W. B. Yeats

W. B. Yeats — A Vision (1925), ed. Paul y Harper (2008) [DECLARADA]

W. B. Yeats — A Vision (1937), ed. Harper y Paul (2015) [DECLARADA]

Magia ceremonial · Miembro

Teosofía · Miembro

Hermetismo moderno · Miembro

Astrología · Miembro

Investigación psíquica (psychical research) · Miembro

«It is a constant thought of mine that what we write is often a commendation of, or expostulation with the friends of our youth, and that even if we survive all our friends we continue to prolong or to amend conversations that took place before our five-and-twentieth year» — abre la dedicatoria del volumen de 1925 con una idea suya sobre el oficio: lo que se escribe prolonga o enmienda conversaciones anteriores a los veinticinco años.

«Perhaps this book has been written because a number of young men and women, you and I among the number, met nearly forty years ago in London and in Paris to discuss mystical philosophy» — adjudica el libro a un grupo de jóvenes reunido en Londres y en París hacía casi cuarenta años para discutir filosofía mística, y se cuenta dentro del grupo.

«We all, so far as I can remember, differed from ordinary students of philosophy or religion through our belief that truth cannot be discovered11 but may be revealed, and that if a man do not lose faith, and if he go through certain preparations, revelation will find him at the fitting moment» — declara en qué se distinguían de los estudiantes ordinarios de filosofía o de religión: en creer que la verdad no se descubre sino que se revela a quien no pierde la fe y pasa por ciertas preparaciones. La llamada de nota 11 va pegada a *discovered* dentro del tramo y se conserva.

«That phantasy did not explain the world to our intellects which were after all very modern, but it recalled certain forgotten methods of meditation and chiefly how so to suspend the will that the mind became automatic, a possible vehicle for spiritual beings» — acota el alcance de aquella fantasía compartida —no explicaba el mundo a intelectos que llama muy modernos— y dice qué sí recordaba: métodos de meditación para suspender la voluntad y volver automática la mente.

«Some were looking for spiritual happiness or for some form of unknown power, but I had a practical object. I wished for a system of thought that would leave my imagination free to create as it chose and yet make all that it created, or could create, part of the one history, and that the soul» — separa su objeto del de sus compañeros y lo llama práctico: un sistema de pensamiento que dejara libre a su imaginación y a la vez hiciera de lo creado parte de una sola historia, la del alma. El tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«The other day Lady Gregory said to me: “You are a much better educated man than you were ten years ago and much more powerful in argument» — abre la introducción que firma en el volumen de 1937 con el juicio que Lady Gregory le dio de sí mismo.

«I owe this change to an incredible experience» — y adjudica ese cambio entero a una experiencia que llama increíble; la frase va suelta porque el troceo le pega enseguida la llamada de nota.

«On the afternoon of October 24th 1917, four days after my marriage, my wife surprised me by attempting automatic writing» — data el origen de todo a cuatro días de su matrimonio: su mujer lo sorprendió intentando escritura automática.

«What came in disjointed sentences, in almost illegible writing, was so exciting, sometimes so profound, that I persuaded her to give an hour or two day after day to the unknown writer, and after some half-dozen such hours offered to spend what remained of life explaining and piecing together those scattered sentences. “No,” was the answer, “we have come to give you metaphors for poetry» — cuenta qué hizo con aquellas frases inconexas y casi ilegibles —ofrecer el resto de su vida a explicarlas y recomponerlas— y conserva la respuesta que recibió.

«A system of symbolism, strange to my wife and to myself, certainly awaited expression, and when I asked how long that would take I was told years» — declara que el simbolismo les era ajeno a los dos, y que al preguntar cuánto tardaría en expresarse le respondieron que años.

