Blake's God

In early years Blake was exposed to Swedenborg and to the Moravians.

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell he gave a definitive opinion of the presence of churches (on Plate 11):

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity.
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects; thus began Priesthood.

Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And a length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.

Re that system he had this to say:

" I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans
(Jerusalem 10.20; Erdman 153)

How did he get that way?

FIRST of all he came into the world with a tremendous endowment; some people are simply born with unusual gifts.

SECOND Leaving school on the first day his mind was never subjected to the indoctrination most of us got from our teachers. "The primary object of primary education is to socialize the pupil to the conventions of the culture we belong to." That never happened to Blake. Instead he ....

THIRD read! and read! and read! He read the things that had fallen out of the national consciousness-- dominated by an extremely materialistic culture: the Bible, Behmen (Boehme) and hundreds of others, each in his own way representing the Perennial Philosophy. And he saw the Great Painters, not those favored by the Establishment.

FOURTH The population didn't read anything beyond the fourth grade level. When Paine asked Blake if people read him, he replied, "before the people can read it, they have to be able to read" (very much like today!). So there was a chasm between his mind and theirs (and ours).

The aforementioned video shows Tom Paine represented as the soul of rationality and Bill Blake the feeling, and above all the imagination.

So Blake's relationships were with God: Meister Eckhart, Mohammed, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Boehme, Jesus, other men who had had similar visions. He honored God with the "severe contentions of friendship & the burning fire of thought." (Jerusalem 91:17; E251)

His faith came up the hard way: Molech, Elohim, Nobodaddy, Urizen, and finally the Dear Saviour. How many of us good people can say we came to our faith like that?

Thank God we have the benefit of Blake's experience.

GOD & MAN

Nothing interested Blake more than the relationship of man and God. One way he saw his purpose in life was to 'open the minds of men to a perception of the Infinite'. Because he knew that religion was supposed to serve that purpose for man, he was appalled by false religions which separated God from man, and man from man.

False religions he recognized as taking many forms. Here are some:

Creating individual requirements and forcing them on others;

Milton, Plate 11 (E103)
Where Satan making to himself Laws from his own identity.
Compell'd others to serve him in moral gratitude & submission
Being call'd God: setting himself above all that is called God.

Naming behaviors sin and devising punishments;

Milton, Plate 9 (E102)
He created Seven deadly Sins drawing out his infernal scroll,
Of Moral laws and cruel punishments upon the clouds of Jehovah
To pervert the Divine voice in its entrance to the earth
With thunder of war & trumpets sound, with armies of disease
Punisbments & deaths musterd & number'd; Saying I am God alone
There is no other! let all obey my principles of moral individuality

Using religion to confine perception to that of the senses;

Song of Los, Plate 4, (E 68)
Thus the terrible race of Los & Enitharmon gave
Laws & Religions to the sons of Har binding them more
And more to Earth: closing and restraining:
Till a Philosophy of Five Senses was complete
Urizen wept & gave it into the hands of Newton & Locke

Assuming the role of intermediary between God and man through secrecy;

Urizen, Plate 2, (E 70)
Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a place in the north,
Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.

Creating terror, despair and cruelty through self-righteousness;

Milton, Plate 22, (E 116)
Miltons Religion is the cause: there is no end to destruction!
Seeing the Churches at their Period in terror & despair:
...
Asserting the Self-righteousness against the Universal Saviour,
Mocking the Confessors & Martyrs, claiming Self-righteousness;
With cruel Virtue: making War upon the Lambs Redeemed;
To perpetuate War & Glory. to perpetuate the Laws of Sin:

Forbidding the joys that flow from following God;

Jerusalem, Plate 9, (E 151)
Every Emanative joy forbidden as a Crime:
And the Emanations buried alive in the earth with pomp of religion:
Inspiration deny'd; Genius forbidden by laws of punishment:
I saw terrified;

Creating a mask that obscures the true relationship of man and God;

Jerusalem, Plate 38, (E 184)
A pretence of Art, to destroy Art: a pretence of Liberty
To destroy Liberty. a pretence of Religion to destroy Religion

Allowing consciousness of of sin to obscure consciousness of the spirit;

Jerusalem, Plate 41, (E 188)
Alas!--The time will come, when a mans worst enemies
Shall be those of his own house and family: in a Religion
Of Generation, to destroy by Sin and Atonement, happy Jerusalem,
The Bride and Wife of the Lamb. O God thou art Not an Avenger!

