William Blake

[jackshoegazer]

After having my poetry compared to Blake so many times, I finally decided to dig up some William Blake and read him. The first thing I open is this:

All Religions Are One
The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness

THE ARGUMENT
As the true method of knowledge is experiment, the true faculty of knowledge must be the faculty which experiences. This faculty I treat of.

PRINCIPLE ONE
That the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius, which by the Ancients was call'd an Angel & Spirit & Demon.

PRINCIPLE TWO
All men are alike in outward form, So (and with the same infinite variety) all are alike in the Poetic Genius.

PRINCIPLE THREE
No man can think or write or speak from his heart, but he must intent truth. Thus all sects of Philosophy are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the weaknesses of every individual.

PRINCIPLE FOUR
As none by travelling over known lands can find out the unknown, So from already acquired knowledge Man could not acquire more; therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists.

PRINCIPLE FIVE
The religions of all Nations are derived from each Nations's different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is every where called the Spirit of Prophecy.

PRINCIPLE SIX
The Jewish and Christian Testaments are An original derivation from the Poetic Genius. This is necssary from the confined nature of bodiliy sensation.

PRINCIPLE SEVEN
As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various) So all Religions & as all similars have one source:
The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius.

Comments

[jrfrench.livejournal.com]

can I post this to challenging_god?

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Here (http://members.aol.com/lshauser2/wmblake.html)is the page I got it from. There's other writings there as well.

[jrfrench.livejournal.com]

It's wierd that he was saying basically the same thing I've been trying to say. What perplexes me is how people can hear this idea, which logically would contribute to a sane world where the ideals of religion such as love and universal familialhood are practiced, and still believe in a stern mountain thunder goblin with an exclusive claim on truth.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I think you and I fall into the same trap: We believe that people think. They don't, I've realized. As much as I loathe to admit it, Freud was right when he said that people want an authority in the sky, a thunder goblin to tell them what to do. Most people don't really think. They just do what they're told.
The chaff and the wheat, my friend.

I just stumbled upon this:
"Chaff is the worthless husk that encloses the kernel of wheat, while the wheat itself is the valuable grain for which we worked so hard all year. The chaff, on the other hand, was an irritant, an ever present byproduct of harvesting the grain (the process of separating the kernel from the husk). The chaff reddened the eyes, blew down the neck, filled the lungs-it was uncomfortable, but the satisfaction of harvesting the wheat and trucking it off to the granary made the bothersome chaff of very little consequence."

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two. One to hold the giraffe, and another to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.

happy saturday....
~me