Guadalupe and Apocalypse 12
It has been observed by many Catholic scholars and theologians that the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was an amazing recreation of the words of St. John in Apocalypse 12:1: "And a great sign appeared in the heavens: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet...." The theologian, Miguel Sanchez, claims for Guadalupe an Apocalyptic significance which is most startling and convincing, especially when one reconciles Aztec symbolism with those very symbols found in St. John's mysterious book.
Would not someone have noticed these striking similarities prior to our investigation of them? Miguel Sanchez (as quoted by Br. Bonnett-Eymard) did, in part. But no one should be surprised that this miraculous Mexican image continues, even today, to further divulge its secrets. Only in the late 1950s-over 425 years after the apparition--was it discovered that the images of Juan Diego and Bishop Zumarraga were mirrored on the right eye of the Virgin, as though she had been a living thing when Juan showed the prelate the roses she had sent him. All those who have written of Guadalupe call it a pictogram. It should not surprise us to discover, then, that at a time when her children most need her direction and assistance, the image is yet revealing its secrets. Did she not tell Juan "...I will hear their weeping ... and alleviate all their multiple sufferings...?" (A Handbook on Guadalupe, by Dr. Charles Wahlig and the Franciscan Friars of Marytown.)
How does the image of Guadalupe agree with Chapter 12 of Apocalypse?
--Our Lady is clothed with the sun; the moon is beneath her feet. (H.B. Kramer says the woman in Apocalypse 12:1 is the Church.)
--She is pregnant "...in labor to give birth." The black waistband beneath her folded hands is the maternity belt of the Aztecs.
--She appears to Juan in the Mexican desert.
--Juan's Indian name "Cuahtlatoatzin" translates into English as "he who speaks like the eagle." Is Juan the "St.
John" of the Americas?! The image is also born up by an angel with eagle's wings, although some are not convinced this was part of the original apparition.
--At the time of the apparition, the Americas were steeped in paganism; i.e., the dragon or serpent was worshipped. "...and the dragon stood before the woman." (Apoc. 12:4.)
--The very fact that the image was imprinted on a cloak made from cactus fibers is significant. She is imprinted on the very desert itself, and her image is part and parcel of it. To separate her from the cloak would be to destroy her image and the miraculous evidence of her appearance to Juan. This is a prefiguration, perhaps, of her patronage over the Americas as Our Lady of Guadalupe and over the U.S. specifically, as the Immaculate Conception.
The above is only a superficial look at the obvious similarities in the image as compared to the Apocalypse verses. Not so obvious is the underlying significance of the religion of the Indians Our Lady supplanted.
What legend did Our Lady come to obscure, or perhaps to fulfill? Historians differ on the origin and authenticity of this legend, but there is sufficient evidence to support the opinion that we will espouse below.
The following is a summary of the works of Donald Demerest and Coley Taylor (The Dark Virgin); the aforementioned authors of A Handbook on Guadalupe; and Solange Hertz's series, entitled The Battle for Amerindia, Parts I and IV. (Solange Hertz disclaims any support for the theories we advance here.)
Hertz explains that when the New World was discovered, a debate arose as to whether the Indians of Mexico and Central America had souls. Pope Julius II declared that they were the sons of Adam and Eve, but were descended from the Babylonians, who separated themselves from the descendants of Noah, and; hence, were ignored in Holy Scripture. She points out that this is evident from the very nature of the Aztec priestking religion, with its Moloch-type sacrifices, pyramidic architecture and various other Egyptian-type artifacts discovered by archaeologists in the Americas. She adds that Columbus would have been aware of the Ptolemian teachings of the Old Atlantis of Plato and suggests he purposely set out to discover the New Atlantis.
