. the black
madonna . Black Madonnas
are found throughout the world. Belgium, Croatia, Ecuador, England, France,
Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Mexico, Poland,
Romania, Sicily, Spain, Switzerland and the United States each have many black
Madonnas. Most are sculpted out of wood, although sometimes they are hewn from
stone. One is cast lead. There are also a few paintings, frescoes and icons.
These are usually found in churches, chapels and sanctuaries, though a few are
in museums and there are countless others which are hidden, undiscovered or
sitting in private collections. All in all there are hundreds of known black
Madonnas, but there are countless other Madonna sculptures and paintings that
scholars suspect were once black but are now white, most likely from being lightened
or repainted. Ean Begg, author of The Cult of the Black Virgin, reports that
at one time there were 450, primarily in Europe. There are many more mentioned
in literature but were destroyed during the French Revolution and religious
wars.
Historically,
alabaster-white madonnas are far newer than their black counterparts. White
Madonnas only began appearing during the Middle Ages, around the time the Marian
cult finally gained approval with the Catholic Church. The theories of the origins
of the Black Virgins vary, depending upon the source. Reconstructive feminists
and Orthodox Catholics usually have very differing views on the subject.
Many Catholic
clergy brush off the question of, "Why is your Madonna statue black?" with a
simple answer, "Because she is black." Those that delve further offer various
explanations, such as dark brown & black Madonnas resemble the physiogonomy
and skin pigmentation which matches that of the local population. For the black
Madonnas existing within light-skinned populations, a fire and subsequent soot
is often blamed, as is the accumulation of grime over the ages, or smoke from
centuries of votive candles or the deterioration of lead-based pigments.
The Orthodoxy
sometimes cites more symbolic explanations, since there are so many black Madonnas
which the previous explanations cannot account for. One theory is that artists
deliberately created black Madonnas to illustrate the text from the Song of
Songs, which reads, "I am black, but beautiful..." (Song of Songs 1:5) Many
of the existing black Madonnas are found in France and date from around the
time of the Crusades, when Bernard of Clairvaux scribed numerous essays on the
Canticles, comparing the soul to the bride. He also visited many shrines of
the Black Madonna, and most interpreted the Bride as Mary.
Bernard
of Clairvaux influenced the Templars and Cathars, who were persecuted and repressed
by Catholicism during their heyday (1100 to 1300 A.D.), and are reputed to have
brought with them many black Madonnas on their return from the Crusades. Many
black Madonnas (at least in France, which was where the Templar & Cathar movements
were most prominent) are dated from this time. Cathar symbolism represents figures
with disproportionately large hands, which is a common feature of many black
Virgins. It is believed the Templars brought the Black Madonna from Ethiopia.
The colors of their order were black and red, which symbolized light and sacrifice.
Around their necks they wore a double black and red cord and their flag consisted
of black, white and red. The Black Madonna reminded them of the Queen of Sheb
and her son Menelik, the first emporer of Ethiopia and the guardians of the
Ark of the Covenant.
The Templars
followed the symbolism of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which describes the Madonna
as the "Mother of the Light". To them, she must have dark skin, because anything
placed close to the sun (the Christ was symbolized as the Light & the Sun) turns
dark.
Some Christians
explain the existence of Black Madonnas from an artistic precedence being set
by the Templars and Cathars, and subsequent representations were based on artistic
convention rather than theological motivation. Ean Begg (The
Cult of the Black Virgin) notes that there is little reference by the artists
as to their motivations in creating Black Madonna sculptures and paintings.
