Our
Lady Of The Angelcynn
Introduction
Honouring Our Lady is a central part of the Christian
tradition. She is the Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, the God bearer and Queen of Heaven. Born into this world as a simple peasant girl
of a different people, she now reigns as Queen of Heaven, first amongst the
Saints.
Much
Christian theology looks to the human Mary as a role model of female purity,
acceptance of the will of God and maternal love. But Christian devotion is also to Mary the
Queen of Heaven, the first amongst the Saints.
Christians have traditionally looked to her for protection, for wisdom,
for healing and as an intermediary with her Son Our Lord.
|
|
Mary
is traditionally painted by the Church as pure and without original sin (the
Immaculate Conception). She is the
pure mother and represents the maternal, nurturing side of femininity. She is often looked to as a patroness, or a
symbolism of some important part of our devotion. She is said to have appeared to countless
devoted Christians down the ages, many of these events creating powerful
centres of Marian cults such as Walsingham or Lourdes. Historically, Christian England was very
devoted to her, so much so that medieval England was known as Mary’s
dowry. This devotion waned somewhat
under the influence of Protestantism, but has resurfaced over the last
hundred years or so with the advent of the Anglo-Catholic movement and the
growth of Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
No where more is this witnessed in the re-opening of the Shrine of
‘Our Lady of Walsingham’ in Norfolk. |
The Cult of the Black Madonna
Black Madonnas, or Black Virgins, are statues or paintings of Our Lady,
usually dating from the 11th to 15th centuries. They are called black because of their dark
faces and hands and are often associated with cults of healing. According to Ean Begg (The Cult of the Black
Virgin) they have their roots in the old pre-Christian religion and are powerful
symbols of sexuality, the underworld and of earth wisdom. They are the other aspect of the traditional
Madonna’s purity and tender maternity.
Some statues of Black Madonnas get their colour from the type of wood
used, usually ebony. Others, it is said,
were originally pale but became dark over the years through candle and incense
smoke. Nobody really knows why they are
depicted as being dark, but there is a growing consensus that this is
significant and it is intended to represent something that the Church does not
officially condone. Ean
Begg’s book makes several references to Priests who
show disinterest and sometimes hostility to too many questions about their
origins and significance. It does seem
as though Black Madonnas are a powerful part of European folk Christianity.
Black Madonnas do seem to have an
association with our pre-Christian nature based religion. Many of them are associated with stories of
being found near trees or springs – areas that are likely to have been holy
places in ancient times. Some scholars
argue that they have black skin colour out of recognition that the Holy
Family would have been dark skinned people.
Others take this further to argue that the cult began as a cult of
Mary Magdalene in southern France and is associated with the Templars and the
Cathars. Some argue that the dark skin
colour represents the Egyptian goddess Isis (see picture), whose statues bear an uncanny resemblance to the
traditional Madonna.
|
|
There is, however, a compelling view that the colour is significant in
terms of the nature of the Madonna rather than because of any outward
appearance. This view holds that the
dark colour signifies a dark side to Our Lady that deals with death and the underworld. Many of the cults associated with Black
Madonnas involve the healing of infants and young children, bringing people
back from the brink of death. The two
Madonnas, one pale and earth centred the other dark and centred on the
underworld present different sides of a single persona. There is here a similarity with several
ancient goddesses, such as the Hindu goddess Kali, whose name means
‘black’. Kali is associated with death,
destruction, time and change. But she
also has another side, one of beauty and life – she symbolises life after
death.
Our ancient Germanic mythology has a very similar goddess. Known by a number of names, such as Frau Holle in Germany, our Anglo Saxon ancestors called her
Hel. She is goddess of the underworld
and of the dead, hence her name.
However, in the old religion, Hel was not the fiery pit it is depicted
as today but rather an underworld into which the dead passed whilst they were
healed for a further journey towards heaven.
It is closest to what we would now call Paradise. The word hel is
cognate with hal, meaning health, healing and
wholeness as well as with the word hole signifying the underworld. The goddess herself is sometimes portrayed as
black, signifying her association with death and the dead, but other times as
shining white signifying the regenerative healing and rebirth that she brings
about.
It is argued that Black Madonnas symbolise a feminine power not fully
expressed in the pale Madonnas, who seem to signify the gentler attributes of
obedience and purity. In terms of
mythology, this is quite common. For
instance, Freya and Frigga represent the feminine virtues of lover and mother
who together represent the ‘sister’ of Ing Frey. Even in the Gospels there is a hint of this
dual nature of feminine power, between Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of
Jesus.
Begg identifies a number of Black Madonnas
in England, including:
Our Lady of Walsingham,
Norfolk. This is England’s national shrine to Our Lady
and Walsingham itself is referred to as England’s Nazareth. In 1061, just a few years before the Norman
invasion, Dame Richeldis de Faverches, Lady of the Manor, had a vision whilst
her husband was on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
She was taken three times in the spirit to the house of the Annunciation
in Nazareth by the Virgin and told to carefully note down its dimensions and
make an exact reproduction of it in England.
