June

The Mount Shasta Goddess Temple dedicates June to The Black Madonna.

Artwork Madonna of Black Butte by Devanna Wolf

The Black Madonna is known by many names: Mitochondrial Eve, Au Set, Isis, Gaia, Cybele, Our Lady of Czestochowa, Santa Muerte, Sara la Kali, Our Lady of Monserrat, and others.

She is vast, timeless, fierce, and benevolent. She is non-local and ever-present. She is the balm for all suffering, the relief for obsessions and addictions, the matron of those who have been sexually marginalized and wounded, the mother of the oppressed, arbiter of justice, and the symbol for the deep, wise, feminine power that has been denigrated and treated as hidden/forbidden within more traditional religious contexts.

Ideas for honoring the Black Madonna, Our Lady of the Mysteries:

 -select a bouquet of red roses and bring them to a statue of the Virgin Mary somewhere

-recite the Ave Maria every day for a month

-join in the free online monthly ceremony led by the Order of the Black Madonna

-call your mother or write her a letter

-prepare bundles of menstrual supplies and donate them to a women’s shelter

-donate or volunteer for an organization that helps women escape prostitution and trafficking

-make offerings of rose water before a statue or image of the Black Madonna

-wear a rose pin or other piece of rose jewelry for a month

-make a piece of art with flaming hearts, representing the mother’s love

Praise for the Black Madonna

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: 
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. 
Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae. 
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes 
in hac lacrimarum valle. 
Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, 
illos tuos misericordes oculos 
ad nos converte. 
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, 
nobis, post hoc exsilium ostende. 
O clemens: O pia: O dulcis 
Virgo Maria.

For more information about the Goddesses honored in the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple, join the Temple as a Mandala Member.