Ch. 2: Hemingway at Shakespeare & Company

Chapter 2: Hemingway at Shakespeare & Company

Sylvia Beach (1923)
(1887-1962)

Ernest Hemingway (1925)
(1899-1961)

Shakespeare & Company, 12 rue de l'Odéon, Paris
Sylvia Beach & Ernest Hemingway outside

William Butler Yeats (1923)
(1865-1939)

James Joyce (1922)
(1882-1941)

Moina Mathers
(1865-1928)
performing as Isis

Yeats, The Tarot, and
the Golden Dawn (1976)
by Kathleen Raine

Golden Dawn Notebook
by William Butler Yeats
explaining symbolism

A Vision (1925)
by W.B. Yeats
automatic writing with
wife Georgie Hyde-Lees

Aleister Crowley
(1875-1947)
in ritual attire of
Ordo Templi Orientis

After Fitzgerald told Hemingway that Aleister Crowley
was the most evil man in the world, his interest in Crowley
was piqued. He learned that Crowley and William Butler Yeats were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Hemingway made a trip to Sylvia Beach's bookstore Shakespeare & Company at 12 rue de l'Odéon, Paris, to seek more information on this evil character.
As luck will have it, Yeats was there touting his latest
book A Vision, written with his wife Georgie Hyde-Lees
using automatic writing. Hemingway asked Yeats "May
we have a chat in the corner of the store?" He then asked Sylvia to bring some wine for his guest. She brought a bottle of Chardonnay, saying "This may not match the drink you had in Stockholm" (referring to his Nobel Prize in Literature (December 1923).
Yeats said automatic writing is also called psychography which his wife was good at, taking dictation from alleged spirits. Hemingway confessed he was more interested in the Golden Dawn, especially Aleister Crowley, what Yeats knew about him. Yeats said “The Golden Dawn was a mad house. Bram Stoker was roaming around, and members avoided him, fearing his vampire Count Dracula will drink their blood. Evelyn Underhill was in the left corner signing her best seller Mysticism that members had bought. In the center of the room was A.E. Waite with his Rider-Waite Tarot cards giving a reading. But many came asking him to explain the Tarot's symbolism.
In the right corner, sat Allan Bennett who had returned from Burma, ordained as Ananda Metteyya, and founded Buddhist Society of England (1904), recruiting members. He was the most advanced spiritual adepts of the Golden Dawn. Aleister Crowley was nearby learning yoga and meditation from him. Crowley saw Bennett levitating, and wished to do the same. Bennett had constructed a magical rod out of glass, a lustre from a chandelier which he carried with him. He preferred this to the rods recommended by the Golden Dawn, kept it 'charged with his considerable psychic force and ready for use'. As it so happened, Crowley and Bennett were at a party and a group of theosophists present were ridiculing in disbelief the power of the wands. It was alleged by Crowley that 'Allan promptly produced his and blasted one of them. Took 14 hours to restore incredulous individual to the use of his mind and his muscles.'”
Yeats tells Hemingway that he has a date with A.E. (aka George Russell) in Dublin, and needs to take off, He hoped the information on the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley would be useful to Hemingway.

MacGregor Mathers
(1854-1918)
Golden Dawn founder

Golden Dawn Logo
Rose Cross Lamen

Moina Mathers, James Joyce
and Henri Bergson
walking in Paris

Ulysses (1922)
1st Edition Published by
Shakespeare & Company

Hemingway in
Sylvia Beach's Bookstore
Shakespeare & Co. (1944)

Allan Bennett
(1872-1923)
Mentor to Crowley
at Golden Dawn

Sylvia Beach tells Hemingway that James Joyce is coming next week, since she published his Ulysses. He could come to consult about A.E. and learn more on the symbolism of the Golden Dawn. When James Joyce showed up, he told Hemingway of his excursion to A.E.'s house at midnight (1901). "I was 19 years old at the time. and asked 'What is the highest state of consciousness?', The 34-year old mystic welcomed me and talked 'about the spirit world until the small hours of the morning.' I guess he initiated me to cosmic consciousness. He was a mentor to both Yeats and me. We owe much gratitude to this Irish sage."
Hemingway asked about the Golden Dawn. Joyce said he knew little about the esoteric society in London. "I was more interested in the philosophy of Henri Bergson. Was walking with him and his sister Moina, and learned she was married to MacGregor Mathers, founder of the Golden Dawn. After his death in 1918, she headed a successor organization, called the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega." Allan Bennett's Hebrew motto "Let There Be Light" has its roots in Genesis 1:3, also influenced Crowley's Enochian name.
The Rose Cross is a symbol associated with the legendary Christian Rosenkreuz; Christian Kabbalist, alchemist, and founder of the Rosicrucian Order. It has a red rose at
the center of the cross. The most striking aspect of the Rosicrucian movement is a coming Enlightenment. New discoveries are at hand, a new age is dawning. And this illumination shine inward as well as outward. Scientists in this revolution include René Descartes, Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton. It's interesting how each of them are associated with light. Descartes on November 10, 1619, had three dreams that led to his discovery of analytic geometry & Cartesian philosophy. In his 2nd dream, he woke up to a room of scintillating flakes of light (opening of his 6th chakra "Third Eye"). While Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1626) does not show a lighthouse, his essay "Knowlege Is Power" (1597), is connected with light. The Sanskrit word Guru is composed of gu (darkness, ignorance) and ru (light, knowledge), so a sage bringing a student from darkness to light
or ignorance to knowlege is a guru. Thus, Bacon's essay may be called "Light Is Power".
Kepler was a Court Astronomer to Emperor Rudolf. He spotted the Supernova of 1604, so he is a discover of light. Newton's experiments with prisms showed how he transformed white light into rainbow of colors. So Enlightenment scientists were immersed with light.

Rosicrucian Enlightenment
by Frances A. Yates (1975)
17th Century Rose Cross

René Descartes
(1596-1650)
Light in 2nd Dream

Francis Bacon
(1561-1626)
"Light is Power"

Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630)
Light from Stars

Isaac Newton
(1642-1727)
Light from Prism

— Peter Y. Chou
Mountain View, 1-12-2023