Cult of the Black Virgin

Why are more than five hundred of the world’s Madonna images black or dark? Why is so little known about them? Black Virgins—a resurfacing of the powerful pagan goddesses of sexuality, the underworld, and earth wisdom—they are symbols of power and majesty, the other side of the traditional Madonna’s virginity or tender maternity. They personify the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant in a quest for lost feminine wisdom and the search for soul. Ean Begg's fascinating book investigates the pagan origins of the phenomenon as well as the heretical Gnostic-Christian underground stream that flowed west with the cult of Mary Magdalene and resurfaced in Catharism at the time of the Crusades, especially with the Templars.Begg, Ean is the author of 'Cult of the Black Virgin', published 2006 under ISBN 9781888602395 and ISBN 1888602392.