Isis was a Black African goddess of Nile Valley civilizations whose worship eventually diffused to most of the ancient world. Isis was worshipped by the Nubians well over 300 years before the first Egyptian dynasty. The Egyptians then gave the Isis religion to Greece, Rome, and Western Asia. Gerald Massey says that the religious records of all the worlds religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are nothing more than copies of the religious records of the Black goddess Isis, her son Horus, and her husband Osiris. For example, Horus was the first child born from a virgin mother's Immaculate Conception, and he was said to have walked on water just as Jesus later did. The Black goddess Isis is also credited with resurrecting Osiris after he was murdered.
The first "Black Madonna and Child" statutes and portraits were of Isis and Horus, and these were taken throughout the world by the Roman Empire. When other religions became more popular, these statues were not destroyed, but simply had their names changed. In India, Isis and Horus became Maya and Buddha in Buddhism or Devaki and Krishna in Hinduism. The Chinese called Isis Kwa-yin, and the Japanese changed the name to Kwannon.
In his 1985 book entitled "The Cult of the Black Virgin", Ean Begg was able to identify over 450 images of a Black virgin and child in Europe with over 190 statutes in France alone. J.A. Rogers says that Paris was actually named for Isis because Para-isis means "Place of Isis." He also says that Note Dame means "Our Lady" and that the cathedral is nothing more than an enlargement of the original Isis temple.
Millions of pilgrims visit the Black Madonna shrines annually because they are believed to possess magical powers, although the statues are now called Mary and Jesus. It is believed that only the Black statues are magical and all pilgrimages stopped whenever the statues were painted white. The Black Madonnas have been credited with healing towns of plagues, bringing dead babies to life, making infertile women pregnant, and saving nations during wars. Many crutches have been left at the feet of the Black Madonnas, who presumably gave their owners the power to walk. One of the most devoted pilgrims of the Black Madonna shrine in Poland is the current Pope John Paul II. He prayed to her image while recovering from his gun shot wound. She is credited with thousands of documented miracles including saving Poland from Russia in 1769. In 1968 alone, the Black Madonna shrine in Poland received over 66,000 thank you letters for healing and other miracles. Pilgrims frequently leave gold watches and rings at the feet of the Black Madonnas in appreciation.
Church literature absolutely refuses to acknowledge any association of Black Madonnas with Africa. Church officials claim that the Madonnas are Black because of smoke from candles and from dirt and old age. Church officials would never admit that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans made pilgrimages until 536 AD to the Isis temple at Philae, Egypt to seek the same miracles that current pilgrims seek from the Black Madonna shrines. Isis was recognized as a supreme miracle and magic worker and is also credited with teaching mankind the art of curing disease. Isis was able to restore life to the dead as she did with her husband Osiris and later with the infant Horus, who was brought back to life after he was killed by a scorpion's sting. Isis was the goddess of corn and grain, water and navigation, and even clothing. She was also called a divine granter of salvation for souls of mankind. The ancient Black Egyptians acknowledged Isis as the source of all their prosperity, including the Nile River.
Isis worship was so strong in Europe that Roman citizens ignored Emperors Augustus and Tuberous, who outlawed Isis worship and persecuted her priests. Emperor Caligulia finally bowed to public pressure and re-established the Isis worship. Emperor Justinian caused an unsuccessful armed insurrection in 536 AD, when he ordered all Isis temples permanently closed.
Religion in general (and the cult of the Black Virgin Madonna in specific) is yet another example of the many elements of civilization and civilizing ideas which were brought from Africa into Europe.
related:
Isis in Paris, The Black Madonna
“By certain archeologists, the word Paris is supposed to be a corruption of the word ‘Bar-Isis becoming through Roman pronunciation ‘Parisii’, the name of the tribe that inhabited the site on which Paris now stands. The boat in the coat-of-arms of Paris is supposed to be the bark of the Negro goddess. Isis was the goddess of navigation. According to De Breuil, a statue of Isis existed in the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris as late as 1514, when it was ordered broken by Cardinal Briconnet.”
“The worship of Isis spread through the remainder of Europe and into Asiatic Russia. Ancient statuettes of her have been found in Northern France, in the the Rhineland, and on the Moselle. (Does this mean that a thousand years from now all we tourists who bring home souvenirs if Isis statues and ‘good luck’ charms will be designated as ‘worshippers’ by future generations?) Her temples were in all that region as well as in Britain. She is believed to have a temple in Paris, and another nearby at Melun.”
Here is another quote of interest in the chapter entitled “The Black Madonna” from the book, “Sex and Race” by J.A. Rogers, 1940, 37 Morningside Ave. NYC
“St. Augustine himself says, “What is now called the Christian religion has existed among the ancients and was not absent from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh from which time the true religion existed already began to be called Christian.””
In this chapter, “The Black Madonna”, J.A. Rogers discusses the origins of the Black Madonna. If any of you have ever visited pilgrimage sites of Black Madonnas, for example in Montserrat or in Poland, you may have heard the explanation of the ‘blackness’ being caused by hundreds of years of smoke. Rogers offers some other possibilities to consider. He states that “During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars there was a general destruction of Black Madonnas in Europe, two notable instances being Montserrat and Le Puys in France.”
Rogers goes on to describe two of the oldest Black Madonnas of Europe: the Black Virgin of Nuria, Spain and of Loretto, Italy. That of Loretto was destroyed in fire in 1930, but accorrding to Father Ledit, Pope Pius XI had ordered that the original color of the madonna should be preserved ( today the majority of the Black Madonnas have Caucasian features).
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