f Innocence,' later in the complex idiom and prophetic strain of his created mythology . . . Blake was a mystic" (15-17).
The mysticism and symbolism of Blake's pantheism is not easily decipherable, precisely because it was created by a man who took the symbols and meanings and images from wherever he could find them in his desire to include in his pantheistic philosophy all those elements he felt necessary and enlivening. As Van Sinderen writes, "We still somewhat fear (Blake), and we still do not entirely fathom his mysticism nor completely comprehend his symbolism. Recent books about Blake emphasize that his work was an interpretation of his personal life, and this approach may give us a more complete picture of the man" (17).
Indeed, Blake lived such a private and insulated life that we can, in fact, never know beyond a doubt all the implications and meanings of the symbols and images that compose his pantheistic poetry and philosophy.
For Blake, pantheism gave people the opportunity to extend their insight beyond the world of sense perception. In his era, the notion of "natural religion" was a popular one, based on the idea that religious belief was attainable through the senses and the power of logic based on sensory data. To Blake, this idea severely limited people and their perception. He argued that "sense" alone "produces an enclosed, inhuman world: 'Conclusion: If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things, & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again'" (Paananen 31).
To Blake, the advocates of "natural religion" (not to be confused with pantheism in any sense whatsoever) would reduce the world to highly limited and rational segments, instead of using their religious and moral perceptions to transcend the restrictions of logic.
For example, as Paananen writes, Blake in one comme
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