Today is International Women’s Day! It is also the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
IN CELEBRATION OF MY UTERUS
Everyone in me is a bird.
I am beating all my wings.
They wanted to cut you out
but they will not.
They said you were immeasurably empty
but you are not.
They said you were sick unto dying
but they were wrong.
You are singing like a school girl.
You are not torn.
Sweet weight,
in celebration of the woman I am
and of the soul of the woman I am
and of the central creature and its delight
I sing for you. I dare to live.
Hello, spirit. Hello, cup.
Fasten, cover. Cover that does contain.
Hello to the soil of the fields.
Welcome, roots.
Each cell has a life.
There is enough here to please a nation.
It is enough that the populace own these goods.
Any person, any commonwealth would say of it,
“It is good this year that we may plant again
and think forward to a harvest.
A blight had been forecast and has been cast out.”
Many women are singing together of this:
one is in a shoe factory cursing the machine,
one is at the aquarium tending a seal,
one is dull at the wheel of her Ford,
one is at the toll gate collecting,
one is tying the cord of a calf in Arizona,
one is straddling a cello in Russia,
one is shifting pots on the stove in Egypt,
one is painting her bedroom walls moon color,
one is dying but remembering a breakfast,
one is stretching on her mat in Thailand,
one is wiping the ass of her child,
one is staring out the window of a train
in the middle of Wyoming and one is
anywhere and some are everywhere and all
seem to be singing, although some can not
sing a note.
Sweet weight,
in celebration of the woman I am
let me carry a ten-foot scarf,
let me drum for the nineteen-year-olds,
let me carry bowls for the offering
(if that is my part).
Let me study the cardiovascular tissue,
let me examine the angular distance of meteors,
let me suck on the stems of flowers
(if that is my part).
Let me make certain tribal figures
(if that is my part).
For this thing the body needs
let me sing
for the supper,
for the kissing,
for the correct
yes.
I recently saw "The Way", a film with Martin Sheen, who walks the ancient pilgrimage route in Spain. I found it a quietly wonderful movie, very true in the personal journey that Sheen makes to grieve his son, and wonderful to see as you walk with him and his chance companions on "The Camino". Synchronistically, I met a woman a few days after seeing the movie who, in her early 60's, did the trek herself. I want to! And perhaps I will someday!
The Camino is the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, a 10th century Romanesque and Gothic cathedral that houses the bones of St. James, a Christian martyr. It also houses a Black Madonna effigy. Thinking about the Camino, and pilgrimages to "spirit of place", I felt like sharing again this article I wrote in 2009.
Black Madonna of Guadaloupe
Reflections on the Black Madonna
"There was once a vast pilgrimage that took place in Europe. Pilgrims made their way towards the town of Compostella in Spain, where an ancient effigy of the BLACK MADONNA is housed. The word Compostella comes from the same root word as compost. COMPOST is the living, black material that is made from rotting fruits, grains and other organic matter. From this compost -- life and light will emerge. When the pilgrims came to the Cathedral at Compostella they were being 'composted' in a sense. After emergence from the dark confines of the cathedral and the spirit -- they were ready to flower, they were ready to return home with their spirits lightened." ~~ Jay Weidner
I can't write about the Camino, and pilgrimage, without revisiting the mysterious "Black Madonnas" found in shrines, churches and cathedrals all over Europe - France alone has over 300. These icons have been the focus of millions of pilgrimages since the early days of the church, and most probably rest upon sites that were places of prehistoric pilgrimage long before the advent of Christianity.
Why were these effigies so beloved that pilgrims traveled many miles to seek healing and guidance? Why, in a medieval world where European peasants were unlikely to see a dark skinned person was the Madonna black? Some of the effigy statues are made of materials that are true, ebony black. And why are there so many myths that connect the effigies with trees, or caves, or special wells, and ensuing miracles of healing?
"Black Madonna" (2005)
In 2005, during a residency on the 150 acres of IPark, the land spoke to me, and I had time and space to speak back, to engage in a conversation, and my own "Black Madonna" arose from that numinous time.
Many suggest that the Madonna with Child originated in images of Isis with her child Horus (the reborn Sun God). Isis was a significant religious figure in the later days of Rome, and continued to be worshipped in the early days of Christianity. In general, when Isis arrived in Rome she adopted Roman dress and complexion, and was sometimes merged with other deities, such as Venus.The images of Isis that survived the fall of Rome were perhaps the origin of later Virgin and Child icons - temples devoted to Isis continued well into the third century. "Paris" derives from the name of Isis (par Isis).
fresco from the Temple of Isis at Pompeii
Mother Earth
Whether originally derived from Isis or not, most of these images are connected in place and myth to healing springs, power sites, and holy caves. The Black Madonna is the Earth Mother, in the form of Catholic Mary, and yet not entirely disguised. She is black like the Earth is black, fertile (and often shown pregnant) like the Earth is fertile, dark because she is embodied and immanent, as nature is embodied and immanent.
I did not realize until recently that there are many pilgrimages in Europe to Black Madonnas. The Cathedral of Santiago at Compostella is the endpoint of "The Camino", the long pilgrimage still made by thousands today across Spain.
Pilgrimage routes to Compostela
The Camino is also the title of a book by Shirley Maclaine, who undertook the journey in 2000. It's believed that the earliest pilgrimages were made to the "Black Madonna of Compostella", a very ancient effigy housed in the church. Compostella comes from the same root word as "compost". Compost is the fertile soil created from rotting organic matter, the "Black Matter". The alchemical soup to which everything living returns, and is continually resurrected by the processes of nature into new life, new form. Mater. Mother.
There are many legends and miracles associated with Black Madonna icons. The icon at Guadalupe, Spain, is said to have been carved by St. Luke in Jerusalem, although this is highly unlikely. It doesn't ultimately matter how old the icon actually is. The question is, what does it embody that strikes a deep chord, that speaks to those who come to contemplate the icon? And what does the icon emanate? Can it actually have healing powers, or is the site itself a "place of power", it's energies renewed by millenia of worship and pilgrimage? What resonance does it attune those who come there to? And how significant is the act of making the pilgrimage itself, the long effort to come to a sacred place, a sacred image?
In the Middle Ages when the majority of the Black Madonna statues were created there was still a strong undercurrent and mingling of the old ways. Black Madonnas were discovered hidden in trees in France as late as the seventeenth century, suggesting these were representations of pagan goddesses who were still worshipped in groves.
Black Madonnas are also found close to caves (the womb/tomb of the Earth Mother). The earliest human paintings, some dating back more than 30,000 years, are found in caves in France, beautiful paintings of animals and birds. Within these caves were also found the earliest (and only) representations of human beings for many millenia, the little sculptures of seemingly pregnant women, the so-called "Venus" figures. I agree with archaeologist Marija Gimbutas that these figures were not some form of "neolithic pornography and fertility fetishes" but represented the Mother deity herself, and the caves were regarded as sacred wombs where the animals that provided sustenance and power to ancient hunters might be thus born again. Caves of becoming.
In medieval Christian churches, it's interesting to note that the black Madonna statues were sometimes kept in a subterranean part of a church, or near a sacred spring or well.
"Again and again a statue is found in a forest or a bush or discovered when ploughing animals refuse to pass a certain spot. The statue is taken to the parish church, only to return miraculously by night to her own place, where a chapel is then built in her honour. Almost invariably associated with natural phenomena, especially healing waters or striking geographical features" Ean Begg
Black Madonnas, not surprisingly, are also associated with the Grail legends. The Grail or Chalice may represent the mingling of Celtic mythology. Cerridwen's cauldron was an important myth about the womb of the Earth Mother, from which life is continually renewed, nourished, born, and reborn.
