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Chartres et l'énigme des druides
La cathédrale de Chartres est incontestablement l'un des plus beaux sanctuaires de toute la chrétienté, tant par son architecture et la richesse artistique de son ornementation, que par la valeur symbolique de son ensemble. Mais c'est surtout un sanctuaire dédié à la Vierge, et cela, semble-t-il, bien avant l'introduction du christianisme en Gaule. Quelle est donc cette mystérieuse Virgo paritura que les Druides auraient vénérée à l'emplacement même de la crypte de la cathédrale actuelle, dans une grotte ou dans un temple en plein air ? Ne serait-elle pas, cette "NotreDame de Sous-Terre", l'image de la Mère universelle, la Déesse des Commencements, celle "sur le point d'enfanter" le monde, vers laquelle se dresse l'humanité entière, celle enfin que les chrétiens ont fini par identifier à l'Immaculée conception ? À travers la cathédrale de Chartres, haut-lieu de la dévotion mariale, mais également à travers le labyrinthe de la vieille ville, si chargée d'histoire, d'étranges voix se font entendre. Chartres n'est-elle pas située au centre de la Beauce, recouverte autrefois par une forêt immense, la forêt des Carnutes, qui, selon Jules César, abritait le plus grand sanctuaire de toute la Gaule, sanctuaire où les Druides venaient célébrer, une fois l'an, de très secrètes liturgies ? Ce qui est sûr, en tout cas, c'est qu'il existe une filiation évidente entre le culte druidique de la Déesse-Mère et le culte de la Vierge Marie, culte lié lui-même aux représentations dites de la "Vierge Noire". Or, si Notre-Dame de Chartres, comme celle du Puy-en-Velay, comme celle de Rocamadour, est une "Vierge Noire", que recouvre donc son image mythique, surtout dans un pays marqué par la présence indélébile des Druides ? C'est à tous ces problèmes nimbés d'ombre que cet ouvrage, captivant et hautement documenté, tente de répondre, aussi bien par l'archéologie que par l'histoire, la mythologie et l'histoire des religions.
326 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Jean Markale
190 books45 followersJean Markale is the pen name of Jean Bertrand, a French writer, poet, radio show host, lecturer, and retired Paris high school French teacher.
He has published numerous books about Celtic civilisation and the Arthurian cycle. His particular specialties are the place of women in the Celtic world and the Grail cycle.
His many works have dealt with subjects as varied as summations of various myths, the relationships of same with occult subjects like the Templars, Cathars, the Rennes le Château mystery, Atlantis, the megalith building civilisations, druidism and so on, up to and including a biography of Saint Columba.
While Markale presents himself as being very widely read on the subjects about which he writes, he is nonetheless surrounded by controversy regarding the value of his work. Critics allege that his 'creative' use of scholarship and his tendency to make great leaps in reasoning cause those following the more normative (and hence more conservative) mode of scholars to balk. As well as this, his interest in subjects that his critics consider questionable, including various branches of the occult, have gained him at least as many opponents as supporters. His already weakened reputation was further tarnished in 1989, when he became involved in a plagiarism case, when he published under his own name a serious and well-documented guide to the oddities and antiquities of Brittany, the text of which had already been published twenty years before by a different writer through the very same publisher.
Also a source of controversy is his repeated use of the concept of "collective unconscious" as an explanatory tool. This concept was introduced by Carl Jung, but in modern psychology it's rejected by the vast majority of psychologists.
He has published numerous books about Celtic civilisation and the Arthurian cycle. His particular specialties are the place of women in the Celtic world and the Grail cycle.
His many works have dealt with subjects as varied as summations of various myths, the relationships of same with occult subjects like the Templars, Cathars, the Rennes le Château mystery, Atlantis, the megalith building civilisations, druidism and so on, up to and including a biography of Saint Columba.
While Markale presents himself as being very widely read on the subjects about which he writes, he is nonetheless surrounded by controversy regarding the value of his work. Critics allege that his 'creative' use of scholarship and his tendency to make great leaps in reasoning cause those following the more normative (and hence more conservative) mode of scholars to balk. As well as this, his interest in subjects that his critics consider questionable, including various branches of the occult, have gained him at least as many opponents as supporters. His already weakened reputation was further tarnished in 1989, when he became involved in a plagiarism case, when he published under his own name a serious and well-documented guide to the oddities and antiquities of Brittany, the text of which had already been published twenty years before by a different writer through the very same publisher.
Also a source of controversy is his repeated use of the concept of "collective unconscious" as an explanatory tool. This concept was introduced by Carl Jung, but in modern psychology it's rejected by the vast majority of psychologists.
