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Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna: Chants, Music, and Sacred Practices of the Great Goddess
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.
• 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.
432 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2019
47 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Alessandra Belloni
7 books9 followersAward winner percussionist/singer/dancer/actress/ teacher Alessandra Belloni is also an author, and renowned in her field and travels worldwide to perform group and solo concerts in theaters, universities, and international percussion festivals.
Belloni began her career in her native Rome with the great actress Anna Magnani in "La Lupa," and with legendary film director Federico Fellini in "Casanova." She is Artistic Director/Leading Performer of I Giullari di Piazza, Artist in Residence at the Cathedral of St John the Divine , an ensemble of musicians/vocalists/dancers that specializes in authentic Southern Italian music and theater events, dating back to the 13th century. Belloni is a REMO artist and designer of her signature series of Italian tambourines; she is also author of the book & DVD "Rhythm is the Cure," published by Mel Bay.
Author of the new book “Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna” with Inner Traditions and foreword by best selling author Matthew Fox.
The only artist in the world who specializes in Southern Italian tambourines combined with singing and dance, Belloni was selected as one of the best percussionists in the world by DRUM! Magazine, and has been acclaimed in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, featured in Modern Drummer and Percussive Notes among others.
She has been invited to appear in percussion festivals in England, Brazil, Poland, France, Italy, Australia, Egypt, Israel, and throughout the U.S. and Hawaii.
Ms.Belloni leads annual pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the Black Madonna in Southern Italy, and teaches healing dance and drumming workshops and retreat in Tuscany and Hawaii and around the world.
Belloni began her career in her native Rome with the great actress Anna Magnani in "La Lupa," and with legendary film director Federico Fellini in "Casanova." She is Artistic Director/Leading Performer of I Giullari di Piazza, Artist in Residence at the Cathedral of St John the Divine , an ensemble of musicians/vocalists/dancers that specializes in authentic Southern Italian music and theater events, dating back to the 13th century. Belloni is a REMO artist and designer of her signature series of Italian tambourines; she is also author of the book & DVD "Rhythm is the Cure," published by Mel Bay.
Author of the new book “Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna” with Inner Traditions and foreword by best selling author Matthew Fox.
The only artist in the world who specializes in Southern Italian tambourines combined with singing and dance, Belloni was selected as one of the best percussionists in the world by DRUM! Magazine, and has been acclaimed in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, featured in Modern Drummer and Percussive Notes among others.
She has been invited to appear in percussion festivals in England, Brazil, Poland, France, Italy, Australia, Egypt, Israel, and throughout the U.S. and Hawaii.
Ms.Belloni leads annual pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the Black Madonna in Southern Italy, and teaches healing dance and drumming workshops and retreat in Tuscany and Hawaii and around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 26, 2019
Not very well written - too much repetition and a structure that tries to combine a memoir with thematic discussion and ends up doing neither very well. Some fakelore.
June 19, 2019
Excellent Read on the Southern Italian Tradition
It is a joy to read this book and have so many scattered pieces of Southern Italian culture and it’s natural connection to African traditions brought to the surface. A wonderful healing journey with a brilliant and loving author.
It is a joy to read this book and have so many scattered pieces of Southern Italian culture and it’s natural connection to African traditions brought to the surface. A wonderful healing journey with a brilliant and loving author.
July 31, 2019
an incredible resource for anyone interested in the black madonna or italian folk healing in general <3
January 1, 2021
I started following Alessandra Belloni after I heard a tarantata pizzica song by her on our local public radio station. (The Tarantella di san Michele). I had never heard that rhythm that was so fast and lively, and as I was driving I waited to hear who the songwriter was. I researched her music and other pizzicas and did a presentation along with a dance to my college Italian culture class in 2007.
Subsequently, I traveled to Italy and visited the Temple of the Sibyl in Tivoli, where I learned of the myth of the Tiburtine Sibyl. That started me on a years long research of all the Sibyls which culminated in a solo photography show where I recreated old masters paintings of the prophetesses with live models. The show was held at my same "Alma Mater" (nourishing mother) Colorado Women's College. In the show, I had a photo of a black Madonna statue next to a photo of the statue of Diana of Ephesus (Atemis), where I drew a connection to Black Goddess worship.
Reading about all the on-the-ground experiences and intense research that Belloni has carried out for many years was illuminating! She has further expanded my knowledge of the ancient, underlying basis for all the rituals, festivals, and reverence for the Black Madonnas in Italy and elsewhere.
I was delighted to find out that one of Her sanctuaries is on a mountain next to the town that my Grandfather came from. My mother and grandmother did not speak about a Black Madonna, but did pray to Mary and were devout Catholics. I feel somehow this idea of Goddess worship is ingrained in me, having read "When God was a Woman" and books with similar themes. This book really drove home the point that there was syncretism between the cults of Isis, Cybele, Demeter, Ceres, Artemis, and Diana with Mary, the Mother of God. Indeed, the meteorite stone brought to Rome and made into an icon of Cybele was known as Magna Mater, or "great mother."
