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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS poem THE SECOND COMING - "Strange beast"

William Butler Yeats was an ardent Theosophist.  He and Ezra Pound once shared both Theosophical Society interests and living quarters.  However, he did write an unforgettable poem as he was looking at WW I that certainly comes to mind now.  Watching the very terrible onrushing events of the so-called "Arab Spring," (i.e. NEW AGE REVOLUTION -- MIDDLE EAST THEATER), one cannot help but remember the Yeats poem and wonder if this is the time.  Certainly, all too often, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."


W.B Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


Wish Herb Peters were still here to discuss THIS with!  Stay tuned!

CONSTANCE

26 comments:

  1. YEATS Theosophy and belief in cycles of "every 2160" years or so (2000 years) is reflected in this poem, per this commentator:

    Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," written in 1919 and published in 1921 in his collection of poems Michael Robartes and the Dancer, taps into the concept of the gyre and depicts the approach of a new world order. The gyre is one of Yeats' favorite motifs, the idea that history occurs in cycles, specifically cycles "twenty centuries" in length (Yeats, "The Second Coming" ln. 19). In this poem, Yeats predicts that the Christian era will soon give way apocalyptically to an era ruled by a godlike desert beast with the body of a lion and the head of a man (ln. 14). Critics have argued about the exact meaning of this image, but a close reading of the poem, combined with some simple genetic work, shows that Yeats saw the new order as a reign of terror haunted by war. "The Second Coming," in its entirety, is an astounding encapsulation of Yeats' idea of the gyre and his fears about the future of mankind; it is expertly woven with threads of prophetic literary reference and impressive poetic techniques.

    Yeats was a Theosophist. I cannot, however, help but think of the old expression, "even a broken clock is right twice a day." Yeats may have been right in large part for many of the wrong reasons!

    Constance

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  2. This article by Michael Chossudovsky requires both careful and CRITICAL reading. The opening quote from General Wesley Clark who has been seen a lot on CNN commentaries on the Libyan war is revealing.

    "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan." General Wesley Clark

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25955 or

    http://tinyurl.com/3rbbfax

    CONSTANCE

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  3. Earthquakes in various places!



    5.9 earthquake rocks Virginia, East Coast

    Rare Strong Earthquake Hits Colorado 5.3

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  4. Jesus is coming soon, very soon.


    WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS Syria mobilizing troops for conflict with U.S., NATO

    http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=336477


    Israel Under Attack

    http://honestreporting.com/barrage-of-bias-horrendous-headlines/


    Hurricane Irene to strengthen before hitting U.S.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5:55 PM

    Earthquakes in various places.......wars and rumors of wars....family's turning on each other....droughts.....oil and food prices rising daily....economic turmoil...Israel under attack......I read about this in The Bible and saw it in the news today....
    He is coming soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DEFINITE VERY STRONG WAKE CALL FROM GOD!

    CONSTANCE

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  7. Anonymous8:01 PM

    Virginia nuclear plant loses power after quake....

    Tuesday's 5.8 magnitude earthquake created a state of emergency at the North Anna nuclear power station in central Virginia, causing it to lose electricity and automatically shut down, although generators restored power.

    http://tinyurl.com/3aub652

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:09 PM

    Tuesday, August 23, 2011...

    5.8 Magnitude Quake Rocks DC-NYC
    Felt from Toronto to Atlanta
    Epicenter in Virginia
    Washington Monument 'tilting'
    Stones Fall off National Cathedral

    http://www.drudgereport.com/

    PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!

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  9. It (the earthquake) was felt in the Detroit area, as well. I was in my car and did not notice anything nor hear about it until I was leaving my mediation session in Dearborn, Michigan this afternoon. It was on the radio that I heard about the 5.8 quake hitting the Washington, D.C. area. They first reported it as 5.9 mw and then said it had been "downgraded" to 5.8. The epicenter was reportedly 40 miles from Richmond, Virginia.

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  10. Anonymous10:13 PM

    The thing is the most of us in the West, have never seen anything like the kind of wars or strife that inflict other parts of the world.

    I think, these things might be coming to the West.

    Part of it do to our own sins, part of it engineered.


