Virgin Vanilla

Posting a comment about Vanilla Bean ice cream made me think of this post I've been meaning to write for a while now.

I have this thing for the Virgin de Guadalupe. She's the Mexicanized version of the Virgin Mary, but more than that as well, and she's very big here in Texas. I covet a cool necklace with her on it, and I have a glow-in-the-dark Virgin that I bought at a pop culture conference two years ago who sits on my jewelry box in the bedroom. I've bought other Virgin paraphanelia over the years, but my favorite is this bottle I got at the HEB grocery store.

It's clear glass, and has a white plastic "crown" as a lid. I think the intent is to put holy water in it, for when you need holy water. (Which is when? I'm not Catholic, and definitely don't mean to mock, but do you need daily doses of holy water easily available? Is there a big vampire problem around here I'm not aware of?) Over a year ago I bought the bottle, brought her home and stuck her on a cabinet in my kitchen for a while. She sat empty until I was inspired.

I make home-made vanilla extract. You take good vodka, pour it into a container, then buy vanilla beans at a gourmet shop (World Market has them too) and scrape the beans and pods and put them into the vodka. Then you let it sit in a not too hot place for a month or two and you get the purest, best vanilla extract you have ever tasted. The stuff in the stores is watered down, has extra coloring that it doesn't need, and tastes icky to me now after my years of making my own. Even the good Mexican vanilla you can buy at the market in town isn't as good as my homemade stuff.

One morning, preparing to make my vanilla, I spied the Virgin bottle, empty vessel for my vanilla seeds. (Again, I'm not mocking at all, although for some reason that tone keeps creeping in... Stop it tone!) Inspiration=breath of the gods!

I filled my bottle, and had been using the vanilla from my Virgin of Guadalupe container for about six months in daily latte drinks and cooking when I got pregnant. Not really trying that hard, but also 34 years old and had been on the pill forever so one would think it would have been a little more difficult. And then it turned out that not only was I knocked up, but super-pregnant with two glorious babies. (As you know if you read regularly).

It occurred to me not long ago that the Virgin al a my vanilla container might have had something to do with my easy pregnancy. Even aside from her strong Catholic connotations, The Virgin has to be a version of the Virgin aspect of the Triple Goddess, and very concerned as such with pregnancy and babies. (Well, her Mother aspect would be more so, but in the triple goddess context, Virgin doesn't mean have to never having had sex; it means not married). (Often the same, but not necessarily so.)

I suspect that if you had to think about it, you might say that the Virgin is probably a Catholicized version of an Aztec or Mayan goddess. Maybe Ixchel, maybe Coatlicue. I'm not a traditionally religious person, and used to joke that I was a "born again pagan." But I do believe in a higher power, and I like to pray to a female god because it makes me feel more connected. Hence my fondness for a local goddess like Guadalupe. (Again, I mean no disrespect at all, here, just a different take on it.)

I am very fond of my Virgin Vanilla, although nowadays with the whole no liquor thing I only put it in cooking where the alcohol has a chance to bake out. But I can't help but be a bit of a miracle-believer as a result of my inadvertent pleas being answered.