# William Butler Yeats & the Leprechauns **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050 "2012-09-07T23:32:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/1 "2012-09-07T23:32:57Z")
Is anybody here familiar with the Irish poet’s life? There are some incidents in his life which are very strange, including Wikipedia’s mention of his involvement with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and befriending a spirit at one of the seances that he regularly attended. HOWEVER, the most bizarre story I have read concerns an incident that allegedly occurred on October 14th 1892 which he describes in “Celtic Twilight.” Yeats, his uncle and a cousin went to an area known to be a haven for faeries and leprechauns. Yeats claims that he made a magic circle on the ground and invoked an incantation to conjure up the wee folk. His uncle saw nothing but heard sounds like children playing and music far off. His cousin supposedly saw a bright light and many of the faeries dancing about. But wait, it gets even more bizarre! Yeats himself claims to have had a lengthy conversation with the “Queen of the Faeries” and at the end of it all she wrote in the sand to “be careful & do not seek to know too much about us.” Well Faith & Begorrah! What in the world was going on that night? Is anybody here familiar with this tale that sounds like a lot of blarney? Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/2 "2012-09-08T00:33:57Z")
I’ve never Googled [Yeats hallucinogens](http://www.erudit.org/revue/ravon/2008/v/n49/017857ar.html) before: > [@](#): > > Eminent drug historian Virginia Berridge traces the origins of a post- World War I British drug scene in part to the atmosphere of transgressive aesthetics, politics, and sciences of 1890s cultural elites. In her account, hallucinogenic experimentation, like the dabbling with hashish, opium, and other narcotics, connected to other areas of fin-de-siècle culture: “The ‘new aesthetics’ of the 1890s rested on a denial of society, a retreat into the individual with an emphasis on separation and an inner consciousness and experience, rather than the vulgar materialism of the external world” (53). The figures of W. B. Yeats, Arthur Symons, Ernest Dowson, and Ellis connected hallucinogens to a larger effort to explore the unseen, the paranormal, the occult, and the sub-cultural. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/3 "2012-09-08T03:27:38Z")
Yeats wsa into all sorts of whacky occult stuff. H spent years of his life working on his book [A Vision](http://www.yeatsvision.com/), based on his wife’s automatic writing, and setting out a complex mystical system. A lot of concepts from it, such as “gyres”, wind up in his poetry too. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/4 "2012-09-08T03:48:27Z")
If you ever want an _Experience_, visit the Temple of Isis at Clongal Castle in Ireland. Their Archpriestess, the Hon. Olivia Robertson, went to a seance with Yeats when she was a young girl. If you don’t buy it, it’s loopy, but still awesome. Her take is, of course, that it’s all very real. And if he said he was with the fairies, well…that’s where he was. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/5 "2012-09-08T07:42:55Z")
Did anyone else see **William Butler Yeats & the Leprechauns** as a band name? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/6 "2012-09-08T12:17:30Z")
Was Yeats ever involved with Aleister Crowley and his gang of satanists? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/7 "2012-09-08T14:04:19Z")
Crowley was an occult newbie when he became involved with the Order of the Golden Dawn; conflict ensued. (I might be back with more details on this very involved story; Avram Davidson’s \*Adventures in Unhistory \*is one source on hand.) Crowley (who was never exactly a “Satanist”) & Yeats became enemies & remained that way. The most important thing about Yeats is how he moved through & beyond various phases & remained a great poet until the end of his life… ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/8 "2012-09-08T14:37:23Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Did anyone else see **William Butler Yeats & the Leprechauns** as a band name? Or one of the smarter episodes of _Bonanza_ ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/9 "2012-09-08T14:50:42Z")
