The system of metaphors at the heart of Yeats’s system of occult philosophy is not easy to grasp. Those readers who have been following this discussion as best they can will have realized this already, but the part of the text we’re about to contend with might as well be designed to rub the noses of students in that fact. It would be possible to write an introduction to the teachings of A Vision that proceeds gently, one concept at a time, so that the reader can grasp the whole system step by st...