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The sun, or rather, the “suns”.
The first one is cosmic, and lights the Virgin on her left side, creating natural light and shadow. She is in front of another sun whose rays come out from behind her. As she is then in front of the sun and creates an eclipse, the moon she stands on is black, since it is against the light. We must be aware that for Indians every eclipse was considered a horrible event, for the sun was being hidden, was being "eaten". They, the “children of the sun”, saw their “father sun” being devoured; and this could only bring the worst omens. We must remember Indians were living in such a time.
“When the sun and the moon were eclipsed {they said}, they argued and fought, and they took it as a great omen and bad sign, to which they made great sacrifices and shouted and wept, because they understood it to be the end of the world.”
The third sun is the most important and central, it is the solar flower we have mentioned, the only four petaled flower or Mexican jasmine, placed on Mary’s gown on her Immaculate womb, meaning the Only God, Sun of justice
In the same way, the color combination, the moon, the stars, all this meant for Indians that she was a Virgin Maiden, Queen of the Cosmos, pregnant and about to give birth to the full and Almighty Sun, or, as Aztecs in their cosmic town Mexico-Tenochtitlan would say: “radiating light rays”. This is why the Message of the Virgin of Guadalupe is Christ centric, Jesus Christ is the center of the Guadalupan Event, Jesus Christ gives himself through his own Mother to be our Lord and our Savior. Although Mary, Mother of God, is important, she is the one who leads us to what is central: her Son Jesus Christ. It is not syncretism, but full enculturation.
If we include the other elements in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe we find the concepts that really touch on the deepest center of human existence, since it expresses that it is a civilization of God’s Love, where real peace and harmony reign. Where the Universe, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars are in marvelous harmony.
She is the new Eve who brings us the new Adam, a new creation. All this is in surprisingly perfect harmony with the Virgin of Guadalupe’s will, as directly expressed to San Juan Diego:
“I want very much that they will build my sacred little house here, in which I will show him, I will exalt him on making him manifest […] And to bring about what my compassionate and merciful gaze is trying to do, go to the residence of the Bishop of Mexico, and you will tell him how I am sending you, so that you may reveal to him that I very much want him to build me a house here, to erect my temple for me on the plain…”. So, both the laymen’s and the consecrated persons’ work is important in a Church united with her shepherd; this is why all this message and the Codex-Image belongs to the bishop.
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