> [@Hottius\_Maximus](#): > > Is anybody here familiar with the Irish poet’s life? There are some incidents in his life which are very strange, including Wikipedia’s mention of his involvement with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and befriending a spirit at one of the seances that he regularly attended. What’s so bizarre about it? For more on Yeats and his involvement with the Golden Dawn, I recommend Alex Owen’s [The Place of Enchantment](http://www.amazon.com/The-Place-Enchantment-British-Occultism/dp/0226642011) as a good starting point. As **Left Hand of Dorkness** ’s quote makes clear, drugs were sometimes used by 1890’s occultists, to induce visionary states and such. Now, within the Golden Dawn itself, drug use was never part of the order’s official rituals or teachings – indeed, many of the adepts wouldn’t touch the stuff. Some did, though, Yeats amongst them. If I remember correctly, he used at least marijuana and (after 1897) mescaline, too. > [@ralph124c](#): > > Was Yeats ever involved with Aleister Crowley and his gang of satanists? 😕 Crowley was not a Satanist. Where did you get _that_ idea? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/10 "2012-09-08T15:15:49Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Yeats wsa into all sorts of whacky occult stuff. Quoted for hopped-up holy goddamned motherfrakking truth. I love the guy, but he had a daily subscription to woo and got it delivered by the truckload. ---
**Author:** ![wlinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@wlinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wlinden)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/11 "2012-09-10T18:23:42Z")
More precisely: During the “Revolt of the Magicians”, the bulk of the London G\* D\* temple thought there was something fishy about Macgregor Mathers’ latest “contacts” with the Secret Chiefs, and told him to go chase himself. Mathers sent Crowley (who later turned against him as well) to London. Crowley, for some reason, decked himself out in Highland dress and arrived to demand the submission of the Temple. Yeats took one look, and told him to get lost, while the rest of the dissidents were running around in headless-chicken fashion. (It was at this time that Yeats wrote that “My Cabbalists are hopelessly unbusiness like”.) Crowley tried to get even with Mathers and Yeats by dancing around the libel laws while caricaturing them in his novel MOONCHILD. Then, remember Crowley quarreled with almost everyone who was ever associated with him. For my money, Yeats was more of a magician than the rest of those clowns put together. As for the original post: what you seem to be asking is “Was Yeats telling the truth when he wrote THE CELTIC TWILIGHT?” (Not “Celtic Twilight”) Since none of use was there, I do not see what we can usefully say. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/12 "2012-09-11T00:44:02Z")
> [@MickNickMaggies](#): > > Her take is, of course, that it’s all very real. And if he said he was with the fairies, well…that’s where he was. Yes, but let us leave Wilde out of this matter. ---
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/13 "2012-09-11T04:30:36Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Yes, but let us leave Wilde out of this matter. Thanks for the laughs. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/14 "2012-09-11T13:00:44Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Crowley was not a Satanist. Where did you get _that_ idea? Yeah, that’s a very simplistic way of phrasing it. He certainly was a Left-Handed Path Magician & could fairly be accused of Demonology. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/15 "2012-09-13T12:36:47Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Yes, but let us leave Wilde out of this matter. Oh, good grief. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Adeptus\_Minimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@Adeptus\_Minimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adeptus_Minimus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/16 "2013-01-06T00:24:51Z")
You might like to take a look at this book [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yeats-Secret-Masters-World-ebook/dp/B00APLNSMG](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yeats-Secret-Masters-World-ebook/dp/B00APLNSMG) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/17 "2013-01-06T01:39:20Z")
Since this thread has risen from its slumber in the past, I’ll add a little note. I’ve got _Celtic Twilight_ on this little netbook; I installed the Kindle software several times before I actually broke down & bought one. The word “leprechaun” only appears once: > [@](#): > > There are some doubters even in the western villages. One woman told me last Christmas that she did not believe either in hell or in ghosts. Hell she thought was merely an invention got up by the priest to keep people good; and ghosts would not be permitted, she held, to go “trapsin about the earth” at their own free will; “but there are faeries,” she added, “and little leprechauns, and water-horses, and fallen angels.” The book consists of peasant tales and the poet’s interpretation of them, including speculations on their roots. We don’t read of his personal efforts to raise them. Maybe in another book? Yeats was certainly known to deal with ghosts–like the one who haunts Leap Castle. (Although Oliver St John Gogarty’s account is the more memorable.) And may have attempted to raise all sorts of things in his Golden Dawn