BLAKE & QUAKERS

William Blake

Illustrations_to_Robert_Blair's_The_Grave

Friendship

Before his death in 2016 my husband, Larry Clayton, wrote this about how William Blake's thought and experience paralleled the development of Quakerism as George Fox brought it into being.

"The proliferation of radical believers brought forth by the Puritan Revolution included a group called Ranters, who had descended from the the 16th Century Familists of Holland. The direct guidance of the Holy Spirit freed the Ranters from most or all legal restraints, and they were given to extreme statements (and demonstrations!) of their freedom. The Society of Friends grew out of this fertile soil.

In the 17th Century George Fox, an idealistic young man, explored the wide variety of religious options present in the Commonwealth. From a strictly scriptural view point he found something lacking in each of them. For example Jesus had insisted that there should be no preeminence among the faithful ("Call no man father"). Fox found an unchristian preeminence in every religious group which he observed.

After several years of spiritual travail Fox came into an experience of grace. Thereafter he enjoyed the direct and continuous presence of the Holy Spirit guiding his words and actions; he recognized no other control. The ultimate anti-authoritarian, Fox began going to what he called the steeple houses, where he proceeded to denounce the preeminent in each of them. Naturally he won a lot of trouble for his pains. He saw the inside of many jails (like Paul had done), but he started something that's still going on. Modern Quakers still try to be the church together without preeminence. Fox and his friends refused to doff their hats and discarded all titles of honor in favor of the familiar 'thee'. Both of these postures were solid blows aimed at the demise of hierarchical society in favor of the brotherhood of man.

Through the centuries the idea of the inner light in a man's heart has caused various excesses, but Fox's heart was good and the Holy Spirit led him to gather numbers of people around the most admirable moral and social values. The strong anti-authoritarianism of the Friends incurred wrath and persecution from many directions; still they multiplied, witnessing to their spiritual power. By the late 18th Century they had become numerous, prosperous and respectable, and no doubt more conformed to the world than Fox's generation had been.

Blake undoubtedly knew something of the power embodied in the Quaker movement. After the Moment of Grace which Blake experienced, the Quaker term 'self-annihilation' became a key construct of his theology. We could relate other Blakean expressions to the Quaker language. Although Blake preferred to engrave his human forms nude, when he did represent man clothed, the traditional Quaker garb appeared as a symbol of the good and faithful man. Study of Blake's works and his biographers has revealed no formal connection with the Quaker community. Nevertheless many of Blake's values clearly resemble those of the Friends:

The Friends were anti-sacramentarian; they did not practice Baptism or Holy Communion, the two Protestant sacraments. In 'A Vision of the Last Judgment ' Blake put an apostle on each side of Jesus representing respectively Baptism and the Lord's Supper, but he proceeded to define them as follows: 'All Life consists of these Two, Throwing off Error and Knaves from our company continually, & Receiving Truth or Wise Men into our Company continually.'

He also said "The outward Ceremony is Antichrist." And in the famous lines of My Spectre he identified the bread and wine with forgiving and being forgiven, without which we can only commune unworthily.

'Throughout all Eternity

I forgive you you forgive me

As our dear Redeemer said 

 This the Wine & this the Bread'

As already noted Fox and his disciples had no use for priests. Blake used priests repeatedly as objects of derision. In his French Revolution for example the archbishop attempts to speak but finds that he can only hiss. In America Blake has the 'Priests in rustling scales Rush into reptile coverts'. Other examples could be given to show that Blake generally thought of priests as serpents though he did not apply this evaluation to the poor and powerless priests of the people.

The Quakers have always been noted for their refusal to participate in war. Blake held similar perspective on war. Throughout the 18th Century the Quakers vigorously opposed the slave trade, which had become a profitable element of England's commercial life. Unlike much of the establishment they had enough integrity to see clearly the spiritual implications of human bondage. They formed the first abolitionist society in England and disowned any Friend involved in the slave trade. John Woolman, perhaps the outstanding Quaker of the century, devoted his life to achieving the abolition of slavery. Blake was no Woolman, but one of his earliest prophetic works, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, is among other things a spirited outcry against slavery.

The Quaker oriented reader who becomes familiar with Blake will find other significant correspondences. (Look at the Pendle Hill document Woolman and Blake.) Of all the religious groups in existence today the Quakers in their theology most nearly approximate the thought forms and theology of William Blake. Borrowing a phrase from Northrup Frye the Quakers and Blake both understood 'the central form of Christianity as a vision rather than as a doctrine or ritual'".  

