William Blake and the Druids of Primrose Hill...
The summer solstice always makes me think about Druids and Stonehenge. 
You may not have thought of William Blake as a Druid and you’d be right, he wasn’t. But he had some interesting connections to the Druids.
Primrose Hill is one of the higher spots in London and it was the site of a Druid ritual in 1792 and every year thereafter. The Welsh poet Edward Williams devised the Gorsedd of Bards, which involved the ceremonious sheathing of a naked sword inside a magic circle of stones, and performed it with a small group that included Blake’s good friend William Owen. So far as I know, his ritual is performed to this day as a public ceremony on Primrose Hill every autumn equinox by his spiritual heirs.
A plaque at the King’s Arms Tavern, close to Blake’s home on Poland Street, reveals that the Ancient Druid Order was revived there on the night of Blake’s 24th birthday. And a pamphlet history of the Order lists Blake as their “Chosen Chief” from 1799 to 1827.
There’s no evidence that’s true, but Blake did speak to Crabb Robinson about conversing with the Spiritual Sun on Primrose Hill.
Perhaps the enthusiastic William Owen interested the ever-curious Blake in seeing a ritual of the original British Religion.
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