Abstract. The following is an exploration of Edmund Spenser’s and William Blake’s mystic universes. In the first section (§1. The mystic universe of Edmund Spenser), it will be shown that Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) oscillates between Plato’s and Aristotle’s worldviews, with sometimes more inclination towards Aristotelianism. We take into consideration mainly Spenser’s famous Foure hymnes (1596) dedicated to love & beauty (the earthly & the celestial kinds), and we also propose incursions into the mystic world of The Faerie Queene (1590; 1609), especially for its depictions of Truth (Una) and Untruth (Duessa). We point out that Spenser created a new type of epic heroic romance, the “realistic romance,” which paves the way to Jane Austen (as per Evans 1992). We also suggest that Spenser may be associated with modern science, via concepts akin to those embraced by modern scientists like Erich Jantsch, Alfred Korzybski and Dewey B. Larson. We show how Spenser’s mystic universe has roots in: 1) Plato (428 BC–347 BC) and his concept of the “three eyes”; 2) Plotinus (205 AD–270 AD) and his idea of oculus spirit(u)alis; 3) Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite (fl. ca 500 AD) and his hierarchical worldview; 4) Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and his notion of the soul’s descent into the material world; 5) Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) and his doctrine of the seven planetary spirits. We indicate possible ramifications in Occidental mystic thought, such as in William Blake. Elements of Oriental mystic thought are pointed out as being present in Spenser’s mystic universe, while the crucial purpose of The Faerie Queene (1590; 1609) & of the Foure hymnes (1596), which work together as a master labyrinth with four distinct keys, is shown to be the awakening of “Plato’s third eye,” also known as the oculus mentis (the “mind’s eye”) or the oculus spiritalis / spiritualis (the eye of spirit). In the second section (§2. The mystic universe of William Blake), it will be shown that, working in a direction similar to Edmund Spenser’s, but two centuries later, William Blake (1757–1827) undertook as his avowed public mission to open “the immortal Eyes of Man.” This powerful concept, it is shown, was derived by Blake from the Orphic concept of the “eternal eye” (Gr. aiônion omma), synonymous with the Orphic idea of the “infinite eye” (Gr. apeiron omma; Lat. oculus infinitus). Blake undertook this public mission by agency of the heavily symbolic labyrinth presented in writings like the Prophetic Books (Vala 1795–1804; Milton 1804–1808; Jerusalem 1804–1820) and Songs of innocence and of experience (1789–1794). These, among others, we hereby concisely explore, with special focus on two heroines, Lyca (Ona) and Oothoon, and with an extended discussion of The Tyger. Blake’s mystic universe is shown to be based on a fourfold model of cosmology, dealing mainly with an eternity-infinity (Creator) that stands at the crossroads with a space & time (Creation) that is brought into being by Eno, Blake’s Romantic cosmogonic universal heroine, by opening the “centre” of “an atom of space” into “infinitude” and by drawing out “a Moment of Time” into 7000 years (cf. Vala). It is hereby shown that Blake’s mystical universe, based on an infinite-dimensional time vortex plotted on the infinite plane of a Flat Earth, has strong affinities with two developments in modern mathematics: 1) the concept of n-dimensionality, first presented by the German mathematician Hermann Günther Grassmann (1809–1877) in his Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik (1844), which founded vector & tensor analysis; and 2) the concept of the “Peano curve,” which laid the foundation of a new branch in mathematics, topology, from which derive modern fractal geometry and the sciences of complexity. The significance of the complex symbol of the Unicorn in Blake’s Jerusalem is also explored. It is shown that, following clear lines of mystic thought, both Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) and William Blake (1757–1827) present to the public vast labyrinths of ideas meant to lead to spiritual awakening: the awakening of Plato’s Orphic-Pythagorean “third eye.”

Key words: love; beauty; Eve; Una; Duessa; Elissa, Medina, Perissa; Jane Austen; Eno; Ona / Lyca; Oothoon; Ololon; the Ghost of Abel; Byron; attractor; fractal; time vortex; Plato’s “third eye”; chakra; the seven Furnaces of Los; sectio aurea; Harap Alb & the Daughter of the Red Emperor; time travel; Unicorn; Ājñā; Albion; Orion; constellations; Ptolemy; science fiction; The Frankenstein Chronicles; Battlestar Galactica; Caprica; Cylon; AI; Urizenian limited view; Losian unlimited vision

Stroe MA (2025) Awakening the Orphic eye: the mystic universe of Edmund Spenser and William Blake. Creativity 8(2): 3–423. doi:10.22381/C8220251