The extent to which people make pilgrimages to these sites is amazing. For example, the Black Madonna of Montserrat, near Barcelona, receives up to a million pilgrims a year, travelling to visit the 'miracle- working' statue known as La Moreneta, the dark little one.
So why am I writing all of this? Well, because it's important to know that the ancient "Journey to the Earth Mother", which exists in all cultures and times, never ended. It just transformed again. (In fact, there is a lot I could say about the black stone (the Kaaba) of Mecca, and its prehistoric origins, but I'll leave to another time.)
Black Madonna of Czestochowskad (Poland)
Procession to the Black Madonna, Poland
Resources:
The Cult of the Black Virgin (1985) by Ean Begg;
Miraculous Images of Our Lady (1993) by Joan Carroll Cruz;
The Virgin Goddess: Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology (1993) by Stephen Benko.
Martin Gray: Sacred Sites (http://www.sacredsites.com)
As I make masks for Goddesses that are multi-cultural personifications of the "faces of Mother Earlth", a friend forwarded this extraordinary video to me.
I wanted to introduce two extraordinary people who have been a mythic team for over 45 years, Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller, the Independent Eye. Actors, playwrights, directors, singers, composers, and master puppeteers, they have had an extraordinary career. I take the liberty of sharing here a brief video excerpt from their website, and have copied below their most recent newsletter. Thank you, Conrad and Elizabeth, for inspiring and teaching me!
EyeSight
The Independent Eye
March 1, 2012
In Perpetual Spring...
Mistrusting Paradise?
Our plum trees and feral cats are confused. Our wall furnace is asking questions. It's dry shirt-sleeve weather in February, when in Sebastopol it should be rainy and chill. What gives?
Well, can't help but think "climate change" and expect the worst for the human race. And with the rumbles of election time, it's hard to frolic out into the spring.
But let us not hold back from stepping out into the day, breathing in the air, and saying "Ye gods, what a gorgeous day!" We need those in-drawn praises of life to hold through the dark times. More and more, I hold the irrational thought that we have to feel the spring before it's willing to come.
Co-Creation...
Our reading and performance tour of Co-Creation continues on. See the calendar to the right, and join us. Email us about hosting us in your living room, coffee house, arts center, gallery, or wherever you can assemble fifteen friends. Late June in Denver/Boulder, late summer or early fall in the Midwest and East, most any time in the greater Bay Area.
Our Duo Show...
First draft is finished, and we start rehearsals this week. First showings late summer. It might even have a title by then. Several old pieces are incorporated in it, including "Freeway," which has reappeared in several shows, but now revisited in a new context. More as we go.
Strange Evolution...
How things catch fire. In 2003 I created a solo story-telling show, Survival Tips for the Plague Years. I played a couple of performances in Sebastopol, adapted it to radio, then canned it. It seemed to have strong audience response, maybe too strong: several friends found it highly depressing, especially one story, "Galahad's Fool." For all practical purposes, it was dead meat.
Recently, a friend who makes puppet films sent me a first-draft script for comment. It was on the theme of St. Joan, and as a framing device he used a filmmaker struggling to cope with that theme. Later, he went a different direction, but the spark struck. Now, I'm launched into work on a novel about an artist wrestling with a Sir Galahad journey, both of them on their quests for the Holy Grail, whatever they conceive it to be. Damned thing about novels: there are so many words.
Sometimes an idea lies fallow until someone empties the slop bucket, and suddenly it's the magic catalyst. Right now what's emerging is a big, messy tsunami, but a very personal one. We'll see.
At Play...
Our daughter Johanna and her mate have just bought a 14th Century stone mill house in Tuscany, and now launched into the process of making it their own. Our son is beginning work illustrating a fantasy graphic novel to be serialized on the Web.
We gave readings of Co-Creation this month for the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild and the Sonoma County Pagan Network — diverse audiences indeed — and performed short sketches for a local Valentine's "Love Salon" cabaret and for Arcata Playhouse in Professor Willikers’ Puppet Slam, a thorougly jovial affair.
