Goddess of the Week

The Black Virgin last showed up here in April for Easter week back in the spring.

As I said in the earlier post, the Black Madonna is an unusual mostly European type of the Virgin Mary depicted with dark or black skin; various reasons are given for this coloration, including mundane things like candle soot or changes in pigment over time. (Such effect, however, seems to be limited to paintings or statues of the Virgin Mary, not, to, oh I don't know, statues of Jesus or something.) More than a few of the Black Madonnas are from churches sited over former temples to the Goddess in one form or another, so She has been linked to the worship of older Goddesses such as Isis and Cybele of Anatolia.

In painting Her for the deck, I had in my head the famous Stone of Cybele, a black stone fallen from the heavens and regarded as sacred, as aeroliths often were in that part of the world; according to some traditions it was incorporated into a statue of the Goddess, though according to others it was left unadorned and unshaped. I was going with the former idea when I painted Her, hence the face black like Cybele's Stone while the rest of Her is the typical European version of the Madonna.

So, the Black Virgin represents a strange mix of old and new. Her roots are old, very old; and since She proved too powerful and too well-loved to be out-and-out destroyed, She was adapted into the new faith with a little change of clothing. But She is still there, and so has been worshiped continuously for a couple thousand years at the least.

What in your life now has such old roots? Look for them; finding the old habits, old threads, old connections is important this week. Also be aware of the process by which something has changed, or been adapted to fit--has it been done in an ethical manner? Is this adaptation or appropriation? What, also, in you has had to go underground for a while, because showing its true face was a risk or a danger? It may very well be time to release that disguise, and let that true part of you show.

Also I'm getting renewal, still, probably because the Black Virgin last showed up around Easter-time, and because of the cards I've picked the last two weeks; I don't know what's up, and I couldn't even tell you how that relates to my own circumstances. Perhaps it's a slow kind of renewal, one taking place in the depths and hard to see right now? I suspect it will become apparent soon enough.

What does She say?

I am here. I am always here. Whatever face I wear I am here. I am the Great Mother and so long as there is life on this Earth then I will be here, for there is no life without mothers.

I am here as Mother to tell you it is being born. The World-Egg has a hairline crack; it will soon split wide and a new life, a new way of being shall be. To you it may seem slow, you whose lives are so short; but in the life of the Earth it is very short indeed. And it has begun. There is no stopping it. A baby cannot be unborn.

For each of you, my children? Remember me, seek me out in your lives, in the mundane, the worldly, the earth, all those things. Find me wherever you are. For I am there hidden in plain sight, before all your eyes all this time with that secret smile in my eyes. I know Who I am. I have never forgotten it.

Remember, the trials of your time are birth-throes. Remember that. It is very important that you do. It will help you to understand, and it will keep fear away. And especially remember, I know what I am doing.

Well. What do you think?