Key Takeaways
1. Embrace Wise Innocence: The Foundation of an Awakened Life
Innocence dwells with wisdom.
Cultivating openness. William Blake's early life, marked by his parents' encouragement of his artistic and visionary gifts, laid the groundwork for his philosophy of "innocence." This is not a naive simplicity, but a profound, guileless openness to life, a hopeful "yes" that underpins a generous and expansive perception. It is the capacity to see with clarity and unhindered imagination, resisting the cynicism and possessiveness that often accompany worldly experience.
Beyond naivety. Blake understood that innocence is fragile and vulnerable to the harsh realities of life, as depicted in poems like 'The Chimney Sweeper' and 'The Little Black Boy'. These verses expose exploitation and suffering, yet insist that outrage must not eclipse the purity of innocence. To lose this virtue is to risk turning justified anger destructive, for "you must know what you love more clearly than what you hate."
A mature stance. The journey from "Infant Joy" to "Infant Sorrow" reveals that innocence can mature through struggle, becoming stronger than suffering. Like the character Thel, who recoils from the trials of growth, many fear the vulnerability that comes with openness. However, Blake argues that true innocence, when coupled with wisdom, allows one to tolerate life's complexities without being depleted, fostering a resilient spirit that can channel a wider pulse of life.
2. Cultivate Perceptual Openness: Seeing Beyond the Mundane
You can see what I do, if you choose.
Visions as reality. Blake's frequent encounters with angels, spirits, and even God from childhood were not delusions but a core aspect of his "perceptual openness." He regarded these as living beings, integral to a cosmos that is "alert not mindless." His impatience with lukewarm religiosity stemmed from the vivid reality of these experiences, which he treated with discernment and wit, never becoming starry-eyed or manic.
Beyond literalism. Blake challenged the notion that such visions are mere hallucinations, arguing that they are "phenomena seen by his imagination: realities none the less for that, but transacted within the realm of mind." He insisted that visionary sight is a capacity that can be developed, like language, allowing one to enter "in-between zones" where subjective and objective realities blur. This requires an active, discriminating mind, not passive gullibility.
Expanding awareness. For Blake, angels and fairies serve as reminders that "we don’t know it all." He believed that the world disappears not because it's a fantasy, but because the imagination required to see it is lost. By cultivating this openness, one can perceive immaterial intelligences and subtle dimensions of reality, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary and revealing truths otherwise hidden by narrowed perceptions.
3. Unleash the Expansive Imagination: The Source of All Reality
This World of Imagination is Infinite and Eternal.
Imagination as existence. For Blake, imagination is not merely a faculty for inner imagery or fancy, but "the Human Existence itself." It is the vital force that resurrects memory, feeds reason, and quickens love, serving as the primary organ of perception. He believed that the universe is not a "cold, dead cloud of matter" but an ocean of intelligent activity, and our minds are not just lighthouses casting meaning, but participants in this boundless source.
Nature's inner life. Blake saw "Nature as Imagination itself," a vitality awaiting discovery. He rejected realistic depictions of landscapes, instead seeking to portray what he saw with the "eye of the mind," where entwined roots, reaching souls, and billowing clouds dance as an ensemble. This perspective allows us to appreciate the inherent creativity in nature, recognizing that the stunning range of animal behaviors and plant growth originates from a shaping energy or spirit of life.
Transcending appearances. The imagination enables the appearance within the external world of what is detected by an inner eye. Blake famously declared, "All that we see is Vision," asserting that these inner dimensions are the fundamental reality from which empirical observations spring. He believed that by cultivating this imaginative perception, we can step into "Worlds of Thought" that are not separate from the material world but implicit in it, revealing the permanent truths hidden within transient forms.
4. Wield Fearless Critique: Challenging the Chains of Reason
I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Mans | I will not Reason & Compare; my business is to Create.
Against reductionism. Blake launched a "fearless critique" against the Enlightenment thinkers—Bacon, Newton, and Locke—whom he blamed for fostering a "single vision" that reduced reality to measurable facts and rigid laws. He saw deism, which conceived God as a distant designer, as a "Nobodaddy" that stripped the world of inherent purpose and led to nihilism, where "If the Sun & Moon should doubt, They’d immediately Go out."
The "mind-forg'd manacles." Blake recognized that this reductive worldview, while leading to technological progress, also created "dark Satanic Mills" – not just literal factories, but a mentality that treats the cosmos as a machine and human beings as processors of sense data. This mindset alienates the soul, replacing true riches with "clinking pennies and crowns," and fostering a "fretful stress" that traps individuals in obsessive, reactive feelings.
Science in service of vision. While critical of "reason" when it tyrannized imagination, Blake was not anti-science. He saw his own meticulous engraving process as a "laboratory" where technical skill met visionary purpose. He advocated for "sweet Science" in dialogue with the actual, believing that true scientific inquiry, like poetry, should reveal the "innumerable Dance" of life, not flatten it into abstract generalizations. He insisted, "To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit."
