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Author: Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba
Publisher:
Published: 2009-01-01
Total Pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9780826341037
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis richly illustrated study examines how the Black Madonna has become a symbol of national identity, resistance against oppression, and empowerment for the female populations of such diverse cultures as Poland and Cuba.
Author: Alessandra Belloni
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2019-04-02
Total Pages: 574
ISBN-13: 1591433436
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn experiential guide to the ancient healing rituals of the Black Madonna • Reveals the practices and rites of the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy, including the healing rites of the tarantella dance • Details shamanic chants, rhythms, and songs and how to use them for self-healing, transformation, and recovery from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction • Explores the many sacred sites of the Madonnas and connects them to other Great Goddesses, such as Isis, Aphrodite, Cybeles, and the Orisha Yemanja and Ochun • Includes access to 12 audio tracks The mysteries of the Black Madonna can be traced to pre-Christian times, to the ancient devotion to Isis, the Earth Goddess, and the African Mother, to the era when God was not only female but also black. Sacred sites of the Black Madonna are still revered in Italy, and, as Alessandra Belloni reveals, the shamanic healing traditions of the Black Madonna are still alive today and just as powerful as they were millennia ago. Sharing her more than 35 years of research and fieldwork at sacred sites around the world, Belloni takes you on a mystical pilgrimage of empowerment, initiation, and transformation with the Black Madonna. She explains how her love for Italian folk music led her to learn the ancient tammorriata musical tradition of the Earth Goddess Cybele and the Moon Goddess Diana and discover the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy. She vividly describes the sensual shamanic drumming and ecstatic trance dance rituals she experienced there, including the rites of the tammorriata, the transgender rite of Femminielli, and the erotic “spider dance” of the tarantella, which has been used for centuries in the Mediterranean for healing. Sharing chants, rhythms, and sacred songs, she details how she uses these therapeutic musical and trance practices to heal women and men from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction and shows how these practices can be used for self-healing and transformation, including her personal story of using the tarantella to overcome cervical cancer. Revealing the profound transformative power of the Black Madonna, Belloni shows how She is the womb of the earth, the dark side of the moon, and the Universal Mother to all. Truly alive for all to call upon, She embraces and gives everyone access to Her divine strength and unconditional love.
Author: Brando Skyhorse
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-02-08
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 1439170843
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWe slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours. With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife. The Esperanzas’ shifting lives connect with those of various members of their neighborhood. A day laborer trolls the streets for work with men half his age and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; a religious hypocrite gets her comeuppance when she meets the Virgin Mary at a bus stop on Sunset Boulevard; a typical bus route turns violent when cultures and egos collide in the night, with devastating results; and Aurora goes on a journey through her gentrified childhood neighborhood in a quest to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican Americans dream of, "the land that belongs to us again." Like the Academy Award–winning film Crash, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles. In the footsteps of Junot Díaz and Sherman Alexie, Brando Skyhorse in his debut novel gives voice to one neighborhood in Los Angeles with an astonishing— and unforgettable—lyrical power.
Author: Jean Markale
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Published: 2004-10-27
Total Pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9781594770203
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExplores the connection between ancient druidic worship of a virgin at Chartres and the veneration of the Black Madonna • Examines the Virgin Mary’s origins in the pagan worship of the Mother Goddess • Identifies Mary with the dominant solar goddess of matriarchal societies The great cathedral of Chartres is renowned the world over as a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture and for its remarkable stained glass, considered alchemical glass, and its mystical labyrinth. But the sacred foundations of this sanctuary go back to a time long before Christianity when this site was a clearing where druids worshiped a Virgo Paritura: a virgin about to give birth. This ancient meeting place, where all the druids in Gaul gathered once a year, now houses the magnificent Chartres cathedral dedicated both to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and to one of the most venerated Black Madonnas in Europe: Our Lady of the Pillar. Coincidence? Hardly, says Jean Markale, whose exhaustive examination of the site traces Chartres’ roots back to prehistoric times and the appeal of the Black Madonna back to the ancient widespread worship of Mother Goddesses such as Cybele and Isis. Markale contends that the mother and child depicted by the Black Madonna are descended from the image worshipped by the druids of the Virgin forever giving birth. This image is not merely a representation of maternal love--albeit of a spiritual nature. It is a theological notion of great refinement: the Virgin gives birth ceaselessly to a world, a God, and a humanity in perpetual becoming.
