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Wikipedia Commons Image from British Library Four Zoas Page 5 |
Milton, Plate 21[23], (E 115)
"But I knew not that it was Milton, for man cannot know
What passes in his members till periods of Space & Time
Reveal the secrets of Eternity: for more extensive
Than any other earthly things, are Mans earthly lineaments."
Blake was not entirely consistent in describing the meaning of the soul in his poetry. This is what I can discern from Blake's statements about body and Soul.
Outside of Time, in the World which neither begins or ends, there are Spiritual Bodies and their garments or Souls. But when the world of matter comes into existence as a result of Time and Space receiving their separate forms, the Body may be divided from its Soul.
Blake concerned himself with understanding Souls and Bodies: how they were associated, how they split apart, and how they were reunited. Each of the Zoas and his Emanation are essentially one unit which is expressed in two aspects of one being. The Zoa is the Form and the Emanation is the Manifestation. However the Zoa is more like the Soul, because the Form is Spirit not matter. The Emanation functions as the Body because she manifests in the world discernible to the senses.
Since we are dependent on our senses for information outside of our minds and bodies, we give priority to sense data rather than to Spiritual Sensation which is generated within or received from an unknown source. This distorts our perception limiting our ability to perceive the Infinite Eternal which if more real than what we can touch, smell, hear, feel and see. To Blake it was the Imagination which gave us access to the real world of Spirit.
Letters, To Trusler, (E 703)
"But I am happy to find a Great Majority of Fellow Mortals who can Elucidate My Visions & Particularly they have been Elucidated by Children who have taken a greater delight in contemplating my Pictures than I even hoped. Neither Youth nor Childhood is Folly or Incapacity Some Children are Fools & so are some Old Men. But There is a vast Majority on the side of Imagination or Spiritual Sensation"
The Everlasting Gospel, (E 520)
"When the Soul fell into Sleep And Archangels round it weep Shooting out against the Light Fibres of a deadly night Reasoning upon its own Dark Fiction In Doubt which is Self Contradiction Humility is only Doubt And does the Sun & Moon blot out Rooting over with thorns & stems The buried Soul & all its Gems This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole And leads you to Believe a Lie When you see with not thro the Eye That was born in a night to perish in a night When the Soul slept in the beams of Light."
Jerusalem, Plate 18, (E 163) (For Vala produc'd the Bodies. Jerusalem gave the Souls)
Four Zoas, Night 8, Page 103,(E 376)
"Enitharmon wove in tears Singing Songs of Lamentations
And pitying comfort as she sighd forth on the wind the spectres
And wove them bodies calling them her belovd sons & daughters
Employing the daughters in her looms & Los employd the Sons
In Golgonoozas Furnaces among the Anvils of time & space
Thus forming a Vast family wondrous in beauty & love
And they appeard a Universal female form created
From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead
PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION)
And Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusalem the holy
Wondring she saw the Lamb of God within Jerusalems Veil
The divine Vision seen within the inmost deep recess
Of fair Jerusalems bosom in a gently beaming fire"Annotations to Berkley, (E 664)"The Natural Body is an Obstruction to the Soul or Spiritual
Body" Vision of Last Judgment, (E 563) "By this it will be seen that I do not consider either the Just
or the Wicked to be in a Supreme State but to be every one of
them States of the Sleep which the Soul may fall into in its
Deadly Dreams of Good & Evil when it leaves Paradise
following the Serpent" Auguries of Innocence, (E 492)"Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day"
Auguries of Inocence, (E 491)"It is right it should be so Man was made for Joy & Woe And when this we rightly know Thro the World we safely go Joy & Woe are woven fine A Clothing for the soul divine Under every grief & pine Runs a joy with silken twine The Babe is more than swadling BandsThroughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made & Born were hands
Every Farmer Understands
Every Tear from Every EyeBecomes a Babe in Eternity"
Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 134, (E 402)"Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air
Let the inchaind soul shut up in darkness & in sighing
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years
Rise & look out his chains are loose his dungeon doors are open
And let his wife & children return from the opressors scourge
They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream
Are these the Slaves that groand along the streets of Mystery
Where are your bonds & task masters are these the prisoners
Where are your chains where are your tears why do you look around
If you are thirsty there is the river go bathe your parched limbs
The good of all the Land is before you for Mystery is no more"
"Startled was Los he found his Enemy Urizen now
In his hands. he wonderd that he felt love & not hate
His whole soul loved him he beheld him an infant
Lovely breathd from Enitharmon he trembled within himself""Enitharmon spread her beaming locks upon the wind & said
O Lovely terrible Los wonder of Eternity O Los my defence & guide t
Thy works are all my joy. & in thy fires my soul delights
If mild they burn in just proportion & in secret night
And silence build their day in shadow of soft clouds & dews
Then I can sigh forth on the winds of Golgonooza piteous forms
That vanish again into my bosom but if thou my Los
Wilt in sweet moderated fury. fabricate forms sublime
Such as the piteous spectres may assimilate themselves into
They shall be ransoms for our Souls that we may live"Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 95 [87], (E 368)My lovely Enitharmon. I will quell my fury & teach
Peace to the Soul of dark revenge & repentance to Cruelty
So spoke Los & Embracing Enitharmon & the Spectre
Clouds would have folded round in Extacy & Love uniting
PAGE 87
But Enitharmon trembling fled & hid beneath Urizens tree
But mingling together with his Spectre the Spectre of Urthona
Wondering beheld the Center opend by Divine Mercy inspired
He in his turn Gave Tasks to Los Enormous to destroy
That body he created but in vain for Los performd Wonders of labour
They Builded Golgonooza"Laocoon, (E 273)"Adam is only The Natural Man & not the Soul or Imagination
The Eternal Body of Man is The IMAGINATION."Jerusalem, Plate 71, (E 224)"As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalems Sons,
Are to the Sons of Albion: and Jerusalem is Albions Emanation" Jerusalem, Plate 52, (E 200)
|The Spiritual States of
|the Soul are all Eternal
Rahab is an | To the Deists. |Distinguish between the
Eternal State | |Man, & his present State Milton, Plate 42, (E143)"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 " Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 4, (E 34)
"But the following Contraries to these are True
1 Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that calld Body is
a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses. the chief inlets
of Soul in this age
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is
the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3 Energy is Eternal Delight"
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