Mark Vernon is the author of the new book Awake!: William Blake and the Power of the Imagination. His other books include Spiritual Intelligence in Seven Steps. Also a psychotherapist, he lives in London.
Q: What inspired you to write this book about the poet and painter William Blake (1757-1827)?
A: I live in South London, on a street that Blake himself would have walked and, being drawn to mystical forms of Christianity, wanted to get to know my local mystic better. He was one of the genius minds of his time and spending time with him, in writing a book, has settled my initial intuition that he has much to say to us now.
Q: How did you research his life, and did you learn anything that especially intrigued you?
A: I went to other places in London he knew, which was surprisingly illuminating. I also took part in a number of reading groups, under the guidance of a couple of brilliant teachers.
Blake continually intrigues but one thing grew clearer and clearer to me: he wasn’t a lonely visionary but someone who knew the leading thinkers of the age and could readily match them for insights.
He was also enormously widely read, being one of the early readers in English of the Bhagavad Gita, for instance, as well as someone who could cite figures from Ancient Greek philosophers to contemporary Indigenous Americans, visiting Georgian London.
Q: What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about Blake?
A: He was accused of being mad in his lifetime and rebutted the accusation. Nowadays, scholars and writers try to diagnose him, too.
However, I learnt, from a period working in a psychiatric hospital that those suffering delusions don’t become great artists and prophets, and Blake was clearly both.
Rather, he offers us the end of a golden string, as he puts it, to wind into a ball that will transform our perception of things. I think we can take him at his word and, gradually, discover more of what he meant.
Q: The scholar Linda Woodhead said of the book, “In the face of pitiless politics, oppressive religion and soulless work, argues Vernon, Blake still points us to a way of innocence, joy and enhanced perception.” What do you think of that description?
A: Innocence for Blake was not a kind of naive ignorance, but an open-minded perception that instills wisdom. It brings joy, as well as sadness, because through the darkness that is undoubtedly deep and widespread, a stronger light and love can reliably be known. So, yes: Blake does point us to a richer, more soulful life, often undermined by the bleaker, narrower assumptions of the modern world.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m still working on Blake, in fact, because talking about him with others in public and on podcasts is a great way of discovering more of what he has to say and why it matters now.
Another writer who is very influential on me, Owen Barfield (friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien), was also deeply affected by Blake, saying Blake led to a re-enchanted participation with life. So I am contemplating Barfield on Blake as well.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Blake can become a friend for life. He understood what was unfolding in the decades of the Georgian period, which included many facets of the worldview that we take for granted, and developed a fascinating and exciting spiritual analysis, which I believe can revive our sense of who we are and revitalise our communion with the world around us.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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