The Great Sympathy
Tao, Mother of the World
"Referring to the Tao Teh Ching and other Taoist writings, [Shirley Nicholson] points out that the values held highest in Taoism are [those] feminine characteristics associated with the Mother of the World and the Great Sympathy in which ego-boundaries blur out into a Oneness. We are not surprised by Ellen Chen's conclusions that early Taoism was actually a remnant or derivation of the worship of the Great Mother in China. The underlying precepts are quite similar to Bruteau's insights about symbolism of unity inherent in the reverence for Demeter and Isis. [...] 'The Tao' literally means 'The Way,' and Nicholson reminds us that it is a way of peace and harmony. There may be so-called masculine traits that women can adopt, but only at the cost of an even more aggressive world. Now that we have such a vast catalog of traits to choose from, we need to think carefully about which we choose. And in defining the feminine principle, we also think of the Taoist reminder that each thing does best when allowed to act according to its own nature."

Introduction by Merlin Stone, in The Goddess re-awakening: the feminine principle today, p. 18, ed. by Shirley Nicholson (1989)
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from "Yoga for your spiritual muscles: a complete yoga program to strengthen body and spirit," pp. 73-74, by Rachel Schaeffer, Adam Mastoon, David S. Waitz (1998)
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Brahman, Nirvana,
the Tao, Demeter
"The realization that there are many different types of universal synthesis, the static Oneness of Brahman, the dynamic Oneness of Demeter or of the Tao, is what in part led me to realize the transcendent nature of biblical God, creating it all. A different way of coming to this realization is through humility. [...] Brahman, Nirvana, the Tao, Demeter, we attain by our own mystical or psychical efforts, by our human works, as it were. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God to us, comes from beyond us, as we truly feel when the experience uplifts us, and is therefore the result of God's grace, not of anything we do directly. This is not to say we should neglect doing good works [...], since the Holy Spirit will not come to dwell where there is evil. We must become a suitable vessel for God to enter, before there can be grace [transcendence]."

from "A Guide to the Ancient Mysteries," pp. 434-5, by Tom Ficek (2009)
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^{Gosper Curve fractal, Wikipedia, similar to ancient Greek geometric motifs (compare with the Boeotian hydria motif illustrated right), as well as various meander seal patterns (path begins upper left side, completes upper right), see Patrick Conty, "Genesis and Geometry of the Labyrinth" (2002)}
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Descent Among the Women
"Demeter adopts the disguise of a helpless old woman and lives in an entirely female environment while she is withdrawing from the gods and carrying out her secret designs against Zeus; she moves into a public and male sphere when she returns to her divine shape, commands the building of her temple, and exercises her powers over agriculture (powers intimately connected with fertility) by creating the famine. Those divine activities that are later imitated in the rites at Eleusis take place in the private sphere of women, whereas men are given a role in making participation in Demeter's secrets accessible to a wider world. (This is a role they actually played, with the help of priestesses in the Mysteries.)"

from "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays," p.138, commentary by Helene P. Foley (1994)
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Catharsis & Greek Tragedy
"Tragedy is, according to Aristotle, a purification (κἀθαρσις) through terror and pity." This formula is concise and perfect, but it requires clarification. Why should terror and pity, which in real life are depressing sensations, become in the great Greek tragedies consoling and purifying forces? Because they present to the spectator the ordeals of the soul which render it fit to assimilate sublime and consolatory truths, by freeing it from veil after veil. Without a clear comprehension of these ordeals, the emotional waves of terror and pity remain impotent; but the purgation of the soul which follows the thrill of tragedy [in Greek art and ritual], produces in it a calmness lit up by the rays of truth and unknown bliss. The object of the Mysteries of Eleusis was to communicate this truth and bliss to the initiate through personal experience, by lucid conceptions and vivid imagery."

from "The Hellenic Miracle" in "Selected Occult Writings of Edouard Schure," p. 221, translated from the French by Eva Martin (1912/1928)
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