"Bearded man" image in the right eye.
Head of Mary on the tilma
Close up of the "Bearded Man"
According to Dr. Tonsmann, from left to right we can see "the Indian", "bishop Zumarraga", the "translator", "Juan Diego showing the tilma" and below "the family".
A new and interesting kind of analysis of the eyes started in 1979, when Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann, Ph D, graduated from Cornell University, while working in IBM scanned at very high resolutions a very good photograph, taken from the original, of the face on the tilma. After filtering and processing the digitized images of the eyes to eliminate "noise" and enhance them, he reports he made some astonishing discoveries: not only the "human bust" was clearly present in both eyes, but other human figures were seen as reflected in the eyes too.
Some additional facts from the tilma - symbols obviously intended to impress and persuade the pagan Aztecs.
In 1979 Philip Serna Callahan studied the icon with infrared light and stated that portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no paintbrush strokes.
HER FOOT RESTED ON THE CRESCENT MOON:
She had clearly crushed Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god.
THE STARS STREWN ACROSS THE MANTLE:
She was greater than the stars of heaven which they worshipped. She was a virgin and the Queen of the heavens for Virgo rests over her womb and the northern crown upon her head. She appeared on December 12, 1531 and the stars that she wears on her mantle are the constellations of the stars that appeared in the sky that day.
THE BLACK CROSS ON THE BROOCH AT HER NECK:
Her God was that of the Spanish Missionaries, Jesus Christ her Son who died upon the cross.
THE BLACK LACE:
She wears the Aztec black Maternity lace around her tummy.
THE FOUR PETAL FLOWER OVER THE WOMB:
She was the Mother of God because the flower was a special symbol of life, movement and deity. The center of the universe.
HER HANDS ARE JOINED IN PRAYER:
She is not God, but clearly there is one greater than Her. She points her finger to the cross on her brooch.
Stars and Constellations on the Tilma
The stars are positioned on the right and left flaps of the tilma and a crescent moon is at the feet of Our Lady. If the constellations represented on the tilma are drawn out, including those only partially represented on the tilma, it will resemble the diagram below:
As you can see in the image, corresponding the Earth’s meridian with the actual positions of the constellations in the sky, the tilma falls on the four compass points in
such a way that the North-South axis cuts across Our Lady’s abdomen from her right side to her left, and the East-West axis cuts across her abdomen from her head to her
feet.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
The stars on her mantle are positioned as they would appear on this axis in the sky on December 12, 1531 in Mexico at dawn, with the eastern sky above her head and the
northern sky to her right. The compass points that we superimpose on the body of Our Lady of Guadalupe would be of no special significance except for the fact that
we assume her body is perpendicular to the Earth’s equator (i.e., straight up and down) and serves as the foundation for universal direction. This requires the North position to switch from the top to the right, and the East position to switch from the left to the top, as if someone turned the compass counter-clockwise 90 degrees (as seen from our observation point on Earth).
Also, at this point in time (1531 A.D.) the North region is slightly higher than the South, which may be due to the rotation of the North-South axis at six-month
intervals as noted in Hildegard’s cosmology. Below is an actual star map of December 12, 1531, dawn with viewpoint in Mexico City. We have moved East to the top and North to the right (from Our Lady’s viewpoint) to match the compass points represented on the tilma.
The image also had to be inverted, which indicates that it is probably a mirror image.
The geocentric view
The star map on the tilma is also significant for another reason. As seen from wherethe apparition took place, the star pattern on the tilma is one of the most dramatic
assemblages of constellations that have ever occurred at one time and captured in a photo-like image. These are the only star images that could appear in these
precise locations on the day of December 12, 1531 at dawn, in addition to being the very stars that would be observed from the precise angle to the sky created from a
Guadalupe, Mexico viewing point.
Obviously, no wide-angle lens was being used but all the constellations of that portion of the sky are fitted on the tilma. Moreover, it seems that the placement of the star patterns was deliberate, since on Our Lady’s left side the tilma is doubled-over and hangs on her left arm, yet it contains, from the observer’s viewpoint, the same constellations in their proper portions as would appear in the sky.