The religion of a people is founded through various symbols that help to forge the worldview of a people. The Guadalupe’s Virgin it is part of those religious archetypes on which a new religion was founded in Mexico.
There are various versions of how this representative image was forged for Mexican religious adherents. One of these versions says that it was a Spanish strategy to evangelize the indigenous peoples of our country.
However, did you know that there is a theory about the creation of this image? This is a version described by Jacob Grinberg in his book The prototype, a text that tries to illustrate the ever-present time in a mythical way; instant in which there is no past, present or future and, therefore, allows interaction between all events, since it is a non-time and non-place. This story mythologizes the joint work between a Tibetan monk and a kind of Mexica shaman, who worked together to forge an image that would help unify entire towns.
The Buddhism of Lama Je Tsongkhapa
According to Grinberg, in the eighth century AD, the historic lama Je Tsongkhapa had the objective of unifying the various Buddhist sects that resided in the snowy mountains of Tibet, many of which were victims of superstition to the black magic.
This work involved a daunting challenge, as the lama spent a lot of time meditating on the best way to syncretize the various beliefs that existed among the different Tibetan Buddhist sects. Over time Je Tsongkhapa developed a kind of mental power that, during his meditations, allowed him to travel over distances, according to Grinberg.
Through this means, said lama tried to unify the sects, without obtaining favorable results. However, during one of his nightly meditations, Je Tsongkhapa responded to a call for help from the other side of the world.
Conversations with Yecatl
The person who requested help was Yecatl, an indigenous person from Mesoamerica, who foresaw the horrors and suffering that a supposed conquest of his people would bring. This happened years before the Spanish arrived in pre-Hispanic lands.
It is important to clarify that, unlike the lama, Yecatl was a fictional character. However, it is likely that Grinberg assumed it as real due to his theory of contact with entities from other times and places. It is not known where he got the information to fictionalize it, but it is likely that he came from a dream or vision.
Since the response to his call for help, Tsongkhapa and Yecatl worked together to decipher the riddle of unifying cultures that held different beliefs. Both maintained a common goal over the years.
“To unify a nation it was necessary to find the common points and the synergies of the apparently opposite tendencies; then find a means to make such synergies visible and, lastly, make sure that it would be known by all, ”Grinberg pointed out in his book.
Later, the Buddhist monk would propose to Yecatl an old Tibetan technique that could help them achieve unification between peoples with differences. It was about establishing archetypes with a common meaning across cultures and putting them into an image that would allow people to internalize them.
Said strategy was proposed to Yecatl, who agreed to carry out this work, although it would not materialize until years later.
Yecatl’s death
However, years before both could carry out their work together, death overtook Yecatl. The indigenous shaman died during the crude moments of the Spanish conquest. According to Grinberg, the indigenous sage died inside the cave in which he lived.
Despite the misfortune, Tsongkhapa did not abandon his friend with whom he held a common ideal, but now beyond the plane of earthly existence. Well, the Buddhist monk accompanied Yecatl on his way through death, and through meditation, his spirits continued in communication.
On the spiritual plane, both observed the horrors of the Spanish conquest on the indigenous peoples. Until a light of hope appeared before his eyes: the birth of children of Spanish fathers and indigenous mothers.
The miscegenation was what offered the answer to the two wise men. Miscegenation turned out to be the element that would reinforce the belief in the unification between two culturally distant peoples. It also represented the hope of a new beginning; the future of the new town.
Divine conjunction: birth of the Virgin of Guadalupe
In subsequent years, through the spiritual plane, Yecatl and Tsongkhapa worked on the creation of that image that would offer hope and unification to the new people. This image should symbolize the common denominators between indigenous and Spanish cultures.
In this way, in order to syncretize in a single image the fundamental elements on which the beliefs of both cultures were based, Yecatl and Tsongkhapa unified the main religious archetypes.
The image would be embodied by the face of a young mestizo, who would express love and compassion. This first symbol merged two different worlds together. The new divinity had to dress with the vestiges of the Mexica religion, for this reason the following elements were recovered:
- A blue cloak covered in stars that would evoke the god Huitzilopochtli. In addition, this cloak would be similar to the one that covered the tlatoanis. While the stars remorse Citlallicue, the goddess of “lto skirt of stars“.
