Swedenborg's Influence on Blake and TGD

William Blake lived and created in a time of tremendous upheaval, both politically and religiously, and in the arena of religion Emanuel Swedenborg was a key figure. He influenced many of the artists and poets of the next century, including William Blake.

One of Swedenborg's major works, Heaven and Hell, was published in 1758 when Blake was one year old. In this book, Swedenborg describes the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, as he saw it in one of his many visions. According to this version of the afterlife each individual created his own heaven or hell by his thoughts and actions during life on earth. After death each person chooses his destiny through a process of self-reflection and enters the destination of choice. One writer describes it thus:

After death, according to Swedenborg, the individual enters a transition state, so earth-like that the spirit does not immediately realize he is dead. The spirit is met by dead relatives and friends. He goes through a self-evaluation process after which he can choose whether he wants to enter heaven or hell. No matter which he chooses, the individual will continue living as he did on earth: eating, sleeping, wearing clothes, carrying on activities and marrying. The person may remarry his or her earthly spouse or someone more compatible. It seems the choice of heaven or hell depends largely on how the person lived on earth. Swedenborg thought selfish, materialistic people tended to choose hell. They keep the same vices they had on earth, only their vices in hell became more excessive and they are beaten by other souls in hell, and not by supernatural beings or demons. An interesting note is that Swedenborg thought all angels were human once too.
- Swedenborg, Emanuel by James Dilworth

This is remarkably similar to the situation of the ghosts in the Grey Town of TGD, and CSL must have been familiar this work as well.

In the year or so immediately prior to writing The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake was drawn to the ideas of Swedenborg hoping they would lead to a new, enlightened form of the Church that was revolutionary, mystical, and universal. He quickly became disillusioned with the Swedenborgians, however, and a major part of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a sharp attack on Swedenborg and his followers, and a parody of Heaven and Hell in particular. Despite this, Blake continued to be strongly influenced by Swedenborg's thoughts and experiences, and indeed he felt a sense of kinship because of their shared experiences of mystical visions.

The name of Swedenborg is also mentioned explicitly in TGD by George MacDonald. More later on that.