THE CANDLE OF VISION (The Celtic Mysticism of clairvoyant and prophetic visions, precognition of Gnostic concepts, past-life and astral journeys) - Annotated What is Gnosticism? - Kindle edition by AE (George William Russell). Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
The Grief Recovery Handbook, 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith
George William Russell was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a central figure in the group of devotees of theosophy which met in Dublin for many years.
Background
George Russel was born on April 10, 1867 in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland, in the family of Thomas and Marianne Russell. His father, the son of a small farmer, became an employee of a prosperous firm of linen drapers. The family relocated to Dublin, where his father had a new offer of employment, when he was eleven years old. The death of his loved sister Mary at the age of 18 was a blow from which it took him a long time to recover.
Education
George was educated at Rathmines School and the Metropolitan School of Art.
Career
Russell started working as a draper's clerk, then for many years worked for the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, an agricultural co-operative society initiated by Horace Plunkett in 1894. In 1897 Plunkett needed an able organiser and W. B. Yeats suggested Russell, who became Assistant Secretary of the IAOS.
George was an able lieutenant to Plunkett, and travelled extensively throughout Ireland as a spokesman for the IAOS; he was mainly responsible for developing the credit societies and establishing Co-operative Banks in the south and west of the country, the numbers of which increased to 234 by 1910. During the 1913 Dublin Lock-out he wrote an open letter to the Irish Times criticizing the attitude of the employers, then spoke on it in England and helped bring the crisis to an end.
George was an independent delegate to the 1917–1918 Irish Convention in which he opposed John Redmond's compromise on Home Rule. He became involved in the anti-partition Irish Dominion League when Plunkett founded the body in 1919.
Russell was editor from 1905 to 1923 of the Irish Homestead, the journal of the IAOS. He then became editor of The Irish Statesman, the paper of the Irish Dominion League, which merged with the Irish Homestead, from 15 September 1923 until 12 April 1930.
He was a pacifist. He became a theosophist and wrote extensively on politics and economics, while continuing to paint and write poetry. Æ claimed to be a clairvoyant, able to view various kinds of spiritual beings, which he illustrated in paintings and drawings.
Membership
Theosophical Society
Irish National Theatre Society
Personality
George was the most loyal of friends, and in the notoriously fractious Dublin literary world Russell tried to keep the peace between his endlessly quarrelling colleagues.
Interests
Painting
Connections
In 1898 George married Violet North; they had two surviving sons, Brian and Diarmuid, as well as a third son who died soon after birth. While his marriage was rumoured to be unhappy, all his friends agreed that Violet's death in 1932 was a great blow to Russell.