La Madonna

When the Christian patriarch came into power they adopted the old pagan Goddess into the icon of the Virgin Mary in this way even though the rules of the church were severe they did not completely strip away the Mother. A few months back I was talking to an Eastern Orthodox priest, he said to me how the Haitian people love the Black Virgin Mary.  Then with a twinkle in his eyes he said" They believe she is the Ocean Mother."  We both looked at each other and I said "That works for me."  He then added "Everyone needs a Mother". Something similar happened when I was on pilgrimage in Provence.  I talked to the head of a monastery and was speaking to him on the origins of the Black Madonnas. He looked at me straight in the eye and said  "She is Our Mother Isis in disguise".

The Virgin Mary held the aspects of the Divine Feminine under her mantel for the next 2000 years, in-spite of the religious reformation of 1517.  The Virgin Mary's Icons and shrines endured.  The local Goddesses of the pagan people blended into the folds of Mary's mantel.  Our Lady of the Americas better known as Our Lady Guadalupe was a blend of Aztec mother Tonantzin.  Our Lady with the silver moon under her feet older form was the Moon Goddess Diana.  The Black Virgin also known as Notre Dame de Sous Terre  "Our Lady of the Underworld" roots came from the Goddess Persephone.  Our Lady Regla of Cuba and Brazil was the Ocean Goddess Yemoja.  Even the saints became icons of the ancient Goddesss.  The 12 th century brought with it devotions to the Virgin Mary, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Ann which actually were stemmed from an older tradition of the Virgin, Maiden and Crone.  Even the Baby Jesus more mystical aspects hold the healing for our own inner-child.  I personally experienced this at the Shrine of the Christ Child in Greccio, Italy.

But also in these old traditions of the church are filled with out-dated doctrines that are weighted down with judgements, guilt and sin base separation.   Today more people have left the church and fundamental religions because the old paradigm is not based on intelligence, psychology, one's own spiritual experiences and self awakening.

It time for the archetype of the Blessed Mother to be updated once again,  rather then throwing Baby Jesus out with the bath water so to speak . This is my purpose through my photographic art and the Sacred Flora of Mother Mary developed in the 12th-15th centuries.  The New Paradigm Madonnas  still have a depth from the roots of the tradition without the weight of dogma.  This art fosters the Motherly Love each one of us need for our own personal healing. These images can be used as archetypical images to guide and to awaken. The Art of the Madonnas can be integrated into your own soul mandala. The archetypes are not separate from you but are doorways to explore to awaken and remember these parts of yourself. Sacred Art can bring one back to a integrated wholeness so we can experience Holiness.

quotes from Joseph Campbell:  

“Shakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And that’s what it is. The nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you. When your mind is trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread the image."

“Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world.” 

“Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.