The Black Madonna Speaks New Podcast

 

Dear Heart of the Black Madonna Blog Subscribers and Friends!

It has been a good long while since I posted anything. It was not for lack of trying or desire. The Pandemic upended my existence on numerous levels, and it has taken me this long to find gainful employment and housing in order to create the opportunity to share my discoveries regarding The Black Madonna and The Divine Feminine. To my utter joy and immense satisfaction (mixed in with a good measure of relief for what it signifies) I am finally able to create and post a Podcast. Available through the Anchor podcast platform. As I am for all intents and purposes a one middle aged tech impaired lady that has to figure everything out via Youtube and Google search, the Podcast should soon be available wherever one finds such things.

As a taste for my readers, I am posting the transcript of the first official The Black Madonna Speaks Podcast. At the end of this post, there will be a link to the Anchor platform, where you can listen and download to your hearts content. Please subscribe and if you are so moved, you can support the endeavor through Patreon as a sustaining patron, or through a one time donation at paypal.me/BlackMadonnaHeart. For those who donate over $20 through PayPal, you will receive transcripts and Black Madonna monographs on upcoming episodes for one year.  

Welcome back to The Black Madonna Speaks with me your host, Stephanie Georgieff. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable time with me, and for those who have subscribed, thank you and a special thanks to my patron supporters, especially Linda Rheinschild, Jerrilyn Brusseau and Hettienne Grobler and Jennifer Johnson Lee whose sustained generosity and patience these past several years has made my writings as well as this podcast possible. For those of you who would like to support the podcast, please visit Patreon at The Black Madonna Speaks https://www.patreon.com/join/TheBlackMadonnaSpeaks?for more information on how to do that, and also please spread the word, share with your friends whom you think would benefit from this timely and nourishing exploration.

For the next few weeks, The Black Madonna Speaks will cover the history, lore, artistic presentation and narratives surrounding the Black Madonna as an artistic genre. In the coming months, I will be honored to share with you some of our modern day artists and authors surrounding the Black Madonna. There are various websites, institutions and such that celebrate and document the Black Madonna as well as numerous studies and personal reflections on the subject. For me, it has been this marvelous journey, a tandem experience of deepening my relationship with the Spiritual World through a feminine context, but also a fascinating journey as to the origins of Christianity as reflected through art. The goal of my work is to share and inspire. In no way do I claim to be the expert on anything other than how to make a delicious omelette, and my presentations are from my conclusions based on my research with a bit of intuition and imagination mixed in. My hope is that our explorations will spark  in you a desire to delve more deeply into the mysteries of The Black Madonna yourself. The only “wrong “ way to understand the Black Madonna is that she might be an agent of oppression, which honestly I have yet to see any sort of utilization of this image to oppress anyone. If anything, an image of Divinity presented with dark skin seems to be quite liberating to all who would witness such a gesture.

The main  tenet of my study of the Black Madonna comes from Rudolf Steiner, philosopher and clairvoyant, who for me has opened up a cosmic tableau as to how to contextualize and comprehend the Cosmic Christ.  

In a lecture cycle entitled The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man, Steiner states that “Art is the creation of organs through which the gods are able to speak to humanity.” 

If this is true, and I personally accept it as truth, then what specifically are these Black Madonnas conveying to us, not only at the time of their creation but  in our modern times? 

So how do we decipher what these images are saying to us? Obviously, one can, but one’s own prejudices as well as cultural and spiritual spins can influence perceptions on what the gods are trying to say to us through The Black Madonna. I officially have always stated that I am unabashedly biased towards mystical Christianity. I am also a scientist, and somewhat of a historian. My scientific background informs how I seek answers to questions. I honestly think being trained in natural medicine, specifically Naturopathy and Chinese Medicine, creates quite a method for looking at correspondences as well as the etiology of any subject. Obviously, correlation does not always mean causality, but in many instances it really is quite revealing and cause for reflection when one looks at the timing of certain events, where they are happening and also who is involved.

I was asked years ago to speak on The Black Madonna at a local workshop at the Anthroposophical Society of Los Angeles community center. I had recently written a paper on the subject for a program I was enrolled in, on Spirituality and Culture, which included numerous interviews and literature searches at the time. What fascinated me in my original study was why these obviously non-European looking images were all over Europe, especially when the bulk of the population was Caucasian, and not what one called global travellers, in fact much of the population never went more than a few miles from their villages or cities. 

At the time I was doing my initial research, the internet was just forming. One of the few online options to study the Black Madonna was the University of Dayton Ohio, Marian Library page. In the introduction section, the page stated that many Black Madonnas in Europe made their way to the continent in the hands of returning Crusaders and Knights Templar. I found this absolutely fascinating, and noticed my other academic, art history and spiritual research did not focus on this particular thread. 

To be honest, as an American protestant, I had only been exposed to mostly Renaissance religious art through famous painters of the era; Michelangelo, Rafael and Da Vinci to name a few. Modern Madonnas ran the gamut of racial expression, but were usually dependent on where they were created, say Mexican Madonnas looked Mexican and so on. The color of the skin of a Madonna never was in my consciousness. Since the historical mother of Jesus was from Palestine during the Roman occupation, as well as being a Jew, I always thought that she probably had brown skin, dark hair and eyes typical of the people of her region. Since I am European American, skin color for me never meant anything,  meaning I never gave a second thought to images of pale, pink cheeked, blond, blue eyed Madonnas. There was also an undercurrent that Christianity was something Europeans “Did” to other continents, meaning, Christianity was brought with explorers and colonizers and forced upon locals populations, further justified with European depictions of Christian divinity placed in churches and schools across Asia, Africa and the Americas.

With my research, and again what I will be presenting are my findings and discoveries, obviously there may be other perceptions as well as discoveries, much of what I assumed to be true in terms of the history of Christianity as well the evolution of art, was deeply challenged by the genre of The Black Madonna. So many threads, so many aspects, so many delightful digressions in terms of the evolution of the mysteries, the Divine Feminine, ancient Christianity and even science and astronomy. 

So many questions, and the answers for me just keep coming, it truly is the never ending story as to humanity’s purpose in the cosmos in relation to the spiritual world. 

So what is a Black Madonna specifically? The term Black Madonna is a label of an artistic genre applied to dark skinned and black images of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus, a dark Madonna in Europe to be specific. Some groups find the term offensive, making a point to identify skin color, no one says “white madonna” when referring to such works of art, why just Black when the Madonna is not European, they are all Madonnas. Obviously on one level this is true, but I am not in charge of academic nomenclature regarding genre’s, so apologies extended to those who feel excluded by the title Black Madonna. Since it is currently the title of this genre, I will use it for the foreseeable future. 

One of my first “discoveries” concerning the Black Madonna was a paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science on December 28th 1952. While there were many Black Madonnas in Europe, it was a curiosity as to what they were representing. A study was commenced regarding about 100 Black Madonnas in Europe. The study categorized these works of art into three groups.

First Category: Madonnas who were created by artists in North Africa and resembled the physiognomy of their creators. The Coptic monks of North Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia started their migrations to Europe in the 4^th century and brought their art with them. Starting in the 7^th century, when Islamic incursions began in earnest in the Arabian Peninsula as well as Africa, the migrations of clergy increased.

Second Category: Images of the Madonna and Child that were centuries old, and darkened by candle smoke and grime of the centuries. I like to say, a thousand years on an altar does something to a gal’s skin.

Third Category: There is no known reason why the images are black or dark.

The kicker is that the last category has the most Madonnas in it. This fact, coupled with the relationship with the Knights Templar I found quite intriguing.

When I planned my original presentation, my initial thesis was to see when these madonnas were created, by whom and what the stars were saying during the time of their creation. I wanted to explore Astrosophy, which is spiritual in nature, not predictive, emotional or qualitative such as Astrology, or materialistic which is Astronomy. Astrosophy conveys what the angelic world is relaying to humanity at a certain time, I have found it quite profound in terms of understanding historical events, what was going on during the American Civil War for instance, or what were the stars saying whilst Rafael was painting the Sistine Madonna. In my book on The Virgin of Guadalupe, I have a section on the Astrosophy of the apparitions of Guadalupe, absolutely fascinating, so I thought I would study a couple of famous Black Madonnas and do the same thing.

What I found out was that few if any Black Madonnas have any artist associated with them. If there is an artist, it is the author of the Luke Gospel, the Evangelist Luke. In fact, there were only guesstimates in terms of the dates of the creation of the images, and many of the Black Madonnas who were not brought by the Crusaders or Knights Templar have stories of discoveries. In future podcasts, I will present the narratives of many Black Madonnas, and you will come to see what I am talking about. 

So we have several “migrations” of Black Madonnas to the European Continent. 

Some Black Madonnas were discovered by St Helen of the Cross, the mother of Constantine the Great, who went on Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 4^th Century. Helen is a fascinating character, whose story we will also explore in future segments. For now, what we need to realize is that Helen was one of the first Christian patrons of art and architecture. She is credited for “discovering” all the sites of Christ’s life and deeds, as well as where Mary, Mary Magdalen and certain Old Testament characters lived or experienced miracles in Israel, Egypt and Palestine. The famous Polish Black Madonna, our Lady of Czestachowa is reported to have been discovered by Helen and brought back to the Byzantine Court. 

Many Black Madonnas had their origins either in Byzantium or Asia Minor and North Africa, and traveling through Byzantium before going into Eastern and Western Europe. 

As we said before, the Monks of North Africa started their migrations in the 4^th through the 7^th Centuries and brought their art with them.

Many of the Byzantine and North African Madonnas adorned churches and shrines throughout Europe, but were hidden as the Muslim incursions spread through Europe. This is quite evident in the Iberian Peninsula, what is now modern Spain, and somewhat true in the South of what is now Modern France. 

With the Crusades, there was a large group of Black Madonnas which both returning Crusaders as well as the Knights Templar brought with them to the Continent. This happened in the 12^th through early 14^th centuries. From the time of the 9^th Century through to the French Revolution, Dark Madonnas became quite the draw for Pilgrims. It is of note, and we will explore this theme quite thoroughly in future programs, that both personal Black Madonnas as well as famous ones in Shrines and Cathedrals, are placed along sacred sites on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. There is a remarkable correspondence between the location of the shrines, cathedrals, and churches where there are Black Madonnas and star networks, say the Virgo constellation or the Milky Way. 

