I have enjoyed this book. It is a sort of fantasy but it isn’t a genre novel. In fact, it is religious fiction that embraces much of Irish myth but is at its heart modern goddess spirituality. A tag the author uses in a post about the book explains what I mean here: "Brigid as Face of Sacred Feminine.” Singing the Dawn envisions a place beyond the ninth wave — a place unseen by others — where for twelve centuries women have tended, alone or in a community of hermits scattered across seven islands, the memory and rites of the sacred feminine as represented in Brigit. The protagonist is a disillusioned Catholic nun from Ontario, Canada who had hoped to open up the understanding of God within her community to embrace the female as well as the male. When an opportunity to visit a mysterious island becomes available to her, through a note found hidden in the wall of a stone shrine to Saint Dymphna in Ireland, she finds herself joining this secret order of women.
Part of the book, as she spends time with each of the solitary members over the course of several months, reads a little like an immram: a form of mediaeval Irish tale that sees the protagonist travelling from island to island off the west coast of Ireland — truly, travelling in the Otherworld — and meeting wonders there.
Because this is meant to be a contemplative tale, it does not rip along plot wise, but wends quietly. This makes it a good book to pick up and read a few pages and then put down again for another time, although it also lends itself to a good long read.
I tend to like my portrayals of Irish myths, legend, and history to be as close to what I understand to be correct as possible, so there are moments in the book where I grind my teeth a little. On the other hand, I know that there are many Irish people who perceive them in the ways that are written here, so I can’t grind too hard. (It was in Ireland that I was first shown the book by someone deeply devoted to Brigit, who strongly encouraged me to read it.) I do appreciate that the author, who is herself a Grey nun and is Canadian, as am I, does bring Irish myths into the story and uses them as teaching tales. She doesn’t just draw up a beehive hut and a nun and then make it all up from there. (Occasionally, one of the characters will tell a tale from another context, or one created by the author for her purposes.)
Does the book succeed as a spiritual tool? I think this would depend on the reader entirely. I did find that I was drawn a number of times to think about my own spiritual life when reflecting on what I had just read, and I did have a few moments of new insight, which is far more than I normally would in reading a novel. I appreciate that. And as someone with an urge toward shared contemplative life, I enjoyed imagining this group of women, each on her own small island beyond the ninth wave, held together by their love for their community and a desire to nurture the Sacred Feminine Presence and continue her devotions until the world was ready to embrace Her.
The author classifies this book as Celtic Christianity, but it is easy to see it as something that has moved beyond that religion into goddess spirituality entirely, as God doesn’t show up much at all. I can see it appealing to a diverse if not an enormous audience. Its specialty of divine womanhood is one that the main masses of readers are not likely to be interested in, and its sedate pace would put off a reader who is only there to be entertained. But for the right person, it can be an uplifting and thoughtful journey.
Image: of book resting on quilt. Behind it, also on the bed, is an open laptop with a fullscreen image of a tea candle burning.
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