Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

YEATS, William Butler (1865-1939)

The Anglo-Irish poet and playwright, founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and a leader of the Celtic revival, who was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature in 1923 and who became one of the early members of Golden Dawn (see HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN) through the encouragement of S L MacGregor Mathers.

Yeats was initiated into the Isis-Urania Temple.in London in March 1890 and took the magical pseudonym Festina Lente, which, after achieving the grade of Adeptus Minor in 1893, he changed to Daemon est Deus Inversus, a motto that he borrowed from Eliphas Levi. Hitherto he had been a founder member of the Hermetic Society in Dublin in 1885 and, in 1888, had joined the Theosophical Society where he became critical of Madame Blavatsky's claims to have acquired the teachings of departed Mahatmas.

Yeats was also mildly contemptuous of MacGregor Mathers, respecting his scholarship but not his tastes. He was elected Chief of Isis-Urania in April 1900 until his resignation in 1902, amid internal wrangling about the existence of occult groups within the Order which he believed ran contrary to the principles of Golden Dawn. In 1903 he joined the splinter group, Stella Matutina, which advocated pursuing a path of magical workings and astral communication, remaining an active member until the 1920s.

In Ireland he founded the Order of the Four Treasures. In 1917 he married the medium and mystic, Georgie Hyde-Lees, having been rejected by the beautiful Maude Gonne to whom many of his poems had been dedicated.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc