A Vision: System, Symbols and Spirit
Discover the personal beliefs of WB Yeats which inspire some of his most celebrated poetry with this introduction to A Vision.
Join the NLI to mark the centenary year of the publication of A Vision's first edition, WB Yeats' account of the passage of history and the journey of the soul with this introduction to the book by subject expert Neil Mann.
Steeped in symbolism and philosophy stemming from a lifetime of writing and magical experimentation, A Vision has long been regarded as a dense and challenging work to engage with. In this talk Neil Mann seeks to unpack and explain the various concepts crucial to understanding A Vision, providing insight into Yeats' esoteric life, his writings, his relationships and the occult system that lies at the heart of the book itself.
This talk marks the launch of digitised material from the Yeats Occult Papers on to the NLI Catalogue, including the draft manuscript of A Vision.
An established voice in the field of WB Yeats' more mystical works, Neil Mann is the author of A Reader's Guide to A Vision, the editor of WB Yeats's a Vision: Explications and Contexts and a contributor to the National Library of Ireland's WB Yeats: His Life and Works exhibition.
As part of his work exploring the text of A Vision Neil Mann has created a website and a blog to act as resources for scholars engaging with the esoteric side of Yeats: yeatsvision.com and yeatsvision.blogspot.com.