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August 9, 2026
A FRENCH WRITER STUDIES ONE CATHEDRAL’S MADONNA, AND CONSIDERS OTHERS AS WELL
‘Jean Markale’ (1928-2008) was the pen name of French writer Jean Bertrand, who wrote about a variety of subjects (e.g., myths, Celts, the Great Goddess, Druids, the ‘Sacred Feminine,’ etc.).
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1988 book, “During this September in 1936, when strange rumors were flying about a figure named Adolf Hitler, when terrible things were said to be taking place in Spain, we ... spent some peaceful days … at the home of some family friends… My grandmother, my father, and I were headed back toward Paris… The train dived into the fog toward Chartres… When I found myself on the Chartres train platform… I have never forgotten how Chartres represented deliverance from an unspeakable nightmare… watched over by the reassuring image of Our Lady as if in response to the desperate appeals of those who have gone astray in the ruts of time and space… I had no idea than of what a cathedral could be… Yet questions arose: What was the difference between Our Lady of Chartres and Our Lady of Paris, between Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Montligeon? Aren’t they all the same person? Why does she have so many names?” (Pg. 3-5)
He explains, “One of the essential elements of Our Lady of Chartres, at least on the ground level, is quite obviously the famous statue of Our Lady of the Pillar… It is only relatively recently that the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar was placed in this spot. As her name indicates, she is elevated on a pillar that seems to reveal and symbolize the telluric forces that spring from the ground. She is a Virgin with Child, clad in sumptuous garb, which is appropriate given that one of the treasures of Chartres---which escaped the fire and the ravages of the Revolution---is a piece of a veil that the Virgin Mary is said to have worn… The authenticity of this relic is suspect… but it contributed to the prodigious development of Chartres as a site of pilgrimage, so it is right for Our Lady of the Pillar to be attired so richly.” (Pg. 52)
He continues, “Particularly remarkable, and enigmatic in many respects, Our Lady of the Pillar is a Black Madonna. This statue raises certain issues. It is a polychrome work whose colors have almost totally disappeared; it currently shows only the dark tint of the wood. Some say the wood is walnut; others declare it is peat. It does not matter; the statue clearly falls into the category of what are called Black Virgins or Black Madonnas. Mary is represented sitting, holding Jesus on her left knee. She is looking straight ahead and holds a pear in her right hand, while the child, who is holding the globe of the world in his left hand, is making the gesture of benediction with his right.” (Pg. 52-53)
Then he adds, “But there is no proof that this first statue was in fact a Black Madonna… It would seem that the current statue of Our Lady of the Pillar was a kind of copy or adaptation of the 1220 statue…. In any case, it is Our Lady of the Pillar and the Virgin preceding her that Chartrian tradition identifies as the Black Madonna.” (Pg. 53-54)
He notes, “Some ecclesiastics currently deny that this statue is a Black Madonna, claiming her dark color is merely accidental due to the color of the wood. That is easy enough to say. In any event, Chartres tradition has clearly spoken for centuries about a Black Madonna, and this is obviously not the sole example on which the Virgin and Child are depicted, either carved from dark wood or covered by a coating that emphasizes the black color.” (Pg. 170)
He reports, “There are many Black Madonnas throughout Western Europe. These objects of worship and even pilgrimage have been a source of much fascination, both for their black color and for the mystery of their origins. If a list were made of all the statues and statuettes in this category, the number would be staggering. Some can be found in humble rural chapels, others in cathedrals. Some are ancient and others are of fairly recent provenance. Some have been destroyed but piously replaced by copies or imitations. Some are regarded as miraculous, others are simply worshipped out of tradition. Some have been discovered through circumstances bordering on the miraculous or the most wondrous happenstance; others have always been there. And at each site where a Black Madonna can be found, ancient legends surrounding the presence of a sacred fountain, a sacred tree, or a healing spring awaken the shadows of the past, including the worship of the Mother Goddess. It seems that there is a deep and subtle connection between Christianity as it is lived in folk settings and the recollections of religions preceding Christianity. And the dominant image is always the tranquil, reassuring, or triumphant image of the Divine Mother.” (Pg. 171)
He acknowledges, “The debate over the Black Madonnas is not close to being resolved… The Black Madonnas, although quite Christian in appearance, have their origin in ancient Mother Goddess cults, by whatever name they might individually be known. This is a reality. Another reality is that quite often the Black Madonnas were darkened intentionally, as if someone wished the color to signify something specific. These purposely blackened Madonnas exist in Chartres … and their meaning clearly appears insoluble. Why would the Virgin Mary be given this black color? And why only in certain cases? There are multiple theories. One suggestion is that the Virgin Mary had a sunburned complexion, appropriate for a Semite, and that the custom of depicting her as black or simply dark-skinned came from the Hodegetria, the mythical portrait attributed to Saint Luke… But this is mere fiction...
