Sophia's Children

David Hillman & the Dark Goddess on BlogTalkRadio

Dr. David Hillman, author of The Chemical Muse, will be joining me tomorrow evening on The Feminine Mojo show at BlogTalkRadio. The show will air on Thursday, July 8th, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern U.S.

David has an M.S. in bacteriology and an M.A. and Ph.D in classics from the University of Wisconsin, and will be delving into the story and wisdom from a particular Dark Goddess tradition that was alive and vibrant in ancient Greece.

Of the aspects of the Great Goddess, the Dark Goddess is one of the most feared and least understood (funny how the two often go together!). Yet it's also one of the most important given the times we're living in.

David and I will also be exploring the question, "Where are the women?" and what the Dark Goddess might have to do with the answer to that question.

Join us for what will surely be a lively and insightful conversation!

Blessings,

Jamie

The Black Madonna's Calling

The Black Madonna was calling to me today, so I thought I'd write her.

I knew nothing about the Black Madonna until October 2005, when my journey through the Dark Night and a series of synchronicities led me to her, literally, in France (I've written about this crucial meeting in previous blog posts).

Up until Autumn 2005, I had no context for the series of initiations I was in the midst of, and initiation without context or guides is sheer confusion.

What's feared is hidden, and what's powerful is hoarded, and both are true relative to the Black Madonna. She is Christianity's largely unknown Dark Goddess, drawn from much older pre-Christian traditions. She has come to symbolize what's hidden or marginalized, whether through suppression or oppression.

But just because we don't know about her doesn't mean her influence isn't present in our lives. As I learned, she was present. As I came to learn, hers was a profoundly dynamic and transformative influence, even ruthless as she separates us from false identities and attachments.

This is like Kali, the powerful Goddess of the Hindu pantheon who is shown holding a severed head and a bloody sword, with her foot on a lifeless body and wearing a skirt of skulls. Positively terrifying, right?

Well, it is terrifying, and horrifying, particularly without a clue of what's really wanting to happen when we experience Life's initiations without the wisdom-rich stories of the Black Goddess, or Black Virgin.

Kali, in her terrifying depiction, is the slayer of illusion, of false belief, the fake identity, the power-giveaways that keep us from living fully as we truly are. We wear all sorts of masks and armors in order to be accepted, to be loved, and to be invulnerable.

If you're on the transformation path, these masks and armors are all 'bulls-eye' targets. The masks are shattered, the false beliefs dissolved, and the armor is cracked open. It's about liberation of heart and soul, ultimately.

It is the quintessential 'trial by fire', with the fire burning away the dross to expose the Love that we, at our hearts, are.

Similarly, the Black Madonna -- the name and face that came to me to teach me through initiation -- wants to liberate our hearts and our minds so we can more fully and joyfully be ourselves, without the masks and heart-freezing armor.

She is our Initiatrix into the Mysteries of life and our own true nature; it is she who teaches us to dance through, rather than fear, uncertainty and the cycles of life, death, and regeneration. Her names are as varied as cultures: Kali, Pele, Black Madonna, Hecate, the initiated Persephone, Sophia...the list goes on.

The poet, author, and scholar Robert Graves (The White Goddess, etc.) wrote that in earlier times, 'black' and 'dark' was synonymous with 'wise' So Black Goddess was the wise Feminine. As a fear-centered culture spread, 'black' and 'dark' became associated with 'evil', as did anything else that wasn't understood.

The Black Madonna, as any fiery, initiating transformation Goddess, is really about wholeness as well as wisdom, and so she is an energy and consciousness that leads us on a path of  recognizing the wholeness we already are, beneath the layers of fear and false belief that we're perpetually flawed 'sinners'. And through that path, we find our wisdom.

As a culture, we're being called to recognize wholeness, and we're called to wisdom, and this is the sacred ground of the Black Madonna, Sophia, by any of her names. And so as a culture we're experiencing a Dark Night of the Soul, an initiation of grand scale.

Remember that what's being birthed is wholeness and wisdom -- that we're able to bring the fullness of our hearts into life.

For those of you who've felt the call, or find yourself on the initiatory path, I've written other entries here at Sophia's Children about my experiences with the Black Madonna, and Sophia; and I'll be writing more.

