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 his life that [Blake] saw a ghost, which is a remarkable one-off given he so frequently saw other occult beings.
The spook appeared at the top of a staircase when Blake, caught unawares, happened to look up. It was a ghastly figure, ‘scaly, speckled, very awful.’ It seemed to make for him, sallying down the steps at a pace. ‘More frightened than ever before or after he took to his heels, and ran out of the house,’ Gilchrist records.
Blake later reflected on how it was that he saw the ghost. He explained that ghosts appear as an invasion from the beyond, when an unsuspecting victim is not ready for them. They are uncanny: disturbing because disturbed; shocking because out of joint.
The shock they cause is turned into a device in horror movies. Jump scares require the monstrous to remain in the shadows, beyond control, ready to leap out when least expected. That is what caught Blake by surprise on the occasion he saw a ghost.
Conversely, his usual experience of spirits was shaped by his readiness to meet them; there was no crashing the boundaries between life and death but a crossing into a third realm where the two can meet harmoniously. This capacity is what his visionary experiences invite us to foster.
This is a short excerpt from my book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination.