    Savvy

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  11. Anonymous7:51 AM

    Constance:

    I thought you might enjoy some of these famous quotes from Yeats:

    A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love.
    - William Butler Yeats

    All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.
    - William Butler Yeats

    An intellectual hatred is the worst.
    - William Butler Yeats

    Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.
    - William Butler Yeats

    Choose your companions from the best; who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.
    - William Butler Yeats

    Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
    - William Butler Yeats

    Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
    - William Butler Yeats

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  12. Anonymous12:34 PM

    In addition to the 5.8 earthquake that hit the area of Mineral, Virginia on Tuesday afternoon, August 23rd at 1:51 PM...

    The night before (on Monday, August 22nd at 11:46 PM), a 5.3 earthquake hit 9 miles southwest of Triniidad, Colorado (or, 180 miles south of Denver).

    http://tinyurl.com/3le9rdc

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  13. Gee, too bad about the Freemason
    Monolith, er, Washington Monument.

    Amen Deb !

    Arise Lord. Let your enemies be
    scattered and let them melt
    before you like wax before the fire.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous4:28 PM

    Vatican calls for independent Palestinian state 'soon'

    http://tinyurl.com/3cvtpla

    or

    http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=223517

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous5:44 PM

    And if earthquakes and hurricanes aren't enough, take a look at the latest from Congress:

    http://tinyurl.com/4ytz8zl

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  16. Re Anon 4.28PM,
    The Chick comics said that the Vatican always wanted Jerusalem as its capital quoting several sources to back up its claims.
    Keep tuned,
    P.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous6:46 PM

    Clergy Banned From 9/11 Ceremony

    Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

    Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration, said he's outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

    "This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero.

    http://tinyurl.com/3mqdyoa

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  18. Dear Phil:

    I have deep skepticism on the Chick comics. Alberto Rivera was proved to be a fraud by somebody who wanted to prove him right (Roy Livesey). The Rebecca Brown books likewise proved a lack of suitable investigation and/or discernment. His gospel tracts were fine, but his comic books were to my dismay using Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's book ISIS UNVEILED and Lady Jane Queensborough's book OCCULT THEOCRASY as legitimate sources. Both ladies had occult agendas of their own.

    http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-1303-The-religious-hoax-of-the-century.htm

    Constance

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  19. Hi Paul,

    We had a family friend who was a Congressman who showed me around Washington once when I was there on other official business for the City of Highland Park, Michigan. The Washington Monument was forever spoiled for me when Congressman Ed Roush said "folks in Washington say it looks like a monument to the Ku Klux Klan". It sure did with the bedsheet and red eyes peering through.

    The obelisk, sure enough, is one pagan symbol.

    Thanks!

    Constance

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  20. Maybe what was good in WBY came from the BUTLER and what was bad from the YEATS. LOL!

    BTW, my maiden name is guess what? BUTLER!

    Constance

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  21. Anonymous9:08 PM

    Phil,

    Chick tracts are conspiracy theories.


    Savvy

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous10:55 PM

    Phil,

    Please do a little research before mentioning someone like Jack Chick...

    http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p1.asp

    God bless!
    Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  23. When Jack Chick sticks to his straight gospel and family life tracts, he is great. When he departs on his Catholic bashing conspiracy theories, he is remarkably bad. I do believe he was taken in both by Alberto Rivera and Rebecca Brown.

    Constance

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  24. Oh, good piece and article on JTC. I had forgot about John Todd. He also took Chick in.

    Constance

    ReplyDelete
  25. We had an earthquake out here on the same day (I think I remember this correctly) as the Washington quake. It was on the border of Colorado and New Mexico, and was also a 5.8. It was near Trinidad Colorado, about a hundred miles from where I live in New Mexico. We do not have many quakes around here, either, so both of these quakes surprised. Stan and Holly Deyo who run a Christian website, were so shocked by this dual quake (Washington and Colorado, near their home) that they shut down their site for two weeks to finish their preparation for disaster, i.e. lots of food, water, ammunition, generator, etc.

    But ponder the quake that happened today near Vancouver Island, a 6.7 downgraded (perhaps wrongly) to a 6.4. Near Seattle.

    ReplyDelete