What is Yeats's gyre theory?
The gyre, you see, is not merely a symbol but the very mechanism of history and consciousness. Imagine two cones, one expanding while the other contracts, eternally turning. As the gyre widens, its centre weakens, and when that centre can no longer hold, chaos ensues, preparing the ground for a new order to emerge. This is the great cosmic dance, the perne of history. In my book, 'A Vision,' I sought to chart these movements, these moments when one age dissolves and another, often with a 'rough beast' at its heart, begins its slow, inevitable birth. It is the interplay of opposites, the constant tension between opposing forces, that drives the world forward.
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