Week of 8/26-31/2024: The Black Madonna & the Antichrist; Remembering Rabbi Michael Lerner

August 26, 2024: On the Black Madonna in a Time of Kamala Harris
Healthy men are not threatened by strong women; instead they welcome and celebrate them. This healthy masculinity was in evidence at the DNC where so many men were excited by Kamala Harris. For decades, Matthew has honored the Black Madonna. A few years ago, he was asked to write the foreward for Alessandra Belloni’s Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna: Chants, Music and Sacred Practices of the Great Goddess. Matthew also salutes the work of Christena Cleveland, God Is a Black Woman, which honors the French tradition of the Black Madonna. Carl Jung says that archetypes return when we need them—and we do need this archetype today, for she represents the strong and even fierce Divine Mother who defends the poor and all those who suffer. 

August 27, 2024: Henry Adams, Kamala Harris & the Divine Feminine, continued
Henry Adams, whose grandfather and great-grandfather were both presidents, wrote poignantly of the role of Mary in his iconic book, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres , written in 1904. He called Mary “the dynamo” that led that renaissance of the 12th century in Europe. He wrote: “Her sympathy was with people who suffered under law.” She represented “the assertion of the supremacy of love over force” and “boundless sympathy.” Adams asks: Why, in the modern era, was the Woman struck out of the Church and ignored in the State? Matthew says that he hopes the energy and values of the Black Madonna can carry us into what Pete Buttigieg calls a “new politics,” and hopefully Kamala Harris can be a catalyst for such a non-violent revolution.

August 28, 2024: Three Responses to My New Book on Trump, MAGA & Anti-Christ
Following are some thoughts from three early readers of Matthew’s new book Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.  An Episcopal priest loves it and has been sharing it with others. He reports that some love it while others are reluctant to embrace the term “antichrist,” although he says they agree with everything else Matthew says. He further says that he believes progressives are often hesitant to use religious archetypes to name the evils present, even though we do believe there are spiritual realities at play. We just feel sort of, I don’t know, not qualified to name things for what they are! This makes your book even more crucial, in my view. Neil Douglas Klotz, an Aramaic scholar, says: In my humble opinion, many “spiritual but not religious” people don’t take evil seriously. He says: Behaviours that may have seemed acceptable in the past need to be re-evaluated every season and every era.  Meanwhile, a grandmother reports: Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. She says she realizes that I have felt this heaviness looming and didn’t know how to name it.  You have named it and now I know what we are facing.

August 29, 2024: Honoring the Black Madonna and MLK Jr.
The Black Madonna is an important presence for our time.  Andrew Harvey points out that, in a time like ours, we should pray to her because, among other things, she is “queen of hell” because her love for the human race “makes her invincible to all demonic forces. ” Talking of the Antichrist and dealing with it requires we protect ourselves in the process.  (From the Archive 1/16/24) What the Black Madonna stands for is what MLK Jr. stood for: Justice in the face of injustice; attention to the anawim, those without a voice; love, not hatred; peace, not war; forgiveness, not retribution; an  appreciation of darkness and blackness; and so much more.

August 30, 2024: Evil, the Antichrist, & Kali, the Black Madonna of the East
Matthew makes the statement: “I am an elder.” As an elder, one of his jobs is to teach, and that includes teaching about evil. And here is what he has to say: Evil matters. And evil is real. And it is MUCH bigger than sin. There is Christ; and there is Antichrist. Antichrist is another name for evil. And there is lots of evil afoot in our world today. …Let us not be afraid to call evil what it is. So that we can move beyond it and loosen its grip on us and become who we really are: Sons and daughters of the divine, other Christs.

August 31. 2024: The Death of a Prophet and Friend, Rabbi Michael Lerner
We learn of the death of a very good man, a prophet, a tireless worker for social justice, and co-founder of the magazine, Tikkun. Rabbi Learner also once ran a lively synagogue in San Francisco where Matthew once led a spiral dance. Both Matthew and he were asked to speak when the Dalai Lama was in San Jose. Matthew remembers that the Rabbi began his talk with a heart-filled and unselfconscious chant and ritual from his tradition for the very diverse religious group that was gathered. Also, notably, the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was one of his teachers. He demonstrated courage and conviction in speaking up for the rights of Palestinians, and experienced criticism and backlash for that from his own people. But he took it in stride and continued to walk his talk. He will be dearly missed by many. Fortunately, his books live on—among them Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God.

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Banner image: This famous Black Madonna is also known as Our Lady of Czestochowa. There are scars on her face, which remind us that she is also known as the Mother of Sorrows. Wikimedia Commons.

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Recommended Reading

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit