An Overview of A Vision

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939; name pronounced "Yates") is one of the most significant poets in the English language of the twentieth century. In fact his career spans both the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries and one of the remarkable things about him as a writer is the breadth and variety of his work, as well as his continued development as a poet during his life. Few poets continue to produce work which maintains their highest level of achievement through into old age, but Yeats is one of these, and many would argue that the work of his later years represents a more significant achievement than that of his earlier years, though this is not to compare like with like.

Though his reputation rests primarily upon his lyric poetry, he was also a dramatist, story-writer and essayist, and he was associated intimately with the cultural and political life of his country, Ireland. When he was a young man, Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland but there had been a growing movement for independence through the nineteenth century. In his early twenties WBY became associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, most notably one of its leading figures, John O’Leary, while his fervour was also heightened by his love for Maud Gonne, an ardent and active nationalist. At the same time he was developing his interest in the supernatural and occultism, first through the Theosophical Society and later through the Golden Dawn. The two strands were not separate, although not always compatible, and meet in WBY’s interest in Irish folklore and various schemes of Celtic mysticism. Throughout his life WBY was able to make a (usually meagre) living from literary pursuits, which, in his youth, included books of Irish folklore and an edition of William Blake’s poetical works (see the Chronology below).

Yeats’s contribution to the nationalist cause was most significant in literary areas, especially in the founding of the Irish National Theatre Society and in the management of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. His poetry also reflected his commitment to the cause of independence, initially through mythical and folkloric motifs and a celebration of the traditional culture; as he moved towards a more modernist sensibility, his poetry became more overtly political, and dealt with events in Ireland in poems such as ‘Easter 1916’ and ‘Meditations in Time of Civil War’. In 1922 he was appointed to the Senead (Senate) of the new Free State (viz AV B 26-27). In his later years, he was drawn towards some of the elements of fascism, notably its often mystical nationalism and inherent élitism, but he never became involved in the movement as such.

Yeats’s interests in the supernatural were always an important element in his poetic inspiration, in particular in his approach to symbolism. The best-known poems of Yeats’s early period celebrate a semi-mythical Irish landscape that is often haunted by the Sidhe [/shee/, fairies] or the Tuatha de Danaan [/tooa de danan/, pagan gods], such as ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, ‘The Stolen Child’ or ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’; his love for Maud Gonne, such as ‘When You are Old’ or ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’; or an oneiric, mystical vision, such as ‘The Secret Rose’ or ‘The Valley of the Black Pig’. A recurrent symbol is that of the Rose, in which Ireland, Maud and vision meet along with other elements. Though a traditional image, the Rose had particular meanings for WBY because of its place in the Rosicrucian (Rose+Cross) symbolism of the Golden Dawn. For him symbols were more than a poetic tool, tapping into a vast reservoir of collective experience, which he termed at various stages the Great Memory, Anima Mundi (the World Soul), and the Record, none of which is, however, quite the same as the other.

Yeats’s poetry develops significantly during his life, with a period of the most rapid change during the years from 1910 to 1920. Among the many factors involved, three stand out: his friendship with Ezra Pound, his marriage to Georgie Hyde Lees, and the advent of the ideas of A Vision. Through Pound he was brought into contact with what became known as modernism, as well as Oriental art and thought. Georgie, one of the best friends of Dorothy Shakespear, Pound’s wife, brought much to him emotionally and personally (see below), not least, a new system of thought through her decision to attempt automatic writing. Over five or six years the Yeatses engaged in frequent sessions, where WBY would ask questions and, while Georgie was in a trance-like state, her hand would write answers (see below). These answers were attributed to a variety of controlling spirits and, as the script built up, it outlined a complex, esoteric system of thought, centred on cycles of change, which WBY spent years turning into a formal exposition, A Vision.

Few of the underlying ideas in this system were actually new to Yeats’s thinking, though almost all of the surface detail was (see below). However, it provided an impetus for a new burst of creativity, which was largely sustained through the rest of WBY’s life. Although he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, the two collections of poetry which are generally regarded as his finest single volumes, The Tower and The Winding Stair, appeared in 1928 and 1933 respectively. Yeats himself noted that ‘I put The Tower and The Winding Stair into evidence to show that my poetry has gained in self-possession and power. I owe this change to an incredible experience’, the communications by automatic writing (AV B 8). Many of the poems of this later period are based to a greater or lesser degree on the ideas of A Vision, and almost all of the most celebrated poems show its influence, including ‘The Second Coming’, ‘A Prayer for my Daughter’, ‘Among School Children’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘Byzantium’ and ‘Under Ben Bulben’.

