Luvah

Luvah

If Urizen suggests Reason, then Luvah likewise suggests Love (and in the fallen state
it's contrary). So Luvah in Eternity is Albion's quality of love, joy, forgiveness, all the
positive feelings. But when Luvah falls (like the other parts of Albion), the contrary
comes to the fore: Hate, which too often goes by the name of Love, especially as in "the
Torments of Love and Desire".

(It's not just the Zoa who fell; the Word he points to also fell!)
(In the beginning was the Word; how did the Word fall? 
Largely because Emperor Constantine took charge of it.)  

Milton Percival (on page 29-30 of Circle of Destiny) said of Luvah:

"at the summit he is Christ; at the nadir he is Satan. He runs a course from the self-
sacrificial love of Eden to the hatred and cruelty and vengeance which distringuish the
religions of the fallen world" .

Luvah's first appearance in Beulah includes his emanation, Vala. They spend idyllic
time in her garden of shadows. But this is interrupted when Luvah gives to Urizen the
forbidden Wine of the Almighty.

The Fall began when Luvah stole (or was given, lent) the Horses of Light (the Sun);
you might say that Luvah, like Icarus got too close to the Sun. In Night 5 Urizen tells
us about it in The Woes of Urizen:

Once how I walked from my palace in gardens of delight
The sons of wisdom stood around the harpers followed with harps
Nine virgins cloathd in light composd the song to their immortal voices
And at my banquets of new wine my head was crownd with joy

Then in my ivory pavilions I slumberd in the noon 

And walked in the silent night among sweet smelling flowers
Till on my silver bed I slept & sweet dreams round me hoverd.
But now my land is darkend & my wise men are departed. 
My songs are turned to cries of Lamentation
Heard on my Mountains & deep sighs under my palace roofs,
Because the Steeds of Urizen once swifter than the light
Were kept back from my Lord & from his chariot of mercies
O did I keep the horses of the day in silver pastures
I refusd the Lord of day the horses of his prince
O Fool could I forget the light that filled my bright spheres
Was a reflection of his face who calld me from the deep
(Erdman 343) 

 This is a central event in Blake's myth; in fact in The Four Zoas we read about it at
least three times .

Stop a minute! Think about it. Translate Blake's poetic symbols into (shall we say)
psychology: Has Reason become subjective?  Our thinly veiled rationalizations, which
we call Reason, have certainly contributed to our fallenness. We believe what we want
to and call it truth. We even believe what all sorts of knaves tell us is truth--- because
we want to! Straight thinking is in short supply-- here as it was in early 19th century
England.

When Luvah sunk to the perversion of hate, he caused the Incarnation:

Lest the state calld Luvah should cease, the Divine Vision
Walked in robes of blood till he who slept should awake.
Thus were the stars of heaven created like a golden chain.
(FZ2-33:14-16 [E322]) 

 Luvah, and Christ with him, spend the ages in the Furnace of Affliction, but we must
know that a happy outcome will come (just as the Sun puts an end to the dark night).

Find more about Luvah at the Luvah  label.