Neville meets Blake - dead since 1827 - in the heavenly spheres as a majestic patriarch, and Blake tells him what to do in order to see what he wrote in Jerusalem: how to see one man containing the whole vast world. The instruction is 'Stand still. Now fall backwards and let yourself go - no restraint, just fall.' He obeys and falls like an interstellar star through infinite space. Coming to rest he sees a scintillating being, human and yet not human, all light and all fire, its heart like living ruby - and as he looks he realises he is looking at himself. Coming closer he finds the whole vast world of man encased within that being: humanity in its fullness, all the nations and all the races, inside the one body, and he is it. Then he crystallises back into this world of shadows. It is the vision that finally explained Blake's line to him - all that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination - and he insists the story is true of every being in the world.
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Stand still. Now fall backwards and let yourself go - no restraint, just fall
the heart was like living ruby
how to see one man containing the whole vast world
Occurrences
LectureWhat Is Truth
I saw it one night, saw one being, and here is myself. But I came closer and I saw infinite people, all the races, all the nations of the world, all incorporated into one being, and I am he, the heart glowing like a living ruby.
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he said to me: “Stand still. Now fall backwards and let yourself go - no restraint, just fall.” I obeyed him and I fell like some interstellar star falling through infinite space.
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It was he who actually told me what to do to see what he wrote in his “Jerusalem,” how to see one man containing the whole vast world.
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