Mark Vernon

My Thought For The Day broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this morning… markvernon942268.substack.com/p/when-time-...

Do join us in Salisbury! Find Sarum College at www.sarum.ac.uk

I so hope that the forthcoming Blake 200 year is one in which people hear more than William Blake was brilliant but crazy, inspiring but confusing. Help make that so! youtu.be/PNVvhX2HvZM?...

The Nazis were keen on the Cathars. The detail brought me up short. I was vaguely aware that the Cathars were unlikely to have been a Languedocian para-church, so who were they? Or, as it turns out, better still: were they at all? markvernon942268.substack.com/p/the-mists-...

Unveiling Transcendence. William Blake and the Book of Daniel. What if apocalyptic biblical literature is not best interpreted through historical events, or through the symbolic? Instead, these texts are educations in imagination, reorientating readers to the vision of God. youtu.be/4mzmKfMao5o?...

New essay at my Substack, A Golden String, on the linguistic spirits active in our lives. markvernon942268.substack.com/p/speak-dagg...

Psychologists don’t call it idling, of course, but “spontaneous thought”, and there’s big disagreement on whether its good for happiness or not. But, hey, that’s psychology. New @idlermagazine out now! My slot for the month…

An extract from “History in English Words” by Owen Barfield, marking its centenary, first published in 1926. At my Substack, A Golden String, markvernon942268.substack.com/p/the-norman...

The extraordinary brilliance of LLMs is often a cause for alarm. But theology suggests a less melodramatic and more marvellous understanding. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String, on the unreasonable effectiveness of words in machine learning. markvernon942268.substack.com/p/the-logos-...

The latest conversation with Rupert Sheldrake and myself. A perhaps surprisingly fecund subject… youtu.be/CikfKeYGypo?...

Ethics and identity, as liberals and nationalists respectively stress, miss the vastness of the human soul. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String. #Christianity #Nationalism #Humanism markvernon942268.substack.com/p/bidding-fo...

The new Idler magazine! I am all at sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

There's something not quite being got at in the discussion of Nolan's #Odyssey. And it has to do with the knock-on effects of flatlanding the gods. A psychological worldview, a moral one, even when filled out with the nuance in #Homer's original, isn't enough for we humans. youtu.be/UkkLVuCCLjs

I’ve been reflecting on the discussion of the gods in The Odyssey, following the release of Christopher Nolan’s film, unsatisfied by what is made of the awareness of deities. There is another story to tell. New article at my Substack, A Golden String. open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

“A minority secular world-view has captured the agenda . . . more than 80 per cent of the world’s population have a sacred world-view" The Sustainable Development Goals are restricted by a secular world-view, argues @askwilliamblake.bsky.social #SDGs #Sacredness #UN #UnitedNations

This telling of the #Odyssey epic is Nolan's epic telling. The opening title reads: “A time of apparent magic”, which is a clear signal. But the original tale asks more: who are we, not merely, how should we behave? markvernon942268.substack.com/p/sing-for-o...

New post at my Substack, A Golden String - markvernon942268.substack.com/p/art-and-th...

Year 529 AD. Saint Benedict establishes the Abbey of Monte Cassino. The Platonic Academy in Athens closes after 900 years. A spiritual handing on of the baton. Happy Saint Benedict’s day!

Reflections on Mary Beard's Being Greek radio series and the ramifications of god-blind discussions of premodern worlds. At my Substack, A Golden String, open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

#WilliamBlake had mixed feelings about American Independence. He shared his friend Thomas Paine’s championing of liberty, but knew, too, that revolution can become caught in endless cycles of violence: an incomplete apocalypse, or revelation, ruled by Urizen, not Eternity. #fourthjulyweekend🇺🇸

A lot of ground surveyed in this lively BBCFreeThinking. Chunky generalisations on subversive Englishness were less persuasive than STW novel @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social talks to @tweedpipe.bsky.social Jade Munslow Ong, Sophie Scott-Brown @askwilliamblake.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

New post at my Substack, A Golden String. open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

#kierstarmer #andyburnham #primeminister #politics

There's still time to support your local indie bookshop this #IndieBookshopWeek! Get your copy of 'Awake: William Blake and the Power of the Imagination' by @askwilliamblake.bsky.social at @pgwells.bsky.social in Winchester. #ChooseBookshops

On their podcast…

New on my Substack, A Golden String…

The imagination available to embrace contemporary troubles, particularly when they are threaded with fatalism and declinism, rests much on the richness, or paucity, of the vision held about what it is to be human. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String, open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

The @idlermagazine arrives. And relax. My piece this month on mundane ecstasy, such as guided #Bowie in “boring Bromley”. Available from idler.co.uk and in good newsagents.