Author: Davis Bunn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2010-09-07
Total Pages: 338
ISBN-13: 1439164894
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFollowing the internationally acclaimed Gold of Kings, Storm Syrrell returns in the compelling story of The Black Madonna. Antiques expert Storm Syrrell heads to Europe to investigate the clandestine trade in religious artifacts. She dismisses superstitious tales of miraculous healings and divine omens. Yet when an obsessive Russian oligarch calls—just as her friend Harry Bennett vanishes—all assumptions must be cast aside. Storm seeks answers in a medieval monastery. There, the scarred visage of an icon provokes ever more startling questions. Is she prepared to confront both earthly and spiritual powers? Storm remains haunted by lessons in love and betrayal that lie just outside her grasp. But hesitation now holds mortal consequences.
Author: Ean Begg
Publisher: Chiron Publications
Published: 2017-01-01
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 1630514411
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Robert Maniura
Publisher: Boydell Press
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9781843830559
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA case study of the meaning and purpose of pilgrimage, based on the image of the 'scarred Virgin', Our Lady of Czestochowa. The tradition of pilgrimage to an image is so well-established as to be taken for granted. Throughout Christian history large numbers of people have made journeys to images associated with miracles, yet the phenomenon has never been a subject of detailed scholarly scrutiny. This book explores the issue through a case study of the origins of pilgrimage to one such image, Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland. The shrine remains one of the most prominent pilgrimage destinations in the Catholic world: the striking focal panel painting shows the Virgin Mary with an apparently scarred face, and the legend of the picture's origin claims that it was painted by St Luke and desecrated by iconoclasts. The author assesses the significance of the stories attached to the shrine, and goes beyond them to consider the practices and responses of the pilgrims. Drawing on the earliest surviving miracle collections, he also explores the interaction between the pilgrims and the image of the 'scarred' Virgin. ROBERT MANIURA is Lecturer in the History of Renaissance Art, Birkbeck College, University of London.
Author: Mark Benjamin Godfrey
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781942884170
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPublished on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at Tate Modern, London, July 12-October 22, 2017; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, February 3-April 23, 2018; and Brooklyn Museum, New York, September 7, 2018-February 3, 2019.
Author: Nic Phillips
Publisher:
Published: 2021-02-26
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781905297832
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this exceptional study of the Black Madonna, author, scholar and artist Nic Phillips leads you on a pilgrimage through the history, myth, practice and modern relevance of her many images around the world and asks astute questions about how they have been interpreted and misinterpreted over the centuries. As though restoring the artefacts themselves, he gently strips away layers of supposition and imposition to show the truth beneath, but also looks to the value of the later meanings and significance accrued by these sacred portrayals of a Black Virgin. Starting with one of the most famous of her statues in Chartres, France and then casting light on the less explored phenomenon of syncretic worship within the African and Indian diasporas, we learn how the mysterious Black Madonna became equated with Dark Goddesses such as Kali, the primal fury of the Vodou Lwa Ezili Dantor, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Taking us into an in-depth exploration of a figure who has been interpreted as both Mary Magdalene and various Orisha, this expertly-researched book shows what a powerful figure this Dark Mother remains throughout the world as a symbol of the strength and liberation of the oppressed. Whilst many existing books on this subject have focused mainly on myths which have grown within the European Grail tradition, Breaking Chains embraces both a personal journey and an objective approach to finding the real power behind the Black Madonna, not only mythically and historically but politically. In a fascinating and accessible work, including his own extraordinary paintings inspired by statues and stories around the world, Nic Phillips shows that the Black Madonna is the focus for a living, breathing, evolving movement, and is perhaps even more relevant today than ever before.
Author: Debra Dean
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2009-10-13
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 0061747181
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“An unforgettable story of love, survival and the power of imagination in the most tragic circumstances. Elegant and poetic.” —Isabel Allende, New York Times bestselling author of Zorro The ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye. Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping. As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind—a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . . “Extraordinary. . . . Dean’s exquisite prose shimmers . . . illuminating us to the notion that art itself is perhaps our most necessary nourishment.” —Chang-Rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Aloft and Native Speaker “A poignant tale.” —Booklist, starred review “Dean writes with passion and compelling drama.” —People “Rare is the novel that creates that blissful forgot-you-were-reading experience . . . but that is precisely what Debra Dean has achieved with her image-rich book.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Poetic.” —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review “[A] heartfelt debut.” —New York Times Book Review “Remarkable”— NPR, Nancy Pearl Book Review
