tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-345859792024-03-19T04:47:41.194-04:00William Blake: Religion and PsychologyHere you may meet William Blake, join hands in a discussion, ask questions. This is your Blake Commentary. Please visit Larry's <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/blakeprimer/blake-1">Blake Primer</a>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.comBlogger3016125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-14623603474701631852024-03-17T07:48:00.000-04:002024-03-17T07:48:30.190-04:00Four Zoas Summary 3<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd8J_ezltmXVgC6nBUF2cQkJapMpk5wKE1lV5zePny75qK9Ri23iql3M0ayjX9fzj4PKewWRhFaR_risXpWDNAJW35neTVFHdtsXawtJjMiO26R1Vh0wDxlSe2cyDeKvzTC9W4p476zEKDDJZUZGd1oyjeWZ0p_9SmU8MOumOT20_gwbVbjeY/s1567/fz60_v2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1567" data-original-width="1273" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd8J_ezltmXVgC6nBUF2cQkJapMpk5wKE1lV5zePny75qK9Ri23iql3M0ayjX9fzj4PKewWRhFaR_risXpWDNAJW35neTVFHdtsXawtJjMiO26R1Vh0wDxlSe2cyDeKvzTC9W4p476zEKDDJZUZGd1oyjeWZ0p_9SmU8MOumOT20_gwbVbjeY/w520-h640/fz60_v2.jpg" width="520" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night v, Page 60, (E 340)<br /> "But when fourteen summers & winters had revolved over<br />Their solemn habitation Los beheld the ruddy boy<br />Embracing his bright mother & beheld malignant fires<br />In his young eyes discerning plain that Orc plotted his death"</span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> As<b> Night ii </b>begins, the Fallen Man, on the point
of falling asleep, commissions Urizen as his regent. Urizen soars
with pride but immediately falls into the fearful fantasies of the
future which dominate all of his attempts at creation. He casts
Luvah into the furnaces of affliction and proceeds to build the
Mundane Shell, giving Blake a chance to expatiate at great length
on how wrongly the world is made.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Tharmas and Luvah are now thoroughly fallen and estranged
from their emanations, and Urizen's turn comes in <b>Night iii</b>.
Ahania, Urizen's emanation, reacts to his fearful aggressions
with her own vision of the Fall, and the infuriated Urizen casts
her out and promptly falls himself like Humpty Dumpty, an eloquent
comment on the fate of all the 'strong' who in fear cast out the
'weak'. With the fall of Reason Tharmas rises to power from the
depths of the sea, although he is mentally incompetent in the
extreme. He commissions Los to create endlessly and futilly:
"Renew these ruin'd souls of Men thro' Earth, Sea, Air &
Fire,/To waste in endless corruption, renew thou, I will destroy."</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
Los proceeds to bind Urizen with the chains of time and space
in the parody of Creation which we have already studied from <i>Book of Urizen</i>, but "terrified at the shapes enslav'd humanity put on, he
became what he beheld". ( The second extended Christian
interpolation occurs in the midst of this story.)<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Los begins <b>Night v</b> with a sort of St. Vitus Dance
to "put on the shape of enslaved humanity", a convulsion which
Enitharmon shares, leading to the birth of Orc, a manifestation of
Luvah, who at this point represents fallen human feeling.
Immediately, "The Enormous Demons woke and howl'd around the new
born King,/Crying 'Luvah, King of Love, thou art the King of rage
& death'".</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
As in <i>Book of Urizen</i>, Orc is bound in the Chain of
Jealousy, but his tormented cries awaken Urizen, who <b>concludes
Night v</b> with the "Woes of Urizen". His suffering has brought
him to a point of self-recognition; he has come to himself in a way
reminiscent of the Prodigal Son's moment of truth: "I will arise",
which Blake took directly from the story in Luke. Urizen thus shows
himself to be human. Unfortunately it's only a temporary lapse, for
in Night vi he explores his dens, faces all the brokenness and
horror of a ruined universe and as his solution comes up with the
"Net of Religion ". Since pure political tyranny won't work, he
turns to a form of religious control.<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> We come to the climax of this epic <b>in Night vii</b>
when Urizen has approached Orc's prison and induced him to climb
the "Tree of Mystery ", turning into a serpent. This sets the
stage for the Genesis account of the Fall, which Blake sees as the
beginning of the Return. Enitharmon, attracted by the cries of her
son, Orc, comes down to the "Tree of Mystery", where she meets the
Spectre of Urthona (FZ, Night vii, E 358). The Spectre closely
corresponds to Jung's 'shadow', and like a skilled analyst Blake
brings about the reconciliation of shadow and anima on the way to
wholeness).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> From the union of Spectre and Enitharmon two things
ensue. The good news is that Los begins to get himself together
with his Spectre and his Emanation. From this integration comes
forth Jerusalem and from Jerusalem will proceed the Lamb. The bad
news is the immediate birth of Rahab, the most sinister female of
Blake's pantheon. She personifies all the evils of deceit,
treachery, and hateful female pride that most appalled Blake about
life. Blake's Rahab is the same character whom John of Patmos
called "Mystery, the Whore of Babylon"; Blake eventually gives her
these names--and several others as well.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
The Spectre of Urthona, a new idea on Blake's imaginative
horizon, foreshadowed the Moment of Grace which was to revolutionize
his spiritual world. Suffice
it here to say that the appearance of the Spectre marks Man's (and
Blake's) dawning awareness that the evils of the world, which he had
so deplored, exist in his own psyche. It marks what Jung referred to
as the withdrawal of the projections, which Jung considered vital to
the survival of the world. Blake agreed about the seriousness of the
process; he stated it with great poetic intensity in the reversed
writing found in the illustration to <i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 41 (E 183) :<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> "Each man is in his Spectre's power Until the arrival of that
hour When his humanity awake And cast his Spectre into the Lake."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> But in <b>Night vii</b> Los doesn't cast his Spectre
into the lake; he embraces it, which in a manner of speaking is
the same thing. Los doesn't (yet) cast his Spectre into the lake
because his humanity is not yet fully awake, but only beginning to
awaken. As Blake aptly put, it complete redemption "was not to be
effected without Cares & Sorrows & Troubles of six
thousand years of self denial and of bitter Contrition". That
beautiful line points to the redemptive dimension of all the
fallenness and horror we have been reading about. It was Blake's
way of saying what Paul said in Romans: "All things work together
for good to them that love God...." Blake and Jung and probably
Paul would agree that we begin to love God (and stop trying to be
God!) when we recognize and accept our own involvement in the
horror around us. That's the moment when the six thousand years of
change begins.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> The birth of Rahab and the integration of Los lead to an
intensification of a drama that has already stretched out for
seven nights of excruciating intensity. In Night viii the drama
has not only intensified, but it has clarified so that we can no
longer fail to understand that the forces of life and of death are
in bitter conflict. It has become the old, old story, and Blake
leaves no doubt about who represents light and who darkness.