And my friend Kim Gould and I will be sharing more about the 'Masks' and 'Descent & Initiation' (and Emergence & Integration!) cycles -- and the Black Madonna and others -- in our upcoming "Reclaim your Feminine Mojo & Express it in the World" tele- and eBook series. (Note: the response to our first Summer tele-series was so positive that we're scheduling another one.)

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

Image: Painting of Our Lady of Częstochowska, the Black Madonna favored by the late Pope John Paul II, and used as a symbol of liberation by Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement.

BlogTalk Radio: Magdalene, Leadership & Human Design

Kim Gould of Love Your Design invited me and Wendy Groomes of Rose Light Healing for a BlogTalk Radio show about Mary Magdalene, conscious leadership, and human design (particularly the archetype, symbol, and energy of the asteroid Magdalena). It was an enjoyable, dynamic, and inspiring conversation.

You can listen in (or download the MP3 for the iPod) at Kim's BlogTalk Radio site.

Enjoy!

Love,

Jamie

Image Credit: detail from "Mary Magdalene Removing Her Jewelry", by Alonso del Arco (17th Century)

Remembering Sophia

I just received and have begun reading Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee's new book, The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul - a collection of his talks and writings on the Divine Feminine. In it he writes:

"In a culture that is so steeped in masculine values as ours is, articulating these long-forgotten themes only once may not be enough. There is a need to emphasize her again and again until her qualities once again become part of our relationship to life. The more we are reminded of her, the better she will find a foothold again in our individual consciousness and in our collective culture." (p. xxii)

He also reminds us that Sophia "is a way of relating to life and to oneself and to the divine."

My own journey of remembering Sophia, the Divine Feminine, which has had more than a few messy, uncertain, awkward, and occasionally frightening moments. I've found it true that the more I immerse myself in Her through reading, prayer, meditation, conversation, writing, invocation, and sensing, the more I find myself getting a sense of Her.

This energy and consciousness that we call Sophia, or the Goddess, or Great Mother, or Divine Feminine, has a different way of working in us than the more linear, rational, 'clock and calendar time' to which most of us have been oriented and acclimated.

For me, and perhaps for you, this different way of being, visioning, and accessing guidance and wisdom, and acting from it has been a challenge and a deep practice. Given that we embody the memory of centuries of rather brutal 're-education' that has taken us away from our inherent knowing, sensing, and trusting of the Feminine, of Sophia, it's understandable that remembering takes practice and a willingness to not know, to be awkward.

Unlike the linear, rational, scientific, measurable, mental or intellectual processes, Sophia is circular, relational, sensual, intuitive; Her ways are as much watery fluidity and Mystery as they are a recognizable language and guidance system once we get familiar with them again.
 
Hers are the ways of the intuitive, of connection with all things -- and all things speaking with and to us to provide guidance and clues along the path. They're ways of sensing, of embodying, of receptivity, of conscious use of the imagination and inner/energetic landscape, and of 'letting go to know'. They're experiential and spontaneous, rather than pulled from the tool-and-trick box of the mind's storage house of 'how it's been done' and 'how you should do it'.

Sophia's 'plan' is devoted service to Life and your soul's song, of going within, of receiving guidance on the next step, and of watching what arises around us in the way of clues and signs and synchronicities that lead us forward. Hers is the way of thought and action inspired and guided by the wisdom of the Heart and womb, and the wisdom of life itself.

I don't know about you, but that's pretty different from the analytical, 'think and then do', plan it and will it way that I excelled at!

Yet the adventure of remembering Sophia is crucial, because in remembering her we literal re-member our own wholeness and access the inspiration and guidance necessary for healing and resolving the challenges of our times.

As Vaughan-Lee writes, when we choose to remember, "...we can begin to reclaim the world, not with masculine plans, but with the wisdom of the feminine, the wisdom that belongs to life itself...A world that is not connected to its soul cannot heal. Without the participation of the divine feminine nothing new can be born.

This is as true for our organizations and businesses as it is for each of us individually. It's an experiment, and a homecoming to wholeness.  Remember Sophia -- embody Her, express Her, and bring Her wisdom, guidance, and healing ways into all that you do.

Blessings on the Sophia Way,
Jamie

In the Dark Places of Wisdom

This is the beginning of a book review, primarily because I've just read the first few pages and was deeply affected by what I read. So, book review, part one.

