#the madonna's secret

[prissnukem]

[elena-ferrante]

the madonna's secret (wilhelm thiele, 1946)

[itsallmadonnasfault]

Madonna filming the Secret video in Harlem, directed by Melodie McDaniel, September 1994

[lazybakerart]

i want a reveal in the backend of s8 to be that buck and tommy secretly eloped in las vegas

[mdnaandme2012]

[eyes-of-laura-mars]

IT'S A SECRET

[framesdump]

Secret (Melodie McDaniel, 1994) by Madonna

[gaymer-hag-stan]

I'm bored 😴

Let's see... How many of my top artists (in no particular order) do we have in common?

Madonna

Rihanna

Girls' Generation

Apink

Beyoncé

T-ara

Brown Eyed Girls

Janet Jackson

Katy Perry

2NE1

4Minute

Jennifer Lopez

Girl's Day

KARA

Mariah Carey

Lady Gaga

Britney Spears

Kylie Minogue

Whitney Houston

Donna Summer

9MUSES

Christina Aguilera

Secret

Cher

Rainbow

Wonder Girls

SISTAR

P!nk

Taeyeon

f(x)

[music-catalogue]

[specific90saesthetics]

Michael K. Williams in Madonna’s video for “Secret,” directed by Melodie McDaniel.

[msclaritea]

Templars and the Black Madonnas

From 1100 A.D. to 1300 A.D., hundreds of Gothic Cathedrals were constructed all over Europe. These great Gothic cathedrals, such as the ones at Chartres, Paris, Salisbury, St.Denis, and Cluny were dedicated to Notre Dame, Our Lady. Our Lady is usually thought to be the Blessed Virgin Mary, but by some Mary Magdalene.

Most cathedrals were also home to Black Madonnas, of which about 400 to 500 are present in Europe, depending on how they are classified. There are at least 180 Vierges Noires in France, and there are hundreds of non-medieval copies as well.

Black Virgins have been associated by historians and archaeologists with mother goddesses,  such as Isis, deities sometimes represented as black. Historically, Isis of Egypt was the first recorded appearance of a Black Madonna, other than the Paleolithic Venus figurines.

As the indigenous goddess worship evolved in Europe, statues of dark skinned Middle Eastern goddesses such as Inanna, Astarte, Artemis and Cybele were introduced to the European continent by Phoenician traders from 1550 BC to about 30 BCE. The Phoenicians came from the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel and were highly influential culturally. Indeed their phonetic alphabet is believed to be the forerunner of most modern alphabets.

The Roman invasion of Gaul (France) and other parts of Europe also encouraged worship of these goddesses. The cult of Isis was the dominant religion of the Mediterranean during late Roman times, and had spread into Roman-occupied lands, including Gaul. The city of Paris was devoted to Isis, as Lyon was to Cybele and Marseilles to Artemis.

Many of the black Madonnas exist in France, and date from around the time of the crusades, when Bernard of Clairvaux wrote numerous commentaries on the Canticles, comparing the soul to the bride, Our Lady. He was also known to have visited several shrines of the Black Madonna, for example: Chatillon and Affligem.

Ean Begg, author of The Cult of the Black Virgin, speculates that the genre developed from an esoteric popular religion common among the Templars and Cathars, perhaps as a complement to the impetus from Bernard. He even states that many of the Black Virgins in European cathedrals were brought from the near east by the Knights Templar. Lynn Picknett, author of Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess, and The Templar Revelation, links the Black Madonnas to Magdalene, whom, he thinks, may have come from Ethiopia, a dark skinned, powerful, and wealthy queen.

[itsallmadonnasfault]

@madonna My babies got a secret….. …. x

[fireflywitch]

wip wednesday // el and will secretly listening to madonna’s 1985 hit ‘crazy for you’ because they don’t want jonathan to hear // i think there is someone he likes

[deadpresidents]

There are three more books I should have included on my Best Books of 2023 list from earlier:

Madonna: A Rebel Life Mary Gabriel (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination Stuart A. Reid (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys -- and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy James Risen with Thomas Risen (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

[britneyshakespeare]

one of my friends last night didn’t know who madonna was