What does the French Revolution have to to with Black Madonnas? Quite a bit. While the rallying cry of Freedom Equality and Fraternity was the theme of the revolution, what was also true was a violent reaction occurred against the institutionalized church at the time. Ordinary people called the revolution the reign of terror, where mob and military frenzies created pop up instant courts with Justice and executions instantaneously and randomly applied to everyone. The Napoleonic soldiers had a strange fondness for burning Black Madonna statues in the middle of towns where their shrines were located. It seems that the terror inspired the re-hiding of many images until cooler and less violent heads prevailed. Black Madonnas who were burnt include the silver gilt statue at Chartres Cathedral as well as the Black Madonna of Le Puy en Velay. The Black Madonna at Einsiedeln was hidden so that the invading soldiers would not burn her. Luckily, there were many copies as well as drawings of the original Black Madonnas that enabled artists of the day to create similar images for future generations to venerate. In the case of the Madonna at Einsiedeln, she was one of the Madonnas that was dark due to age, and was painted white before being placed back in the shrine. The locals had a fit and the monks painted Einsiedeln very black, and she is venerated to this day as the Black Madonna of the Germanic peoples. 

The Black Madonnas went with Spanish and French colonists to the Americas and beyond. These Madonnas have interesting stories of survival, of shipwrecks, storms and such. 

In the 1980’s there was a resurgence in awareness of Black Madonnas across the world. While Europe had always treasured these Madonnas, the political situation in Eastern Europe, specifically Poland highlighted their presence. Lech Walensa of the Solidarity movement was inspired by Our Lady of Częstochowa and she became a focal point of resistance to the communist government. Pope John Paul the Second was a Polish Pope, and he was also dedicated to The Black Madonna of Poland, Częstochowa. China Galland wrote Longing for Darkness, and Ean Begg wrote the Cult of the Black Virgin, both books are classics in the Black Madonna literature awakening the West to what the East and the South always knew regarding these Madonnas. In the Secret Life of Bees, there is a remarkable story of a Black Madonna entwined in the narrative, while the Black Madonna adorns the jars of Honey of the heroine of the story. 

As our era is one of reckoning on many levels, The Black Madonna is becoming a healing image for the marginalized, specifically those who suffer the devastating consequences of racism. In my own journey, I have found that these images are healing to everyone as they portray divinity as dark. Such images convey the inclusive and universal quality of Divinity, that often gets lost in materialism and politics. For me, as I have said before, I find these images as a portal to a deep message from the spiritual world, that we are treasured and encouraged, that we are to participate in the cosmic unfolding of the universe, the universe of agape. 

I hope my reflections warm your soul and inspire your spirit as we delve into the many mysteries of the Black Madonna. Make sure to follow me on twitter @BlMadonna, like me on Facebook at The Heart of the Black Madonna, Instagram of the same name and subscribe to this Podcast. If you are so moved, please become a patron, either sustaining or a one time donation, every penny is appreciated and goes towards helping to create this podcast. 

Tune in next time, where we will explore the artistic presentation of The Black Madonna and possible meanings of her many symbolic gestures regarding the timing of the discoveries, migrations, the placements and the images as a whole. Since art is the method by which the Gods are speaking to humanity, what a message the Black Madonnas are sharing!

Until next time: This is Stephanie Georgieff wishing you many blessings on your journey

Please visit Anchor Podcasts for all new episodes!

https://anchor.fm/stephanie-georgieff

Fear Not for I am With You Always

 

Ozeryanskaya icon, Kharkhiv, Ukraine

                                                         Our Lady of Kazan, Moscow, Russia

I have never understood why war unites like nothings else on earth. The word is often used in promotional slogans for certain things such as eradicating diseases, addictions or economic class. In Christian cosmology, the word is also used for events between good and evil forces. We are told that a great war in heaven occurred and the vanquished spirits of negativity fell to earth, where they seem to have found quite a home in the practice and experience of war.

The word and practice of war is a profound one, in that it is essentially the legally and culturally accepted perpetration of mass violence. Behaviors that would be unthinkable in normal circumstances, are cheered on in war. Everything stops, everything is crystal clear, everyone knows their place and acts accordingly. 

Religion plays an interesting role in war. The unbelievers and those who find ritual tedious fall into place, uttering prayers and attending services all in the name of war. Those practiced in faith tradition find themselves very close to spirit during such times, and sing songs lauding the justification for their actions. Whom does the Spiritual World pay attention to during these times? Are some people at the front of the request line instead of others depending on the justification for war? 

Ritual often accompanies threshold experiences on the earthly sojourn. Women experience thresholds when giving birth, traditionally men experience it in the battlefield. We all experience thresholds surrounding death. The deceased crosses the threshold into another life, and those left on earth mourn the separation. Enforcing death on others is a rather schizophrenic action here on earth. It seems that killing is bad under certain circumstances, while is glorious and sanctioned in others. What seems to be a universal response to killing, is the grief of the loved ones whose beloved was taken away, as well as this loss as a justification for further sanctioned killing. 

