An experiential guide to the ancient healing rituals of the Black Madonna

• Reveals the practices and rites of the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy, including the healing rites of the tarantella dance

• Details shamanic chants, rhythms, and songs and how to use them for self-healing, transformation, and recovery from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction

• Explores the many sacred sites of the Madonnas and connects them to other Great Goddesses, such as Isis, Aphrodite, Cybeles, and the Orisha Yemanja and Ochun

• Includes access to 12 audio tracks

The mysteries of the Black Madonna can be traced to pre-Christian times, to the ancient devotion to Isis, the Earth Goddess, and the African Mother, to the era when God was not only female but also black. Sacred sites of the Black Madonna are still revered in Italy, and, as Alessandra Belloni reveals, the shamanic healing traditions of the Black Madonna are still alive today and just as powerful as they were millennia ago.

Sharing her more than 35 years of research and fieldwork at sacred sites around the world, Belloni takes you on a mystical pilgrimage of empowerment, initiation, and transformation with the Black Madonna. She explains how her love for Italian folk music led her to learn the ancient tammorriata musical tradition of the Earth Goddess Cybele and the Moon Goddess Diana and discover the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy. She vividly describes the sensual shamanic drumming and ecstatic trance dance rituals she experienced there, including the rites of the tammorriata, the transgender rite of Femminielli, and the erotic “spider dance” of the tarantella, which has been used for centuries in the Mediterranean for healing. Sharing chants, rhythms, and sacred songs, she details how she uses these therapeutic musical and trance practices to heal women and men from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction and shows how these practices can be used for self-healing and transformation, including her personal story of using the tarantella to overcome cervical cancer.

Revealing the profound transformative power of the Black Madonna, Belloni shows how She is the womb of the earth, the dark side of the moon, and the Universal Mother to all. Truly alive for all to call upon, She embraces and gives everyone access to Her divine strength and unconditional love.

Alessandra Belloni is a world-renowned percussionist, singer, dancer, and actress born in Rome. Voted one of the best female percussionists in the world by Drum Magazine, she designed a signature series of tambourines for REMO, Inc. She is the founder and lead performer of “I Giullari di Piazza,” an Italian music, theatre, and dance ensemble, and is an Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. She teaches workshops and healing retreats around the world and lives in Edgewater, New Jersey.

FOREWORD
The Return of the Archetype in Times of Need
by Matthew Fox

PREFACE
Four Mystical Experiences That Led Me to the Black Madonna

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
Mamma Elvira’s Miracle

CHAPTER 1
Who Is the Black Madonna?

CHAPTER 2
Drumming in Honor of the Black Madonna

CHAPTER 3
The Prophetess, the Poet, and the Pagan Goddesses

CHAPTER 4
The Throne of the Madonna in Montevergine and the Legend of the Seven Sisters

CHAPTER 5
Unveiling the Powerful Black Madonna of Freedom and the Egyptian Goddess Isis

CHAPTER 6
The Devotion to the Black Madonna of the Poor

CHAPTER 7
Nigra Sum Sed Formosa: “I Am Black but Comely”-- The African Mother

CHAPTER 8
The Black Madonna of the Sacred Mountain of Viggiano and the Greek Myth of Demeter and Persephone

CHAPTER 9
The Black Madonna Incoronata and the Madonna of the Seven Veils

CHAPTER 10
The Haunting Image of Madonna dell’Arco

CHAPTER 11
Rhythm Is the Cure: The Shamanic Power of the Tarantella

EPILOGUE
The Black Madonna as Patron of All Humanity

APPENDICES
Music and Lyrics for Chants to the Black Madonna

Bibliography

Index