Urizen resumes his war for control and out of his ranks of War
comes Satan. Rahab conspires to put to death the Saviour who has
come down from Heaven and emerged from Jerusalem. The Christian
knows that this death is foreordained for final victory, but
neither Rahab nor Jerusalem has that awareness, and near the end
of <b>Night viii</b> we read these richly evocative words:</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
"Jerusalem wept over the Sepulcher two thousand years.<br />
Rahab trimphs over all; she took Jerusalem<br />
Captive, a Willing Captive, by delusive arts impell'd<br />
To worship Urizen's Dragon form, to offer her own Children<br />
Upon the bloody Altar. John saw these things Revealed...."(FZ, Night viii, E 385)<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Blake never forgot the involvement of the Christian Church in
two thousand years of bloodshed, but here, under the influence of
grace, he has a more understanding view of it than he has
expressed elsewhere.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">TO BE CONTINUED</span></p>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-90737079261675686472024-03-13T07:53:00.000-04:002024-03-13T07:53:57.225-04:00Four Zoas Summary 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix0p6bKY9q0WVN9lnSasHekLXjo7R-xcQnaPhCBOf9M_1Bsxh53HLrvwzwIz6z2QQGIU0dsIvPZi6O-yKXPzFQMxAX_a62jAp3lC0RfJ8fE7OQFCqrf51zfSE2XZtP7HL3zMPQSWsO0T08g7vAGsEg4ZgDjzYZIbrZiEgKG4phVoIQk0oFyG6T/s1518/fz36_v1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1518" data-original-width="1216" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix0p6bKY9q0WVN9lnSasHekLXjo7R-xcQnaPhCBOf9M_1Bsxh53HLrvwzwIz6z2QQGIU0dsIvPZi6O-yKXPzFQMxAX_a62jAp3lC0RfJ8fE7OQFCqrf51zfSE2XZtP7HL3zMPQSWsO0T08g7vAGsEg4ZgDjzYZIbrZiEgKG4phVoIQk0oFyG6T/w512-h640/fz36_v1.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><pre><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night ii, Page 36, (E 326)</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;">"When Urizen slept on his couch. drawn thro unbounded space</div><div style="text-align: center;">Onto the margin of Non Entity the bright Female came</div><div style="text-align: center;">There she beheld the Spectrous form of Enion in the Void </div><div style="text-align: center;">And never from that moment could she rest upon her pillow"</div></span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> <span> Other accounts of this decisive event occur at various
places throughout the poem. The most definitive is that of Ahania.
Her dream relates the central event, the primary fall, to an
idolatrous worship; just so Blake evaluated organized religion.
Albion's worship of his shadow has two immediate consequences: he
breaks out with the boils of Job, a biblical symbol of the Fall of
Mankind, and he exiles Luvah and Vala from their rightful place in
the psychic economy.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
</span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> This central event of the Fall gives the key to the meaning
of <i>The Four Zoas</i>. Before we proceed with the outline of the
poem, we need to look at one other central fact: the identity of
Los, the fourth Zoa (in Eternity called Urthona). Whereas the
central event gives the key to six thousand years of fallenness, the
identity of Los gives the key to redemption. This becomes clear in
the end when we read about Jesus, the Imagination, but from the
beginning we should be aware that Los is the fourth who makes Man
whole. Blake derived the first three Zoas in part from Daniel's
three friends who were cast into the fiery furnace by
Nebuchadnezzar. Los was the fourth, whom the king saw walking in the
furnace "like the Son of God". Like the other Zoas Los has a
chequered career, but he is always moving toward this ultimately
revealed identity. Near the end of <i>Jerusalem</i> Blake put the
finishing touches on Los's Eternal identity with these words:<br />
"Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthona's Spectre in songs, <br />
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble." (<i>Jerusalem</i>,
Plate 95, E 255) <br />
</span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And on the following plate of <i>Jerusalem</i>:<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
"Then Jesus appeared.... And the Divine Appearance was the likeness
and similitude of Los." </span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The clue to this identity appears at the very beginning of 4Z
where the poet states his theme:</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
"Four Mighty Ones are in every Man; a Perfect Unity <br />
Cannot Exist but from the Universal Brotherhood of Eden, <br />
The Universal Man, to Whom be Glory Evermore. Amen. <br />
.... Los was the fourth immortal starry one, and in the Earth <br />
Of a bright Universe, Empery attended day and night, <br />
Days and nights of revolving joy. Urthona was his name <br />
In Eden.... <br />
Daughters of Beulah, Sing <br />
His fall into Division and his Resurrection to Unity: <br />
His fall into the Generation of decay and death, and his
Regeneration by the Resurrection from the dead." <br />
(<i>Four Zoas</i>, Night i, E 301)<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Here Blake has made the antecedent of 'his' deliberately
ambiguous: Albion, the Ancient Man, of course, but also Los. It is
Los's career that we follow most intently. Blake deeply identified
with Los, and so do we if we read the poem with imagination.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
But "Begin with Tharmas, Parent power dark'ning in the West".
Tharmas represents the body, or in the psychic realm the instinct,
and in Eternity he's a glorious shepherd. But "darkening in the
West" beneath the jealous attack of his emanation, Enion, he sets in
motion the Circle of Destiny (<i>Four Zoas,</i> Night i, E 302) and sinks
into the sea where he becomes an insane old man. From his "corse"
arises the ravening spectre, a most gruesome embodiment of pure
egocentricity. A loveless embrace of Enion leads to the birth of Los
and Enitharmon, the divided earthly form of Urthona. (Note that all
this happens after the 'central event', although in the poem we read
about it first.)<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> This first earthly family displays the ubiquitous
dialectic of Blake (and of universal experience): the angelic and
demonic processes go on side by side. Enion's intense mother love
turns her daughter, Enitharmon, into a teasing and heartless bitch
and drives Enion to the abyss where she becomes a disembodied
voice of pure consciousness. We hear her voice at the end of
Nights i, ii, and viii sounding the purest prophetic judgment on
what has transpired. In a real sense Enion is Blake. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> When Enitharmon signs her Song of Death (quoted a few pages
back), Los strkes her down and then gives his own, more prophetic
account of the Fall. Enitharmon retaliates by calling down Urizen.
This precipitates the first encounter between these two adversaries
in one of the relationships that dominates the poem--and Blake's
life as well. In this initial confrontation Los
weakens through his pity or remorse over Enitharmon and joins the
Nuptial Feast of fallenness (FZ Night i, E 307). In the New
Testament the marriage of the Lamb inaugurates the Kingdom of
Heaven; this demonic parody of it announces the Kingdom of Satan.
Enion responds with her first stirring prophetic utterance,
concluding the first night in the earlier draft.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> At this point Blake, in a later revision of 4Z, made his
first obvious attempt to Christianize his myth. The Daughters of
Beulah in their "Wars of Eternal Death" give what is probably the
most straightforward, impartial account of the Fall.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">TO BE CONTINUED</span><p></p></div>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-21569897433216199232024-03-11T08:31:00.000-04:002024-03-11T08:31:26.256-04:00Four Zoas Summary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkBueQdp_Kte7z-Vic72SJBTntdxeT4j8GxAszdh49VaqCowNbkFo1BjnHfkSToA5hyG4ehoe9S-izsJUbtXLdGDMViJHMqv7bTiRGqtwfr4LHnyOIEzDBLnaQ4XtItbWLPD8W9txv26vhANjHdoWN6frZxpNoIF7ZAjwAXXZq3s8ra433JQO/s3283/4ZSpage9.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="3283" data-original-width="2599" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkBueQdp_Kte7z-Vic72SJBTntdxeT4j8GxAszdh49VaqCowNbkFo1BjnHfkSToA5hyG4ehoe9S-izsJUbtXLdGDMViJHMqv7bTiRGqtwfr4LHnyOIEzDBLnaQ4XtItbWLPD8W9txv26vhANjHdoWN6frZxpNoIF7ZAjwAXXZq3s8ra433JQO/w506-h640/4ZSpage9.jpg" width="506" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night i, PAGE 9, (E 304)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And then they wanderd far away she sought for them in vain</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In weeping blindness stumbling she followd them oer rocks & mountains"</span></div><p></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
<i>The Four Zoas</i> is a very exotic masterpiece and most
definitely an acquired taste. The reader initially encounters an
appalling mass of strange ideas and much that appears to be sheer
gibberish. But with perseverance the strange ideas become familiar
bit by bit, and the gibberish clarifies into some of the most
exalted thought forms of the human mind. To the seasoned reader 4Z
is a treasure house of imaginative delights. Or call it a mine that
releases its gold to the pertinacious. The same could be said of the
Bible. <br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Blake wrote the poem over a period of years while his mind
and spirit were rapidly developing and changing. It began as the
story of Vala, the incarnation of the Female Will. Later it became
an account of cosmic and psychic history written in terms of the
four Giant Forms--their breakup and struggle for dominion. At
Blake's spiritual crisis this seed bed gave birth to Jesus and
Jerusalem, his bride. Blake then made an attempt to rewrite 4Z to
reflect his new spiritual orientation, but after a while he gave
up. 4Z was aborted because Blake's world had fundamentally
changed, and he was ready to start over. After many years of
looking for the New Age he had become a New Man. The new man wrote
Milton and Jerusalem using 4Z as a quarry. 4Z is fascinating in
its own right, although unfinished, but most significant as a
platform from which to rise to the ethereal glory of the mature
poems.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
Focusing on <i>The Four Zoas</i> Milton Percival, who wrote
<i>William Blake's Circle of Destiny</i>, tells us that ten
characters make up his myth: Two Albions (man), the Eternal One and
the One who fell asleep down here in this vale of tears; Four Zoas
(Urizen, Luvah, Los, and Tharmas) and their feminine parts (Ahania,
Vala, Enitharman, and Enion).<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> <b>The first four nights of this aborted masterpiece
recount the fall of each of the four Zoas</b>: Tharmas, the
body; Luvah, the feelings; Urizen, the mind; and finally Urthona
(Los), the imagination or spirit. These four steps in the fall of
Man contain a wealth of rich detail, but one central event Blake
described repeatedly in the words of various characters: Urizen
and Luvah (Mind and Feeling) struggle for dominion over the
sleeping man, Albion. Luvah seizes Urizen's steeds of light and
mounts into the sky. Urizen retreats into the north, the rightful
place of Urthona, the imagination. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">These mistakes lead to a long series of cataclysmic disasters
that condemn mankind to his fallen condition. For six nights we
read an almost unrelieved account of the Fall; we read about
falling, about fallenness, described in voluminous detail in a
hundred ways. Blake felt intensely that we have come a long, long
way from the Garden, and he explored with exceeding minuteness
every step of the dismal journey, down and out. (You might notice
that as extensive as this negative mood is, it closely resembles
the Old Testament, a great deal of which consists of flagellations
of Israel by the prophets.) </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> To begin our orientation to the poem look closely at the
central event of the Fall. Blake put it in the mouths of several
characters and each one has his or her own particular slant. The
reader has to decide for himself whose account to believe. This
may depend upon the reader as much as it does upon Blake.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
The earliest description of the central event comes in the
words of Enitharmon, a notoriously untrustworthy character at this
point; we may call her the queen of fallen space. In a conversation
with her consort, Los, the prophetic boy, she gives her
interpretation of the Fall: <br />
<br />
"Hear! I will sing a Song of Death! it is a Song of Vala! <br />
The Fallen Man takes his repose, Urizen sleeps in the porch, <br />
Luvah and Vala wake and fly up from the Human Heart <br />
Into the brain from thence; upon the pillow Vala slumber'd, <br />
And Luvah siez'd the Horses of Light and rose into the Chariot of
Day. <br />
Sweet laughter siez'd me in my sleep..." (<i>Four Zoas</i>, Night i, E 305)<br />
</span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Always fiercely eclectic, Blake has gathered his symbols
here from a number of sources into a new creation: sleeping man
equals fallen man living in darkness; this most general symbol
fills the New Testament. For example, "Awake thou that sleepest,
and Christ shall give thee light". We live by the light of reason
(not always Christ's light!). Urizen, the Sun God, must be asleep
to allow Luvah, like the Greek adolescent, Phaethon, to seize his
Horses of Light and rise into the Chariot of Day. Zeus struck
Phaethon down with a thunderbolt. In <b>Night ii </b>we find
Urizen casting Luvah into the furnaces of affliction, where there
is much heat but no light. What was once eternal delight has
become unmitigated hell.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Luvah and Vala personify the masculine and feminine
dimensions of feeling, and separated from Luvah Vala becomes the
goddess of fallen nature. Luvah's seizure of the sun and Vala's
dalliance on the pillow express in different ways the same event.
The Prince of Love is bound to get his wings scorched, and the
sleeping Albion is rather foolish to allow this to happen; he has
lost his head over a part of himself.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
Blake used this double event to say many things to us at many
levels. Fundamentally Blake is saying that Man has lost his heavenly
wholeness (which he calls the Divine Image) and begun to worship the
material, a relatively insignificant part of himself. In his dream
of Vala he turns his back upon the Divine Vision. The former is
Eternal Death and the latter Eternal Life. The dalliance of Albion
with Vala leads to the Eternal Death (fallenness) that we read about
in the first six nights. Blake described it symbolically in many
ways, for example, "to converse in the wilds of Newton and Locke".
