1. The influence of the east -- 2. The classical tradition -- 3. Natural religion: the Celtic and Teutonic sources -- 4. The whore wisdom in the Christian era -- 5. The symbolic meaning of the Black Virgin.
"Why are over 500 of the world's images of the Madonna 'black' or 'dark'? And why are they so little known?" "Ean Begg's fascinating book investigates the pagan origins of the phenomenon as well as the heretical Gnostic-Christian underground stream that flowed west with the cult of Mary Magdalene and resurfaced in Catharism at the time of the Crusades, especially with the Templars."--Jacket.