An Activist’s Spiritual Experience: Maud Gonne’s “Spirit World” in her Autobiography and Letters to Yeats

Maud Gonne's spirituality and occult practices were central to her life and political activism, as revealed in her memoir and letters to W.B. Yeats. Her syncretic spirituality blended Celtic mysticism, occult practices, psychic phenomena, and Catholic faith. As an autobiographer, Gonne carefully arranged episodes and memories into a plotted narrative of personal development and life mission, even as the written self could lose all sense of proportion. This investigation expands understanding of Gonne by examining how her spiritual dimension shaped her political activism and autobiographical writing.

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Abstract

Spirituality and the occult represent important aspects of Maud Gonne’s life and writings, and their investigation offers an unusual perspective on this famous icon of revolutionary Ireland. Her memoir and letters to Yeats testify to a lasting relationship with “the spirit world” in as diverse forms as Celtic mysticism, occult practices, psychic phenomena, and the Catholic faith. By investigating her syncretic spirituality and the role this dimension played in her political activism, this contribution intends to expand our understanding of Gonne as an autobiographer; while the written self could “lose all sense of proportion” (Gonne, Yeats 1993, 238) the writer of the self carefully arranged episodes and memories into a plot, the story of a Bildung and of a life’s mission.