian, to worship; to adore.

"The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality, and the ocean was radiant light, which was fire, and heat, and motion. Darkness vanished and was no more; it disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, or father and mother." (From the Book of Dzyan, stanza iii., §6. Apud H. P. Blavatsky, "The Secret Doctrine,” vol. i., p. 29.)

The ancient Mayas believed in the immortality of the spirit and in reincarnation, as do their descendants to this day.

NOTE XXI. (Page 158.)

(1) It may be seen from the following passage in the Saddharma poundarika, "The Lotus of the Good Law," chap. xx., entitled "Effect of the Supernatural Power of the Tathagatas," that the putting out of the tongue was a symbol of great wisdom in India. This chapter is a record of what took place in a council of Bodhisattvas; that is, of men who, having acquired the learning necessary to teach all creatures, had arrived at the supreme intelligence of a Buddha. "The hands joined they worship Buddha, who has brought them together, and they promise him, when he shall have entered Nirvana, to teach the law in his stead. The Master thanks them. Then the blessed Çakyamouni, and the blessed Prachoutavatma, always seated on the throne of their stoupa, began to smile of one accord; then their tongues came out of their mouth, and reached the world of Brahma. The innumerable Tathagatas, by whom these personages are surrounded, imitate them."

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This simply means that all these wise men pronounced discourses and gave their opinions on the matters discussed in the

council.

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(2) Abbé Huc, in his work, "Recollections of a Journey through Thibet and Tartary (vol. ii., chap. vi., p. 158), says: "A respectful salutation in Thibet consists in uncovering

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Apud Barthélemy de Saint-Hilaire, Vie de Bouddha, pp. 71–72.

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