5. Transmute Desire Through Contraries: The Path to Eternal Delight
Without Contraries is no progression.
Embracing tension. Blake's philosophy of "contraries" — Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate — is central to living well in the modern world. He argued that rather than seeking a "happy medium" or repressing desires, one should embrace these tensions as a source of "Eternal Delight." This dynamic approach allows for flourishing amidst life's inevitable compromises, fostering a "transnomian" attitude that moves beyond rigid moralizing.
The road of excess. Blake believed that "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom," suggesting that true understanding comes from fully engaging with desires, not neutering them. He saw the "Moral Virtues" as "continual Accusers of Sin," leading to "Eternal Wars & Dominency over others." Instead, he advocated for honesty about one's passions, even the "uneasy" ones, recognizing that "the man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind."
Infinite longing. The "cry of a mistaken soul" for "More! More!" in consumerism is a perversion of humanity's true, "Infinite" desire. Blake argued that "less than All cannot satisfy Man," meaning our deepest longings are for unbounded life, not material accumulation. His "Proverbs of Hell" encourage boldness and exuberance, urging us to act on desire and trust that the imagination can guide us to the "All," transforming trivial appetites into a quest for lasting, boundless satisfaction.
6. Practice Large Love: Unlocking the Infinite in Every Particular
less than All cannot satisfy Man.
Erotic as sacred. Blake understood that sexual desire, with its affections and frenzies, is a powerful force that can lead to the "All." He saw the erotic as a "bounty of God," a yearning for communion that, when properly discerned, can connect us to the infinite. This "Christian tantra" recognizes that sexual pleasure, for humans, is deeply entangled with the presence of another person and the deepest yearnings of the soul, making it a potential gateway to the divine.
Beyond possession. Blake's concept of "large love" transcends mere "free love" or possessive attachment. He believed that the beloved, who cannot be substituted, paradoxically connects us with something universal. "To see a World in a Grain of Sand | And a Heaven in a Wild Flower," means that the actual and specific touches the All. This selfless stance, "kissing the joy as it flies," allows for an intimacy with the more-than-human, awakening to the holiness in all things.
Transforming pain. Oothoon's journey in 'Visions of the Daughters of Albion' exemplifies this. Despite rape and rejection, she maintains her capacity to love, expanding her desire beyond human relationships to embrace the holiness in all creatures. Her pain transforms into a selfless wonder, revealing that "every thing that lives is holy." This "dunamis" power of presence, rather than "exousia" of command, allows love to become a gateway to the infinite, seeing the divine face in all beings.
7. Find Breakthrough in Breakdown: Suffering as a Gateway to Eternity
The Ruins of Time builds Mansions in Eternity.
Death as a portal. Blake's intimate experience with death, particularly his brother Robert's passing, revealed that mortality, while agonizing, can also be an "entrance to another dimension." He saw Robert's "released spirit ascend heavenward... clapping its hands for joy," a vivid testament to his belief that "our deceased friends are more really with us than when they were apparent to our mortal part." This perspective transforms loss into a profound connection with enduring love.
The meaning of lamentation. Blake understood that suffering is not to be bypassed but embraced. Poems like 'Why does the Raven cry aloud' articulate the bleakness of existence, yet within this lamentation, he finds a "softening, metamorphic heartache." Breakdown, for Blake, can lead to breakthrough, where an inadequate mindset gives way to a transformed perspective. This "tertium quid" — a third thing born from two seemingly irreconcilable elements — allows for new life and humbled convictions.
Beyond solutions. In a world obsessed with "solutionism," Blake's approach to suffering is a radical refusal to seek quick fixes. He believed that "hard experiences can point to deeper dimensions of life," testing usual assumptions. The agony of love, the terror of the tiger, or the pain of loss, when held as contraries, can precipitate an unexpected awareness of an eternal hand active in every particular of the natural world, revealing that "love lasts."
8. Navigate Societal Forces with Mythology: Understanding the Spirits of Our Age
true revolution liberates because it focuses on Mental Fight, not literal war—warfare itself being energy Enslav’d.
Myth as discernment. Blake used complex mythology, featuring "Eternals" or "Zoas" like Urizen (reason), Orc (energy), and Los (imagination), to understand the transpersonal forces shaping societies during the Age of Revolutions. These figures are not literal beings but "imaginative entities" that capture and convey truths about collective energies, allowing readers to become "sensitised to the spirits that surround and can invade us."
Revolution's shadow. While initially sympathetic to the American and French Revolutions, Blake grew wary of their deistic, rationalizing undercurrents. He saw that revolutionary zeal, personified by Orc, could be as destructive as the tyranny it sought to overthrow, leading to "bloodshed" and "pyrrhic victory." Both sides, he argued, often worshipped "Nobodaddy," mistaking self-serving power for divine purpose, and ultimately leading to "less not more."
