Yeats presented the fallen majesty of Sophia who is a veiled goddess as inValentinian of Christian Gnosticism, Cabalism and Rosicrucianism. In this respect,Yeats himself rejected the masculine Trinity and insisted on an androgynous Trinitythroughout his works. Yeats’s view of Sophia is that of Attis for goddess Cybele.Yeats sought to reveal that Daughter-Sophia was a fallen Deity such as Helen ofTroy or Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty of the fairy tale. Therefore one of Yeats’smajor poetic themes is the longing for Sophia.
From his early poems, Helen is symbolized as Sophia’s secular image and asone of the Yeats’s personal poetic heroines. Yeats wanted Helen, the cause of Troy’sfall, compared to Sophia who was the cause of the Christian’s fall for early ChristianGnostics. Also, several of Yeats’s poetic heroins can be approached in terms ofSophia’s secular and mournful beauty who is suffering with mankind in this world.Especially, Yeats as a master myth-maker himself recreated Helen as his personalunique mythic character in Sophia’s image. For Yeats, Maud Gonne’s poetic role wasthe embodiment of Ireland as Rose, Helen, Cathleen, Deirdre, Niamh and Jane. Thesefigures are all symbolized as a divine Feminine Principle existing within the God,Masculine Principle before the all creation. And Yeats lays himself and the world ather feet as the love poet or her sole priest just as did Attis for Cybele. Yeats’spersonal and poetic heros as symbols of Yeats’s portraits: Attis, Homer, Jester, Oisin,Red Hanrahan, Fergus, Cuchulain, and Aleel.
Through Sophia’s imagery, Yeats suggested gnostic speculations about thefemale elements of divinity, rigorously suppressed by the orthodox Christian fathersof the early church, and this rejection remains to this day. In other words, Yeatstried to carry out a poetic recovery of one single body work of art from the veiled goddess, Sophia. Because Yeats wanted to become Sophia’s sole priest, Valentinian.His hope appears in his poetic theme of a ‘Unity of Being’ by uniting with Sophiaafter his own death and Sophia’s death too. In this sense, Yeats often illustrated inhis poems sorrowful love and an eagerness for the death of the beloved. This ideaand sentiment is seen in Aleel’s attempted unity with Cathleen: Aleel suggestsCountess Cathleen who is suffering with her people go to Heaven to escape herpains.
Although people mocked Yeats’s attitude regarding Sophia, he envisioned aheroic dream in which Sophia will be revealed with her Heavenly power in a futureas her era comes. And at last, she will recover her genuine glory in Heaven.Sophia’s era will come 2000 years after Christ’s birth according to Yeats’s uniquehistorical view. For example, “Leda and the Swan” and “A Nativity” symbolize thecoming of the masculine Trinity era with in the Orthodox Church. So Yeats statedwhen the Christ or Helen or Christ’s sister (Daughter-Sophia) was born, the Motherof God, Mary or Leda was frightened and terror-struck. Therefore Helen symbolizedsecular beauty suffering with mankind during the 2000 years of the masculine Trinityage.
On the other hand, in “The Second Coming,” Yeats suggested that Sophia’s veilbe removed when she recovers her glory. The terrible Sphinx stands for this comingof Sophia, which will establish an androgynous Trinity just as seen in the EgyptianTrinity: Osiris, Isis and Horus. Sophia as Yeats’s beloved is also symbolized by theSphinx, ‘half lion, half child’ in “Against Unworthy Praise.”
Thus we see Yeats endeavoring to draw the readers’ attention to the stress laidby feminine principle, Helen-Sophia who is with mankind as Countess Cathleen -withsacrificial love and her suffering under the masculine Trinity- until the new agecomes, which was stated as ‘until coming sphinx’ or ‘until God burn time.’ So Yeatswas an authentic prophet in our time.