She in Archetypes, Images, Energy… Emerging by Dale Allen

If it weren’t for my mother, I wouldn’t have gone to church on Saturday evening at 5pm.  It was a special trip made by me, my daughter and my 89-year-old mother who is visiting here in Connecticut from Ohio.  We are met at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Stamford, CT by one of my aunts, some cousins, one of my sisters, a brother-in-law, nieces and nephews – part of our big family.

Holy Name of Jesus Church is in walking distance from the house where my mother grew up: the house where her Polish-immigrant parents raised 8 children. My mother and her siblings attended Holy Name of Jesus Catholic School next to the church from 1^st through 9^th grade. The school is still there and now houses a daycare and learning center.

We slip into church on time and our group settles into two pews.  From that moment on, a distinct departure takes place… a departure from the world outside and my daily life’s schedule.  My eyes begin to take in the sumptuous rich iconography of this 100-year-old church, wherein every square inch is intricately adorned.  I feel an energetic vortex encircle my spirit, and where my eyes go, my spirit goes too.  Painted gold gilt is everywhere: golden links from floor to ceiling border Christograms and Fleur de Lis, golden domes are above, marble columns are crowned with elegant gold Corinthian capitals…  there’s gold in every tiny nook and cranny. Feminine angel statues, maybe 12’ tall, bear lantern lights on either side of the elaborate 4-post marble ciborium framing the altar. In several places, Mother Mary gently cradles her Babe – in paintings, frescoes, mosaics, and marble statues.  Crowned female saints reign like queens in beautiful stained-glass scenes. To the right of the altar, a glorious shrine to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa; an opulent replica that came to the church from Poland.  The Madonna is serene, as she looks at us from her bejeweled and golden splendor.  Before the shrine, I see my mother kneeling on the communion rail, just as she did as a little girl.

I am swept away. All around in this breathtaking Polish church, I see Her: the great goddess within us all.  I see Her crowned, celebrated, honored, and elevated. I see One who embodies the ineffable.  I see women and girls depicted everywhere in these paintings, stained glass scenes and statues.  These images bring me into a direct communion with Her.

I bring to this church my childhood Catholic upbringing, which was generally positive and rich. I bring my family’s more liberal views of Christian spirit rather than dogma, and their support of strong girls. I bring the last 25 years of my adult life, and my devotion to sharing herstory – the untold story: She before He, The Mother of All Things. And herstory in terms of what happened to Her, and to women and girls, as the feminine divine was maligned, attacked, persecuted, and pushed underground in our world and our psyches.  I bring my knowledge of the many harms of the Catholic church and other denominations, the deep harms.  I bring all of that. 

I also bring my ongoing core connection to Christ consciousness; a love so completely kind and forgiving, a love that can run through all of us, for ourselves and each other.  Here in the church, my body feels an elevated spirit. It is all pervasive, all encompassing; it is exquisite and lovely energy. I am communing with the images. I am present. I feel Mother Mary, I feel the benevolence of the stained-glass queenly saints smiling from the great colorful window panels.  

At the most recent Parliament of the World’s Religions convening in Chicago, I was on a team of women that co-created the first Women’s Village.  Inside that village, I interviewed 72 women from many faiths, cultures, and homelands.  They spoke about care for women and children, for the earth, and for future generations. What impressed me most about this experience was the common thread that ran through all the diversity: the women spoke from their hearts. Their hearts led them – not dogma.  The sacred feminine ran through these woman as women, and in many diverse ways, they talked about how they are bringing their voices and concerns to their religions and spiritual practices.

With my girlhood Catholic roots, I grew into a woman that uses art, poetry, music, myth, storytelling and theatrical embodiment as the instruments to share my message of our lost herstory. I also use academic research. I explore the relationship between the sacred feminine and our right-brain way of attending to the world. The work has taken on many creative forms from a musical production, a one-woman show, a film and now a book (all titled In Our Right Minds). Here in the iconographic immersion of this church, I am experiencing the effects of images on my brain, and of course, my spirit.  I have been teaching about the power of images and icons, and the way the right hemisphere of our human brain responds to the immediacy of these. There is a correlation between the banning of images and icons by religious authority and the suppression of the feminine. My work goes into all that, and my bibliography lists the seminal scholars who have profoundly enriched me.

As I sit in the church, I reflect on the impact I am feeling from my immersion into the surrounding sacred feminine images. I think of how I went on to create works that immerse my audiences in an experience of Her. I begin to feel an internal vibration of excitement for the project I am embarking on now.  She has prevailed in the human psyche and spirit. She has been ever present in the archetypes of our human collective unconscious. And She is rising in us. It moves me deeply to experience Her hidden in plain sight in the church of my mother’s girlhood. The power of the feminine rises in our world from out of Her presence in our psyches. Turning our conscious attention to inner and outer images of Her: whole, healthy, vibrant and empowered changes us, and we in turn can change our cultures.

BIO: Dale Allen offers her In Our Right Minds film, curriculum, book and keynote on her website.  Her YouTube Channel features nourishing content including interviews from the Parliament of the World’s Religions. “The Dale Allen Podcast” is on all podcast platforms.  Find out more at: https://www.inourrightminds.net

Contact: daleallencore@yahoo.com