Worshiping satan instead of God;

Jerusalem, Plate 52, (E 200)
Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the
Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches
Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not
the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine
Name Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God
of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and
Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or
Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart.
This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism
is the same & ends in the same.

Imposing chastity which divides man from woman;

Jerusalem, Plate 69, (E 222)
A Religion of Chastity, forming a Commerce to sell Loves
With Moral Law, an Equal Balance, not going down with decision
Therefore the Male severe & cruel filld with stern Revenge:
Mutual Hate returns & mutual Deceit & mutual Fear.

Bringing hate and destruction under the guise of religion;

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 231)
I stood among my valleys of the south
And saw a flame of fire, even as a Wheel
Of fire surrounding all the heavens: it went
From west to cast against the current of
Creation and devourd all things in its loud
Fury & thundering course round heaven & earth
...
And I asked a Watcher & a Holy-One
Its Name? he answerd. It is the Wheel of Religion

God Answers Job out of the Whirlwind _____________________________________________
Making a concise statement about the nature of true religion, Carl Jung has this to say:

"The religious attitude is quite different from faith associated
with a specific creed. The latter, as a codified and
dogmatized form of an original religious experience, simply
gives expression to a particular collective belief. True religion
involves a subjective relationship to certain metaphysical,
extramundane factors."
Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self, Complete Works,
Vol. 10, par. 507

STATES

Milton, Plate 32

Plate 32 does not appear in the first two copies (A&B) of Milton. It was added later to explain the important concept of 'states'. Blake had clarified his thinking and so gave Milton and the readers the benefit of his understanding. The idea of states is essential to understanding Blake's ideas about 'good and evil', imputing sin, annihilation, and forgiveness. The concept of a merciful and benevolent God, which is incompatible with a God of cruelty and vengeance, requires the idea of states to deal with the problem of handling evil. The understanding of 'states' allows us to 'turn our backs on Heavens builded on cruelty'.

PLATE 32 [35] (E130)
"And Milton oft sat up on the Couch of Death & oft conversed
In vision & dream beatific with the Seven Angels of the Presence

I have turned my back upon these Heavens builded on cruelty
My Spectre still wandering thro' them follows my Emanation
He hunts her footsteps thro' the snow & the wintry hail & rain
The idiot Reasoner laughs at the Man of Imagination
And from laughter proceeds to murder by undervaluing calumny

Then Hillel who is Lucifer replied over the Couch of Death
And thus the Seven Angels instructed him & thus they converse.

We are not Individuals but States: Combinations of Individuals
We were Angels of the Divine Presence: & were Druids in Annandale
Compelld to combine into Form by Satan, the Spectre of Albion,
Who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine.
But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form
Because we were combind in Freedom & holy Brotherhood
While those combind by Satans Tyranny first in the blood of War
And Sacrifice &, next, in Chains of imprisonment: are
Shapeless Rocks
Retaining only Satans Mathematic Holiness, Length: Bredth &
Highth
Calling the Human Imagination: which is the Divine Vision &
Fruition
In which Man liveth eternally: madness & blasphemy, against
Its own Qualities, which are Servants of Humanity, not Gods
or Lords[.]
Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches
And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.

Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!

The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination
The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot
The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the Knife
But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Halle[l]ujah

Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of
Death.
For God himself enters Death's Door always with those that enter
And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity
Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying
That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their
Fathers House"

The Eternal dimension which seems shadowy to the unawakened, is seen to be substantial and vividly real by those who have been given a 'perception of the infinite.' They have entered the door of death and prepared themselves for transformation. In awakening, they see their physical bodies as garments that can be discarded as they enter the true world of unencumbered Spirit.

From The Grave

Philippians 2:8

2:5-11 - Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal.

STATES

Milton, Plate 32

Plate 32 does not appear in the first two copies (A&B) of Milton. It was added later to explain the important concept of 'states'. Blake had clarified his thinking and so gave Milton and the readers the benefit of his understanding. The idea of states is essential to understanding Blake's ideas about 'good and evil', imputing sin, annihilation, and forgiveness. The concept of a merciful and benevolent God, which is incompatible with a God of cruelty and vengeance, requires the idea of states to deal with the problem of handling evil. The understanding of 'states' allows us to 'turn our backs on Heavens builded on cruelty'.

PLATE 32 [35] (E130)
"And Milton oft sat up on the Couch of Death & oft conversed
In vision & dream beatific with the Seven Angels of the Presence

I have turned my back upon these Heavens builded on cruelty
My Spectre still wandering thro' them follows my Emanation
He hunts her footsteps thro' the snow & the wintry hail & rain
The idiot Reasoner laughs at the Man of Imagination
And from laughter proceeds to murder by undervaluing calumny

Then Hillel who is Lucifer replied over the Couch of Death
And thus the Seven Angels instructed him & thus they converse.

We are not Individuals but States: Combinations of Individuals
We were Angels of the Divine Presence: & were Druids in Annandale
Compelld to combine into Form by Satan, the Spectre of Albion,
Who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine.
But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form
Because we were combind in Freedom & holy Brotherhood
While those combind by Satans Tyranny first in the blood of War
And Sacrifice &, next, in Chains of imprisonment: are
Shapeless Rocks
Retaining only Satans Mathematic Holiness, Length: Bredth &
Highth
Calling the Human Imagination: which is the Divine Vision &
Fruition
In which Man liveth eternally: madness & blasphemy, against
Its own Qualities, which are Servants of Humanity, not Gods
or Lords[.]
Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches
And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.

Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!

The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination
The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot
The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the Knife
But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Halle[l]ujah

Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of
Death.
For God himself enters Death's Door always with those that enter
And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity
Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying
That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their
Fathers House"

The Eternal dimension which seems shadowy to the unawakened, is seen to be substantial and vividly real by those who have been given a 'perception of the infinite.' They have entered the door of death and prepared themselves for transformation. In awakening, they see their physical bodies as garments that can be discarded as they enter the true world of unencumbered Spirit.

From The Grave

Philippians 2:8

2:5-11 - Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal.

NATIVITY II

Returning to "The Morning of Christ's Nativity" by John Milton, for which Blake made two sets of five watercolor illustrations, there is a lot more to observe. Blake's pictures like Milton's poetry did not focus only on the supplanting of Apollo and heathen gods. The first and last pictures, like the beginning and ending of Milton's poetry present a more conventional portrait of the birth of the child based on accounts in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Here is Blake's first illustration for On the Morning of Christ's Nativity.

Blake of course, added distinctive features to his illustrations. In her book Blake's Vision of the Poetry of Milton, Bette Charlene Werner, on page 119 and following, points out some things that speak of Blake's own philosophy. Quoting from her book:

