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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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