Today we tackle one of the most controversial figures in the history of philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche. By examining his ideas in the prologue to Thus Spake Zarathustra, "The Four Great Errors" in Twilight of the Idols, and his thoughts on "Peoples and Countries" in Beyond Good and Evil, we hope to lay bare many of the preoccupations and assumptions of the late Romantic era, discuss the development of these same ideas since Blake explored them in his prophecies, and set the stage for our discussion of the twentieth century in the weeks to come.

CW: Poetic imagery of blood and gore, ravishing, and apocalyptic discussion

Today we discuss the works of William Blake that don't usually make it into anthologies and undergraduate curricula - namely "America: A Prophecy," "The [First] Book of Urizen," and "Laocoon" (as well as one EXTREMELY popular poem from the deleted preface to "Milton: A Poem", and Pseudo Ossian's "The War of Inis-Thona," for context). These works begin to describe the greater mythological project of Blake's, which extends all the way to his masterpiece: "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Great Albion". These are trying texts, but reflect a dramatic shift in the acceptable understanding of Christianity, the understanding of a poet's role in society, and the artistic priorities of art in the 19th century.

Today we kick off our discussion of William Blake with a little history catch-up, some discussion of his biography, and a [brief] analysis of the "Songs of Innocence and Experience," and the "Marriage of Heaven and Hell." We'll discuss Blake's religious perspective, his creative interpretation of Milton, and the ideas that will go on to influence Romanticism, magicians, and 20th century thinkers of many stripes.

Today we finish our discussion of Milton's Paradise Lost with a close examination of Books 9-10. Along the way we'll look at Satan's last chance to make peace with God, his rhetorical strategies to convince Eve to fall, and Milton's relentlessly debilitating portrayal of Eve herself. It's rough, folks. We won't go on to examine Books 11-12, where Milton summarizes the rest of the Bible and concludes with the promise of Christ's salvation - but instead we'll spend the next week discussing William Blake and his interpretation of Milton's poetry and theology.

Today we wrestle with the whole of Raphael's digressions from the central plot of Paradise Lost - the war of the angels in heaven, Milton's recapitulation of Genesis 1 and 2, and some interesting side questions about the Renaissance controversies surrounding the nature of the cosmos, angelic diet and sexuality, and a big glaring theological muddle surrounding human sexuality.

Now that our discussion is officially behind our reading, let's take the opportunity to run through some of the main ideas in Books 3-5 of Paradise Lost, including Milton's (perhaps inconsistent) emphasis on human (and angelic) freedom, Satan's doubts, and the characterization of Eve, God, and Adam.

Today we set out many of the topics we'll need to know in our ongoing study of British Magick - including the varieties of Magical practices common among Renaissance thinkers, some of the ideas of especially prominent Renaissance magicians, and the 17th-century British history surrounding John Milton and the writing of Paradise Lost.

Today we discuss the opening chapters of Milton's Paradise Lost, to ask ourselves: why do we find Satan so compelling in this poem? We'll discuss the reasons why Satan seems persuasive, as well as Milton's hints that Satan is not trustworthy - and why they don't seem to be sufficient.

Today we get as close as we're going to get to reading actual magical grimoires and practical magic instruction - we're looking at three famous texts with differing relationships to the Judeo-Christian Canon and theology. Namely,

1. The Book of Tobit, an Intertestimental book included in some Biblical traditions and not in others, about driving off a demon with some fish parts.

2. The Apocryphon of John, a key text associated with Gnosticism, supposedly written by John the apostle, but which presents a very different interpretation of the Genesis creation story.

3. The Testament of Solomon, a catalogue of demons that continues to baffle scholars, insofar as it invokes a tradition as old as Christianity, and bears some of the hallmarks of ancient composition, but probably didn't exist in its present form until the Renaissance.

Today we discuss how the New Testament came to be: first, by looking at the historical evidences surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, then by examining the complicated and confusing world of writers and writings that emerged in the first centuries of Christianity's growth, then finally by looking at Constantine and Eusebius' efforts to codify Christian teaching, theology, and canon.