There were so many common thoughts in Yeats’s poetry and Lao tzu’s philosophy on the Feminine Principl.” Both Yeats and Lao tzu lived in turbulent times. They thought the cause of anarchy in their world resulted from the True God’s absence as the Feminine Principle. Thus they were eager to support it as the Primary principle in the 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 the masculine Trinity. Yeats searched for the hidden Goddess who is called Sophia or Binah as the dark Mother in the Cabalah. Binah is identified with Saturn(male). So Sophia 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 owes much to a symbolism derived from the Rosicrucianism, Cabalism, Christian Gnosticism and Orientalism. Orientalism included the Taoism of Lao tzu. I read that Yeats was deeply impressed by the Chinese book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, which is explained Taoism. Because Taoism is s common with Yeats’s main poetic theme, which is the Feminine Principle and the hidden God. Although Lao tzu lived about 2,500 years ago, he had almost the same idea as Yeats. His main theme is Tao, the way which symbolizes the Feminine Principle, like Sophia in Christian Gnosticism and Cabalism. We can say Tao is intangible and permanent, 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 poetry is identical to Tao. Lao-tzu described that Tao stands for the feminine archetypal imagery such as water, 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. For example, Lao tzu explained that “water’s virtue is the highest goodness.” This symbol of water symbolizes the Feminine Principle like Sophia’s characteristics in Yeats’s poetry. Thus, they all refused to accept the andro-centric society.

• 조미나(충남대) | Mina, Cho