William Blake was born on this day exactly 260 years ago. William Blake was one of the greatest poets of the English language, but he was also a mystic whose vision continues to inform the lives of many people. His vision was Christian, but it was so broadly Christian that it included all religions. One could see him as the Thomas Merton of the 18th Century way ahead of his time. Famously he wrote “All Religions are one”, of which this is the title page:
And then in his poem “The Divine Image” he acknowledged the place of all religions as part of the common human experience:
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
One of Blake’s most passionate followers in the 20th Century was the poet and mystic Kathleen Raine. Here is a link to one of her many books on Blake which is freely available: http://thehealingproject.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Kathleen-Raine.-1970.-William-Blake.pdf
Enjoy!
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Summer 2023 
To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower…That’s what creativity means to me!