ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to draw the contours of early Swedenborgian milieus and some of the people William Blake would have come into contact with. Emanuel Swedenborg claimed that his new revelation was a radical return to an ancient knowledge of the divine, freeing man from the corruption and falsity of the Christian churches, which had prevailed for centuries. Swedenborg appealed to his age through his ability to organize occult material according to a new taxonomy and explain it 'scientifically'. The clearest insight into Blake's shifting opinion of Swedenborg is available through the margin comments, which he made to three volumes of Swedenborg's writing. Swedenborg reinterpreted the biblical prophecy of the Millennium as an inner psychodrama. Blake’s reference to members ‘in the society’ is intriguing, since it could indicate that the annotations were written prior to his participation in the first General Conference of the New Jerusalem Church.