I've picked up In the Dark Places of Wisdom, by Peter Kingsley, several times in a bookstore, only to return it to the shelf. Not quite ready to recognize what I was then in the midst of experiencing. It makes more sense when we have at least partial hindsight.

But when my partner picked up the book as 'required reading' for a Wisdom school session he's attending, and then I saw a profound reference attributed to it in a book I'm reading, I picked it up to get more information on the reference. For a writer, or mystic, this is how research unfolds.

Instead of just going to the page referenced, I dove into the first page and kept reading, seeing the hints to my own journey through a bona fide Dark Night of the Soul and spiritual-soul awakening.

Kingsley writes, "It could be said that this process of awakening is profoundly healing. It is. The only trouble with saying this is that we've come to have such a superficial idea of healing. For most of us, healing is what makes us comfortable and eases the pain. It's what softens, protects us. And yet what we want to be healed of is often what will heal us if we can stand the discomfort and the pain...and if we face it a little longer, we find that it teaches us the way to attain what we long for."

He begins the next chapter with, "If you're lucky, at some point in your life you'll come to a complete dead end. Or to put it another way: if you're lucky you'll come to a crossroads and see that the path to the left leads to hell, that the path to the right leads to hell, that the road straight ahead leads to hell and that if you try to turn around you'll end up in complete and utter hell. Every way leads you to hell and there's no way out, nothing left for you to do. Nothing can possibly satisfy you anymore. Then, if you're ready, you'll start to discover inside yourself what you always longed for but were never able to find."

I don't think I've seen a clearer description of that 'crossroads' - the place that Dante referred to when he wrote "In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in the dark wood where the true way was wholly lost"

This is the territory of Sophia, the Black Madonna, the Dark Goddess. She of Many Names.

Most people run, panicked, in the other direction from such things. As Kingsley notes, our Western culture avoids Dark Nights like the plague and works furiously to stay busy, thriving, 'achieving', and 'plugged in' to some sort of distraction so we don't have to 'go there'. It's uncomfortable, to say the least.

I completely understand; I didn't go into the Dark Night, or dark places of Wisdom, by conscious choice. I went kicking, screaming, and clawing at whatever seemed 'secure' and 'permanent', which didn't end up being very much (at least according to what we've been taught to define as 'secure' or 'permanent.).

Yet as Kingsley points out at the very beginning of his book, the dark places of Wisdom are precisely where we'll find what we most desperately seek. We've just been looking in all the wrong places.

Thankfully, that 'dark road' of initiation is being illuminated once again, by some of us who've traveled it and are reclaiming the lost wisdom of our ancestors. Kinglsey's book seems one meaty bread crumb on the path.

That's definitely cause for celebration.

Blessings and Good Juju,

Jamie

Sophia, By Any of Her Names

As with many things, there are many ways people reference the Divine Feminine. Some connect with Her as The Great Mother, others resonate more with Isis or Mary, or the Black Madonna, and a host of other 'faces' from traditions that grew from the earliest traditions. For me, Sophia seems the most powerful.

I was born on St. Brigid's Day, named after the Christian Saint who Herself grew out of the Goddess Brigid revered by Celtic peoples. Brigid was a fire goddess, and seen as the patron of healers, poets, craftspeople, and blacksmiths.

She provided the fire of inspiration and transformation of one thing to another, whether metals to tools, sickness to wellness, or inspired ideas to writing and poetry and craft.

She has her roots in earlier fire goddesses whose roles were closer to the Great Goddess Danu, the Whole Feminine, the spark or flame at the center of the community, the home, or within us.

Brigid was celebrated at Imbolc, the early February celebration of the spark of fire, of Light, in the midst of Winter. She reminded people that the returning light and life of Spring was already taking root and growing beneath the soil, even in the middle of the darkest season. She reminded that the flame of illumination and light is found at the center of darkness -- the very depths.

Given that I was born on Brigid's Day, and that there is no small alignment between what she symbolized to people in those times (and perhaps to some still), you'd think I might resonate with the Great Feminine by that name and face.

And yet it's to Sophia that I'm called, and return to, again and again. Whether in the power or vibration of the name itself, or because some deep, ancestral, ancient part of me aligns deeply, I am strongly and instantly connected to a power beyond myself, or at least beyond my smaller self.

