Thursday, December 28, 2006
BLACK MADONNAS
These black images of the Blessed Virgin are being used by esoteric Freemasons and progressive Christians to suggest that Mary Magdalene was the hidden bride of Jesus Christ. Since there is no single explanation for the blackness, into this vacuum flow unique interpretations. A few that are currently being proposed can be found in the writings of China Galland, Margaret Starbird, and Ean Begg.
China Galland - LONGING FOR DARKNESS: TARA AND THE BLACK MADONNA
Galland recounts a pilgrimage to rediscover her lost faith that begins with the goddess Kali and ends up on a pilgrimage in Poland. She writes:
I had turned away from my own spiritual and cultural tradition, assigning it little value. Now I no longer believe that to be true.
Scattered throughout the European continent there are hundreds of dark or black Madonnas: in Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, as well as other countries. But the Madonna of Einsiedeln intrigued me for two reasons: first, the sense that she is related, however remotely, to the peaceful Kali that I had seen in Varanasi; and secondly, the fact that she is painted coal black. This is not a Madonna that blackened because of smoke or was carved out of a wood that darkened over the centuries. She strikes me as one of the clearest examples of an unequivocally black deity venerated by a white population, and this fascinated me. Clearly this is not a matter of ethnicity; Switzerland is unremittingly caucasian. (pp. 134-135)
Margaret Starbird - THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR
This entire book is an attempt to substantiate a claim that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ. She refers to the bride who is black and beautiful in the Song of Songs, associating her with the Black Madonnas, and seeing there the hidden (and thus black) wife of Jesus.
The motif of the "blackness" of the lost princess mentioned in earlier chapters--and her identity as the dark Sister-Bride and the Daughter of Sion--is too important to pass over without pausing. It is reflected in the shrines of the Black Madonnas in Europe, some of which contain statues of great antiquity. Our Lady of Rocamadour, a statue near Toulouse in the heart of the Albigensian region, is believed to have been visited by Charlemagne in the ninth century...
A second popular statue of the Black Madonna is located at Chartres. Recalling our discussion of Boaz, the broken left pillar of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, it seems more than coincidental this other Black Madonna at Chartres is called Our Lady of the Pillar. Of course, the obvious reason is that she stands upon a pillar. But someone must have chosen this particular pose for her. Can it be another cryptic reference to the other Mary, the widow of Jesus?
One of the most famous of the Black Madonnas is the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the patroness of Poland to whom Pope John Paul II has a special devotion. ...Legend says that this icon of Our Lady was brought to Poland from Byzantium in the tenth century. Curiously, the right cheek of this Madonna bears an ugly gash. She is not only dark; she is wounded.
Two pertinent Scripture passages help to explain the wounded cheek of the Black Madonna. One is from the fourth chapter of Micah, only a few verses after the reference to the Magdal-eder, the "stronghold of the daughter of Sion," through whom dominion (of the House of David) will one day be restored (Mic. 4:8-10). It says, "With a rod they strike on the cheek the ruler of Israel" (Mic. 4:14b). This scripture is often applied to Jesus, who was avowedly tortured by Roman soldiers--struck and scourged and crowned with thorns. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, understood by Christians to be the prototype of Jesus, and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa are a matching pair. (pp. 148-149)
Starbird does not cite the smoke argument for blackness, but you can see the need to explain this blackness in order to refute her argument that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. Incidentally, this book is pubblished by Bear & Company (ala Matthew Fox).
Ean Begg - THE CULT OF THE BLACK VIRGIN
From the introduction:
Theologians evince, if anything, even less enthusiasm for the subject than art historians. The still popular cult of wonder-working images is not only reactionary and non-scriptural, it also evokes memories of awkward subjects best left in obscurity like the pre-Christian origins of much in Christianity, the history of the Templars, Catharism and other heresies, and secrets concerning the Merovingian dynasty. So, blackness in statues of the Virgin tends to be ignored and, where admitted, is attributed to the effects of candle smoke, burial, immersion, or fashion's passing whim. The contention, then, of the Catholic Church is that most such statues were not originally intended to be black, and only became so by accident later. The fact remains that they are black and to discuss the phenomenon in visual terms only is to disguise their deepest significance. ...
From whatever viewpoint one examines the subject, however, and whatever the causes of the phenomenon may be, it is indisputable that some of the most famous statues of the Madonna in Western Europe have faces and hands that are black, by intention, and are known to have been so for many centuries. (pp.2-3)
Spokesmen for the Church, when asked to explain the origin of Black Virgins, tend to invoke candle smoke or general exposure to the elements. After a time, they would say, as at Einsiedeln, the faithful become accustomed to a sooty image, and the clergy pander to their prejudice by the use of paint where necessary. Apart from the considerable contrary evidence of clerical antipathy to Black Virgins and disregard for parishioners' wishes, this rationalistic hypothesis raises two important questions. If the presumed polychrome faces and hands of the Virgin and Child have been blackened by the elements, why has their polychrome clothing not been similarly discoloured? Secondly, why has a similar process not occurred in the case of other venerated images?
There are, indeed, a few figures in addition to Mary and a handful of black Christs...who are occasionally represented as black. ...Apart from Mary, however, black images are too rare to arouse much comment or controversy. (pp. 6-7)
Begg is considered an expert on Black Madonnas, and is cited by the Dayton Marian Center:
Based on historical correlations, Ean Begg speculates that the genre developed from an esoteric popular religion common among the Templars and Cathars, perhaps as a complement to the impetus from Bernard.
Begg is also the author of IN SEARCH OF THE HOLY GRAIL AND THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, with a Foreword by Michael Baigent, author of HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL, from whom Dan Brown took the plot of TDVC. This book, too, mentions the Black Virgins, one of which is said to reside in the crypt of Rosslyn Chapel. They are mixed into a stew of alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Baphomet, Hermes, Holy Grail, and Lucifer. (pp. 19-25) In fact Rosicrucian Freemasonry is woven throughout this book, as is to be expected in a book with a Foreword by Masonic author Baigent.
