Yeats, Spiritualism, and Psychical Research

Abstract

Of W. B. Yeats’ s interests in the esoteric and the occult, his attachment to spiritualism and to its investigation by means of so–called psychical research has attracted the least attention.¹ In part this neglect stems from Yeats himself, for once the intensity of his interest had waned, he could minimize its attraction and influence as compared to that of other, “ harder” esoterica.² Thus, the spiritualist “ interlude” has come to seem, when considered at all, a marking time between involvement in “ magick” and in his own “ system”, as set out in A Vision and elsewhere. Even Virginia Moore, who gave Yeats’ s “ spiritism” a chapter in her study of the poet’ s esotericisms, singled it out for a special disclaimer as “ distasteful” [p. xv]. If the phase of spiritualist investigation was transitional, however, it has significant bearings upon the development of Yeats’ s thought and attitudes, and even upon the character and manner of his subsequent poetry.