The connection with Sophia goes beyond any intellectual description of Her, who she was to ancient peoples or in ancient, long-standing traditions, though that's all very interesting. It's always good to know the tradition, while realizing that to get to the core of it we  have to sift through layer upon layer of misrepresentation and ultimately allow it to carry us within, and through our inner connection, to the deep wellspring of Feminine Wisdom.

And that's what the name, or word, Sophia means, stemming from the Greek: Wisdom. Feminine Wisdom. The tradition itself finds its roots in earlier times, with earlier peoples, and She is referenced in 'the Wisdom texts' of the bible, and in other traditions as well, by that name or another.

Yet these are just words that try to capture that which cannot be contained by them. Words allow us to communicate with one another, and name something, yet some things, some great energies, are far beyond words.

As with many things in the Way of the Feminine, we're called beyond words -- though we may use them to describe and connect -- to a deeper knowing, a more embodied experience of that which one name can't possible contain or truly describe. She speaks in a richer, deeper language that was forgotten long ago by most people.

It's difficult for me to find words to describe the connection, the energy, because it is so much a 'full bodied', experiential, energetic one. For me, the connection is powerful, grounding, empowering, and clear, amongst other things. Other people notice the energy as well, though I've not done anything other than connect in some way with Her.

For any of us who are called, and do find our way back to that garden from the cold, dry, linear world of the intellect, it's a tangible, palpable energy, a very real 'conversation', with very real effects.

Though we might find inspiration from all around us, and She is that, too, to truly find Her we must go within, deep within, to the very wellspring within. We must experience Her to know Her, and knowing Her we're transformed and inspired.

Blessings,
Jamie

* Image: Sophia, by the artist Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)

Incubation and Emergence

A very dear friend of mine has a brilliance with word-play. In a recent conversation, the term 'spiritual emergency' came up, and she said, "Emerge and See."

Similarly, in a conversation not long before, I read the word 'nowhere' as 'now here'. Little signs of a mind-shift taking place, like turning to the clock at the exact moment that double or triple digits are on the digital read-out.

Emerge and See. Now Here.

These seem clues to the time we're living in, or rather, clues to navigating, surviving, and perhaps even thriving into these times. A new way of being is required for a ride that seems much kinder than a drag through the cactus patch of resistance to change.

I could hardly believe that two months, more, had passed since my last entry here. I've written in my other blogs and email newsletter but this, the portal and theme and blog that gives voice to and awakens most the themes of the Beloved in my heart, has rested dormant for awhile.

After a moment of self-chastising and an impulse towards analyzing it, I found myself smiling.This is a 'Kairos Moment' -- an example of life in the Via Feminina -- at its best, much aligned with the descriptions of Shakti's cycles of creative action and creative rest.

Periods of going within, periods of seeming fallowness and dormancy, times of creative incubation rather than creative expression, and times when Life takes you elsewhere, always teaching and deepening -- are very much Feminine.

Going quiet to await the next surge of intuitively guided inspiration -- that then takes wings through the activa of expression -- is part and parcel of the Feminine Way.

Letting Life lead you out of the head and its penchant for intellectual knowledge (aka 'book learning') and into the messy, real-deal experiential learning required for actual gnosis, this too is Feminine.

This is so very different than the hyper-Activa way of being that I'd erred towards for much of my adult life, having learned earlier that the Masculine way of logic, analysis, willing things into being (whether they were wise or well-timed or not), 'thinking it through', and 'being productive' ('idle hands are the Devil's work') was rewarded while the ways of the Via Feminina were most assuredly not 'okay', much less valued.

The journey toward re-membering has not been an easy one; nor did I enter that part of my journey willingly or without resistance. But when the Mother calls, one goes whether they want to or not. And in the 'going' we're initiated and remade.

Now, the Feminine Way is -- after much thrashing, angst, and unlearning --  slowly beginning to seem  natural, more predominant, though I can feel that old Activa Addiction lurking near.

As I think back, even during those 'busy, busy willing days', I see that through all of the hefty to-do lists required of 'productivity' and demonstrating that you're busy (and thus important and successful), the few things on that hefty list that were truly effective and successful were the ones that emanated from the Feminine -- my intuition, or a dream, or the spaciousness provided by meditation.

