The Mermaid's Chair--Sue Monk Kidd

I just finished reading The Mermaid's Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.  It was an interesting, complex novel that explores themes of: 

1. Woman's dislocation from herself and the quest toward self-union, identity and self-belonging.
2. Can a woman have inner freedom and  relationship? What is the impact of one upon the other?
3. Creative, erotic and spiritual awakening in women
4. Re-visioning and empowering Sacred Feminine figures and how their iconic imagery functions in women's experience.
5. The convergence of the sensual and the spiritual. How is spirituality sensual and sensuality spiritual?
6. Mid-life marriage; the pull and power of soul mated love and ordinary married love.
7. Reconciliation of the spiritual and the human
8. Communities of women
9. Crisis of faith; how is religion used as immunity from life?
10. Betrayal and forgiveness
11. Diving and surfacing; the process of descent and re-emergence in women
12. Parental loss; impact of the missing father.
13. Mother-daughter relationship
14. Leaving home to find home
15. Islands/ cloister/ essential solitudes

I think that covers it...laughing.   Kidd came upon the idea for the novel, when she heard about a mermaid chair (not as described in the book), that resides in a church in Cornwall, England.  The Norman church of Saint  Senara in the town of Zennor probably stands on the site of a 6th century Celtic church. It is believed to be named after Princess Azenor of Breton, the mother of Saint Budock. It was restored in 1890, by which time all but one of the original carved oak seats had disappeared and been replaced by family boxes. Two medieval bench-ends remain and have been made into a seat. One end is the famous carving of the  Mermaid of Zennor.   She holds a comb and a mirror in her hands. Legend claims that this siren enticed Matthew Trewhella, the handsome son of a churchwarden, into the sea. He was never seen again.  On the south side of the church tower is a bronze dial, bearing the figure of a mermaid, and an inscription .  

                                       The Mermaid's Chair

 

 

           

St. Senara, Zennor, Cornwall, England    

                    

        Coney Island's Annual Mermaid Parade                                   

From the diary of Christopher Columbus, 1493:  "The day before, when the Admiral was going to the Rio del Oro, he said he saw three mermaids who came quite high out of the water but were not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they looked like men.  He said that he saw some in Guinea on the coast of Manegueta."

 

The Depths of the Sea

Edward Burnes-Jones