Winter Solstice Vigils
with the Black Madonna + friends
Co-hosted by Christena Cleveland, Pixie Lighthorse, and Adriana Rizzolo
Four Sundays: November 3, November 17, December 8, December 22
10-11 am PST, 1-2 pm EST, 6-7 pm GMT on Zoom
We’re in a season of darkness and uncertainty.
As the nights grow longer in the Northern Hemisphere and we move through ongoing global violence, the alienating U.S. presidential election, and the chaotic holiday season – let’s gather together around the Black Madonna, “the dark-skinned Holy Woman who is never afraid of any dark.”
The Black Madonna is a magnificent blacklight. Not only does she lovingly illuminate our next steps precisely when we feel most lost and perplexed; She floods us with Her radiant darkness, transforming our hopeless situations into brilliant and joyful raves. Join us at the Winter Solstice Vigils as we orient this season around the Black Madonna’s wise, loving, miraculous, radiant darkness.
Four magical vigils to carry you through this season…
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CANDLE Vigil w/ Pixie Lighthorse
Sunday, November 3, 2024
10-11 am PST/ 1-2 pm EST/ 6-7 pm GMT
No matter the results of this U.S. election cycle, we have our holy work cut out for us. How will we nurture vulnerability and hope in the midst of contagious cynicism? How will we affirm our own sacredness as well as the sacredness of all others? How will we be together – co-creating communities that meet practical needs, centering the people who have been most oppressed, identifying and transforming the inner shadows that keep us in fear and resource scarcity? Thank goddess, the Black Madonna offers distinct and empowering guidance for all of these dilemmas.
Join Christena and Pixie Lighthorse, author of Boundaries and Protection and Goldmining the Shadows, for a lively and practical conversation at the naked feet of the Black Madonna. This vigil will also include a practice for releasing our existential anxieties to the Black Madonna’s loving and capable arms. Bring a candle! -
GRATITUDE Vigil
Sunday, November 17, 2024
10-11 am PST/ 1-2 pm EST/ 6-7 pm GMT
The Black Madonna cloaks us in an armor of adoration. The more we offer gratitude to Her, the more we are reminded of Her presence in our lives and the more we experience Her cosmic and protective embrace. As the holiday season gets into full swing and many of us prepare to descend into complex family dynamics and/or heightened loneliness, let’s gather together in racial affinity groups to engage in a creative practice that allows us to share our gratitudes and collectively offer them to Her. Then, let’s marvel at how a cosmic hug from the Black Madonna realigns our identities, reminds us that SHE is our true Mother and what SHE thinks about us is our truest truth, and shields us from the lies that family and loneliness whisper in our ears.
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MIRACLE Vigil
Sunday, December 8, 2024
10-11 am PST/ 1-2 pm EST/ 6-7 pm GMT
Ain’t no party like a Black Madonna party! In the heart of the advent season, let’s gather together for a festival of lights. Christena will share an illuminating constellation of ancient, medieval and modern stories about the Black Madonna’s miraculous shenanigans and the absolutely ridiculous humans who have loved Her. Prepare to laugh, skip a heartbeat or two, and be reminded that there is literally nothing that the Black Madonna cannot or will not do for Her people – including you!
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DANCE Vigil w/ Adriana Rizzolo
Sunday, December 22, 2024
10-11 am PST/ 1-2 pm EST/ 6-7 pm GMT
As Black poet and fellow Black Madonna lover Lucille Clifton wrote, “these hips are free hips/ they don't like to be held back./ these hips have never been enslaved,/ they go where they want to go/ they do what they want to do./ these hips are mighty hips./ these hips are magic hips.”
The Black Madonna LOVES our bodies, AFFIRMS our bodies, and SPEAKS to us through our bodies. Indeed, our hips are mighty and magic. Let’s allow them to move stagnant 2024 energy out of our bodies and usher in vivacious 2025 energy. Our dance vigil will be guided by Adriana Rizzolo, founder of Body Temple Church, and we will close out the vigil with a meditation designed to help us be especially attentive to how the Black Madonna is guiding our first steps of 2025.
Here’s what you will experience + receive at the Winter Solstice Vigils:
ACCOMPANIMENT: Walk through the U.S. election cycle and the chaotic holiday season hand-in-hand with the Black Madonna and others who love Her.
RESILIENCE: Learn new practices and prayers that plant seeds of abundance and can carry you through the winter months
PROTECTION & EMBRACE: Receive a cosmic hug from the Black Madonna and discover strategies that can guide and shield you as you venture into challenging holiday spaces
COMMUNITY: Nurture connections with other Black Madonna lovers in racial-affinity breakout groups
WISDOM: Encounter hard-earned insight from guest teachers that offer practical strategies for navigating uncertainty and apocalypse.
INSPIRATION: Hear jaw-dropping and miraculous stories about the Black Madonna and be inspired to bring any need of any size directly to Her.
GRATITUDE-FUELED HOPE: Engage in a collective gratitude practice and be amazed at how gratitude stimulates hope and faith in your life
GUIDANCE: Allow the Black Madonna to illuminate your next steps as 2024 comes to a close
JOYFUL RELEASE: Dance your holy ass off and shake away anything from 2024 that needs to stay in 2024
only $99-$149
for all four vigils
In order to make this experience as inclusive as possible, we are offering a sliding scale of $99 - $149 which enables you to partake in all four vigils:
Vigil 1: Sunday, November 3 – 10-11 am PST, 1-2 pm EST, 6-7 pm GMT
Vigil 2: Sunday, November 17 - 10-11 am PST, 1-2 pm EST, 6-7 pm GMT
Vigil 3: Sunday, December 8 – 10-11 am PST, 1-2 pm EST, 6-7 pm GMT
Vigil 4: Sunday, December 22 – 10-11 am PST, 1-2 pm EST, 6-7 pm GMT
All vigils will take place on Zoom and will also be recorded. All recordings will be available until March 20, 2025, so you can return to them again and again throughout the winter.
Meet your co-hosts
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Christena Cleveland
Christena is the author of God Is a Black Woman. A weaver of Black liberation and the Divine Feminine, she embraces the archetype of the Black Madonna as she guides people of all races and genders into freedom, wholeness, and embodied justice. Learn more about Christena.
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Pixie Lighthorse
Pixie is the author of five books centered on self-healing through intimate relationship with the natural world. She is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She writes as Lighthorse to honor the unheard voices of her ancestors. Learn more about Pixie.
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Adriana Rizzolo
Adriana is a spiritual mentor, somatic healer, adult sex educator, speaker, grief and aliveness doula, and the founder of Body Temple. She helps people heal trauma and patterns stuck in the body, awaken their power, and feel at home in their bodies. Learn more about Adriana.
You are not alone.
Many of us are walking through this season without a dedicated space to nurture us, a community to accompany us, or teachers to guide us. The Black Madonna, like most Black women, is a community-builder. We experience Her most spectacularly when we are in community, learning from each other, sharing our stories, and collectively offering gratitude.
The Black Madonna is ever ready to guide us, treasure us, infuse us with hope, and protect us. We need only stop, sit with Her, and receive Her queenly wisdom in the company of friends.