Black Madonna Gathering
Exile, Liberation & Belonging
A Free, Sacred Feminine Immersion In Honor of the Magdalene Feast Day
Legend says…
Mary Magdalene arrived in southern France in a small boat with neither oars nor rudder.
Her story is one of devotion, courage, and exile.
And maybe that’s why she still calls to us… not because we know her history with certainty, but because exile asks something of all of us. It asks us to notice who is still hurting, still marginalized, still pushed to the edges of the room.
And it asks a quieter question too:
Where have I abandoned parts of myself?
The desires I’ve hidden. The grief I’ve silenced. The anger I’ve judged. The power I’ve hidden by making myself smaller.
The Black Madonna — and particularly Sara-la-Kali, revered by the Romani people at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer — reminds us that what gets pushed into the darkness still carries wisdom, beauty, resilience, power.
This gathering is a conversation, not a teaching, where we’ll move between meditation, journaling, and embodied movement.
We’ll let the sacred do what it’s always done… open the way.
You do not need to know Mary Magdalene or the Black Madonna to attend.
We believe wisdom grows stronger in relationship, and that what is cultivated in this room will ripple outward into our leadership, our communities, and our world.
Who This Gathering Is For
For women who are leaders, whether you're leading yourself, your family, your business, or your community.
For women who know that spirituality and liberation are deeply intertwined.
For women who feel called by the Magdalene, the South of France, or the Black Madonna in all her forms.
For women who are curious, open to different lived experiences, and willing to stay in relationship with complexity.
What We Will Explore
Stories of Exile
Who and what has been pushed to the margins?
Together we'll explore stories of Mary Magdalene, the Black Madonna, Sara-la-Kali, and the peoples, traditions, and ways of knowing that have been misunderstood, marginalized, and pushed to the edges.
Conditions of Exile
What asks us to abandon ourselves or exclude others to belong?
We'll reflect on the beliefs, systems, and cultural expectations that reward self-abandonment, diminish our humanity, or require the marginalization of others.
Exile Within
What parts of myself have I learned to hide, silence, judge, or abandon?
Through reflection, journaling, and gentle practice, we'll turn inward and compassionately tend the parts of ourselves that have been left behind.
Magdalene Adrift: The Holy Whore's Crossing Into the Primordial Womb
After we have turned inward to touch our own exiled parts, Sydney will guide us into an embodied exploration of exile and return through the imagery of Mary Magdalene adrift upon the sea. Through the archetypes of the Holy Whore and the Black Madonna, we'll explore the primordial womb as a place where what has been shamed, cast out, or silenced can be received with rest, sensuality, compassion, and belonging.
Practicing Belonging
What does leadership look like when we refuse self-abandonment and participate in creating spaces where more of our humanity and wisdom, and the humanity and wisdom of others, can belong?
What to Bring
To help create our shared sacred space, we invite you to bring:
A candle to light during our gathering.
A vial of water for ritual/devotional practice. This could be water that is special to you, or simply water from your home.
A journal and something to write with.
Comfortable clothing for meditation and movement.
A willingness to participate in the ways that feel most supportive to you, with an invitation for CAMERA-ON, to facilitate connection.
The pathways to your work. Have your website, social media, or other ways to stay connected readily available. Many women who attend this gathering are leaders, teachers, artists, healers, and community builders, and we hope the relationships formed during our time together continue long after the closing circle.
For Those Who Want to Continue the Journey
For some women, this gathering will be a meaningful standalone experience.
For others, it may be the beginning of deeper relationships, ongoing conversations, and future adventures together.
During our time together, you'll hear more about our Black Madonna community and our 2027 pilgrimage to Southern France, where we'll walk sacred sites, honor Sara-la-Kali in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and continue exploring these themes of exile, belonging, leadership, and liberation in community.
There is something about walking sacred land with other thoughtful women that changes the conversation. We slow down. We ask different questions. We tell the truth more easily. We remember parts of ourselves that have gotten buried beneath responsibility, productivity, and the demands of everyday life.
There is no expectation to continue beyond this gathering. Simply come as you are and trust what unfolds.
Event Details
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Central European Time
Live on Zoom | Approximately 3 Hours | Recording Included
All registered participants will receive the recording within 24 hours following the gathering.
Because of the reflective and relational nature of our conversations, participation is always by invitation, never obligation. Cameras may remain off whenever needed, and sharing is always optional.
We look forward to gathering with you.
Register Here
Meet your Hosts
Melisa Keenan is a nine-time international bestselling author, founder of Heart Open Publishing Enterprise, and creator of the Black Madonna Codes ecosystem. Through books, a live show, retreats, mentorship, and community, she brings together voices from diverse traditions and lived experiences to explore spirituality, pleasure, leadership, lineage, and liberation.
Known for asking the questions that widen the conversation, Melisa believes stories carry healing codes and that the world is overdue for women who know how to honor one another like queens. In her spaces, women gather to tell the truth, elevate each other's voices, and bring their wisdom and medicine into the world. She is devoted to intimacy, deeply suspicious of certainty, and only interested in playing with people who are open, curious, and committed to liberation.
Deidra Towns’ political career ended in a booth at her favorite diner, with two close friends and not enough votes. Underneath the sadness and disappointment, she sensed something completely unexpected — relief, with a sprinkle of liberation.
That was the moment she stopped identifying with not enough and started noticing who she had become: a builder of communities and curator of provisions for leaders who are done waiting for old systems to work and are building the new ones that will. Her rooms are big enough for all of who you are: wisdom and wound, fury and tenderness, the sacred and the unfinished.
A published author who also speaks and coaches at the intersection of leadership and practical spirituality, she cultivates the kind of wellbeing that holds up under pressure — the kind she had to find for herself, first.
Special Guest
Sydney McIver is a Conjure Woman and Magdalene Sibyl whose work braids the Venusian arts of beauty, the subterranean rites of descent, and the ancient science of primordial womb wisdom. Through The Blood Mysteries temple, she invites women who have been exiled, out-cast, or silenced to reclaim the sacred technologies that patriarchy once forbade: ritual adornment, ecstatic prayer, sensual somatics, and the rhythmic storytelling of the body.
Her signature offering, She Who Descends, guides initiates through the seven gates of the underworld; mapping trauma, grief, and inherited shame until each veil is surrendered at the altar of truth. In parallel, her devotional relationship with Venus and Mary Magdalene illuminates the ascent: the radiant return to embodiment, pleasure, and sovereign intimacy with life. Sydney teaches that descent and ascent are not opposites but a single spiral of regeneration held in the pulsation of the womb.
Rooted in the lineages and ancestral currents of The Holy Hor, she designs immersive rites; womb mapping ceremonies, voice-led guided descents, and sacred-adornment mentorships that help women transmute repression into raw creative power. Clients praise her oracular presence that names the unspeakable, her scholarly rigour that grounds mysticism in history, and her compassionate fierceness that steadies them as they step beyond scripts of respectability.
Whether through one-to-one initiations, collective rites, or teaching on the Magdalene path, Sydney stands at the threshold with torch in hand. Bearing witness as women descend to meet their unspoken traumas and hidden woundings. Guiding them into the descent as Inanna descended to meet her dark sister Ereshkigal. Through her work, women feel called to rise again, crowned in velvet night, fragrant oil, and the unshakable knowing that their bodies are living temples of divine memory.