William Butler Yeats and Alchemy

Written by Robert Bruce Baird


There are adepts outside of what is called alchemy who have achieved great things in these areas and there are alchemists before Socrates and Aristotle, or Da Vinci and Newton; who all true experts know were alchemists. For any author or journalist who would produce a TV documentary onrepparttar subject and not even interview a hermeticist (much less an alchemist) it is obvious their intent is not to educate. So when you see Time/Life videos doing that kind of show I hope you know you are being fed lies. In February, 1925 Yeats wrote this in Capri. “The End ofrepparttar 105282 Cycle A Vision A

Inrepparttar 105283 first edition of A Visionrepparttar 105284 section ‘Dove or Swan’ contains a relatively long passage onrepparttar 105285 relationship ofrepparttar 105286 gyres torepparttar 105287 contemporary period andrepparttar 105288 near future (AV A 210-215), which was omitted inrepparttar 105289 second edition. It is given here for reference, withrepparttar 105290 page breaks indicated. The first sentence given here (in italics) isrepparttar 105291 last on AV B 300, andrepparttar 105292 text continues from there.

Having bruised their hands upon that limit men, forrepparttar 105293 first time sincerepparttar 105294 seventeenth century, seerepparttar 105295 world as an object of contemplation, not as something to be remade, and some few, meetingrepparttar 105296 limit in their special study, even doubt if there is any common experience, that is to say doubtrepparttar 105297 possibility of science.

It is said that at Phase 8 there is always civil war, and at Phase 22 always war, and as this war is always a defeat for those who have conquered, we have repeatedrepparttar 105298 wars of Alexander.

I discover alreadyrepparttar 105299 first phase—Phase 23—ofrepparttar 105300 last quarter in certain friends of mine, and in writers, poets and sculptors admired by those friends, who have a form of strong love and hate hitherto unknown inrepparttar 105301 arts. It is with them a matter of conscience to live in their own exact instant of time, and they defend their conscience like theologians. They are all absorbed in some technical research torepparttar 105302 entire exclusion ofrepparttar 105303 personal dream. It is as thoughrepparttar 105304 forms inrepparttar 105305 stone or in their reverie began to move with an energy which is not that ofrepparttar 105306 human mind. Very often these forms are mechanical, are as it wererepparttar 105307 mathematical forms that sustainrepparttar 105308 physical primary—I think ofrepparttar 105309 work of Mr Wyndham Lewis, his powerful “cacophony of sardine tins,” and of those marble eggs, or objects of burnished steel too drawn up or tapered out to be called eggs, of M. Brancussi [sic], who has gone further than Mr Wyndham Lewis from recognisable subject matter and so from personality; of sculptors who would certainly be rejected as impure by a true sectary of this moment,repparttar 105310 Scandinavian Milles, Meštrovi? perhaps, masters of a geometrical pattern or rhythm which seems to impose itself wholly from beyondrepparttar 105311 mind,repparttar 105312 artist “standing outside himself.” I compare them to sculpture or painting where nowrepparttar 105313 artist nowrepparttar 105314 model imposes his personality. I think especially ofrepparttar 105315 art ofrepparttar 105316 21st Phase which was at times so anarchic, Rodin creating his powerful art out ofrepparttar 105317 fragments of those Gates of Hell that he had found himself unable to hold together—images out of a personal dream, “the hell of Baudelaire not of Dante,” he had said to Symons. I find at this 23rd Phase which is it is saidrepparttar 105318 first where there is hatred ofrepparttar 105319 abstract, whererepparttar 105320 intellect turns upon itself, Mr Ezra Pound, Mr Eliot, Mr Joyce, Signor Pirandello, who either eliminate from metaphorrepparttar 105321 poet’s phantasy and substitute a strangeness discovered by historical or contemporary research or who break uprepparttar 105322 logical processes of thought by flooding them with associated ideas or words that seem to drift intorepparttar 105323 mind by chance; or who set side by side as in “Henry IV,” “The Waste Land,” “Ulysses,”repparttar 105324 physical primary—a lunatic among his keepers, a man fishing behind a gas works,repparttar 105325 vulgarity of a single Dublin day prolonged through 700 pages—andrepparttar 105326 spiritual primary, delirium,repparttar 105327 Fisher King, Ulysses’ wandering. It is as though myth and fact, united untilrepparttar 105328 exhaustion ofrepparttar 105329 Renaissance, have fallen so far apart that man understands forrepparttar 105330 first timerepparttar 105331 rigidity of fact, and calls up, by that very recognition, myth—the Mask—which now but gropes its way out ofrepparttar 105332 mind’s dark but will shortly pursue and terrify. In practical life one expectsrepparttar 105333 same technical inspiration,repparttar 105334 doing of this or that not because one would, or should, but because one can, consequent licence, and with those “out of phase” anarchic violence with no sanction in general principles. If there is a violent revolution, and it isrepparttar 105335 last phase where political revolution is possible,repparttar 105336 dish will be made from what is found inrepparttar 105337 pantry andrepparttar 105338 cook will not open her book. There may be greater ability that hitherto for men will be set free from old restraint, butrepparttar 105339 old intellectual hierarchy gone they will thwart and jostle one another. One tries to discoverrepparttar 105340 nature ofrepparttar 105341 24th Phase which will offer peace—perhaps by some generally accepted political or religious action, perhaps by some more profound generalisation—calling up beforerepparttar 105342 mind those who speak its thoughts inrepparttar 105343 language of our earlier time. Peguy in his Joan of Arc trilogy displaysrepparttar 105344 national and religious tradition ofrepparttar 105345 French poor, as he, a man perhaps ofrepparttar 105346 24th phase, would have it, and Claudel in his “L’Otage”repparttar 105347 religious and secular hierarchies perceived as history. I foresee a time whenrepparttar 105348 majority of men will so accept an historical tradition that they will quarrel, not as to who can impose his personality upon others but as to who can best embodyrepparttar 105349 common aim, when all personality will seem an impurity—“sentimentality,” “sullenness,” “egotism”—something that revolts not morals alone but good taste.

