Christopher Columbus/es

El maestro ascendido Saint Germain

El Maestro Ascendido Saint Germain fue encarnado como "Cristóbal Colón", Cristóbal Colón (c. 1451-1506), el descubridor de América. Le pusieron acertadamente el nombre de San Cristóbal, quien, según la leyenda, está representado llevando al niño Jesús a través de las aguas.

Cristóbal Colón es uno de los personajes más conocidos de la historia, pero su vida está envuelta en misterio y está sujeta a malentendidos y mitos.

Vida temprana

Se han escrito más de 250 libros y artículos académicos sobre los orígenes de Colón. Pero nadie sabe con certeza dónde nació Colón o su fecha de nacimiento, ni siquiera exactamente cómo era. Fernando, el hijo de Colón, dijo que su padre

era un hombre robusto de estatura superior a la media, la cara larga, las mejillas algo altas, su cuerpo ni gordo ni delgado. Tenía nariz aguileña y ojos claros; su tez ... era clara y tendía a un rojo brillante. En la juventud su cabello era rubio, pero cuando cumplió los treinta, todo se volvió blanco.

Otros informes de sus contemporáneos coinciden. Pero nadie pintó un retrato de Colón durante su vida.

Se decía que Cristoforo Columbo (un trabajador de la lana genovés) nació en Génova en 1451, según la biografía estándar, pero el explorador y descubridor era conocido en España como Cristóbal Colón. Ese nombre no es el equivalente en español natural del genovés, "Colombo". No está nada claro que Columbo, el lanero, y Cristóbal Colón fueran la misma persona.

Colón (Colón) nunca dijo que era genovés y por lo general escribía en español o latín, nunca en italiano. La ciudad de Génova no parecía considerarlo un ciudadano. Firmó cartas y documentos como "El Almirante" como "Christo Ferens", el Portador de Cristo, o utilizó una agrupación de iniciales en forma de pirámide.

De lo que los historiadores han podido recopilar sobre la vida temprana de un hombre llamado Cristóbal Colón, muchos detalles de su vida no coinciden con los documentos genoveses sobre un Cristoforo Columbo nacido en 1451. Hay evidencia que demuestra que Colón nació antes de 1451. Por ejemplo, Andrés Bernáldez, amigo de Colón e historiador, dijo que Colón tenía “unos 70 años” cuando murió en 1506. Si eso es cierto, Colón nació en 1436.

La biografía estándar que retrata a Colón como un escalador social genovés pobre y egoísta impulsado por la necesidad de alcanzar la fama y la fortuna se apoya en bases históricas inestables. Algunos de los mitos sobre la vida de Colón se originan en la popular biografía de Washington Irving de 1828 "La vida y los viajes de Cristóbal Colón", incluido el mito de que muchos creían que el mundo era plano. De hecho, ninguna persona educada del siglo XV creía que el mundo fuera plano. Colón tampoco fue "un navegante oscuro", como afirma Irving.

Primeros Viajes

Colón hizo muchos viajes antes y en preparación para su gran "Empresa" de navegar a las "Indias". Se dice que navegó a Inglaterra, Irlanda, Islandia y Madeira (a 560 millas de la costa de África).

Los eruditos creen que Colón desarrolló su plan para navegar a las "Indias" en algún momento durante su estancia en Portugal. Pero los historiadores simplemente no saben cómo se le ocurrió la idea. Algunos argumentan que el plan surgió de la intuición, otros que lo formuló a partir de la lectura y el estudio. Otros más han llegado a la conclusión de que Colón usó mapas y fuentes escritas solo para respaldar sus conclusiones.

Esta última posición parece estar respaldada por las propias palabras de Colón. En 1501 escribió a Fernando e Isabel: “Para la ejecución del viaje a las Indias no me ayudó la inteligencia, ni las matemáticas ni los mapas. Fue simplemente el cumplimiento de lo que Isaías había profetizado ”.

