Category: Blog

When our medieval forebears looked into the sky, they didn’t look into the vastness of space. They looked towards the lights of divine heavens. The enchanted, celestial vista, and its felt presence, is described by Owen Barfield in his book, Saving the Appearances. “If it is daytime, we see the air filled with light proceeding… Continue reading The Music of the Spheres. And the power of the discarded image

Synchronicities are reported by many. If you keep a synchronicity diary or love inner dynamics, you’ll probably spot a link between your awareness and frequency increase. But what are these meaningful coincidences and what should we make of them? After all, they often seem playful or odd. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String.… Continue reading Stranger Things. Jung’s notion of synchronicity

Angels appear by the dozen over the Christmas period and New Year. Walk down the high street and see these celestial beings in lights! People adorn trees, as if remembering the angels of nature in the season that nature grows quiet. And there are the angels of stories and place – alive in the myths… Continue reading Cosmic Vitality and the Activity of the Angels

Civilisational erasure was a nagging concern for William Blake. “Albion is sick,” he lamented, “sunk down in sick pallid languor.” The divine intelligences, also called the angels, who guard England’s wisdom are “smitten”, he observed, “Abstract Philosophy warring in Enmity against Imagination,” he added. Blake noted that much as King Lear’s rejection of Cordelia, for… Continue reading “Albion Is Sick”. A Blakean thought for Christmas

An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. How can we understand what is happening today from the perspective of what is sometimes called salvation history? What might be struggling to be born in our times? Why is a spiritual analysis – an unfolding of consciousness –… Continue reading New Born Wonder. Jesus, Barfield, Blake

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