Many Songs.

Here is Sibelius
Here's Beethoven Concerto
Here's Mendelhson 1

Light and Cloud

                                            A Contrary

This is a painting called, "God Judging Adam.
It had a very bright background full of Light, but the chariot of God has a dark cloud all around it;

---

This one is called Glad Day

From the King James Bible; Psalms 118, verse 24:

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

But our interest here is the Contrary of Light and Cloud.

---

We were driving south from Washington, D.C. under a heavy cloud; when we came to the

south end of Virginian, there was a very dramatic line of the clouds; we drove into

N.C. and the clouds were completely gone.

In the Beginning God said, "let there be light". The world began with Light.
1:27 So God created man in his own image
2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

We could say that the Living Souls were full of Light; they came down from above (created by God)
But the Light became Cloudy when Eve (and then Adam) ate the forbidden fruit.

---

In the Sea of Time and Space The nymphs, with their buckets filled with Light came into the Water
(which makes Clouds). In due course they may perhaps come back out of the Sea, giving up mortal life to become Immortals.

This is the primary myth of the Bible (and of William Blake), a descent and then an ascent.

Clouds is a metaphor the earthiness, for sin, for misfortunes of every sort.

Church people sing: : "O they tell me of the Unclouded day"

And "Melt the Clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away."

And secular people may sing "O give me a home where the skies are not cloudy all day".

If you want more on Light, look at this post.

Vala is generally pictured as the Evil or Fallen female.  This passage is essentially about Vala
when she has suborned Jerusalem in the dark days of clouds over the Light:

"A pillar of smoke writhing afar into Non-Entity, redounding

Till the cloud reaches afar outstretch'd among the Starry Wheels
Which revolve heavily in the mighty Void above the Furnaces

O what avail the loves & tears of Beulahs lovely Daughters
They hold the Immortal Form in gentle bands & tender tears       
But all within is open'd into the deeps of Entuthon Benython
A dark and unknown night, indefinite, unmeasurable, without end.
Abstract Philosophy warring in enmity against Imagination
(Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus. blessed for ever).
And there Jerusalem wanders with Vala upon the mountains,        
Attracted by the revolutions of those Wheels the Cloud of smoke
Immense, and Jerusalem & Vala weeping in the Cloud
Wander away into the Chaotic Void, lamenting with her Shadow
Among the Daughters of Albion, among the Starry Wheels;
Lamenting for her children, for the sons & daughters of Albion"

(Plate 5 of Milton; Erdman 148)

Blake's poetry makes continuous use of these symbols of Light,Clouds, and Darkness.

Bohme III

new primer

CHANGE LINE SPACING HERE

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? B Extracts from "PREFACE TO THE READER" of 'Signature'

(Bohme wrote this preface in straight prose pointing out the use of the "language of Zion", which he used much more often that William Blake did.  He was able to maintain the common devout language to express the divergences that he (and Blake as well) held regarding orthodoxy.)
**********************************************************

THIS book is a true mystical mirror of the highest wisdom. The best treasure that a man can attain unto in this world is true knowledge; even the knowledge of himself: For man is the great mystery of God, the microcosm, or the complete abridgment of the whole universe: He is the mirandum Dei opus, God's masterpiece, a living emblem and hieroglyphic of eternity and time; and therefore to know whence he is, and what his temporal and eternal being and well-being are, must needs be that ONE necessary thing, to which all our chief study should aim, and in comparison of which all the wealth of this world is but dross, and a loss to us.
.........................
This is that wisdom which dwells in nothing, and yet possesses all things, and the humble resigned soul is its playfellow; this is the divine alloquy, the inspiration of the Almighty, the breath of God, the holy unction, which sanctifies the soul to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, which instructs it aright in all things, 

This is the precious pearl, whose beauty is more glorious, and whose virtue more sovereign than the sun: It is a never-failing comfort in all afflictions, a balsam for all sores, a panacea for all diseases, a sure antidote against all poison, and death itself; it is that joyful and assured companion and guide, which never forsakes a man, but convoys him through this valley of misery and death into the blessed paradise of perfect bliss.

If you ask, What is the way to attain to this wisdom? Behold! Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, tells you plainly in these words; "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me;" [*2] or as he

[p. 4]
says elsewhere, "Unless you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven:" or as St. Paul says, "If any man seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." [*1]

Herein lies that simple childlike way to the highest wisdom, which no sharp reason or worldly learning can reach unto; nay, it is foolishness to reason, and therefore so few go the way to find it: The proud sophisters and wiselings of this world have always trampled it under foot with scorn and contempt, and have called it enthusiasm, madness, melancholy, whimsy, fancy, etc., but wisdom is justified of her children.
...............
This is the true theosophic school wherein this author learned the first rudiments and principles of wisdom, and to which we must go if we would understand his deep writings: For we must know that the sons of Hermes, who have commenced in the high school of true magic and theosophy, have always spoken their hidden wisdom in a mystery; and have so couched it under shadows and figures, parables and similies, that none can understand their obscure, yet clear writings, but those who have had admittance into the same school, and have tasted of the Feast of Pentecost.

And this does not seem at all strange to the children of divine Mercury; for the mysteries of philosophy, divinity, and theosophy must not be profaned, and laid open to the view of the outward astral reason, which turns all to its selfish pride, covetousness, envy, wrath, and cunning hypocrisy; and therefore a parabolical or magical phrase or dialect is the best and plainest habit and dress that mysteries can have to travel in up and down this wicked world: And thus parable have a double and different respect and use; for as they conceal and hide secrets from the rude and vulgar sort, 
**************************************************
We see here a mixture of New Testament wisdom and esoteric wisdom, such as "the sons of Hermes" and "children of divine Mercury"; this indicates that (like Blake) Bohme did not consider the Bible to be the sole Word of God.
*******************************************************
[p. 5]
patient to bear anything but what suits with their common conceits and opinions, so likewise they sweetly lead the mind of the true searcher into the depths of wisdom's council. They are as the cloudy pillar of Moses; they have a dark part, and they have a light part; they are dark to the Egyptians, the pharisaical sons of sophistry, but light to the true Israel, the children of the mystery.
(This also shows the unorthodox way with which Bohme used Scripture; it also gives evidence that he, too was widely read.)
*********************************************************
And therefore whoever will be nurtured and trained up by Sophia, and learn to understand and speak the language of wisdom, must be born again of and in the Word of Wisdom, Christ Jesus, the Immortal Seed: The divine essence which God breathed into his paradisical soul must be revived, and he must become one again with that which he was in God before he was a creature, and then his Eternal Spirit may enter into that which is within the veil, and see not only the literal, but the moral, allegorical, and anagogical meaning of the wise and their dark sayings: He then will be fit to enter, not only into Solomon's porch, the outer court of natural philosophy, sense and reason, but likewise into the inward court of holy and spiritual exercises, in divine understanding and knowledge; and so he may step into the most inward and holiest place of theosophical mysteries, into which none are admitted to come, but those who have received the high and holy unction.
***********************************************************
(Blake said:
    "Ive a wife I love and that loves me.
    Ive all but Riches Bodily"
Paul, the apostle wrote in Philippians 3:
"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ"


************************************************************

I will now endeavour briefly to hint to the reader what this book contains, though in it the spirit of wisdom cannot be delineated with pen and ink, no more than a sound can be painted, or the wind grasped in the hollow of the hand: But know, that in it he deciphers and represents in a lively manner the Signature of all Things, and gives you the contents of eternity and time, and glances at all mysteries.
In a word, his intent is to let you know the inward power and property by the outward sign;
But the proud scorner that will take no warning is of Lucifer's regiment, who saw the mystery of God's kingdom to stand in meekness, simplicity, and deep humility, and therefore out of his pride would aspire to be above the divine love, and harmony
[p. 7]
of obedience to God's will, and so fell into the abyss of the dark world, into the outmost darkness of the first principle, which we call Hell, where he and his legions are captives; from which the Almighty God of Love deliver us.

I will end with the words of the author at the conclusion of the book, where he says thus; "I have faithfully, with all true admonition, represented to the reader what the Lord of all beings has given me; he may behold himself in this looking-glass [*1] within and without, and so he shall find what and who he is: Every reader, be he good or bad, will find his profit and benefit therein: It is a very clear gate of the great mystery of all beings: By glosses, commentaries, curiosity and self-wit, none shall be able to reach or apprehend it in his own ground; but it may very well meet and embrace the true seeker, and create him much profit and joy; yea be helpful to him in all natural things, provided he applies himself to it aright, and seeks in the fear of God, seeing it is now a time of seeking; for a lily blossoms upon the mountains and valleys in all the ends of the earth: 'He that seeketh findeth.'" And so I commend the reader to the grace and love of Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Footnotes

^3:1 Cor. ii. 10.

^3:2 Luke ix. 23.

^4:1 1 Cor. iii. 13.

Plate 55

“PLATE 55

When those who disregard all Mortal Things, saw a Mighty-One

Among the Flowers of Beulah still retain his awful strength

They wonderd; checking their wild flames & Many gathering

Together into an Assembly; they said, let us go down

And see these changes! Others said, If you do so prepare       

For being drived from our fields, what have we to do with the

    Dead?

To be their inferiors or superiors we equally abhor;

Superior, none we know: inferior none: all equal share

Divine Benevolence & joy, for the Eternal Man

Walketh among us, calling us his Brothers & his Friends:       

Forbidding us that Veil which Satan puts between Eve & Adam

By which the Princes of the Dead enslave their Votaries

Teaching them to form the Serpent of precious stones & gold

To sieze the Sons of Jerusalem & plant them in One Mans Loins

To make One Family of Contraries: that Joseph may be sold      

Into Egypt: for Negation; a Veil the Saviour born & dying rends.

Plate 55

But others said: Let us to him who only Is, & who

Walketh among us, give decision. bring forth all your fires!

So saying, an eternal deed was done: in fiery flames

The Universal Conc[l]ave raged, such thunderous sounds as never t

Were sounded from a mortal cloud, nor on Mount Sinai old

Nor in Havilah where the Cherub rolld his redounding flame.

Loud! loud! the Mountains lifted up their voices, loud the

    Forests

Rivers thunderd against their banks, loud Winds furious fought

Cities & Nations contended in fires & clouds & tempests.       

The Seas raisd up their voices & lifted their hands on high

The Stars in their courses fought. the Sun! Moon! Heaven! Earth.

Contending for Albion & for Jerusalem his Emanation

And for Shiloh, the Emanation of France & for lovely Vala.

Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation   

And they Elected Seven, calld the Seven Eyes of God;

Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus.

They namd the Eighth. he came not, he hid in Albions Forests

But first they said: (& their Words stood in Chariots in array

Curbing their Tygers with golden bits & bridles of silver &

    ivory)    

Let the Human Organs be kept in their perfect Integrity

At will Contracting into Worms, or Expanding into Gods

And then behold! what are these Ulro Visions of Chastity[!]

Then as the moss upon the tree: or dust upon the plow:

Or as the sweat upon the labouring shoulder: or as the chaff

Of the wheat-floor or as the dregs of the sweet wine-press

Such are these Ulro Visions, for tho we sit down within

The plowed furrow, listning to the weeping clods till we

Contract or Expand Space at will: or if we raise ourselves

Upon the chariots of the morning. Contracting or Expanding Time!

Every one knows, we are One Family! One Man blessed for ever

Silence remaind & every one resumd his Human Majesty

And many conversed on these things as they labourd at the furrow

Saying: It is better to prevent misery, than to release from

    misery

It is better to prevent error, than to  forgive the criminal:  

Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones:

And those who are in misery cannot remain so long

If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth.

They Plow'd in tears, the trumpets sounded before the golden Plow

And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds

    of heaven

Crying: Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with unhewn

   Demonstrations

Let the Indefinite be explored. and let every Man be judged

By his own Works, Let all Indefinites be thrown into

    Demonstrations

To be pounded to dust & melted in the Furnaces of Affliction:

He who would do good to another, must do it in Minute

    Particulars

General Good is the plea of the scoundrel hypocrite & flatterer:

For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized

    Particulars

And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.

The Infinite alone resides in Definite & Determinate Identity

Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood

    continually  

On Circumcision: not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion

So cried they at the Plow. Albions Rock frowned above

And the Great Voice of Eternity rolled above terrible in clouds

Saying Who will go forth for us! & Who shall we send before our

    face?

(Erdman 204-5)

Notes on Plate 55:

This plate begins with an account of activity of ‘those who disregard all mortal things’, in other words the Eternal Ones. They had observed the redemption of Albion and his parts (described in the previous chapter). Some wanted to 'go down’ to Beulah, but others urged caution: 'don’t get mixed up with the dead’, they said, because the Divine Man had forbidden them Satan’s veil (prevalent in mortal life). “a veil the Saviour born and dying rends”.
“So saying an eternal deed was done..” Blake proceeds to picture the tumultuous event.  It led to their election “of the Seven Eyes of God” (Night 1 of The Four Zoas dwells on the Seven Eyes, and Milton Percival has a chapter on them; it’s very profitable to read both of these interpretations.)

plate 52a

|The Spiritual States of


|the Soul are all Eternal  


Rahab is an       |   To the Deists.      |Distinguish between the

Eternal State                              Man, & his present State  

He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher
of Natural Morality or Natural Religion. he is a flatterer who
means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that
Babylon which he foresees shall shortly be destroyed, with the
Spiritual and not the Natural Sword: He is in the State named
Rahab: which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of
Man.

You O Deists profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity:
and you are so: you are also the Enemies of the Human Race and of
Universal Nature.  Man is born a Spectre or Satan and is altogether
an Evil, and requires a New Selfhood continually and must continually
be changed into his direct Contrary.  But your Greek Philosophy
(which is a remnant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in
his Vegetated Spectre: an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence
to Man, as the Ancients saw plainly by Revelation to the intire
abrogation of
Experimental Theory. and many believed what they saw, and
Prophecied of Jesus.
Man must and will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion
of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the
Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God; and
destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God.
Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the
Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches
Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not
the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine
Name   Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God
of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and
Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or
Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart.
This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus.  Deism
is the same and ends in the same.

Voltaire Rousseau Gibbon Hume. charge the Spiritually Religious
with Hypocrisy! but how a Monk or a Methodist either, can be a
Hypocrite: I cannot concieve.  We are Men of like passions with
others and pretend not to be holier than others: therefore, when a
Religious Man falls into Sin, he ought not to be calld a
Hypocrite: this title is more properly to be given to a Player
who falls into Sin; whose profession is Virtue and Morality and the
making Men Self-Righteous.  Foote in calling Whitefield,
Hypocrite: was himself one: for Whitefield pretended not to be
holier than others: but confessed his Sins before all the World;

Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot escape my charge that you are
Pharisees & Hypocrites, for you are constantly talking of the
Virtues of the Human Heart, and particularly of your own, that
you may accuse others and especially the Religious, whose errors,
you by this display of pretended Virtue, chiefly design to
expose.  Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature; he found them Evil
and found no friend.  Friendship cannot exist without Forgiveness
of Sins continually.  The Book written by Rousseau calld his
Confessions is an apology and cloke for his sin and not a confession.
But you also charge the poor Monks and Religious with being the
causes of War: while you acquit and flatter the Alexanders and
Caesars, the Lewis's and Fredericks: who alone are its causes  its
actors.  But the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never
be the cause of a War nor of a single Martyrdom.

Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never
can be Forgivers of Sin.  The Glory of Christianity is, To
Conquer by Forgiveness.  All the Destruction therefore, in
Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural
Religion.                         

I saw a Monk of Charlemaine     Arise before my sight

I  talkd with the Grey Monk as we stood                       
in beams of infernal light

Plate 52

Gibbon arose with a lash of steel                            
And Voltaire with a wracking wheel
The Schools in clouds of learning rolld                      
Arose with War in iron and gold.

