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Bright Dark Madonna: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles)

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Maeve (rhymes with rave) the magnificent Magdalen is back! She is ever so welcome.

The third novel of The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna, tells the story of the third chapter in the life of the Celtic Magdalen. It takes us through the formation and establishment of the early church, and it tells the heart-breaking (to me) story of how Mary Mags, as she is known in my house, got written out of herstory. At the beginning of the third book, Maeve--the gentile whore/goddess/ widow of Jesus--is pregnant, and none too sure of her place in Jesus' history.

As the novel progresses, Maeve attains the age I am now, and I was fascinated by her desire for peace. Peace in herself. Peace in her relationships. Peace in her world. And, peace with her own story. One of the things that each of us faces as we grow older, and hopefully wiser, is whether to let our story die with us, or to tell our story so that future generations will learn it and learn from it. This Maeve is no exception.

Telling the story of one's life is part of what allows us to make peace with that story--with the parts we played, the parts we didn't, the parts others played, and those they didn't. Storytelling is Elizabeth Cunningham's supreme gift, and as we witness Maeve's process with raising her daughter, and coming to terms with her true place in the story, we see a vision of a woman lost. Her post-resurrection Christ Jesus speaks to her from the inside out, "Being lost is the way, how else can you be found. How else can you find what you have lost: sheep, coins, love?"

The path, anyone's path, is the path of becoming lost in order that one might find oneself. So to all of us who have ever felt lost, Cunningham delivers through Bright Dark Madonna the supreme advice for the spiritual life: if you feel lost, you're doing it right. Perfectly right.

That is the heart-opening lesson of the bright, dark, wild, wonderful, lost-and-found Maeve Magdalen.

I've loved each book of the Maeve chronicles so far and look forward to the fourth. I wondered if 'Bright Dark Madonna' would hold my interest after the culmination of 'the story' (as we knew it) in the second book of the series; it did, and then some. Cunningham is a gifted weaver of myth, fantasy and historic bits, which she combines with an empowering and well-crafted vision of a very human Mary Magdalene. You won't regret this one.

The Maeve Chronicles were the great literary discovery for me last year. After reading ten pages of Magdalene Rising in a book store, I ordered both books in the series. I read the entirety of Magdalene Rising avidly, and then made my way through the denser but no less enjoyable The Passion of Mary Magdalene. When I was done, I had a year's impatient waiting for Bright Dark Madonna, and now, done with that, another wait. Sigh.

Bright Dark Madonna follows Maeve/Magdalene from the death of Jesus to the maturity, about 20 years later, of their daughter Sara. Like the previous book, it offers an alternative version of the roots of Christianity that is well-researched, clearly described, and fascinating. Those familiar with the "lore" of Mary Magdalene will recognize most of the ideas in this book. I've not encountered a writer who has put them together more coherently and attractively. And even if that were not so, Maeve is a unique, feminist voice worth hearing regardless of her story.

Personally, as someone no more engaged with Christianity than I am with Sufi or the cult of Omfala the Dancing Eland, I was sorry to see traditional Christianity treated as sympathetically as it is here, but it comes with the territory. Cunningham is, after all, not merely a Christian but a Christian minister. And as much as I would prefer a Maeve who spurns Christianity, what she does instead is persuasive and consistent with her love for Jesus.

Bright Dark Madonna gets us to a cave in the south of France. It gives us a picture of Mary the Mother of Jesus (or "the Queen of Heaven," as she prefers to be called) that is the most singular charm of the book. It weaves traditional and "alternative" church history into a garment that fits (or doesn't) heretics and the orthodox. It is a love story garbed in mysticism at once New Age and Gnostic (and, without a word about it, gives us a clue about the origin of "The Gospel of Mary"). It will offend the fundamentalist believer vastly more than it does the confirmed skeptic.

But the love of Jesus and Mary is an old heresy, and what Cunningham makes of it is luminous and enchanting. Her Gnostic souls are emanant enough to give a wonderful ambiguity (stolen, by the way, from D. H. Lawrence) to the idea of "the risen Lord." Sara may have been conceived after Jesus' death, but she is a creature of blessed flesh and blood, as is her dear mother.

This is my Magdalene; I can't thank Elizabeth Cunningham enough for giving her a voice and a story to tell, at last.

