Concerning Saints and Artists

Concerning Saints and Artists by W.B. Yeats

The work presents a series of vivid, episodic experiences that blur the boundary between the ordinary and the mystical. The narrator recounts a night in a bohemian setting within a Latin Quarter, where a group of unconventional spiritual seekers engage in a ritualistic, drug-induced revelry. After ingesting a substance—Indian hemp—under the guidance of a boisterous poet, the narrator finds himself experiencing a rapid transformation in perception. Ordinary objects and surroundings acquire extraordinary hues and harmonies; colors shift dynamically in response to the interplay of external stimuli and internal states, as if viewed through the eyes of a painter experiencing firsthand the process of artistic creation. Throughout the account, the narrative oscillates between a detached self-awareness and a momentary immersion in an ecstatic, altered state that seems to dissolve the self into a vast, cosmic space. The narrator observes fellow participants succumbing entirely to imaginative ecstasies, exemplified by one man’s display of fervent symbolic exclamations when confronted with a mystical emblem—a circle with a central dot—that ignites a collective revelation of divine mystery. Underpinning the sensory overload is a critique of the irrational exuberance of these mystics. Despite the communal celebration of altered realities, the narrator maintains a reflective distance, recognizing the absurdity in their unbridled enthusiasm. This contradiction illustrates a tension between artistic impulse and rational self-control—a recurring theme that challenges the boundaries of creative perception. The narrative further explores encounters with archetypal figures. A lean, shabby man dramatically reveals a personal horoscope laden with ominous features, dramatizing the interplay between fate and personal experience. Meanwhile, the boisterous poet, emblematic of the fervor that both inspires and destabilizes, contrasts sharply with the narrator’s own measured sobriety. This contrast frames the broader inquiry into the transformative potential of art and the inherent risks of losing oneself in its pursuit. In its latter section, the scene shifts as external reality intrudes upon the assembled revelers. A woman, disoriented by finding herself among this eclectic gathering, inadvertently bridges the gap between the world of disciplined social roles and the liberated, anarchic ethos of the group. Her brief, bewildered participation—marked by a blend of embarrassment and spontaneous amusement—underscores the transient nature of human roles in the face of profound, if ephemeral, artistic and mystical experiences. At its core, the work offers a meditation on the nature of artistic perception. It addresses how artists—or those who aspire to transcend normal sensory experience—embrace, yet also critique, the ecstatic modifications of consciousness induced by both external substances and internal drives. The narrative weaves together personal insights, communal dynamics, and symbolic imagery to question whether the pursuit of artistic transcendence leads ultimately to true enlightenment or merely to a disordered state of mind. This exploration of the interplay between self and sensation raises enduring questions about the cost of creative liberation and the fine line between genuine transformation and the loss of self-awareness.

By W.B. Yeats · First published 1913 · Genre: Mystical Fiction, Surrealism, Autobiographical Narrative · 901 words

First lines

I took the Indian hemp with certain followers of St. Martin on the / ground floor of a house in the Latin Quarter. I had never taken it / before, and was instructed by a boisterous young poet, whose English was / no better than my French. He gave me a little pellet, if I am not / forgetting, an hour before dinner, and another after we had dined / together at some restaurant. As we were going through the streets to the / meeting-place of the Martinists, I felt suddenly that a cloud I was / looking at floated in an immense space, and for an instant my being / rushed out, as it seemed, into that space with ecstasy. I was myself / again immediately, but the poet was wholly above himself, and presently / he pointed to one of the street lamps now brightening in the fading / twilight, and cried at the top of his voice, 'Why do you look at me with / your great eye? ' There were perhaps a dozen people already much excited / when we arrived; and after I had drunk some cups of coffee and eaten a / pellet or two more, I grew very anxious to dance, but did not, as I / could not remember any steps. I sat down and closed my eyes; but no, I / had no visions, nothing but a sensation of some dark shadow which seemed / to be telling me that some day I would go into a trance and so out of my / body for a while, but not yet. I opened my eyes and looked at some red / ornament on the mantelpiece, and at once the room was full of harmonies / of red, but when a blue china figure caught my eye the harmonies became / blue upon the instant. I was puzzled, for the reds were all there, / nothing had changed, but they were no longer important or harmonious; / and why had the blues so unimportant but a moment ago become exciting / and delightful? Thereupon it struck me that I was seeing like a painter, / and that in the course of the evening every one there would change / through every kind of artistic perception.

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Concerning Saints and Artists is listed on Textopian as an essay by W.B. Yeats, dated 1913 CE.

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mythology · symbolism · romanticism · mysticism · iconography · spirituality · modernism · aesthetics · irish · history · legacy · visionary

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