War is sanctioned, acceptable mechanized killing. In the Old Testament, the wars in the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel are lauded. The slaughter of every Caanite man, woman and child is justified. I often wondered how the Cannanites felt about this. The final plague that hit the Egyptians, which led to the release of the enslaved Hebrews as the death of the first born son. It grieved the population so much, as well as the Pharaoh, that the petition from the Jews to be set free was finally granted. He later regretted his decision, and led his army to a watery death in the Red Sea. 

The foundational act of Christianity is a state sponsored brutal execution. This horrific act on an innocent man is recognized as the catalyst for eternal life of the spirit. The sacrifice was the key to transforming the earth and humanity. It is the foundation stone for what humans later rationalize as redemptive violence. In a local military chapel, we see a stained glass window with a soldier kneeling before a helmet topped gun, and the phrase beneath it proclaiming "There is no greater love than when a man lays down his life for his friends." When can such love be applied without violence or death is my question. Could it be that the Crucifixion was meant to be a one time thing, and then we were supposed to consider other methods for enhancing redemption?

In the Orthodox Christian tradition, one of the worlds most ancient forms of Christianity, traditionally a man who kills during war is excommunicated for seven years. This means no access to Communion for seven years, as the soldiers who kill are seen as unworthy and unclean to accept the sacrament (which is seen as the literal transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Savior.) In a response to the wanton violence of the warrior class of nobles during the middle ages, the concept of a Just War was dusted off as a method of foisting violent young men onto foreign soils, so as to give the locals a break from the raping and pillaging. 

Originally invented by ancient Egyptians, the Medieval concept of purposeful warfare, Just War,  was implemented into the tradition of Chivalry. Protection of the weak, adherence to Christian values (except in the case of killing foreigners) and the chaste love of an unattainable perfect woman, along with forgiveness of all past and present sins during the quest, sweetened the deal. Rules for sanctioned slaughter created things like scheduled warfare, say not on feast days, festivals or Sundays, along with no violence on sacred ground. No violence of any kind was to take place in Churches. These rules were created and followed for the most part during numerous conflicts. Obvious confusion arose amongst the ranks when Christians fought Christians, say in the 100 Years War and various Crusades, but all was justified and allowed. What I have never quite understood is how one returns to the mundane tedium of daily life after participating in such violence. It seems only until after the First World War, such trauma was given a name for those returning home after the horror of trench warfare. 

War never really solves anything, it just postpones conflicts, enriches the powerful and perpetrates grief for all. Neither side ever really recovers during peace time, and the conflict simply arises again and more violence ensues, because the hard work of collaboration, forgiveness and community has not been done. 

Death has confounded the living for eons. When loved ones die at the hands of another, it gives an outlet for anger over the loss. Losing a dear one in their sleep, whom do you blame for your agony? An enemy who took away your loved one, your home and routine, there is someone to blame, and in several generations for the cycle to start over again. War creates a structure for this, and is a deep reason for the perpetual state of violence.

I often contemplate the story of Mary, mother of Jesus. Who was she really, does she still exist, and what are all those apparitions about that seem to begin in earnest during the Middle Ages? How can one being be omnipresent in different outfits and languages? What always seems to be the theme of the messages is that horrors are to come, pray, repent and be loving to one another to avoid the catastrophe. 

This historical Mary gave birth in a strange place to adhere to an oppressive governments census, for tax purposes. The family became refugees to escape violence perpetrated on infant boys, so the Roman governor would hold onto secular power. Mary watched as her son became a leader for their people, only to be unfairly accused and tried, subsequently publicly executed in the most public, vile and agonizing way. Later, she is seen as the focal point for the foundation of the Christian Movement, and had the miracle of her beloved come back to her in the flesh. 

As an art form, Mary is the symbol of the highest potential in humanity, that of collaborating with the Spiritual World to birth the Christ Impulse on earth. During times of plague, images of Mary have been paraded around the community to heal from the affliction. In other cases, banners with her image are carried into war.

Violence and war are humanity's way of forcing desires upon others. Talk and negotiations are tedious and do not lead to desired outcomes in a timely manner. Violence is the ultimate action whereas humanity gives suggestions to God. Can one justify violence to protect others? What is the true and proper response to injustice? Is violence transformative? Can redemption come through violence? 

Some of the most magnificent music ever written has come in response to impending or completing war. Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil was composed and performed to benefit the World War One effort in Russia. When the Bolsheviks took over, all religious music was silenced. 

At this writing, the violence is raging in Europe, but it is also raging in Syria, Yemen as well as in homes and streets all over the globe. Families are some of the most violent institutions on earth, marriage and romantic partnerships are the leading cause of death for women.  How such things will stop is actually up to us. As we hear in the wisdom scriptures, there is a time for everything. How can we make it never time for violence and war?

How do we wrap our arms and minds over the incredible cruelty we see before us? The atrocities and suffering are nothing new on earth, but this time, for a large segment of the population, the victims look just like their neighbors, their family members and coworkers. It is not hidden like so much domestic violence. Modern technology and social bias is showing war in all of its consequences to the developed world, and those seeking relief are touching us in ways we have been able to ignore in other situations. Oh, those terrible wars, violence and refugees, that is far away and involves people who look and worship differently than we do, it does not strike a chord as deeply as the specter in Ukraine, Hungary, Russia and Poland.

