Mary---Shape-Shifting Mother Goddess, NHI Entity, or Mother of Jesus?

 

Image by author using ChatGPT

Marian apparition stories need to be taken seriously. They have profound global influences. They always present an exquisite challenge to the Catholic Church, which it can hardly refuse. On a scale of 1 to 10 measuring unexplainable paranormal phenomena, they are usually a 10, almost equal to a ship full of little green men landing on the White House lawn.

Since this is an article and not a book, I will focus on one apparition in this post, the appearance of “Mary” to a poor, unlettered, obscure Nahua Indian who was baptized by Spanish priests with the name Juan Diego. Most of the descriptive narrative below is taken from Ethel Cook Eliot’s contribution to the book listed in the sources below.

The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

On Saturday, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego left his village at daybreak to attend the celebration of Mass in another village. As he passed the hill called Tepeyac, he was startled by the unaccustomed sound of birds singing. The hill was cold and barren then, but had been the former location of the shrine of an Aztec mother goddess named Tonantzin, which translates to “My Mother.”

Juan Diego heard a woman calling his name. She looked about 14 years old, was regally adorned, and used endearing variations of his name, calling him “smallest and dearest of my little children.” She told him, “I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains it in existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is lord of heaven and earth.”

She sent him on an errand to the Catholic authorities in Tenochtitlán (Mexico City), requiring that a temple be built for her on that hill. Juan Diego obeyed and relayed her request, but of course, he had to report that it wasn’t taken seriously.

She sent him back with the same request, which he obediently fulfilled early on Sunday. This time the bishop required a sign that Juan Diego wasn’t mistaken or deceived. Back to the beautiful lady he went with the bishop’s response. She kindly acknowledged his efforts and sent him home for the day, but she wanted him back early Monday morning.

The humble peasant didn’t show up Monday morning because the uncle who raised him, Juan Bernardino, was deathly ill with a fever. On Tuesday, the uncle begged his nephew to run to the nearby town (with an unpronounceable name) and return with the priest for Last Rites. Juan did so, avoiding the side of the hill where the Lady might be waiting for him. However, the apparition would not so easily be thwarted.

She found him and asked what so disturbed him. When he explained, she responded, “My little son. Do not be distressed and afraid. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your uncle will not die at this time. This very moment, his health is restored.” She told him to go to the top of the mountain and collect the flowers there in his tilma, his outer cape that hangs in front and can be folded up to carry goods. Upon returning, Mary rearranged the flowers, tied the bottom part around his neck to secure the flowers, and sent him off to the bishop.

When Juan Diego opened the tilma before the bishop and his servants, everyone gasped. The flower petals rolled onto the floor, and Mary’s image was there in exquisite detail, painted in colors that science today cannot explain.

Image from Picryl

Upon his word and the stunning miracle which the apparition channeled through him, millions of natives in Mexico were baptized and became devout Catholics. And this happened about 14 years after the Lutheran Reformation in Europe, challenging the authority of the Catholic Church!

This story is well represented by contemporary sources. What I have written above came from the book, A Woman Clothed with the Sun, but there are ancient accounts written in the Nahuatl language and translated into English. One report was written in the late 1570s by the Franciscan historian Bernardino de Sahagún, denouncing the cult at Tepeyac and the custom of calling Our Lady Tonantzin. In his General History of the Things of New Spain, He wrote,

“At this place [Tepeyac], [the Indians] had a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, whom they called Tonantzin, which means Our Mother. There they performed many sacrifices in honor of this goddess ... And now that a church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is built there, they also called her Tonantzin, being motivated by those preachers who called Our Lady, the Mother of God, Tonantzin. While it is not known for certain where the beginning of Tonantzin may have originated, but this we know for certain, that, from its first usage, the word refers to the ancient Tonantzin. And it was viewed as something that should be remedied, for their having [native] name of the Mother of God, Holy Mary, instead of Tonantzin, but Dios inantzin. It appears to be a Satanic invention to cloak idolatry under the confusion of this name, Tonantzin. And they now come to visit from very far away, as far away as before, which is also suspicious, because everywhere there are many churches of Our Lady and they do not go to them. They come from distant lands to this Tonantzin as in olden times.”

If there is any germ of truth in this story, which has persisted unchallenged for hundreds of years, it should not be shrugged off, nor should the suspicions of Bernardino de Sahagún be dismissed. Here we find no shaman’s demon. It’s either the Blessed Virgin herself, in which case we should all revere her, or a powerful entity that the Apostle Paul would call a “principality,” a fallen archangel of superior status, or even what the UFO community calls an NHI, a non-human intelligence.

She knows everything about the future.

·       She’s a shapeshifter who appeared as a young female Nahua and spoke perfect Nahuatl. In France, “Mary” speaks perfect French.

·       She had extraordinary psychological awareness. She used a humble peasant to thwart the pride of the Catholic hierarchy and to upend the Lutheran Reformation in Europe that was challenging Catholic authority. The sweetness with which she addressed Juan Diego was utterly seductive and almost irresistible. A mother indeed.

·       She had incredible, god-like powers to manipulate our physical planet.

·       She heals the sick with the same ease as Jesus Himself.

·       In her last appearance, she told Juan Bernardino that she wanted to be called “Santa Maria de Guadalupe,” which translates to “Holy Mary of the River of the Wolf.” There is a compelling argument that Nahuatl didn’t have all those Spanish sounds, and what was really said should be translated as “Stone Serpent Trodden On.” Author Eliot claims that the Natives today dance to celebrate release from the dark feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl. This claim tracks with the Catholic translation in Genesis that it is a female (Mary) who crushes the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The actual Hebrew grammatically predicates a male.

