from Azima Lila Forest. Copied with permission.
Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Most will recognize the figure within the figure as her image. But what is the outer figure? It is a representation of Tonantzin, the great Mother Goddess of the Aztec people, venerated for eons before the coming of Europeans to what is now Mexico. It turns out that the site where Juan Diego saw the vision of Guadalupe was the site of a temple to Tonantzin which the Spaniards tore down. There is much wisdom that indicates that Guadalupe is much more than a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary; she is a merging of the power and beauty of Aztec spirituality with Christianity.
In her image imprinted on the cloak of Juan Diego, still extant in Mexico City, one can clearly see that she is brown-skinned; she is a mestiza, a blend of Indian and Christian European religion and culture. She is the Lady of the new family of people conceived by the violent rape of Indian culture by European culture. One of her titles is Empress of the Americas, as can be attested to by the number of us North Americans who venerate and call upon her as a powerful and beautiful manifestation of the Divine Feminine.
You can go to my website at www.azimalilaforest.com to see the poem I wrote in her honor.
Here is a poem I wrote in her honor 15 years ago:
O Guadalupe
Tonantzin
Queen of the Americas
Today we remember you
Celebrate you
Give thanks for your love
Looking
Upon us all
With such compassion
Pequeños y pequeñas
The little ones
The forgotten ones
The ones in need
The ones with secret desires
The ones with broken hearts
The thousands and millions
Who have knelt
Before your image
Fingering their beads
Pouring out their fervent prayers
“O Mother,
Heal him, heal her, heal me
Help me to forgive
Bring me my heart’s desire
Take this pain from me
Bless and protect us all”
While you silently bless
Silently affirm
“The power to heal
To bless
To forgive
To manifest
Is yours—
Come into the fullness
Of who you truly are!”
O Queen of Roses
O Empress of the Americas
Full of Grace
Thank you
For your love