It's that
time of the year again: the holiday season. It seems as if the
marketing of the holidays creeps slowly but surely a little farther
back each year to encompass and consume yet more attention, glamorous
hysteria and dollars saved.
This year's
festivities have rolled all the way back to a point where I believe
they will remain in a kind of natural resonance of the times.
Why do I believe this? Because the holiday season itself is beginning
to bridge the gap between ancient and modern spiritual practices.
The holidays
really begin with Halloween, the time of Samhain, or New Year
for those of us with European ancestry. It's a time when nature
itself begins to go into retreat, darkness and death. October
31st was celebrated as the Day of the Dead both in America and
in Europe since very ancient times. Yet curiously enough, this
day was and still is celebrated in the same ways on both sides
of the Atlantic. This is clearly evidenced by the age-old tradition
in some parts of Italy of making candy skulls and skeletons and
having family picnics at the family plot in the village graveyard.
Now any Mexican will tell you that this custom is as Mexican as
tortillas and the Virgin of Guadalupe. And it may well be. Yet
the Italians have written records of practicing this same festival
in the same way since long before Colombus' contact with the Americas.
Smack in the
middle of the holiday season we have Thanksgiving. I call Thanksgiving
the Covert Christmas because it's everything Christmas is supposed
to be. It's a time of genuine sharing and caring with those we
love. No frills, no extravagant spending or consumer mania, it's
just about spending the time. Of course, many Native Americans
consider thanksgiving to be a day of national hypocrisy, and this
is an understandable position. The United States is, after all,
occupied territory. Maybe each Thanksgiving we can begin to honor
and respect what it has taken to get us all here and where we're
going.
Which brings
us to another important holiday of the season, yet one that is
little known outside of the indigenous and Latino communities.
This is December 12, the feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Who is Our Lady of Guadalupe, and why is she so important to the
Indigenous and Latino people of the Americas?
The Virgin
of Guadalupe is both the Virgin Mary and the Aztec goddess Tonantzin,
"Our Revered Mother," who is an emanation of Coatlique,
the Earth Goddess, Mother of All Creation, and mother of the Aztec
gods. Her familiar image has been passed down to us through the
incredible efforts of an Aztec man popularly known to outsiders
as the humble Juan Diego. This Aztec hero, whose true name is
Cuauhtlatoahtzin, the Eagle who Speaks, led a spiritual movement
to save the faith and culture of his people in the most dangerous
of times. The outcome of this movement led to the birth of Guadalupism,
which is the essence of Mexican Catholicism. Far from being a
simple Catholic icon, the Sacred Image of the Virgin of Guadalupe
that millions of people worship today is really a mystical Aztec
codex. Her image and story reveal the Path of the Mystical Guadalupans,
which is an amazing system of self-development that ranges from
ancient Toltec dreaming practices, to sexual alchemy, to keys
to understanding the final decree of the last Aztec Emperor. The
origins and true intentions of the Virgin of Guadalupe are directly
related to what the Aztecs call the birth of the next Solar Age,
the Sixth Sun, or the Sun of Flowers.
The Aztec
Sixth Sun is rising. That's why the Virgin of Guadalupe is now
appearing to people all over Mexico, California, Arizona, Utah,
Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador
and Nicaragua. She's manifesting in all the places that used to
be parts of Aztlan, the ancient kingdom of the Aztecs. Even though
the Virgin is central to our Pan-American culture, it's surprising
how few people know about her history and her goals. Why is the
Virgin manifesting herself to so many people right now? What's
her message? Instant and unreasonable reconciliation. This doesn't
mean going passive and into robotic psuedo-love. It means deal
and heal. It's this impulse to reconcile that we are now experiencing
all over the world. It's an everyday reality that completely contradicts
what the mainstream media would lead us to believe. Try it out
for yourself.
Birthing the
Sun of Flowers is precisely why those who know are paying homage
to the return of the Aztec Virgin. December 12 is the day of honor
for Tonantzin, the Earth Goddess. It has been celebrated all over
the Americas since the most ancient times, and even today hundreds
of thousands flock as pilgrims to the site of the ancient temple
of Tonantzin at Tepeyacac, also known as the Basilica of Guadalupe
in what is now Mexico City.
We'll hear
and see much more of the Aztec Virgin in the years to come. As
we do, we'll witness the rising of the Sixth Sun. The original
Earth Day, Her Day, December 12, is a holiday we can all begin
to practice and respect. Oh, and by the way, the Virgin's real
name isn't Guadalupe. It's Tecuauhtlacuepeuh, She who comes Flying
from the Region of Light like an Eagle of Fire.
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