We are also seeing the consequences of the perpetrators of violence and war. The aggressors have mothers and children, they are searching for answers and are just as heart broken as the victims. We see mercy shown to the soldiers families just as we see mercy greeting those crossing the borders. I often think of the song "When Will They Ever Learn" during times like this, when will be learn that war is really useless, horribly useless? 

Humans often make wrong choices, but in every situation there are often two pathways. When we choose the difficult and harmful pathway, the spiritual world helps us to transform our deeds. We were created to transform everything from the earth to the cosmos to ourselves. 

How can we transform this tragedy into something good, beautiful and truthful?

These are the questions we must ask ourselves. Life hangs in the balance, the future is in the balance, what choices are we to make of this situation when nuclear powers are clashing and the innocent are bombed while fleeing? 

Can we learn? What is your, what is our choice going to be?

The Black Madonnas have narratives of endurance, particularly in the face of war. Seeing the rally cry to alleviate the suffering of those fleeing the bombs is a beautiful choice. It is a model for the present and future, that so much energy and response can be focused on loving our neighbors, healing the earth.

What choice will you make?

The Duchess of Cambridge & Tom Walker - 'For Those Who Can't Be Here' @ ...

The History of the Black Madonna 2020 Edition

The Aftermath

A dear friend of mine from Russia told me there was a joke circulating about an old rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He said that they were always in friendly competition, and when the Stones released an album entitled “Aftermath,” the Beatles threatened to release a collection entitled “After Geography.” Apologies to all who do not find this as hilarious as I do, but I simply had to share this story as we all delve into the aftermath of this (as the pundits and experts keep telling us) the first inning of the pandemic of 2020.

As I have been writing and musing about what the deeper meanings behind this truly novel experience we are all having, a recurrent theme for me comes clear. There are more people on the earth right now than have ever been on earth before. Some scientists and historians theorize there are actually more people on the planet than if previous populations were combined. I do not understand the math or statistics on this theory, but either way one looks at it, there are quite a lot of people on earth right now. It is also true that this virus and the reaction to it is essentially a global phenomena. The majority of the global population is sequestered in homes, rooms and so on. Yes, there are those who are health care workers and staff who are making sure utilities are consistent and some form of food is available, but for about two months, people all over the planet have been staying inside and watching TV or the Internet. What does this mean, how will this affect civilization and human evolution, particularly the evolution of consciousness.

What is striking about this event is that it is a slow motion complete turn around of everything in modern technological society. This pandemic differs say from a massive earthquake, a superstorm, tsunami or volcano. Such events are quick processes compared to the pandemic response. The widespread experience of the Black Plague of the 14^th Century took a while to spread and transform culture, but it was mainly focused in Europe and Asia, the current plague now has reached everywhere except Antartica.

Now that Spring in the Northern Hemisphere has burst forth and the peaks of COVID19 deaths seem to be coming to certain regions, people are becoming restless, protests are erupting throughout the globe, on everything from resistance to public health measures to government responses and workers demands for safer conditions. The running theme is that people are wanting normalcy back, they are suffering economically and they are also getting quite annoyed by being cooped up with no where to go for so long during such lovely weather.

Throughout my writings, I focus on the Middle Ages, particularly the age of the Crusades. Whatever one thinks of these years, what Rudolf Steiner says about them resonates with me quite deeply. He states that the era of the Crusades was the preparation for the Age of Consciousness Soul. The other perceptions he has of this era, and The Knights Templar in particular (who were formed because of the Crusades and essentially lasted until the Crusades had finished) was that the Templars wanted to create a culture that could contain the Christ, and a civilization where the Apostle Paul’s Damascus experience was a reality. The Damascus Experience of Paul was that he perceived Christ in the realm of the Etheric. Steiner goes on to outline that the current era, our age of the Consciousness Soul is one where we are to develop the spiritual capabilities of our souls, we are to develop discernment, and that the great mystery to be encountered in our age is that of evil.

I am an ardent student of history, I adore history. Once while staying with a dear friend who had a dizzying option of cable channels on her dish network, she asked me after noticing my watching habits (Tolkien fantasies, Medieval period dramas and endless documentaries on the Middle Ages) if I was aware we were living in the 21^st century. Alas, yes, as I long to sit in a great hall with a banquet featuring stuffed peacock, rose infused jellies, and entertainment from jugglers and harpists, I will have to just keep watching all the food scenes (sans group murders) of Game of Thrones, The Tudors and Lord of the Rings to ease my broken aware heart that we were not living in the idealized past.

History has much to teach us, mainly on what does and does not work. Obviously we can build on past learnings, while I appreciate the romance part of the Middle Ages, I am ever so grateful that we have evolved from the privy holes that dumped raw human waste through a hole in the outskirts of the castle, as well as tooth brushes and tooth paste instead of scrapers and chewing mint leaves. But the idealism of ages past, that I do think in many ways is missing from our cynical times, there is so little mystery to anything anymore on a certain level, which may be a reason conspiracy theories are so abundant and murder television shows so popular. 

