The Black Madonna - Chapter from Painting into Life
I experience the Black Madonna as a bridge connecting me to humanity's ancient roots and to
a dimension of peace and blackness within.
The Black Madonna first came to my attention when female figures began appearing in my paintings in 1987 and especially when I heard the words Queen of Heaven whilst painting. In researching this ancient female figure I began to read about her history and symbolism and visit sites where there are Black Madonna statues.
Close to our home in South West France is Rocamadour which was one of the most important pilgrim destinations in Europe in the Middle Ages. Kings and Emperors climbed over a hundred stone steps on their knees to reach the chapel that houses an extraordinary 12th Century statue of the Black Madonna. She is the dark feminine, the counterpart of the Virgin Mary. Virgin Mary statues often exhibit sweetness, compassion, and suffering. Black Madonna statues can seem neither male nor female and have deep interiority, looking out with an ancient power, ferocity and intensity that can be disconcerting at first. I am always moved by the stillness and strength that emanates from this statue. Her presence expresses a state that is beyond duality, beyond good and bad. She gives me the feeling that she has seen and experienced the best and the worst of humanity and still has an open heart and is firmly rooted in the earth. The powerful atmosphere in her chapel leads me easily into a meditative state of stillness and softness. I have had similar experiences in the chapel of the Black Virgin in Montserrat in Spain.
You see, we’re all spun out of this blackness-
Bliss of silence, glow of emptiness…
…Look now into the deep night sky
And know that this blackness pervades you
And welcomes you back
To the only home that is your own.
John Welwood excerpt from Blackness
In our Christian culture we have been taught to associate spirituality with a movement upwards away from the earth, to the sky and to God the Father in Heaven. The Black Madonna suggests that we need to go downwards to live an incarnated spirituality on our Mother the Earth, reminding us that all of life is sacred; our bodies, the earth, animals, nature and that in fact we are all one. The Black Madonna symbolizes the life force made conscious in matter. She connects to mystery, to the unseen, to wisdom, to nature, sacred sexuality, and sensuality, and to the deep well from which life and creativity spring. The Black Madonna embodies the energy we need to become whole. Conscious femininity is the dynamic balance of male and female energy operating in both men and women.
The Black Madonna is the re-emerging Divine Feminine: she is Christianity's Dark Goddess drawn from Pre-Christian traditions. In other cultures, she is called Kali, Pele, Hecate, Persephone, Isis. The Black Madonna symbolizes what is hidden and marginalized like Kali the Hindu goddess. Kali slays illusion, false beliefs, fake identities.
It was first thought that the Black Madonna statues were brought back from the Holy Land by the crusaders. However, most were made from locally sourced wood in Auvergne in Central France in the 12th Century. This mountainous region with many ancient volcanoes is a remote area of France and perhaps pagan traditions linked to the worship of Mother Earth continued for longer than in the rest of the country. The 12th Century was a century of feminine renewal, the time of courtly love in South West France and the cult of Mary was widespread.
Many Black Madonna statues were reported to have been found in mysterious circumstances, out in nature, by springs, under trees or hidden in the earth. They were often found by simple people and were accredited with having miraculous healing powers. People often thought that the Black Madonna statues had survived a fire and thus could better understand their suffering.
In the 12th Century and earlier people prayed to the Black Madonna in order to bring fertility to women and to the earth, thus assuring the survival of the family and community. There are many accounts of miraculous healing from all kinds of illnesses such as blindness, paralysis, skin afflictions, and of dead people being resuscitated. Sailors prayed to the Black Virgin of Rocamadour in extremis and she is reputed to have prevented shipwrecks. The Black Madonna was reputed to help people during and after death and during childbirth.
Sadly, many Black Madonna statues were destroyed by the Huguenots and also during the French Revolution. Later they were often forgotten in remote country churches and many were stolen during the 1980's. The Black Madonna first appeared in my paintings and meditations and led me into the depths of my unconscious.
I have seen her in other women’s paintings and poems both in my workshops and in the creative work of women from other cultures. It would seem that the dark feminine comes to light when the conditions in the world are extremely serious, and there is a pressing need for deeper wisdom.