I much enjoyed talking with Monika Beisner, the greatest living illustrator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, on her work and #Dante. youtu.be/9dPzcZYzRGE?...

I talk with Tim Nash at Nomad Podcast on why, I feel, the apophatic way offerings something like no other… open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

How to read William Blake's "Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion." Brilliant to talk with Susanne Sklar about this great, epic poem. #WilliamBlake #Jesus #Christianity youtu.be/EkBcFrygTKY

Jung was asked about God and said, he knew. But what did he know and why might that much matter? New essay at my Substack, A Golden String. substack.com/@markvernon9...

Vegetal mysticism, the mind a plant, is not some shroom-head extravagance, but the very essence of contemplation. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String markvernon942268.substack.com/p/trust-your...

A new episode of Philosphy Slam! the podcast just released. Two randomly generated words, “carpet” and “relieve”, turn out to have unexpectedly close connections… Do have a listen with Robert Rowland Smith and myself. youtu.be/clPoTLx7-Ag

I like the idea that the man who fled naked from the arrest of Jesus, strangely detailed in the Gospel of Mark, was indeed Saint Mark. Fear strips us but is not the end of the story. Happy Saint Mark’s Day. Image: “The Betrayal of Christ”, Hendrick Goltzius

New post at my Substack, A Golden String. markvernon942268.substack.com/p/what-is-me...

Congratulations to Simon Conway Morris for being awarded the 2026 Templeton Prize. To my mind, he is one of the most interesting Darwinian evolutionary biologists... markvernon942268.substack.com/p/simon-conw...

Wonderful reflections from Mark Vernon.

The lunar trip, when back on Earth, wrecked the lives of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and several others. Fame played a part in that, but more powerful was the destabilising aftermath of the overview effect. #artemis #splashdown markvernon942268.substack.com/p/splashdown...

New Idler magazine out now! I consider the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air…

Ancient Egypt is much associated with the origins of perceptions of God. The links between the old gods of wisdom, Thoth and Hermes, became clear, in new explorations of the Logos, not least incarnated in Christ. Continuities with modern re-enchantment. youtu.be/8W7GuYIVitg

Human beings had lived with the infinite scroll long before the electronic version was rolled out a couple of decades back. The earlier type took the form of illuminated manuscripts and they can teach us now. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String. markvernon942268.substack.com/p/is-there-a...

Just finished recording these lectures. And much appreciated the plunge into #Jung once more. Something distinctive and new emerged for me… Full details about the course @theparicenter Do join us from April 10. paricenter.com/event/an-arm...

Delighted to join founder Sharon Blackie and Vanessa Chamberlin on this quest for the love of wisdom - that is longing, receiving, befriending, resting, and more, through myth, imagination, discernment, and the thinking that is a joining of minds. Do have a look at nostos.institute

What is the best way to deal with the rhetorical and imagistic blitzkrieg? How to survive the psychological onslaught? An unexpected clue comes from religious and wisdom traditions. For they commonly advise on the arts of war, too. open.substack.com/pub/markvern...

Yes, we're live again at the Cockpit Theatre on March 2nd! Joining us: @natashadevon.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social @askwilliamblake.bsky.social @mayeroflondon.bsky.social @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social Tickets: www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_lur...

Featuring the Byline Times editorial team and: Natasha Devon @natashadevon.bsky.social John Mitchinson @johnmitchinson.bsky.social Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social Catherine Mayer @mayeroflondon.bsky.social James Bloodworth @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social

If you can bring the light of understanding into the darkest realms and not be overcome, and if you can tolerate the radiance of the most wonderful truths and not be overwhelmed, you transhumanize. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String. markvernon942268.substack.com/p/transhuman...