MYSTICAL MARRIAGE

From Robert Blair's The Grave
The Meeting of the Family in Heaven



Both Blake and Jung involved themselves in the study of alchemy as a source of symbols for the regeneration of the primordial wholeness of the psyche. The union, reunion, or marriage of the contraries represented by male and female appears in the work of Jung and Blake as it does in alchemy, as the means to resolve the divisions in the psyche.



Here are two passages concerning Jung's use of the symbol of marriage:

From Man and His Symbols, Edited by Carl Jung
"Man's knowledge (logos) encounters women's relatedness (Eros) and their union is represented as that symbolic ritual of a sacred marriage..." Page 126

From Cambridge Companion to Jung, (Page 96, chapter by David L. Hart)
"That the work of wholeness is involved in alchemical symbolism is shown by the constant conjunction of opposites in its imagery: the marriage of sun and moon, of fire and water, of king and queen. This last conjunction forms the basis of Jung's study of the inner processes of the transference, that mysterious and unique relationship that undergirds the work of individuation as it proceeds in analysis. The transference, for Jung, is not a one-sided affair, nor is it merely the projection of parental images from the client onto the analyst. It is not even all that combined with the analyst's projections onto the client. It is, rather, a truly symbolic event in which both persons are changed, and inner 'marriage' leading, as one would expect, to a new, third being, comprising both individuals and yet transcending them."

Blake's use of the symbol of marriage is treated here in Northrup Frye's Fearful Symmetry:
"In eternity all the homes of the soul, the body, the palace, the city and the garden are one; and the eternal community of men is also the real presence of a divine body, whose blood is the new wine created from the water of nature." (Page 351)
"This enlightenment destroys the 'female will' for Milton and enables him to attain his emanation Ololon. We have spoken before of the ambiguity of the word 'consummation' in referring to the two chief aspects of the Last Judgment, the burning world and the sacred marriage. In Milton, too, the sacred marriage follows the vision of the absorption of nature into a fiery city." (Page 354)
"In the second part of Milton, Ololon appears in the world as a twelve-year-old girl, a child with a child's untouchable beauty, not yet a bride of a sacred marriage but a breastless 'little sister' like the one in the Song of Songs. She is respectfully referred to as the 'Virgin Ololon' for several pages; but as the physical world burns up before Milton's eyes, all images of a separated female will cease to mean anything, her virginity splits away from her and runs shrieking into chaos, as the bride Ololon, purified of the stain of virginity, stands before the poet in his final consummation." (Page 355)

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E143)
"Then trembled the Virgin Ololon & replyd in clouds of despair

Is this our Femin[in]e Portion the Six-fold Miltonic Female
Terribly this Portion trembles before thee O awful Man
Altho' our Human Power can sustain the severe contentions
Of Friendship, our Sexual cannot: but flies into the Ulro.
Hence arose all our terrors in Eternity! & now remembrance
Returns upon us! are we Contraries O Milton, Thou & I
O Immortal! how were we led to War the Wars of Death
Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Plate 42 [49]
Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder!
Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths
Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea.

Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale
Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became
One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:
A Garment of War, I heard it namd the Woof of Six Thousand Years

And I beheld the Twenty-four Cities of Albion
Arise upon their Thrones to Judge the Nations of the Earth
And the Immortal Four in whom the Twenty-four appear Four-fold
Arose around Albions body: Jesus wept & walked forth
From Felphams Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into
Albions Bosom, the bosom of death & the Four surrounded him
In the Column of Fire in Felphams Vale; then to their mouths the Four
Applied their Four Trumpets & them sounded to the Four winds

Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path
A moment, & my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body
And my sweet Shadow of Delight stood trembling by my side

Immediately the Lark mounted with a loud trill from Felphams Vale
And the Wild Thyme from Wimbletons green & impurpled Hills
And Los & Enitharmon rose over the Hills of Surrey
Their clouds roll over London with a south wind, soft Oothoon
Pants in the Vales of Lambeth weeping oer her Human Harvest
Los listens to the Cry of the Poor Man: his Cloud
Over London in volume terrific, low bended in anger.

Rintrah & Palamabron view the Human Harvest beneath
Their Wine-presses & Barns stand open; the Ovens are prepar'd
The Waggons ready: terrific Lions & Tygers sport & play
All Animals upon the Earth, are prepard in all their strength
Plate 43 [50]
To go forth to the Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations"

S. Foster Damon clarifies it all in A Blake Dictionary, Page 308:
"But then the sixfold Emanation divides from Ololon and like the repentant wife seeks refuge in Milton's bosom. Then 'as a Moony Ark Ololon descended ... into the Fires of Intellect': love and wisdom are combined. The Starry Eight become Jesus; Ololon's clouds are his wedding garment; and Jesus becomes one with mankind. The mystical union has been achieved, and Blake falls fainting on his garden path." (Milton, Plate 42)