“A second hypothesis contends that the prototypes of the European Black madonnas were executed by artists who were themselves dark-skinned and simply reproduced their ethnicity in their artwork. Why not?… A third hypothesis… is merely that some statues were carved from wood or sculpted in dark-colored stone by chance… A fourth solution [is that] the statues… were spontaneously darkened by an outside agent, perhaps fire… But this holds up no better than the other theories outlined here. Why, then, would there be White Madonnas?… A fifth hypothesis [is that] the so-called Black Madonna statuettes were reproductions of dark-colored paintings… there might be a grain of truth in this, mainly because… the icons of the Virgin Mary produced in the Byzantine Church are distinctly Brown. The Byzantine icons… however, never inspired Western artists before the modern era. Furthermore, these icons, beautiful as they are, never depicted Black Virgins.’ (Pg. 186-187)
He argues, “It is too easy to claim that the dark color of some Virgins’ faces comes from the East on the pretext that the skin color of the Easterners is darker than that of Westerners. It is a superficial solution. The oldest painting that seems… to depict the Virgin Mary is located in the Roman Priscilla Cemetery. This painting, which may date from the 2nd or 3rd century, shows a brown-skinned woman holding a child on her knees… No one has ever been able to prove that the painting … is an image of the Virgin. But if she is brown, it is because someone deemed it wise to depict her in a color that was intended to say something.” (Pg. 189)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying the various Black Madonna traditions.
‘Jean Markale’ (1928-2008) was the pen name of French writer Jean Bertrand, who wrote about a variety of subjects (e.g., myths, Celts, the Great Goddess, Druids, the ‘Sacred Feminine,’ etc.).
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1988 book, “During this September in 1936, when strange rumors were flying about a figure named Adolf Hitler, when terrible things were said to be taking place in Spain, we ... spent some peaceful days … at the home of some family friends… My grandmother, my father, and I were headed back toward Paris… The train dived into the fog toward Chartres… When I found myself on the Chartres train platform… I have never forgotten how Chartres represented deliverance from an unspeakable nightmare… watched over by the reassuring image of Our Lady as if in response to the desperate appeals of those who have gone astray in the ruts of time and space… I had no idea than of what a cathedral could be… Yet questions arose: What was the difference between Our Lady of Chartres and Our Lady of Paris, between Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Montligeon? Aren’t they all the same person? Why does she have so many names?” (Pg. 3-5)
He explains, “One of the essential elements of Our Lady of Chartres, at least on the ground level, is quite obviously the famous statue of Our Lady of the Pillar… It is only relatively recently that the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar was placed in this spot. As her name indicates, she is elevated on a pillar that seems to reveal and symbolize the telluric forces that spring from the ground. She is a Virgin with Child, clad in sumptuous garb, which is appropriate given that one of the treasures of Chartres---which escaped the fire and the ravages of the Revolution---is a piece of a veil that the Virgin Mary is said to have worn… The authenticity of this relic is suspect… but it contributed to the prodigious development of Chartres as a site of pilgrimage, so it is right for Our Lady of the Pillar to be attired so richly.” (Pg. 52)
He continues, “Particularly remarkable, and enigmatic in many respects, Our Lady of the Pillar is a Black Madonna. This statue raises certain issues. It is a polychrome work whose colors have almost totally disappeared; it currently shows only the dark tint of the wood. Some say the wood is walnut; others declare it is peat. It does not matter; the statue clearly falls into the category of what are called Black Virgins or Black Madonnas. Mary is represented sitting, holding Jesus on her left knee. She is looking straight ahead and holds a pear in her right hand, while the child, who is holding the globe of the world in his left hand, is making the gesture of benediction with his right.” (Pg. 52-53)
Then he adds, “But there is no proof that this first statue was in fact a Black Madonna… It would seem that the current statue of Our Lady of the Pillar was a kind of copy or adaptation of the 1220 statue…. In any case, it is Our Lady of the Pillar and the Virgin preceding her that Chartrian tradition identifies as the Black Madonna.” (Pg. 53-54)
He notes, “Some ecclesiastics currently deny that this statue is a Black Madonna, claiming her dark color is merely accidental due to the color of the wood. That is easy enough to say. In any event, Chartres tradition has clearly spoken for centuries about a Black Madonna, and this is obviously not the sole example on which the Virgin and Child are depicted, either carved from dark wood or covered by a coating that emphasizes the black color.” (Pg. 170)
