George William Russell

George William Russell ( born April 10, 1867 in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland, † July 17, 1935 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England) was an Irish poet, editor, painter, journalist and theosophist. He joined mostly on under the pseudonym Æ.

• 2.1 Poetry
• 2.2 mysticism

Life and work

Childhood, marriage, children

Russell was born on April 10, 1867 in Lurgan, the youngest of three children. The father of Thomas Russell ( † 1900) was an accountant. In 1878 the family moved to Dublin, where he attended from 1880, the Metropolitan School of Art, and from 1882 in addition to college in Rathmines (a suburb of Dublin). In 1885, he broke the school prematurely, "the will was too weak ", as he himself said. On 9 June 1898 he married in Dublin Theosophist Violet North († 1932). The marriage had two sons, Brian ( born 1900 ) and Diarmuid ( 1902-1973 ). A 1899 born son died after only one month.

The Theosophist

On June 16, 1885, Russell, along with William Butler Yeats, whom he had met a year earlier at the Art School, and Charles Johnston in Dublin a subsidiary of the Hermetic Society. In June 1886 he joined the Theosophical Society and was co-founder of the Theosophical Lodge in Dublin. As the Theosophical Society split in 1895, he followed the direction of William Quan Judge and became a member of the Theosophical Society in America ( TGinA ). After the early death of Judges in 1896 and the subsequent change of course TGinA under Katherine Tingley, he resigned from the TGinA and re -founded in March 1898, the Hermetic Society as one of the Theosophical Society independent organization. He became president and remained in that capacity until 1933, then he handed Patrick Gillman Bowen this office.

The artist

Russell came early with the Dublin literary scene in touch. He is, along with William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory as one of the central figures of the more traditionally -minded part of the Irish Renaissance. In addition to several volumes of poetry, he wrote a variety of mystical, political and practical articles and treatises. Between 1905 and 1923 he was editor of Irish Homestead and 1923-1930 of The Irish Statesman.

He died in England and was buried in the cemetery Mount Jerome, Dublin.

Selections

Poetry

• Homeward: Songs by the Way ( 1894)
• The Earth Breath (1897 )
• The Divine Vision ( 1904)
• Collected Poems (1913 )
• Salutation (1917 )
• The House of the Titans (1934 )
• Selected Poems (1935 ).

Mysticism

• The Candle of Vision (1918 )
• The Interpreters (1922 )
• Song and its Fountains (1932 )
• The Avatars (1933 )