“As all men are alike (tho’ infinitely various) So all Religions”. On the Philosophical and Religious Underpinnings of William Blake’s Cosmogony

Abstract

Moving from the Christian religion to the Western occult tradition, Blake’s religious syncretism emerges from a deep symbolic and thematic plot. This article aims to analyse how this religious and philosophical traditions may have played on Blake’s thought and to what extent it is possible to envisage in his poetical system a transmigration of symbols both from Christian doctrine and the Cabalistic tradition. Particular attention will be given to the analysis of the Prophetic Books, in which Blake created a cosmogony inhabited by Oriental deities, druids, and Old Testament characters.