Goddess worship, & the Feminine aspect.
~ from snips taken from OP & thread author's links~
Revelations were imparted to the initiate through secret "things heard, things tasted, and things seen."
Diodorus Siculus declares that "Demeter was the discoverer of corn," who "also taught mankind how to prepare it for food"; and that she was known
as Thesmophorus, because she taught men laws, which accustomed them "to the practice of justice" (Strabo, Geography, IX, i, 12).
++ The ultimate Mystery was revealed at Eleusis in "an ear of corn reaped in silence"—a sacred fetish that the Jews called shibboleth (Walker, The
Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 218-220).
Eleusis meant "advent." Its principal rites brought about the advent of the Divine Child or Savior, variously named Brimus, Dionysus, Triptolemus,
Iasion, or Eleuthereos, the Liberator.
Like the corn, he was born of Demeter-the-earth and laid in a manger or winnowing basket.
His flesh was eaten by communicants in the form of bread (again the Eucharist), made from the first or last sheaves.
His blood was drunk in the form of wine.
Like Jesus, he entered the Earth and rose again.
Communicants were supposed to partake of his immortality, and after death they were known as Demetreioi, blessed ones belonging to Demeter.
...
if you notice, this threads Silent Harvest, was a pre-runner of the Jesus story...
just as Other cultures prior to the pre-christian era also had their own, creators/floods/savior stories & myths...
which were retold-repackaged via the tribes of Israel & their Torah/and later on, the Bibles new testament.
additional aspects of Zeitgeist, (the religion facet)...
what is intriguing is that
Persephone (-the-destroyer)
is just one manistifation of the crone/Demeter/et al...
and a statue of Persephone stands atop the U.S. Capitol building
[edit on 13-11-2009 by St Udio]