This she did and the shrine became one of the holiest places in all
Christendom. Boarded up and damaged
during the Reformation, the shrine has been repaired and reopened and is today
the main place of pilgrimage in England.
Although the modern statue is not black, Our Lady of Walsingham is the
first and foremost
Madonna of England and the Anglo Saxon English and as such is a
powerful connection back to our ancient Mothers.
Our Lady of Glastonbury, Somerset. The original statue, believed to have been
carved by St Joseph of Arimathea himself, was one of the few objects to survive
the fire that destroyed most of the abbey in 1184. Unfortunately it no longer survives, probably
destroyed during the Reformation.
Glastonbury, with its powerful legend of being the site of the first
Christian Church in Britain and resting place of the Holy Grael, is also the
mythical Avalon – the island of the dead.
Convent of the Holy Child,
Mayfield in Sussex. This contains two Black Madonnas and is
recognised as one of the most famous sites for Black Madonnas in the world.
Downside Abbey,
Stratton-on-the-Fosse in Somerset. Called simply the ‘Black
Madonna, this was acquired by the Abbey at the turn of the 20th
century and carved around 1470 in Strasburg.
Church of Our Lady of Hal,
London. Originally from Belgium, this appropriately
named statue of Our Lady resonates with our ancient goddess Hel and of healing.
Roman Catholic Church of St Aldhelm’s in
Malmesbury, Wiltshire – the only statue in England of Our Lady of Guadeloupe,
strongly associated with earth goddesses in the Americas.
Buckler’s Hard in Hampshire. This statue, dating from 1886, is located in
the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is of French origin.
Roman Catholic Church of Our
Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge. This is a dark oak
statue from the former Dominican Priory of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Aylesbury Priory, Kent. This is a modern Black Madonna, carved in the
1950’s.
Our Lady as Folk Mothers
|
|
We
know from the Roman historian Tacitus and from the Venerable Bede that the
English and related Germanic tribes honoured their tribal 'Mothers' or
goddesses. Bede tells us that the
early English celebrated a festival called Mothers' Night (Modranecht). The Anglo Saxon English celebrated two
‘mothers’ in particular; Hretha (probably Eartha or Nerthus) in March and
Eostre (Ostara) in April. A
recurring aspect of our ancient mythology is that of the Earth Mother, who is
symbolically impregnated each year by Sky Father (or sometimes Sea Father) to
produce the New Life. This mythology
points us to profound truths about the dynamic nature of God and is reflected
in the Christian story of Mary being with child by the Holy Spirit and giving
birth to the New Life of Christ. This
pre-Christian view of ‘Our Lady’ as Earth Mother has never really gone
away. It was a central part of our
ancestor’s religion and has remained stuck in our collective
subconscious. |
The
Mothers were more than just a representation of Mother Earth. They were the spiritual manifestation of a
tribe's homeland, indeed of the tribe itself and helped to guard and guide
it. They were also seen as important in
bestowing fertility on the land and on the people themselves. Children were blessed on Mothers' Night,
marriages drawn up. There was a clear
link between the mystical and spiritual energies that ran through a people's
tribal territory and through the people of the tribe itself.
These
attributes of the Folk Mothers strongly resemble the folk religious cults that
have grown up around Our Lady – both pale and black. Indeed, many of the attributes that people
originally looked to the old goddesses for are now embodied in the various
Marian cults. Our Lady of popular or
folk culture has in many ways taken over or subsumed the role of the old
goddesses.
Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham
Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham Icon of Our
Lady of Glastonbury
Collectively,
we see the Madonnas of England in terms of Our Lady as she relates to us as the
Anglo Saxon English people, a modern manifestation of our old folk
Mothers. We give her the collective name
of Freyo Angelcynnes, which means ‘Our Lady of the Angelcynn’ or Our Lady of
the English People. She embodies
something that is uniquely attached to us as a people and to our native land of
England. Whether we address her as ‘Our
Lady of Walsingham’, ‘Our Lady of Glastonbury’ or any other of our Madonnas, we
are in reality addressing ‘Our Lady of the Angelcynn’, our mother and our
protector.
We can
honour and petition Our Lady at any time and in any place we like, especially
on the traditional Marian feasts throughout the Church’s calendar. But we observe two days in particular as her
feast. The first is 25 March, the Feast
of the Assumption or Lady Day, which is the traditional feast of Our Lady of
Walsingham. 25 March is one of the
traditional Quarter Days and, as the celebration of Mary becoming pregnant by
the Spirit of God, has strong associations with our ancient myth of Sky Father
uniting with Earth Mother to create the new life. The other feast of Our Lady we give
particular weight to is that of Christmas Eve, the Mothers’ Night. Here we remember not just Our Lady giving
birth to Jesus, but also all the Mothers of our Englisc Þeod (Theod).
|
|
|
Hael Our Folk Mother, Freyo Angelcynnes, patron of our land and of our
people throughout the world.
Grant unto us Holy
Mother
That we may
Prosper
And Grow in
Strength and Wisdom
A People of
Eternal Spring
To the Glory of
Almighty God
go back to lorehoard
go back to contents