SEEING THROUGH

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

The influence of William Blake on June Singer is apparent in the title of her book, Seeing Through the Visible World. Seeing through the eye to Blake was extra-sensory. It was using Spiritual Sensation to perceive beyond the physical world to the Eternal where ordinary senses are inadequate. Singer explores, not seeing through the eye, but seeing through the world which our senses perceive, to the the invisible world from which we can draw insight and wisdom for our journey through life. The invisible world which Singer most wanted to explore was the unconscious world within the psyche.

At the conclusion of her book she acknowledges that the two worlds are indivisible, parts of one organic whole which is all inclusive and ever present:

"Finally we will know that the visible world and the invisible world are only concepts created by the intellect, the functions of which are to analyze, to discriminate, to reason, to judge.
 

If we could even for a moment throw away our concepts and see with the inner eye through all the veils of conditioning, we would know that there is only one world, one indissoluble world. We would see that all the creatures on earth are part of a single system. There is no preferred species; there is no preferred race. In the eye of Wisdom we are all equals, participants in one cosmic system. The world we experience as visible was never separate from the whole; it only seemed so. The separation was an illusion. There is no other place from which we came, except in the illusions cherished by the mind. There is no other place to which we must someday go. It is all here, all now, in its entirety. The future dose not exist, the past is already gone. What we do we must do in this moment. There is no other or preferred moment. When we can accept what is before our eyes, accept it with our whole heart, we no longer have anything to fear, anything to long for. All we need to set the world aright is here. We have only to see it." (Page 221)

Jerusalem, Plate 13, (E 157)
"(But whatever is visible to the Generated Man,
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void.)           
The land of darkness flamed but no light, & no repose:
The land of snows of trembling, & of iron hail incessant:
The land of earthquakes: and the land of woven labyrinths:
The land of snares & traps & wheels & pit-falls & dire mills:
The Voids, the Solids, & the land of clouds & regions of waters:
With their inhabitants: in the Twenty-seven Heavens beneath Beulah:
Self-righteousnesses conglomerating against the Divine Vision:
A Concave Earth wondrous, Chasmal, Abyssal, Incoherent!
Forming the Mundane Shell: above; beneath: on all sides surrounding
Golgonooza: Los walks round the walls night and day."

Jerusalem, Plate 72, (E 227) 
"The Nations wait for Jerusalem. they look up for the Bride

France Spain Italy Germany Poland Russia Sweden Turkey
Arabia Palestine Persia Hindostan China Tartary Siberia
Egypt Lybia Ethiopia Guinea Caffraria Negroland Morocco          
Congo Zaara Canada Greenland Carolina Mexico
Peru Patagonia Amazonia Brazil. Thirty-two Nations
And under these Thirty-two Classes of Islands in the Ocean
All the Nations Peoples & Tongues throughout all the Earth

And the Four Gates of Los surround the Universe Within and       
Without; & whatever is visible in the Vegetable Earth, the same
Is visible in the Mundane Shell; reversd in mountain & vale
And a Son of Eden was set over each Daughter of Beulah to guard
In Albions Tomb the wondrous Creation: & the Four-fold Gate
Towards Beulah is to the South[.] Fenelon, Guion, Teresa,    
Whitefield & Hervey, guard that Gate; with all the gentle Souls
Who guide the great Wine-press of Love; Four precious stones that Gate:"
Four Zoas, Night II, Page 33, (E 321)
"For many a window ornamented with sweet ornaments                
Lookd out into the World of Tharmas, where in ceaseless torrents 
His billows roll where monsters wander in the foamy paths

On clouds the Sons of Urizen beheld Heaven walled round 
They weighd & orderd all & Urizen comforted saw         
The wondrous work flow forth like visible out of the invisible   
For the Divine Lamb Even Jesus who is the Divine Vision 
Permitted all lest Man should fall into Eternal Death
For when Luvah sunk down himself put on the robes of blood
Lest the state calld Luvah should cease. & the Divine Vision
Walked in robes of blood till he who slept should awake     

Thus were the stars of heaven created like a golden chain
To bind the Body of Man to heaven from failing into the Abyss 
Each took his station, & his course began with sorrow & care" 
 

Annotations to Lavater, (E 592)
Lavater wrote: "Whatever is visible is the vessel or veil of the
invisible past, present, future--as man penetrates to this more,
or perceives it less, he raises or depresses his dignity of
being."
Blake commented: "A vision of the Eternal Now-"
 

Blake's Autograph in Album of William Upcott,(E 698)
[Blake's quotation in his autograph]
  "For what delights the Sense is False & Weak 
     Beyond the Visible World she soars to Seek 
     Ideal Form, The Universal Mold
  Michael Angelo.  Sonnet as Translated by Mr Wordsworth"

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Deuteronomy 29
[4] but to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.
[5] I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet;
[6] you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am the LORD your God.
Ezekiel 12
[1] The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying,
[2] Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.