We find here Blake's primary dialectic, between eternal vision and
fallen materialism.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">TO BE CONTINUED</span></div>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-38926600973627295602024-03-06T09:28:00.000-05:002024-03-06T09:28:37.622-05:00TRUE MAN<div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Illustrations_to_Robert_Blair's_The_Grave_%2C_object_14_The_Death_of_the_Good_Old_Man.jpg/800px-Illustrations_to_Robert_Blair's_The_Grave_%2C_object_14_The_Death_of_the_Good_Old_Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="800" height="315" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Illustrations_to_Robert_Blair's_The_Grave_%2C_object_14_The_Death_of_the_Good_Old_Man.jpg/800px-Illustrations_to_Robert_Blair's_The_Grave_%2C_object_14_The_Death_of_the_Good_Old_Man.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;">Wikipedia Commons</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Illustrations to Blair's <i>The Grave</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Death of the Good Old Man</span></u></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the physical world - the world of time and space - we are conditioned to think of ourselves as physical beings. The body which provides the senses and feeds information to the mind and spirit is a physical body which is transitory. Temporarily associated with the physical body is a spiritual body which is perceived by Blake as the 'true man.'</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Underlying the material body is the 'lineaments divine' from which the character is derived. It is up to the individual to 'explore' his 'Eternal Lineaments' in order to allow his Spiritual Body to thrive. The release of the Spiritual Body at physical death is perceived as Resurrection.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This is a passage from<i> William Blake</i> by Kathleen Raine: </span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">"The spirit is already free; and 'the spiritual body or angel' is the true man, released from its 'excrementitous husk and covering'. Here Blake is close to Swedenborg, whose disembodied spirits are fully human but released from the restrictions of a material body. Swedenborg taught that the Resurrection of the Dead is the freeing of the spiritual body from its earthly envelope, the rotten rags' of mortality...The physical body was beautiful to Blake in so far as it reflected the lineaments of an informing soul or spirit, the 'celestial body' of a famous passage of St Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, which Blake invokes in his emblem accompanying the poem 'To Tirzah' (c, 1801): </span><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">It is raised a spiritual body</i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">." (</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Page 112)</span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">ALL RELIGIONS are ONE (E 1)</span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"PRINCIPLE 1st That the Poetic Genius is the <b>true Man</b>. and that
the body or <b>outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic
Genius. </b> Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from
their Genius. which by the Ancients was call'd an Angel & Spirit
& Demon."</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 98, (E 257)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"North stood
The labyrinthine Ear. Circumscribing & Circumcising the <b>excrementitious
Husk & Covering</b> into Vacuum <b>evaporating</b> <b>revealing the lineaments</b> of Man
Driving outward the Body of Death in an Eternal Death & Resurrection" </span></pre></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"The loud voic'd Bard terrify'd took refuge in Miltons bosom
Then Milton rose up from the heavens of Albion ardorous!
The whole Assembly wept prophetic, <b>seeing in Miltons face
And in his lineaments divine the shades of Death & Ulro
He took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God</b>
And<b> Milton said, I go to Eternal Death!</b> The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?"</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 21 [23], (E 115)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And all in Heaven, saw in the nether regions of the Imagination
In Ulro beneath Beulah, the vast breach of Miltons descent.
But I knew not that it was Milton, <b>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.</b>"
</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 22 [24], (E 117)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"for not one Moment
Of Time is lost, nor one Event of Space unpermanent
But all remain: every fabric of Six Thousand Years
Remains permanent: tho' on the Earth where Satan
Fell, and was cut off all things vanish & are seen no more
<b>They vanish not from me & mine, we guard them first & last
The generations of men run on in the tide of Time
But leave their destind lineaments permanent for ever & ever.</b> </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">So spoke Los as we went along to his supreme abode."
</span></pre><pre><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.
<b>Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!</b>
The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself"</span></pre><pre><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 38 [43], (E 185)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>"Humanity, who is the Only General and Universal Form
To which all Lineaments tend & seek with love & sympathy</b>
All broad & general principles belong to benevolence
Who protects minute particulars, every one in their own identity.</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 59, (E 211)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>But the Divine Lamb stood beside Jerusalem. oft she saw
The lineaments Divine & oft the Voice heard</b>, & oft she said:
O Lord & Saviour, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee?"</span></pre><pre><i style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Four Zoas</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">, Night II, Page 25, (E 314)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And the leopards coverd with skins of beasts tended the roaring fires
<b>Sublime distinct their lineaments divine of human beauty </b>
The tygers of wrath called the horses of instruction from their mangers
They unloos'd them & put on the harness of gold & silver & ivory
In human forms distinct they stood round Urizen prince of Light
Petrifying all the Human Imagination into rock & sand" </span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Descriptive Catalogue</i>, (E 541)</span></pre><pre><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">" He who does
not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger
and better light than his perishing mortal eye can see does not
imagine at all.</span></b></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Descriptive Catalogue, (E 544)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>"The Beauty proper for sublime art, is lineaments, or
forms and features that are capable of being the receptacles of
intellect</b>; accordingly the Painter has given in his beautiful
man, his own idea of intellectual Beauty." </span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Vision of last Judgment,</i> (E 560)</span></pre><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I intreat then that the Spectator will <b>attend to the <br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>Hands & Feet to the Lineaments of the Countenances they are all<br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>descriptive of Character</b> & not a line is drawn without intention"</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"></span></div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><hr size="2" width="100%" /><span style="font-family: arial;">First Corinthians 15 - Phillips Translation</span></pre></span></pre><pre><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:35-38 - But perhaps someone will ask, <b>"How is the resurrection achieved?</b> With what sort of body do the dead arrive?" Now that is talking without using your minds! In your own experience you know that a seed does not germinate without itself "dying". When you sow a seed you do not sow the "body" that will eventually be produced, but bare grain, of wheat, for example, or one of the other seeds. God gives the seed a "body" according to his laws - a different "body" to each kind of seed.</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:39 - Then again, even in this world, all flesh is not identical. There is a difference in the flesh of human beings, animals, fish and birds.</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:40-41 - <b>There are bodies which exist in this world, and bodies which exist in heaven. These bodies are not, as it were, in competition</b>; the splendour of an earthly body is quite a different thing from the splendour of a heavenly body. The sun, the moon and the stars all have their own particular splendour, while among the stars themselves there are different kinds of splendour.</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:42-44 - These are illustrations here of the raising of the dead. The body is "sown" in corruption; it is raised beyond the reach of corruption. It is "sown" in dishonour; it is raised in splendour. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. <b>It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.</b> As there is a natural body so will there be a spiritual body.</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">15:45 - It is written, moreover, that:</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">'The first man Adam became a living being'.</span></span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:46-49 - So the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. But we should notice that the order is "natural" first and then "spiritual". <b>The first man came out of the earth, a material creature. The second man came from Heaven and was the Lord himself.</b> <b>For the life of this world men are made like the material man; but for the life that is to come they are made like the one from Heaven.</b> So that just as we have been made like the material pattern, so we shall be made like the Heavenly pattern.</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">15:50 - For I assure you, my brothers, it is <b>utterly impossible for flesh and blood to possess the kingdom of God. The transitory could never possess the everlasting.</b></span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>...</b></span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">15:54 - So when the <b>perishable is lost in the imperishable, the mortal lost in the immortal</b>, this saying will come true: <b>'Death is swallowed up in victory'</b> 'O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?'</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><br /></p><div><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div></pre>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-10077863495573897802024-03-01T07:55:00.001-05:002024-03-02T07:29:50.554-05:00Biblical Truth<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Blake_jacobsladder.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Blake_jacobsladder.jpg" width="629" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Wikipedia Commons</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Jacob's Dream</u></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Genesis 28</span></span></div></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>10</b>] And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.