> With the angelic figure of Peace and the recumbent form of Nature the artist suggests the union of heaven and earth in the Word made flesh.
> the Huntington version of the design emphasizes the divinity, not only of Christ, but also by implication of man.
> The Child is pictured springing forth in unfettered freedom. The figure suggests at once the "Heav'n-born-childe" of Milton's ode and the preexistent soul whose material birth Blake describes in "Infant Sorrow" (E27, SoE48):
"My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I lept."
The Blessed Infant, ablaze with the radiance of spiritual existence, is the light that puts the inferior flame of the sun to shame.
> According to Blake "everything that lives is holy for the source of life / Descends to be a weeping babe." (E323) That understanding may explain his portrayal of Nature here, not as one whose ugliness requires a covering, but as a figure whose naked beauty is still apparent beneath the translucent covering of snow. The veiled form of Nature in this illustration is, like the Vala of Blake's own mythology, an embodiment of the vale of tears and the veil of materiality.
> Like Milton, Blake sees in the Incarnation not only the humility of Christ, emptying himself of his Godhead, but the glorification of man. He identifies Jesus, the Divine Humanity, with Imagination and insists: "Man is All Imagination God is Man & exists in us & we in him." (E664) This understanding makes the Nativity not only the fulfillment of God's becoming man, but a promise of salvation through the spiritual union of all men in in the One Man who is Jesus, the Savior.

Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

NATIVITY II

Returning to "The Morning of Christ's Nativity" by John Milton, for which Blake made two sets of five watercolor illustrations, there is a lot more to observe. Blake's pictures like Milton's poetry did not focus only on the supplanting of Apollo and heathen gods. The first and last pictures, like the beginning and ending of Milton's poetry present a more conventional portrait of the birth of the child based on accounts in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Here is Blake's first illustration for On the Morning of Christ's Nativity.

Blake of course, added distinctive features to his illustrations. In her book Blake's Vision of the Poetry of Milton, Bette Charlene Werner, on page 119 and following, points out some things that speak of Blake's own philosophy. Quoting from her book:

> With the angelic figure of Peace and the recumbent form of Nature the artist suggests the union of heaven and earth in the Word made flesh.
> the Huntington version of the design emphasizes the divinity, not only of Christ, but also by implication of man.
> The Child is pictured springing forth in unfettered freedom. The figure suggests at once the "Heav'n-born-childe" of Milton's ode and the preexistent soul whose material birth Blake describes in "Infant Sorrow" (E27, SoE48):
"My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I lept."
The Blessed Infant, ablaze with the radiance of spiritual existence, is the light that puts the inferior flame of the sun to shame.
> According to Blake "everything that lives is holy for the source of life / Descends to be a weeping babe." (E323) That understanding may explain his portrayal of Nature here, not as one whose ugliness requires a covering, but as a figure whose naked beauty is still apparent beneath the translucent covering of snow. The veiled form of Nature in this illustration is, like the Vala of Blake's own mythology, an embodiment of the vale of tears and the veil of materiality.
> Like Milton, Blake sees in the Incarnation not only the humility of Christ, emptying himself of his Godhead, but the glorification of man. He identifies Jesus, the Divine Humanity, with Imagination and insists: "Man is All Imagination God is Man & exists in us & we in him." (E664) This understanding makes the Nativity not only the fulfillment of God's becoming man, but a promise of salvation through the spiritual union of all men in in the One Man who is Jesus, the Savior.

Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

Father and Son

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

God was the Father. Christ was the Son.

The relationship between God, the Father, and Christ, the Son was central to Blake's theology (and mine).

This was the first pair, father and son. Every man since 'the beginning' has also been part of a pair.

Read Jerusalem plate 42 again; here Albion is the father, Los is the son. What's happening?

Blake celebrates the usual conflict between father and son-- like a 20th century father and a 21st century son, like the sixties flower boys and their fathers, like America and King George in 1776, and on and on we could go adding types of this archetypal relationship.

My Son, My Son!

The Generation Gap is always with us; Blake used it here to humanize God, much as C.G.Jung was to do with Answer to Job. They also help us (poor suffering sinners) to rise above the conventional image of God imprinted upon the public by our so called religious leaders.

Before the end of Jerusalem Albion and Los had achieved an amiable (loving?) relationship, as most of us rebels do with our fathers when we mature (fortunate if they are still alive).

