The Entangled Imagination: W.B. Yeats’ "Moods" and the Psychologization of Magic
Among modern practitioners of magic, the "psychologization of magic" has become a common strategy to adapt practices such as rituals of invocation to naturalistic thought. In this article, I discuss what was probably the most elaborate attempt to bridge the gap between the magic of the pas...
| Published in: | Entangled Religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
2023
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| In: |
Entangled Religions
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Yeats, William Butler 1865-1939
/ Orden der Goldenen Dämmerung
/ Psychologism
/ Magic
/ Mood
/ Poetry
/ Folk culture
/ History 1890-1901
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| RelBib Classification: | AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBF British Isles TJ Modern history |
| Further subjects: | B
Symbolism
B HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN B psychological associationism B Tradition B Folklore B Literary Theory B William Butler Yeats B psychologization of magic |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Among modern practitioners of magic, the "psychologization of magic" has become a common strategy to adapt practices such as rituals of invocation to naturalistic thought. In this article, I discuss what was probably the most elaborate attempt to bridge the gap between the magic of the past and magic suited for the present that took place within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888-1903). Approaching the Order’s teachings through the lens of contemporaneous literary discourse, the Irish poet and magician William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) attempted to consolidate supernaturalist and naturalist understandings of magic throughout the 1890s. In 1892, he made the concept of the "immortal moods" a key to both his poetry and his magical practice. Evoked through symbols in a ritual or a poem, these moods would descend "like a faint sigh into people’s minds" and move them to action, causing "all great changes in the world." Yeats explored this concept in theoretical writings, poetic experiments, and his ritual practice, finding his own imagination entangled with past imaginations. Serving a brief term as the Golden Dawn’s Imperator and Instructor in Mystical Philosophy in 1901, he condensed the insights gained from this work in the doctrines of the "great mind and great memory." Presenting a study of Yeats’ psychology of the universal mind, this article shows how his amalgamation of literary and folkloristic theorizing paved the way to connect magical and poetic practice to the emerging psychological discourse. |
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| ISSN: | 2363-6696 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Entangled Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.46586/er.14.2023.10389 |