<br />[<b>11</b>] And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.<br />[<b>12</b>] And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.<br />[<b>13</b>] And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Larry was fond of saying that the Bible is all poetry, and poetry is the highest form of truth. If one goes to the Bible looking for literal truth he/she will be disappointed for the truth of the Bible is spiritual truth which is of a different nature than what be stated can be stated literally. Poetry uses symbols, metaphors and allusion to suggest more than is overtly stated. The words rock, water, awake, earth, fire do not necessarily refer to physical entities; they point toward realities with larger, deeper meanings. When we read the Bible as poetry, we find the meanings that reveal truth about ourselves, our families, our societies, and our relationship to the world of spirit.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">From Larry Clayton's </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/blakeprimer/bible" style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Blake Primer</a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">: </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #212121; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"In reality the biblical truth is just as relevant to 18th Century England as it is to first century (or any century) Palestine. The same spiritual events continue to unfold today that Ezekiel, John and the others saw and described in their day. The same choices are to be made by 18th Century Britons (or 20th Century Americans!) as were made by first (or any) century Palestinians, and these choices have the same consequences. Truth is spiritual and timeless; the passing scene is only a shadow of the eternal reality.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #212121; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">...</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #212121; font-family: arial; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Having said all this how can we summarize Blake's relationship to the Bible? First we recall that he didn't read it literally but symbolically, not historically, but poetically. </span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: arial; white-space-collapse: preserve;">...</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It should be said however that Blake found inspiration for his myth from many other sources beside the Bible; the secular critics have pointed them out in great detail. He drew impartially on everything in his experience, but found the Bible his richest fountain. The other sources were secondary and for the most part commentaries on or elaborations of the biblical truths. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Much as he loved the Bible, Blake ascribed paramount authority to his visions. The true man of God has visions which refine, bring up to date, and correct the earlier visions of the earlier prophets. This is where Blake departed from the orthodox attitude to the Bible, which he called reading it black. This is where he acted on the heritage of English dissent. This is how he saw the New Light and became a man of the New Age."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">_______________</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">God is Love</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">First John 4</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[16</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">]</span> <span style="font-weight: normal;">So we know and believe the love God has for us.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span>God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">God Forgives</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Colossians 3</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">13</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">] forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; </span><span style="font-family: arial;">as</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the Lord has</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> forgive</span><span style="font-family: arial;">n you, so you also must</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> forgive</span><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span></span></h3><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Awake</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">1st Thessalonians 5</span></h3><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>5</b>] For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.<br />[<b>6</b>] So then <b>let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober</b>.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Thanksgiving</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">2nd Corinthians 4</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>13</b>] Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak,<br />[<b>14</b>] knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.<br />[<b>15</b>] For it is all for your sake, so that <b>as</b> <b>grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving</b>, to the glory of God.<br />[<b>16</b>] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Still Small Voice</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">1st Kings 19</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">12</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">] and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and </span>after the fire a</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> still small voice</span><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span></span></h3><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Within</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Luke 24</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>30</b>] And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.<br />[<b>31</b>] And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.<br />[<b>32</b>] And they said one to another, <b>Did not our heart burn within us</b>, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Incarnate - Human Form</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">John 13</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>3</b>] <b>Jesus</b> knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he<b> was come from God, and went to God;</b></span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Fear no Evil</span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Matthew 6</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>25</b>] And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.<br />[<b>26</b>] And he saith unto them, <b>Why are ye fearful</b>, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christ</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hebrews 8</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">6</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">] But</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">as it is, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Christ</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;"> has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal;">the </span><span style="font-family: arial;">covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.</span></span></h3><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Heaven</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hebrews 11</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">[</span><b style="font-family: arial;">16</b><span style="font-family: arial;">] But</span><b style="font-family: arial;"> </b><span style="font-family: arial;">as it is, </span><b style="font-family: arial;">they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one</b><span style="font-family: arial;">. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-8109566699315650382024-02-24T09:51:00.014-05:002024-02-27T07:38:42.249-05:00BLAKE & TULK<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.libson-yarker.com/images/made/downloads/images/Blake---Meeting-of-a-family-in-heaven_779_1200_70_faf9f5_s.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="519" height="800" src="https://www.libson-yarker.com/images/made/downloads/images/Blake---Meeting-of-a-family-in-heaven_779_1200_70_faf9f5_s.jpg" width="519" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><ul class="ruled-list" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><li class="ruled-list__item" style="color: #4f313a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; position: relative;"><h1 class="sidebar-heading__title" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><u>The meeting of a family in heaven</u></span></h1></li><li class="ruled-list__item" style="color: #4f313a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Charles Augustus Tulk, acquired from the artist, possibly in 1816</span></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Until it was sold in 2012 this image was in the collection of the family of Charles Augustus <a href="https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/tulk-charles-1786-1849"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Tulk</span> </a>who had purchased it directly from William Blake. It seems that Blake was acquainted with Tulk through his association with the Swedenborgian movement which Blake had explored as a young man. Tulk was wealthy and a member of Parliament. His support was crucial to the financial survival of Blake during lean years. </span><div><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;"><span>After Blake's original participation in an organizational meeting of Swedenborg followers in London in 1789, he continued to read Swedenborg's books. He annotated his copies of </span></span><em>Heaven and Hell, </em><em>Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, </em>and <em>Divine Providence</em> finding fault with particular statements of Swedenborg<em>. </em><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;">In Blake's book </span><i style="color: #4f313a;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_of_Heaven_and_Hell#:~:text=The%20work%20was%20composed%20between,in%20Latin%2033%20years " style="background-color: #fff2cc;">The Marriage of Heaven and Hell</a></i><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;"> (composed between 1790 and 1793) he criticized aspects of Swedenborg's doctrine.</span><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;"> </span>He<em> </em>d<span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;">eclined to join the New Jerusalem Church in 1797.</span><span face="source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4f313a;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #4f313a; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #4f313a; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Although Blake felt compelled to create his own system, he was not averse to borrowing from others. In fact he searched the literature of the ages seeking the truth which had been revealed to wise men who came before him. He found in Swedenborg both truth and error and incorporated what he valued. Part of the reason he did not join the Swedeborgian New Jerusalem Church was the distinction he made between the Kingdom of God being manifest in this world or conversely within the realm of the spirit. Attempts to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth, he felt, diverted attention from building the spiritual kingdom not limited by material constraints.