He reports, “There are many Black Madonnas throughout Western Europe. These objects of worship and even pilgrimage have been a source of much fascination, both for their black color and for the mystery of their origins. If a list were made of all the statues and statuettes in this category, the number would be staggering. Some can be found in humble rural chapels, others in cathedrals. Some are ancient and others are of fairly recent provenance. Some have been destroyed but piously replaced by copies or imitations. Some are regarded as miraculous, others are simply worshipped out of tradition. Some have been discovered through circumstances bordering on the miraculous or the most wondrous happenstance; others have always been there. And at each site where a Black Madonna can be found, ancient legends surrounding the presence of a sacred fountain, a sacred tree, or a healing spring awaken the shadows of the past, including the worship of the Mother Goddess. It seems that there is a deep and subtle connection between Christianity as it is lived in folk settings and the recollections of religions preceding Christianity. And the dominant image is always the tranquil, reassuring, or triumphant image of the Divine Mother.” (Pg. 171)
He acknowledges, “The debate over the Black Madonnas is not close to being resolved… The Black Madonnas, although quite Christian in appearance, have their origin in ancient Mother Goddess cults, by whatever name they might individually be known. This is a reality. Another reality is that quite often the Black Madonnas were darkened intentionally, as if someone wished the color to signify something specific. These purposely blackened Madonnas exist in Chartres … and their meaning clearly appears insoluble. Why would the Virgin Mary be given this black color? And why only in certain cases? There are multiple theories. One suggestion is that the Virgin Mary had a sunburned complexion, appropriate for a Semite, and that the custom of depicting her as black or simply dark-skinned came from the Hodegetria, the mythical portrait attributed to Saint Luke… But this is mere fiction...
“A second hypothesis contends that the prototypes of the European Black madonnas were executed by artists who were themselves dark-skinned and simply reproduced their ethnicity in their artwork. Why not?… A third hypothesis… is merely that some statues were carved from wood or sculpted in dark-colored stone by chance… A fourth solution [is that] the statues… were spontaneously darkened by an outside agent, perhaps fire… But this holds up no better than the other theories outlined here. Why, then, would there be White Madonnas?… A fifth hypothesis [is that] the so-called Black Madonna statuettes were reproductions of dark-colored paintings… there might be a grain of truth in this, mainly because… the icons of the Virgin Mary produced in the Byzantine Church are distinctly Brown. The Byzantine icons… however, never inspired Western artists before the modern era. Furthermore, these icons, beautiful as they are, never depicted Black Virgins.’ (Pg. 186-187)
He argues, “It is too easy to claim that the dark color of some Virgins’ faces comes from the East on the pretext that the skin color of the Easterners is darker than that of Westerners. It is a superficial solution. The oldest painting that seems… to depict the Virgin Mary is located in the Roman Priscilla Cemetery. This painting, which may date from the 2nd or 3rd century, shows a brown-skinned woman holding a child on her knees… No one has ever been able to prove that the painting … is an image of the Virgin. But if she is brown, it is because someone deemed it wise to depict her in a color that was intended to say something.” (Pg. 189)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying the various Black Madonna traditions.
July 12, 2009
The title of this work is a bit misleading. Rather than being about Chartres Cathedral itself, it focuses upon the development of the cult of the Virgin Mary, from the Roman and Celtic eras to early modern times. Author Markale has skilfully presented and examined the available historical evidence that pertains to the enigmatic Black Madonna statues and paintings that exist by the dozens throughout Europe, particularly in France. This is an engrossing and valuable study, but readers looking for specific information about the iconography contained within and without this most mystical of Christian cathedrals would do better to look elsewhere.
Read
August 5, 2011M. Markale's book is like a bunch of long short-stories that sort of connect but not really. He tries to connect the Black Stone of alchemy to the black madonna in Chartres Cathedral as well as trying to say it was built over a Druidic well or dolmen. It is quite unconvincing although he seems to believe it and doesn't quite get religious history. He likes the Marian cult, but it too is unbelivably naive.
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March 4, 2018
Fascinating!
December 9, 2016
I've decided to stop reading this book a few chapters in. Very, very little of this book is actually concerned with the black Madonnas of Chartres; this book is about Jean Markale, about the art and architecture of the cathedral, and more about Jean Markale. I honestly think that I could successfully undergo Freudian analysis of Markale's relationship with his mother thanks to this book.
August 14, 2008
Didn't read the whole thing, but very helpful when visiting Chartres as there's not much there about the true Madonna attributes of the cathedral.
August 20, 2013
Interesting history of Chartres from BCE when it was a Druid gathering place, then a Roman goddess temple, then a church, and finally today's magnificent Gothic cathedral devoted to Mary.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews