A Mystic's Pilgrimage Back To “Eternity”

The study of William Blake is always more or less associated with mysticism.However,as a practitioner,he also recorded what knowledge he received by means of vision or communion with Eternity in a form veiled from corporeal or direct understanding,that is,he hid what he hoped to deliver to mankind in his own system of mythology,waiting for later generations to demystify.In this paper,we seek to trace his mystic path of spiritual development from the particular angle of his literary associations,which follow in time sequence,with the theocratic basis of Evelyn Underhill's five stages of spiritual pilgrimage.This paper deliberately chooses three of the most important literary associations in Blake's life—his experience with Mrs.Mathew's bluestocking salons in early years,his association with bookseller Johnson's Friends of Liberty in middle age,and his intercourse with a group of young disciples in Hampstead during his later years.A work composed in the same period is analyzed respectively.Besides,prior to the body part,this paper,in the first chapter,introduces Blake as a mystic poet,points out his distinction from other mystics,and further illustrates the theoretic basis employed by this paper—the five stages to spiritual awakening.Blake tries to manifest through his Songs of Innocence and Experience,along with prophetic books his perception of spiritual development--from innocence to experience,and from experience to enhanced innocence.But in this paper,we tend to enrich and systemize Blake's idea of spiritual development,with the tool of Evelyn Underhill's five stages of spiritual pilgrimage,and further point out that Blake's idea,enriched by Miss.Underhill's theory,can be universally applicable,to the development of human society,or even the evolution of the whole universe.