Reflections on an Ancient Land 

                                                                            Carolyn McPherson

 The blue-green waters of the Nile are calm, 

        As reluctant to yield up their ancient visions to we who come in modern times as are the 

        sand and rocky hills that stand like sentinels on the horizon.

White ibis stand in the sunken marsh and vie with small rowboats for a meal of fish.

Donkey and cattle graze in the alfalfa, 

        occasionally lifting their heads as an Egyptian in a galabeya steers his felluca along the

         river paths.  Both seem caught in time. 

The scenes along the river are those of a land that time has not touched, 

        yet we have just visited the excavated temples that this same Nile has covered for more 

        than forty centuries with sand and silt, mountains of it, a hundred feet high.

Modern buildings split the sky back downriver in Cairo, 

        and overlapping, unfinished edifices and crowded bazaars fill the air with noise

        and pollution.

Cell phones, roof satellite dishes, and Arabic graffiti are everywhere. 

Tourists pack into hotels, then re-emerge to motor to the feet of the Giza Pyramids. 

Giza --- her three, towering, ancient monuments stand silent and unyielding in the relentless   

        Sahara sun, still holding their secrets after 4.500 years, and even modern science cannot

        reveal them all.

What other glimpses of the past does the desert yet conceal? 

With the boat still gently floating, I close my eyes and take in the sounds and smells of the

         river --- smells from the kitchens near the riverbank, the water itself, and the mixed

         vegetation on the shore, mingled with the far-off sweet smell of drying grasses, and the 

         sunbaked sand and rock with its age and permanency. 

The steady, slow throb of the ship's engine. 

Breezes whistling softly through the banana trees, and the sudden braying of an unseen 

        donkey that sounds to my ears like the honk of a Canada goose.

Opening my eyes, I see fields of golden grain almost down to the edge of the water 

        and broken by stretches of green alfalfa and papyrus, all bending gently to the south.

White seabirds rise in small clouds above them. 

Workers row along the river's edge in low, flat boats, pulling weeds in the midst of the grain.  

Little straw hats pop into view now and then, some leaning precariously toward the water. 

         There are no Nile Crocodiles to fear now, since the new High Dam was built.

What must it be like to live on the edge of this ancient river, glimpsing thousands of years?

Our New World experience is so new compared to the history of these people ---

        how can we appreciate their changes, their heritage, 

        and their wealth in what was as well as what is and what needs to be? 

Our cultural accumulations seem so fleeting in comparison with their rich past, their

         willingness to endure. 

And yet the real wealth here is not in the tombs, or the golden artifacts, or in the statues found        

         in the temples. It is in the Nile --- in the life-blood it provides to this country. 

         Without it, the Sahara sand would creep over this land, swallowing everything the 

         blazing sun did not first kill.

Without the Nile, both east and west banks would become lands of the dead. 

We have so much to learn from and about one another, we humans.  We grow up in a single culture, most of us, knowing little else.  We may have been put on this planet to learn about each other and to make a better world for the children and grandchildren who will follow us.

And yet we start from an early age playing up our differences rather than our commonalities, and end up destroying some parts of the earth for the benefit of other parts.

What wonders or horrors will we leave in the next forty centuries for those who come after us?

  

 

     

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

My attention was drawn to the hymn This Is My Father's World by remembering that it includes the words 'Music of the Spheres.' The concept is an ancient one, explored by Pythagoras and contradicted by Aristotle. The astronomer Kepler took it very seriously; he concluded that "the Solar System was composed of two basses (Saturn and Jupiter), a tenor (Mars), two altos (Venus and Earth), and a soprano (Mercury), which had sung in “perfect concord,” at the beginning of time, and could potentially arrange themselves to do so again."

The imaginations of contemporary musicians and scientists are stimulated by considering relationships among the vibrations of notes which produce music and the arrangement of planets in various solar systems.

This video lets us listen to music which would be produced by The Harmonic Series Played By Planets.

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An Astronomer who is also a musician has produced a Ted Talk on this subject. Matt Russo introduces a way to hear with our ears what we thought was only visible to our eyes.

What does the universe sound like? He gives a musical tour of what the universe sounds like.

