Forthcoming in 2024

William Blake (1757 – 1827) is known as a legendary poet, artist, and engraver; one who fashioned for himself a unique artistic style set within an English Romantic tradition. Yet, he was also a prophet; one who shared his vision for humankind – what he termed the ‘divine humanity’ – in a series of ecstatic and illuminating texts and images. There are many discussions of Blake’s works, and in many languages: political, literary, aesthetic, psychological, gender based. This extended essay, generously illustrated with a series of related images, focuses on the ‘spiritual’ in Blake and his affinities to Gnosis and Gnosticism. It traces Blake’s philosophy of life and vision back to early Christian heretics and beyond, connects it with renaissance alchemy, and modern esoteric traditions.
At the centre of his work is an exploration of creativity, imagination and what it is (and how) ‘to see the world in a grain of sand’. Any engagement with Blake’s images and texts is itself a transformative process. This book addresses the nature of that transformation.