The great image of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, to which I have a special devotion. Patron of Catholic Poland, she inhabits her monastery in the rather grey city of Czestochowa as a prisoner (so to speak) of patriarchal Catholicsm, fully encased in the 'belly of the beast'. And yet she manifests an extraordinary spiritual power that transcends the very real limitations of her keepers. Carl Jung called her 'the last living symbol of Western Christianity.' One of the great manifestations of the re-emerging divine feminine in our day. I pilgrimage to her image at least twice a year (8 hours by train from Prague) and join the many Polish faithful on their knees as we scuffle around the high altar and behind the image in penitence and devotion. See China Galland's wonderful book, Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna.
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