Mark Vernon
@askwilliamblake.bsky.social
Writer, psychotherapist, lover of William Blake - Plato, Dante and Owen Barfield, too. For more see www.markvernon.com
Pinned
"The best book on Blake out there!" With thanks to Robert Rowland Smith.
The Chapter House is not a lovely ruin at Saxon Bampfylde but a lively part of the business's life. As is the story of #Narnia
See
fetzer.org/case-study/b...
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
See
fetzer.org/case-study/b...
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
November 18, 2025 at 11:32 AM
The Chapter House is not a lovely ruin at Saxon Bampfylde but a lively part of the business's life. As is the story of #Narnia
See
fetzer.org/case-study/b...
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
See
fetzer.org/case-study/b...
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
The Romantic movement is tragic because it failed in one crucial aspect: to make clear how it is a means of truth. Intense feeling became a proxy, feeding nationalism, fundamentalism, sentimentality, and the like. But the basic issue can yet be addressed. youtu.be/jtOi6Qmri7g
Cleansing the Doors of Perception. William Blake, Romanticism and the Meaning Crisis
YouTube video by Mark Vernon
youtu.be
November 12, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The Romantic movement is tragic because it failed in one crucial aspect: to make clear how it is a means of truth. Intense feeling became a proxy, feeding nationalism, fundamentalism, sentimentality, and the like. But the basic issue can yet be addressed. youtu.be/jtOi6Qmri7g
Off to Cambridge today to a place where #Plato and #WilliamBlake are good things!
www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/talk-ma...
www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/talk-ma...
Talk | Mark Vernon, 'William Blake and Neoplatonism' | 11th November 2025 | The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism
On Tuesday 11th November, Dr Mark Vernon will speak at the Centre on 'William Blake and Neoplatonism'. This event will take place in the Runcie Roon of the Faculty of Divinity, beginning at 5 pm. The ...
www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk
November 11, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Off to Cambridge today to a place where #Plato and #WilliamBlake are good things!
www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/talk-ma...
www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/talk-ma...
The dispute enjoyed by #CSLewis and #OwenBarfield, which they called their Great War, as explained by Barfield’s grandson. Issue #1 imagination.
November 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
The dispute enjoyed by #CSLewis and #OwenBarfield, which they called their Great War, as explained by Barfield’s grandson. Issue #1 imagination.
One way of unlearning and so reimagining how Plato and ancient Greeks approached philosophy is to say that they didn’t think of or about death, nature, virtue etc, but that they thought death, nature, virtue etc.
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die. Part 2
Reading Plato’s Phaedo. Death is a Guru
open.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 9:30 PM
One way of unlearning and so reimagining how Plato and ancient Greeks approached philosophy is to say that they didn’t think of or about death, nature, virtue etc, but that they thought death, nature, virtue etc.
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
New issue of @idler magazine released today. My thoughts this month are on bullshitters, whom #Dante placed in a very low circle of hell.
November 6, 2025 at 12:49 PM
New issue of @idler magazine released today. My thoughts this month are on bullshitters, whom #Dante placed in a very low circle of hell.
Talking #WilliamBlake tomorrow if you’re near Providence RI! Entry free but book discount here as well - www.eventbrite.com/e/author-eve...
November 5, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Talking #WilliamBlake tomorrow if you’re near Providence RI! Entry free but book discount here as well - www.eventbrite.com/e/author-eve...
Really stimulating speaking with Elizabeth Rovere @wonderstruckpod about our shared practice of psychotherapy and links to spiritual intelligence, as well as the golden string that links #Dante, #WilliamBlake and #Jesus. wonderstruck.org/episodes/psy...
Psychotherapist Mark Vernon on the Meaning Crisis and Rediscovering the Sacred - Wonderstruck Podcast
Mark Vernon is a former priest turned psychotherapist who has spent the last 30 years exploring one central question: how do we find meaning in a secular age? After a crisis of faith pulled him away f...
wonderstruck.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Really stimulating speaking with Elizabeth Rovere @wonderstruckpod about our shared practice of psychotherapy and links to spiritual intelligence, as well as the golden string that links #Dante, #WilliamBlake and #Jesus. wonderstruck.org/episodes/psy...
Do come along if you’re in town! www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/the-power-...
November 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Do come along if you’re in town! www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/the-power-...
Essential life hack, imho.
November 1, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Essential life hack, imho.
Justin Martyr regarded Socrates as a “Christian before Christ”. On #AllSaints day, the death of the Athenian sage, as Plato presents it in the Phaedo, offers a fresh way of contemplating the meaning of death. open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
To Philosophise Is To Learn To Die
Reading Plato’s Phaedo. The Hemlock Approaches
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Justin Martyr regarded Socrates as a “Christian before Christ”. On #AllSaints day, the death of the Athenian sage, as Plato presents it in the Phaedo, offers a fresh way of contemplating the meaning of death. open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
Big thanks Virginia Theological Seminar rare books library for showing me this gorgeous 15th century Flemish book of hours. The glint of the goldleaf and brilliance of the colours is like a wormhole in time, as Catherine Clarke, our guest Idler drinks, pointed out in the discussion that followed.
