Larry Clayton's Primer, Chapter 10
Many people have called William Blake unique among English poets as the creator of a complete mythology. In a standard dictionary "without foundation in fact" appears as the fifth meaning of 'mythical', but this is probably what the term conveys in common parlance. Therefore we must begin our study of Blake's myth by raising our consciousness of the word. 'Logos', 'myth', 'epic'--these three words have common roots. In literary and theological language myths are statements about the non-material ultimate. Some people of course avoid the non-material, considering it to be "without foundation in fact"; it's doubtful that any such reader has endured to this point of our study.
Blake considered the non-material to be the real; his art centered around the endeavour to express the reality of the non-material. The meaning of his entire artistic enterprise we may call his myth. His object was to fit all of experience into a total framework of meaning that will inform life and "to raise other people to a perception of the Infinite". Our object is to grasp that total framework; once we do that, we have a myth of meaning.
With his story of the Prodigal Son, Jesus gave us a personal paradigm of the history of the Chosen People and of the Human Race.
Luke 15
[10] Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
[11] And he said, A certain man had two sons:
[12] And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give
me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them
his living.
[13] And not many days after the younger son gathered all
together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted
his substance with riotous living.
[14] And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine
in that land; and he began to be in want.
[15] And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that
country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
[16] And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks
that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
[17] And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired
servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish
with hunger!
[18] I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
[19] And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as
one of thy hired servants.
[20] And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was
yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and
ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
[21] And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son.
[22] But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the
best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes
on his feet:
[24] For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
A striking modern analogy, although not Blakean per
se, is provided by the cycle of alcoholism: progressive
deterioration until the sufferer hits bottom, followed by
recovery. Blake did use as a recurring motif the story of Lazarus found in the Gospel of John.
[2] (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
[3] Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
[4] When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
But the primary paradigm of this myth is the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. However Blake did not express this, probably did not fully realize it, until 1800.
The next Chapter illustrates the application of this
fundamental myth in Blake's major poetic works. The development of
Blake's epic will be traced through the various stages of his
spiritual journey. In essence it's the same journey we all take;
you could call it the history of Man. Blake called it the Circle
of Destiny in Night 1 of The Four Zoas.
So saying--From her bosom weaving soft in Sinewy threads
A tabernacle for Jerusalem she sat among the Rocks
Singing her lamentation. Tharmas groand among his Clouds
Weeping, then bending from his Clouds he stoopd his innocent head
And stretching out his holy hand in the vast Deep sublime
Turnd round the circle of Destiny with tears & bitter sighs
And said. Return O Wanderer when the Day of Clouds is oer
So saying he sunk down into the sea a pale white corse""But if in Beulah the error deepens and the circuit of return is closed,
then the wheel has to swing "downwards and outwards," over a greatly
expanded periphery, into the worlds of Ulro and Generation. For the
punishment for error in Blake's system as in life itself lies in the
bitter experience of error. When man decides, as he does in Beulah,
without yet realizing the import of his decision, to live the outward,
the passive, the feminine, the selfish, and the rational, he must be
delivered over into the reality of his dream world in order that he may
know it and renounce it. For experience, in Blake's system is remedial.
Error runs its course. The spiritual body, like the natural body, labors
to throw off infection and in the end succeeds. The path of experience
is therefore circular. When the error which may be described as Nature
or Natural Religion becomes formulated in man's mind, the cycle over
which it is destined to run takes shape and begins to move. This cycle,
which descends from Beulah into Ulro and ascends from Ulro by way of
Generation into Beulah, where it joins the supernal cycle, is the Circle
of Destiny." Jerusalem, Plate 41 [46], (E 188)
"Thou art in Error Albion, the Land of Ulro:
One Error not remov'd, will destroy a human Soul
Repose in Beulahs night, till the Error is remov'd
Reason not on both sides. Repose upon our bosoms
Till the Plow of Jehovah, and the Harrow of Shaddai
Have passed over the Dead, to awake the Dead to Judgment.
But Albion turn'd away refusing comfort."
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