Musings on Sue Monk Kidd, part two
In my post before last, I put down a few thoughts about Sue Monk Kidd. Her book The Secret Life of Bees continues to be a bestseller and one of those books that seems to really resonate with women. In both fiction and nonfiction, Kidd has written about the spiritual quest that led her to
reject Christ and embrace the
goddess. Are other women following her lead?
Lily Owens, the 14 year old
narrator of The Secret Life of Bees, is also on a quest. Set in 1964 in
South Carolina, Bees opens with Lily busting her beloved nanny,
Rosaleen, out of jail where she’s landed after being assaulted by three racist
men. Lily’s father is abusive, her mother long dead, so Lily and Rosaleen hit
the road to search for a black Madonna statue in a photo left by her mother.
When they find the Madonna, called Black Mary, they also find three beekeeping
sisters 
who take them in and shelter them from police.
The first time Lily faces the statue, she feels like it’s
alive. “Her right arm was raised, as if she was pointing the way, except her
fingers were closed in a fist … Everything about the smile said, Lily Owens,
I know you down to the core.”
It turns out that the beekeeping sisters worship the
figure, along with a group of friends called the Daughters of Mary who come for
a weekly time of worship. They counsel Lily to pray to the black Mary,
explaining that “her spirit is everywhere, Lily, just everywhere. Inside rocks
and trees and even people.”
As Lily spends time with the sisters, she begins to trust
again, to feel close to the Daughters of Mary, and to black Mary herself. One
night, with palm pressed against the figure’s heart, Lily cries out: “I live in
a hive of darkness, and you are my mother.”
When Lily’s emotional healing is nearly complete, and
with a confrontation with her violent father imminent, Lily has an epiphany.
She realizes that black Mary is not just a statue. One of the sisters explains:
“You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do.”
Later, in a moment of desperation, Lily hears black Mary
speak directly to her: “I am your everlasting home. I am enough.”
Lily is searching for a new mother. Neglected, mistreated, lost,
she looks for hope, purpose, and connection. So many women can relate to Lily.
And when Lily does find that hope, that purpose, and that connection, she’s
mirroring the spiritual journey that Sue Monk Kidd herself has undertaken.
Kidd sees this quest as a holy journey, a sacred
unraveling of successive layers of truth. Like peeling an onion, in Dissident
Daughters she works her way down to the center. What does she find there,
at the center of all things? The Sacred Feminine.
It’s a beguiling message of hope and of power for those
who are hurting, damaged, alone and lost. 
Kidd offers an alternative gospel, a competing invitation to that extended by Jesus. But how are
women to know what is true? How are women to know that there’s help and healing at the foot of the cross?
More in the next post ….
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SUSY FLORY is a writer, speaker, and journalist who inspires and challenges women to embrace a life of passion, boldness, & adventure. In your own unique way, YOU can change the world, starting in your own backyard. 
