In the insightful introduction to her transformative book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Sue Monk Kidd articulates a profound aspiration for her readers. She expresses her hope that the book will serve as an “opening,” igniting a spark of recognition within their hearts, allowing them to perceive the long-yearned-for truths of womanhood. Ten years after its initial release, we delve into the enduring power of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. What is it about this book, about The Dance it speaks of, that continues to resonate, provoking both agitation and an undeniable yearning for profound change?
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter book cover, featuring Sue Monk Kidd's exploration of the sacred feminine and spiritual awakening through dance metaphor.
Kidd herself believes that the book’s enduring appeal lies in its introduction of readers to the often-overlooked history of the sacred feminine. It presents the revolutionary concept that the divine can be conceived and visualized through feminine lenses. This revelation, for many, is world-altering. Reactions are rarely indifferent; the book tends to evoke strong feelings and significant shifts in perspective. Furthermore, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter acts as a homing beacon, guiding women back to a forgotten sanctuary within their own souls. This journey inward, this reclaiming of a lost part of themselves, is a crucial element of the book’s impact. Kidd recounts witnessing this deeply personal connection at her book signings. Even at events for her novels, The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, women would approach her, clutching The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, sometimes overcome with emotion as they requested her signature. She recognizes that this powerful response transcends both herself and the book itself, acting as a catalyst for a deeply personal awakening within each reader.
Initial Reactions and Evolving Acceptance of the Sacred Feminine
However, the path of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter wasn’t always paved with such passionate embrace. In the initial stages, the book encountered resistance. Kidd recalls a particularly memorable instance in 1996, the year of the book’s release. She was invited to speak at a spiritual formation conference held at a Catholic sisters’ mother house. While the sisters provided the venue, they weren’t the conference sponsors. The audience comprised mostly Protestants, with an equal gender balance. It soon became apparent that a segment of attendees were less than pleased with Kidd’s chosen topic. Controversy arose. Seeking respite from the tension in the library, Kidd was unexpectedly summoned to the office of one of the sisters. There, she faced an elderly nun in full habit, arms crossed, and a distinctly unhappy expression. The nun stated, “I understand you’ve been speaking about the Divine Feminine.” Kidd confirmed, “Yes’mam.” The nun continued, “And I also understand you’ve kicked up quite a hornets nest.” Kidd nodded. Then, in a moment of unexpected solidarity, the nun declared, “Well, I just wanted to tell you that it’s high time people realized that God is more than two men and a bird.” She punctuated this with a “wonderful, subversive smile” before sending Kidd back “into the fray.” This anecdote highlights the initial friction, but also the underlying currents of support that existed even in unexpected places. While pockets of antagonism were present, from the very beginning, a dedicated readership passionately championed the book. What struck Kidd most was not the sheer number of readers, but the intensity of their engagement. For every opposing voice, there were countless others echoing the sentiment of the insightful nun.
Over the years, Kidd has observed a significant evolution in how traditional religious culture responds to the concept of the sacred feminine. At the time of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter‘s publication, dialogues surrounding the sacred feminine were largely confined to academic circles, seminaries, and feminist theological discussions. These ideas hadn’t yet permeated the mainstream religious consciousness, reaching the average churchgoer. However, the past decade has witnessed a considerable shift. A growing momentum has emerged, with feminine imagery and concepts increasingly integrated into our understanding of the divine. While the “feminine wound” within religion persists, it is undergoing a gradual healing process. More individuals are awakening, re-evaluating their theological frameworks, and actively voicing their perspectives. This collective awakening signifies a profound transformation in spiritual consciousness – a resurgence of the feminine principle.
“The Dance” as a Catalyst for Broader Change
Reflecting on this shift, Kidd contemplates the potential influence of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. She recalls a quote by Rilke: “Again and again some people in the crowd wake up. They have no ground in the crowd and they emerge according to much broader laws. The future speaks ruthlessly through them.” Looking back, she wonders if her book might have played a role in this awakening, acting as a conduit for the “future speaking through it.” She emphasizes that her work was just one voice within a larger chorus, contributing to a collective movement.
For Kidd, the exploration of the sacred feminine initiated by writing The Dance of the Dissident Daughter extended beyond the intellectual and into the deeply personal and experiential. Approximately a year after the book’s publication, she felt a compelling urge to return to Greece, accompanied by her daughter, Ann. Ann’s own journey was intertwined with Kidd’s awakening – the drugstore event recounted at the book’s beginning involved Ann. Furthermore, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter itself became a catalyst for Ann’s own spiritual exploration. Thus, mother and daughter embarked on a pilgrimage to Greece. It was the summer after Ann’s college graduation, coinciding with Kidd’s 50th birthday – a time ripe for transformation for both. Their travels throughout Greece focused on uncovering the Divine Feminine, which naturally led to a deeper exploration of themselves and their mother-daughter bond. This journey marked the beginning of a series of pilgrimages to sacred feminine sites across England, France, Switzerland, and a return to Greece, spanning several years. Kidd, along with two friends, guided groups of women on these transformative trips. While these pilgrimages served to solidify and expand upon the experiences she had written about in The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, her primary motivation stemmed from witnessing the profound hunger women expressed for sacred feminine experiences. A significant awakening was underway, yet avenues for women to gather, encounter feminine divine imagery, and initiate themselves into the realm of the female soul remained scarce.
