Epic

This word keeps finding me everywhere.Epic. It's a theme in my life right now, but I still haven't quite figured out the message. I continously hear and see the word, almost on a daily basis. Tonight Shanna used the word, just blurted it out, really for no apparent reason. Then, I was browsing around on-line. I was looking up the Hail Mary prayer in Spanish on the Catholic.org website, one of the top google finds. And flashing on the side was the "epic catholic (something or other) DVD's!!!" My thoughts have been with Mother Mary today, or Our Lady of Guadalupe as she's known in Mexico. Tomorrow is her big day. She is highly revered in Mexico City, Mexico. 6.1 million people make their pilgrimmage to her site in Mexico City tomorrow. Before her shrine was built there (in the 1500's I believe) she was known to the Axtecs as Tonantzin, "Revered Mother." She's a fierce goddess of war and childbirth. Supposedly her temple was destroyed when the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and they built the shrine to Lady of Guadalupe on the exact same spot. It was an attempt by the Catholic Church to convert the Indians. The Indians were rejecting the messages of the Christian missionaries until December 9, 1531. The Lady of Guadalupe, appearing as an Aztec princess appeared to a peasant named Juan Diego. She told him to build a temple in honor of her on the exact spot where they were standing. He went to tell the local bishop who wanted proof. So he went back to the spot in the desert where she had first appeared to him and she appeared again and told him to "bring the roses behind you." Being winter, and also the desert, roses must have been a rare sight. He turned to see a rosebush and he cut some roses and put them in his poncho. He returned to the bishop and when he opened his poncho, rather than roses a figure of the Lady appeared. Today that piece of cloth is held in Mexico City and is one of the most visited Catholic shrines.

Well it's an interesting story-interesting enough for me to want to go and look at the shrine. We will be driving through there in January. I can't decipher whether it was just a scheme by the Catholic church to convert the Indians into believers or whether the "Mother" is always just the mother, no matter what name you call her, Mary, Guadalupe, Tonantzin, and perhaps she doesn't really care what you call her, just that you believe, and remember her and give her thanks, and she wanted her temple to be rebuilt. Either way, everyone (Catholic or Indegenious) agrees that she is The Giver of Life and Mother of us all.

Thank you to all the mothers, my Mother Roselle who gave me life, my Mother Earth who nourishes me with food and shelter, and my spritual mother, Mary, Tonantzin, Lakshmi, Sophia, Ishtar, whatever name you give her. Thank you for this precious gift of life.