                                                          Reasons to be suspicious

Location: A point could be made that Mary was usurping the ancient shrine location, replacing old superstitions with the Kingdom of God, but the actual result was the inevitable confusion one could expect of a native people undergoing a radical change in culture. It also has the look of an ancient goddess reclaiming her old territory.

The title: Mary claimed to be the Mother of God. “I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains it in existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is lord of heaven and earth.” She does not mention Jesus. She seems to be describing the Father! If so, that is quite a claim! I don’t think Catholicism has thought that one through.

More titles: Over the centuries, Mary’s titles expand. The list includes Queen of Heaven, Queen of the Angels, and Co-Redemptress. Marian medals keep you safe. Her Immaculate Conception is equal to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and her virgin birth similar to Christ’s. Her rosary is the finest way to pray. In the same book that described the apparition of Guadalupe, I read this,

“The Marian fountains of Banneux and Lourdes are outward signs of that great reality of Catholic dogma: Christ the Living Water has always, and will always, come to us through Mary.” (p. 263)

The reason Luther rebelled against Catholic authority is that the church inserted itself and its priests as the only mediator or channel between God and man. In Marian theology, Mary is also a “Mediatrix who converts sinners.” In that title, she replaces the Holy Spirit. Luther’s point was that we have access by faith alone. The church is there to nurture, to show the way to Christ, not to be the way, and if that applies to the church, it would certainly apply to Mary.

Please understand, I’m not anti-Catholic. I thank God for the moral training and the cultural cocoon that helped to raise me, a fatherless child. But I’ve come to believe that there are no mediators through whom we must go to approach God. There are no magic rituals. We bring the magic in our faith and discipleship, and my faith in God does not rely on Marian apparitions. The Church, any church, has power in that it represents the Kingdom of God, but not the power to be the only necessary channel to redemption in Jesus Christ. That’s why I can’t imagine why Mary would raise herself to be a goddess with almost equal redemptive authority.

The Rookie Remote Viewer

 What actually inspired my research in this post was an article in Medium by a writer who names his/her (will not reveal gender) site as Thoughts of a Rookie Remote Viewer. One day recently, this author focused on the apparition of Mary in 1531. What Rookie got was not the sweet Blessed Virgin but this,

 “I do not know whether the precognitive pull I felt for months before the session was her initiating contact, or my own unconscious preparing me for something it already knew was coming. What I know is what I perceived. A vertical, rotating water portal. An extending, inviting presence. An intelligence that was assessing, ancient, and not particularly interested in my interpretation of it. A feeling — precise and unmistakable — of finally.”

In response to a personal query, this author added, “I perceive that water being/deities (?) as THEM. Collective consciousness/collective mind. Vast and timeless, primordial - using water as a tool of communication.”

The RVer’s post-viewing research led to the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue (pronounced Chal chi oot LEE kway), which Rookie also associates with the shrine on the hill Tepeyac. Chalchiuhtlicue was an “ Aztec deity of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism.” For those who are open to UAP information or paranormal studies, I highly recommend Rookie’s other article on RVers and Marian apparitions. Spoiler alert: they did not find Mary.

One More Thought I shouldn’t share

 I have no source for this, only memory. Decades ago, I read about an NDEer, perhaps a pastor, whose experience allowed him to ask Jesus about Mary. Jesus answered, “Mary knows nothing about what is going on on Earth.” I don’t remember another thing about this experience. I only remember one part of it because I would absolutely love to confront Jesus and ask Him that very question. Even then, I might have let this memory slip into the cranial trapdoor except for what came next. He asked, “Where is Mary now?” I can’t quote, but Jesus indicated that she was somewhere off doing something with water.

What? With water? Did Mary get an engineering degree in heaven? This is pure speculation, but I think the true Redeemer and earthly son of Mary was giving us a hint, a puzzle piece, one that we were not ready for at that time. But your guess is as good as mine. If anyone reading this recognizes the event described here, please contact me.

Sources

Thoughts of a Rookie Remote Viewer, “What Happens When Remote Viewers Study the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, https://medium.com/@krindiri/what-happens-when-remote-viewers-study-the-image-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe-5a2367c36aaf

For more on Rookie’s remote viewing of Marian apparitions, here is one more. https://medium.com/@krindiri/the-face-behind-the-veil-what-remote-viewers-found-when-they-targeted-the-marian-apparitions-50d0da1ae94e

Wikipidia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalchiuhtlicue#:~:text=%5Bcitation%20needed%5D%20Chalchiuhtlicue%20is%20associated,Postclassic%20period%20of%20central%20Mexico.

Britannica  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chalchiuhtlicue

Name means “she who wears a jade skirt.” Chal chee oot LEE qway according to AI. Goddess of freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes.

 https://jeremybassetti.com/on-mountains/2026/mountains-our-lady-of-guadalupe/

Jeremy gives a brief overview of the story but focuses on Nahua themes in the designs on Mary’s robe. He cites many primary and secondary sources.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071022042328/http://www.interlupe.com.mx/nican-e.html

Nican Hopohua, Complete text in English, tells the story as understood from Juan Diego and contemporary sources.

Eliot, Ethel Cook. “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” in A Woman Clothed with the Sun: Eight Great Appearances of Our Lady. John J. Delaney, editor (Garden City, NY, Doubleday Image, 1961).

Check out my website www.janetksmithpersonal.com where you can read for free The Legacy: A Memoir of Personal Guidance and Korean War Sabotage.