Urizenic Restrictions

I am proud to say that my research article on "Gates of Urizen" and William Blake's The [First] Book of Urizen was accepted by Blake / an Illustrated Quarterly, a scholary peer-reviewed journal. However, my article will be behind a paywall for the next couple of years, that is why I kept the link from …

Guest Entry in “Blake 2.0” – Thoughts on “Jerusalem”

Same me, different blog. I am a guest-author for "Zoamorphosis, the Blake 2.0 Blog, William Blake in Art, Music, Film, and Literature": Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and the Grail - Bruce Dickinsons's Take on "Jerusalem"

Tarot, Alchemy, and Modern-Day Science

The chorus of "The Tower" is an enumeration of different cards of the Major Arcana, the part of a tarot deck which contains twenty-two pictorial cards representing general ideas. The verses, however, are full of imagery which can be interpreted differently when using different schools of thought or religions. I claim that they should be seen …

The Virgin Thel Weeping for Fear of Dying and the Birth of Death: Swapped Gender Roles and Zombies

It is quite easy to relate "Book of Thel" (The Chemical Wedding, 1998) to the (art)work of William Blake, simply because one of his works goes by the same title (1789). That is probably where the easy part finds its sudden end, because at a first glance the two pieces do not seem to have …

Introduction or Going Down the (Occult) Rabbit Hole

I hope to end up with a collection of essays on The Chemical Wedding (1998) as I have the impression that there is hardly any material out there to help you navigate your way through the album. As it is not an album of Iron Maiden, but a solo project of Bruce Dickinson, I will …