The Second Coming: Explication Son'!

Just a little on Spiritus Mundi...

-The other day I was out walking my dog, and a small Spiritus Mundi bopped this little kid in the head just because he was standing to close to his car.
-Spiritus Mundi secretly lusts after Salma Hayek
-Spiritus Mundi acts all smart and reasonable to gain admiration, but in his secret heart he's just as dumb as everybody else.
-Spiritus Mundi left the toilet seat down and peed all over it.
-Spiritus Mundi does not always completely finish his beer.
-Spiritus Mundi was on the grassy knoll.
-Spiritus Mundi farts are depleting the ozone lair.
-Spiritus Mundi uses up valuable natural resources to the detriment of the environment.
-I'm pretty sure Spiritus Mundi does not believe in the wealth effect.
-Spiritus Mundi is receiving compliments that would otherwise go to the needy.
-Spiritus Mundi deserves your flame.

While The Second Coming is full of symbolic images, the title itself is probably to most relevant. The "Second Coming" makes connection to Jesus/Anti-Christ, Order/Chaos, or Spiritus Mundi. Jesus parallells the Anti-Christ, just as Order does to Chaos. Spiritus Mundi connects with the title because it is believed that it is used to predict the second coming...of the world!

The "Second Coming" most obviously represents repetition. The first line (Turning and turning in the widening gyre) creates an image of a widening cylinder, or a tornado, or a funnel, where a tornado would mean chaos and a funnel (making the job easier) means order. The circle shape alone represents repetition, and even unity because a circle never breaks. The fact that it is widening shows that there is something off, maybe some chaos. This idea is backed up in line 2 (The falcon cannot hear the falconer;) This means that there is no order, or a rebellion. It could even mean the falcon is lost, and with line 3, (Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;) un-stability, or CHAOS!

Relating the title to Jesus and Anti-Christ figures, this poem symbolizes both. Jesus, representing order, while the Anti-Christ represents chaos. The lion-man alludes to both the sphinx in the desert guarding the pyramids (order) and the mythological idea of the sphinx (chaos). The Egyptian Sphinx was a representation of the Sun God and a guardian (order/Jesus), while the Greek Sphinx was a demon (chaos/Anti-Christ). The word Sphinx comes from a Greek word meaning strangle. The sphinx (or Phix) was a female monster with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle's wings and, according to some, a serpent-headed tail. She was sent by the gods to plague the town of Thebes as punishment for some ancient crime. There she preyed on the youths of the land, devouring all those who failed to solve her riddle.

Spiritus Mundi means literally, spirit of the world. Yeats believes that some people have the intellectual thought process to tap into this spirit and foresee the ideas of the world. Now, weather Spiritus Mundi exists or not is up for debate, but it definitely has people believing the world has a plan, and people who can tap into this spirit get a look at what the plan is like. Spiritus Mundi is how the world acts; it is karma, superstitions, and if you don't believe in it, it's all just physics. Spiritus Mundi was reached by the Mayans, Nostrodomas, and many greek philosophers like Socrates and Antisthenes.

So indeed The Second Coming raises questions that are maybe improvable, the title alone makes one clear symbol that carries through the whole poem; Order and Chaos are equal opposing factors, and neither one is weaker than the other.