Thesis: WB Yeats's Rosa Alchemica and other stories

[Paul Ferguson]

"This volume contains an introduction to William Butler Yeats' early occult short stories "Rosa Alchemica," "The Tables of the Law," and "The Adoration of the Magi." Panned by critics over the last century, the three stories contained in this volume are both controversial and difficult. The introduction explains the language of occultists and alchemists in terms of Jungian psychology and describes how alchemical doctrine influenced Yeats' writing and the largely alchemical mythology contained in A Vision. Yeats' desire for apocalypse is identified as a desire for the general population to see the divine through symbol and to discover the psychological nature of the occult and of religion. Following this, all three stories are glossed and annotated with comments on their use of alchemical themes, symbols, and ideals"


Full text

https://dc.ewu.edu/theses/163/