Mary Magdalene returns–as the Black Madonna!
I am deeply interested in the Black Madonna. I can blame it on Alessandra Belloni’s glorious book, Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna which I received from her publisher Inner Traditions this spring. When I read Matthew Fox’s foreword praising Alessandra’s communion with the divine feminine to the hilt, I dove right in.
And from page one, my heart started thumping in recognition of something I couldn’t name or intellectually identify. My heart just kept telling me that the Black Madonna is THE Madonna.
In perfect synchronicity, at the exact same time that I was devouring stories about the miraculous heart of the Black Madonna, Rev Meghan Don and I were leading an intensive called Praying with and as Mary Magdalene.
That intensive changed everything. Everything. But in the mysterious way of the divine feminine, transformation was happening at the soul-ular and cellular level without any of us knowing it.
The radical shift began to happen on opening night when Meghan told the story of her personal encounter with the Magdalene. Meghan was deep in prayer on an Easter morning when she saw Jesus and Magdalene come forward in front of the altar and begin to dance. Then Jesus stepped aside to let Meghan bask in the Magdalene’s exquisite moving love-prayer.
When the Magdalene finished dancing, she stepped forward, looked into Meghan's eyes, and said:
It’s time to trust in love again
It’s time to surrender to love again
It’s time to offer yourself to love
My heart stopped. So did everyone’s. The Magdalene's words entered my body and planted a love seed for all that has happened since.
- At the time I could never have imagined that Magdalene and Jesus would wake me two months later screaming that I do something about the migrant internment camps. (I leapt out of bed and created They Are All Our Children.)
- Or that she would surface on the page in June to plant the seed of Goddess Rising initiation ceremony. (coming next Spring.)
- Or that she would impregnate me with a command to “make love visible” three weeks ago on the dark moon at end of August. (I’m working on that right now.)
I only know that the Magdalene was completely present in that May intensive and I was hungry for more. We were all hungry for more.
I thought Meghan and I could create a new Mary Magdalene intensive in 2020. For now, the plan was to create an intensive on the Black Madonna, who, thanks to Meghan's extensive travels in France and Italy, she knows as intimately as she knows the Magdalene.
So I asked Meghan to lead us in a Black Madonna intensive for October, and we’d revisit the Magdalene next year.
At least that was my plan. But of course I’m not in charge, the Magdalen is.
And Mary Magdalene told Meghan to bring her back AS the Black Madonna!
Of course! There is no separation. Neither Meghan or I saw that coming, but if you look at images of Mary Magdalene, like the one on the cover of Alessandra Belloni’s Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna, the Magdalene is a Black Madonna indeed.
So Meghan and I got together on Zoom, the video teaching platform I use, to talk about creating Mary Magdalene as the Black Madonna. Over Meghan’s shoulder I could see a gorgeous statue of a black Madonna. Meghan smiled and introduced me to Our Lady of Loreto, the perfect guide for our fusion of the Magdalene as the face of the Black Mother.
So my October prayer intensive will bring these two ultimate mystical mothers together in one very deep dive into The Mystical Body of the Divine Feminine, speaking to us through the stories, wisdom, and meditations of Rev Meghan Don who is recognized worldwide as the voice of the Divine Feminine.
Click to visit the intensive page. The image for the intensive is Our Lady of Loreto.
Mary Magdalene as the Black Madonna
Be sure to watch the video Meghan and I made to get a taste for the deep communion we will all experience with Mary Magdalene in her 3 black mother faces of guardian, justice, and healing--everything our earth needs right now.
We open Monday, October 7 at 7pm eastern, and meet for 3 Mondays. Everything is recorded so don't be concerned if you can't be with us live.
Details, schedule, and registration are all on the intensive page.
We were over 80 in the first Mary Magdalene intensive plus 25 more who purchased the intensive on demand, so this prayer intensive will fill quickly.
Mary Magdalene as the Black Madonna
to trusting in love again,
Janet