AWAKE YE DEAD

Pollok House
Glasgow Museums
Tempera on canvas
Entombment

This beautiful image is in the collection of the Pollok House of the Glasgow Museums. It is assumed to be one of the biblical temperas which Blake painted for Thomas Butts between 1799–1800. Blake referred to biblical accounts and his own imagination when, in his terminology, he invented this image. 

The central standing figure can be identified as Joseph of Arimathea in whose tomb the body of Jesus was laid. Or since the figure holds a jar which may hold spices, the male figure may be Nicodemus whom John reports brought spices and aloe to the tomb in preparation for burial. The standing weeping woman with face covered I assume to be Mary Magdelene. Perhaps Blake was thinking of Mary the Mother of James and Joses, whose presence at the tomb was recorded by Matthew and Mark, when he painted the woman to the left of Joseph in the painting. There are four kneeling women in the foreground including one, perhaps the mother of Jesus, whose face is visible and whose head is covered by a white scarf on which the light shines. There are two men whose faces are visible kneeling at the feet of the body of Jesus. Behind the body are additional kneeling figures with faces hidden.The light appears to originate, not from an exterior source but from Jesus himself wrapped in the linen shroud. Behind the three standing figures is an open window which Blake characteristically used to indicate that death was not the end but an entry into Life Eternal.

Luke 23
[50] And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just:
[51] (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
[52] This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
[53] And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
[54] And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
[55] And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
[56] And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

John 19
[38] And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
[39] And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
[40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
[41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
[42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Matthew 27
[54] Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
[55] And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:
[56] Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.
[57] When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
[58] He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
[59] And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
[60] And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
[61] And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

Mark 15
[40] There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
[41] (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.
[42] And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
[43] Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counseller,  which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
[44] And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
[45] And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
[46] And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
[47] And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.

Luke.24

[1] Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
[2] And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
[3] And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

John.20
[1] The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

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Fearful Symmetry, Northrop Frye, Page 401
"A dream is the process of taking a subreality to be real which is induced in us by bodily and mental inertia. But a complete understanding of a dream includes a knowledge that it is one, a knowledge that at once wakes us up. The crucified Christ is the visible form of Man's dream state, and as whatever is completely visible is transparent, that means that the crucified Christ is a prism or lens of reality, that is an eye, which man is slowly trying to open."

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Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 110, (E 379)

"Thus was the Lamb of God condemnd to Death         
They naild him upon the tree of Mystery weeping over him
And then mocking & then worshipping calling him Lord & King
Sometimes as twelve daughters lovely & sometimes as five
They stood in beaming beauty & sometimes as one even Rahab 
Who is Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots    

Jerusalem saw the Body dead upon the Cross She fled away
Saying Is this Eternal Death   Where shall I hide from Death
Pity me Los pity me Urizen & let us build     
A Sepulcher & worship Death in fear while yet we live 
Death! God of All from whom we rise to whom we all return
And Let all Nations of the Earth worship at the Sepulcher 
With Gifts & Spices with lamps rich embossd jewels & gold

Los took the Body from the Cross Jerusalem weeping over
They bore it to the Sepulcher which Los had hewn in the rock 
Of Eternity for himself he hewd it despairing of Life Eternal"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 117, (E 386)
               "VALA

          Night the Ninth
               Being
          The Last Judgment

And Los & Enitharmon builded Jerusalem weeping   
Over the Sepulcher & over the Crucified body
Which to their Phantom Eyes appear'd still in the Sepulcher
But Jesus stood beside them in the Spirit Separating
Their Spirit from their body. Terrified at Non Existence 
For such they deemd the death of the body. Los his vegetable hands
Outstretchd his right hand branching out in fibrous Strength
Siezd the Sun. His left hand like dark roots coverd the Moon
And tore them down cracking the heavens across from immense to immense
Then fell the fires of Eternity with loud & shrill 
Sound of Loud Trumpet thundering along from heaven to heaven
A mighty sound articulate Awake ye dead & come
To judgment from the four winds Awake & Come away"