Vida Personal

Colón fue un hombre profundamente religioso. Pero, con pocas excepciones, los eruditos han minimizado la importancia de su vida espiritual o la han descartado por completo. También han ignorado el registro más conspicuo de esa vida espiritual: el "Libro de las profecías" de Colón.

Se dice que Colón se casó con Felipa Moniz, una mujer noble portuguesa. Algunos historiadores de la biografía estándar afirman que su familia debe haber atravesado tiempos difíciles para que Colón, sin un centavo, se casara con ella. Sabemos que su familia no fue deshonrada ni empobrecida. De hecho, tenían fuertes conexiones con la corte portuguesa. Si Colón-Colón no era hijo de un cardador de lana, su familia debió tener riqueza y distinción. Sus interacciones posteriores con el rey Fernando y la reina Isabel sugieren que sí.

Mientras estaba en Portugal, se dice que Colón recibió mapas de su suegra, cuyo difunto esposo era un marinero con el anhelo de descubrir el océano. Ella informó a Colón de los viajes de su esposo y le dio mapas y escritos de sus exploraciones oceánicas. Esto interesó a Colón, como lo registra su hijo Fernando:

Estas cosas excitaron aún más al Almirante (como llamaba a su padre); y se informó de los otros viajes y navegaciones que los portugueses estaban haciendo entonces a Mina y por la costa de Guinea, y disfrutó mucho hablando con los hombres que navegaban por esas regiones. Una cosa llevó a la otra y comenzó una línea de pensamiento, mientras que el Almirante en Portugal comenzó a especular que si los portugueses podían navegar tan al sur, sería posible navegar tan hacia el oeste, y que era lógico esperar encontrar tierra en esa dirección.

"Colón ante la reina", Emanuel Leutze (1843)

Planes para el viaje

Según la biografía estándar, en 1485, Colón llegó con su hijo Diego a Palos, España, a un monasterio franciscano, sin un centavo, y conoció al padre Antonio de Marchena, astrónomo y cosmógrafo, quien se dice que se convirtió en el padre espiritual y defensor de Colón. A través de Marchena, se supone que Colón ganó poderosos amigos en los círculos financieros y políticos. Finalmente, (en 1486) Colón conoció al rey Fernando y a la reina Isabel.

Sin embargo, existe un desacuerdo entre los estudiosos sobre cómo Colón llamó su atención por primera vez. La biografía estándar luego relata el escenario de la reina nombrando un "comité" para discutir el viaje propuesto por Colón. Colón es descrito como una persona de origen humilde, sin conexiones propias y a merced del “comité” y los soberanos. Después de seis años y mucha angustia, Colón finalmente recibió su encargo después de todas sus “asombrosas” demandas, entre ellas ser nombrado miembro de la nobleza.

Primer viaje al Nuevo Mundo

El 3 de agosto de 1492, Colón zarpó de Palos, España, en la "Niña", la "Pinta" y la "Santa María". Aunque estos pueden ser los barcos más conocidos del mundo, sabemos muy poco sobre ellos. Los eruditos han tenido que adivinar su tamaño. Los barcos llevaban una tripulación de 90 hombres.

Después de un viaje de 33 días que incluyó la amenaza de un motín, la tripulación aterrizó en una isla de Colón llamada San Salvador. Sin embargo, no está claro en qué isla desembarcó Colón por primera vez. Se han perdido el registro original de Columbus y una copia. El historiador Bartolomé de las Casas hizo una copia del diario o una copia de una copia. Se cree que solo alrededor del 15 por ciento del registro son palabras del propio Colón. Colón también descubrió y reclamó otras islas para los monarcas, incluidas Cuba y La Española (Haití y República Dominicana).

Después de haber perdido el "Santa María", que estaba encallado en un arrecife de coral (el oficial de guardia le entregó el timón a uno de los muchachos del barco), la "Niña" y la "Pinta" zarparon de regreso a España, no sin antes verse atrapados en una fuerte tormenta. Colón regresó a España el 15 de marzo de 1493 y fue recibido por Fernando e Isabel con gran pompa. La corona reconfirmó sus títulos y honores.

