Telling Her Stories, Finding Her Faces
“What the audience saw when a dancer looked through the eyes of the mask was the Goddess Herself, ancient and yet utterly contemporary, looking across time, across the miles.”
…Diane Darling, Director, Playwright
In traditional societies masks are regarded as “vessels for the gods“, transformative tools to bless, heal, or offer prophecy within sacred ritual theatre. After studying mask arts in Bali artist Lauren Raine was inspired to create a collection of contemporary “Temple Masks” devoted to the Divine Feminine for communities to use. She found herself in a conversation that grew as priestesses, theologians, dancers, storytellers, playwrights and communities used the collection, bringing new meaning to the ancient stories of the Divine Feminine.
What does the story of Sedna, ocean mother of the Inuit, have to teach us about ecology and reciprocity with the environment?
What is the Gnostic “Mirror of Sophia”?
How is the “Descent of Inanna” a potent story of psychological death and rebirth as we journey toward wholeness?
How is Spider Woman, the ubiquitous Weaver/Creatrix of the Americas, a vital metaphor for our time?
The Temple Mask collection traveled throughout the U.S.A. for over 20 years as Lauren Raine and her colleagues found unique ways to work with the masks, which they hope will continue to evolve with new communities, storytellers, and mask makers.
“Myth comes alive as it enters the cauldron of evolution, drawing new life from the storytellers who shape it.”
…Elizabeth Fuller, the Independent Eye Theater
LAUREN RAINE MFA is a mask artist, sculptor, community arts facilitator, and author. She received her BFA from the University of California at Berkeley, and her MFA from the University of Arizona. In the 90’s she became interested in sacred mask traditions, and went to Bali to study with Ida Bagus Anom and other traditional Balinese mask makers. Returning to the U.S. she created 30 multi-cultural masks based on worldwide female mythologies for the Invocation of the Goddess at Reclaiming’s Spiral Dance at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. She dedicated the Collection as “Temple Masks” for the Divine Feminine, and for over 20 years the Masks of the Goddess travelled throughout the U.S., used by dancers, storytellers, ritualists and communities, including the 2015 and 2023 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, the Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors in New York, the Muse Community Arts Center in Arizona, the New College of California, and many other venues. In 2019 the Project was formally closed with an exhibition and performance at HerChurch in San Francisco.
Lauren Raine has received an Alden Dow Fellowship for her “Spider Woman’s Hands” Community Arts Project, was resident artist at the Henry Luce Center for Arts and Religion in Washington, D.C., and was resident artist for Cherry Hill Seminary. Most recently she received a Puffin Foundation grant to create a “Shrine for the 6th Extinction” for Dia de los Muertos in Tucson, Arizona and she exhibited a group of sculptures called “Our Lady of the Shards” at the Tucson Clay Co-op Gallery and at the Tucson Sculpture Festival.
Websites: www.masksofthegoddess.com
www.laurenraine.com
Blog: www.threadsofspiderwoman.blogspot.com