We're not wild social beings, but gradually we've evolved a bit more contact with the rest of humanity. We attend a periodic poetry salon and Shakespeare reading group, quarterly meetings of the SF Bay Puppetry Guild, a small full moon circle, Sunday morning coffee at Hard Core Espresso, and recently lots of friends' parties, which have resulted in both of us gaining five pounds, despite faithful trips to the gym. Life is good.
Peace and joy—
Conrad Bishop
Featured this Month...
{with a bonus}
Descent of the Goddess Inanna—
A full-length DVD of our 2007 staging.
The Queen of Heaven and Earth begins a fateful descent to meet her sister, Queen of the Underworld, as a New Jersey wedding photographer finds her images turning into nightmares. Based on 5,000-year-old Sumerian myths, this dramatic revisioning features compelling music, masks & puppets, and the dazzling richness, humor and erotic imagery of the ancient texts. It's $16.95 plus shipping. Order through our website.
* * *
Bonus: Order Inanna this month through our website and receive a free 72-minute CD of Diana's Gifts — six of our favorite audio-dramas, the most "visual" of all our dramatic work.
Great demands require great patience. In a rehearsal, you learn gradually that the sudden breakthrough, the perfect solution, that moment of blinding truth won’t necessarily come today. Maybe it won’t come tomorrow or till you’re halfway through the run of the show. You push as far as you can, and then you lie back and wait. Sow seeds and wait for the sprouting. Truth, oneness, trust — they likely won’t come as lightning bolts. As the Christ-like space alien teaches in Stranger in a Strange Land, “Waiting is.” Meanwhile, celebrate.
Visit our website for four decades of photos, playscripts, radio shows and chronicles of life, plus a catalog of our published books, CDs and DVDs.
I'm almost finished with this mask, "Pachamama". Macha has gathered a great "Mask Council", with an online discussion group, and great minds are circulating ideas about how these masks might look, be performed, and their stories told even as I write.
Freya, who has explored South America has inspired me to make the mask with the bright colors of the indigenous peoples art and clothing. We envision the performer in the handwoven garments to be found among peoples of Bolivia and Equador, and Freya suggests that she hold a spindle, because that is a common sight. With her spindle, the performer might offer threads to the celebrants/audience, encouraging them to "assist in the spinning" of a new way of understanding our relationship to Mother Earth.
I wrote about Pachamama, and introduced the Pachamama Alliance, in a recent article:
Since I'm neck high again in mythology as I work on masks, I felt like re-introducing one of my favorite sites, Kathleen Jenks "MYTHING LINKS" site.And here are a few more links to Mythology sites I've enjoyed.
"Our challenge is to bring the Goddess back to life, to envision, create, and inhabit the re-membered living body of the Earth."
Starhawk
And just as the false assumption that we are not connected to the Earth has led to the ecological crisis, so the equally false assumption that we are not connected to each other has led to our social crisis.
--Al Gore, EARTH IN BALANCE
I can't resist some of the free offerings on the Web. This one is www.slideshare.net, a free service that allows you to post power point presentations to the Web (it looks best if you make it "full screen") - so my experiment here is to post the presentation that I gave last year at the Conference at the Claremont School of Theology on Spider Woman. We're weavers all - so may we rub a bit of Spider Web into the palms of our hands in 2012!
![[Digitized image of Our Lady of Montserrat]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEtrLd9L5LJXKjc6vOyGY7Q04Wv_w3zGYzJaeVKfAFgjhksNzkb8ZGHzaAWlablWpgi07EL4nLACrps4lw8xlgm9Vzm3B0Tcq1uSid5JEEiINQVwgUjirJcby-UIX_HZDnfg4voVYeJgC/s1600-h/polish+pilgrims+to+black+madonna.jpg)
A full-length DVD of our 2007 staging.
