Visions of God

       According to Blake Ezekiel once acted out a bizarre symptom of the prospects of the Israelites, lying for an inordinate period of time on his left side, then another period on his right. Mr. Blake had a conversatiion with him about that and asked him why he had done it; the answer came clearly: "the desire of raising other [people] into a perception of the infinite" (Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 13)


    Who can doubt that William actually had that interview with Zeke? But if truth be known, that desire became the agenda for Blake's life, and perhaps the generic life purpose of every true prophet.
       He saw things that most of us don't see, and he urgently needed to show them to us, to show us how to see them.

    There are many kinds of seeing and many levels of consciousness, but with the natural proclivity to resort to the dialectic we might say there are two:


       1. The sense-based, natural, materialistic time and space consciousness (Blake called this Ulro; Jesus called it Hell).

       2. 1st Corinthians 13:12:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Jesus showed us with his life how to live eternally; and he told us we could do it. Blake did it, periodically at least, and like Jesus he wanted us to share that heavenly gift.
       He called it Vision; that's what he lived for, those eternal moments were all that matters. If you can't do it continuously, then you can talk about it, write about it, draw it, paint it. He did (and you can) show us how to see.

God appears and God is Light 

To those poor Souls who dwell in Night, 
But does a Human Form display 
To those who dwell in Realms of Day.

The Ancient of Days (1794)
Watercolor etching by William Blake

(William Blake, Auguries of Innocence)



This leads to the Ancient of Days: 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Ancient of Days is a name for God in the Biblical Book of  Daniel: in the original Aramaic Atik Yomin; in the Greek Septuagint Palaios Hemeron; and in the Vulgate Antiquus Dierum.
The title "Ancient of Days" has been used as a source of inspiration in art and music, denoting the Creator's aspects of eternity combined with perfection. William Blake's watercolour and relief etching entitled "The Ancient of Days" is one such example.

Immortal, invisible, God Only Wise