Obsessions Brewing

Lately I've been obsessing over some lines of William Blake, particularly the oft-quoted quartet:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Even though Blake is associated with Christianity, I sense something akin to the Soto Zen I have been studying when given the time. It's something that I need to work on, and I see a collected, illuminated works of Blake in my future.

Also, I have to say what an amazing book Damned: An Illustrated History of the Devil is. I've just started reading it and it's touched on subjects like the creation of the devil in connection to the altered forms of the unholy one, right down to color scheme. It's only been recently that the color red was associated with Satan, since red had previously been associated with Christ's blood and holiness. The devil, which as a personage started out as a humpbacked dwarf hassling monks in the 12th Century, was initially blue or green and associated with the earth and decay.

Sometime around 1000, the German word Heinekin was a word for the devil.

I'm barely scratching the surface here and I need to finish the book.

Here's to new obsessions and the time (hopefully) to pursue them.