days. But Yeats & leprechauns? Not really… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/18 "2013-01-06T18:56:49Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Was Yeats ever involved with Aleister Crowley and his gang of satanists? Oh, they knew each other, all right, but it was Crowley who was for a time involved in Yeats’ “gang,” the [Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn) – that is, Yeats was in it first, and stayed in it, and Crowley eventually struck out on his own and founded his own order ([two](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis) of [them](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%E2%88%B4A%E2%88%B4), actually). From Avram Davidson’s essay on Crowley, “The Great Rough Beast” (originally published in _Weird Tales_ 1988/89) (collected in [_Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends_](http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Unhistory-Conjectures-Factual-Foundations/dp/076530760X)): > [@](#): > > Sir Osbert Sitwell, not long after the Second World War, wrote the following anectdote in a book of memoirs called _Noble Essences;_ he does not mention a certain name, which am sure was that of Aleister Crowley, who, though he had died by the time the book appeared, may have been alive at the time of its writing. "[Edmund] Gosse told me how Yeats had described to him an unusual adventure. The poet, it appeared, had been walking down Bond Street when he met a friend, whom he liked, but whose conduct he could not approve, and who on this occasion was accompanied by an uncommon spiritual extension of his personality, for after they had spoken, Yeats noticed that behind the sinner trailed six small _green_ elephants; to those in the psychic know, a sure sign of moral obliquity. > > "Gosse, confronting the psychic with the matter-of-fact, had said to Yeats, “Well, I don’t think it’s fair to let a thing like that put you against a man!” > > For my part, I don’t know that there is much psychic difference between a man who, so to speak, exudes little green elephants, and a man who sees them. > > \ > > Among other members of the Golden Dawn were, as I have said, William Butler Yeats; also affiliated were the writers Arthur Machen, A.E. Waite, Algernon Blackwood, and Sax Rohmer, the biographer of Dr. Fu Manchu. Crowley zipped up the ladder of the lower and middle degrees without difficulty; then he felt he was ready for the higher ones. Yeats now bore the interesting title of _Adeptus Exemplus and Imperator;_ he refused Crowley the degree applied for, allegedly on the grounds that he was already practicing magic and making invocations, something not permitted to the lower and middle degrees. Perhaps this was the explanation of the six small green elephants. Crowley had no difficulty in discerning Yeats’s real reasons for refusing promotion: Yeats was _jealous_ of Crowley, jealous of him as a magician . . . and jealous of him as a poet. . . . According to Crowley, that is. No one ever accused Crowley of false modesty. > > \ > > There is a story that Crowley, when he returned to force Yeats out, was wearing a kilt and a black mask. Stories like that are often told about Crowley. “Yeats burned all the _Golden Dawn_ papers in his possession.” “Crowley put a formal curse on Yeats.” “In letters written during these fateful few weeks, Yeats refers to Crowley twice as an ‘unspeakable person’ [and] three times as an ‘unspeakably mad person’ . . .” Of course this did not stop him from speaking about him, and he even wrote to the famous Lady Gregory, his, Yeats’s patroness in the Celtic Revival, saying that “it will give . . . Crowley, a person of unspeakable life, the means to carry on a mystical society, which will give him the control of the consciences of many.” Which it did indeed. > > Was Crowley the “rough beast . . . [which] slouches toward Bethlehem,” in Yeats’s best-known poem? Perhaps he was. Perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-butler-yeats-the-leprechauns/634050/19 "2013-01-06T19:59:44Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > … Crowley eventually struck out on his own and founded his own order ([two](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis) of [them](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%E2%88%B4A%E2%88%B4), actually). Nitpick: Crowley did not found the O.T.O. The O.T.O. was almost certainly founded by Theodor Reuss, no later than 1906, or, less likely, by Carl Kellner, sometime between 1895 and 1906. Crowley only got involved a few years later, ca. 1910-1912. When Reuss died, Crowley took over. Chosen successor or dastardly usurper? Well, the debate continues. Without providing any evidence whatsoever, Crowley himself claimed that Reuss had appointed him (Crowley) the new head honcho before dying – and Crowley’s followers, to this day, trust him on this. Others say hell no, Crowley was an impostor, fuck that douche.