The Aztec religion is centered around the god-king Quetzalcoatl. Br. Bonnett-Eymard observes that originally this god-king refused to offer human sacrifice, offering his own blood instead, along with that of birds. (p. 32.) He even states that some theologians have tentatively suggested that the original idea of Quetzalcoatl may have evolved from the evangelization of the Indians by St. Thomas, the Apostle. (Some also conjecture it may have been St. Brendan.) The changeover of the Indians from animal to human sacrifice is said to have come about when "Strange sorcerers, with ... the god of the night sky and ... the great Bear came ... with their black magic [and] were victorious over the priest king who refused to kill men as offerings to the divinities." (Ibid.) (Here, we see Ursus, the bear referred to by Daniel, clearly connected to sorcery and black magic. As the Bible teaches, truly there is nothing new under the sun!) Thus defeated, Quetzalcoatl departed from his people, and as his self-made funeral pyre flamed afloat on the Pacific, his heart is said to have shot from the flames to become the star, Venus. This same star has been used to symbolize Satan (evening star), as well as Our Lady (morning star), for it is the first to appear in the evening, and the last to disappear in the hours of morning. One scientist, Immanuel Velikovsky, has ventured the opinion that before the birth of Christ, this star was a reoccurring comet, like Halley's comet, which the Indians saw and represented as a flying "feathered serpent," referring to the comet's snake-like tail. When Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared, the Indians saw in the burnt-out crescent beneath her feet, the death of this comet; and in her star-covered cape, the light of the stars given by God to guide them. All in all, her image told the Indians, who were also sun-worshippers, that there was one who was even greater than the sun, and this "One" was designated on the lady's swollen abdomen by the cruciform sunflower, directly beneath the maternity belt--the exact spot where Our Lord rested in her womb. The flower-like symbol abounds in the symbolism of ancient Mexico, according to Bonnet-Eymard. This predominant symbol is what led some of the early missionaries to Mexico to believe that these people were evangelized in apostolic times. (St. Thomas legend.)
The Aztec warriors were the "eagle people" (sun worshippers, since eagles fly close to the sun). The eagle is also sometimes used as a symbol of the Resurrection. Psalm 103:5 proclaims: "Thy youth is renewed like the eagles." In Apocalypse, we see an eagle flying through heaven with the three woes. (From our preceding examination of Apocalypse 12, we know how predominately the eagle figures in these prophecies.) Supporting the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is an angel with what looks to be eagle's wing. Assuming this angel was a part of the original apparition, his positioning in the image is truly awe-inspiring. For the Virgin appeared to Juan atop an outcropping of rocks, and would have been seen by Juan to rest on these rocks. As noted earlier, the woman in Apocalypse 12 is the Church. If we then read the image as a pictogram, the Church is seen to be resting on the rocks, supported by the outspread eagle wings of the angel—The Church of Christ, supported by the papacy; the rock of St. Peter! It is strange to note that the Mexican tribes wandered throughout Mexico until about the 12th century, looking for a sign peculiar to Quetzalcoatl as to where they should settle. The sign they sought and finally found on the site that is now Mexico City was an eagle, perched on a cactus, holding a snake in its mouth. The entire scenario suggests the newly risen Church, founded in the desert; the eagle triumphant over the snake (good over evil); the Church triumphant over Antichrist-Satan. Our Lady treading on the serpent's head is also seen here.
Was Our Lady telling us: "Here I will triumph, here is my desert place, where I will carry my children in the crossing of my arms."? Her enemy, the serpent, had reigned in these regions unopposed for centuries, and here it is that she sought him out to conquer him and console his victims. Is her victory complete? Not until her Immaculate Heart has triumphed absolutely, as she promised us at Fatima. According to some chroniclers of Guadalupe, the word "Guadalupe" is a corruption of the Nahuatl word "tecuatlaxopeuh." Br. Bonnett-Eymard observes that this word could be read three different ways (by rearranging the syllables) as: (1) "she who appeared on the summit of the rocks"; (2) "she who put to flight those who ate us", and; (3) "she who crushed the serpent of stone." (p. 33.)
We believe that the word embraces all three meanings. "Those who ate us," are with us once again, since Satanic cults flourish everywhere today. Guadalupe will be re-enacted on the "summit of the rocks" when the papacy is finally re-established, possibly in Mexico, or more probably, our own country. As St. Anthony Mary Claret, Archbishop of Santiago, Cuba in the last century wrote: "In future, more souls will go to
heaven from America than from Europe... . (Europe) is an old vineyard, giving scarcely any fruit. America is a young vineyard...." (The Modern Apostle, by the Claretian Missionaries, p. 106.) Of these words, the Claretian fathers write: "America must consider Claret as her prophet...." (Ibid.)
Do we presume too much when we connect Guadalupe with the papacy? No more than St. Pius X himself presumed. The prayer he composed to her reads: "Our Lady of Guadalupe...make intercession for Holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff. .. obtain for us from thy most holy Son, the grace of keeping our faith ... and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen." (Raccolta, No. 389; 1938 edition.) Benedict XV pronounced: "Yes, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the pope's Patroness." (The Dark Virgin, p. 249.) Why would these popes invoke her protection if she was not intimately connected with the papacy in some way?
