The Church is careful to not assign specific meaning to much of the imagery contained in the Book of Revelation. However, I believe there is ample evidence to suggest the lady clothed with the Sun in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation is none other than Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast day we celebrate today.
Revelation says our Lady is clothed with the Sun. While Mary is not literally clothed in the Sun, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe certainly seems to have a bright light around her. It is as though the Sun is directly behind her in the background of where she was standing, which makes sense considering the apparition occured at dawn. The light of the rising Sun shining all around her, appearing to radiate from her clothing.
The Aztec people would have associated this light with their greatest god, their sun-god. From their perspective, Our Lady is eclipsing their sun-god…potentially a sign to drop their pagan devotions and worship the true God.
Seemingly to support that sign to drop pagan devotion, the crescent moon in the Our Lady of Guadalupe image symbolizes another Aztec god, their moon-god. The Aztecs would have clearly seen Our Lady crushing this god.
Revelation says our Lady is crowned with stars. On the mantle Our Lady wears in the image of Guadalupe we can clearly see a pattern of stars. It just happens that this pattern of stars is an exact match to the arrangement of the constellations in the sky over Mexico on the morning of December 12th, 1531. There is a constellation called Corona Borealis, or northern crown. This constellation is depicted on the mantle of Mary, right at the crown of her head. Our Lady of Guadalupe is indeed crowned with stars.
Revelation says the woman is with child. The black sash worn by Our Lady of Guadalupe is an Aztec symbol that the woman is pregnant.
Further, if the mantle of Our Lady was fully closed and the star constellation pattern continuing through the full mantle, the star Regulus, which means “little king”, would have fallen directly over the womb of Our Lady. And, the constellation Virgo the Virgin would have fallen directly over her heart.
Since the image does not have a closed mantle, we can clearly see the spot over the womb. In this spot we see the symbol for a Jasmine flower, which to the Aztecs indicates both life and God. The Aztecs would have most certainly interpreted this that she is with a child that is God.
The Aztecs would have also recognized Our Lady of Guadalupe as a virgin since she wears her hair loose beneath her mantle. Virgins in the Aztec culture wore their hair loose.
The references to heads, diadems, and horns in the Book of Revelation are often thought to be images of secular or political power. There is evidence that the success of the Protestant reformation had more to do with secular leaders seeking more power than it did with religious piety.
Many dukes chose the Reformation as a way to gain power over the Holy Roman Emperor, and there were some bishops who left the Catholic faith in an attempt to convert their ecclesial bishopric to a secular duchy.
I have never been able to substantiate these numbers, but I have seen an estimate where five million souls were swept away from the Church during the initial stages of the Protestant reformation, impacting the political alignment of roughly one-third of European land. An interesting potential correlation to the imagery in Revelation concerning a third of the stars.
In turn, Our Lady of Guadalupe brought nine million souls into the Church.
Regardless, the timing of the Protestant Reformation and the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe within the context of the imagery from Revelation can hardly be ignored.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego in order to herald in the child destined to rule all nations with an iron rod. She came to the Aztecs with a message of love and motherly care, introducing them to the Savior that could free them from the dragon they feared.
Since the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent French Revolution, the dragon has continued its war against the children of the Lady of Revelation, to continue to sweep them into the abyss of human secularism and moral relativism. We must now be heralds of this new evangelization, carrying Our Lady’s beautiful image and message of love far and wide to every aspect of our lives. To boldly proclaim to the Masses: Now have salvation and power come (through the Eucharist), and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed (exercised through His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church).
Thanks be to God.
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