Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision

by Marsha Keith Schuchard

Book Overview

Written by a leading William Blake scholar, this is an intriguing and controversial history of the poet and artist, which reveals a world of waking visions, magical practices, sexual-spiritual... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0712620168
• ISBN13: 9780712620161
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Century
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating!

This is an absolutely fascinating book! Although many in the Swedenborgian ("New Church") community may take exception to some of Dr. Schuchard's statements about Swedenborg's influences, the author has researched her subject for a great many years and has had access to material unknown to or deliberately ignored by others. It is a pity that Dr. Schuchard's original, unabridged manuscript could not have been published, but its length was apparently impractical for a commercial publisher to issue. For anyone interested in the background of Blake's work, particularly his "prophetic" books, Dr. Schuchard's study is unquestionably required reading. For Swedenborgians who are open-minded enough to read this book without parochial preconceptions, there is extremely interesting material here that may shed light on the background of some of the more perplexing statements in "Conjugial Love." Congratulations, Dr. Schuchard, on a book that will hopefully reach a much larger audience than your previous scholarly works, which also deserve to be carefully read, if one can afford to buy them!

A reader from England

The danger of a work like this is that the central character is re-inventd to meet the age of the biographer. In the Sixties we had Blake the revolutionary, and now we have Blake the Tantrist. On the face of it however I think the author offers enough evidence to justify her slant on the man. She certainly fills in the missing piece in the Blake biographical jigsaw. For the first time the sub-cultural influences on Blake are brought to the fore. Now we can see the religious, spiritual and sexual ideas that influenced Blake so strongly, and where they came from. The breakthrough was discovering the Blake family's involvement in the Moravian church. Prior to this EP Thompson had postulated an involvement with Muggletonian dissenters, but no one had known for sure. The Moravian link answers many questions. Swedenborg was closely involved with this church during his stays in London. Many of Blake's friends and aquaintances were linked to this church, or to the various secret societies that trod similar ground. This book looks at the influence of Swedenborg's ideas, as it does the sacred sexuality of the alchemists, the ancient Freemasons, the Rosicrucians and the Kabbalists of the time. The'new' interest in mesmerism also influenced Blake. Blake's artistic style was inspired by these same sources. Schuchard may not have got it all right [see the previous review] but she enters new territory and she opens the way for further research. She quotes Swedenborg extensively and clearly has researched him in some depth so I question the accuracy of her being a 'fraud'. For me this is one of the most exciting texts about Blake to appear for years, and it throws much light on what was previously only guessed at. The book reads very well. It makes assumptions about the state of Blake's marriage based upon the plots of his various works, which may or may not be accurate. But one feels by the end of it, that one has had light thrown on what previously was obscure and puzzling. My only criticism would be the quality of the illustrations which are cheaply produced, especially compared to the lavishness of the Bentley biography, 'Stranger in Paradise'. A small matter, this is a major work. It needs to be read.

This book will amaze you

I am going to 'jump in' and give a preliminary review of Ms. Schuchard's new book based on the article of the same name she posted in the online journal Esoterica (Vol. II, 2000). I had previously read her marvelous book, Restoring the Temple: Cabalistic Freemasonry and Stuart Culture (Brill, 2002), and found her work is much in the vein of Dame Frances Yates, with great elucidation of the convergence of philosophical and historical context with scrupulous attention to detail based on primary-souce references. Her article, and I assume her book will go into even greater detail, explored the diverse and sometimes tumultuous milieu of 18th century London and the esoteric circles of Moravians, Kaballists, and Occultists out of which were generated the magnificent visions and art of Swedenborg and William Blake. At the core of these esoteric influences were what can only be described as Christian/Kaballistic Tantric sexual practices that provided the operational energia for practitioners to achieve sublime heights of religious vision and experience. These also had their 'down side' for individual souls whose development could not compass the powers they sought to raise through their intensive practices. The detail with which she explores the spiritual/sexual methodology of Blake, Swedenborg, and their circle is almost unprecedented in Western scholarship (except perhaps for Arthur Versluis), but certainly welcome. It sheds important light on similar movements in 17th, 18th, and 19th century Europe and America. Having read Blake and written papers on him as an undergraduate, I was always intrigued as to how he arrived at his incredible visions and exquisite art. This book will place Blake and Swedenborg, and others of lesser renown, into a rich historical context that includes Protestant and Kaballistic illuminatory traditions and practices, as well as the early cultural confluence of Eastern Buddhist and Tibetan traditions and practices with Western audiences. This is not a book for the squeamish or the moral fundamentalist, as these people will likely not be able to abide with the truths being revealed. For the rest of us, it will become a major cornerstone of Western literary and esoteric scholarship.