DIVINE ECONOMY

A number of years ago, before I was heavily involved in studying Blake, I recorded some short thoughts which had come to me. I can't say exactly where they had come from. I can say that I had studied science in high school and college. I had married a man who was both intelligent and good. I got to work raising three children to be as intelligent and as good as their father. As a family we enjoyed nature through camping, hiking and visiting places of natural beauty. We participated in the Methodist Churches until we moved to Washington DC to become a part of the Church of the Savior, an alternative church heavily involved in social programs. We spent our seven years in the structured program of the Church of the Savior, and went on to the Quakers where structure is unnecessary. Among the gifts we received from the Church of the Savior was an interest in esoteric literature and the mythopoeic in general.

So at some point I began to write down the lessons I had learned along my journey in concise statements. To this little collection I gave the name the Divine Economy.

This all happened before I had seen many of the pictures William Blake created, or realized that he was attempting to convey spiritual and psychological truth through opening the minds of men to spiritual perception. Larry, my husband, had begun studying Blake in the 1980's, but he focused on the poetry and not the pictures. No one had much opportunity to see Blake's pictures before computers made it possible for institutions to digitize their material and display it on websites. Because of the availability of the images for viewing when I began my study, my interest was drawn in that direction. Knowing that many images were rarely seen even with the internet, I decided to create a blog attaching my words from the Divine Economy to Blake pictures which could illustrate the truth I aimed to present.

E-BOOK

Thanks to the efforts of Ian Vincent Mulder of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, the content of Divine Economy blog is now available as an e-book. It is our hope that you will download the pdf file to your computer or book reader to contemplate at your leisure.

Since Ian has more technical skills than most, he has also put together instructions for making a high quality book from the file. Although the book cannot be sold because of restrictions of the institutions which generously provided the images, it can be printed by individuals who prefer to hold a book in their hands and turn the pages with their fingers.

In an email from Ian dated March 13, 2014 he states:
"It will not escape you that we are following In Blake's footsteps, self-publishing and in some way inventing new ways of reaching out. There is a wonderful freedom in this. In some strange way I feel also that when giving something away one has a greater responsibility to oneself and one's readers than when it's done for money. One comes within the ambit of Divine Economy, wherein everything of real value cannot be paid for. There seems to be a corollary that because (it's been decided that) it cannot be paid for, I must make sure it is of real value! Or perhaps simply it's a matter of being recruited into that Divine Economy wherein one serves." 

Larry and I have tried to live according to the principles incorporated in the Divine Economy which most fundamentally originate in the New Testament. They were taught by Jesus: forgiveness, inclusiveness, compassion, gratitude and awareness of the Presence of the Divine Benevolence. That this e-book is available freely to anyone is testimony to Ian's intuitive sense of what Blake was saying through his art, and I in my words.

Blake calls us to Awake from the emptiness of isolation to the fullness of mutual love between God and man, and between man and man.  

Jerusalem, Plate 4, (E 146)
"Chap: I
Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the passage through
Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life.

This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song.  

Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! expand!
I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine:
Fibres of love from man to man thro Albions pleasant land.
In all the dark Atlantic vale down from the hills of Surrey
A black water accumulates, return Albion! return!                
Thy brethren call thee, and thy fathers, and thy sons,
Thy nurses and thy mothers, thy sisters and thy daughters
Weep at thy souls disease, and the Divine Vision is darkend:
Thy Emanation that was wont to play before thy face,
Beaming forth with her daughters into the Divine bosom
Where hast thou hidden thy Emanation lovely Jerusalem
From the vision and fruition of the Holy-one?
I am not a God afar off, I am a brother and friend;
Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in me:
Lo! we are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense!      
Ye are my members O ye sleepers of Beulah, land of shades!

But the perturbed Man away turns down the valleys dark;"

The Psalmist tells us why it is possible for us to speak and write the truth which is beyond our limited abilities to encompass. 

Psalms 139
[1] O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me!
[2] Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up;
thou discernest my thoughts from afar.
[3] Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] Even before a word is on my tongue,
lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

 

If there are statements which you would like to add to the Divine Economy out of your experience, please add your insights as a comment to this post. 

  

SEA JOURNEYS

 

Gutenberg Files

A SIXTY-GUN SHIP OF LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
From John Smith’s Sea-Man’s Grammar (1694 edition)

 

"There many people received the Truth with gladness, and Friends were greatly refreshed." George Fox

George Fox made a visit to the colonies in America during 1671-1673.

Today's post quotes Fox's account of difficulties of the passage of their ship across the Atlantic and danger they encountered. Fox noted the parallel of their journey to that of Apostle Paul from Palestine to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar. We read of that journey in the 27th chapter of Acts. First we read of Fox's journey. 