«When the automatic writing began we were in a hotel on the edge of Ashdown Forest, but soon returned to Ireland and spent much of 1918 at Glendalough, at Rosses Point, at Coole Park, at a house near it, at Thoor Ballylee, always more or less solitary, my wife bored and fatigued by her almost daily task and I thinking and talking of little else» — cuenta dónde transcurrió el primer año y en qué estado: su mujer aburrida y fatigada por la tarea casi diaria, y él sin hablar de otra cosa.

«My wife, who had been asleep for some minutes, began to talk in her sleep, and from that on almost all communications came in that way» — fecha el paso de la escritura al habla dormida en un tren del sur de California, durante una gira de conferencias por los Estados Unidos.

«My teachers did not seem to speak out of her sleep but as if from above it, as though it were a tide upon which they floated» — describe con una imagen, y no con una explicación, la relación entre las voces y el sueño de su mujer: no hablaban desde el sueño sino como desde encima, como sobre una marea.

«My questions must be accurately worded, and, because they said their thought was swifter than ours, asked without delay or hesitation» — declara la disciplina que le imponían al preguntar: palabras exactas y sin demora, porque decían que su pensamiento era más veloz que el nuestro.

«they kept me from mastering that conception. They shifted ground whenever my interest was at its height, whenever it seemed that the next day must reveal what, as I soon discovered, they were determined to withhold until all was upon paper» — declara que lo mantuvieron fuera de la concepción geométrica que sostenía toda la exposición, y que cambiaban de terreno cada vez que su interés subía.

«For the same reason they asked me not to read philosophy until their exposition was complete, and this increased my difficulties. Apart from two or three of the principal Platonic Dialogues I knew no philosophy» — declara la prohibición de leer filosofía hasta terminada la exposición y su propio punto de partida: salvo dos o tres diálogos platónicos, ninguna.

«I had once known Blake as thoroughly as his unfinished confused Prophetic Books permitted, and I had read Swedenborg and Boehme, and my initiation into the “Hermetic Students” had filled my head with Cabbalistic imagery, but there was nothing in Blake, Swedenborg, Boehme or the Cabbala to help me now» — enumera su formación previa —Blake, Swedenborg, Boehme y la imaginería cabalística de su iniciación en los Hermetic Students— y declara que nada de eso le servía entonces.

«It was part of their purpose to affirm that all the gains of man come from conflict with the opposite of his true being. Was communication itself such a conflict? One said, as though it rested with me to decide what part I should play in their dream, “Remember we will deceive you if we can”» — recoge el propósito que les atribuye —que toda ganancia del hombre viene del conflicto con lo opuesto de su ser verdadero— y, en la misma respiración, la advertencia que le dieron sobre su propia veracidad.

«Who these Frustrators were or why they acted so was never adequately explained, nor will be unless I can finish “The Soul in Judgment” (Book III of this work), but they were always ingenious and sometimes cruel» — consigna a los Frustradores sin explicarlos: dice que nunca se le explicó adecuadamente quiénes eran ni por qué obraban así.

«Sweet smells were the most constant phenomena, now that of incense, now that of violets or roses or some other flower, and as perceptible to some half-dozen of our friends as to ourselves, though upon one occasion when my wife smelt hyacinth a friend smelt eau-de-cologne» — declara los olores como el fenómeno más constante y añade el dato que los saca de su sola percepción: media docena de amigos los percibían, aunque una vez dos personas olieran cosas distintas.

«There were still stranger phenomena that I prefer to remain silent about for the present because they seemed so incredible that they need a long story and much discussion» — declara que calla otros fenómenos por increíbles: el silencio es decisión suya y queda dicho como tal.

«Exposition in sleep came to an end in 1920, and I began an exhaustive study of some fifty copy-books of automatic script, and of a much smaller number of books recording what had come in sleep. Probably as many words had been spoken in sleep as had been written, but I could only summarise and much had been lost through frustration. I had already a small concordance in a large manuscript book, but now made a much larger, arranged like a card index» — fecha en 1920 el fin de la exposición en sueños y describe el trabajo que siguió: unos cincuenta cuadernos de escritura automática y una concordancia dispuesta como fichero.