Even then, She was present, trying to call me from struggle and busyness to Grace. What a wild ride that's been!

These days, the Way of Grace calls to me persistently, as a deep yearning that feels like something I remember, somewhere deep in my cellular and soul memory, and so deeply wish to experience again.

Having spelunked the initiation path to the Feminine through the Dark Night of the Soul, I'm becoming aware that the wisest, truest, and most graceful action comes from the incubation time, from the Via Feminina. From there, we emerge and see.

And hearing Kali's thunder, I'll hasten to save this entry now. Perhaps I'll revisit it later, or maybe a new entry will call.

Blessings on the Way,
Jamie

The Sacred Feminine and the Black Madonna

 There's a reason, from what I've gathered, that many (most) people don't know about the Dark Madonna (a term used interchangeably with the Black Madonna).

And if it does come to you, and it does intrigue you, well that's interesting, too.

When you read about 'the Mysteries', such as the Eleusian mysteries, Orphic Mysteries, Delphic Mysteries, and so on, they all contain elements of the Dark Feminine, and the Dark Feminine is the only route to the wisdom of and in the Mystery.

The Dark Feminine is that which can't be accessed by our rational, linear, 'five senses', supposedly 'concrete world' processes. It's the territory of the other senses, seeing with your 'other' eyes, and becoming a traveler between the worlds or dimensions. The calling almost always, no, always, includes some sort of initiation. The old mysteries had rituals for that; in Western culture, we have the dark night of the soul, for a lot of reasons.

How this manifests is unique to each person. What the Black Madonna means to each person, and how different people experience it/her, may differ somewhat. Shamans and mystics know it, the priestesses of old knew it, the modern day priestesses know it, and their brothers -- fellow children of Sophia -- know it as much as they can know it.

Many believe that the Dark Feminine comes to light (yes, I chose those words purposely) when the conditions of the world are on the brink and in a greater need of the deep wisdom, and the passion and purpose it feeds or breeds. One might use the metaphor that if the unbalanced Masculine has run amok, as Patriarchal culture most assuredly has, then the need for the visible and whole Feminine becomes all the more vital. And here we are; now is such a time.

From what I can see -- what I've learned from others, and what I've gleaned from my own experiences -- the 'Black madonna' or Dark Feminine is really the WHOLE feminine -- all of it, including both the 'sweet, compassionate, all-suffering' qualities attributed to the Virgin Mary, AND the often frightening (particularly to certain types of men) unbelievably powerful Black Madonna, the Virgin Mary's alter ego. Other names used over the years and in various cultures are Sophia, Isis, Inanna, Kali, Prima Mater, Tara, the Great Mother, Grandmother Spider, and many more.

The Black Madonna, by any of her names, if you're called, leads (or drags) you out of the safety zone and into the whole of your gifts and purpose and potentials in a world that really, really needs that full, whole expression and the courage required for it. It stands up, speaks out, in whatever ways are appropriate to the person called.

In my case, I'd heard of the Dark Mother, the Dark Goddess, Isis, Inanna, and Sophia, but not the  Black Madonna. And when I became more acquainted with that tradition, I got conked on the head, first literally, and then, several years later, metaphorically. Enter a mystical experience while visiting Vezelay, France, in late 2006, followed by the coup de grace in Barcelona. There was no going back. As they say in Lord of the Rings, The way (back) is shut. You can go forward, or stand there turning in circles until you realize you have to go forward -- to find doorways you can't see into a 'forward' you don't yet know intellectually. I've turned a few circles... :)

While visiting various sacred places where the dark goddess and Black Madonna have been 'protected' and beloved, I started hearing what would become a pattern of observation about how the former Sacred  places of the goddess cultures, the Nature-connected cultures, were 'marked' and overtaken by the Church -- Patriarchal culture, in which, by the way, the former had Her protectors and devotees. So you have these enormous stone buildings set right, squarely on top of these places, which often had  deep wells where people gathered. The wells, and the Black Madonnas, were often deep in the bowels of the churches, accessible only for very short periods of time with a chaperone, or accessible only to certain priests. The power of the Feminine Wisdom being hoarded.

