perceptual mechanics

Quiz

Yeats’s Wheel of the twenty-eight incarnations — every phase, every Faculty, and the sixteen questions that place you on it.

Quiz asks sixteen questions and then tells you which of Yeats’s twenty-eight phases of the moon you were born at, what your Quarter and element are, and what all four of your Faculties will be.

This page is the whole Wheel rather than one result: every phase, with its Faculties resolved, and the questions written out. The scene withholds all of it until you have answered — if you would rather meet it there, go there first.

Open Quiz →

The Wheel

W. B. Yeats set out the system in A Vision: twenty-eight phases of the moon, and every soul born at one of them. The phase fixes four Faculties — the Will, the Mask it reaches for, the Creative Mind it thinks with, and the Body of Fate that is done to it regardless.

The four sit at fixed positions relative to one another, so only the Will has to be found. The other three are arithmetic on a twenty-eight-phase circle: the Mask is diametrically opposite, at Will + 14; the Creative Mind is the Will reflected across the Phase 1 – Phase 15 axis, at 30 − Will; the Body of Fate faces the Creative Mind, at 16 − Will. Every number below is computed from those three lines and from nothing else.

The four Cardinal Phases — 1, 8, 15, 22 — fall on the boundaries and belong to no Quarter. Phases 1 and 15 are not incarnations at all, which leaves 26 phases a person can be born at.

The Triads

A second grouping, and not the same as the Faculty rectangles above. Excluding the four phases of crisis, each quarter is six phases, or two sets of three: the first phase of each set is a manifestation of power, the second of a code or arrangement of powers, and the third of a belief — a submission to some quality which becomes power in the next set (AV B 92–93). Eight triads over twenty-four phases; the Cardinal Phases belong to none.

The Quarters

First Quarter
Phases 2–7. Element Earth. Will dominates.
Second Quarter
Phases 9–14. Element Water. Mask dominates.
Third Quarter
Phases 16–21. Element Air. Creative Mind dominates.
Fourth Quarter
Phases 23–28. Element Fire. Body of Fate dominates.

The questions

The scene asks these sixteen and scores them on Yeats’s own two pairs of opposites: Will against Mask, the Is and the Ought — whether you act out of what you already are or toward what you mean to become — and Creative Mind against Body of Fate, the Knower and the Known — whether you understand a situation by thinking it through or by what it does to you. Half the items on each scale are worded in each direction, so agreeing with everything does not move you.

Whichever pair you answer more strongly on decides which Faculty dominates, and so which quarter you are in. The other scale places you inside it, from the phase of crisis that opens the quarter through its six phases. One Faculty is measured; Yeats’s geometry supplies the other three.

  1. When I picture a better version of myself, it is quite different from how I am now.
  2. I usually know why something upset me.
  3. I would rather be good at what I already do than start something I would be bad at.
  4. Things happen to me that I could not have predicted.
  5. I hold myself to a standard I have not reached yet.
  6. When something goes wrong I can generally trace how it happened.
  7. I am fairly settled about the sort of person I am.
  8. I often find out what I think about something only after it has happened.
  9. Most of what I am working on is preparation for something I have not done.
  10. I can explain most of my own reactions.
  11. When I imagine a better version of myself, it is recognisably me.
  12. The turns my life has taken were mostly not up to me.
  13. I would rather aim at something I am not good at yet than do more of what I already do well.
  14. I work out what a situation means before I decide what to do about it.
  15. I make plans that fit who I already am rather than who I would like to be.
  16. I learn what matters to me from what happens rather than from thinking it through.

Each is answered on five points: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither, Agree, Strongly agree.

The twenty-eight phases

Phase 1 — No description except complete plasticity

yeatsvision.com/Ph1

Not an incarnation. There is no human life at the full or at the dark, and the scene cannot place anyone here.

Quarter
None. A Cardinal Phase, on the boundary between quarters.
Triad
None. The triads divide the quarters; a Cardinal Phase is outside them.
Tincture
wholly primary
Mask
Phase 15, No description except that this is a phase of complete beauty
Creative Mind
Phase 1, No description except complete plasticity
Body of Fate
Phase 15, No description except that this is a phase of complete beauty
Symbol
A figure climbing a pine to take hold of the stars.