«When in 1926 the English translation of Spengler’s book came out, some weeks after A Vision,III I found that not only were dates that I had been given the same as his but whole metaphors and symbols that had seemed my work alone» — consigna la coincidencia con Spengler —fechas, metáforas y símbolos— sin adjudicar dependencia en ninguna dirección; el tramo lleva dentro la llamada de nota romana III que el troceo pega a *A Vision*.

«I knew of no common source, no link between him and me, unless through The elemental things that go» — cierra esa coincidencia declarando no conocer fuente común ni vínculo, salvo el que da en dos versos suyos sobre las cosas elementales; el tramo cruza de plana y el verso queda partido.

«The first version of this book, A Vision, except the section on the twenty-eight phases, and that called “Dove or Swan” which I repeat without change» — juzga su propia primera versión: salvo dos secciones que repite sin cambio, dice que lo llena de vergüenza.

«I had misinterpreted the geometry, and in my ignorance of philosophy failed to understand distinctions upon which the coherence of the whole depended» — y da la razón: haber interpretado mal la geometría y no haber entendido, por ignorancia de filosofía, las distinciones de que dependía la coherencia del conjunto.

«as my wife was unwilling that her share should be known, and I to seem sole author, I had invented an unnatural story of an Arabian traveller» — declara por qué inventó en 1925 la ficción del viajero árabe: su mujer no quería que se conociera su parte y él no quería aparecer como autor único.

«I read all MacKenna’s incomparable translation of Plotinus, some of it several times, and went from Plotinus to his predecessors and successors whether upon her list or not» — declara sus lecturas de aquellos años: la traducción de Plotino de MacKenna, parte de ella varias veces, y de ahí a sus predecesores y sucesores.

«Although the more I read the better did I understand what I had been taught, I found neither the geometrical symbolism nor anything that could have inspired it except the vortex of Empedocles» — y declara el resultado negativo de esas lecturas: no halló el simbolismo geométrico ni nada que pudiera haberlo inspirado, salvo el vórtice de Empédocles.

«Some, perhaps all, of those readers I most value, those who have read me many years, will be repelled by what must seem an arbitrary, harsh, difficult symbolism. Yet such has almost always accompanied expression that unites the sleeping and waking mind» — prevé el rechazo de los lectores que más valora ante un simbolismo que él mismo llama arbitrario, áspero y difícil, y lo pone en serie con toda expresión que une la mente dormida y la despierta.

«Some will ask whether I believe in the actual existence of my circuits of sun and moon. Those that include, now all recorded time in one circuit, now what Blake called “the pulsation of an artery”, are plainly symbolical, but what of those that fixed, like a butterfly upon a pin, to our central date, the first day of our Era, divide actual history into periods» — se plantea él mismo la objeción sobre la existencia real de sus ciclos de sol y luna y separa los que tiene por simbólicos de los que dividen la historia en periodos iguales; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«To such a question I can but answer that if sometimes, overwhelmed by miracle as all men must be when in the midst of it, I have taken such periods literally, my reason has soon recovered; and now that the system stands out clearly in my imagination I regard them as stylistic arrangements of experience comparable to the cubes in the drawing of Wyndham Lewis and to the ovoids in the sculpture of Brancusi» — y responde declarando su propia oscilación: tomó esos periodos literalmente cuando el prodigio lo desbordaba, su razón se recobró, y ahora los tiene por disposiciones estilísticas de la experiencia, comparables a los cubos de Wyndham Lewis y a los ovoides de Brancusi.

«They have helped me to hold in a single thought reality and justice» — y dice para qué le sirvieron, en una sola frase: para sostener en un mismo pensamiento la realidad y la justicia.

«That is my tradition and I will let no priest rob me» — dice desde dónde mira lo religioso, a la salida de Sant’Ambrogio de Milán: reclama esa tradición como suya y no consiente que un sacerdote se la quite.