In "Bright Dark Madonna," Elizabeth Cunningham's Maeve (Mary of Magdela ) again fascinates with her fierce wit, enthusiastic impulsiveness, intense ability to love and her loyalty to all she calls family or friend as she did in the first two offerings of the Maeve Chronicles--Magdalen Rising: The Beginning (The Maeve Chronicles) and The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles). However, in this, the third of the series, Cunningham grips the reader on an esoteric level as she is able to shed light on the mystical aspects of Christ's multi-dimensionality and share with us her thoughts on `the Way' as defined (or undefined) by Jesus and His Gnostic followers. With Maeve, Cunningham succeeds in presenting a multi-faceted female that both bright and dark (hidden) embodies the many characteristics of the Madonna as the quintessential mother and lover of the world while depicting a very real flesh and blood woman that carries within her, as we all do, the spark of the Divine.

Like the warrior witches from whom she has sprung, an older Maeve fights tooth and nail to protect her daughter from the overreaching control of the apostles leading the early Christian community in the days after Christ's death, resurrection and ascension.

Cunningham realistically depicts the individualized struggle of each disciple as he/she attempts to mainstream the teachings of Jesus in a way that captures his/her personal and revelatory stories and yet manages to unite all the followers with some standard dogma. She infuses her portraits of Peter, Paul, James and Mary of Bethany with a compelling mixture of righteous zeal and a confused inability to fathom what will come next as they lay the cornerstones for what will become the established state religion of Rome as ordained by Constantine in the early part of the third century.

Caught in the crossfire as the one who truly shared Jesus's mind and yet is overlooked by the others as being either too controversial or disreputable, Maeve adheres to her belief in a One-on-One relationship with the Divine and is driven primarily by her desire for the safety of her child. Uncomfortable with the apostles' interpretation of her beloved's words and works, Maeve itches to speak out and reveal the mystery that she has lived. Nonetheless she is aware of the fact that Jesus' former companions want to emphasize Christ's divinity and underplay his role as husband to a former whore. Unwilling to participate in the ensuing power play, Maeve flees with her child Sara and her mother-in-law in tow to the mountains of Galatia where even in hiding she cannot fail to be in the eye of the hurricane that is the early Church.

Cunningham paints a most admirable portrait of the many aspects of woman. Her Maeve bristles with scorn as she observes the friends of her husband mainstream his mystical teachings. As the apostles, Paul in particular, attempt to undermine the leadership roles of the female followers of Jesus, Maeve boisterously defends and then finally relinquishes her hard-earned turf. She shrugs in disbelief as Miriam, her mother-in-law, thinks more and more of herself as the Queen of Heaven and wonders resentfully why it isn't she, as Jesus' wife, who symbolizes the Divine feminine. Most of all, she drowns in sorrow as her child grows older and questions her actions. Here, Cunningham shows off her skill as a brilliant character writer--the reader feels Maeve's pain and vulnerability as a proud woman, reluctant to tell of her past to a daughter from whom she wants love, respect and unconditional acceptance.

Bottom line? Elizabeth Cunningham in her third novel in her series, the Maeve Chronicles, excels in telling the tale of Mary Magdalen after the ascension of her husband Jesus and her input, detrimental or not, in the formulation of the early Church. Weaving in legend and facts, Cunningham creates a wonderfully colorful portrait of Maeve (Mary) that captures all that defines the quintessential female. With its irreverent voice, it cannot fail to entertain on a multitude of levels. For those readers that appreciate illumination with regard to some of Jesus' more mystical and esoteric themes, Cunningham brightens the path with this tale of her bright dark Madonna as a lover, wife, mother, and woman of years. I await the fourth of this series with great anticipation and fondness. Highly recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

Have you ever read one of those "from the female perspective" retellings that purports to be the story of the female character, independent of her more famous male counterpart, but the story still fizzles out after the guy dies? And then you get the last 40 years of the woman's life condensed into 3 pages? Yeah, it annoys the crap out of me too. If it's her story, not his, then write her story. After reading a few of these, I was wary of Bright Dark Madonna, which tells the story of Maeve/Magdalene after Jesus dies.

But Elizabeth Cunningham does it right. Maeve really does have a story that goes on without him. We see her clash with the disciples, and raise her daughter Sara, and come face-to-face with middle age, and have a couple of new lovers who add something to her life without diminishing what has gone before. And it's moving, and it's funny. Highlights include her "Jesus liked to party" speech, and Sara's song, in which she declares her desire to make her own way regardless of what her famous parents did. I was also intrigued by the further development of the Virgin Mary; she's very pissed off now and I think I know what her ultimate agenda is.

At the end, Maeve prepares to head back toward Britain and see her older daughter again--implied to be Boudicca--and I'm happy to see Cunningham has even more planned for her feisty Magdalene. I think the change in the series title is significant. It was "The Magdalene Trilogy"...and now it's "The Maeve Chronicles," which suggests both that it's going to exceed three volumes and that Maeve's Celtic identity is going to begin to take precedence again.