 In Turkey in late 2000, I experienced for the first time in memory a radical awareness of being 'outside of time' and completely in the present moment. Then, in Vezelay in late 2005, I once again experienced first-hand and without expectation -- though in a slightly different way -- what it is to be fully present. And there, I heard in no uncertain terms that that was where the power of the Sacred Feminine is. Right in the place between a healed 2nd chakra and a healed, or opened, heart. Right at the Womb, which is the 'center of power' or 'sea of chi' in various long-standing traditions. And so there, in Vezelay, I was initiated into the path of sensuous presence. Full-sensory presence.

Moving on to Spain from France, I went to Montserrat, where access to a very famous Black Madonna is very controlled, almost hilariously so (given where my mind was). I was aware that I needed to notice this, and that's why I was there.

Then, while wandering the older section of Barcelona, I suddenly started walking very purposely. I had no idea where I was going, but something did. I really felt like I was being reeled in. I walked in this way until I came to an old and very modest basilica, where as soon as I arrived someone standing near the door opened the door for me. I didn't even stop. I walked half-way down the center aisle, turned left, and found myself face to face with an 'off the list' black madonna. Right there, hidden in plain sight in the midst of what was humble, and accessible to whomever found their way. It blew me away.

And as I've written in my journals and in private communiques to several friends, by that Black Madonna I sat down and cried.

And I heard, "Your work is to help free me from the prison of Patriarchy, so that I'm once again accessible to any who seek me."

I get chills even now, because that's how powerful and clear it is. Needless to say, that's a question that I've been living into since. It really is living into the mystery. I have no clue where it will lead me, but leading me it is, as it's leading and calling to many -- calling us, awakening us out of our path of destruction, out of our torpor, and into a new engagement, a new full-sensory presence.

Blessings,

Jamie

* Photo taken at Montserrat Abbey, Barcelona, Spain

* Magdalene at the Cross, as it appears in the Convent at Le Baume, France

Who is the Black Madonna?

 The Black Madonna. Now there's a topic. My introduction to the Black Madonna started with a trip to France and Spain in October 2005 that came together on very short notice, with many synchronicities and me actually following intuition in something that I would have just rationalized myself out of earlier.

A serious pivot point, that, in so many more ways that I would have guessed, though I've since learned that 'pivot', 'transformation', and Dark Madonna are very much linked.

I'd never heard of the term 'Black Madonna', at least not in this lifetime. But the Dark Feminine I'd become familiar with during the several years prior, and they're really one and the same.

The Black Madonna, or Dark Madonna, is the 'Dark Feminine' counterpart of the Virgin Mary, and has been protected (or hoarded, depending on your perspective) by the Catholic church, and specifically the mystics of the Church. Who knew, eh? The late Pope John Paul II was a devotee of the Black Madonna in the face of Our Lady of Czestochova, though not in his mass-communication. And the Pope was not the first to do so, nor was he alone in his communion with the Black Madonna-Whole Sophia.

If you knit the Virgin Mary and the Black Madonna together, you've got the re-membered Sacred Feminine in all of her glory -- Sophia, the Feminine counterpart to the Masculine 'God' (She who was there in the beginning, before all things, according to Genesis 1; whose Voice echoes through the bible's Wisdom texts; and for whom Jesus, and others, were self-acknowledged emissaries).

The Dark Feminine -- symbolized in one aspect by the Black Madonna -- is the deep mystery, the deep Unseen, deep wisdom, deep Nature, sacred sexuality/sensuality (in all that the term means), the deep well from which life and creativity spring. The Mysteries, in short-hand. And some would say the 'deep power'. The Knowing of Sophia, along with Father God, is woven deep within our collective psyche and the ancestral memory within our very flesh and bones. And so is the fear of remembering and acknowledging Her publically.

It's all still unfolding for me. I could see how 'it' or She or whatever you want to call it had been calling to me for a long time before that, but I was really reeled in as I wandered through France and then finally in Barcelona, which was a wild story in itself -- a 'Black Madonna speaks to Jamie' story that came with an assignment -- the first of several received since..

In the time since late-2005, the gnosis has deepened and I have had other communions and communiques with and from Sophia, and I have heard from many women, and a few men, who are feeling, hearing, and seeing her call to them -- Sophia's Children. I have written about some of them here, and will continue to do so. The time has come to step out of the shadows and share, publically.

