Healing Arts and Pagan Studies ~ Celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe

In 1531, on December 9th, an Indian farmer named Juan Diego was passing by the hill called Tepeyac outside of Mexico City on his way to an early morning Mass when he heard birds singing overhead, whistles and flutes and beating wings, and saw a maiden dressed in the robes of an Aztec princess. She spoke Nahuatl, the Aztec language, Juan's language, and had skin as brown as cinnamon. She told Juan that she was Maria, the Mother of God, and that he should tell the Bishop of Mexico City to build her a chapel on the site. The Bishop, of course, was not impressed by this message and demanded some proof. The Virgin told Juan to climb the hill and gather an armful of roses, Castilian roses, which should not have been blooming then. But when Juan opened his cloak to show the Bishop the miraculous roses, he was surprised to see the Bishop fall on his knees. On the cloak was an image of the virgin as she appeared to him, surrounded by an oval frame of stars. Of course, the chapel was built.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is affectionately known as La Morenita, the little dark one. The place on which she first appeared used to be a shrine to the ancient Aztec Goddess, Tonantzin. According to Monaghan, Tonantzin was a mother-goddess honoured on the winter solstice. She was portrayed by a woman dressed entirely in white and covered with shells and eagle feathers, who danced through the crowd, weeping and singing, until she was ritually killed.

By Patricia Monagahan, "The Book of Goddesses and Heroines", Llewellyn 1990. Updated in 2014

From: GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast Archives