Like WBY, Georgie Hyde Lees (1892-1968) was a student of esoteric and occult matters and her interests embraced astrology and Renaissance Hermetism, including the works of Pico della Mirandola. According to her recollection they first met in May 1911 and he sponsored her joining of the Golden Dawn in 1914; they talked of marriage in late 1915, in such a way that Georgie regarded it as an engagement, while WBY apparently did not, since he later proposed again to Maud Gonne and then her daughter, Iseult. He proposed properly to Georgie on 26 September 1917 and they were married shortly after her twenty-fifth birthday on 20 October 1917. She became known as George after her marriage, possibly for numerological reasons associated with the change of surname (removing the ‘I’ changes the number equivalent of the name). She was almost thirty years his junior and the marriage started inauspiciously, particularly since WBY was racked by doubts that he should have married Iseult Gonne. In order to break the bad mood and to allay her husband’s doubts, George, who either knew or guessed their origin, decided to bring in ‘external’ confirmation that he had made the right choice. She suggested that they attempt some automatic writing, which was in fact far from automatic, as she obliquely but very deliberately wrote that WBY had made the right decision. As she told Virginia Moore later, what followed was, however, a complete surprise to her and she felt her hand ‘seized by a superior power’. This started three years of sessions of automatic writing, often daily, where WBY was the questioner and George the medium or interpreter; these were followed by rather less frequent ‘sleeps’ where George would speak from a trance in sleep (see Automatic Script). George herself understandably tired of the sessions, though WBY’s enthusiasm continued. The birth of their children, Anne in 1919 and Michael in 1921, gradually helped to reduce the commitment of time, and the system began to reach a form of completion.

The material produced in these sessions was fragmentary and disordered, but provided the basis for a vast, all-encompassing esoteric description of ‘reality’ and system of thought, much of which was presented in the two versions of A Vision. George can certainly be seen morally as a joint author of A Vision, although she had no wish for her part to be known, and legally the copyright resides in the form of words, which are WBY’s, except for a few places where he quotes the Script directly.

Yeats started work on the first exposition of the system within a month of the start of the Automatic Writing in 1917 and continued working on it until 1931. Over ten years were therefore dedicated to this work, although the Communicators had said that the purpose of the Script was to give him metaphors for poetry. Whatever the commitment to working on the System, however, it does not seem to have impeded his poetic and dramatic production.

The first version was ready in April 1924, when Yeats wrote to Edmund Dulac, who provided the book’s illustrations:

He started reworking the material very soon, however, and in February 1931 he wrote to Olivia Shakespear, an old friend and one-time lover: ‘I have really finished A Vision — I turn over the pages and find nothing to add’ (L 781). This was to be part of a new Edition de Luxe, published by Macmillans, which never came to fruition, and the revised version was finally published independently in 1937 (1938 in the US).

The revisions are significant and the major differences are outlined on The Two Editions. The following description is based on the second version, which must be regarded as closer to Yeats’s final thoughts on the subject, but much of it applies to both versions. The description of the contents uses Yeats’s own terminology, with links to their treatment on other pages, and is followed by a brief summary in more standard terms, as close as is possible.

One preliminary point must be made: the System of A Vision presupposes reincarnation.