Thou lazy Monk they sound afar                               
In vain condemning glorious War                                
And in your Cell you shall ever dwell                        
Rise War and bind him in his Cell.

The blood. red ran from the Grey Monks side
His hands and feet were wounded wide
His body bent, his arms and knees         

Like to the roots of ancient trees


When Satan first the black bow bent
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent
He forgd the Law into a Sword
And spilld the blood of mercys Lord.
Titus! Constantine!  Charlemaine!          

O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
Your Grecian Mocks and Roman Sword               
Against this image of his Lord!

For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;                      
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe                        
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!

(Erdman 200-202)

Notes:
 

In Chapter Three, To the Deists, Blake gave free rein to his life long hostility to Conventional Religion, which in upper classes at least boiled down to Deism.  They believed in a God who created the world (like a monstrous watch, and left it to function thereafter on its own; This God (in the far away) had little or now concern for his human creatures. This was about as opposite to Blake faith and values as one could get.

So In Plate 52 he resorted to detailed reasoned arguments, pretty much tearing that faith to pieces.

In particular “Natural Morality or Natural Religion” was the way Deists described their faith.  

Quakers believed ‘there was that of God in every man’, and Blake (like Christians) might have said that of God in the Redeemed men.

Anyway Blake goes on to excoriate those who call Christians hypocrits:

“Man must and will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion

of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the

Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God;”

There he describes Deism as the Religion of Satan.  

I know of nothing in Blake’s corpus eloquent than the Monk of Charlemaine:

"O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain

Your Grecian Mocks and Roman Sword               

Against this image of his Lord!

For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;                      

And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King

And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe

Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!"

 

Boehme and Blake

Disregarding Milton and Shakespeare Blake may be considered a look-a-like of the man who had lived in an earlier century.

1. Both were raised in comfortable lower middle class families.
    Blake in London,
    Boehme in Goerlitz, Germany.

2. Neither had a formal academic education, but through voracious reading they became highly learned men, particularly in terms of the Perennial Philosophy.

3. Both became apprentices of a respectable trade:

   Boehme of shoe-making,

   Blake of engraving.

4. Both practically lived in the pages of the Bible and gave highly individualistic interpretations of it.

5. Both scorned the conventional religions of their land:

In Germany everyone automatically belonged to the state religion.

In England a multitude of ‘sects’ had risen; the young Blake had flirtations with some of them, but in adultood was committed to none.

6. Both depreciated Reason in favor of Vision.

7. Both married a girl named Catherine/Katarina and lived through periods of poverty.

**********************************************************************
More on 5:
From William Law's Boehm; this from The Teutonic Theosopher

"In this my earnest Christian seeking and desire, the gate was opened unto me, so that in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at an University; at which I did exceedingly admire, and I knew not how it happened to me; and thereupon I turned my heart to praise God for it.

"For I saw and knew the Being of all Beings, the Byss and Abyss; also the eternal generation of the Holy Trinity; the descent, and origin of this world, and of all creatures, through the divine Wisdom; I knew and saw in myself all the three Worlds; namely, the Divine, Angelical, and Paradisical World and then the Dark World, the original of the Nature to the fire; and then thirdly, the external, and visible World, being a Procreation, or External Birth; or as a substance expressed, or spoken forth, from both the internal and spiritual Worlds; and I saw, and knew the whole  working Essence in the evil, and in the good; and the mutual origin, and existence of each of them; and likewise how the fruitful bearing Womb of Eternity brought forth, so that I did not only greatly wonder at it, but did also exceedingly rejoice."

William Law said of Boehme's writings, "The true ground of every doctrine and article of Christian faith and practice is there opened in such a ravishing, amazing depth of clearness of truth and conviction as had never been seen or heard in any age of the Church."

Do you remember how often Blake's pictures had three levels, especially Illustrations of The Book of Job.
Blake used 'Gates' often in his poetry.
Both men used 'time' with great freedom. 

For Blake there was a corresponding three fold category of Heaven, Hell and Beulah or of Eternity, Ulro, and regenerated Beulah.