«I am too anaemic for so British a faith; I shall haunt empty churches and be satisfied with Ezra Pound’s society and that of his travelling Americans» — y declara a la vez que no entra al oficio: demasiado anémico para una fe tan británica, rondará iglesias vacías.

«Both WBY and GY were adepts in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, “the crowning glory of the occult revival in the nineteenth century,”13 a magical society that stressed the mastery of a body of knowledge that has been called the philosophia perennis» — las editoras del tomo de 1925 lo declaran, junto a George Yeats, adepto de la Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, y describen la orden como sociedad mágica centrada en un cuerpo de saber llamado philosophia perennis; la llamada de nota 13 va pegada dentro del tramo.

«They read widely in Neoplatonic, kabbalist, alchemical, Rosicrucian, hermetic, theosophic, and wisdom literature, from Agrippa through A. E. Waite, through such writers as Blavatsky, Boehme, Dante’s Convito, Hermes Trismegistus, Eliphas Lévi, G. R. S. Mead, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, Ptolemy, Pico della Mirandola, Plato, Plotinus, and Swedenborg» — y enumeran las literaturas que los dos leyeron —neoplatónica, cabalística, alquímica, rosacruz, hermética, teosófica y sapiencial— con la lista de autores que las editoras dan.

«Both WBY and GY were active astrologers; they also read tarot cards, practiced divination, and studied numerology» — y los declaran astrólogos en activo, lectores de tarot, practicantes de adivinación y estudiosos de numerología.

«WBY in particular had attended a number of seances and studied psychic occurrences from ghost stories to religious miracles» — y lo separan de ella en un punto: él en particular había asistido a sesiones y estudiado sucesos psíquicos, de las historias de fantasmas a los milagros religiosos.

«The Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) saw the “Second Coming” not as a triumph of righteousness and peace, but as the birth of a savage, pitiless era:» — Karen Armstrong le da sus años de nacimiento y muerte, 1865 y 1939, y lo llama poeta irlandés; es la única línea del corpus que imprime las dos fechas juntas.

«The first (Dublin) Hermetic Society arose from the interests of the budding poet > William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) and his friend Charles Johnston (1867-1931).» — el Dictionary de Wouter Hanegraaff data el nacimiento de la primera Sociedad Hermética, la de Dublín, en el interés del poeta en ciernes y de su amigo Charles Johnston, y le da las mismas fechas.

«Yeats soon joined the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society in London, then became her personal student in the Esoteric Section, where he proposed empirical experiments involving her Esoteric Instructions, based on correspondences of sound, number and color.» — y sigue su paso a la Blavatsky Lodge de Londres y a la Sección Esotérica como alumno personal de Blavatsky, donde propuso experimentos con correspondencias de sonido, número y color.

«However, Yeats’ interest in applied esotericism alienated the more metaphysically-minded members of the Esoteric Section, though not Blavatsky.» — y acota a quién enajenó ese interés por el esoterismo aplicado: a los miembros más metafísicos de la Sección Esotérica, no a Blavatsky.

«In his Autobiography, Yeats records his admiration for Blavatsky’s genius and powerful presence, balanced by the constant suggestion of potentiai traud.» — Mary Gorski, en el artículo que le dedica el Dictionary, deja sin resolver la impresión que él escribió sobre Blavatsky: admiración por su genio y su presencia, y a la vez sugerencia constante de fraude.

«True to his individualism, his main objection to the Theosophical Society was its tendency to breed dogmatism in its adherents.» — y da la objeción que él puso a la Sociedad Teosófica, que no es doctrinal sino de efecto sobre sus miembros.

«The purpose of the experiments was to verify the truth of the theosophicai knowledge, and to counterbalance the danger of a one-sided emphasis on the abstract intellect.» — y qué buscaban los experimentos que le costaron la expulsión.