- These elements were framed to illuminate a dark blue sky, which symbolized the impalpable and invisible Yohualli Ehécatl.
- The new divinity would also wear a belt, like that serpent that girded Coatlicue.
- On the other hand, resplendent Tonatiuh and Tezcatlanextia were included in the solar flower that would frame the figure of that deity.
- Quetzalcóatl and Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli would be symbolized by a jade oval in which the Christian cross would be inscribed.
“The image spoke for itself and synthesized the beliefs of the Mexica people, showing them together in the new being that was the product of two warring races,” Grinberg said.
According to the Mexican scientist, this is how Yecatl and Tsongkhapa forged this image to represent the new people of Mexico, in their most compassionate and light-filled character.
Now all that remained was to find the right moment for said image to manifest itself.
Appearance of the Virgin to Juan Diego on the Cerro del Tepeyac
According to legend, at the age of 53 he had the miraculous apparition that would start the worship of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. The story went like this: Juan Diego He lived with his wife and his uncle Juan Bernardino in Tulpetac, a place where there were no churches, so they had to go to mass until Holy Cross of Tlatelolco.
On December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was on his way there and when passing through the Tepeyac Hill He heard a song that was not from this land.
He stopped to enjoy it and when he looked up he saw a resplendent sun and in the middle a lady in an attitude of prayer (first appearance), he went to greet her and she told him that it was her wish that he build a temple for her on that plain and He also entrusted him to communicate this wish to the Bishop.
The bishop did not take him seriously and asked him to return to the place again to see if his eyes had not betrayed him. Juan Diego returned heartbroken and the holy virgin he appeared to him again (second apparition) to tell him to come back the next day to see the lord bishop.
Juan Diego did so, but the bishop asked him for a sign proving the will of the Virgin. The lady appeared to him again (third apparition) and asked him to come back after one day.
On the day of the appointment, Uncle Juan Bernardino became seriously ill, so Juan Diego left a day later. He went to the city to find a priest to administer the last rites.
The last apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe
He was going there, that day, December 12, when, as he passed through Tepeyac again, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to him again (fourth apparition) and asked him what was wrong. He told her about her uncle’s illness and she told him not to worry about her because her uncle was already healthy, then she asked him to go up the hill to pick some flowers.
Juan Diego went and indeed found very beautiful roses that were out of season and had never grown there. Already with them in her cloak, the Blessed Virgin said that she would take them to the bishop but that she should not display her cloak or show it to anyone else. This is how Juan Diego did it.
After getting into the bishopric, he told Zumárraga, the bishop, that he brought him the proof he had asked for. At that moment, she let go of his smock and the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, painted “as if by angels”, appeared on it.
Who was Jacobo Grinberg?
Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum was born in Mexico City in 1946. He studied psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and psychophysiology at the Institute for Brain Research in New York. Subsequently, he earned a Ph.D. for his studies of the electrophysiological effects of geometric stimuli on the brain.
The recognition by the academy allowed him to found a laboratory of psychophysiology at Anahuac University. Around 1980 his studies were accepted by the UNAM, where he opened a second laboratory. Later, in 1987, he inaugurated the National Institute for the Study of Consciousness, which had financial support from UNAM and Conacyt.
Jacobo Grinberg and the shamans
However, Jacobo Grinberg transcended and rose to fame for his linked studies of esoteric sciences, which called into question his recognition as a serious scientist. His work focused mainly on the study of the shamans of the original peoples of Mexico, some of whom were capable of performing miraculous works. Among the shamans he met, he highlighted pachita, a woman who performed spiritual surgeries, surgical processes without materials. According to what Pachita declared, her body served as a reception box for the spirit of the tlatoani cuauhtémocwho helped him work his miracles.
Following the scientific method, Grinberg attempted to explain paranormal phenomena through syntergistic theory, which proposed that “there are no objects separated from each other but that it is an informational field of extraordinary complexity and that our brain interacts with this field.” Without conceptual obsessions, Grinberg mentioned that this field is the same that some physicists name “prespace field” and that when the brain interacts with the field, the spatio-temporal perception that we know (objects with shape and figure) is generated.