Father and Son

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

God was the Father. Christ was the Son.

The relationship between God, the Father, and Christ, the Son was central to Blake's theology (and mine).

This was the first pair, father and son. Every man since 'the beginning' has also been part of a pair.

Read Jerusalem plate 42 again; here Albion is the father, Los is the son. What's happening?

Blake celebrates the usual conflict between father and son-- like a 20th century father and a 21st century son, like the sixties flower boys and their fathers, like America and King George in 1776, and on and on we could go adding types of this archetypal relationship.

My Son, My Son!

The Generation Gap is always with us; Blake used it here to humanize God, much as C.G.Jung was to do with Answer to Job. They also help us (poor suffering sinners) to rise above the conventional image of God imprinted upon the public by our so called religious leaders.

Before the end of Jerusalem Albion and Los had achieved an amiable (loving?) relationship, as most of us rebels do with our fathers when we mature (fortunate if they are still alive).

MIND OF BLAKE

In considering the mind of Blake, I first think of what Paul said in  Romans 12:2, about how our minds should be formed and how they should function.

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own
mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that
you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is
good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal
of true maturity."

The following quote from Annotations to Reynolds, page 157; (E656) shows how Blake thought about the mind he had been given by God:

"Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he Knows I say on
the Contrary That Man Brings All that he has or Can have Into the
World with him. Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown
This World is too poor to produce one Seed"

And this quote from Milton 26.41; (E124), shows that he attributes to Spiritual Causes all that happens both internally and externally:

"Because
The Natural power continually seeks & tends to Destruction
Ending in Death: which would of itself be Eternal Death
And all are Class'd by Spiritual, & not by Natural
power.

And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not
A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is  Delusion
Of Ulro: & a ratio of the perishing Vegetable Memory."

Gates of Paradise: Air

The internal structure of Blake's mind was unique as is that of
each of us. His mind was molded by the genius with which he
was born; by his perceptions of the infinite; and by his
commitment to following the vision which he was given. The
reality he perceived was not the reality of Ulro but the reality
of Eternity.

Although some have doubted Blake's sanity, they must be
those who were unable to see beyond the physical world.
Blake's behavior may have seemed erratic, his interests
were obviously eccentric, and his expressions were extreme.
But he was not trapped in patterns of thought and behavior
which divided him from rationality and from functioning in the real
world, as are most schizophrenics. Blake's intellect was not
impaired, nor was his ability to present his ideas in images
which could be understood by others. Some have thought that
it was his extreme sanity which set him apart from the
conventional world.      

You may remember Arthur C Clark's, Childhood's End.
If Blake is a transitional figure, introducing humanity to the
ability to function at higher level of consciousness, he may
well be perceived as a schizophrenic or a devil by those
who fear raising consciousness.         

MIND OF BLAKE

In considering the mind of Blake, I first think of what Paul said in  Romans 12:2, about how our minds should be formed and how they should function.

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own
mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that
you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is
good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal
of true maturity."

The following quote from Annotations to Reynolds, page 157; (E656) shows how Blake thought about the mind he had been given by God:

"Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he Knows I say on
the Contrary That Man Brings All that he has or Can have Into the
World with him. Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown
This World is too poor to produce one Seed"

And this quote from Milton 26.41; (E124), shows that he attributes to Spiritual Causes all that happens both internally and externally:

"Because
The Natural power continually seeks & tends to Destruction
Ending in Death: which would of itself be Eternal Death
And all are Class'd by Spiritual, & not by Natural
power.

And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not
A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is  Delusion
Of Ulro: & a ratio of the perishing Vegetable Memory."

Gates of Paradise: Air

The internal structure of Blake's mind was unique as is that of
each of us. His mind was molded by the genius with which he
was born; by his perceptions of the infinite; and by his
commitment to following the vision which he was given. The
reality he perceived was not the reality of Ulro but the reality
of Eternity.