A casual or maybe not so casual observation , is that humanity has had quite a few upheavals since the age of the Crusades. We seem to be on an ever quickening pace of change, with not much time to actually digest anything properly. (Fast food may be more symbolic of our age than we give it credit) I used to joke that I would tell my grandchildren “I used to have to get up and walk across the room to change the channel on the television.” The era of the 14^th century if we actually observe it carefully, provides what Barbara Tuchman so eloquently presented in her landmark book of the same title, “ a distant mirror.” Disease, political and religious upheaval, changing gender relations, climate change of a mini ice age, technological innovations and increased globalism through international trade. In Tuchman’s book, she examines how the Black Death, the plague that wiped out essentially half of the population of Europe in the mid 1300’s,  planted the seeds for the Reformation, the Renaissance and challenges to the economic and political structures of the day. Something she wrote about which I am thinking of now, is in the aftermath of the Black Death, how after half the population perished, there were fewer skilled laborers to plant crops and provide crafts and services specifically for the noble class who were used to being waited upon through the work of their underlings. These laborers and crafts people joined forces to create guilds, and set prices for their labor because they were actually in high demand after the great mortality of their age. After a bit, the clergy and noble class got together with the monarchs to pass legislation that workers would only be paid “pre-plague” wages, not wanting the costs of their stuff to go up, ensuring that the class divide would continue. Persecutions of Jews, Gypsies, Witches, Lepers and other undesirables commenced, because obviously THEY were the origin of the pestilence, not the failures of either the organized church or monarchies who were supposed to be in charge (specifically of public sanitation works and the like.) When there were no more people to burn as distractions from the failures of institutions, people started to question all sorts of things, even the existence of God, in the aftermath of the plague.

If we follow history from the Black Death until today, there have been quite a few political and economic upheavals, which in many ways have never quite been resolved. The Reformation of the 1500’s had as much to do with political and economic infighting between royal families as it did with maturing understanding of the human/divine relationship or religion. Ongoing religious wars, counter reformations, peasant revolts and such would rear their heads with regular periodicity in the years afterwards. Excellent ideas would spring forth, but they never seemed to catch on in anything but philosophical circles. With the expansion in the “Age of Discovery” the solution to the human condition seemed to be based on expanding territory, the institutions and cultures of certain places were too entrenched, so lets try something new. This was one of the many impulses for the Crusades, that the church and monarchies were so corrupt, lets take Jerusalem from the Muslims that have ruled it for about 500 years and set up a perfect kingdom where Christ walked. Aside from the wholesale slaughter of various populations on the way there, and of a large portion of the community within Jerusalem’s walls, the ideals and initial attempt at governance of Jerusalem had good intentions. One would simply question some of the methods to get there, obviously, which set up the experiment to fail bitterly, and humans are still fighting over this patch of land to this day.

The Americas were also supposed to be a utopian culture, again the presence of an indigenous population posed a problem that the explorers solved through murder, displacement and the purposeful introduction of diseases to make room for those seeking to create the perfect society, free from the oppression of institutional religion and monarchies. The result of this adventure is widely known, and in spite of obvious advances in self governance, we can argue there are numerous failures in the establishment of colonies that again, humans are still fighting over to this day.

In the early 1800’s a new trend emerged regarding technology, industrialization and the move towards democracy and away from monarchies. With the advent of the steam engine and the beginnings of automation resulting in factories resulted in large segments of populations leaving rural lands and moving into cities. The concept of employment, and unemployment became the norm, the latter causing much political and cultural unrest. When we read of the issues of the day occupying the press and regional governments, one can hardly believe they are 175 years old. The requests which later turned to bloody demands of the mobs were for affordable housing, food, fair wages and employment. In the Spring of 1848 across Europe the dam broke, and a chaotic violent uprising ensued. Entire cities became war zones where citizens dismantled streets and buildings creating barricades to keep out the military. After months of the upheaval which included soldiers mowing down women and children in the streets, the population retreated and essentially begged the monarchies to take charge of the situation. If this was democracy and freedom, the population did not want any part of it as crops were not being planted and people were being killed by the thousands in the streets and alleys of their neighborhoods. The deep injustices of the day, particularly in the economic realm were not addressed. The population was exhausted, if the kings wanted control, then they could have it, just stop the slaughter and let us “get back to work.” 

The injustice was not dealt with and essentially was the fodder for the tinderbox that erupted into World War I, which was not solved either, and fed into World War II, which divided the world again, and led to the Korean Conflict (still an issue as this conflict is technically still a war between two Koreas being propped up by the great axis of world powers.) The non ending of the Korean Conflict fed into the Vietnam War, which also really did not end, and on and on and on until the most recent follies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Central and South America and large swaths of Africa. What all of these wars and social upheaval have in common is the desire to control natural resources, particularly petroleum, and they are justified by phrases and ideology of “freedom and democracy” or the age old attempt at creating a utopian society by first murdering the ingenious peoples on the lands desired by those who feel they can not make a difference in their own communities and they want to go somewhere new and set up shop with the goal of creating the perfect society. 

We are out of places to move to on the planet, so there are big efforts to colonize the moon and mars, again mainly because well, maybe just maybe, on these outer planets we can get things right this time.

