[ If one does accept the possibility that John Milton was not fantasizing that he had a "Celestial Patroness" who at night communicated to him elements of Paradise Lost, then it is also understood that Milton need not have known details of the many key allusions "dictated" by his muse, about older spiritual traditions outlawed as "pagan". It is suggested that the primary thread of Milton is founded in Hermetic ontology (God begets gods, "like" makes "likeness", and so on). Even if "not knowing the details," the consistency of the underlying esoteric content tying the basis of the old spiritual traditions together into a repository can be traced in Paradise Lost. It is in the raising of any questions, perhaps some that one may have never thought of, which leads to new ideas about anything. Reading concepts from the many diverse world traditions is one of the objectives of The Perspective Objective. We continue to encourage people from all corners to submit articles for this ongoing electronic anthology study project.—Linda Schrigner ]

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17th Century Backdrop
The religious Reformation movement during the 16th Century resulted in closing the Dark Ages and ushering in the Age of Enlightenment.  With the invention of the printing press and  the establishment of Protestant religions, the threat of persecution for heresy remained no less a threat to open inquiry.  Movements of the Reformation brought about translations into the vernacular or regional languages, the Judeo-Christian Bible and other sacred and classical literature. This made the study of scholastic resources more readily available, and the light of knowledge found its ways into literature that more and more of the common people were learning to read.  Heresy laws were designed to suppress the spreading of concepts and inquiring attitudes that would cause people to pull away from the prescriptions for salvation of the prevailing Church.

For protection against heresy laws, the practice of many philosopher writers including John Milton, were written under classic parable and artistic or "poetic" license.  As a definitive key, they referred to this not as the obvious meaning "artistic," but using the word, "artful," which takes on a subtly different connotation.  It was necessary to cloak important works, also, and especially, to protect them as sacred, material repositories for future generations, in a time when multitudes could be free to read, study and think for themselves.

Title Pages of Paradise Lost
During this time, also, 17th Century Rosicrucians protected each other and their sacred works by simply hinting at their connection with the Brotherhood.  They made signature marks or gave signs in papers and books in order for others of like mind to identify their works at any time it was necessary.  The title page of Milton's first edition of Paradise Lost in 10 Books, states that it was "Licensed and Entred according to Order."  The title page of the second edition in 12 Books, however, says only, "Printed by S. Simmons next door to the Golden Lion".  Thus, a "licensing" suggests the sanctioning, and the determination must be made as to the intent of the use of the word, "Order."  The "Golden Lion" is an esoteric symbol seen in many of the Hermetic engravings from the Middle Ages and Renaissance that are linked specifically with the Evangelicals or Rosicrucians, among the many names that identified these certain Hermetic resources.  Being "next door" is being close to or in the same "place" as something else, i.e., of like nature, even if in this case, it may be a different "address," i.e., a different name. [Ref. Addendum for Images of Title Pages]
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Additionally, it was a pronounced Rosicrucian practice to scatter partial hints at connections with the Rosicrucians among several different written works, so that taken alone, it would not be obvious as to the meaning.  If identified together, such "hints" are consistent with the Rosicrucian practice of marking and linking sacred material for the future.

John Milton's Sixth Elegy, as one example of a separate part, states the very purpose of his whole body of writing. It is one of the most important messages of Milton to be understood in combination with his life's devoted purpose.

 ". . .if you would like to know what I am doing . . . I am singing the prince of peace, the son of Heaven, and the blessed ages promised in the sacred books. . . . For the true poet is sacred to the gods, he is a priest of the gods; and his inmost soul and his lips breathe out Jove."  —John Milton (1608-1674), Sixth Elegy

Besides the use of subtle allusions to non-biblical themes, John Milton also marked his work with a number of grammatical oddities, some which were, no doubt, peculiar to17th Century English usage.  However, where spelling was not yet standardized, or the use of capitalization or punctuation, by reviewing his work for it's own layered structure and consistency, it can be suggested that, we should pay very close attention to the simple use and non-use of capitalization for words usually understood to be proper nouns, as well as other consistent patterns of his work.

Milton Jailed Politically
Even though his work succeeded in avoiding the critical eye of the Church authorities, through his admitted "artfulness," Milton did not escape political danger altogether.  While writing Paradise Lost, he was actually best known during his lifetime for his many pamphlets denouncing the repression of various liberties, and elucidating on the right to dissent and the freedom of the press, the right to hold different personal religious beliefs, as well as the attributes of divorce, free love and the ideal of Platonic love with the opposite gender other than a spouse.  In June 1660, when he was 52 years old, the English Parliament ordered Milton's arrest and his political publications burned.  After being in hiding for several months, he was indeed arrested and held for nearly six months.

Passages from "Sixth Elegy"
The above passages from Sixth Elegy allude to classical Hermetic and mythological literature or folklore legends that are not considered biblical or "theological."  Theology is consistent, by reviewing the Judeo-Christian Bible, in the use of capitalization for "God" and the "Son of God."

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, continues to be widely researched, indexed and published by student scholars and  writers everywhere.  At the end of this article are a few links to some electronic internet resources that focus upon the classical scholarship of the poem.  Also an internet publication of the entire poem is referenced for further research, where the search function on your browser is very helpful. 
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For our purpose here, it is important to suggest that Paradise Lost recounts humankind's spiritual history, cloaked in allegory of political struggles in Heaven and Earth. The history of the spiritual human condition can be observed and felt through Milton's story line in much the same way that one can "feel" a classic painting when gazing non-intellectually into it.

