Ritual and Reparations

Dear Ones,

Last week, the Temple hosted a 7-day Vespers series called “Madonna Holy Week” in which we examined 7 different epithets related to the Virgin Mary. We tipped traditional understandings of Mary over and looked at the ruins of the matriarchal ancient future foundations beneath them, much like archaeologists excavating the Goddess temples so often found buried beneath modern churches and cathedrals. We also shared heart stories and devotional aspirations during our daily ceremonies, which gave us all opportunities for deep healing.

Many of us expressed our experiences of frustration at moments of injustice in our lives and in the world, and prayed for miraculous healing of issues related to poverty, abuse, racism, systemic inadequacy, and more. As our week went along, we also gained a deeper sense of agency around the miracles we would not only like to see in our world, but which we would like to help co-create.

As a member of a multi-racial family, who has time and again witnessed both subtle and overt racism directed toward my siblings, I have long held the belief that reparations and restitution are not only a good idea...they are completely necessary if we wish to begin to rectify the imbalance of power and dignity that has occurred for over 400 years toward people of color in this country. Reparations are defined as “the making of amends (usually financially) for harm one has done.” It seems like a fair enough proposal that in this country, we would be able to find institutional and personal ways to contribute to balancing the scales of racial inequality through reparations. Yet I have often encountered resistance to the idea of reparations when I’ve brought it up. Some of the more common arguments I’ve heard against reparations are as follows:

• That they are only a drop in the bucket and could never really work to balance the scales. To which I reply, “We don’t know that. We have not tried. Why not try and see?”

• That we don’t know exactly who is descended from enslaved Africans, and therefore can’t know who deserves the reparations. To which I reply, “Then why not create a foundation to support projects that benefit people of color in general? Those who apply for the funding can detail instances in their lives when they have been subjected to racist attitudes, danger, or prejudice, and their stories of suffering would certainly be proof enough that they deserve reparative funding?”

• That impoverished white people should not have to pay any kind of reparations tax because they are suffering, too. To which I reply, “Reparations should not be an added tax for individuals, especially those struggling with poverty. It should be the willing and compassionate effort of good-hearted individuals who understand and empathise with the need for an act of rebalancing; it should come from the government, re-allocated from weapons spending; it should also be funded with special tax placed on corporations that make above a certain profit margin.”

I don’t know if me writing these arguments down will change anything. I’m not suggesting anything that hasn’t been mentioned by someone else before, after all. But I do know this: that reparations can create a potential wave of healing that would free something currently blocked and bound in the hearts of both people of color and white people...and everyone in between on this complicated spectrum of human genealogy.

So, during Madonna Holy Week, it became clear to me what to do about this, at least here in our Temple.

On August 26, the feast day of Our Lady of Częstochowa, I will be re-igniting the flame of the Order of the Black Madonna, https://orderoftheblackmadonna.com, a project which has been on hiatus since 2018. Formerly a more elaborate membership association with multiple levels of training, in its new form the revived Order will simply be focused on two things: 1) offering a monthly Madonna ceremony, in which we lift the petitions that have been submitted through our web site, and 2) gathering membership dues as reparations to help fund the “Black Woman Is God Joy Resistance Retreats” that I’ve been dreaming into being. My ideal is to begin with one retreat by the end of 2020, with two retreats in 2021, and quarterly retreats in 2022 and beyond, so that many Women of Color can have this experience. I have already been discussing this idea with several Women of Color artists I know, and they are beginning to think about the activities that will be nourishing and joyful for them, such as sourcing all of the food from a Woman of Color-owned farm, and having a professional photographer on hand to create Goddess portraits.

I know that if we dedicate the monthly dues from the Order of the Black Madonna to this project, it will grow over time into the kind of sustained, ritual replenishing reparations that can create a wave of positive change, at least for women in our little corner of the world. And in time, more projects may emerge for the Order, as inspired by the Madonna herself.