Phase 2 — Beginning of energy

yeatsvision.com/Ph2

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the power of the first triad — phases 2, 3, 4
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 16, The positive man — true: Player on Pan’s Pipes; false: Fury
Creative Mind
Phase 28, The Fool — true: Hope; false: Moroseness
Body of Fate
Phase 14, The obsessed man — None except monotony
Symbol
a white bird flying with entranced limp leopard in beak — bird not 1/6 of leopard in size

Phase 3 — Beginning of ambition

yeatsvision.com/Ph3

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the code of the first triad — phases 2, 3, 4
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 17, The Daimonic man — true: Innocence; false: Folly
Creative Mind
Phase 27, The Saint — true: Simplicity; false: Abstraction
Body of Fate
Phase 13, The sensuous man — Interest
Symbol
Eagle over sea with one foot caught in back of sea lion one foot caught by Dolphin. Eagle drags both
Yeats names here
Morris’s Birdalone, many pastoral types

Phase 4 — Desire for exterior world

yeatsvision.com/Ph4

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the belief of the first triad — phases 2, 3, 4
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 18, The emotional man — true: Passion; false: Will
Creative Mind
Phase 26, The Multiple Man, also called “The Hunchback” — true: First perception of character; false: Mutilation
Body of Fate
Phase 12, The forerunner — Search
Symbol
figure climbing pine to grasp stars

Phase 5 — Separation from innocence

yeatsvision.com/Ph5

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the power of the second triad — phases 5, 6, 7
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 19, The assertive man — true: Excess; false: Limitation
Creative Mind
Phase 25, The Conditional Man — true: Social intellect; false: Limitation
Body of Fate
Phase 11, The consumer, pyre-builder — Natural law
Symbol
A man forging a chain, or fastening one onto somebody else.
Yeats names here
Byron’s Don Juan, Byron’s Giaour

Phase 6 — Artificial individuality

yeatsvision.com/Ph6

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the code of the second triad — phases 5, 6, 7
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 20, The concrete man — true: Justice; false: Tyranny
Creative Mind
Phase 24, The end of ambition — true: Ideality; false: Derision
Body of Fate
Phase 10, The image-breaker — Humanity
Symbol
A man driving nails into an idol.
Yeats names here
Walt Whitman

Phase 7 — Assertion of Individuality

yeatsvision.com/Ph7

Quarter
First Quarter — element Earth, Will dominates
Triad
the belief of the second triad — phases 5, 6, 7
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 21, The acquisitive man — true: Altruism; false: Efficiency
Creative Mind
Phase 23, The Receptive Man — true: Heroic sentiment; false: Dogmatic sentimentality
Body of Fate
Phase 9, Belief instead of individuality — Adventure that excites the individuality
Symbol
A satyr, goat-legged, following its own image or mask.
Yeats names here
George Borrow, Alexandre Dumas, Thomas Carlyle, James Macpherson

Phase 8 — War between individuality and race

yeatsvision.com/Ph8

Quarter
None. A Cardinal Phase, on the boundary between quarters.
Triad
None. The triads divide the quarters; a Cardinal Phase is outside them.
Tincture
the crossing
Mask
Phase 22, Balance between ambition and contemplation — true: Courage; false: Fear
Creative Mind
Phase 22, Balance between ambition and contemplation — true: Versatility; false: Impotence
Body of Fate
Phase 8, War between individuality and race — The beginning of strength
Symbol
A man stretched across an abyss, his hands in the beak of a bird of prey and his feet in the mouth of a bear, with water below.

Phase 9 — Belief instead of individuality

yeatsvision.com/Ph9

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the power of the first triad — phases 9, 10, 11
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 23, The Receptive Man — true: Facility; false: Obscurity
Creative Mind
Phase 21, The acquisitive man — true: Self-dramatisation; false: Anarchy
Body of Fate
Phase 7, Assertion of Individuality — Enforced sensuality
Symbol
A leopard, with an eagle on its head plucking out its eyes.
Placed here by others
Wyndham Lewis

Phase 10 — The image-breaker

yeatsvision.com/Ph10

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the code of the first triad — phases 9, 10, 11
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 24, The end of ambition — true: Organisation; false: Inertia
Creative Mind
Phase 20, The concrete man — true: Domination through emotional construction; false: Reformation
Body of Fate
Phase 6, Artificial individuality — Enforced emotion
Symbol
A man whose mouth has been forced open and his tongue torn out.
Yeats names here
Parnell

Phase 11 — The consumer, pyre-builder

yeatsvision.com/Ph11

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the belief of the first triad — phases 9, 10, 11
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 25, The Conditional Man — true: Rejection; false: Moral indifference
Creative Mind
Phase 19, The assertive man — true: Moral iconoclasm; false: Self-assertion
Body of Fate
Phase 5, Separation from innocence — Enforced belief
Symbol
A sword cleaving a skull.
Yeats names here
Spinoza, Savonarola