We have insisted that true Catholics should not expect a miracle, but they already have a miracle at their very doorsteps, waiting to take place. Our Lady at Guadalupe appeared as a "dark virgin," and it is precisely the images of Our Lady as dark-skinned, which are known to be miraculous. A prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe saved Columbus from shipwreck and gave the Guadalupe Islands their name. The battle of Lepanto is commonly known to have been won through the intercession of Guadalupe, for after Our Lady was invoked in battle under this title, a tremendous wind came up which blew the enemy ships off course and out of striking range. Because of this, Our Lady of Guadalupe is called the "Warrior Queen." It must also be remembered that her apparition to Juan was the cause of eight million conversions, a miraculous occurrence itself. Anna Brownell Jameson, who wrote in the 19th century, tells us that the dark Madonnas (the Hodgetria, Our Lady of Czestockowa, Our Lady of Good Council) have always "... been credited miraculous." (The Image of Guadalupe, by Jody Brant Smith, p. 61.) Archbishop Montufor, in the Mexican inquiry of 1556 asserted that the "Indian olive" of the Virgin's skin is the reason the image was "...credited as miraculous." (p. 62.) If we are, indeed, worthy of a miracle, surely it can come from no other source than Guadalupe, the only approved Marian apparition on the continent, and only the first in a long series of earthly visitations by Our Lady to console her weary children.
What has happened to the crown of 12 stars on Our Lady's head in Apocalypse? Guadalupe's stars appear on her cloak. Are the new apostles of the desert so numerous they cannot be contained on her head, so must be portrayed on her cloak? Could this have some reference to lay apostles, since the crown of 12 stars is symbolic of the bishops, or the 12 apostles? Perhaps, the crown is missing because the image is the symbol of the newly-elected pope, who has not yet appointed his bishops. Notice that Our Lady stands on two upturned horns of the moon. Could these "horns" have yet another meaning? Could they symbolize the Church who has triumphed over the horns of Antichrist? Triumphed because the angel/eagle/phoenix has risen from the rocks to support the Church once again? St. Thomas More wrote his "Utopia" with the New World in mind, laying the foundation for the establishment of the social order desired by Christ. In fact, many of More's principles were first put into practice by Governor Don Vasco who, under the eye of Bishop Zumarraga and with his approval, began the first efforts to establish the reign of Christ, King. This social order was again furthered by the Cristeros in the early part of this century, who insisted that things must be ordered in their country according to Christ's maxims, not those of their masonic rulers. We know from Scripture and Fatima that some nation will remain faithful, that the reign of Christ, the King and one flock, one shepherd would become a reality, following the defeat of Antichrist. Christ told St. Margaret Mary in 1689: "...It will take time, but I will reign despite Satan and his supporters." (Mary In Her Scapular Promise, by John Haffert, p. 166.) Three popes have anticipated this reign that we know of: Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Pius XII. Leo XIII wrote: "Then ... will many ills be cured ... the law regain its former authority [and] peace... will be restored." (Address to bishops; 1900.) Pope Pius XI wrote: "...there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth." (Quas Primas, Dec. 11, 1925.) Pope Pius XII, in his address to the youth of Italian Catholic Action, September 17, 1957, told us: "...there will be storms and winds. The Church has not finished her martyrdom... But ... a cry of reawakening is passing through the world ... we are in a springtime of history. May God grant that it will be one of the most beautiful springs man has experienced--after one of the longest and bitterest winters, a spring which precedes one of the most brilliant and rich summers." From his encyclical Meminissee iuvat, July 1958: "...as Christ Our Redeemer rose in triumph, so the Church shall someday win a peaceful victory over all her enemies." From his address at Lourdes, September 17, 1958: "We are certain that the restoration of the Kingdom of Christ through Mary cannot fail to be realized, for it is impossible that such a planting, with seed sown in such abundance, should not bring forth a sound crop."
Pius XII died three weeks later. But the hope of this peace shall never die. We believe the first fruits of this crop will spring forth from this our own country. It is more than a well-founded probability that the very place in which Our Lady appeared, this now plentifully populated desert, will become the new home of the Church and may even point to the election (a first) of some Mexican-American as pope. Will she not carry this precious son in her arms, as she promised--just as she once carried her own Son, whose Vicar he shall be?!
Michael Fighting
