Nuggets from Occult Invasion—The Pagan and Occult Connection

Carol Damian, art historian, author, and professor at Miami’s Florida International University, is also a Catholic. A visit to a Roman Catholic convent museum in Cuzco, Peru, mile-high capital of the ancient Incan Empire, opened her eyes to an apparent connection between apparitions of the Virgin Mary and those of another “virgin mother and child” known to the natives of Peru long before the Spanish arrived:

“Gazing up at a larger-than-life image of … what I thought was . … the Virgin Mary, the guide [a nun] reverently described the painting as that of Pachamama, the Earth Mother and patroness of the Andes.… 

‘Please explain again, slowly, why you called the Virgin Mary Pachamama,’ I asked her.

‘Who is Pachamama? She looks like the Virgin Mary of my Catholic experience. …’

Returning to one painting that was particularly endearing to the people from Cuzco … she began to tell her story and the Virgin Mary was transformed. The painting … inspired me to pursue the legend of Pachamama. …

“Every year I returned to Cuzco, paid a visit to her first, and looked at every painting of the Virgin that I could find within about a 50-mile radius of the city. … The Virgin Mary took on different titles, wore different costumes and headdresses … but she was an Andean virgin. She was Pachamama, the Earth Mother … the Moon Goddess … the Inka [sic] Queen. …

Beneath her gorgeous finery, they were able to hide their sacred Inka [sic] stones and other magical objects, and continue to revere their own special deities. …”

Former New Ager Alan Morrison reminds us that some occultists have claimed “Mary” as one of the Ascended Masters. That is not surprising, inasmuch as they claim “Jesus Christ” as one of them as well. One New Age prophetess, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, foretold that “Mary” would “transmit messages of peace” with increasing frequency at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Is it just a coincidence that the Roman Catholic “Mary” has accelerated her appearances as we move toward the close of this century and millennium? Morrison continues:

“The pictorial form in which this “Ascended Master,” Mother Mary, is represented in the occult literature is virtually identical to the form of the Virgin Mary which appears in Roman Catholic visions and apparitions. The Neo-Gnostics refer to this spirit-entity as the ‘Archetypal New Age Woman,’ and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that for centuries Roman Catholics have been hoodwinked into regarding a demonic discarnate deception as a genuine vision of the mother of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Virgin Mary of the visions is an evil spirit.”