Which brings me back to the Crusades. The so called preparation for the Age of Consciousness Soul. 

I believe in reincarnation, for me this is really the only way the human condition within the cosmos make any sense whatsoever. What if we have been making the wrong conclusions and keep ignoring our responsibilities in all of the many many upheavals humanity has endured during and since the time of the Crusades? If we are reincarnating, as well as witnessing what is occurring on the planet as we sojourn between lifetimes, what if we are all present now in numbers never before experienced on the earth to finally set things right?  What if this is the upheaval where we are given the opportunity to do what is needed to transform the earth as a key player in creating a cosmos of love?

The virus behind the 2020 Pandemic has collapsed the global economy. It has collapsed the petroleum industry. We are told that the economy will have contracted nearly 30% in the quarter when the virus had it’s first peak. We live in an economy, a global economy that is dependent on producing more than it needs in terms of meeting basic living requirements of food, shelter and clothing. We have an economy based on people buying too much of everything. When we do not continue to buy too much of things we essentially do not need, then the vulnerable of us fall off a cliff in terms of livelihood. 

Industrial agriculture has enabled the world to produce so much food that a large segment of the human population is obese, while another large segment of the human population is starving. Humanity throws away nearly half of the food it produces from farm to table, and this is everywhere if the UN Agriculture statistics are to be believed. We see pictures of farmers dumping milk into ditches, and trucks filled with potatoes with no where to sell them, while miles and miles of cars line up to get food assistance in major cities and workers are being forced to go to infected meat packing plants if they want to feed their families making products they can not afford on their miserly wages. The virus has highlighted for all to see in the endless 24/7 coverage of the pandemic the inherent injustices and insanity of the modern global technological economy. 

For the last 50 years, human beings within a civilization are now called “consumers.” In Medieval culture, the human being was seen as a miniature reflection of the cosmos, as a reflection of divinity. Now humans are creatures that consume products, buy things.  Brian Swimme in his landmark Canticle to the Cosmos lecture series and his book The Universe is a Green Dragon, highlights one of the reasons for this phenomena. Swimme states that ancient cultures used to gather together round the fireplace during evenings to tell stories. These people watched the stars in the evening and made correlations between the events happening in the heavens with events on the earth. Winter time was especially rich because the nights were longer, demanding more stories of how the human related to the cosmos through legends, fairy tales and scripture. With the advent of artificial light and ultimately television and movies, the communal story time was replaced by advertisements and shows articulating human worth and relationship with the divine in terms of the consumption of stuff, be it food or appliances, drugs or cosmetics. It is profound that we call the actors from television and film “celebrities” and “stars.” It is profound and tragic that we seek these individuals out for their opinions on just about everything, even how one endures the COVID19 illness.

How are we to approach the “aftermath” of an event that essentially will be lasting for a very long time? 

We are social distancing mainly to protect not only ourselves but others, especially the vulnerable. We can not stay indoors forever, and many of our leaders are telling us that the vulnerable must be sacrificed for the economy, that economic hardship is just as toxic as the virus. We see people with guns and paraphernalia from the confederate and fascist armies demand “freedom” to spread the virus to the vulnerable, so a large portion of society can get back to work, as well as get back to consuming too much food and buying things they do not need. An American president who refuses to use his power to help protect medical professionals and essential workers, is using his signature to force vulnerable populations to work in infected factories without the protections he could help manifest with an executive order, and the governors of the states where these factories reside are proclaiming that any resistance to this order means no unemployment, while the head of the US Senate is threatening to withhold funds from states unless the opposition agrees to stripping American citizens of their right to civil redress through the court system. No liability for the companies who lack safety equipment and procedures for their workers, no access to the courts, and no food for their families if they choose their health over working at minimum wage jobs in disease ridden deadly factories. The protests began as soon as the order commenced. 

It is obvious we as humans have what one would diplomatically call a mixed bag in terms of learning from past mistakes in terms of civilization. Any progress is met with intense, sometimes violent opposition, wearing down the populace into passivity as what happened in the Fall of 1848. All opposition has it's basis in excessive greed for "stuff" over the dynamic living human being.

But what if this virus infecting the largest human population in the history of humanity was inviting us to get it right this time?

The two things needed to adequately protect the population and ultimately the economy are protective gear for health care providers and workers, and testing so targeted isolation can commence while allowing the rest of society can continue to be in the public sphere. The global supply chain, which is international using much petroleum for transportation and also displacing workers from one nation and creating a permanent underclass of underpaid workers in another, has two locations for the manufacture of such products. Protective gear is produced in the region of Wuhan China, the  first place devastated by the virus. The swabs needed for mass testing are produced in Northern Italy, the second region ravaged with tragic outcomes. Forget the “China-Made-The-Virus-in-the-Lab” conspiracy which is the re-election campaign talking point for the morally bankrupt and inept president making low wage workers infect themselves in slaughterhouses so he will not have his taco bowl and hamburger access interrupted. For me it speaks volumes that the items needed to successfully encounter the virus while maintaining the global economy as we know it, are produced in the first two regions completely decimated by the pandemic. I can assure you, no conspiracy panel in a smoke filled bunker would unleash something that well thought out, to knock out the supplies in both China and Italy so as to infect the entire earth and shut down the global economy in the process. While I detest the behavior of many robber barons and petroleum industry executives, they still need us to buy their stuff and the virus is collapsing their bottom line. A consumer based economy needs consumers, and the virus is forcing everyone to stop buying most stuff other than toilet paper and food.

