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I guess I should say "I see" except I do not. I do not see with the Marian-tinted glasses that Catholics use for the Bible. How can one say the figure is literal Mary but all else is figurative? One does not mix-and-match types like one does at a discount store having a clearance sale. First off this was a future vision and at this point Mary is dead and out of the limelight (but the Church is very much in Gods plans). Least you think I have disregard for Mary, that is not true but at this point her part is over. Romans 2:11 says God shows no partiality in respect to persons. We should do the same. How can we honestly study the Bible and learn its secrets if we have biases like Catholics do concerning Mary?

You'll notice that in my last remarks, I didn't say "literal" but rather "phenomenological." Mary is the mother of the Messiah. Therefore if John saw the mother of the Messiah--- which he did --- he saw Mary.

By the time John saw this Great Sign, this vision, May had already come to the end of her earthly life, and gone on to her eternal reward. Best guess is that her earthly life came to an end sometime in the 40's or 50's AD. That would have been decades before the Book of Revelation, which was probably written during the reign of the emperor Domitian (AD 81-96).