W. B. Yeats - Reflection, Naming the Unnameable
Photo: Mitch Birnbaum
Initiation and Reconciliation
Feathered God, ancient knowing let me drink again at The Hawk’s Well.
Feathered God, ancient knowing let me drink again at The Hawk’s Well.
Sandra Hughes, “The Hawk”, 1992
Where will I find the words to tell this story? I meet in a house with fourteen others. We sit at a table with books in hand to read aloud and discuss plays, poetry, essays and autobiographical excerpts written by a man dead for seventy- two years – a Nobel prize-winning Irishman who passed away before all but one of us was born.
Each time we meet the need to marry my thoughts with those of the deceased in an alchemical process that renders a whole that is more than the sum of its parts consumes me. I find I’m elated then dismayed by what I have in common with William Butler Yeats. It’s an intimate and, at times, painful experience that consistently requires acknowledgement of how deeply Yeats speaks to and of me. At its core this is an initiation. With each turn of the page I am revealed to myself.
Each time we meet the need to marry my thoughts with those of the deceased in an alchemical process that renders a whole that is more than the sum of its parts consumes me. I find I’m elated then dismayed by what I have in common with William Butler Yeats. It’s an intimate and, at times, painful experience that consistently requires acknowledgement of how deeply Yeats speaks to and of me. At its core this is an initiation. With each turn of the page I am revealed to myself.
Dr. James Flannery, Winship Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University in Atlanta, presides over these meetings. He recently wrote to me in response to an essay I’d sent him, “…I have always felt that you and Yeats are soul-mates”. His observation is as true as it is unexpected. Surprise - a consistent element in my unfolding destiny - provides a momentum that compels me to relate certain passions I share with the poet.
During our second meeting Dr. Flannery spoke to us about “the world Yeats encountered”. “Yeats”, he said, “was born in county Sligo in a country (Ireland) that has more megalithic ruins than any other place in Europe”. He went on to say that Yeats was concerned with prehistory – “especially the nature religion of the world, called Druidism in Ireland”. According to Dr. Flannery, the task Yeats took upon himself was the retrieval of this tradition using poetic words and images to name the unnameable.
What Yeats addresses is a world in exile; one that was once as substantial as the consensual reality we now inhabit. This world became unnameable because it was consistently and determinedly marginalized to the antipodes of the human psyche. Banished beyond the reach of human consciousness this so called “other world” - and the choices inherent in it - were essentially rendered obsolete by a document called the Donation of Constantine. Constantine's Donation - a forged Roman Imperial decree - transfered authority over Rome and the westerm part of the Roman Empire to the pope and took the right away from cultures and countries to determine and appoint their own leadership such as kings, queens and chieftains . During the Middle Ages it supported the Roman Church's claims to earthly and spiritual authority.
What Yeats addresses is a world in exile; one that was once as substantial as the consensual reality we now inhabit. This world became unnameable because it was consistently and determinedly marginalized to the antipodes of the human psyche. Banished beyond the reach of human consciousness this so called “other world” - and the choices inherent in it - were essentially rendered obsolete by a document called the Donation of Constantine. Constantine's Donation - a forged Roman Imperial decree - transfered authority over Rome and the westerm part of the Roman Empire to the pope and took the right away from cultures and countries to determine and appoint their own leadership such as kings, queens and chieftains . During the Middle Ages it supported the Roman Church's claims to earthly and spiritual authority.
Photo: Mitch Birbaum
Invocation of the Moon – The Great Triple Goddess
Staggering slice of innocence, yellow fullness that challenges the sun, icy sliver of wisdom penetrating the void of rebirth, I am yours.
Sandra Hughes, “Faces of the Moon” – New, Full and Dark, 1992
It’s clear to me that I’ve consciously dedicated my life and my art to naming the unnameable. I am the idiot who praises "the withered tree" and seeks water at the dried up well. These are the internal and external landscapes that when replenished have the power to renew the wasteland. Without these sacred spaces there is no future for humanity or the planet we inhabit. I seek to be of service in the world through my actions, presence and creative work. To this end I’ve traveled, performed, taught and when invited reactivated and re-tuned sacred sites in thirty-six states in the U.S. and thirteen other countries. This includes the creation of productions based in Irish myth, legend and culture by invitation for a Peace and Reconciliation Project in the “Murder Mile” in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2000-2006).
As Yeats knew so well, the most potent tools we have to retrieve, name and reclaim the birthright contained within this “lost world” of lore and legend are poetic words, poetic images and poetic actions. Yeats used all these methods and I aspire to them in my work. The recent, vibrant rebirth of poetry as a spoken word art is a strong indication that reclamation of the “other world” and the retrieval of humanity’s lost rights have begun to take root on a societal level.
Photo Images:
The Hawk &The Moon
Performance Pieces Conceived and Choreographed by Sandra Hughes
Masks Created by Michael Hickey
The Hawk, Performer: Michael Hickey
The Moon, Performer: Sandra Hughes