Blessings,

Jamie

* Photo of Our Lady of Czestochova, taken at Czestochova

Scary Black Madonna-Goddess?

Many people find the Black Madonna or Dark Goddess frightening. Indeed, fear of what Black Madonna-Dark Goddess represents is one major factor in the suppression of the Whole Divine Feminine, and the backlash of cruelty and violence that seems to accompany the fearful efforts to control that power.

But is the Black Madonna and Dark Goddess frightening?

Certainly one might conclude so, based on the teachings of some prominent persons who speak and write about this Divine manifestation of the Deep Feminine.

Listening to certain teachers, who go on at length about the suffering, the crucifixion, the Dark Night of the Soul that the Dark Mother drags you into, it becomes clear why some might be terrified by Her even while being called to deeper exploration.

My perspective differs a bit, though it's one that emerges, ironically, only after a deep, Dark Night and the first tentative steps towards integrating the wisdom gained from it. Let me share it by starting with a story.

In ancient cultures where the Goddess was worshipped, some high priestesses would wear frightening masks at certain rituals, to scare away those who were not prepared to be there, or to show those who were supposed to be there where fear resided within them.

If you were privy, you knew it was just a mask. If you were not privy, and perhaps there out of 'parlor game' curiosity or a desire to do harm, you would be scared away by what might seem to you a Demon.

These masks and rituals were later translated -- by those who were not privy, and not prepared to be there, but who were covetous of the power of the priestesses and priests and the powerful rituals -- as Demons. High Priestess, Wise Woman, thus became the 'old hag' and Demon. A handy little story to mislead those who might find their way to that which could truly liberate; a handy story to keep people in fear and ignorance.

Fear has always been a mighty gatekeeper, which is why liberation from fear has always been a core tenet of wisdom teachings (and why true wisdom teachings have always been dangerous to those greedy to keep their worldly power).

But beneath the mask, Wisdom. On the other side of Fear, heart-centered Power and Wholeness for those who have the tenacity and dedication to walk the path, or live The Way.

In my experience, it's similar with the Black Madonna - Dark Goddess. She calls you to Her, and there are High Priestesses and Priests who keep the Way, perhaps wearing frightening masks to test one's true intentions and call to heartful courage.

Even if Dark Madonna - Dark Goddess speaks to us Herself, she may don the masks we need to see. This isn't to frighten us away, at least not permanently. It's more to show us that which keeps us away, keeps us separate from Her and from the Unity and Wholeness that come through Her and by Her -- through and by embodying the energies and traits associcated with the Deep, Whole Feminine.

So if we delve slightly into the waters of the Divine Feminine, and see the face of the Dark Madonna, Dark Goddess on the path, we may indeed be frightened. She may show us a mask of anger, fierceness, horror, cruelty, or apathy.

But these are more mirrors than masks or Her core ways, in that they show us what is within us that needs to be healed, released, and nurtured and nourished back to Wholeness.

If we are angry, she will appear so. If we're fear-full, she will frighten us. If we need to own our Power, She will come as Power, or Fierceness personaified.

However, it is not Her that creates or fosters these experiences and qualities; it is not the Dark Madonna or Dark Goddess who 'drags us into the Dark Night', but rather She who meets us there, guides us even though we may not see, and waits for us, holding the lantern in the darkness, and guiding us to Wisdom and Engaged Wisdom in the dawn.

A Dark Night of the Soul may be the necessary terrain through which we walk in order to shake the armor and trappings of Ego, which keep us from Wholeness and living in the Way of our birthright as Children of God/dess -- Children of Sophia. But Wisdom keeps the Way, and shows the Way, and is the Way.

When we have cleared or seen through the masks that frighten and keep us from wholeness, we see the Dark Madonna-Dark Goddess's fierce compassion, nurturing, loving, Whole being, and know -- not just through the playground of mental or intellectual concept, but through embodied knowing that comes from walking the Way.

Blessings,

Jamie

Explore the Dark Madonna and other archetypal energies of the Feminine in the Feminine Mojo Mystery School.

Image Credits: Black Madonna, 19th Century, Artist Unknown (Friends House Moscow); Medusa, Franz Stuck; Sin, Franz Stuck; Memory, Elihu Vedder.