The Sacred Geometry of Being: Pessoa's Esoteric Imagery and the Geometry of Modernism
Pessoa Plural June 10, 2019 DOI: 10.7301/z0gf0s0d via DOAJ
Summary
Fernando Pessoa's lifelong engagement with esoteric doctrines was rooted in a symbolic mode of thinking, as expressed in his early poetry and later dramatic works. His extensive reading in Western Esotericism led to a creative hermeneutical approach to esoteric knowledge. This essay argues that Pessoa's conception of the mystical significance of geometrical forms not only enriched the figurative expressiveness of his poetry but also played a crucial role in formulating his poetics of Sensationism. His use of geometric imagery is considered alongside the fascination with sacred geometry shown by modernists like Yeats and Pound, and by avant-garde movements such as Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Suprematism.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Pound, ezra Geometry Geometria Esotericism Esoterismo |
| Key finding | Pessoa's conception of the mystical significance of geometrical forms enriched his poetry's figurative expressiveness and was central to his formulation of a poetics of Sensationism. |
Abstract
It is a known fact that throughout his life Pessoa was interested in and conversant with an array of esoteric currents and doctrines. Underpinning that interest was a marked tendency to a form of symbolic thinking encapsulated in the lines "[...] my thinking is condemned / To symbol and analogy" from a 1907 poem by the incipient heteronym Alexander Search, which recur in a fragment from 1932 of the dramatic poem Fausto. Pessoa's continued symbolic thinking, informed by copious readings mainly in Western Esotericism, allowed him to develop a creative hermeneutical approach to esoteric epistemologies. This essay will be concerned specifically with Pessoa's conception of the mystical significance of geometrical forms, arguing that they not only enriched the figurative expressiveness of his poetry but also played a crucial role in his formulation of a poetics of Sensationism. Pessoa's use of geometric imagery will be considered in the context of the fascination with sacred geometry and exploration of its aesthetic potential displayed by other modernists, like Yeats and Pound, and by avant-garde movements from the early XXth century which were also driven by analogous concerns, such as Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism, Expressionism and Suprematism.