Viajes posteriores

Colón hizo tres viajes más a las Indias. Durante el segundo viaje, de 1493 a 1496, estableció una colonia en La Española y descubrió otras islas, incluida Jamaica. Durante el tercer viaje, de 1498 a 1500, descubrió América del Sur, desembarcando en la desembocadura del río Orinocco.

Sin embargo, durante el tercer viaje, la administración de Colón en La Española se derrumbó. Se enfrentó a la rebelión y finalmente fue arrestado y enviado de regreso a España encadenado. Fue exonerado por los soberanos pero perdió su derecho a gobernar las tierras que había descubierto. Durante su cuarto viaje (1502-1504) llegó a Panamá.

Colón murió en Valladolid, España, el 20 de mayo de 1506, rico y rodeado de familia.

Trasfondo de Colón

La biografía estándar de Colón tiene muchas imposibilidades, comenzando con la historia de la pobreza a la riqueza, del cardador de lana al almirante. Se suponía que Colón estaba tan avergonzado por sus orígenes humildes que nunca los mencionó. Sin embargo, se casó con una de las familias nobles más prestigiosas de Portugal cuando no se permitió el matrimonio entre clases sociales. Se mezcló fácilmente con las élites de su época: duques, eclesiásticos, nobles y reyes. Aunque era extranjero, se incorporó a la nobleza española; reclamó y recibió los cargos extraordinarios de almirante y virrey.

Cuando los soberanos obsequiaron a Colón un escudo de armas como recién noble , le otorgaron el singular honor de incorporar en su escudo los símbolos reales de Castilla y León. Simplemente no lo habrían hecho si hubiera sido de origen humilde. Pero en 1493, los soberanos le escribieron a Colón una carta confirmando su nobleza y dándole el derecho de usar la insignia real junto con "tus propias armas que estás acostumbrado a llevar". En otras palabras, Colón ya tenía su propio escudo de armas, algo que ningún plebeyo genovés habría tenido. Solo la nobleza tenía escudos de armas.

Columbus seemed to have a close relationship to Queen Isabella. He was on the royal payroll but it was never clear what Columbus did for the monarchy. A booking entry by a royal accounting clerk shows that the clerk gave money “to Christopher Columbus, foreigner, who is here on Her Majesty’s secret service.” What Columbus was doing on behalf of the queen was a royal secret. According to the Columbus Encyclopedia, Columbus may have been assisting Queen Isabella with the marriage of her daughter to the prince of Portugal between 1488 and 1489. This suggests, but does not prove, that Columbus was from one of the upper classes.

According to Robert Fuson, an authority on Columbus:

This veil of mystery surrounding Columbus’s personal background is not...an accident of history. It is in large part Columbus’s own doing. There is ample evidence that Columbus altered his identity, keeping many facts from his own sons. His brother Bartholomew was obviously in on the cover-up, but even Bartholomew’s life has been obscured.

The standard biography of Columbus has many other problems. The traditional story about Columbus arriving poverty stricken in Spain in 1485 may be fiction. There is also no documentary evidence to show that Columbus showed maps and charts to the “Committee” in 1486 at the court of Queen Isabella regarding his enterprise to sail to the “Indies.”

Foster Provost, author of Columbus: An Annotated Guide to the Scholarship of His Life and Writings, does not think that Columbus’s enterprise was ever rejected by any committee, because the sovereigns were interested in Columbus’s enterprise, and as soon as the Moors were defeated in January 2, 1492, they issued the “Capitulations” (contracts and titles between Columbus and the monarchs). Nevertheless, Columbus may still have had to wait for years before gaining royal sponsorship, but not because he was waiting for the “Committee” to decide.

Did Columbus know where he was sailing?

