John Dunn

Dictates of the angels

Who cares whether William Blake consciously used metaphors or not, he was trying to express a reality that is lost to common thought, i.e. the thought of the Innocents as understood in the Mythology, the living thought that arises simultaneously with sensory perception, but which is lost and seemingly presented back in the form of ‘reality’.

I am under the direction of messengers from Heaven daily and nightly…. But if we fear to do the dictates of our angels and tremble at the tasks set before us, if we refuse to do spiritual acts because of natural fears or natural desires! Who can describe the dismal tortures of such a state. (Letter Blake to Butts 1803)