Phase 12 — The forerunner

yeatsvision.com/Ph12

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the power of the second triad — phases 12, 13, 14
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 26, The Multiple Man, also called “The Hunchback” — true: Self-exaggeration; false: Self-abandonment
Creative Mind
Phase 18, The emotional man — true: Subjective philosophy; false: War between two forms of expression
Body of Fate
Phase 4, Desire for exterior world — Enforced intellectual action
Symbol
A sword cutting a hand in two.
Yeats names here
Nietzsche

Phase 13 — The sensuous man

yeatsvision.com/Ph13

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the code of the second triad — phases 12, 13, 14
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 27, The Saint — true: Self-expression; false: Self-absorption
Creative Mind
Phase 17, The Daimonic man — true: Subjective truth; false: Morbidity
Body of Fate
Phase 3, Beginning of ambition — Enforced love of another
Symbol
A man hanging over a pool.
Yeats names here
Baudelaire, Beardsley, Ernest Dowson

Phase 14 — The obsessed man

yeatsvision.com/Ph14

Quarter
Second Quarter — element Water, Mask dominates
Triad
the belief of the second triad — phases 12, 13, 14
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 28, The Fool — true: Serenity; false: Self-distrust
Creative Mind
Phase 16, The positive man — true: Emotional will; false: Terror
Body of Fate
Phase 2, Beginning of energy — Enforced love of the world
Symbol
A leopard in mid-spring.

Phase 15 — No description except that this is a phase of complete beauty

yeatsvision.com/Ph15

Not an incarnation. There is no human life at the full or at the dark, and the scene cannot place anyone here.

Quarter
None. A Cardinal Phase, on the boundary between quarters.
Triad
None. The triads divide the quarters; a Cardinal Phase is outside them.
Tincture
wholly antithetical
Mask
Phase 1, No description except complete plasticity
Creative Mind
Phase 15, No description except that this is a phase of complete beauty
Body of Fate
Phase 1, No description except complete plasticity
Symbol
A man holding an arrow in one hand and a stone in the other.

Phase 16 — The positive man

yeatsvision.com/Ph16

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the power of the first triad — phases 16, 17, 18
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 2, Beginning of energy — true: Illusion; false: Delusion
Creative Mind
Phase 14, The obsessed man — true: Vehemence; false: Opinionated will
Body of Fate
Phase 28, The Fool — Enforced illusion
Symbol
A dark circle, and a hand.
Yeats names here
William Blake, Rabelais, Aretino, Paracelsus, some beautiful women
Placed here by others
Maud Gonne

Phase 17 — The Daimonic man

yeatsvision.com/Ph17

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the code of the first triad — phases 16, 17, 18
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 3, Beginning of ambition — true: Simplification through intensity; false: Dispersal
Creative Mind
Phase 13, The sensuous man — true: Creative imagination through antithetical emotion; false: Enforced self-realization
Body of Fate
Phase 27, The Saint — Enforced loss
Symbol
A crystal arrow and a crescent.
Yeats names here
Dante, Shelley, Landor
Placed here by others
W. B. Yeats

Phase 18 — The emotional man

yeatsvision.com/Ph18

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the belief of the first triad — phases 16, 17, 18
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 4, Desire for exterior world — true: Intensity through emotions; false: Curiosity
Creative Mind
Phase 12, The forerunner — true: Emotional philosophy; false: Enforced lure
Body of Fate
Phase 26, The Multiple Man, also called “The Hunchback” — Enforced disillusionment
Symbol
A two-faced figure.
Yeats names here
Goethe, Matthew Arnold
Placed here by others
George Yeats

Phase 19 — The assertive man

yeatsvision.com/Ph19

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the power of the second triad — phases 19, 20, 21
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 5, Separation from innocence — true: Conviction; false: Domination
Creative Mind
Phase 11, The consumer, pyre-builder — true: Emotional intellect; false: The Unfaithful
Body of Fate
Phase 25, The Conditional Man — Enforced failure of action
Symbol
A wolf.
Yeats names here
Oscar Wilde, Byron, Gabriele d’Annunzio (perhaps)
Placed here by others
Mrs Patrick Campbell

Phase 20 — The concrete man

yeatsvision.com/Ph20

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the code of the second triad — phases 19, 20, 21
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 6, Artificial individuality — true: Fatalism; false: Superstition
Creative Mind
Phase 10, The image-breaker — true: Dramatisation of Mask; false: Self-desecration
Body of Fate
Phase 24, The end of ambition — Enforced success of action
Symbol
A white bird torn in half between a wolf and a leopard.
Yeats names here
Shakespeare, Balzac, Napoleon

