iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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…

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

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

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

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!

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

#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🇺🇸

060

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

New on my Substack, A Golden String…

021

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

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.

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

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

121

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

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

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

New episode @PhilosophySlam - turns out the roots of plagiarism are of civilisational significance...

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

That moment of joy when the Idler magazine lands on the doormat. (It can land in your shopping basket in newsagents, too). My column: on the ethical invention that now divides the world.

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

There is a wealth that can bought with just a few pounds. #truevalue

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

The Conversion of Saint Paul by #WilliamBlake - showing the inner drama of arguably one of the most consequential moments in western history, when on the outside, little to nothing might apparently have happened at all. #conversionofstpaul

030

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The 100th dialogue with @rupertsheldrake and myself is on 15th Feb. Do join us in person or online! Tickets at buytickets.at/thesheldrake...

020

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

The Adoration of the Magi by #WilliamBlake. Happy #Epiphany! One thought about the image. There are two sources of light: the star and the child. Only, that's really one. Mirrored by the magi, the star offers back its light to the one source, the uncreated light born of Mary. #Theophany.

031

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Blue is illuminated darkness, Goethe tells us. The blues are born out of the darkness with the help of light and draw us after them. Hence cold, spacious winter blue invites us into the New Year. #newyear

020

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Hermes for the turn of the year - in the new Idler magazine. Out now! “Hermes is both herd and guide: sheep and shepherd. He confuses because the path he indicates is not the one expected. He comes, therefore, in a crisis, at the turning point.” #newyear

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Hope for #WilliamBlake. Hope at #Christmas. (The plate comes from Blake’s pamphlet, “There is No Natural Religion”.)

030

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Vegetarian #WilliamBlake? Or something subtler? Because to trap is to grab, to possess, to consume. Whereas to track is to seek, to understand, to grow.

020

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Thought from a wonderful Wild Christ weekend with Martin Shaw

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Lucy, saint of light, carries #Dante up Mount Purgatory during the night, by #WilliamBlake. The Uncreated Light. Never not available.

031

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Abundance! A thought on the responses to reactionary Christian nationalism.

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Many thanks @blackwells.bsky.social for including "Awake!" in Best Non-Fiction Books of 2025! Top in June when published. @hurstpublishers.bsky.social #williamblake

031

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Philosophy Now magazine, @philosophynow.bsky.social, out now - with an article in which I argue #WilliamBlake would have found allies in philosophers of science from #DavidHume to #WernerHeisenberg…

031

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Released today! The audiobook of “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”. Available on all usual audiobook platforms. @tantoraudio #WilliamBlake #imagination #audiobooks

041

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Very excited to have launched this development of Philosophy Slam! Robert Rowland Smith and I take a couple of words, usually from a random world generator, and riff. We never cease to be surprised where the genius of words takes us. Available at YouTube…

130

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

A thought for your Christmas shopping…

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

The Quiet Revolution and the New Theism. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake - at youtu.be/26uhO7W2fIA

031

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

The Chapter House is not a lovely ruin at Saxon Bampfylde but a lively part of the business's life. As is the story of #Narnia See fetzer.org/case-study/b... Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

The dispute enjoyed by #CSLewis and #OwenBarfield, which they called their Great War, as explained by Barfield’s grandson. Issue #1 imagination.

020

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

New issue of @idler magazine released today. My thoughts this month are on bullshitters, whom #Dante placed in a very low circle of hell.

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Talking #WilliamBlake tomorrow if you’re near Providence RI! Entry free but book discount here as well - www.eventbrite.com/e/author-eve...

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Do come along if you’re in town! www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/the-power-...

220

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Big thanks Virginia Theological Seminar rare books library for showing me this gorgeous 15th century Flemish book of hours. The glint of the goldleaf and brilliance of the colours is like a wormhole in time, as Catherine Clarke, our guest Idler drinks, pointed out in the discussion that followed.

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

The symposium on #OwenBarfield is a week Sunday, 9th Nov, at Rudolf Steiner House, London. Book tickets at Temenos Academy website.

000

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Hugely looking forward to this #OwenBarfield event. If you're remotely interested in his genius, and why #CSLewis and #Tolkien were in awe, do come along!

020

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” #WilliamBlake

010

Mark Vernon @askwilliamblake.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Or as #WilliamBlake might say: “Awake! Awake O Sleeper of the Land of Shadows!”

020