"Das Ewig-Weibliche
Zieht uns hinan."


("The Eternal-Feminine
Draws us on.")

-- Conclusion of Goethe's Faust

At Amazon.com, a search inside The Da Vinci Code*, by Dan Brown, shows 34 pages with references to feminine:

1. on Page 23:
"... earth. Not only did Saunière have a personal passion for relics relating to fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the sacred feminine, but during his twenty-year tenure as curator, Saunière had helped the Louvre amass the largest collection of goddess art on ..."
2. on Page 24:
"... the reason he hadn't yet shown the manuscript to anyone else. The three-hundred-page draft-tentatively titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine-proposed some very unconventional interpretations of established religious iconography which would certainly be controversial. Now, as Langdon approached the stationary escalators, ..."
3. on Page 36:
"... Langdon clarified, "is a pre-Christian symbol that relates to Nature worship. The ancients envisioned their world in two halves-masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and yang. When male and female were balanced, ..."
4. on Page 37:
"... assure you," Langdon said, "despite what you see in the movies, the pentacle's demonic interpretation is historically inaccurate. The original feminine meaning is correct, but the symbolism of the pentacle has been distorted over the millennia. In this case, through bloodshed." ..."
5. on Page 38:
"... Jacques Saunière would consider the pentacle a sign of the female deity. The correlation between this symbol and the sacred feminine is widely known by art historians and symbologists." "Fine. And the use of his own blood as ink?" "Obviously he ..."
6. on Page 45:
"... body in a clear image of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. The circle had been the missing critical element. A feminine symbol of protection, the circle around the naked man's body completed Da Vinci's intended message-male and female harmony. The question ..."
7. on Page 46:
"... Saunière shared a lot of spiritual ideologies with Da Vinci, including a concern over the Church's elimination of the sacred feminine from modern religion. Maybe, by imitating a famous Da Vinci drawing, Saunière was simply echoing some of their shared frustrations ..."
8. on Page 92:
"... ideologies banned by the Church. Now, Tarot's mystical qualities were passed on by modern fortune-tellers. The Tarot indicator suit for feminine divinity is pentacles, Langdon thought, realizing that if Saunière had been stacking his granddaughter 's deck for fun, pentacles was ..."
9. on Page 96:
"... reason, the five-pointed star has always been the symbol for beauty and perfection associated with the goddess and the sacred feminine." The girls in class beamed. "One note, folks. We've only touched on Da Vinci today, but we'll be seeing a ..."
10. on Page 113:
"... The two men share a historical fraternal bond. And it all fits perfectly with their fascination for goddess iconology, paganism, feminine deities, and contempt for the Church. The Priory has a well-documented history of reverence for the sacred feminine." "You're telling ..."
11. on Page 119:
"... male and female have assigned sides-left is female, and right is male. Because Da Vinci was a big fan of feminine principles, he made Mona Lisa look more majestic from the left than the right." "I heard he was a fag," ..."
12. on Page 120:
"... put it quite that way, but yes, Da Vinci was a homosexual." "Is that why he was into that whole feminine thing?" "Actually, Da Vinci was in tune with the balance between male and female. He believed that a human soul ..."
13. on Page 124:
"... successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever ." Sophie's expression remained uncertain. "My grandfather sent me to this spot to ..."
14. on Page 125:
"... A V I N C I C 0 D E 125 history. Their brutal crusade to "reeducate" the pagan and feminine- worshipping religions spanned three centuries, employing methods as inspired as they were horrific. The Catholic Inquisition published the book that ..."
15. on Page 162:
"... perfectly with everything your grandfather has been trying to tell us tonight, including all his symbologic references to the sacred feminine." Still unsure, Sophie sensed in Langdon's patient smile that he empathized with her confusion, and yet his eyes remained earnest. ..."
16. on Page 202:
"... maps. For this reason, the Rose was a symbol that spoke of the Grail on many levels-secrecy, womanhood, and guidance-the feminine chalice and guiding star that led to secret truth. As Langdon finished his explanation, his expression seemed to tighten suddenly. ..."
17. on Page 237:
"... the first time he heard the statement. It was not until he understood the symbology behind the Grail that the feminine connection became clear. Teabing apparently had a similar thought. "Robert, perhaps this is the moment for the symbologist to clarify?" ..."
18. on Page 238:
"... said. "Exactly." Langdon smiled. "The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church. The power of the female ..."
19. on Page 239:
"... from a Church that had subjugated women, banished the Goddess, burned nonbelievers, and forbidden the pagan reverence for the sacred feminine." Sophie shook her head. "I'm sorry, when you said the Holy Grail was a person, I thought you meant it ..."
20. on Page 253:
"... THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail THE GODDESS IN THE GOSPELS Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine "Here is perhaps the best-known tome," Teabing said, pulling a tattered hardcover from the stack and handing it to her. ..."
21. on Page 257:
"... before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine." Sophie felt an unexpected wonder. "The hiding place of the Holy Grail is actually ... a tomb?" Teabing's hazel eyes ..."
22. on Page 261:
"... Da Vinci, Botticelli, Poussin, Bernini, Mozart, and Victor Hugo that all whispered of the quest to restore the banished sacred feminine. Enduring legends like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Arthur, and Sleeping Beauty were Grail allegories. Victor Hugo's Hunchback ..."
23. on Page 262:
"... that Disney retold tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White-all of which dealt with the incarceration of the sacred feminine. Nor did one need a background in symbolism to understand that Snow White-a princess who fell from grace after partaking ..."
24. on Page 303:
"... Yin yang. A balanced pair. Arranged in strings of five. Pentameter. Five for the pentacle of Venus and the sacred feminine. "It's pentameter?" Teabing blurted, turning to Langdon. "And the verse is in English? La lingua pura!" Langdon nodded. The Priory, ..."
25. on Page 308:
"... female experienced God. The ancients believed that the male was spiritually incomplete until he had carnal knowledge of the sacred feminine. Physical union with the female remained the sole means through which man could become spiritually complete and ultimately achieve gnosis-knowledge ..."
26. on Page 310:
"... spiritual act. Challenge yourself to find that spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine." The women smiled knowingly, nodding. The men exchanged dubious giggles and off-color jokes. Langdon sighed. College men were still boys. ..."
27. on Page 341:
"... revealed or stay buried?" "Neither. I made no judgment either way. The manuscript deals with the symbology of the sacred feminine-tracing her iconography throughout history. I certainly didn't presume to know where the Grail is hidden or whether it should ever ..."
28. on Page 390:
"... the traveling servants or "ministers" of the Church of Mary Magdalene, using music to disseminate the story of the sacred feminine among the common folk. To this day, the troubadours sang songs extolling the virtues of "our Lady"-a mysterious and beautiful ..."
29. on Page 391:
"... directly from Tarot's four suits of swords, cups, scepters, and pentacles. Spades were Swords-The blade. Male. Hearts were Cups-The chalice. Feminine. Clubs were Scepters-The Royal Line. The flowering staff. Diamonds were Pentacles-The goddess. The sacred feminine. Four minutes later, as Langdon ..."
30. on Page 420:
"... them. Saunière was not a man of science. He was a man of humanity, of art, of history. The sacred feminine ... the chalice ... the Rose ... the banished Mary Magdalene ... the decline of the goddess ... the Holy ..."
31. on Page 425:
"... partook," Langdon said coolly, "incurring the Holy wrath of God. Original sin. The symbol of the fall of the sacred feminine." Teabing felt the truth come crashing down on him in excruciating austerity. The orb that ought be on Newton's tomb ..."
32. on Page 444:
"... of our history ... and of our destructive paths. We are beginning to sense the need to restore the sacred feminine." She paused. "You mentioned you are writing a manuscript about the symbols of the sacred feminine, are you not?" "I ..."
33. on Page 445:
"... portrayed both ways. "And the inverse," she said, drawing again on her palm, "is the chalice , which represents the feminine." 17 "Correct," Langdon said. "And you are saying that in all the hundreds of symbols we have here in Rosslyn ..."
34. from Front Matter:
"... Sung, Miriam Abramowitz, William Tunstall-Pedoe, and Griffin Wooden Brown. And finally, in a novel drawing so heavily on the sacred feminine, I would be remiss if I did not mention the two extraordinary women who have touched my life. First, my ..."

* Doubleday hardcover, first edition, March 18, 2003