So what does this all have to do with The Black Madonna, the Knights Templar and the Crusades? Quite a bit actually. The Black Madonna is a symbol of the Human Soul, of endurance under tremendous odds. The Black Madonnas that dot the Camino de Santiago de Compostela were placed there by the Knights Templar during the era of the Crusades. The Camino was and is a path of modern initiation, the Knights wanted to create a civilization that could be a container for the Cosmic Christ. The Crusades were a time of preparation for the Age of Consciousness Soul, the era we are presently in and enduring with what I would argue varying degrees of success. We are to confront in our age, the Mystery of Evil. We also are in the middle of Earth Evolution, and on our way to transforming the Cosmos of Wisdom into a Cosmos of Love.

The Black Madonna is a message from the spiritual world and from our ancestors that we have a difficult path during our era, but that path has a purpose, to use our wills and deeds to create goodness and love on the earth.

Love is dependent on Freedom. Love can not be forced or coerced, it is freely chosen.

How we go forward in the aftermath of the Pandemic of 2020 is a choice. We have at no other time in history such access to our collective history, the nature and outcome of so many different upheavals and responses. There were somethings we got right after each challenges, but I would argue, we got quite a bit wrong, or the right and wrong was not evenly distributed. The global Great Depression of the 1930’s produced advances in workers rights, social programs and education in the United States of America, but it also created totalitarian and fascist regimes in many places resulting in a global conflict never seen before by human kind. In the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, incredible initiatives were commenced with the desire that such a tragedy not be repeated. The Marshall Plan attempted to address the economic disparity throughout Europe as well as the devastation of four years of relentless mechanized warfare. The tragedy was that Europe was divided along political ideologies which put the East under totalitarian regimes masquerading as “communist,” and the West had all the benefits of democracy, capitalism and some forms of socialism. The environmental disaster of the eastern block countries and the politically unstable governments of the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall have their own deep challenges, where entire nations of people are forced into low wage jobs to survive and a resurgence of fascism and religious fundamentalism in beginning to  surface in fragile emerging democracies. 

What choices will we make? What will be our governing principles as people lose their homes, are forced on the street by the son-in-law slum lord of the taco bowl consuming president?

The initial response has been for me, hopeful. A majority of Americans, regardless of party, supports social distancing and the governors who are trying their best to implement procedures to keep their citizens safe. While noisy and revolting, the initial gun and swastika toting protestors are a tiny fraction of the population. These vocal protestors are being funded by powerful donors who want their workers to get back to creating stuff that people do not really need to buy in the first place. People from all over the world are doing what they can to assist their friends, neighbors and people they do not know, doctors and nurses are traveling from one region to another to assist colleagues in the emergency room battle. Money is being donated, prayers said, and deep thinking is taking place. There is a recognition that our health care system does not address underlying immunity, our environment and our nutrition are not enabling large segments of the population to adequately build their immune systems. A consensus of what I am witnessing is that there is a great desire to address injustices, from how we treat farm workers and meat packers, to grocery store personnel and mail carriers, as well as a recognition that the environment is being improved by the reduced assault it experiences with our mindless consumption and transportation methods.

There is much to draw upon from major faith traditions. In the Jewish tradition there is the practice of Sabbath and Jubilee, a weekly rest and a periodic year where no work is done after a generation. Imagine what would happen if we gave the planet a weekly rest from trash and exhaust, and a once in a generational year where no pollution was created ? In this tradition, the Shalom tradition, there is a recognition that a harmony needs to be sustained between peoples, Divinity and the planet. In each plot of farmed land, the outer boundaries were left unharvested to allow the poor and landless the dignity of picking their own food. In the Christian tradition, specifically modeled in Acts and the Epistles, the foundation for a community was in that all contributed to the good of the whole. The land, water, plants and animals were considered to be part of the “commons” available for the good of the community. It was in the Middle Ages in Europe when this practice started to wane, and private ownership of land, particularly through the monarchy and institutionalized church, taking access to food and resources away from large segments of the population and essentially forcing them into servitude. This practice was shocking to the populace of the time, which inspired them to find alternatives, seek justice and create counter movements against the methods of depriving people of food and shelter.

As we start to “open” what is it that we want to open? Do we want to open our hearts and minds? Do we want to open our communities to justice? How do we go forward? We have been through this before actually, with varying degrees of effectiveness. It may be that this event has happened now, with so many of us on the planet at the same time so that our human community can be an effective catalyst for transforming a cosmos of wisdom into a cosmos of love. 

The Black Madonnas remind us of our capacity as humans, that we can endure the most difficult odds, we can endure upheavals, warfare, environmental calamity and still be present to divine love, we can still birth divine love from within.

What will you be doing to help birth this divine love as a foundation for the aftermath of the pandemic of 2020?

I eagerly await your response, as goodness surrounds us all.