Although some have doubted Blake's sanity, they must be
those who were unable to see beyond the physical world.
Blake's behavior may have seemed erratic, his interests
were obviously eccentric, and his expressions were extreme.
But he was not trapped in patterns of thought and behavior
which divided him from rationality and from functioning in the real
world, as are most schizophrenics. Blake's intellect was not
impaired, nor was his ability to present his ideas in images
which could be understood by others. Some have thought that
it was his extreme sanity which set him apart from the
conventional world.      

You may remember Arthur C Clark's, Childhood's End.
If Blake is a transitional figure, introducing humanity to the
ability to function at higher level of consciousness, he may
well be perceived as a schizophrenic or a devil by those
who fear raising consciousness.         

SPIRITUAL CAUSE

Synchronicity is a term Carl Jung coined to describe events which seemed to be connected in an acausal manner. That three men from different backgrounds in whom I'm particularly interested, found their final resting place together impresses me as synchronistic. Buried close to the same location in London are George Fox, who died in 1690; John Wesley, who died in 1791; and William Blake who died in 1827. George Fox and William Blake are buried in the Bunhill Fields Burying Ground and John Wesley is buried just across the street behind his home.

Fox's Grave
Wesley's Grave
Blake's Grave

Although these three men shared a passion for being in touch in a direct way with God, they were not associated in life. Blake expressed admiration for Wesley's witness to "Faith in God the dear Saviour who took on the likeness of men" (in Milton , Plate 22). They all 'dissented' from orthodox religious practice in distinctive ways. George Fox urged the practice of silent worship, John Wesley preached a religion of transforming experience, and William Blake used poetry and visual images to develop the Imagination and awaken the Universal Man. Their efforts to spread their own understanding of the best methods of cultivating a relationship with God, occupied the full effort of each. It seems particularly appropriate to me that one might visit the graves of all three within a few minutes and meditate on their similarities and differences.

William Blake expressed an idea close to the concept of synchronicity in these words from Milton, Plate 26:

"And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not
A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is Delusion"

There is a Spiritual Cause for Fox, Wesley and Blake resting together.

SPIRITUAL CAUSE

Synchronicity is a term Carl Jung coined to describe events which seemed to be connected in an acausal manner. That three men from different backgrounds in whom I'm particularly interested, found their final resting place together impresses me as synchronistic. Buried close to the same location in London are George Fox, who died in 1690; John Wesley, who died in 1791; and William Blake who died in 1827. George Fox and William Blake are buried in the Bunhill Fields Burying Ground and John Wesley is buried just across the street behind his home.

Fox's Grave
Wesley's Grave
Blake's Grave

Although these three men shared a passion for being in touch in a direct way with God, they were not associated in life. Blake expressed admiration for Wesley's witness to "Faith in God the dear Saviour who took on the likeness of men" (in Milton , Plate 22). They all 'dissented' from orthodox religious practice in distinctive ways. George Fox urged the practice of silent worship, John Wesley preached a religion of transforming experience, and William Blake used poetry and visual images to develop the Imagination and awaken the Universal Man. Their efforts to spread their own understanding of the best methods of cultivating a relationship with God, occupied the full effort of each. It seems particularly appropriate to me that one might visit the graves of all three within a few minutes and meditate on their similarities and differences.

William Blake expressed an idea close to the concept of synchronicity in these words from Milton, Plate 26:

"And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not
A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is Delusion"

There is a Spiritual Cause for Fox, Wesley and Blake resting together.

Fox and Blake

George Fox of course lived in the 17th
century; Blake in the late 18th and early
19th century. But what did they have in
common?

Anyone familiar with the Pendle Hill
pamphlets should look at
No 177: Woolman and Blake

Titus! Constantine! Charlemagne Luther:
what did all these men have in common?
Blake cited them as names of churches
(heavens), but what else did they have in
common? They were all involved in war!

