Conspiracy of the subconscious: Yeats, Crowley, Pound, Graves and the esoteric tradition

Abstract

The influence of the occult has often been regarded as an oddity in W. B. Yeats's poetry, and a symptom of the poet's desire to create a mythology within which his poetry could operate in defiance of the actualities of the modem world. Recent work on Pound, however, has shown that his work too is permeated by occult influences, and this thesis attempts to chart the exact nature of the occult tradition within which they--as well as Aleister Crowley and Robert Graves--were operating. It identifies a particular tradition--the chthonic esoteric tradition--to which all of these writers subscribed, shows the ways in which that tradition is related to pre-Christian sources in a matriarchal religion which, through secret societies, consistently opposed the patriarchal god of the solar tradition that became established as Christian orthodoxy.

All four of the writers examined here produced manifestos intended to explain the chthonic esoteric tradition, manifestos written out of a deep study of the history of religion and mythology but written in states of mind in which they felt they were having the truth of the universe dictated to them from without. These manifestos were apocalyptic works, written in expectation of a new age and a new divinity which would transform civilization and initiate a new world order. The thesis demonstrates the continuity of a long tradition of esoteric thought which has had a particular appeal to poets and shows the centrality of this thought to the development of otherwise widely differing modem poets. Furthermore, it argues that for all of these writers poetry was not simply metaphorically but in actuality a process of initiation into ancient mysteries. The first chapter traces the occult tradition through the centuries; demonstrates the dual aspect of the esoteric tradition (chthonic and solar); comments on the theme of secret history; and demonstrates how the chthonic esoteric tradition influenced the thought of Yeats, Crowley, Pound, and Graves.

The second chapter examines the esoteric poetry and prose of Yeats and Crowley and shows that Yeats and Crowley, inspired by the ideology of the chthonic esoteric tradition, sought to propagate the advent of a new divinity, the child of the mother alone that would stress the neglected feminine aspects of the human psyche and bring unity of being.

The third chapter examines Pound's initiatory and apocalyptic work The Cantos, as well as his other esoteric prose and poetry, and demonstrates that he, like Yeats,, Crowley, and Graves, believed in the advent of a new era that would bring back the glory of poetic inspiration and the religion of the Great-Goddess.

The fourth chapter reveals Graves's adherence to the religion of the Great- Goddess and demonstrates that Graves's Black Goddess is the product of the assimilation of the opposites which develops from an understanding of the importance of the feminine principle.

The fifth chapter demonstrates Yeats, Crowley, Pound, and Graves's ambition to create a new occult poetic form, one suited to the requirements of the new age and religion. The four poets using a series of charged talismanic images or symbols as well as evocative rhythm, attempted to induce a magical effect that would penetrate the reader's subconscious and activate the reader's imagination, so that the reader could remember the hidden layers of his/her soul and recognise the hidden god within.