There were so many common thoughts in Yeats’s poetry and Lao tzu’s philosophyon the Feminine Principl.” Both Yeats and Lao tzu lived in turbulent times. Theythought the cause of anarchy in their world resulted from the True God’s absence asthe Feminine Principle. Thus they were eager to support it as the Primary principle inthe world.
Yeats was a gnostic visionary. He believed in God’s androgynous Trinity; Man,woman and child. A Child is a daughter or a son. Yeats refused to accept themasculine Trinity. Yeats searched for the hidden Goddess who is called Sophia orBinah as the dark Mother in the Cabalah. Binah is identified with Saturn(male). SoSophia is androgynous.
Yeats called Sophia by many names. Those included Rose, Countess Cathleen,Nimah, Helen and Jane as the symbol of immortal Beauty. All of his poetry owesmuch to a symbolism derived from the Rosicrucianism, Cabalism, Christian Gnosticismand Orientalism. Orientalism included the Taoism of Lao tzu. I read that Yeats wasdeeply impressed by the Chinese book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, which isexplained Taoism. Because Taoism is s common with Yeats’s main poetic theme, whichis the Feminine Principle and the hidden God.
Although Lao tzu lived about 2,500 years ago, he had almost the same idea asYeats. His main theme is Tao, the way which symbolizes the Feminine Principle, likeSophia in Christian Gnosticism and Cabalism. We can say Tao is intangible andpermanent, governing the impermanent became it symbolizes the Mother of all beings.Tao especially symbolizes darkness. Thus I can say that “dark Sophia” in Yeats’s poetryis identical to Tao.
Lao-tzu described that Tao stands for the feminine archetypal imagery such aswater, darkness, valley, cave, abyss. Especially Lao tzu’s heavenly Virtue, Tao is called“Hyeon-bin” which means a black female. Thus Tao is identified with the dark Mother, Sophia in Yeats’s poetry. Also Lao tuz eulogized the virtue of Tao as water. Forexample, Lao tzu explained that “water’s virtue is the highest goodness.” This symbolof water symbolizes the Feminine Principle like Sophia’s characteristics in Yeats’spoetry. Thus, they all refused to accept the andro-centric society.