The pre-political vision. Blake's disillusionment led him to seek a "pre-political" renewal, focusing on "Mental Fight" rather than corporeal war. He envisioned "Golgonooza," an imaginative city-state that values "spiritual intelligence alongside scientific advance," where politics serves humanity's journey to "Eternity." This vision allows for societal disruption and decline without losing hope, as renewal is always conceivable when a larger, transcendent horizon is remembered.
9. Converse with Nature's Intelligence: The Living World as a Divine Mirror
every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is a Delusion of Ulro.
Nature's sentience. Blake's time in Felpham deepened his conviction that "every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause." He perceived nature not as inert matter but as a vibrant tapestry of "minute particulars," each "Human form’d" – possessing its own intelligence and purpose. From the "jewels of Light" in a sunrise to the "howling" of a lion, he saw a "great sea of thoughts" rather than random thrusts, rejecting the "perishing Vegetable Memory" that forgets spiritual causes.
Beyond projection. He rejected the idea that we merely project our feelings onto nature. Instead, he believed that "everything speaks back to us, if we listen." Our imagination connects with the imagination expressed in rocks, plants, and animals, revealing a "mutual ground and shared energy." This "natura naturans" – nature naturing – is the creative power of Mother Nature herself, a responsive presence to respect and collaborate with, rather than merely exploit.
Eternity in the immanent. Blake urged us to "leave mortal things" and commune with the immortal by attending to nature's "Arts of Imagination." He saw that "The Vegetable Universe... expands in Stars to the Mundane Shell; And there it meets Eternity again, both within and without." This means that any finite thing reflects an aspect of the infinite, and by "kissing the joy as it flies" in nature, we can consciously perceive Eternity, the "living fount of being."
10. Embrace a Mystical Christianity: The Gospel of Forgiveness and Divine Intimacy
There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find, | Nor can his Watch Fiends find it; but the Industrious find | This Moment & it multiply, & when it once is found | It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed.
Forgiveness as gospel. Blake's mature Christianity centered on "Forgiveness of Sins" as the core of the Gospel, liberating individuals from guilt and the quest for revenge. He believed that "All deities reside in the human breast," meaning conscience, when attuned, can follow a "dissenter's way" that transcends rigid moral codes. This forgiveness opens a "transnomian path," freeing us from both blind obedience and empty protest.
The eternal present. Mystical Christianity, for Blake, is apprehended "now: in this moment." He called this the "pulsation of the artery," a "specious present" that is a ceaseless "portal to Eternity." This "Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find" is where "all the Great Events of Time start forth & are conceived." It is a state of active attention, like an improviser, where one is fully present, listening, and responding, allowing the divine to break through.
Divine-human unity. Through figures like Jesus, the Lamb and the Tyger, Blake revealed the "divinity of our nature." Jesus, the "God-Man," embodies the intimacy of divinity and humanity, demonstrating "putting off selfhood" to reveal the "human form divine" in everyone. Blake insisted, "God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is," meaning that by annihilating the "Selfhood" – the delusion of being a separate, isolated self – we discover our true identity as "members of the Divine body."
11. Journey Through Four States of Awareness: From Ulro to Eternity
The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself.
Mapping consciousness. Blake's mature work explores four "states of mind" or imaginative dispositions, akin to Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, Earthly Eden, and Paradise. These states—Ulro, Generation, Beulah, and Eternity—represent different modes of attention and perception, from the most constricted to the most expansive. Understanding them clarifies the path of illumination and how we can "expand" our "all flexible senses."
From constriction to flow.
- Ulro: The hellish state of "Single vision and Newton’s sleep," where contraries collapse into negations, and the imagination is constrained by "scientistic cruelties of Demonstration." It's a "skull-bound" mentality, leading to nihilism and tunnel vision.
- Generation: The organic, often "pointless and certainly worrisome" struggle for survival, where life is viewed as "Vegetative Existence." It's marked by competition, gender division, and production for production's sake, building "dark Satanic Mills."
- Beulah: A "mild & pleasant rest," a "Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely," where contraries are "equally True." It's a receptive, self-forgetful state, like deep sleep, a "promised to God" place of regrouping and anticipation, "on the cusp of a phase-shift in perception."
- Eternity: The ultimate state, the "source of all vision," where "desire is no longer driven by a nagging sense of lack but a delightful sense of continual outpouring." Here, "all Human Forms identified, even Tree, Metal, Earth & Stone," revealing the divine in every particular and the unity of all beings in "Jesus the Christ."
The eternal present. Eternity is not just a final stage but the "ever-present origin" of all experience, fully and consciously known. It brings complete satisfaction, as "every Minute has an azure Tent with silken Veils" and "every Hour has a bright golden Gate." This is the "Wine-presses of Luvah," the apocalypse of continual transformation, where "every Individual Rejects Error & Embraces Truth," leading to a life of "living freedom" and "mutual benevolence."
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