Contents A Vision (B) (1937) is divided into two introductions and five sections, with two poems. The first Introduction, ‘A Packet for Ezra Pound’, is itself divided, giving observations about Rapallo and modernism before passing to an account of the genesis of A Vision and the circumstances surrounding its development, and then some claims about it addressed to Ezra Pound. The second Introduction is fictional, ‘Stories of Michael Robartes and his Friends: An Extract from a Record Made by his Pupils’ (see The Fictions). These stories centre around Michael Robartes, the supposed discoverer of the System, and a group of young people who become his followers. The poem ‘The Phases of the Moon’, a dialogue between Michael Robartes and Owen Aherne, appears as a prologue. In it, Robartes outlines to Aherne the twenty-eight incarnations represented by the phases of the Moon. The first section of the book proper is entitled ‘The Great Wheel’ and is divided into three parts. ‘The Principal Symbol’ sets out the fundamental principles of the System, in particular the gyres, their representation as double cones, and the opposition of the primary and antithetical Tinctures; it also sketches out the Four Faculties of the human being. ‘Examination of the Wheel’ explores the gyres’ representation as a Wheel or circle, specifically that of the Phases of the Moon. It gives some general observations about the cycle entailed, and a series of rules concerning the Faculties, their True and False forms, and a set of tables showing the disposition of the Faculties in each incarnation, as well as certain characteristics and categories, including those of the Four Quarters of the Wheel. ‘The Twenty-Eight Incarnations’ gives individual treatments of each of the twenty-eight typical incarnations, symbolised by the Phases of the Moon. These include two Phases where the incarnation is not physical, the extremes represented by the New Moon and the Full Moon. ‘The Completed Symbol’ introduces the spiritual counterparts of the Faculties, which are the Four Principles, and the individual’s anti-being, the Daimon. Unlike the Faculties, the Principles are seen to survive death, and two of them form the core of being which reincarnates. Yeats envisages twelve cycles of twenty-eight incarnations each, typically reaching completion in a Great Year of 26 000 years. Yeats also introduces the figure of the Thirteenth Cone, which represents the idea of the divine within the System. ‘The Soul in Judgment’ deals with the process of the After-Life, or more correctly the period between two incarnations, which is divided into six major stages. The first three stages are involved with recognition of the life lived, exploration of its experiences, emotions and relationships, then transvaluation. In the fourth stage the soul sees the eternal perspective, before preparing for the coming incarnation in the final two stages. ‘The Great Year of the Ancients’ gives a theoretical and historical treatment of the Great Year defined by the Precession of the Equinoxes. It adumbrates Yeats’s treatment of the Historical Cycles in the next section. ‘Dove or Swan’ looks at the application of Yeats’s gyres as Historical Cycles within the Great Year, in periods of 2000 and 1000 years. It looks specifically at the 2000 years before the birth of Christ, and then, in more detail, the 2000 years following. It contrasts the annunciation to the Virgin Mary, symbolised by the Dove of the Holy Spirit, with the myth of Leda, who was raped by Zeus in the form of a Swan, and sees them as representing the key moments starting the two eras. ‘All Souls’ Night’ serves as an epilogue to work. Yeats summons the spirits of friends who have died and with whom he can share his ‘mummy truths’.

Summary All things are subject to a cycle of changes, which can be regarded as bi-polar, passing from a state of objectivity to one of subjectivity before returning to objectivity again. This can be seen as a form of oscillation, or a circuit around a wheel, and divides experience into the two halves of objectivity and subjectivity. Under the term objective can be taken all that is collective, unifying, and which involves the individual being absorbed in something greater than itself, be that nature, society, God. Under the term subjective can be taken all that is individualising, separating, pluralist and which involves the individual being differentiated as itself. Between the two poles, there are stages which represent varying proportions of objectivity and subjectivity, and directions of movement towards either objectivity or subjectivity. Human life falls between the poles, since the extreme states are abstract. The System is fundamentally humanistic and amoral. It deals almost exclusively with human experience and the human condition. The divine features, but is marginalised and seen as relevant only to part of the objective half of the Wheel. The individual soul is the focus, but more in terms of earthly experience and the series of reincarnations, which are the basis of the System, than in terms of spirituality. The spiritual is largely the province of the after-life. Human life is intrinsically subjective, the after-life intrinsically objective. However, the soul passes through a series of objective lives, then a series of subjective lives, then again objective and so on. Within the System completeness of experience is seen as the goal and the fortune of a subsequent life is determined by having exhausted experience in a given incarnation and the after-life that follows it, rather than by good or evil deeds. The order of incarnations is largely immutable, with the nature of contiguous incarnations changing gradually; there may be repetitions, because of incompleteness, and small jumps, if a life has been lived and understood very fully. In a given incarnation the nature of the goal in life is determined first and foremost by whether it falls in the objective or subjective part of the cycle. If it is objective, then the purpose is to recognise reality and to conform with the external world. If it is subjective, then the purpose is to sustain the inner dream and to follow it regardless of external pressure. All humanity must pass through the same Phases, if you are in an objective incarnation you have been and will be in subjective ones at the appropriate stage, and vice versa. Therefore individual self-expression is important, but so is tolerance and allowing others to fulfil their own expression. Imposing what is right for you on others is tyranny, and imposing the values of others or of previous lives will lead to failure: if objective principles are retained during subjective lives then the life will not be lived adequately, and vice versa. The role of the after-life is to reach an understanding of the previous incarnate life, to absorb the understood experience on a spiritual level, and then to prepare for the following life. The world goes through cycles as well as the individual soul. There are several cycles of varying length in operation at any one time. The current stage of the world is objective on several levels, so that the subjective is marginalised. However, there will shortly be a reversal, so that one of the major cycles will move into a subjective stage. This will enable the subjective to regain some prominence.