The Entangled Imagination: W.B. Yeats’ “Moods” and the Psychologization of Magic

Summary

William Butler Yeats, a poet and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, developed a concept of 'immortal moods' to reconcile supernatural and naturalistic views of magic. He argued that symbols in rituals or poems could evoke these moods, which would descend into people's minds and cause great changes in the world. Through theoretical writings, poetry, and ritual practice, Yeats explored how his own imagination intertwined with past imaginations. By 1901, he condensed these ideas into doctrines of a 'great mind and great memory,' showing how his fusion of literary and folkloristic theorizing connected magical and poetic practice to emerging psychological discourse.

Study at a glance

Abstract

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.