An Imaginal Approach to Guadalupe and Coatlicue

Abstract

Long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico, Coatlicue was considered a major deity in the Aztec pantheon and one of the primary representations of the feminine aspect of Ometeotl—the Supreme Duality.  The Spanish conquest led to the death of hundreds of thousands of Aztecs.  Along with the Catholic church, the conquistadores also attempted to obliterate the Aztec culture by destroying temples, idols, and Aztec codices.  The Aztec people were also forced to convert to Catholicism and the belief in one male god.  It was not until Our Lady of Guadalupe (“Guadalupe”) appeared to an Aztec man that the Aztec people began to voluntarily convert.  The Catholic church associated the image of Guadalupe only with the Virgin Mary.  A lack of original texts regarding Coatlicue and the prominent narrow perspective of the Catholic church regarding Guadalupe inspired this research.  Using Jung’s process of active imagination and heuristic self-search inquiry as a methodology, this research asks the questions: What can an imaginal approach to Guadalupe and Coatlicue reveal about them?  What effect can surrender to this process have on the researcher?  By engaging with figures and images from dreams, visions, meditations, and lived experiences, the researcher experienced deeper self-understanding and self-knowledge that resulted in self-transformation.  By connecting the researcher’s experiences with texts and myths related to Coatlicue and Guadalupe, the findings provided the researcher with a new understanding of the Divine Feminine that manifested in Mexico.