Yeats' "The Second Coming":
Christian or Pagan Messiah?

By Doomsday Jones 

"Separation from his instinctual nature inevitably plunges civilized man into the conflict between conscious and unconscious, spirit and nature, knowledge and faith, a split that becomes pathological the moment his consciousness is no longer able to neglect or suppress his instinctual side."

 — C.G. Jung, The Undiscovered Self
      (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1957. 81).

The title of W.B Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" (Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. 8th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2004. 1107-1108). evokes not only the Christian belief in the second coming of Christ, it also evokes the belief in a great change, a belief that exists in many cultures.  These great changes are usually marked by a battle between light and dark, good and evil, etc., when good usually wins, or at least is in balance again.  Even though William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) began his life as a Christian, he also sought out other spiritual paths: Neo-Paganism, Theosophy, Magick  and Hinduism.   

            One of the tenets of Hinduism is a belief in the cyclical nature of time, which manifests itself in the form of various Yugas or Ages, which inevitably repeat themselves.  Each Yuga has an Avatar who battles evil and brings justice to the world.  The last of these Avatars, Kalki, is known as the rider on a white horse who carries a flaming sword, eerily reminiscent of the rider on a white horse in Revelations.  It is prophesied that Kalki will incarnate during the Age of Kali, which is the current age, a time known for irreverence and chaos.

            In addition to having a strong interest in Hinduism, Yeats was also exposed to the mythology of ancient Egypt, which was taken to the metaphysical level by Yeats' colleagues in The Golden Dawn, a British Magickal Order which Yeats joined in 1890.  The poem "The Second Coming" uses a lot of Egyptian imagery -- conjuring up images of falcons, the Sahara desert, and the mysterious Sphinx.  Yeats also uses the image of the gyre or spiral, which relate to his own theories about the nature of time, ultimately based on Hindu concepts..

            Yeats, though raised a Christian, had a longing for idealized pagan times and nature worship, which were typical of the Romantic Period (1820-1900).  His later works were strongly influenced by mystical sources, and "The Second Coming" was written after he had married George Mills Harper, a medium who was known for her automatic writing.  Many people have taken "The Second Coming" literally, believing it to be a declaration of Yeats' Christian beliefs.  Given the context of his life and works at the time it was written, it seems obvious that Yeats was actually railing against Christianity, and the rifts that it has created in the world, which is in part because of its own schisms.  C.G. Jung claimed that "the West, with its political and denominational schisms, [offers nothing] to modern man in his need..." (Jung. 39), and today many people look to fulfill this need through other means -- some use alternative spirituality, such as Yoga; while many others seek fulfillment from materialism and instant gratification.  I believe the theme of "The Second Coming" is Yeats' hope that an age will come about when these schisms will be repaired.

            When analyzing the poem, it is apparent that it does not have traditional stanzas.  However, there a re three distinct sections.  The first section describes the present situation, while the second section describes a mystical vision.  In the third section, the vision ends, but the experience leaves him with a revelation.  At the time he wrote "The Second Coming," Yeats was involved with automatic writing.  Perhaps this was a product of such an excursion on Yeats' part.

            Line 1: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre" - in his volume, A Vision, which was published in 1925, Yeats explained the geometry of the gyre in relation to cycles of history: the gyre widens before it narrows.  Once the gyre reaches its end-point, it begins to move in the opposite direction. The double use of the word "turning" emphasizes the motion.
            Line 2: "The falcon cannot hear the falconer;" - it is interesting that Yeats uses the falcon in this line. Perhaps it is a partly a pun: one of the most common birds used in falconry is the Gyrfalcon.  The falcon is also a symbol of the Egyptian Sun god Horus. Horus could be a representation of reverence for the gods/forces of nature, and this line could be a metaphor for the split between split between man (the falconer) and the divine forces (falcon).

            Line 3: "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;" - a reference to the tenuous nature of the League of Nations? Or perhaps the chaos that was occurring in the world during the time the poem was written (1919).

            Line 4: "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," - notice the use of the past-tense verb "loosed" in this line and the next.  Its use seems intentional, perhaps to set an intentional archaic tone.  Most of the countries of the world were involved in World War I, including the formerly neutral United States of America.  Also, by the time the poem was written, powerful monarchies had fallen to revolutionary forces: the Romanovs of Russia; the Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary; and the Hohenzollerns of Germany.

            Lines 5-6: "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned;" - the  water references of "tide" and "drowned" makes me wonder if Yeats is referring to the German sinking of the British liner Lusitania in 1915, where 1200 innocent passengers lost their lives.