THE JOURNAL OF GEORGE FOX
Edited with an Introduction and Notes By
Rufus M. Jones

From the 1694 First Edition

CHAPTER XVIII.
Two Years in America.
1671-1673.

"In the afternoon, the wind serving, I took leave of my wife and other Friends, and went on board. Before we could sail, there being two of the King’s frigates riding in the Downs, the captain of one of them sent his press-master on board us, who took three of our seamen. This would certainly have delayed, if not wholly prevented, our voyage, had not the captain of the other frigate, being informed of the leakiness of our vessel, and the length of our voyage, in compassion and much civility, spared us two of his own men.

Before this was over, a custom-house officer came on board to peruse packets and get fees; so that we were kept from sailing till about sunset; during which delay a very considerable number of merchantmen, outward-bound, were several leagues before us.

Being clear, we set sail in the evening, and next morning overtook part of that fleet about the height of Dover. We soon reached the rest, and in a little time left them all behind; for our yacht was counted a very swift sailer. But she was very leaky, so that the seamen and some of the passengers did, for the most part, pump day and night. One day they observed that in two hours’ time she sucked in sixteen inches of water in the well.

When we had been about three weeks at sea, one afternoon we spied a vessel about four leagues astern of us. Our master said it was a Sallee man-of-war, that seemed to give us chase. He said, “Come, let us go to supper, and when it grows dark we shall lose him.” This he spoke to please and pacify the passengers, some of whom began to be very apprehensive of the danger. But Friends were well satisfied in themselves, having faith in God, and no fear upon their spirits.

[When the sun was gone down, I saw out of my cabin the ship making towards us. When it grew dark, we altered our course to miss her; but she altered also, and gained upon us.]

[Note - A Moorish pirate ship, named from Sallee, a seaport of Morocco. This incident not only indicates Fox’s simple faith in God but it also is a good illustration of the way in which he inspired confidence in others. The captain believes in him.]

At night the master and others came into my cabin, and asked me what they should do. I told them I was no mariner; and I asked them what they thought was best to do. They said there were but two ways, either to outrun him, or to tack about, and hold the same course we were going before. I told them that if he were a thief, they might be sure he would tack about too; and as for outrunning him, it was to no purpose to talk of that, for they saw he sailed faster than we. They asked me again what they should do, “for,” they said, “if the mariners had taken Paul’s counsel, they had not come to the damage they did.” I answered that it was a trial of faith, and therefore the Lord was to be waited on for counsel.

So, retiring in spirit, the Lord showed me that His life and power were placed between us and the ship that pursued us. I told this to the master and the rest, and that the best way was to tack about and steer our right course. I desired them also to put out all their candles but the one they steered by, and to speak to all the passengers to be still and quiet.

About eleven at night the watch called and said they were just upon us. This disquieted some of the passengers. I sat up in my cabin, and, looking through the port-hole, the moon being not quite down, I saw them very near us. I was getting up to go out of the cabin; but remembering the
word of the Lord, that His life and power were placed between us and them, I lay down again.
 

The master and some of the seamen came again, and asked me if they might not steer such a point. I told them they might do as they would.

By this time the moon was quite down. A fresh gale arose, and the Lord hid us from them; we sailed briskly on and saw them no more.

The next day, being the first day of the week, we had a public meeting in the ship, as we usually had on that day throughout the voyage, and the Lord’s presence was greatly among us. I desired the people to remember the mercies of the Lord, who had delivered them; for they might have been all in the Turks’ hands by that time, had not the Lord’s hand saved them."

They did reach the New World, spent some time in Jamaica then came to North America where the ship landed in Maryland. By the time of Fox's arrival on the American mainland in 1672, there were already Quakers in New York and New Jersey. There were a total of ten Quakers in the party from England and they spread out to various colonies. George Fox made his way to Perquimans in Carolina where a Quaker from New England had earlier settled. The party of Quakers spent two years journeying and ministering and establishing Quaker Meetings in America. Making contact with Native Americans was also one of their priorities. Accounts of their various experiences are told in Fox's Journal. 

The master of the ship had gone to Fox for advice because he knew of the account in Acts 27 of Paul's difficult journey to Rome to appear before Caesar. Both the apostle Paul and George Fox had faith that no harm could come to them if they trusted in the guidance of God.

 

Acts.27

[1] And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band.
[2] And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

[9] Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,
[10] And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.
[11] Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.

[18] And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
[19] And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
[20] And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
[21] But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
[22] And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.
[23] For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
[24] Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
[25] Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.

[41] And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
[42] And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
[43] But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
[44] And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Acts 28

[11] And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.

[12] And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.

[13] And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: 

[14] Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome

 

Map in Phillips New Testament

Paul's Journey from Caesarea to Rome 

---

Matthew 8

[23] And when he [Jesus] was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
[24] And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
[25] And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
[26] And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.