Many Christians consider Constantine a
great hero because he legalized
Christianity in the Roman Empire. Less
well known is the fact that he ordained
(and required) uniformity of belief among
Christians. Thereafter it was the
non-orthodox who were illegal, a long line
of them going all the way down to Quakers
and beyond. What they all had in common
was insisting on a direct relationship with
God, not through a priest. Blake was one
of them!!

Why Luther? well he supported the
Protestant Princes' war against the Pope
(it was called the Thirty Years War). On
occasion he incited people to violence;

Blake virtually equated the state church
with war; he wrote:
"How the Chimney-sweeper's cry

Every black'ning Church appalls;

And the hapless Soldier's sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls".

Songs of Experience, London

People don't allow themselves to be
oppressed en mass without resisting,
to be ruled by foreigners. Oh no!
In the New Age Blake looked
forward to the end of war:
"Empire is no more! and now the
lion and wolf shall cease."

Tell me what you think.

Fox and Blake

George Fox of course lived in the 17th
century; Blake in the late 18th and early
19th century. But what did they have in
common?

Anyone familiar with the Pendle Hill
pamphlets should look at
No 177: Woolman and Blake

Titus! Constantine! Charlemagne Luther:
what did all these men have in common?
Blake cited them as names of churches
(heavens), but what else did they have in
common? They were all involved in war!

Many Christians consider Constantine a
great hero because he legalized
Christianity in the Roman Empire. Less
well known is the fact that he ordained
(and required) uniformity of belief among
Christians. Thereafter it was the
non-orthodox who were illegal, a long line
of them going all the way down to Quakers
and beyond. What they all had in common
was insisting on a direct relationship with
God, not through a priest. Blake was one
of them!!

Why Luther? well he supported the
Protestant Princes' war against the Pope
(it was called the Thirty Years War). On
occasion he incited people to violence;

Blake virtually equated the state church
with war; he wrote:
"How the Chimney-sweeper's cry

Every black'ning Church appalls;

And the hapless Soldier's sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls".

Songs of Experience, London

People don't allow themselves to be
oppressed en mass without resisting,
to be ruled by foreigners. Oh no!
In the New Age Blake looked
forward to the end of war:
"Empire is no more! and now the
lion and wolf shall cease."

Tell me what you think.

How did he get that way?

FIRST of all he came into the world with a tremendous endowment; some people are simply born with unusual gifts.

SECOND Leaving school on the first day his mind was never subjected to the indoctrination most of us got from our teachers. "The primary object of primary education is to socialize the pupil to the conventions of the culture we belong to." That never happened to Blake. Instead he ....

THIRD read! and read! and read! He read the things that had fallen out of the national consciousness-- dominated by an extremely materialistic culture: the Bible, Behmen (Boehme) and hundreds of others, each in his own way representing the Perennial Philosophy. And he saw the Great Painters, not those favored by the Establishment.

FOURTH The population didn't read anything beyond the fourth grade level. When Paine asked Blake if people read him, he replied, "before the people can read it, they have to be able to read" (very much like today!). So there was a chasm between his mind and theirs (and ours).

The aforementioned video shows Tom Paine represented as the soul of rationality and Bill Blake the feeling, and above all the imagination.

So Blake's relationships were with God: Meister Eckhart, Mohammed, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Boehme, Jesus, other men who had had similar visions. He honored God with the "severe contentions of friendship & the burning fire of thought." (Jerusalem 91:17; E251)

His faith came up the hard way: Molech, Elohim, Nobodaddy, Urizen, and finally the Dear Saviour. How many of us good people can say we came to our faith like that?

Thank God we have the benefit of Blake's experience.

GOD & MAN

Nothing interested Blake more than the relationship of man and God. One way he saw his purpose in life was to 'open the minds of men to a perception of the Infinite'. Because he knew that religion was supposed to serve that purpose for man, he was appalled by false religions which separated God from man, and man from man.

