Honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe/Tonantzin on Dec. 12th
Here’s the short
version of what happened to Juan Diego in 1531 and how Our Lady of Guadalupe
came to be from the Catholic Online
website:
“For the third
time, Juan Diego is ushered in to see the Bishop. The skeptical cleric has
waited for two days to see what sign Our Lady has for him. Juan opens his tilma, letting the roses cascade to the
floor. But more than the roses, both men are astonished to see what is painted
on his humble tilma - an exquisite
image of Our Lady.
In the image, she
stands as she appeared, a native princess with high cheekbones. Her head is
bowed and her hands are folded in prayer to God. On her blue cloak, the stars
are arranged as they appeared in the morning darkness at the hour of her first
apparition.
Under her feet, is a great crescent
moon, a symbol of the old Aztec religion. The message is clear, she is more
powerful than the Aztec gods, yet she herself is not God.
At the same time
Our Lady is appearing to Juan Diego, and directing him to cut the flowers on
Tepeyac Hill, she also appears to his uncle, Juan Bernadino who believes he is
about to die. As soon as she appears, the fever stops and Juan Bernadino feels
well again. She tells Juan Bernadino, she wants to be known as "Santa Maria, de
Guadalupe."
So,
let’s look at the wording above: “She is more powerful than the Aztec gods, yet
she herself is not God.” No, she’s not. She’s Goddess. More specifically,
Tonantzin, the “great mother,” as her name means in the Nahuatl language.
Ancient Aztecs list cornflowers as her sacred blossom, but of course, when the
Spanish came, suddenly her favorite flower was the Rose of Castile, a type of
rose that is native to Spain,
not Mexico.
I’ll
let the ethnographers sort all this out; to me Guadalupe—now considered the
patroness of all the Americas—is Tonantzin and vice versa. All of the energy
and love that Mexicans and other Americans have poured into her image and name
over hundreds of years have made her real. Yet she was already real; she was
Goddess and her holiday was Dec. 12th, which, depending on which
version you read, was either the second or the first date in which she appeared
to Juan Diego, and so it became her feast day in the Catholic church…might as
well be, right, since the day was already sacred to the Goddess.
Guadalupe
gets around. I was surprised and pleased to see a statue of her in Notre Dame
in Paris. In New Orleans, Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church and Shrine of St. Jude is one of the “voodoo churches” in the
city, primarily because a statue of St. Expedite resides there. But Guadalupe
is honored in the Vodou tradition too, and in Santeria and in modern Goddess
religion. Why is this important to us? Because observing her day unites many
faiths and versions of faiths. To some she is one aspect of Goddess, to others
she is one version of the Mother of Jesus, and to others she is a symbol of
Mexican indigeno pride.
As
any Southern Californian like me knows, she is most often invoked for
protection. But she is often called upon for financial blessings, miracles—because
of her healing Juan Diego’s uncle from an illness that was usually fatal—and interestingly
enough, to conquer fear. Vodou and Santeria practitioners also call upon her to
break jinxes or protect against them. In Goddess religion she is revered as the
Great Mother, and she can aid all mothers with their needs or stand in for the
loving mother that perhaps you never had. Some who practice an Afro/Latin
tradition as well as Catholicism see her as an aspect of Yemaya, the great
mother goddess of the Yoruba, or as one of the aspects of Erzulie, the Haitian
goddess.
Many
people just call on her when they are at the end of their rope and don’t know
whether to tie a knot in it and hang on or turn that knot into a noose and end
the pain once and for all. No doubt about it: Guadalupe/Tonantzin says “Hang in
there, there’s cake and ponche in the
kitchen. You can’t go now. We’d have to return your Christmas presents and pay
the restocking fee!”
So
on Dec. 12th I will be burning a rose-scented candle with her image
on it. I’ll anoint the pre-scented candle with a little real rose oil and
sprinkle around some dried rosebuds (usually labeled “Rosas de Castillo” in
Hispanic grocery stores.) I’ll cry and write petitions and place them under the
candle along with those of anyone who would like me to place their petitions
there. I might place a Native wild rose or if I can’t find one an American
Beauty rose in a vase to represent my First Nations heritage (that is what
indigenous people are called in Canada, where my indigenous heritage comes from.)
Lady of the Americas.
Oh, Goddess, do we ever need you now!
You
can read about how Tonantzin “became” Guadalupe in a couple of the articles
below, and you can find any number of discussions of this hybrid deity.
Barnett, Ronald A. “Our Lady of
Guadalupe: Tonantzin or the Virgin Mary?” http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2614-our-lady-of-guadalupe-tonantzin-or-the-virgin-mary
Catholic
Online, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=456
Mexicolore:
The Virgin of Guadalupe and Tonantzin, http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/gods/virgin-of-guadalupe
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