Another  corresponding triad was Jerusalem, Rahab, and Tirzah.

Blake and Boehme

Blake and Boehme

In a letter to a friend and supporter, John Flaxman Blake had this to say:

"Now my lot in the Heavens is this; Milton lovd me in childhood &
   shewd me his face
Ezra came with Isaiah the Prophet, but Shakespeare in riper years
    gave me his hand
Paracelsus & Behmen appeard to me."

Of all the sources of Blake's inspiration Boehme (whom he spelled 

Behmen) was the one whose style (and values perhaps) most resembled 

his own. It would pay great dividends for any Blake student to 

give close attention to his work.  There's a multitude of close 

correspondence between the poetry and thought of the two 

Visionaries.

About 30 years older than Milton Jacob Boehme had a number of 

English followers; the Behmenites were said to be absorbed into 

the Society of Friends.  

 "“Jacob Behmont’s Books were the chief books that the
Quakers bought, for there is the Principle or Foundation of their
Religion.” A Looking Glass for George Fox, 1667, p. 5 

Many of Blake's visions resemble those of the German shoe maker.

Blake had no children; Boehme six. Blake's poetry was ignored for 

the most part; Boehme's writing led to persecution. Sir Isaac 

Newton thought that his theory of gravitation was inspired by 

something Boehme.

Blake read the English translation of Rev. William Law, four 

voumes between 1764 and 1781 (when Blake was 24); and in Plate 22

of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell we read:

 "Any man of mechanical talents may from the writings of 

Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten thousand volume of equal

value with Swedenborg's..."

"What influenced Blake most in [Behmen's writings] was Behmen's 

aanalysis of the psyche and the interaction of it's parts.  There 

....are three worlds: the Dark Fire-World, (Hell or the 

Subconscious). Above is the Light World (Heaven) (Read Damon page

40 for the rest of this quote.)

Going on "Heaven and Hell are essential to each other; they exist

simultaneously in God....The third World is the Outer World of 

Nature. (Damon of pages 39-41 has a comprehensive and excellent

write up on Boehme.)

Blake and Boehme

In a letter to a friend and supporter, John Flaxman Blake had this to say:

"Now my lot in the Heavens is this; Milton lovd me in childhood &
   shewd me his face
Ezra came with Isaiah the Prophet, but Shakespeare in riper years
    gave me his hand
Paracelsus & Behmen appeard to me."

Of all the sources of Blake's inspiration Boehme (whom he spelled 

Behmen) was the one whose style (and values perhaps) most resembled 

his own. It would pay great dividends for any Blake student to 

give close attention to his work.  There's a multitude of close 

correspondence between the poetry and thought of the two 

Visionaries.

About 30 years older than Milton Jacob Boehme had a number of 

English followers; the Behmenites were said to be absorbed into 

the Society of Friends.  

 "“Jacob Behmont’s Books were the chief books that the
Quakers bought, for there is the Principle or Foundation of their
Religion.” A Looking Glass for George Fox, 1667, p. 5 

Many of Blake's visions resemble those of the German shoe maker.

Blake had no children; Boehme six. Blake's poetry was ignored for 

the most part; Boehme's writing led to persecution. Sir Isaac 

Newton thought that his theory of gravitation was inspired by 

something Boehme.

Blake read the English translation of Rev. William Law, four 

voumes between 1764 and 1781 (when Blake was 24); and in Plate 22

of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell we read:

 "Any man of mechanical talents may from the writings of 

Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten thousand volume of equal

value with Swedenborg's..."

"What influenced Blake most in [Behmen's writings] was Behmen's 

aanalysis of the psyche and the interaction of it's parts.  There 

....are three worlds: the Dark Fire-World, (Hell or the 

Subconscious). Above is the Light World (Heaven) (Read Damon page

40 for the rest of this quote.)

Going on "Heaven and Hell are essential to each other; they exist

simultaneously in God....The third World is the Outer World of 

Nature. (Damon of pages 39-41 has a comprehensive and excellent

write up on Boehme.)