October 30, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Big thanks Virginia Theological Seminar rare books library for showing me this gorgeous 15th century Flemish book of hours. The glint of the goldleaf and brilliance of the colours is like a wormhole in time, as Catherine Clarke, our guest Idler drinks, pointed out in the discussion that followed.
October 30, 2025 at 10:54 AM
If you’re in Chicago on Friday! @seminarycoopbookstores www.semcoop.com/event/
Upcoming Events | Seminary Co-op Bookstores
www.semcoop.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:29 AM
If you’re in Chicago on Friday! @seminarycoopbookstores www.semcoop.com/event/
The symposium on #OwenBarfield is a week Sunday, 9th Nov, at Rudolf Steiner House, London. Book tickets at Temenos Academy website.
October 28, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The symposium on #OwenBarfield is a week Sunday, 9th Nov, at Rudolf Steiner House, London. Book tickets at Temenos Academy website.
Hugely looking forward to this #OwenBarfield event. If you're remotely interested in his genius, and why #CSLewis and #Tolkien were in awe, do come along!
October 27, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Hugely looking forward to this #OwenBarfield event. If you're remotely interested in his genius, and why #CSLewis and #Tolkien were in awe, do come along!
Fun and stimulating to add music into talking about #WilliamBlake with @paulwilkinsonmusician. youtu.be/ZbL0T_I9bLw?...
Ode to Joy Podcast - Mark Vernon - Music That Shapes Us
YouTube video by Paul Wilkinson - Musician
youtu.be
October 27, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Fun and stimulating to add music into talking about #WilliamBlake with @paulwilkinsonmusician. youtu.be/ZbL0T_I9bLw?...
The problem with seeking from science the existence of God is that the more the evidence is rationalised to delivery a deity, the more the cosmos is emptied of what divine presence brings: life, imagination, being, love. The result is a demiurge-ruled, highly machined artifice.
October 26, 2025 at 9:42 AM
The problem with seeking from science the existence of God is that the more the evidence is rationalised to delivery a deity, the more the cosmos is emptied of what divine presence brings: life, imagination, being, love. The result is a demiurge-ruled, highly machined artifice.
“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.” #OwenBarfield.
New essay at my Substack, A Golden String…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
New essay at my Substack, A Golden String…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
Plato's Path to Life
How to understand his philosophy. And how not to
open.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:16 AM
“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.” #OwenBarfield.
New essay at my Substack, A Golden String…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
New essay at my Substack, A Golden String…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
Come along. This afternoon.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-bl...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-bl...
William Blake and the Rediscovery of the Imagination
Interactive seminar with Mark Vernon
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Come along. This afternoon.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-bl...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-bl...
The King with the Pope is not only about the glamour of history. They will discuss the encyclical Laudato si’ and “integral ecology”: care for the spiritual inside of the world, not just practical externals. A crisis in outer nature is, first, a crisis of inner nature.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...
King Charles to meet Pope Leo during historic visit to the Vatican - follow live
The pair will meet and pray together in a symbolic display of unity between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 7:47 AM
The King with the Pope is not only about the glamour of history. They will discuss the encyclical Laudato si’ and “integral ecology”: care for the spiritual inside of the world, not just practical externals. A crisis in outer nature is, first, a crisis of inner nature.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...
I much enjoyed this discussion, with much thanks @ArtsFirstUK. We quickly got to really crucial matters when understanding William Blake…
artsfirst.substack.com/p/e32-willia...
artsfirst.substack.com/p/e32-willia...
William Blake & The Ancient of Days
Listen now | Blake was a religious nonconformist, deeply philosophical and political. In his recently published and highly acclaimed book, ‘Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination’, Mark...
artsfirst.substack.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I much enjoyed this discussion, with much thanks @ArtsFirstUK. We quickly got to really crucial matters when understanding William Blake…
artsfirst.substack.com/p/e32-willia...
artsfirst.substack.com/p/e32-willia...
“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” #WilliamBlake
October 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” #WilliamBlake
Or as #WilliamBlake might say: “Awake! Awake O Sleeper of the Land of Shadows!”
October 12, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Or as #WilliamBlake might say: “Awake! Awake O Sleeper of the Land of Shadows!”
Post-literacy? The flashing, scrolling screen is a symptom, not cause, following a generations-long eroding of the meaning of words - often, if inadvertently, fostered by those now worried about the collapse of reading. New essay at my Substack…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
Post-literacy and Playing With Words
Screens disconnect. But infinite scrolls manifest a deeper crisis of meaning
open.substack.com
October 11, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Post-literacy? The flashing, scrolling screen is a symptom, not cause, following a generations-long eroding of the meaning of words - often, if inadvertently, fostered by those now worried about the collapse of reading. New essay at my Substack…
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...
open.substack.com/pub/markvern...