You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This fine book gets better and better as you read further into it and, in fact, the highlights for me were in the last three chapters, The initial chapters, after the interesting prologue, I found a little stodgy, but as I reflect on the book as a whole, I feel this may have been due to the fact that one is being introduced to new ideas in a new language and I am a slow learner of the new. So what seems to be a fault in the book may be its strength; it does give one a new way of seeing.
Donleavy and Shearer have done considerable research about Themis, using numerous different sources. As they tell it, Themis has been variously described as a Titan, a goddess, a daughter of the earth, an oracular figure (guardian of the ancient Delphic oracle) and the mother of Eunomia, Eirene and Dike, Good Order, Peace and Justice. The father of these ‘three beautiful daughters’ was Zeus himself and they were also called the Horai.‘They are the Seasons, the Hours, and, even more precisely, the “right moment”’ (p. 137).
The attributes of Themis, and those she is associated with, are linked in the book under the ideas of themis, consciousness and themis, energy, and, inter alia, include aspects such as the connection between divine and natural law, justice, especially reconciliation versus retributive justice, and connection with the body and the earth. Themis is a creator of new consciousness and is connected with transformation and the bringing together of opposites in the process of attaining greater wholeness. In this sense she is close to the Jungian idea of the Self, a Self that is concerned with individual and, societal integration. Of special mention is her sense of ‘right order’, that there is a ‘right moment’ for things to be done.
Donleavy and Shearer have linked the words ‘heart-soul’ or ‘blood-soul’, which they oppose to ‘spirit-soul’. I found this a useful concept, using an image to describe what has previously been named Lunar vs. Solar, feminine vs. masculine, feeling v