«In his opinion the ranking of adepti, and the passage from one degree of attainment to the next, reflected the very structure of the macrocosm: “The passing by their means [the grades of initiation] from one Degree to another is an evocation of the Supreme Life, a treading of a symbolic path... a climbing towards the light which it is the essence of our system to believe, flows continually from the lowest of the invisible degrees to the highest’.» — y cómo fundaba él la unidad de la orden en una correspondencia cosmológica, con sus propias palabras dentro.

«Yeats’s idea of spiritual marriage as an alliance between mystic soror and fratre was modeled upon the legendary alchemist Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle.» — y de dónde saca el modelo de su matrimonio espiritual con Maud Gonne: la pareja alquímica de Nicolas Flamel y Pernelle.

«Four days after they were married, George attempted automatic writing and was able to transmit a text attributed to “Instructors” in the spirit world. To Yeats’s questions about the purpose of their instruction, they announced ‘we have come to give you metaphors for poetry’.» — y fecha el origen de A Vision a cuatro días de la boda con George Hyde-Lees, con la respuesta de los Instructores tal como él la consignó.

«I came to believe in a Great Memory passing on from generation to generation. But that was not enough, for these images showed intention and choice . . . If no mind was there [i.e.,.a greater mind], why should I suddenly come upon salt and antimony, upon the liquefaction of the gold, as they were understood by the alchemists? This study had created a contact or mingling with minds who had followed a like study in some other age, and that these minds still saw and thought and chose. Our daily thought was certainly but the line of foam at the shallow edge of a vast luminous sea’.» — y cita el pasaje del ensayo Magic en que él razona de la imagen a la mente y llega a una Gran Memoria transmitida de generación en generación.

«After seven years of working with automatic writing, Yeats produced A Vision, which outlines the soul’s circular journey through the 28 phases of the moon, coming to completion in Unity of Being. Through a geometrical representation of two interlocking spirals — or gyres — Yeats maps out the history of civilization, and further suggests the fate of the soul after it leaves the body.» — y describe A Vision como producto de siete años de escritura automática, con su doble alcance: el viaje del alma por las veintiocho fases y el mapa de la historia por espirales entrelazadas.

«In one form or another, this framework of interlocking spirals is at the base of all of Yeats’s writings, poetic or dramatic, from 1920 to his death in 1939.» — y extiende ese armazón a todo lo que él escribió entre 1920 y su muerte.

«Given his tremendous labors to elucidate what he called ‘the spiritual intellect’, it may seem ironic that Yeats wrote in the last month of his life that ‘Man can embody truth but he cannot know it’.» — y cierra con una ironía que no resuelve: lo que él escribió en el último mes de su vida sobre encarnar la verdad sin poder conocerla.

«Felkin was not the only significant member of the new Order. J.W. Brodie-Innes, a Scottish lawyer and minor novelist, joined him in providing teachings from the Sun Masters, and when > W.B. Yeats resumed his involvement with the Golden Dawn it was within the Stella Matutina: in July 1912 Felkin approved Yeats’s advancement to the Grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor.» — Robert A. Gilbert, en el mismo Dictionary, fecha en julio de 1912 su avance de grado dentro de la Stella Matutina, aprobado por Felkin.

«An interest in alchemy is also evident in the works of the poet > William B. Yeats, likewise a member of the Golden Dawn (see e.g. Rosa alchemica, 1897).» — y el artículo sobre alquimia del Dictionary lo cuenta entre los miembros de la Golden Dawn en quienes el interés alquímico queda a la vista, con Rosa alchemica de 1897 como ejemplo.

«Russell’s and Yeats’ paths gradually diverged with his pursuit of > mysticism and Theosophy, and the latter’s focus on magic, myth, and artistic power.» — Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke separa su camino del de George Russell: el uno hacia el misticismo y la teosofía, el otro hacia la magia, el mito y el poder artístico.

