“It has been said that mythology is the penultimate truth—penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words, beyond images. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.”
– Joseph Campbell
Tuesday, December 12, Mexico celebrates the moment in 1531 that Jesus’ mother in the form of the dark-complected Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have appeared to Juan Diego, a recently baptized Mejica (Aztec) peon. On an early cold Saturday morning December 9, tradition says, he was on his way to mass in Tlatelolco, a barrio of Mexico City. As he passed Tepeyac Hill, where the ruins of the temple of the “pagan” Mother Goddess, Tonantzin, mixed with volcanic litter and cactus, a female voice startled Juan Diego, addressing him in his native Nahuatl.
Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.