Did Columbus believe that he actually had sailed to the “Indies” which in Columbus’s day meant Asia, including China, India and Japan? At first glance, evidence seems overwhelming that he did. But there’s also persuasive evidence that Columbus did indeed know where he was going and that it was not the Indies.

First, in the Capitulations and Titles, the contracts Columbus signed with Ferdinand and Isabella, there is no mention of the Indies. The king and queen simply authorized Columbus to discover and acquire “islands and mainlands” in the Atlantic Ocean.

Second, Columbus’s actions strongly suggest he knew he was not in the Indies. Columbus is said (by biographers) to have brought with him a “Letter of Credence” from the monarchs introducing him to the Great Khan in China (or to whomever was the ruler who succeeded him) and to other oriental potentates he might meet. But when Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, he immediately went ashore and claimed the land for Ferdinand and Isabella. He carried royal flags and repeated a declaration required to make the acquisition legal. He did this in full view of the natives, without the protection of an army, as if he had prior knowledge that he would not be in any danger from the forces of an Asian prince.

It would have been dangerous to claim the territories of the Great Khan. Yet Columbus showed no fear of claiming lands belonging to the Great Khan or any other Oriental ruler. Moreover, while supposedly seeking Japan or the mainland of Asia, Columbus continued to sail around, claiming islands for Ferdinand and Isabella.

Colombus’s copy of Marco Polo’s Le Livre des Merveilles, with his handwritten notes in the margins

The writings of Marco Polo depicted China and Japan as advanced, opulent societies with streets of marble and roofs of gold. Yet Columbus carried worthless trinkets with him on his voyage. Could Columbus have brought glass beads and cheap bells to trade with the Great Khan? Definitely not. But that’s exactly what he would bring if he was expecting to find people who were technologically inferior to the people of Europe. In fact, that’s what the Portuguese had brought to Africa to barter with the natives—and Columbus knew it.

Also, Columbus brought back a number of natives to show the king and queen of Spain, and to colonize the islands. Would this be allowed by the emperor of China or Japan? This also indicates that Columbus knew he was not in Asia. Those who believe that Columbus was headed for the Indies have the upper hand in academic circles, yet a case can be made that Columbus knew where he was going.

We know that Columbus picked a nearly perfect path to sail from Spain to the Bahamas, and that he sailed north and picked a nearly perfect path back to Europe. He also seemed to know just how far his destination was. According to Columbus’s son Fernando, Columbus told his crew not to expect to find land until they had gone 750 leagues from the Canaries, just about the distance of the first landfall. One could argue that Columbus merely miscalculated the distance between Europe and Japan using his “narrow ocean” theory, as the standard biography states. But if Columbus did not think he was headed to the Indies, how did he know just where to expect land or that he would find lands that he could claim? He apparently knew he would find people who would be delighted with trinkets.

Had Columbus been to America before? Columbus himself gave his own description of why he made the voyage. In a letter Columbus described his background as follows:

At a very early age I began to navigate upon the seas, which I have continued to this day. Mine is a calling that inclines those who pursue it to desire to understand the world’s secrets. Such has been my interest for more than 40 years, and I have sailed all that can be sailed in our day.

I have had business and conversation with learned men among both laity and clergy, Latins and Greeks, Jews and Moslems, and many others of different religions. I prayed to the most merciful Lord concerning my desire, and he gave me the spirit and the intelligence for it. He gave me abundant skill in the mariner’s arts, an adequate understanding of the stars, and of geometry and arithmetic. He gave me the mental capacity and the manual skill to draft spherical maps, and to draw cities, rivers, mountains, islands and ports all in their proper places.

During this time, I have searched out and studied all kinds of texts: geographies, histories, chronologies, philosophies and other subjects. With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies, and he opened my will to desire to accomplish the project.

This was the fire that burned within me when I came to visit Your Highnesses. All who found out about my project denounced it with laughter and ridiculed me. All the sciences which I mentioned above were of no use to me. Quotations of learned opinions were no help. Only Your Majesties had faith and perseverance.

Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also of the Holy Spirit, who encouraged me with a radiant illumination from his sacred Holy Scriptures, by a most clear and powerful testimony from the 44 books of the Old Testament, from the Four Gospels, from the 23 epistles of the blessed Apostles—urging me to press forward? Continually, without a moment’s hesitation, the Scriptures urged me to press forward with great haste.

Legacy

Throughout history, Columbus has had friends and enemies. During his own life, people laughed at him and his “Enterprise.” After he had sailed to the New World, some were jealous of his power and tried to undermine his authority. But Columbus had many powerful friends among the clergy and the nobility who helped him out at critical turning points in his career.

Columbus has been seen as a pivotal figure in history, the man who initiated the modern age. His discovery unified the world and set in motion the process of global integration. The discovery of the New World transformed the Old World. Before 1492, Europe was cynical and pessimistic. But after Columbus’s discovery, Europe’s outlook changed. Men began to wonder if a golden age might lie in the near future. The discovery of the New World gave a powerful impetus to the Renaissance and the enlightenment.

Columbus has also held a special place in the hearts of Americans, beginning in the nineteenth and through most of the twentieth century. But beginning in the last two decades of the twentienth century, Columbus was on trial in America. Even today there is the tendency to disparage Columbus. He has been accused of greed, ambition, dishonesty, cruelty and genocide.

Accusations of genocide

The basis for the charge of genocide is that following Columbus’s voyage to the New World, the populations of the Indians dropped precipitously. And some tribes, like the Tainos, were completely wiped out. Researchers estimated the Indian population of Hispaniola to be about eight million prior to 1492. Twenty years later it was about 28,000. Indian populations in the New World, which numbered about 40 to 50 million people prior to 1492, were decimated. But it was not due to genocide. The real causes were European diseases, particularly smallpox. Many more Indians died of the accidental transmission of European diseases than were deliberately killed by European swords. In short, neither Columbus nor the Spanish were engaged in the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Indians.

Columbus is said to have initiated slavery in America. Yet, slavery was already being practiced by the natives when he arrived. The Indian tribes of America were as cruel and corrupt, and more so, than the nations of Europe. It is well known that ritual cannibalism and ritual scrifice were practised by the Caribs and Aztecs. While it is true that Columbus did send 550 Indians to Spain, these were the mores of that period, and, unfortunately, slavery was a customary practice, sanctioned by the ruling monarchs and the Catholic Church, especially as a result of the defeat of the Moors, who were sold or given into slavery.

File:Inspiración de Cristóbal Colón, por José María Obregón.jpg

Inspiration of Christopher Columbus, Jose Maria Obregon (1856)

His spiritual life

Scholars have had a difficult time coming to grips with Columbus’s spiritual life. They knew he was extremely devoted to Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother and Saint Francis. They recognized that he was a pious man who was close to the Franciscans and may have belonged to a Franciscan lay order. They knew that on occasion he heard celestial voices. The following excerpt from one of Columbus’s letters tells of one of his mystical experiences. He writes:

I was outside and all alone on this very dangerous coast, with a high fever and greatly exhausted. There was no hope of rescue. In this state, I climbed in pain to the highest point of the ship and called, in tears and trembling, to Your Highnesses’ mighty men of war, in all the four corners of the earth, for succour, but none of them answered me. At length, groaning with exhaustion, I fell asleep, and I heard the most merciful voice saying:

“O fool, so slow to believe and to serve thy God, the God of all! What more did He do for Moses or for His servant David? He has had thee in His care from thy mother’s womb. When He saw thee a grown man, He caused thy name to resound most greatly over the earth. He gave thee the Indies, which are so rich a part of the world, and thou hast divided them according to thy desire. He gave thee the keys to the gates of the Ocean, which were held with such great chains. Thou was obeyed in many lands, and thou hast won a mighty name among Christians. What more did He do for the people of Israel when He led them out of Egypt, or for David, that shepherd boy whom He made a king in Jewry. Turn thyself to Him, and acknowledge thy sins. His mercy is infinite. Thine old age shall not prevent thee from achieving great things, for many and vast are His domains. Abraham was more than a hundred years old when he begat Isaac; and Sarah, was she a girl?