False religions he recognized as taking many forms. Here are some:

Creating individual requirements and forcing them on others;

Milton, Plate 11 (E103)
Where Satan making to himself Laws from his own identity.
Compell'd others to serve him in moral gratitude & submission
Being call'd God: setting himself above all that is called God.

Naming behaviors sin and devising punishments;

Milton, Plate 9 (E102)
He created Seven deadly Sins drawing out his infernal scroll,
Of Moral laws and cruel punishments upon the clouds of Jehovah
To pervert the Divine voice in its entrance to the earth
With thunder of war & trumpets sound, with armies of disease
Punisbments & deaths musterd & number'd; Saying I am God alone
There is no other! let all obey my principles of moral individuality

Using religion to confine perception to that of the senses;

Song of Los, Plate 4, (E 68)
Thus the terrible race of Los & Enitharmon gave
Laws & Religions to the sons of Har binding them more
And more to Earth: closing and restraining:
Till a Philosophy of Five Senses was complete
Urizen wept & gave it into the hands of Newton & Locke

Assuming the role of intermediary between God and man through secrecy;

Urizen, Plate 2, (E 70)
Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a place in the north,
Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.

Creating terror, despair and cruelty through self-righteousness;

Milton, Plate 22, (E 116)
Miltons Religion is the cause: there is no end to destruction!
Seeing the Churches at their Period in terror & despair:
...
Asserting the Self-righteousness against the Universal Saviour,
Mocking the Confessors & Martyrs, claiming Self-righteousness;
With cruel Virtue: making War upon the Lambs Redeemed;
To perpetuate War & Glory. to perpetuate the Laws of Sin:

Forbidding the joys that flow from following God;

Jerusalem, Plate 9, (E 151)
Every Emanative joy forbidden as a Crime:
And the Emanations buried alive in the earth with pomp of religion:
Inspiration deny'd; Genius forbidden by laws of punishment:
I saw terrified;

Creating a mask that obscures the true relationship of man and God;

Jerusalem, Plate 38, (E 184)
A pretence of Art, to destroy Art: a pretence of Liberty
To destroy Liberty. a pretence of Religion to destroy Religion

Allowing consciousness of of sin to obscure consciousness of the spirit;

Jerusalem, Plate 41, (E 188)
Alas!--The time will come, when a mans worst enemies
Shall be those of his own house and family: in a Religion
Of Generation, to destroy by Sin and Atonement, happy Jerusalem,
The Bride and Wife of the Lamb. O God thou art Not an Avenger!

Worshiping satan instead of God;

Jerusalem, Plate 52, (E 200)
Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the
Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches
Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not
the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine
Name Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God
of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and
Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or
Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart.
This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism
is the same & ends in the same.

Imposing chastity which divides man from woman;

Jerusalem, Plate 69, (E 222)
A Religion of Chastity, forming a Commerce to sell Loves
With Moral Law, an Equal Balance, not going down with decision
Therefore the Male severe & cruel filld with stern Revenge:
Mutual Hate returns & mutual Deceit & mutual Fear.

Bringing hate and destruction under the guise of religion;

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 231)
I stood among my valleys of the south
And saw a flame of fire, even as a Wheel
Of fire surrounding all the heavens: it went
From west to cast against the current of
Creation and devourd all things in its loud
Fury & thundering course round heaven & earth
...
And I asked a Watcher & a Holy-One
Its Name? he answerd. It is the Wheel of Religion

God Answers Job out of the Whirlwind _____________________________________________
Making a concise statement about the nature of true religion, Carl Jung has this to say:

"The religious attitude is quite different from faith associated
with a specific creed. The latter, as a codified and
dogmatized form of an original religious experience, simply
gives expression to a particular collective belief. True religion
involves a subjective relationship to certain metaphysical,
extramundane factors."
Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self, Complete Works,
Vol. 10, par. 507