#162 - John Michael Greer: The Magical Writings of W.B. Yeats - The Reality Behind Folk Belief & Poetry

Quote from the magical writings: "The dead living in their memories, are, I am persuaded, the source of all that we call instinct, and it is their love and their desire, all unknowing, that make us drive beyond our reason, or in defiance of our interest it may be; and it is the dream martens that, all unknowing, are master-masons to the living martens building about church windows their elaborate nests; and in their turn, the phantoms are stung to a keener delight from a concord between their luminous pure vehicle and our strong senses"

John Michael Greer is back with us here on tap-  this time to talk about his latest book, "The Magical Writings of W. B. Yeats: The Original "A Vision" and Other Essays on Occultism". This collection brings together Yeats' esoteric writings for the first time in one volume, opening a doorway into a body of work that many readers of Yeats have never read!!!

We begin with the fact that Yeats' occult writings have long remained "an unfortunate omission" from the literature, before exploring some of the central ideas that run through the collection. John helps us understand the channelled concepts of the Mask, the Will, the Creative Mind and the Body of Fate plus the meaning of the Anti-Self, the constant mediumship and inspiration going on AND the influence of the dead!! We also talk about the striking parallels John sees between Irish and Japanese folk occultism.

TAP in with therapeutic astrology podcast as we open to the cosmos an learn with such a brilliant writer and thinker, John Michael Greer, We speak about:

-Why Yeats' occult writings remained scattered for so long—and why John decided to collect them.

-The power couple of Yeats and Georgina ("Georgie") Hyde-Lees, Yeats' wife and collaborator on the automatic writing that became the foundation of A Vision.

-"A mysterious contact is perceptible first in painting and then in poetry and last in prose."

-Carl Jung had a copy of "A Vision"

-There are four interwoven dimensions of A Vision, quote: "The first is a study of human personality, the second an innovative system of occult philosophy, the third an account of the cycles of history, and the fourth a description of the afterlife—and all four of these unfold from the same symbolic structure, share the same philosophical outlook, and interleaf with one another in a galaxy of ways."

-How our deepest thoughts sometimes seem to come from elsewhere - a stream of images

-The soul's continued development after death

-Cycles of history and why civilizations move through recurring phases rather than linear progress