In my crossover study of the Blake and Greenwood Tarot, I have found rather interesting connections between them. For the purposes of this thread, I have had a look at the controversies that surround Blake and his beliefs.
Blake was an engraver by trade and others in his field were exploring a theory which has later become known as British Israelism. The suggestion that one of the lost tribes of Israel came to Britain and founded many Celtic places and perhaps the culture itself was extremely popular at that time, and in certain circles, still is. Another popular movement during Blake's time was the first Druid revival.
Early Druidic revival (meso-Druidism?) was created in the early 18th century during Blake's lifetime (although discussed widely in the 17th c) and the original Order still exists, but, it is and was MALE only, much like freemasonry. The magician/mystic was something these early revivalists had been very conscious of through a renewed interest in occultism. Blake's direct involvement and even leadership in the movement is controversial.
This meso-Druid movement did put a lot of stock into the idea that the Celts of the islands were, in fact, one of the lost 10 tribes, and one discredited theorist had gone so far as to suggest that Britain was "the original seat of Bibilcal history" (S. Foster Damon). But they also believed at that time that the megaliths and stone circles were built by the Druids.
The patriarchal system that resulted from the oppression of mystic and occult practices by the Roman Church within both Judaism and Christianity is reflected in Blake's view of Druidism, the supposed perpetrators of reason and war. Blake cast the God of the patriarchal religions and particularly Deism as Urizen. The builders of Stonehenge, the Druids as the contemporary theory goes, are of the same ilk. Yet he separates the 'pure faith' of Abraham (Damon). It is because of this it is difficult to reconcile this with the idea that he may have been an 'arch Druid' in the early movement. And still, this is a core meso-Druid belief.
I am still wrapping my head around the contradictions regarding the Druids in Blake's work. Some of the contradictions could lie in the fact that, as S. Foster Damon states, the priest and judge Druids were romanticized in Blake's time and that the Druids were not distinguished from the poetic Bards and both were melded into a single idea - which makes strange sense in a Blakean world. Unlike the critics who studied him, Blake is not so offended by contradiction.
Blake's love of nature and his recognition of the need for balance of the masculine and feminine would more strongly reflect the Druidism of today. His powerful presentation of Albion, reassembled and divine, so that we might recognize our own divinity, definitely supports a way of thinking outside the status quo.
My study of "Union" (World card) inspires my idealism, which is appropriate. Blake seems to be trying to create a new way of interpreting the God of the Jews and the Christians and tie it to a more shamanic or Eastern view of the Universe with a dash of Humanism. He is essentially breaking us down into all our parts, watching them war until his 'hero' is able to unify us again in the hero's own single divine whole.
And the journey begins again...
