Blake's Psyche

Be Still and know that I am God

The young Blake doesn't appear (to me) to be a very silent type. From earliest years his mind was gifted with a marvelous intellect and a unique imagination. He revealed it in the visions that seemed to continuously fill his mind.

Blade must have had a prodigious reading gift; it led him to a familiar acquaintance with the treasures of a wide gamut of cultures. No wonder he despised Locke with his tabula raza; Blake knew in his bones that it just wasn't so.

"I give you the end of a golden string, only wind it into a ball;
It will let you in at Heaven's Gate, built in Jerusalem's Wall."
Blake had a long string, which he had built feverishly over his first twenty odd years. Then his Vision stopped; what happened?

Angels had been coming to his door, but now they didn't; he was too busy making a living; but as a poet and an artist, he was an oddball. For most of us angels come in the silence; but Blake wasn't silent, still feverish, but feverish for a different purpose. For the purpose he had adopted (which he called the Main Chance) the only angels were dark ones.

What happened at the Truchsessian Gallery? (You must read the link if you want to know what this picture of Nebuchadnezzar means here.)
I think Blake had gotten silent. He remembered "be still and know that I am God"; he heard the still small voice; and his purpose changed; he no longer strived to "get ahead" (in the materialistic dimension); henceforth he would create!! The angels started coming to Blake, not the dark ones that ensue from worry and striving.

The first step for most of us is silence; get quiet; stop thinking; open the door to your Unconscious; the angels will start coming; not the dark ones, the angels from Heaven.

Is silence impossible for you? for many it's anathema, something to be avoided at all costs. The Unconscious is a can of worms; it's where God and the Devil fight for your soul (or in Blake's case where Urizen and Los fought).

The natural development of a person is from extraversion to introversion, from dependence upon mom and daddy, or buddy, or whoever to self-reliance and hopefully individuality. This movement took place in Blake's life; like ours as well. In the fullness of time; his visit to the Truchsessian Gallery was the acceptable time.

Blake put aside mundane affairs and concentrated on the One thing that matters. He gave his whole mind (and his gifts) to the Angels (he called them Visions of Eternity) and he left us magnificent visions to enjoy (and live by!). So he climbed Jacob's ladder, leaving behind for us the Golden Thread.