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #4f313a; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It seems that Blake found in Charles <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Augustus_Tulk" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Tulk</a> a man who shared his attitude about the message <a href="https://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2022/06/swedenborg.html" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Swedenborg</a> delivered. They didn't join the movement but incorporated truth which could be found within it.</span></div><div><span style="color: #4f313a; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #4f313a; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060907073610/http://www.shs.psr.edu/studia/index.asp?article_id=29"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">More about Blake and Tulk</span>.</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-9002111731714789272024-02-17T09:31:00.004-05:002024-02-17T09:57:29.589-05:00Synopsis Revised<p><span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/William_Blake_-_St_Peter_and_St_James_with_Dante_and_Beatrice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/800px-William_Blake_-_St_Peter_and_St_James_with_Dante_and_Beatrice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="800" height="442" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/William_Blake_-_St_Peter_and_St_James_with_Dante_and_Beatrice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/800px-William_Blake_-_St_Peter_and_St_James_with_Dante_and_Beatrice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 20px;">Google Art Project</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 20px;">Illustrations to Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 20px;"><u>St Peter and St James with Dante and Beatrice</u></span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: arial; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span></span></div><span><br /></span><table border="0" style="background-color: #f3f0eb; width: 400px;"><tbody><tr><td valign="TOP"></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #424242;">Paradiso</i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #424242;"> XXV, 13-24. St James appears from out of the sphere containing Christ's first vicars and joins Peter. He questions Dante on Hope, just as Peter had questioned him on Faith</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">First posted April 2007</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Ram Horn'd with Gold</i> by Larry Clayton<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Although most of us who are religious types may struggle our
whole lives for those precious moments of God consciousness, William
Blake had a direct pipeline to the Beyond. Heavenly visions dominated
his mind in an overwhelming way. His wife had only one fault to find,
"Mr. Blake spends too much time in Heaven." <br />
And in spite of derogatory remarks made by <a href="http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1771250" target="-blank"> <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">critics as late as T.S.Eliot</span></a> he probably knew more about human culture than any man since the Renaissance.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This book is an introduction to Blake's thought with primary
emphasis on its spiritual dimension. Recent Blake literature has come
largely from secular interpreters. The religious community for the
most part have totally ignored Blake. Nevertheless he was a profoundly
spiritual man. This introduction to Blake focuses on his spiritual life as expressed in his aesthetics, politics, and psychology. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER ONE<br />
in a short biographical sketch recounts those events which largely
determined the shape of his career. It also gives the first thumbnail
outline of his work. <br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER TWO </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
provides the reader with some of the basic equipment he will need to begin to read Blake with comprehension. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER THREE </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
Some simpler Blake poetry (Simple only in the sense that some meaning readily emerges.) <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER FOUR </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
interprets Blake's faith as it developed through the circumstances of
his life. My distinctive view of that development includes a change
of direction or attitude toward Christ in Blake's early forties. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER FIVE </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">traces Blake's struggle with God through the early images of
Nobodaddy, Father of Jealousy, Urizen, and the God of this World, to
his "first Vision of Light" and the resulting commitment to what he
called (among other things) Jesus the Imagination. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER SIX</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">explains Blake's understanding of the Bible, his primary source.
Blake cast light on biblical ideas, and conversely the Bible explains
Blake. Redemption history, the struggle between Jehovah and Astarte,
the symbology of Ezekiel and Revelation are some of the topics dealt
with. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER SEVEN <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">details Blake's relationship to the established church, his view of
church history, his attitude as a dissenter against a state church and
other forms of inauthentic authority, his relationship to Quakers,
Methodists, and Deists as well as his personal associations, seen
imaginatively as a religious community. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER EIGHT</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">treats Blake's sexuality, his attitudes toward prevailing sexual
mores, his incorporation of biblical viewpoints toward sex, especially
in the symbology of the heterodox tradition. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">CHAPTER NINE</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">describes the development of the mythology that forms the framework of Blake's major works. </span><br /></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
<br />
The primary sources for this work were Blake's poetry and
pictures and the Bible. The most significant secondary sources were
Northrup Frye's <i>Fearful Symmetry</i>, Milton Percival's <i>Circle of Destiny</i>,
Kathleen Raine's <i>Blake and Tradition</i>, John Middleton Murry's <i>William
Blake</i>, and C.G. Jung's <i>Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. </i></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/blakeprimer/blake?authuser=0">Primer</a> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/blakeprimer/introduction">Introduction</a> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://woeandjoy.blogspot.com/2019/03/death.html"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Death </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></a></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://woeandjoy.blogspot.com/2018/11/myth-in-blake.html">Myth</a> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/blakeprimer/bible">Bible</a> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></p><p><br /></p>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-54058339630280700692024-02-14T09:20:00.000-05:002024-02-14T09:20:52.265-05:00JUDGMENT<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Last_Judgement_(Michelangelo).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="726" height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Last_Judgement_(Michelangelo).jpg" width="581" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Michelangelo</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sistine Chapel</span></div><u style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The Last Judgment</span></u></div></u></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/LargeImageHandler.ashx?id=391985"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="643" height="640" src="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/LargeImageHandler.ashx?id=391985" width="514" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">William Blake</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Petworth House</span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A Vision of the Last Judgment</span></u></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Kathleen Raine in her book, <i>Golgonooza: City of Imagination</i>, focuses on differences in the way that the two artists, Michelangelo and Blake, conceived of the same subject matter. Beginning on Page 144, she describes their perspectives in creating the images of the Last Judgment. She sees them presenting opposing views of the meaning and purpose of the apocalypse or final resolution of creation. Blake's Christ is a benevolent figure around whom there is a "great circulation of human figures ascending and descending in unbroken flow from the heavens down to the hells, and again rising up to the heavens." Michelangelo's figure of Christ focuses instead on fallen humanity without compassion.</span></div><div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Raine points out that Blake's figures are not historical figures even though we find their stories in the Bible: they are symbolic of the states through which mortal man passes in his journey through life.</span></p><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Descriptions of the Last Judgment</i>, (E 556)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"on the left
beneath the falling figure of Cain is Moses casting his tables of
stone into the Deeps. it ought to be understood that the Persons
Moses & Abraham are not here meant but the States Signified by
those Names the Individuals being representatives or Visions of
those States as they were reveald to Mortal Man in the Series of
Divine Revelations. as they are written in the Bible these
various States I have seen in my Imagination when distant they
appear as One Man but as you approach they appear
Multitudes of Nations. Abraham hovers above his posterity which
appear as Multitudes of Children ascending from the Earth
surrounded by Stars as it was said As the Stars of Heaven for
Multitude Jacob & his Twelve Sons"</span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Represented by Blake are archetypes not individuals. In his life's journey a man is passing through archetypal states from which he is released by Jesus the Imagination in order to proceed to the next state. </span></div><div><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i> Plate 32 [35], (E 132)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States" </span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 33 [37],(E 180)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"We live as One Man; for contracting our infinite senses
We behold multitude; or expanding: we behold as one,
As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man
We call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him,
Live in perfect harmony in Eden the land of life,
Giving, recieving, and forgiving each others trespasses."</span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Raine observes that in contrast to Blake's Christ who is the "heart of divine radiance" Michelangelo's Christ is "stern and majestic" and "comes to judge the world in terms of its own attainable perfection."</span><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 49,(E 199)</span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Yet they are blameless & Iniquity must be imputed only
To the State they are enterd into that they may be deliverd:
Satan is the State of Death, & not a Human existence:
But Luvah is named Satan, because he has enterd that State.