Encountering the Black Madonna and Unveiling Deeper Meanings
It was during these pilgrimages that Kidd encountered the Black Madonna. Her first glimpse was in Greece, an icon of a dark-faced Madonna sparked her curiosity, leading her to actively seek out more. She discovered the Black Madonna’s prevalence, particularly in France. This discovery became the most impactful element of her pilgrimages. The Black Madonna captivated her imagination and deeply resonated with her heart in unexpected ways. Kidd perceives her as the inheritor, within Western religion, of the Great Goddess figures of ancient times. She sees the Black Madonna as an extraordinary fusion of the Christian Mary and older Goddess traditions. This unique lineage imbues her with layers of potent symbolism – a sense of justice and inclusivity, a spirit of dissidence, immense compassion, and a profound connection to the earth and the body. There’s an untamed quality to the Black Madonna that Kidd finds particularly compelling. For her, the Black Madonna became a bridge, a sacred feminine image that facilitated the integration of her own spiritual experiences.
Reflecting on reader engagement with The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Kidd identifies a recurring question: how can a marriage or partnership endure a woman’s spiritual awakening? She empathizes deeply with this concern, recalling her own anxieties during her awakening. She felt an irreversible shift, an inability to return to her pre-awakening state, yet also apprehension about the potential impact on her marriage. Feminine spiritual awakenings, while enriching, can also be disruptive. The long history of female silencing often releases pent-up emotions and expressions when women awaken to their spiritual truths. This can manifest as anger, which can be bewildering and challenging for husbands and partners to confront. Kidd advocates for compassion in navigating these transitions. She acknowledges the lack of a simple formula for preserving relationships during such profound personal shifts. Her own marriage, remarkably, navigated this terrain. She believes that holding the tension, approaching the challenges with love, patience, conscious awareness, and allowing time for shifts to occur can sometimes lead to reconciliation and growth. However, she also recognizes that sometimes, despite best efforts, relationships may not withstand the transformation. Ultimately, Kidd emphasizes that her husband underwent his own significant personal evolution, allowing them to navigate this transformative period together.
From Non-Fiction to Fiction: A Creative Detour and Return
Following the publication of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Kidd transitioned to fiction writing, a path that unfolded unexpectedly. While her initial writing aspirations at age thirty leaned towards becoming a novelist, she had largely set aside this ambition, focusing on non-fiction, primarily her own narrative. The experience of writing Dissident Daughter somehow reignited this buried desire. She speculates that the journey of finding her voice and exploring her creativity within Dissident Daughter dislodged her dormant fiction-writing impulse, bringing it back to the surface. She acknowledges The Dance of the Dissident Daughter as her most challenging book, yet its completion liberated her creatively, propelling her towards fiction. Despite initial intimidation, she felt compelled to embrace this new direction. This marked a return to her original creative yearning. Kidd shares a Jungian anecdote about a student seeking the shortest path to their life goal, to which Jung replied, “The detour.” She sees her shift to non-fiction as a necessary detour in her creative journey, one she embraces without regret. In fact, she believes that writing Dissident Daughter was a prerequisite for writing her novels.
The themes explored in Dissident Daughter profoundly influenced Kidd’s novels, both of which delve into the inner lives of women and the transformative power of the sacred feminine. In The Secret Life of Bees, a Black Madonna figure serves as a central sacred feminine presence, the symbolic heart of the narrative and the source of healing for the protagonist, Lily. The novel also features a nurturing community of women, acting as a metaphorical womb, facilitating Lily’s rebirth. Similarly, The Mermaid Chair is rooted in the themes of Dissident Daughter. Again, a supportive female community emerges, playing a transformative role in the main character’s journey. The core of The Mermaid Chair, however, lies in Jessie’s spiritual quest for feminine self-acceptance and belonging – a quest that mirrors a central theme in Dissident Daughter: the journey of women returning to themselves, finding their voices, and achieving creative and personal fulfillment.
Despite the immense success of her novels and the demands on her time, Kidd prioritizes her contemplative life. Finding balance between a fast-paced, complex life and her need for quiet reflection is a constant theme in her life. She recognizes the discord between the rapid pace of modern life and the slower rhythms of the soul and creativity. She cherishes “spots of time,” drawing inspiration from Wordsworth’s poem “The Prelude,” referring to brief, profound moments of epiphany that exist both within and outside of time. Even these fleeting moments of solitude and reflection allow her to reconnect with her authentic self.
Monasteries and retreat spaces have played a significant role in Kidd’s life. She found monasteries to be places that deeply resonate with the innate human longing for the divine. While she no longer frequents monasteries as often, the natural world, particularly the dock overlooking a marsh creek behind her house, has become her sacred space. She believes in the inherent divinity of all things, blurring the lines between the secular and the sacred. Finding sacred space, therefore, doesn’t necessarily require seeking out designated religious sites, but rather cultivating the awareness to be present and awake in our immediate surroundings.
Ultimately, Kidd’s motivation for writing, particularly The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, stemmed from a personal need for healing and wholeness. She began with an inward focus, seeking to understand and articulate her own soul’s journey. However, the transformative power of seeking personal wholeness extended outwards, serving the wholeness of others. Her intention as a writer is to reach the hearts of her readers, not just their intellects. She believes that the heart is the locus of profound change and the seat of the will. While she values intellectual engagement, her primary aim is to connect with readers on an emotional level, recognizing storytelling as a direct pathway to the human heart.
