This work is regarded as Blake's manifesto (declaration) of his spiritual independence

from all dogmas imposed by the state, church or all other 18th century institutions,
which he opposed.
It is the story about how man got to his position and a kind of prophecy of an
apocalypse that follows. Blake strongly opposed the church's view of reason and
restraint as good, and energy and desires as evil, which must be considered as good.
Heaven in Christianity stands for good, and Hell for energy and rebellion (evil). In
order to fight such a view, Blake uses biblical symbols of Devil and Angel and
through marriage reconciles the two contraries which in the orthodox religious view
requires the submission of evil to good - marriage in the 18th century.
In order to justify his own view and prove that desire and energy are not absolute evil,
nor restraint and reason absolute good, he confuses the roles of God and Satan, and
compares the Devil and Christ who both rebelled against the established authority.
Therefore the Devil and Christ must be the same. Further, if desire and energy are evil,
that means that Christ, who is also full of energy evil. And if reason is always good, then
Satan also must be good, because he reasons. The world is not black & white. Two
opposites should struggle forever.
According to Blake, without contraries there would be no progress. Both are necessary
for continuation of life, the contrast is necessary because it creates the perpetual energy.

PLATE 3: summarizes the 18th century philosophy. He uses the terms from the bible
and reverses their meanings, their values. For Blake opposites are necessary for
human existence. "Without contraries there is no progression" Blake says that contraries
are to be reconciled but not to absorb one another. He opposed the dogma of
traditional Christianity which stresses that God is the passive that obeys reason,
and that energy is bad. He states that energy and reason, love and hate, attraction and
repulsion are contrastive human categories, and that human soul is not divinised, but our
passion, imagination, feelings and man can be fulfilled only through the senses and
imagination. The world is a constant struggle between the contraries and one looses
its meaning without the other.

PLATE 4 "The Voice of the Devil" and contains 2 sets of sentences with the second 3
answering and negating the first 3, as the error of "All bibles and sacred codes". The
voice of the Devil is actually Blake, the poet himself who speaks as the reformer
against those who interpret the Bible. All true poets are of devilish sort; Devil is the
ultimate creator. According to him the firs terror what that the Church divided men into
two parts, body and soul. Blake strongly protested against this dualism and believed that
body and soul are not two distinct categories. He turned the 18th century world,
upside down and God who stands for reason and repression was set against Satan, who
stood for energy and freedom. Man will be tormented in hell forever if he chooses
energy, and Blake sees that as a celebration of energy (imagination and creative power)
who was seen superior to reason.
PLATE 5 What he was doing in this plate was to interpret the work of Milton whom
he saw as a reformer and a rebel (evil) in his Paradise Lost. Blake didn't criticize
Milton's intention but rather thought of it as a rather democratic idea. Milton in his
Paradise Lost created the character of Satan as the rebel, and a human being fighting for
his freedom. It was actually the Satan, not the God, the true source of energy and
prophetic fire. So, the true poet must be on the side of devil, on the side of
creativity, energy, desire. Blake criticizes those who were weak and restrained their
desires which he saw as unlimited. The only limited aspect of the human being is reason,
which Blake considers with God. Blake is deliberately confusing the roles of God and
Devil.

PLATE 11 This plate is the most revolutionary one, and it starts with a description of an
origin, and history of religion. The old ancient poets were the creators of the first
religion, they enriched objects by calling them Gods and geniuses and placing them
under the mental deity. It was man who created God, and not the other way around. The
poet had that creative power and imagination which is unlimited, and was able to
perceive the world around him, but when the system was established and the church and
its laws, priests took advantage of what was originally poetic, the story about the
creation of human being in order to manipulate and enslave. According to Blake, the
religion and worship to God separated the creator and a man.