“Cosmology is a literary Art…”or why I have flaming red hair.

Today is Blake Off day. In celebration of William Blake’s Birthday.

“Introverted intuition perceives all the background processes of consciousness with almost the same distinctness as extroverted sensation senses outer objects. For intuition, there for, the unconscious images attain to the dignity of things or objects.”

Pg. 23 Chapter Two The Supreme Introvert. Blake A psychological study by W.P. Witcutt

“Each day, the dawn unveils the mystery of this universe. Dawn is the ultimate surprise; it awakens us to the immense “thereness” of nature. The wonderful subtle of the universe aries to cloth everything. This captured in a phrase from William Blake “Colours are the wounds of light.” Colors bring out the depth of secret presence at the heart of nature.”

Pg 2., Anam Cara, A book of Celtic Wisdom. By John O’Donohue.

A poetry class at university ended quickly for me when a professor called William Blake a weird mystic, Christian. I promptly dropped the course signing up for an extra curriculum course where I studied a real mystic, Christian. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. This professor did not seem to grasp that William Blake is so much more.

A good “anam cara” guided me beyond words to concepts and images that I could understand despite dyslexia, showing me that language can be learned. Blake also played a part in helping me develop my soul.

How can one weave such a man as he into one’s life? How did he find my mind where his images and words resounded so strongly in my soul? As a lone reader and self-educated he was my deep reference and confidence. Finding him in those places where one goes wondering for answers. Which Blake amplified for me in so many unimaginable ways. I could read him and comprehend him so clearly. A wonder to me for sure.

Some books that stand out on my book shelves!

We were living in Santa Cruz, California. A magic book store named LOGOS is one we did visit often. Along with The Poet and Patriot Pub. Hosting a nice pint of something we called Grease Lightning. A half of Guinness and a half of Anchor Steam beer. We powered them down ready for some enjoyable reading later. Or husband’s endless games of chess.

Another book : Park South Books John Calmann and Cooper Ltd. 1977. William Vaughan (Backcover).

I discovered William Blake’s Divine Comedy Illustrations Dover Publications 2008. in a world where Dante Alighieri’s words and Blake’s images vividly came to life. At a Van Nuys California used bookstore.

The next book by Canadian Scholar a book entitled Fearful Symmetry A Study of William Blake by Northrop Frye, Princeton University 1947. I was introduced to this book by one of my professors at California State University Northridge.

“Holly, I think you should read this book. He reminds me of your focus on symbols and archetypes. He was a professor of mine years ago.”

Imagine that my professor identified something in me that I could not. And so, my private life with Blake entered the big world of “Blakean” experts filled me by analytical minds.

Then to finish off this “Blake Off” essay is a book I found later, was it Van Nuys, California or down a few blocks a rare bookstore off Ventura Blvd. in the San Fernando Valley, CA? Amazing little gem.

“For the story was preserved as a family tradition by the real descendants of John O’Neil and Ellen Blake (the Carter Blakes), who told it to the poet Yeats. So it was that our William, who should have been born and brought up in some crumbling tower by the Atlantic shore and fed upon the tales of the ancient Ulster heroes, instead was reared in Golden Square. But anyone who saw the little boy might have guessed that he was really Liam O’Neil, with “his flame-like golden-red hair on end standing up all over his head.”

Blake a psychological study by W.P. Witcutt. Page 8.

“Piping down the valleys wild

Piping songs of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me:

‘Pipe a song about a Lamb’…”

The “Song of Innocence,” ~ William Blake.

I thought we would be driving up to San Francisco to see some of William Blake’s art at The William Blake Gallery located at the John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller. My pilgrimage to see Blake’s work has taken a big reprieve. Time to rethink this again.

The mysterious distance….

“Exuberance is Beauty”

The image below needs to be looked at sideways! Symbolic meaning: We have the left and right side of our brain. We are good and evil. A point that we need to be aware of from Blake’s perspective…a balancing act that can bloom into a lovely sunflower.

William Blake

William Blake

I can only gaze at the images of Blake’s work in a book, or on the internet … (maybe at times in a museum) and that will have to do.

I have been pulled into William Blake again. This means trouble because he takes me to strange places of my imagination… like no one else can. The game is light and shadow play, and it is real life. I am reading The Marriage of Heaven and Hell edited with introduction and commentary by Michael Phillips. It is good to have his writing placed in the context of history. Analyzing the why, how and who is important in understanding Blake’s work, but for me the real place is always the inward place of the imagination. We all have this place and all we must do is to use it.

This, for me, is the best place to start with understanding Blake’s work. He does get unbelievably detailed though and sometimes it does take a lot of study time to reveal his meaning.

I like this book of Blake’s because there are only a few editions of this work in the world. He did all the work himself. He is an originator of free speech with a fanzine of his own. Including his opinions of current events, his spirituality and esoteric perspective. He mixes it all up in a wild whirlwind of images and does not exclude nature. Heartfelt satire, humor and word play also splash the pages with words that are even misspelled. Re-created words run through his work.

Maybe this was since his hand wrote out each letter of this book. Who knows?

I find it refreshing and I think back on my days as an editor and publisher of an underground fanzine. To print it and get it out was a fast movement in documenting a growing scene. To me the message was more important than the grammar or spelling and the parallelism I draw from Blake’s work; as he is my mentor and teacher, and what we achieved on each issue is similar. He helps me, in a sense; feel relieved from criticism that I have received. That either consciously or unconsciously he is making a statement; He shows cleverly his intentions as in the statement from the Book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

Improvent makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

~Proverbs of Hell Pg. 69

Yes, the words “Improvent” and “Improvement” are the same words with the same meaning. Smart, what do you think? Something to ponder. This is what Blake does best he gets us to ponder, think and imagine.

I can only gaze at the images of Blake’s work in a book, or on the internet now… and that will have to do.

This next quote I have chosen is very current and insightful for our times. He also uses something I call “Nature Politics” in his work.

As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.

~ Proverbs of Hell Pg. 68