Best explaination of Magdalena by APC

[TrueFear]

To say that this song is simply about strippers, Mary Magdalene, or black girls, is to look too closely at specifics and ignore the deeper meaning. As Joe says, Maynard uses religious connotations quite often in his lyrics, so it's not odd to see a reference to Mary Magdalene. But look more closely at the mythology and legend surrounding Mary Magdalene - there isn't a whole lot to say that she was really a prostitute; there is actually a lot to say she wasn't. There are many people who believe that she was not only one of Jesus' closest friends, but also his lover. For a very basic example, look at The DaVinci Code. The interpretation in that book/movie is that Mary Magdalene represented the divine feminine in contrast with the divine masculine of Jesus himself. Therefore, metaphorically, Magdalena (one of many variations of the name) would seem to represent a very vivid example of femininity and the object of intense desire. The Black Madonna reference, when following this interpretation of the song, suggests that Maynard's references to religion are being used in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way. The Madonna - Jesus' mother Mary - is also seen as representative of the divine feminine, the mother goddess. In many belief systems, there is a lot of ambiguity between the mother-goddess and the love goddess. To me, 'black Madonna' simply means that this woman is not pious or 'good' in the typical Judeo-Christian way, but is still viewed as a goddess by the one who desires her. Therefore, the stripper interpretation is probably also very correct. In short, it seems to me that the narrator of the song has fallen madly in love with a stripper or a prostitute. For added back-up to this point, if you look up the various interpretations of 'earth' and all things earthly, they are often tied with femininity, fertility and sexuality. So yeah, maybe it is about getting a show by a stripper, but there's so much more to it than that.
- Brianne, Windsor, Canada