A World where Man is by Nature the enemy of Man
Because the Evil is Created into a State. that Men
May be deliverd time after time evermore. Amen.
Learn therefore O Sisters to distinguish the Eternal Human
That walks about among the stones of fire in bliss & woe
Alternate! from those States or Worlds in which the Spirit travels:
This is the only means to Forgiveness of Enemies" </span></pre><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 159 Raine sums up her impressions of the works of two artists: "Thus for Michelangelo the Last Judgment represents the end and downfall of the world, for Blake it represents rather an opening of the eyes of the spirit, an end only of illusion to make way for a vision of eternal reality."</span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></pre></div></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-39652298897389144372024-02-08T18:47:00.004-05:002024-02-08T19:01:01.000-05:00SOUL QUOTES<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience%2C_copy_L%2C_1795_(Yale_Center_for_British_Art)_-_SE_-_Intro.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="468" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience%2C_copy_L%2C_1795_(Yale_Center_for_British_Art)_-_SE_-_Intro.jpg" width="468" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Wikipedia Commons</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Introduction to <i>Songs of Experience</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: normal;">Some of what Blake wrote about the soul can be found in the passages quoted below. They include these words about the soul: </span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: normal;">The soul is subject to falling away, to passing through states, but is never defiled. It can be hidden or return to the mortal state or be 'harrowd with grief & fear & love & desire,' It can conceal sin. The soul can experience terror or view the 'Infernal Storm.' The soul can be given away and can seek for her maker. The sinless soul dwells with the immortal spirit. When the soul approaches the gates of death, or dies within, the Divine Saviour descends and the Divine Vision weeps. Error & Illusion rent the soul.</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: normal;">June Singer in <i>Seeing Through the Visible World</i>, gives these insights into how the soul functions beginning on page xxii:</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: normal;">"...The more you encompass of the visible world with the knowing of the <i>mind</i>, the more aware you may become of the expanse of the unknowable. </span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: normal;">But there is another way of knowing: the knowing of the <i>soul</i>. This kind of knowing has been called <i>gnosis</i> since ancient times to distinguish it from the kind of knowledge that comes from intellect and reason alone. <i>Psyche</i> is the Greek term for <i>soul, </i>and it is in this sense that I use it. Soul or psyche, is that aspect of the individual that is composed of both conscious and unconscious aspects: ways of knowing of which we are primarily aware (such as thinking, feeling, and sensation), and ways of knowing that seem to be mobilized primarily in realms of the unconscious (for example, intuition, speculation, imagination, and dreaming). All these ways of knowing belong to the realm of the psyche or soul. Mind is included in the psyche, but the psyche is not limited to the exercise of the mental processes. The soul bridges the gap between what can be learned through the mind, through the senses, through the intellect and through the exercise of scientific observation - and the intuitive awareness of a deep abiding space that may be penetrated by consciousness but can never be encompassed by it."</span></span></pre><pre><i style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Songs 30, (E 18)</span></i></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Introduction.
Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees
Whose ears have heard,
The Holy Word,
That walk'd among the ancient trees.
<b>Calling the lapsed Soul</b>
And weeping in the evening dew:
That might controll,
The starry pole;
And fallen fallen light renew!"
</span></pre><div><i style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Combined Title Page, (E 6)</span></i></div><div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"<b>Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul"</b> </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><i>America</i>, Plate 8, (E 54)</span></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"For every thing that lives is holy, life delights in life;
Because the <b>soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd."</b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i><span>, </span><span>Plate 22, (E 168)</span></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Loud groand Albion from mountain to mountain & replied
Plate 23
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! deluding shadow of Albion!
Daughter of my phantasy! unlawful pleasure! Albions curse!
I came here with <b>intention to annihilate thee! But
My soul is melted away</b>, inwoven within the Veil
Hast thou again knitted the Veil of Vala, which I for thee
Pitying rent in ancient times. I see it whole and more
Perfect, and shining with beauty! But thou! O wretched Father!
Jerusalem reply'd, like a voice heard from a sepulcher:
Father! once piteous! Is Pity. a Sin? Embalm'd in Vala's bosom
In an Eternal Death for. Albions sake, our best beloved.
Thou art my Father & my Brother: <b>Why hast thou hidden me,
Remote from the divine Vision: my Lord and Saviour."</b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton, </i><span><span>Plate 42 [49],</span><span> (E 143)</span></span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path
A moment, & <b>my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body</b>
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" </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #990000;">, </span><span style="color: #990000;">Plate 68, (E 222)</span></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Once Man was occupied in intellectual pleasures & energies
<b>But now my soul is harrowd with grief & fear & love & desire</b>
And now I hate & now I love & Intellect is no more:
There is no time for any thing but the torments of love & desire
The Feminine & Masculine Shadows soft, mild & ever varying
In beauty: are Shadows now no more, but Rocks in Horeb
Plate 69
Then all the Males combined into One Male & every one
Became a ravening eating Cancer growing in the Female
A Polypus of Roots of Reasoning Doubt Despair & Death.
