Dear Friends and Pilgrims one and all,

At eight o'clock last night, the old wooden door to the crypt of Chartres Cathedral creaked and groaned as it slowly swung open for our descent. We made our way down the centuries-old stone staircase, our eyes adjusting slowly from the world of light to the dim lights and flickering votive candles that guided our way through the crypt, the chapel below the cathedral where a second carved wooden Dark Madonna with a crown of oak leaves sits on the wall behind the altar holding the Christ Child in her lap. Though the original ancient statue was long ago destroyed, this carved copy sits with her eyes closed, holding her child, reigning over the silence. Called the Madonna Sous Terre, "the Madonna Under the Earth," or "the Madonna of the Underworld," this Madonna sits where a pre Christian statue was honored by the Druids.

Directly above her in the Cathedral stands the Black Madonna, Our Lady of the Pillar.

Just as our pilgrim's journey required a descent of the old smooth cold, stone stairs, it also required a descent into the mythic realm, into the soul's work of discovering what it is to be fully human. The way to the Divine, no matter by which name it is called, the ineffable Mystery, the descent which takes place on the way to God.

View more information about Longing for Darkness

(View entire post here)

When you step into the 12th century Chartres Cathedral, directly in front of you is the main altar with a white marble sculpture of Mary being assumed into heaven by Bernini. Off to the side of the main altar there is a little side space with pews and people kneeling and praying. Banks of red votive candles are burning and people come and go in and out of this little prayer space most of the hours of the day.

There, on a pillar about six feet high stands one of the Black or Dark Madonnas at Chartres enveloped in garments encrusted with gold embroidery. Directly below sits the Madonna “Sous Terre,” Under the Earth, in the crypt. This wooden statue of the Madonna and Child is also spoken of as a Dark or Black Madonna. How accurate this is remains a matter of debate. Precision and dogma aside, this is the Madonna that accomplishes miracles and healing, hence the many devotees who come to her site from all over the world. The draw to Chartres is not only the extraordinary library of biblical stories in stained glass and the Rose Window, the eleven circuit labyrinth that’s being copied and used world wide, but also these Black or Dark Madonnas.

To clear up some confusion generated by books such as the DaVinci Code, and many others, the Black Madonna and Child or the Black Virgin (Mary without Child) is NOT Mary Magdalene. Magdalene has her own historical existence as does Mary, Christ’s mother.

Here’s a short definition of the Black or Dark Madonna that I recently wrote for the Cambridge Dictionary of Religion (2008). I was limited to 200 words, so the constraints on what I could cover were ferocious. For the moment, know that the term “Black Madonna” refers to a more than one thousand-year old Catholic tradition of venerating non-white images of Mary, the mother of Christ.

(View entire post here)

I'm in the village of Chartres, southwest of Paris, France, this afternoon. I arrived late last night to spend the week teaching from my book, Longing for Darkness, on the Black or Dark Madonnas and the Womb of God. I'm leading a group for an American program called Verditas, the world-wide labryinth program.

The winds are warm and gusting under grey cloud cover, coming up strong now in the early afternoon. Bright sun flashes through the clouds for seconds and then is gone again. The sunny warmth of yesterday is rapidly disappearing, change is coming.

This is why we've come to Chartres, our group of fifteen from across the United States—for that change which the heart longs for, for the which the pilgrim longs and opens him or herself to by embarking on road to Chartres. Chartres is part of the longer Road to Compostella—the Field of Stars of St. James, the ancient journey undertaken long before Christianity battered down the walls of older beliefs and seized the narrative.

(View entire post here)

China Galland is our guest blogger during the week of September 17th. She will be blogging live from France, where she is conducting a lecture series and religious pilgrimage. If you have any questions for China Galland, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some information about Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna:

With this book, China Galland brought increased attention to the spiritual traditions of the Black Madonna and other cross-cultural expressions of the feminine divine. The popularity of recent works by authors like Sue Monk Kidd and Kathleen Norris have only increased readers’ fascination. Now with a new introduction by the author, Longing for Darkness explores Galland’s spellbinding and deeply personal journey from New Mexico through Nepal, India, Switzerland, France, the former Yugoslavia, and Poland—places where such figures as Tara, the female Buddha of the Tibetan tradition, and the Black Madonna are venerated today.

About China Galland

China Galland is the award-winning author of Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna. This highly praised nonfiction work on finding the feminine face of God was called "vivid, vulnerable, and courageous" by The New York Times, "exhilarating" by the San Francisco Chronicle, and a "fascinating journey" by Isabel Allende.