«He was certainly troubled by the more overtly pagan tendencies in the Golden Dawn, and in 1901 he wrote a paper arguing that the order was founded firmly upon Christian principles.» — Ronald Hutton consigna que le inquietaban las tendencias más abiertamente paganas de la Golden Dawn y que en 1901 escribió un ensayo sosteniendo que la orden se fundaba en principios cristianos.

«On examining the literary works of Yeats it is apparent that Christ is, in fact, rarely mentioned.» — y pone al lado el contraste con su obra literaria, donde Cristo apenas se menciona.

«Just as in the case of Rider Haggard, Yeats’s cosmology allowed for a belief in the existence of lesser deities as well as a supreme one; and for him pagan divinities were bound up with the cause of Irish nationalism to which he devoted much energy in the 1890s.» — y describe su cosmología como una que admitía deidades menores junto a una suprema, con las paganas ligadas al nacionalismo irlandés.

«In 1888 Yeats made a collection of Irish folklore which he introduced with the assertion that Irish peasants, because of their preservation from the Industrial Revolution, had retained a rapport with the spirit world which had elsewhere disappeared.» — y fecha en 1888 la colección de folclore irlandés que él presentó afirmando que el campesinado, librado de la Revolución Industrial, conservaba trato con el mundo de los espíritus.

«The result was that we obtained in vision long lists of symbolic forms that correspond to the cardinal points, and the old gods and heroes took their places gradually in a symbolic fabric that had for its centre the four talismans of the Tuatha de Danaan, the Sword, the Stone, the Spear, and the Cauldron, which related themselves in my mind with the suits of the Tarot.» — y cita el resultado de las meditaciones dirigidas en sus propias palabras, con los cuatro talismanes de los Tuatha de Danaan puestos en relación con los palos del Tarot.

«Yeats’s own aim was to fuse Christian and pre-Christian traditions as equivalent fulfilments of the same human needs: ‘Because the Rose, the flower sacred to the Virgin Mary, and the flower that Apuleius’s adventurer ate, when he was changed out of the ass’s shape and received into the fellowship of Isis, is the western Flower of Life, I have imagined it growing upon the Tree of Life.’» — y le adjudica un propósito declarado: fundir tradiciones cristianas y precristianas como cumplimientos equivalentes de las mismas necesidades humanas.

«By January 1902 Yeats had completed the initiation rituals for his order, into the grades of the cauldron, stone, sword, and spear successively.» — y fecha en enero de 1902 el momento en que terminó los rituales de iniciación de su propia orden, en los grados del caldero, la piedra, la espada y la lanza.

«Looking back from the 1920s, he could say that ‘I had made a new religion, almost an infallible church of poetic tradition, of a fardel of stories.’» — y recoge el balance que él hizo desde los años veinte: haber hecho una religión nueva, casi una iglesia infalible de tradición poética.

«One particularly famous account of high-standing members using Enochian chess is given by William Butler Yeats.» — Egil Asprem lo señala como la fuente del testimonio más conocido sobre el ajedrez enóquico.

«Among these trivial anecdotes, however, Yeats tells that in the evening they would gather together and play a round of Enochian chess. Yeats and Moina would make one team, while MacGregor, always the eccentric, would play with a spirit as his partner.» — y resume la escena que él cuenta: cuatro manos, y una de ellas de un espíritu.

«As Yeats described, “[H]e would cover his eyes with his hands or gaze at the empty chair at the opposite corner of the board before moving his partner’s piece.”» — y cita sus palabras sobre el gesto de MacGregor Mathers ante el tablero; los corchetes de la mayúscula son de la cita.

«For instance, Yeats noted from the same 1894 visit to Paris that Mathers was “gay and companionable,” but that he was strained by the many spirit evocations. He further wrote that “[o]ne day a week he and his wife were shut up together evoking, trying to infl uence the politics of the world . . . .I believe now, [that they were] rearranging nations according to his own grandiose phantasy, and on this day I noticed that he would spit blood.”» — y trae su testimonio sobre las evocaciones políticas de los Mathers en la visita a París de 1894, con la ligadura tipográfica de *influence* tal como la imprime el troceo.