The many allusions to mythology and legends of nature and animals that came of so-called pagan practices were primarily pantheistic in that a common belief was that God was "in all things, and everywhere, and all-knowing," since thousands of years B.C.E.  Pantheism should not be confused with atheism, simply because the concept of pantheism broadens the scope and nature of God, rather than to limit it to the human image.  When one speaks of One God, often the meaning becomes obscured by the point of reference of exactly what "one" means, for example.  Theologically one God is often referring to an anthropomorphic being, sometimes poised upon a cloud in the sky—not to be confused with the celestial heavens above the clouds.  Hermetically, One is the entire being we call Universe, with the concept of "God" referencing the One divine, creative force containing all attributes, connected to and in all things, and is all-knowing, all-embracing.  The very ancient tribal traditions, which do not refer to any one of the many that there have been, would define One God in other ways, such as the commonly known reference today in the Native American tradition, the "Great Spirit."  Even the Roman Catholic Church, however, refers to a triune unity that includes the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit, which was a way, perhaps, of explaining the then known concepts of pantheism from the old religions in a time when they restructured the Church theology.

Historically the "old religions" developed culturally out of the individual, direct science of observation and experience, as to an understanding of God and Nature's Laws.  The Laws were not seen as separate from life, but a part of the One, whole universe.  Here is where insight might ask the question as to whether indeed spirituality and science bisect each other.  The firm foundation of known spiritual Laws through eons of observation and study is the reason why these religions continued to have a powerful influence upon the Medieval and Renaissance populace even under Roman domination. 

Simultaneous Frames of Reference
John Milton wrote on three levels of consciousness simultaneously.  Additionally, his work can be understood in three primary frames of reference.  Whatever may be said about it, Paradise Lost is most importantly an elucidation of the human spiritual condition on three levels of recognition:

1. Emotional: It tells a very human story that appeals to the universal emotional nature of humans. It is a beautifully versed treatment of the Judeo-Christian Old Testament, and importantly, it is written in an acceptable language of the over-riding cultural and religious laws and attitudes of the time during which it was written.
2. Intellectual:  It outlines the accepted Roman Church spiritual concepts and classic scholarship of the 17th Century, which continues to have classic intellectual acceptance today.
3. Spiritual:  It provides details of the esoteric laws of Nature and God in an inner initiatic genre of individual spiritual development.  Symbolic imagery of spiritual esotericists, or Hermetics, as they were known then, carried information from other ancient, sacred Hermetic writings.  Note, especially The Divine Pymander and Virgin of the World.  Additionally, classical mythology, legend, and folklore of the "old religions" that were based upon Nature were put into the poem's synthesis.  Thus, Paradise Lost is a safe-repository of many known spiritual Laws and principles.

The Dream Repository
The form of parable chosen by Milton for the epic poem is the dream.  This would intensify the likelihood even more, that contemporary opposition would read it as simply an artistic use of fantasy and not tend to give it much thought as anything serious.  Often the most subtle statements are made by reversed direct references, which Milton uses markedly with a magical sort of "slight of hand."  ("Now I see it, do I not?")

More importantly, though, the form of the poem is also the resource.  Milton states very plainly and directly in Paradise Lost, Book IX, that he has a specific muse, or mediumistic resource, a spiritual being who communicated to him while he slept.  So it was also in dream, that he was given the information from which to also create a dream story line, complete with "fantasy" and, therefore, an acceptable "reality" for Church authorities.   In other words, who would take seriously the concept of "an angel dictating personally in a dream?"  After all, "Only the Bible, the word of God outlines clearly who God speaks to, nothing more, nothing less could be true."  (Wouldn't this make a great film today—the concept of an angel dictating God's law, where people find that, indeed, there is more than what the world thought of God and Nature….  Oh, that film has already been done a number of times.)

                      20. "If answerable style I can obtain
                      21. Of my Celestial Patroness, who deigns
                      22. Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
                      23. And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires
                      24. Easy my unpremeditated verse:
                      25. Since first this subject for heroick song
                      26. Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;....
                      39. The skill of artifice or office mean,
                      40. Not that which justly gives heroick name
                      41. To person, or to poem. Me, of these
                      42. Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument
                      43. Remains; sufficient of itself to raise
                      44. That name, unless an age too late, or cold
                      45. Climate, or years, damp my intended wing
                      46. Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine,
                      47. Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear."
                                                          —Book IX

Scholars and students still debate whether the poem was simply jotted down with little or no editing or original design.  This author would suggest that the epic in the final cut was arrived at with a combination of both, only over a longer duration of time than one or two "dreams."  However the resource is just the same as for many magical inventions and ideas that have been arrived at in dream and "daydreams," and have been well documented throughout history.  In other words, true dreaming has been proven to be as real a potential source of knowledge as any other state of consciousness, and this direct identification of his spirit teacher by Milton is one of the more obvious "marks" he made on it as an Hermetic document. One difference in the veracity of dream source information between individuals is simply in what the dreamer knows about his or her dreams and what the dreamer does with or about it personally.  (What would the world know today if Albert Einstein had not listened to his inspirational dreams and acted upon them?)