This book is also a great example of how an author can use anachronistic words and phrases intentionally, and do it well. It's jarring when an anachronism is used by accident by a writer who doesn't know any better. This is different. Cunningham uses modern colloquial language to humanize the characters and to convey the idea that they wouldn't really have spoken in highfalutin language all the time--they'd have used their own vernacular, and our vernacular is one way to get that across. There's one disciple who does speak highfalutin-ly all the time, and it's a running joke.

I didn't love it quite as much as book two, but I enjoyed it, and I want to give it a medal for not falling into that "heroine becomes a non-entity after the hero dies" trap.

Informational, passionate, life changing! This novel and the others in this trilogy by Elizabeth Cunningham are treasures.
Maeve, the preferred name for this Celtic, woman-centered wonder woman, with the insecurities and strengths that women can relate to, is the center of the action. What did she do in the last time that Jesus was alive? How was she and how were other women treated and thought about by both Jesus and society, and these are NOT the same answers. How did Jesus and Maeve interact? Was there a baby? What was her early life and how was it unconvential. What sacrifices did Maeve have to make to be in love with this person, with this God? An "alpha female", a leader of people, was she a trivial part of the story, was she the true follower, who pushed her and which way. what were her strenghts, weaknesses. How did Jesus love her. How did he feel when he discovered her actual identity, a woman, for starters, not a young man of learning. What was the far reaches that women of the time could take -- many of the woman who were not acting at all in the mold set for them by their times. The threats to the current Jewish laws that were central to the life of Jesus, yet the laws that he questioned. These are the huge issues that this part of the trilogy explains, and the explanation feels plausible, actually more so to me than many other explanations. This great book not only speaks to us of a possible history, it speaks to us about our own lives, our own search for identity within a society that wants to put limits upon us because of our gender... our attitudes... our beliefs. I URGE people to read these books, this one especially. A work of great beauty, of inspiration, of scholarly possibility. The bottom line is that I really hope that something like this is true, is what happened. It makes so much more sense... The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles)is another book in the trilogy. So very highly recommended. a book about Love.

I am waiting for the fourth book in the Maeve
Chronicles. I did not think that when I began to read this series that I would be drawn into Maeve's story as I have been. This novel (and I have to remember that it is a novel and not "the truth")gives this reader the opportunity to think about options beliefs and possibilities. The book is sexy, funny, poignant and challenging. I have a story line in my head about where the fourth book in the chronicles will take Maeve and Sara; guess I have to wait and see.

A superbly written historical novel by a master storyteller, Elizabeth Cunningham's 474-page novel "Bright Dark Madonna" is the tale of Maeve, a young pregnant woman who played an intimate role in the mystery of the Resurrection as the Celtic Mary Magdalen. A great controversy breaks out when Maeve seeks to preach the gospel in her own manner, giving voice to her own ideas about how to raise the daughter that Jesus of Nazareth sired with her prior to his execution on a cross by the Romans at the behest of the Jewish religious authorities. When she returns to Temple Magdalen (a holy whorehouse she founded), a custody battle breaks out over her infant daughter Sarah and Jesus' mother must flee to the remote Taurus Mountains to living in hiding among the Galatians. There is where a mysterious stranger shows up on her door step badly in need of her healing. As Maeve determines to keep her family's secret she must also deal with her now adolescent daughter's anger, strength of will, and determination to learn the truth about her father. The legions of readers who so fully enjoyed and appreciated Elizabeth Cunningham's previous two titles in the Mary Magdalene trilogy, "The Maeve Chronicles" will be equally enthralled with the further adventures of Mary Magdalene in "Bright Dark Madonna" as the journey of Maeve and her daughter Sarah continue and conclude with the third and last volume in this outstanding and superbly written series.

I was thrilled to get my hands on the latest in the trilogy. I really wondered how she would explain the events after Jesus's death. If I wasn't laughing with her interesting point of view and sassy remarks I was experiencing her sadness wondering where her lover had gone and why he was talking to everyone else! It was also refreshing to learn about a very different relationship she had with Mother Mary, or Ma. I loved how they loved each other. I hope we don't have to wait forever to find out if she will meet her Celtic offspring in Ireland. Stay tune for Book 4.
I would highly recommend all 3 of these books for excellent summer reading. Magic, female empowerment, romance and mother earth will be your companions on your journey.

A fantastic story. Maeve is one of my favorite characters to take a walk with.