Please forgive any factual inaccuracies or omissions in what I am about to relate. This is complicated stuff and I'm an idiot.
In the Lake Pátzcuaro region of Mexico's central highlands live a loosely affiliated group of indigenous tribes collectively called the Purépecha (aka "the visitors"). We've heard that the Purépecha (or….maybe it was the Aztec, I forget…) word for Mexico translates into English as "the navel of the moon." The Purépecha's central deity is a moon goddess. Similar to many other cultures, the Purépecha interact with spirits everywhere; and they view life and death as inseparable events along a continuum that may not necessarily play out in a straight line.
Centuries ago the Spaniards arrived in Michoacán with holy men in tow. Mostly Franciscans. The Franciscans got to know the Purépecha and their matriarchal religious beliefs, so decided to market Christianity to them by emphasizing the awesomeness of the Virgin Mary as opposed to her son. The Purépecha obliged by supplying their own version of the Virgin Mary: the Virgin of Guadalupe and the story of her miracle. (A sample story is here. ) Guadalupe was a brown woman who happened to be closely associated with the moon and its powers; and she may have appeared shortly after (or perhaps before) the locals' first contact with the Spaniards. In any event, the Franciscans incorporated Guadalupe into the image of the Virgin Mary and vice versa. After all, the priests were on a mission to built churches and fill pews throughout the New World, so if they accomplished that much, the Church was happy to overlook exactly who their parishioners were worshiping.
Even now, a visitor to Mexico can see the effects of this blending of organized religion and down-home spirituality. In big-city churches you'll typically find Guadalupe's image off to the side somewhere or perhaps like in Mazatlan's basilica, depicted in etched glass at the front door. Yet a close look at the etched glass shows where thousands of fingertips still touch the crescent moon at the Lady's feet. In small-town churches like those surrounding Lake Pátzcuaro, the parishioners' true preferences become much more obvious. You're more likely to find Guadalupe standing front and center at the main altar. Mr. Jesus, if he is present at all, is off to one side or the other – clearly a secondary figure. Most interesting is that a crescent moon is always at Guadalupe's feet – to this day depicting Mexico as "the navel of the world." Look closely at the following pics and you can see the crescent moon looking up to Guadalupe – we've seen this same image in modern icons taped up on buses over the driver's head, as well as in stone altars above town fountains built in the 1540s:
You don't have to be a believer to enjoy walking around churches all over the world. Symbolism runs deep in the human experience, so like every frame in a well-created movie, every image in a church tells a story about the area's people, their history, economics and politics, and the relationships of the town's social classes to one another. So get out there, look for the moon, and be hip and have a few coins handy to drop into the poor-box.
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