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Since sound does not travel through a vacuum whatever sound our earth makes would not be audible from space. However our planet does emit electromagnetic waves which can be translated to audible sound wave just like radio waves become sound waves from our radios. This video lets us listen to waves Earth produces.

Electromagnetic waves as sound

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Returning to our original hymn, This Is My Father's World, we can listen to a recording which is arranged to emphasize that the world is the vehicle through which spiritual music is being played.

 This Is My Father's World

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The Dawn of a new day

 

As the sun peak 

Over the horizon

Many are awakening 

Many are rising.

The dawn of a new day,

Approaching the light

As the Great Spirit 

approach all the living.

Ending the fight of night, 

Awakening the bulk 

of humanity’s slumber

Into their comforting rise.

As the sun is the glory of the day, 

So is the Ever-Present the light of all lights,

The Great Spirit, the glory of the universe.

And so the celestial light shines, 

Awakening all to see clearly.

The new era, the dawn of light, 

Shinning in the midst of a a dark night,

Which must fade again

Into day.

A brand new day dawns today,

Wake up from the pleasant dream

Which seems to never end.

Cycles come and cycles go,

But today is the day to awaken to new possibilities.

The birds are chirping a new song 

of life, of harmony.

Above all things the song reminds me of my own wings,

And that it is no longer night.

It is a new day

We approach the new day in a new way.

Humanity is reaching ripeness today.

It is a time of love.

A time of peace is approaching,

It is a time of knowing.

We must face the east,

The stars are glowing in the sky and within.

It is time to throw away

 all burdens and sing,

The song you have found within,

It is the dawn of a new day.

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. 

  

WINGS OF EAGLES

J.R.R.Tolkien
Bilbo Carried by Eagle

David played the music of this hymn as the prelude to our worship today. 

***

This Hymn was mentioned in Biden's victory speech on November 7, 2020.

On Eagle's Wings

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord,
who abide in his shadow for life,
say to the Lord: "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!"

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.

The snare of the fowler will never capture you,
and famine will bring you no fear:
under his wings your refuge,
his faithfulness your shield.

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.

You need not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day;
though thousands fall about you,
near you it shall not come.

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.

For to his angels he's given a command
to guard you in all of your ways;
upon their hands they will bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.

This is not a traditional hymn. It was composed in 1976 and came into usage first in Catholic churches. But is not based on new ideas. It goes back much further to Psalm 91 in the Old Testament. This Psalm is referred to in the New Testament in the temptation of Jesus. The devil quoted scripture by using words from Psalm 91 in tempting Jesus to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus refuted the devil by quoting additional scripture from Deuteronomy .  

Psalms 91
[1] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
[3] Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
[4] He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
[5] Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
[6] Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
[7] A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
[8] Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
[9] Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
[10] There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
[11] For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
[12] They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[13] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
[14] Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
[15] He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
[16] With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

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Deuteronomy 6
[16] Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
[17] Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
[18] And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,

Matthew 4
[5] Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
[6] And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[7] Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

 

A QUAKER POEM

 I AM A QUAKER

BY DIANE FAISON MCKINZIE

It is loud, the silence that I hear, 

I am a Quaker and in my silence, I draw God near.

 

Respect for other religions is always in my sight, 

I am a Quaker and know the different paths to God are alright.

 

Bear witness to the humanity of all people, no matter if they are White Black, Tan, or Brown. 

I am a Quaker, and I know and respect that all the different people make the world go round.

 

Plain in our dress is no more, I am a Quaker and wear clothes of today 

but this modern attire does not steer me from my “Quaker Way”.

 

A gun, a sword, a lynching rope of death, a vile of poison to end a life these are all venues that I cannot use or understand. 

I am a Quaker, and using these tools of violence is not what I want to hold in my hand.

 

My meditation and my “still” minutes in my every day, 

help me to hear what God has to say. 

I am a Quaker, and we are just that way.

 

Some say our faith is strange. Some say “We are not Christians”. Some say our meeting houses are too plain.

I say “Yes, we are Christians”, and say “I’m sorry you didn’t know”. If
our faith seems strange, it’s because their search for Quaker facts truly
lacks.

 

Meeting houses stand in beautiful “plain” sites so the spiritual mind won't stray, 

so we can keep focus, and pray.

 

  I am a human, I am a woman, I am a Christian, and all of these are me.

THAT MAKES ME A QUAKER YOU SEE.