Author: Mark Vernon

William Blake arrived in the world at 28 Broad Street, London—his father’s hosier shop in the Soho neighbourhood of Britain’s capital city, and centre of the mercantile hubbub. The date was 28 November 1757, so today is his birthday. Birth itself always carried positive connotations for Blake. He referred to the spirit as “innocence”, which… Continue reading The Infinite Value of Wise Innocence. A thought for the birthday of William Blake

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. The mood has shifted. Subjects that were once taboo – like God – are now discussed openly. So if a new theism is abroad, what might it bring? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark… Continue reading The Quiet Revolution and the New Theism. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake

Last week, we began a reading of Plato’s dialogue, the Phaedo, which includes the death of Socrates. Plato is, in my view,routinely misunderstood in the modern world and, a couple of weeks back, I suggested a way in which he can be better read. This reading of the Phaedo puts that insight into practice. Prison’s… Continue reading To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die. Part 2. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. Death is a Guru

Last week, I wrote about how Plato is routinely misunderstood in the modern world and suggested a way in which he can be better read. This week, we turn to his dialogue, the Phaedo, which includes the death of Socrates, to put that insight into practice. Death as an opportunity to reflect on life. The… Continue reading To Philosophise Is To Learn To Die. Part 1. Reading Plato’s Phaedo. The Hemlock Approaches

Perceptual openness is a fundamental virtue in a Blakean way of life, and discernment is not an optional extra; a discriminating mind is an active agent in the esoteric domain if the weird and wonderful are not to remain merely that. There is another story which suggests as much. It relates the only time in… Continue reading The Day William Blake Saw A Ghost. A tale for Halloween

“A modern European can read Plato and Aristotle through from end to end, he can even write books expounding their philosophy, and all without understanding a single sentence.” Owen Barfield Socrates was the teacher of Plato who was the teacher of Aristotle. But what Socrates taught is, of course, the wrong question. For, if there… Continue reading Plato’s Path to Life. How to understand his philosophy. And how not to

Screens disconnect. But infinite scrolls manifest a deeper crisis of meaning. A new moral panic is haunting the land: the rise of a post-literate society. The fear is that a world without reading is being forged by the prevalence of flighty, flashing screens and addictive social media. Move over political fragmentation and psychological disorders. This… Continue reading Post-Literacy and Playing With Words

Against science? William Blake is often thought to be in that camp. But that’d be wrong…New essay @instituteofartandideas

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. “Man has no Body distinct from his Soul,” declared William Blake. “Nature is imagination itself!” The human face is the “countenance divine”. Inspiring, yes. But what can we make of his sayings? Mark Vernon sat down with poet Malcolm… Continue reading Rouze Up Souls of the New Age! A conversation with Malcolm Guite on William Blake

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. The imagination is often regarded as a valuable but fanciful capacity. But what if imagination were not an optional extra, or even the possession of human beings alone, but a fundamental feature of reality? In this episode of the… Continue reading The Wisdom of the Imagination. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake