Darkness is something we seem to be afraid of for the last several hundred years. Most fairy tales prime us to fear dark forests and the night in general. Personally, I have always welcomed the dark, in fact I prefer Autumn and Winter for those reasons. I feel much calmer in the dark, and find excessive sunlight quite overwhelming. I was on the Arctic Circle one June, and the sun barely set for a few hours, our hotel had blackout curtains so we could rest, and I was not comfortable with the situation at all.

On this weeks Black Madonna Speaks, I interviewed Clark Strand, author of many books on various aspects of spirituality and religion. His latest new edition of a book originally released in 2015, was of all places, suggested to me via Amazon recommendations. At the same time, I had been contacted to do an interview on Home to Her, and the host, Liz Childs Kelly, was a personal friend of Strand and his wife, Perdita Finn. Kelly connected us, and the rest is history.

It was an extraordinary interview, but I find all people associated with The Black Madonna to be extraordinary. What I found the most intriguing about this book, is that it really fills in the gaps for me personally on what/who exactly The Black Madonna is specifically. Obviously, I have great faith and devotion to the many narratives surrounding these images, but I often wonder what exactly is going on, as I am trained in sciences.

Strand's experience confirms not only my own experiences, but countless ones both historically and currently.

It really is worth a read, and the podcast is worth a listen.