Though it’s a full eight hours, this book is best enjoyed one chapter at a time. It offers a chance to personally experience the Black Madonna, and I appreciated the ways it achieves that. For a truly immersive experience, I recommend listening to the audiobook while using the physical book as a reference and meditative guide. The author narrates the book, and I am glad that happened- one can hear the joy, and sometimes frustration, in the narration. This lends an authenticity and grounding that cannot be beat.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator kept my attention and the content was very informative. I appreciated the embodiment exercises at the end of each chapter, really cool.
I’m excited to share my thoughts about this book with my online group.
More of this, please!

Wow wow wow.

A book I've been looking for!

After stumbling across a Black Madonna statue in Bogota, Colombia - I immediately was drawn to and curious about her origin. Cleveland's book is a gift to us seekers! Not only rooting us in the material history of the Black Madonna, this book is also an embodied invitation to cultivate a relationship with her. Perhaps my favorite part of the audiobook was the Embodied Practice Invitations at the end of each chapter - being able to listen to Christena guide me through them was essential and really helpful.

She skillfully blends her own personal experiences with pilgrimmage and practices - unearthing personal and collective trauma - as a doorway to this often misunderstood and powerful figure. I appreciated the clarity - constantly reorienting us away from a white patriarchal racist theology - to a spacious black womb-type badass wisdom holder.

Every time I hear Christena Cleveland speak about the Black Madonna, I experience what I can only describe as ease, joy, and hope—in its most stubborn and scarred sense. It’s a testament to both the Black Madonna and Christena’s remarkable wisdom and storytelling.

This book invites us on a journey through history, both global and personal, in a way that grounds the human experience while holding it with deep compassion and affection. I love the liberating—and sometimes delightfully, cleverly and powerfully sassy—stories of the Black Madonna that remind us of the beauty and power of the divine feminine, particularly the Black Divine Feminine.

I’m so grateful for this book. I couldn’t put it down the first time through, and I already know I’ll be reading it again, more slowly, to savor everything I know I missed.