It was in the year 2004 during my stay in Chartres that I first met the black Madonna. With a small group we were doing energetic work in and around the Cathedral and at the end of each day, after the Vespers, I sat with her for a little while. It felt harmonious, like coming home. Who was she and where did she originally come from?

Underneath the Cathedral there used to be a well, actually a very deep pit, of which the water had a great energetic value and also healing capacities. The water under the cathedral was connected to the river Eure. In the 17th century they bricked up the well. Near the well stood the statue of the black Madonna, called the "Madonna from underneath the earth". She was destroyed during the French revolution. After that they placed a copy of this Madonna in the crypt.

In the old times there was a forest of oak trees around the cathedral. It was an old Druidic spot connected with the Celtic nature religions.

Chartres knew 2 black Madonnas, one in the crypt and one above in the church, the black Madonna of the Pillar. That Madonna became, after the destruction of the one in the crypt, the oldest black Madonna.

However, to my amazement, I recently found out that in 2013 they did a lot of interior painting in the cathedral and they made this black Madonna light coloured again.

Are they afraid of the darkness or has it to do with the fact, that centuries ago, during the rise of the orthodox Christianity, the worshippers of the divine feminine were considered as heretics and that in that time some Madonnas were also painted white?

The black Madonnas can be placed in the pre-Christian religion of the matriarchy.

She is the universal Goddess, like Isis, Artemis Cybele and Diana.

That's why the black Madonna also represents Maria Magdalena, who carries the real secret of Jesus, He who knows All.

During my journey from Chartres to the South of France I was going to meet her a few more times, namely on the Mont Saint-Michel and in Puy-en-Velay. After I left Chartres, I approached in the late afternoon Mont Saint-Michel. It was already towards 6 o'clock when, during the low tide, I walked the released path from the sea, towards the Abbey on the Mount. It was almost closing time, but I just could join the last tour and was soon climbing in this impressive building, the Abbey of Saint Michel. With my guide, Alain, I walked through times.

When we arrived in a big hall with niches, Alain invited me to sound. It felt as if the sound was taken over by a much bigger sound. I never heard my voice like that.

When we arrived at the crypt he opened with a very old key a room specially for me and said this is the place of "La dame sous-terre". I entered the cool space, not knowing what to find. I was there all alone. My thought went to the black Madonna. Then ... I could feel her presence and a feeling of connection and grace came over me. When I left the room, Alain who was waiting for me, told me that in the old times there was a black Madonna there but she had been removed to another spot.

The next day, after hours of driving, I arrived in the cathedral of Puy-en-Velay, right on top of a big mountain, already visible from a long distance. There I met her again together with a big number of pilgrims, walking the Camino.

In cathedrals with a black Madonna, we quite often also meet Maria Magdalena in sculpture, painting or stained glass. She is also connected with the black earth, with the wells, the mountains and the old trees. On those sacred spots they appear for the humans who can see and hear them.

The tradition of the black Madonna comes from Isis and her origin again from Lilith. They represent the power of the feminine principle. They show their pride, their firmness in contrast with the white Madonna, Maria, the conventional picture of the caring Mother.

The black Madonna is closely connected to Sophia, the archetypal picture of divine wisdom. The black Madonna is darkness and light. She creates the light from the darkness. Like the unborn child lives in the darkness of the mother's womb before it enters the light. The black represents the unconsciousness connected with the soul.

The black hole in the universe is like a womb, from where millions of other universes and star systems are created. It is the womb of the cosmic beginning.

Most black Madonnas are found in France, more than 300. Fewer numbers can be found in many countries in Europe as well as on other continents.

The black Madonna's appear on sacred sites in the landscape in or near caves, sacred stones, wells and trees. Powerplaces which were created in the meeting of active earth energies with cosmic energies. They are leylines, dragonlines and stand for the power-lines which intersect and connect with the earth in a geometric pattern. Here one finds places of pilgrimage and here the first churches were built.

On those spots sometimes miracles happened and healings took place, also there are records of Maria-appearances.

There is another black Madonna on my list and that is La Morenata, in the spiritual heart of Catalunia, the Montserrat. She lives in the Santa Cove, the holy cave, where she was found in the 12th century.

Within a few weeks I will meet her and will, via her, connect myself with Sophia, the immortal spirit of Belief and Wisdom, who brings light in the darkness of the chaos and is surrounded by a aureole of stars.

The black Madonna is pregnant of the new Earth.

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