I appreciated Belloni's translation of even the town names - Benevento - good wind. And other translations throughout the book.
Belloni is deep in her beliefs of the healing power of the Black Madonna through music, specifically drumming. She gives numerous examples of women being healed of physical illness. But she goes further into explaining what I had surmised when I read about women who were "bitten by the spider" and had to have musicians play by their side for days. The women were perhaps young and in love but could not be with that person because of the patriarchy, or maybe they were sexually abused. Belloni knows from personal experience that the trauma of these incidents carry on to this day with her mention of the "Me Too" movement.
She testifies that women have been freed from that trauma after intense dancing and singing, and going on pilgrimages with her to the Black Madonnas in Italy. Her beliefs can be a bit incredulous, but suspending my disbelief, helped me to thoroughly enjoy this book. (Lots of tabbed pages!)
Subsequently, I traveled to Italy and visited the Temple of the Sibyl in Tivoli, where I learned of the myth of the Tiburtine Sibyl. That started me on a years long research of all the Sibyls which culminated in a solo photography show where I recreated old masters paintings of the prophetesses with live models. The show was held at my same "Alma Mater" (nourishing mother) Colorado Women's College. In the show, I had a photo of a black Madonna statue next to a photo of the statue of Diana of Ephesus (Atemis), where I drew a connection to Black Goddess worship.
Reading about all the on-the-ground experiences and intense research that Belloni has carried out for many years was illuminating! She has further expanded my knowledge of the ancient, underlying basis for all the rituals, festivals, and reverence for the Black Madonnas in Italy and elsewhere.
I was delighted to find out that one of Her sanctuaries is on a mountain next to the town that my Grandfather came from. My mother and grandmother did not speak about a Black Madonna, but did pray to Mary and were devout Catholics. I feel somehow this idea of Goddess worship is ingrained in me, having read "When God was a Woman" and books with similar themes. This book really drove home the point that there was syncretism between the cults of Isis, Cybele, Demeter, Ceres, Artemis, and Diana with Mary, the Mother of God. Indeed, the meteorite stone brought to Rome and made into an icon of Cybele was known as Magna Mater, or "great mother."
I appreciated Belloni's translation of even the town names - Benevento - good wind. And other translations throughout the book.
Belloni is deep in her beliefs of the healing power of the Black Madonna through music, specifically drumming. She gives numerous examples of women being healed of physical illness. But she goes further into explaining what I had surmised when I read about women who were "bitten by the spider" and had to have musicians play by their side for days. The women were perhaps young and in love but could not be with that person because of the patriarchy, or maybe they were sexually abused. Belloni knows from personal experience that the trauma of these incidents carry on to this day with her mention of the "Me Too" movement.
She testifies that women have been freed from that trauma after intense dancing and singing, and going on pilgrimages with her to the Black Madonnas in Italy. Her beliefs can be a bit incredulous, but suspending my disbelief, helped me to thoroughly enjoy this book. (Lots of tabbed pages!)
April 29, 2021
Este libro no está super bien escrito pero me cae muy bien la señora, es una italiana que emigró a NY en su adolescencia y se dedicó a aprender sobre música folclórica del Sur de Italia, sobre todo la tarantella y los ritmos del pandero, fue a peregrinaciones y compuso operas para presentarlas en NY. En este libro va tejiendo la devoción de diferentes vírgenes negras, su música y tradiciones, con su vida personal y el trabajo que desarrolló después. Es interesante si te interesa el tema porque hay muchas vírgenes de las que habla que no son tan conocidas y ella da información sobre sus días de fiesta y como se festejan. Es bastante mística y habla sobre magia, coincidencias y premoniciones pero lo que se me hace interesante es como la tarantella y el tarantismo ella los ve (y puede que realmente hayan sido) una forma terapéutica de trabajar los traumas mediante el ritmo y el cuerpo. El libro viene con un link para descargar 12 tracks de la música de la que habla a lo largo del libro.
January 15, 2022
Such an amazing book. Definitely one for the collection. Well written, very entertaining as well as packed with beautiful stories from our past as well as the author's amazing life. highly recommend for anyone interested in goddess mysteries, natural healing, ancient knowledge and the power of music and song. I will be reading this again and again.
February 18, 2020
At least passage from the book is suspiciously similar to Wikipedia pages on the topic (i.e. the witches of Benevento). Hard to know who is paraphrasing who, but way too close for coincidence.
October 26, 2022
A very interesting, very different view of how we are who we are. Excellent read.
April 26, 2024
I listened to this book read and sung by the author in a charming Italian accent. Even though it includes the author’s stories of her experiences with the Black Madonna, the book is boring and not entertaining. Because of my interest in the Black Madonna and the many facts presented, I kept going to not miss any nuggets. I finished the book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews