William Blake's 250th Birthday

Today is the 250th birthday of William Blake, and there are a few articles in the British newspapers about him:-


Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Blakean visions in south London
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Face to faith
Fresh finds unveil Blake's mystic world | UK News | The Observer
Blake power - Times Online

Blake really was a Gnostic. His works inverted and subverted conventional religion, he used creative mythology to express his views of the world and mankind, and above all, he was concerned with personal spiritual experience--Gnosis. He could only have come across ancient Gnostic doctrine in encyclopedias or in the Hermetica or possibly in heresiological accounts, but this was enough for him to recreate the Gnostic myth in a new form, and to live it.