The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Wappingers Falls
words + images by niki@hvny.info
Across a bustling Route 9 in Wappingers Falls, past cookie-cutter residential neighborhoods and the valley’s quintessential farmlands, there is a hidden sanctuary for a couple of visionaries of the New Age.
In addition to all-encompassing artworks and sculptures, there are monthly full moon ceremonies replete with fire performances, displays of various mind-bending artifacts – including the ashes of LSD guru Timothy Leary, a two-story domed structure from Burning Man, and stairwells full of original, signed Tool album covers – and a mushroom-shaped cafe in the 1862 Visionary Victorian Grey House.
Welcome to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, “a place of contemplation and workship for community honoring the practice of art as a spiritual path.”
Visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey began holding full moon prayer ceremonies in their Brooklyn home in 2003, but due to noise complaints, moved the gatherings to a donated, temporary space in Chelsea. After searching for a permanent home, in 2008, the Foundation for the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors purchased a 40-acre former interfaith center in Wappingers Falls, where the couple also live and work full-time, for $1.8 million.
In June of 2023, the 12,000-square-foot exhibition space housing most of Grey’s work – Entheon– opened in a currently-unassuming concrete box of a building adjacent to the Grey House. (The construction of 30 faces, “corner angels, roof dragons and secret writing” that will adorn the facade of the building, is still underway.) “The Entheon Portal” features heavy bronze doors adorned with artwork from Alex Grey, entitled “Creating a Better World.” The first step inside the foyer distorts immediate expectations upon entering as mirrors and many gazes set the tone for the e. In addition to Alex’s main exhibition of “Sacred Mirrors,” which “attempts to address every aspect of the body and spirit,” The Entheon gallery features original artwork by “masters of the International Visionary Art Movement.”
The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors and Entheon is located at 46 Deer Hill Road in Wappinger Falls and is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6pm. Admission is $20. It is free to roam the CoSM grounds during open hours. No animals are allowed on site, including service animals. cosm.org