            Lines 7-8: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." - Are the "best" who "lack conviction" leaders like Woodrow Wilson, who rejected the Treaty of Versailles? Then conversely, the "worst" could refer to the zealous revolutionaries like Lenin, Stalin and Bela Kun.

            Lines 9-10: "Surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the Second Coming is at hand."

            On these two lines, note the capitalization of "Second Coming," treating it as an historical event, even though it hasn't yet come to pass. There is repetition of "surely" and "at hand," which gives emphasis to the Second Coming being "some revelation," the literal meaning of the word "apocalypse."

            Line 11: "The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out"- where are the words out of? His mouth? His pen? At the time, Yeats was into automatic writing.  He seems to be making a declaration here, perhaps trying to will the event into being?

            Line 12: "When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi" - the image is vast. Perhaps as vast as the collective consciousness that some call the World Soul or "Spiritus Mundi"? Spiritus Mundi is a term first coined by Agrippa von Nettesheim in 1651, and made famous by C.G. Jung, where he elaborates Agrippa's theories and refers to it as "the spirit that 'penetrates all things,' or shapes all things," (Jung, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, 1960, Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press. 78).

            Line 13: "Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert" - the image troubles his sight, really his vision (in the prophetic sense) is troubling his sight. Which desert? It would appear to be the Sahara desert in Egypt.

            Line 14: "A shape with lion body and the head of a man, "Yeats seems to be referring to the Sphinx, but does not directly name it. The 19th-century  occultist, Eliphas Levi believed that the Sphinx represented the four elements and the magical principles, "to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent." The Hindu avatar Kalki is said to possess full awareness of the four doors of perception: intelligence, mind, heart, and intuitive experience.

            Line 15: "A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,"- hints at the wrath of the gods and mother nature, when they are ignored. According to Egyptian mythology, when mankind had ignored him, the Egyptian Sun god Ra had unleashed his own "pitiless" gaze upon humanity, nearly destroying them.

            Line 16: "Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it"- why is it moving slow? Is it because it has been asleep for so long?

            Line 17: "Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds." Yeats uses the term "reel" in describing the movement of the "desert birds." Is this another reference to the gyre? Also, which desert birds is he talking about? Perhaps the wayward falcons, who are indignant at the stirring of the awakened beast.

            Line 18: "The darkness drops again; but now I know"- "Darkness drops" is not only a alliteration, but refers to the end of his vision, which leaves him with certain knowledge...

            Line 19: "That twenty centuries of stony sleep" - the hibernation of Paganism during the Christian era? "Stony sleep" is another alliteration.

            Line 20: "Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle," - perhaps referring to the rise of the Christian era, and the nightmare it created for people practicing Paganism and other non-Christian religions? The word "vexed" is archaic, and makes me think of "hexed."

            Line 21: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,"- referring to Sphinx again. The term "beast" could also be referring to the Typhonian Beast, a mysterious animal which was the totem of the Egyptian god Set. Set (the beast) and Horus (the falcon) represent opposites: day and night, sky and earth, North and South.  The ancient temple of Kom Ombos acknowledges the equality of the two, and is split into two halves.  An interesting aside is that in 1900, Yeats struggled with a fellow Golden Dawn member for leadership of the Order, a battle he eventually won.  His rival was Aleister Crowley, the self -proclaimed "Beast" of Revelations, and alleged "wickedest man in the world." Crowley practiced homosexual sex magic in the Sahara Desert, in rites that he described as the alchemical wedding of Horus and Set. Perhaps Yeats is taking a jab at Crowley, hinting that he is the embodiment of materialism and indulgence?

            Line 22: "Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" It always intrigued me that in this line the "beast" is slouching toward Bethlehem to be born. Is it pretending to be Christian? I think the number of lines is also significant, since 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot, and that the 22nd card is The Fool, symbol of absolute faith in the Divine (The Fool is usually depicted walking off a cliff).

            Ultimately "The Second Coming" is about the loss of the Spiritus Mundi, not only in Western society, but also worldwide.  World War I was the beginning of a new and bloody phase in human history, one that would seem apocalyptic in scale.  Some who follow the Hindu path believe that Kalki, like Christ, can come from within, that the Second Coming could be a spiritual renaissance where the World Soul is repaired.  Jung wrote that our myths "can be understood as man's creative confrontation with the opposites, and their synthesis in the self, the wholeness of his personality," (Memories, Dreams, Reflections. 1963, Vintage Books, New York).  With even more chaos in the world than in 1918, I hope that we can reclaim the myths, before it's too late.