The Catholic
Church used the technique of inculturation - adapting the local indigenous "pagan"
beliefs and customs into their own local church practices, to aid in the assimilation
of the newly-converted to Catholicism. Many obvious examples exist, such as
the ancient tradition of Samhain, which was a feast day for the dead. This transformed
into All Hallow's Eve or Halloween and the day after - All Saint's Day, a day
which honors the dead saints. Cherubic angels derived from representations of
the Greek god Eros, or its Roman counterpart, Cupid. The Devil with its goat-like
face and horns is based on The Horned God of the vast forests of ancient Northern
Europe and the ancient fertility Greek and Roman god of Pan, which was half-man,
half-goat. Stephen Benko, author of The Virgin Goddess, writes "The Black Madonna
is the ancient earth-goddess converted to Christianity." He notes that many
goddesses were represented as black, including Artemis of Ephesus, Isis, Mariamne,
Aphrodites-Mari, Juno the Blessed Virgin, Maya, the Trinity of Fates and Ceres/Demeter
(the Greek/Roman Earth Goddess). Demeter/Ceres, he says, was especially influential,
because as an earth goddess, she represents the fertility of the soil, and as
any farmer knows, the blacker the soil, the more fertile is its potential.
A few Catholic
clergy have conceded to the inculturation theory. The Canon of John de Satge
included: "The evangelical has a strong suspicion that the deepest roots of
the Marian cults are not to be found in the Christian tradition at all. The
religious history of mankind shows a recurring tendency to worship a mother-goddess....May
it not be the case, the evangelical wonders, that what we have here is in relaity
an older religion, a paganism which has been too lightly baptized into Christ
and whose ancient features persist under a thin Christian veil?"
Some ferminists,
such as Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor (The
Great Cosmic Mother) believe the Black Madonnas are the direct result of
early matriarchal Africans traveling throughout the ancient world, spreading
the pyramid technologies, the stone and clay arts, hieroglyphic scripts and
images of the Great Mother/Black Goddess. Numerous other historians and archeologists
point out that humans probably originated in the African Continent.
The Gypsies
also worship a Black Goddess, which they call Sara, and which most scholars
believe to be an incarnation of Kali. The Gypsies are most likely from a band
of 12,000 musicians and dancers given to the Shah of Persia between 420 and
438 A.D. from a prince in India. The Sha banished them because their sheer numbers
overwhelmed his court. Although the Rom (Gypsy) language is derivative of Hindi,
Gypsies have long forgotten their origins and have subsituted colorful tales
and legends. Many groups of Gypsies found a warm welcome and were able to take
advantage of their hosts in middle Europe when they claimed their origins were
of the lost tribes of Egypt (hence the name Gypsy, though they refer to themselves
as Rom or Romani.) Since Sara is an ancient character from Judaism as well as
the legendary Egyption maid of Jesus' two Aunt Marys, the name change of the
Black Goddess Kali to Sara may or may not have been intentional. After being
somewhat converted, some Gypsies began identifying Sara-Kali as the Virgin Mary.
Perhaps the Gypsies' eternal diaspora has also contributed to the plethora of
Black Madonnas.
Some suggest
that the black color of the Madonnas represent something archetypal and unexpressed
in Christianity: black represents the Death Mother, the Crone, the Shadow Self.
In Catholic countries, black is usually associated with magic and black Madonnas
are considered to be possessors of hermetic knowledge and magic, as well as
more powerful in manifesting miracles.
In the
Aramaic language of Jesus, black means "sorrowful." Some believe the Madonna
is represented as black, because of her sorrowful grief over her son. Christianity
even has a name for this Crone aspect of the Madonna - the Pieta. Many scholars
believe the Black Madonnas were originally the statues of Isis, who sorrowed
for her lover, Osiris. The cult of Isis was extremely popular at the time of
Christ. Later, in the sixth century, a very popular temple of Isis at Philae
was rededicated to Mary.
There are
many plausible explanations for the Black Madonna, but the most likely is the
Christian religion adopting and assimilating the variety of cultures and customs
it converted. The Judeo-Christian sky god religion is the singular dogmatic
religion that has only one prominent female and the Christian clergy fought
desperately to not allow her to be prominent, holy, or on par with the male
god-figures. After millenias of having pantheons of powerful goddesses, it is
inevitable for the many faces of the Goddess to appear in the one channel allowed
- Mary. Whether this has historical or archetypal roots doesn't matter, because
it fulfills the need of many.
You've seen white madonnas - images and statues of the Catholic Virgin Mary
in churches, cathedrals, even neighbor's front lawns. But have you ever seen,
or heard about, the Black Madonna? Images of Mary, Mother of Jesus with black
skin & a black face?
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