In this provocative book, Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines untamed feminine divinities from around the world. Although distant geographically, these divine figures are surprisingly similar-representing concepts of liminality, outsiderhood, and structural inferiority, embodied in the divine feminine. These strong, independent, unrestrained figures are connected to the periphery and to magical powers, including power over sexuality, transformation, and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba offers a study of the origin and worship of four feminine deities across cultures and continents: the Slavic Baba Yaga, the Hindu Kali, the Brazilian Pombagira, and the Mexican Santa Muerte. Although these divinities have often been marginalized through dismissal, demonization, and dulcification, they continue to be extremely attractive, as they empower their devotees confronting them with the ultimate reality of transience and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines how these sacred icons have been adapted and transformed across time and place.

A system of myths, symbols, and rituals, dating back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic, survives in present-day imagery. In exploring this system, special attention is drawn to the linkage between ancient and contemporary civilizations of Eurasia and Mesoamerica, as seen in their cosmology, and expressed in common mythological and iconographic themes. The author examines contemporary Middle American and eastern European textiles, especially women's garments, that contain an elaborated sacred code of symbols, and include remnants of the four horizontal directions, and the three vertical worlds that portray the structure of the universe. The cosmology contained in patterns around the world denotes striking parallels that attest to internal connections between different cultures, beyond time and place.

In this provocative book, Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines untamed feminine divinities from around the world. Although distant geographically, these divine figures are surprisingly similar-representing concepts of liminality, outsiderhood, and structural inferiority, embodied in the divine feminine. These strong, independent, unrestrained figures are connected to the periphery and to magical powers, including power over sexuality, transformation, and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba offers a study of the origin and worship of four feminine deities across cultures and continents: the Slavic Baba Yaga, the Hindu Kali, the Brazilian Pombagira, and the Mexican Santa Muerte. Although these divinities have often been marginalized through dismissal, demonization, and dulcification, they continue to be extremely attractive, as they empower their devotees confronting them with the ultimate reality of transience and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines how these sacred icons have been adapted and transformed across time and place.

A cultural icon, the Black Madonna is a blend of the Virgin Mary and ancient mother-goddesses from Eurasian, Native American, and African cultures. She is worshipped and adored by millions of people around the world. In this examination of the dark mother archetype, Oleszkiewicz-Peralba explores the Black Madonna's functions in the varied cultures of Poland, Mexico and the American Southwest, Brazil, and Cuba. In these four geographic settings, the Black Madonna has become a symbol of national identity, resistance against oppression, and empowerment for the female population.

The opening chapter considers the Black Madonna in early East-Central European popular spirituality, folklore, and symbolism. Chapter two discusses the Virgin of Guadalupe and the creation of national mestizo identity in Mexico. The third chapter follows up with a study of Afro-Indo-European syncretism involving the Black Madonna in Brazil and the Caribbean. The fourth and final chapter discusses the Madonna in the form of the Virgin of Guadalupe in greater Mexico and the Latino United States.

As shown in "The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe," this revered image has been a symbol of motherhood, protection, and identity in public ceremonies and private devotions, while subtly becoming a visible manifestation of the blending of cultures and religious beliefs over time and place.