Phase 21 — The acquisitive man

yeatsvision.com/Ph21

Quarter
Third Quarter — element Air, Creative Mind dominates
Triad
the belief of the second triad — phases 19, 20, 21
Tincture
antithetical
Mask
Phase 7, Assertion of Individuality — true: Self-analysis; false: Self-adaptation
Creative Mind
Phase 9, Belief instead of individuality — true: Domination of the intellect; false: Distortion
Body of Fate
Phase 23, The Receptive Man — Enforced triumph of achievement
Symbol
A man and a statue.
Yeats names here
Lamarck, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, George Moore, Jacques Louis David

Phase 22 — Balance between ambition and contemplation

yeatsvision.com/Ph22

Quarter
None. A Cardinal Phase, on the boundary between quarters.
Triad
None. The triads divide the quarters; a Cardinal Phase is outside them.
Tincture
the crossing
Mask
Phase 8, War between individuality and race — true: Self-immolation; false: Self-assurance
Creative Mind
Phase 8, War between individuality and race — true: Amalgamation; false: Despair
Body of Fate
Phase 22, Balance between ambition and contemplation — Temptation through strength
Symbol
A man beating himself with a flail.

Phase 23 — The Receptive Man

yeatsvision.com/Ph23

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the power of the first triad — phases 23, 24, 25
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 9, Belief instead of individuality — true: Wisdom; false: Self-pity
Creative Mind
Phase 7, Assertion of Individuality — true: Creation through pity; false: Self-driven desire
Body of Fate
Phase 21, The acquisitive man — Success
Symbol
A blindfolded man balanced on the point of a pike, juggling.
Yeats names here
Rembrandt, Synge

Phase 24 — The end of ambition

yeatsvision.com/Ph24

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the code of the first triad — phases 23, 24, 25
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 10, The image-breaker — true: Self-reliance; false: Isolation
Creative Mind
Phase 6, Artificial individuality — true: Constructive emotion; false: Authority
Body of Fate
Phase 20, The concrete man — Objective action
Symbol
A woman, a cup, and a boar.
Yeats names here
Queen Victoria, Galsworthy, Lady Gregory

Phase 25 — The Conditional Man

yeatsvision.com/Ph25

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the belief of the first triad — phases 23, 24, 25
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 11, The consumer, pyre-builder — true: Consciousness of self; false: Self-consciousness
Creative Mind
Phase 5, Separation from innocence — true: Rhetoric; false: Spiritual arrogance
Body of Fate
Phase 19, The assertive man — Persecution
Symbol
A vast figure of a god, with a small human figure flickering before his face.
Yeats names here
Cardinal Newman, Luther, Calvin, George Herbert, George Russell (AE)

Phase 26 — The Multiple Man, also called “The Hunchback”

yeatsvision.com/Ph26

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the power of the second triad — phases 26, 27, 28
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 12, The forerunner — true: Self-realisation; false: Self-abandonment
Creative Mind
Phase 4, Desire for exterior world — true: Beginning of the abstract supersensual; false: Fascination of sin
Body of Fate
Phase 18, The emotional man — The Hunchback is his own Body of Fate
Symbol
A hunchback fighting his own shadow, on ground that bleeds.

Phase 27 — The Saint

yeatsvision.com/Ph27

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the code of the second triad — phases 26, 27, 28
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 13, The sensuous man — true: Renunciation; false: Emulation
Creative Mind
Phase 3, Beginning of ambition — true: Supersensual receptivity; false: Pride
Body of Fate
Phase 17, The Daimonic man — None except impersonal action
Symbol
A figure — the word qualifying it is illegible in the manuscript.
Yeats names here
Socrates, Pascal

Phase 28 — The Fool

yeatsvision.com/Ph28

Quarter
Fourth Quarter — element Fire, Body of Fate dominates
Triad
the belief of the second triad — phases 26, 27, 28
Tincture
primary
Mask
Phase 14, The obsessed man — true: Oblivion; false: Malignity
Creative Mind
Phase 2, Beginning of energy — true: Physical activity; false: Cunning
Body of Fate
Phase 16, The positive man — The Fool is his own Body of Fate
Symbol
A shrunken, faceless man whirling a rattle.

Sources

  • W. B. Yeats, A Vision — the phases, the Faculties and their designations.
  • Neil Mann, yeatsvision.com — the per-phase Faculty tables, the Quarters and their elements, the eight groups, and the tincture crossings. Read 2026-09-06.
  • The symbols are restated from the record in the Yeats papers (YVP 3 400–01). The image is Yeats’s; the wording here is not his, and where the manuscript is illegible this page says so rather than guessing.