«whose magical name was Demon Est Deus Inversus or “The Devil is God in Reverse” (they just called him “Demon”), might have been an extreme case, but he was hardly alone when he confessed to John O’Leary in a letter that the “mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”» — Jeffrey Kripal lo pone como caso extremo y no aislado, con su nombre mágico y la carta a John O’Leary en que él declara que la vida mística es el centro de todo lo que hace, piensa y escribe.

«So, too, was a writer like the great Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), who took this name when he was initiated into a magical society: Demon Est Deus Inversus. The Demon Is God Reversed.» — y en otro libro Kripal vuelve sobre el mismo nombre mágico y lo traduce en la misma línea.

«it is common knowledge that W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen and, if rumour may be trusted, the late Arnold Bennett were at one time among its members, together with a good many other writers and artists» — Israel Regardie, en 1937, lo nombra el primero entre los miembros conocidos de la Golden Dawn, con el reparo impreso sobre el tercero de la lista.

«More so than in other places, especially during the Symbolist period, England and the United States had many who were writer and "magus" as well: A. Crowley, P.B. Randolph, A.E. Waite, Arthur Machen, and of course the great William B. Yeats, and Arthur Symonds (Images of Good and Evil, 1899).» — Antoine Faivre lo cuenta entre los que fueron escritor y mago a la vez, y lo llama el gran William B. Yeats.

«Oscar Venceslas Milosz's prose and poetry (Ars Magna, 1924; Les Arcanes, 1927) display the work of a great initiate and an immense artist. (Along with William Butler Yeats, he is perhaps the most authentically esoteric among the great authors).» — y en otro pasaje lo pone, junto a Milosz, como quizá el más auténticamente esotérico entre los grandes autores.

«But even here the dictation was disrupted by other spirits whom Yeats called the ‘Frustrators’.» — Patrick Harpur recoge que el dictado que recibió de su esposa en trance quedaba interrumpido por otros espíritus a los que él llamaba los Frustrators.

«W. B. Yeats utilized spiritualistic automatic writing to compose a poetic psychocosmology in A Vision.» — Sonu Shamdasani lo pone como caso vecino del Libro Rojo: una psicocosmología poética compuesta por escritura automática espiritista.

«Such an approach to magic leads us to our present age where it has influenced fields from cultural anthropology (parapsychology, modern mysticism, New Age and Enochian magic), through philosophy (Rudolf Steiner, René Guénon, Manly P. Hall), to great modern artists who have sought inspiration from magic in a variety of ways (W. B. Yeats, Marcel Duchamps, Vassily Kandinsky, Leonora Carrington, Derek Jarman, Umberto Eco) and whose works invite ever new interpretations.» — György Szőnyi lo abre la lista de artistas modernos que buscaron inspiración en la magia.

«wrote the papers. The poet W. B. Yeats seems to have had a hand in some of them. S. L. Mac-Gregor Mathers is usually said to be the primary author, yet in his other works Mathers displays no creativity.» — Donald Tyson declara incierta la autoría de los papeles de la Golden Dawn y dice que él parece haber tenido mano en algunos.

«one met everywhere young men of letters who talked of magic.» — John Michael Greer cita su recuerdo del clima del revival: por todas partes jóvenes literatos hablando de magia.

«In England, the poet William Butler Yeats sympathized with the theosophists and became a member of the Society» — Erik Hornung lo sitúa entre los simpatizantes teósofos de Inglaterra y lo hace miembro de la sociedad; el troceo corta ahí la plana.

«Maud’s dislike of the Masonic structure of the initiation rituals led to her resigning from the Order after a short period of time, although she continued to work with Yeats, Horniman, Farr, and Moina Mathers on ideas for rituals exploring the Celtic Mysteries.» — Lon Milo DuQuette lo nombra entre quienes siguieron trabajando con Maud Gonne en ideas de ritual sobre los Misterios Célticos tras su salida de la orden.