“Thou criest for help, with doubt in thy heart. Ask thyself who has afflicted thee so grievously and so often: God or the world? The privileges and covenants which God giveth are not taken back by Him. Nor does He say to them that have served Him that He meant it otherwise, or that it should be taken in another sense; nor does He inflict torments to show His power. Whatever He promises He fulfills with increase; for such are His ways. Thus I have told thee what thy Creator has done for thee, and for all men. He has now revealed to me some of those rewards which await thee for the many toils and dangers which thou has tendured in the service of others.”

I heard all this as if in a trance, but I could find no reply to give to so sure a message, and all I could do was to weep over my transgressions. Whoever it was that had spoken, ended by saying: “Fear not, but have faith. All these tribulations are written upon tablets of marble, and there is reason for them.”

Columbus collected a series of biblical and secular quotes in an unfinished book known as the Book of Prophecies. Scholars have not known what to make of this book. As Columbus wrote in the introduction to his Book of Prophecies:

Already I pointed out that for the execution of the journey to the Indies I was not aided by intelligence, by mathematics or by maps. It was simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.

Columbus believed he was destined to fulfill prophecies relating to the dawning of a new age. When Columbus was arrested in Hispaniola in 1500 and sent back to Spain, he wrote a letter in which he said (referring to the newly discovered lands):

Of the New Heaven and Earth which our Lord made, as Saint John writes in the Apocalypse, after he had spoken it by the mouth of Isaiah, He made me the messenger thereof and showed me where to go.

Two themes run through the Book of Prophecies: the recovery of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, symbolical of the Holy Land and the final conversion of all people to Christianity. Yet conquering the city of Jerusalem may not have been what Columbus had in mind. In the very beginning of the Book of Prophecies Columbus collected quotes which stated that the scriptures had four levels of interpretation. He then included one example: the fourfold interpretation of the word “Jerusalem.” The passage reads:

In a historical sense, Jerusalem is the earthly city to which pilgrims travel. Allegorically, it indicates the Church in the world. Tropologically, Jerusalem is the soul of every believer. Anagogically, the word means the Heavenly Jerusalem, the celestial fatherland and kingdom.

Columbus never explained his real purpose in “recovering Jerusalem.” He was speaking metaphorically and that was his true purpose: to establish the New World and a place where God’s plan for the New Age would unfold.

For more information

This article is excerpted from a lecture by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “Christopher Columbus: The Man and the Myth,” delivered October 12, 1992. See the complete lecture for additional information.

See also

Saint Germain

Sources

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 20, no. 51, December 18, 1977.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “Christopher Columbus: The Man and the Myth,” October 12, 1992.

Fernando Columbus, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand.

Andres Bernaldez, History of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.

Silvio A. Bedini, The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 and 2.

Robert Fuson, The Log of Chrisopher Columbus.

Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

William D. Phillips, Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.

Paolo Emilio Taviani, Columbus, The Great Adventure: His Life, His Times, and His Voyages.

Zvi Dor-Ner, Columbus and the Age of Discovery.

Michael Bradely, The Columbus Conspiracy.

John Wilford, The Mysterious History of Columbus.

Christopher Columbus, The Book of Prophecies.

Henry Vignaud, The Letter and Chart of Toscanelli.

Pauline Moffitt Watts, Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus’s “Enterprise of the Indies”.

Foster Provost, Columbus: An Annotated Guide to the Scholarship of His Life and Writings.

Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise.

Bartolome de las Casas, The History of the Indies.

Delno C. West, August Kling (trans. and eds.) The Book of Prophecies of Christopher Columbus.