I’ve set the dues for the Order of the Black Madonna Tier of the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple’s Patreon at $15 per month. After Patreon’s fees and charges, and a $3-per-month membership fee to fund the maintenance of the Order’s website and activities, the remaining $10 of each donation will go into the Reparations Fund every month.

If you are a member of the Temple at the $5 or $10 level, or thinking about joining, I invite you to consider becoming an Order of the Black Madonna member, and contributing your dues to our reparations project.

If you are a member of the Temple at a higher level, and you’d like to allocate a portion of your monthly dues to the Order of the Black Madonna reparations fund, please contact me and let me know. I’d love to facilitate this for you. You can reply to this message or you can text me at (510) 355-7912.

Thank you all for considering this invitation.

Our monthly Madonna ceremonies will be on 4th Wednesdays at 7pm, starting with the inaugural ceremony on August 26, and continuing thereafter. They will be open to all members of the Temple who feel called to attend.

May this working be blessed with the success to do its part in repairing the damage that might stand in the way of women bonding together to create a beautiful future for all beings 🙏🏼

Blessed be,

Yeshe

The Divine Mother Prayer

Our Mother whose body is Earth
hallowed be Thy 10,000 names.
Thy Queedom come, our wombs are one,
may all women, come to remember!
Give us each day food to nourish
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we strive to heal ourselves and the planet.
Lead us unto Your many pleasures
and deliver us from oppression.
For Thine is the wisdom,
the power and the beauty
forever and ever!

~mystic revision of The Lord's Prayer by Heather Kohser 2012 c

Prayer to the Dark Madonna

Guest Post by Leni Hester

Hold me in your embrace, as you hold the stars close in your dark skies,
Great Mother of the Void, O Brilliant Darkness!
I call to You, Dark Mother, Eternal Spring of Mercy,
And ask for your benevolence and comfort.
Sacred Black Madonna,
You who are the healing force of the well, of the sacred grove,
who causes sacred trees to weep tears of myrrh, be witness to our wounding
and heal us of illness and shame.
You who hear the cries of the world, Radiant and Compassionate One,
who is our mountain sanctuary against the storms of a troubled world,
I ask for your blessings of peace and liberation,
Shield the vulnerable from violence and greed,
Protect us from harm and malice, you who bear witness to the sorrows of the world.

Beloved Black Madonna,
as you hold all things of the flesh in your loving sight.
Your love is our refuge, always. Blessed Be.

Blessing for Black Mothers Everywhere

This piece was written by Guest Author Crystal Blanton

From the depths of her soul she mourns

From the fear of her present she cries for the reality that she must hand to her child.

From the shadows of her experiences she gives the lessons of a mother who prepares her child for battle.

She is the carrier of hardship inside of a harsh world, the holder of the painful lessons, and the mother of the endangered.

She is the beginning of all life, and she is the the seeker of true justice.

She is the caregiver for the oppressor, and the trainer for the oppressed.

She is the warrioress stuck in the tower, unable to save her children from death.

She is mother

She is Black mother

She is the forgotten of the bereaved, while she holds the hands of those who dismiss her pain.

She holds the power of the universe, and harnesses the dark shadows of the world.

She is the magic of motherhood, and possesses the thighs often stolen for others' pleasure while discarded for the perception of her ugliness.

She is mother

She is Black mother

She carries the pain of her lineage, and the hope of her visions.

She walks the floors of the bottom, and finds magic when there is nothing else left.

She bears the misfortune of the darkness of society, and passes the culture of survival to the next generation.

She is mother

She is Black mother

As she rises from the bottom once again, take a moment to breathe in her name. Take a moment to acknowledge her need. Breathe out words of strength, encouragement and magic to her. Speak them aloud….. 

Let this energy reverberate into the world… We give it to the Black Madonna as she heals, encourages, protects, and strengthens the Black mothers in our society, and their children, so they can continue the fight to thrive in our communities and to touch a sense of equity in our world. May she be blessed as we all are blessed.