«I wrote stories that were published in magazines and I collaborated with my friend Miss S. R. Day in writing an Irish peasant tragedy called Broken Faith. Then, at the age of twenty-two, I experienced the youthful bliss of witnessing this play being rehearsed by the poet W. B. Yeats and the play¬ wright Lennox Robinson at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.» — Geraldine Cummins cuenta que a los veintidós años vio ensayar una obra suya por él y por Lennox Robinson en el Abbey Theatre de Dublín.

«had been told by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats that such places existed and were thus guarded» — Jacques Vallée trae el dato que él le habría dado a Evans-Wentz sobre lugares así guardados; en la fuente el apellido del destinatario viene partido y por eso el verbatim arranca después.

«As recently as the previous July, WBY had indulged in high-flown hope for it, telling Laurie, “I dare say I delude myself in thinking this book my book of books.”» — las editoras del tomo de 1925 citan su carta a T. Werner Laurie de julio de aquel año, donde él mismo pone en duda su entusiasmo por el libro.

«However, Laurie and WBY had long known that, as WBY mentioned understatedly in March 1923, “the book is entirely unlike any other work of mine and will not appeal to the same public.”» — y otra de marzo de 1923 en que él separa el libro del resto de su obra y de su público.

«As it was being delivered to booksellers, WBY wrote to Laurie that he was waiting for the book “with some excitement as I don’t know whether I am a goose that has hatched a swan or a swan that has hatched a goose.”» — y la de la entrega a los libreros, en que él dice no saber si es ganso que empolló un cisne o cisne que empolló un ganso.

«“Philosophy is now coming in a new way,” WBY wrote. “I am getting it in sleap & when half awake, & George has correspondential dreams or visions” (YVP 3:85–86).» — y una anotación suya de los cuadernos en que declara que la filosofía llega ahora en el duermevela y que ella tiene sueños correspondientes.

«Since WBY was an associate member from 1913 to 1928, he must have known Crookes personally, and he likely read Crookes’s articles and his Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism» — y su pertenencia como miembro asociado a la Society for Psychical Research entre 1913 y 1928, de donde infieren su trato con William Crookes.

«WBY wrote excitedly to Lady Gregory about his discovery of Nietzsche, “that strong enchanter”: “I have read him so much that I have made my eyes bad again. . . . Nietzsche completes Blake and has the same roots”» — y la carta a Lady Gregory en que declara que Nietzsche completa a Blake y comparte sus raíces.

«On May 22, 1925, well before AVA-Laurie was published on January 15, 1926, WBY wrote to GY that he was reading Plato’s Timaeus, works by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie on the Egyptian origin of mystical thought, and the texts of Hermes Trismegistus.» — las editoras del tomo de 1937 documentan sus lecturas de mayo de 1925: el Timeo, Flinders Petrie sobre el origen egipcio del pensamiento místico, y los textos de Hermes Trismegisto.

«As early as May 1926, WBY was recommending against buying the book, which he described as “horribly expensive” and “only a first draft of a book & intended for students of Plotinus, the Hermetic fragments & unpopular literature of that kind.”» — y lo citan desaconsejando en mayo de 1926 la compra de su propio libro, que llama primer borrador para estudiosos de Plotino y de los fragmentos herméticos.

«WBY wrote to Olivia Shakespear in 1927 that he had taken up reading Hegel only to find the system there already: “I write verse & read Hegel & the more I read I am but the more convinced that those invisible persons knew all”» — y la carta a Olivia Shakespear de 1927 en que declara hallar en Hegel lo que los invisibles ya sabían.

«WBY wrote “Destiny defined” in the margin by Asclepius 3.39, on Destiny, Necessity, and Order» — y una anotación marginal suya en su ejemplar de los fragmentos herméticos.