Longing for Darkness

An alcoholic single mother of three, Texas-born Galland ( Women in the Wilderness ) was raised a strict Roman Catholic, turned to Zen Buddhism, then became obsessed with Tara, the female Buddha of Tibetan tradition, and her counterpart, Kali, the black Hindu goddess, death-dealer and life-giver. In black images of divinity the author sought a touchstone for transformation, an avenue to the unconscious. In a baroque church in Switzerland she observed the Black Madonna, a virgin painted coal-black who holds a black Christ Child in her arms. In India she discussed women lamas with Tibet's Dalai Lama in exile. Her 1987 trip to Poland turned up another Black Madonna but also exposed her to a different kind of darkness: secret police, racism, Auschwitz. Blending travelogue, free-floating meditation, autobiography and adventure, her intensely personal narrative is a disquieting spiritual odyssey. Photos . 20,000 first printing; author tour. (Sept.)