There will be no longer great intellect for a ceaseless activity will be required of all; and where rights are swallowed up in duties, and solitude is difficult, creation except among avowedly archaistic and unpopular groups will grow impossible. Phase 25 may arise, asrepparttar 105350 code wears out from repetition, to give new motives for obedience, or out of some scientific discovery which seems to contrast, a merely historical acquiescence, with an enthusiastic acceptance ofrepparttar 105351 general will conceived as a present energy—“Sibyll [sic] what would you?” “I would die.” Then withrepparttar 105352 last gyre must come a desire to be ruled or rather, seeing that desire is all but dead, an adoration of force spiritual or physical, and society as mechanical force be complete at last. Constrained, arraigned, baffled, bent and unbent

Alzheimer’s Disease Caregivers to Benefit from A Good Daughter at Broward Convention Center

Written by Thomas Cutler


The Fearless Caregiver Conference atrepparttar Broward Convention Center will be held Saturday, April 16th. The event allows family caregivers andrepparttar 105279 professional caregiving community to come together and explore ways to be a more productive member of their loved one’s care team. According to Olga Bruner, founder of A Good Daughter, Inc., based in Margate, Florida (www.agooddaughter.com), “I attended my first caregiver conference in 2001 while I was caregiver to my own mom. I never realized that there was such a large community of support, and resources available from local experts. It’s a must-do especially for those individuals caring at home for a loved-one with Alzheimer’s disease.”

As Today’s Caregiver Magazine celebrates its 10th anniversary, families will hear from this year’s featured guest speaker, popular musical artist and American Idol superstar, Clay Aiken, who has been involved in care giving issues himself and foundedrepparttar 105280 Bubel/Aiken Foundation.

Brunner’s community involvement throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties continues a few days later when she will speak atrepparttar 105281 FAU (Florida Atlantic University) campus on April 20th. The presentation will address options available to students inrepparttar 105282 Health Administration Degree programs. Brunner notes, “This is an important topic because students need to be aware that they can they seek employment from a large facility or health care institution, or look for entrepreneurial caregiving opportunities right in their own communities.”

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use