Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

In my book, I want to draw out two facets of William Blake, which I think get routinely sidelined now. My conversation with Jane Clark and Nikos Yiangou enabled us to explore these dimensions. One is that Blake was a very sharp thinker. He had a very accurate and clear critique of the ideas that were beginning to bed down in his time and have really shaped our times in the modern Christian West.  A second is that he is a religious figure, which gets sidelined in two ways. He lived daily with perceptions of angels and other entities: the divine, the dead. I don't explain that away by pathologising Blake.  He is also a clear Christian mystic, a very important voice in Western Christianity since the Reformation - connecting us back to a mystical core, which again is very often sidelined. For more about my book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination see - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination For more about Beshara Magazine see - https://besharamagazine.org A transcript is online here - https://besharamagazine.org/podcast/mark-vernon-awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-imagination/ 0:00 Introductions 1:57 Blake as thinker and mystic 5:20 The power of the imagination 14:40 Blake and science 21:12 The interconnection of music and poetry 26:04 Innocence and wisdom 32:29 Blake's Christianity 39:57 Blake the philosopher

James Harpur’s new book, "Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics", begins with an account of a mystical experience that happened to him - “an implosion of light”, as he describes it. That led to his book, Dazzling Darkness, in pursuit of the path that leads to ultimate reality: God. Mark Vernon’s new book, "Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination", is the result of Mark’s engagement with his local mystic, William Blake, as well as practices based on encounters and texts including The Cloud of Unknowing. In this conversation they explore the nature of mystical experience, as well as the mystics that speak powerfully to them, from Saint Columba to William Blake, via Marguerite Porete and Teresa of Avila, Ramana Maharshi and Krishnamurti. For more on James’s book, Dazzling Darkness - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/dazzling-darkness/ For more on Mark’s book, Awake! - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/awake/ 0:00 Two books on mysticism! 01:55 James’s mystical experience 07:00 Mark’s encounter through contemplative practice 11:58 The Irish mystics that speak to James 18:00 Living the porous life 22:49 Mysticism after monasticism 29:30 Church life and mystical life 32:01 Seeking spiritual directors 33:00 The voice of Krishnamurti 40:32 The presence amidst the diversity 42:30 What happens after the ecstasy? 52:00 Sustaining the double vision

Iain McGilchrist calls William Blake “the least cosy of poets and one of the most insightful that ever lived.” Blake is cited more often than most figures in Iain’s great book, "The Matter With Things". So what did Blake express that might much matter now? How did he understand key features of our humanity such as the imagination and inspiration, as well as the character of our day? In this conversation, prompted by the publication of "Awake!", Iain and Mark often land on wonderful quotes of Blake to unpack them. ”To the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” “As a man is, so he sees.” "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite." They explore Blakean imagery such as the spiral shape of Jacob’s Ladder. Contemporary concerns are central too, from architecture to AI.  Above all, they celebrate Blake as a figure who can guide our desires, aid us with the contraries of modern life, and sustain our faith that life is good, for all the ills that surround us. For more on Iain’s work - https://channelmcgilchrist.com For more on Mark’s work - https://www.markvernon.com Mark’s new book on William Blake is “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination” - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination 0:00 No-one has imagination! 05:27 The narrowing of imagination 08:36 Fantasy and uncoupling 11:55 The misenchantment of the world 13:08 Place, space and architecture 16:26 Spiritually aware consumerism 19:43 The glowing presence of infinity 21:13 Cleansing the doors of perception 24:38 Speaking from the outside in 26:38 The failure of empathy and need for the sacred 31:24 Primary connection not separation 33:10 Blake’s orthodoxy 34:37 Jacob’s Ladder as a spiral 38:12 The good can hold the bad 39:55 Data, memory and AI 42:33 Memory that inspires 45:44 The enlivening of ritual 48:10 Blake on divine science 53:37 The character of things and insights 57:17 Distinctions without difference 59:28 Illuminating Blake and Dante

A conversation from History with Chris Harding. In Mark Vernon's new book "Awake!", he argues that we’re missing something from our view of the great visionary artist William Blake. It’s that word - ‘visionary.’ Mark argues that Blake’s extraordinary art reveals an expanded experience of the world that Blake lived with every day: angels, fairies, realms beyond our own. Blake wasn’t, in other words, making it all up… Mark says that we shouldn’t be afraid of the ‘supernatural Blake.’ We should embrace him - and even aspire to live a little as he did. 00:00 Introduction to William Blake 02:45 Blake's Life and Context 04:32 Blake and India 08:45 The Nature of Perception 13:06 Childhood Experiences and Spirituality 19:50 Blake's Relationship with Institutional Christianity 24:43 The Role of Forgiveness in Jesus' Teachings 26:05 Blake's Vision of the Human Form Divine 28:00 The Sacrificial Nature of Spiritual Awakening 29:28 Blake as a Social Critic  31:30 Blake and Science 35:21 The Dangers of Abstraction  36:19 Blake and consumerism 43:06 What does Blake offer us now?

Recorded in St James’s Piccadilly, the church in which William Blake was baptised, with his life mask also present. Thoughts on Blake’s great call to us today from the launch of my new book, “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”.