Going forth & returning from Albions Rocks to Canaan:
Devouring Jerusalem from every Nation of the Earth."</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i><span>, </span><span>Night I, Page 4, (E 301)</span></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Enion said--Thy fear has made me tremble thy terrors have surrounded me t</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">All Love is lost Terror succeeds & Hatred instead of Love
And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty.
Once thou wast to Me the loveliest son of heaven--But now
Why art thou Terrible and yet I love thee in thy terror till
I am almost Extinct & soon <b>shall be a Shadow in Oblivion
Unless some way can be found that I may look upon thee & live</b>
Hide me some Shadowy semblance. secret whispring in my Ear
In secret of soft wings. in mazes of delusive beauty
<b>I have lookd into the secret soul of him I lovd
And in the Dark recesses found Sin & cannot return
</b>
Trembling & pale sat Tharmas weeping in his clouds
<b>Why wilt thou Examine every little fibre of my soul</b>
Spreading them out before the Sun like Stalks of flax to dry
The infant joy is beautiful but its anatomy
Horrible Ghast & Deadly nought shalt thou find in it
But Death Despair & Everlasting brooding Melancholy</span></pre><div><div style="white-space: normal;"><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VII, Page 85, (E 360)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Thus they conferrd among the intoxicating fumes of Mystery </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Till Enitharmons shadow pregnant in the deeps beneath
Brought forth a wonder horrible. While Enitharmon shriekd
And trembled thro the Worlds above <b>Los wept his fierce soul was terrifid
At the shrieks of Enitharmon</b> at her tossings nor could his eyes percieve
The cause of her dire anguish for she lay the image of Death
Movd by strong shudders till her shadow was deliverd then she ran
Raving about the upper Elements in maddning fury
She burst the Gates of Enitharmons heart with direful Crash
Nor could they ever be closd again the golden hinges were broken
And the gates broke in sunder & their ornaments defacd
Beneath the tree of Mystery for the immortal shadow shuddering
Brought forth this wonder horrible a Cloud she grew & grew
Till many of the dead burst forth from the bottoms of their tombs
In male forms without female counterparts or Emanations
Cruel and ravening with Enmity & Hatred & War
In dreams of Ulro dark delusive drawn by the lovely shadow
The Spectre terrified gave her Charge over the howling Orc"
</span></pre></div><div style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Songs and Ballads</i><span>, </span><span>(E 480)</span></span></div></div><div><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[From Blake's Notebook] </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> "The Caverns of the Grave Ive seen
And these I shewd to Englands Queen
But now the Caves of Hell I view
Who shall I dare to shew them to
<b>What mighty Soul in Beautys form
Shall dauntless View the Infernal Storm </b>
Egremonts Countess can controll
The flames of Hell that round me roll
If she refuse I still go on"</span></pre><pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="white-space: normal;">Four Zoas, </i><span style="white-space: normal;">Night II, Page 26, (E 317)</span></span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I brought her thro' the Wilderness, a dry & thirsty land
And I commanded springs to rise for her in the black desart
Till she became a Dragon winged bright & poisonous
I opend all the floodgates of the heavens to quench her thirst
Plate 27
And I commanded the Great deep to hide her in his hand
Till she became a little weeping Infant a span long
I carried her in my bosom as a man carries a lamb
<b>I loved her I gave her all my soul & my delight</b>
I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer
Weaving mazes of delight along the sunny Paradise
Inextricable labyrinths, She bore me sons & daughters
And they have taken her away & hid her from my sight
They have surrounded me with walls of iron & brass, O Lamb
Of God clothed in Luvahs garments <b>little knowest thou
Of death Eternal that we all go to Eternal Death"</b></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Four Zoas</i><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">, </span><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Night IX, Page 127, (E 396)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>"Rise sluggish Soul why sitst thou here why dost thou sit & weep</b>
Yon Sun shall wax old & decay but thou shalt ever flourish
The fruit shall ripen & fall down & the flowers consume away
But thou shalt still survive arise O dry thy dewy tears
Hah! Shall I still survive whence came that sweet & comforting voice
And whence that voice of sorrow O sun thou art nothing now to me
Go on thy course rejoicing & let us both rejoice together
I walk among his flocks & hear the bleating of his lambs
O that I could behold his face & follow his pure feet
I walk by the footsteps of his flocks come hither tender flocks
<b>Can you converse with a pure Soul that seeketh for her maker</b>
You answer not then am I set your mistress in this garden
Ill watch you & attend your footsteps you are not like the birds"</span></pre></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night IX, Page 127, (E 397)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span>"My Luvah here hath placd me in a Sweet & pleasant Land
And given me fruits & pleasant waters & warm hills & cool valleys
Here will I build myself a house & here Ill call on his name
Here Ill return when I am weary & take my pleasant rest
<b>So spoke the Sinless Soul & laid her head on the downy fleece</b>
Of a curld Ram who stretchd himself in sleep beside his mistress
And soft sleep fell upon her eyelids in the silent noon of day
<b>Then Luvah passed by & saw the sinless Soul
And said Let a pleasant house arise to be the dwelling place
Of this immortal Spirit </b>growing in lower Paradise"
</span></pre><pre><i style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Milton</i><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">, </span><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Plate 14 [15], (E 108)</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;"><pre style="color: black;"><span>"And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for <b>my soul lies at the gates of death</b>.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate"</span><span><span>
<br /></span></span></pre></span></pre></span></pre></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000;">Jerusalem,</i><span style="color: #990000;"> Plate 42, (E 189)</span></span></pre><pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre>"Thus Albion sat, studious of others in his pale disease:
Brooding on evil: but when Los opend the Furnaces before him:
He saw that the accursed things were his own affections,
And his own beloveds: then he turn'd sick! <b>his soul died within him</b>
Also Los sick & terrified beheld the Furnaces of Death
And must have died, but the Divine Saviour descended
Among the infant loves & affections, and the Divine Vision wept
Like evening dew on every herb upon the breathing ground"</pre></span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #990000;">, Plate 35 [39], (E </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;">181</span><span style="color: #990000;">)</span></span></pre><p style="text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Los answerd, troubled: and <b>his soul was rent in twain</b>: <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Must the Wise die for an Atonement? does Mercy endure Atonement? <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> No! It is Moral Severity, & destroys Mercy in its Victim. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">So speaking, not yet infected with the Error & Illusion,"</span></p><pre style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; white-space: normal;"><br /></pre></pre></pre></div></pre></pre></pre></pre></div></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-73498399898192956982024-02-02T08:30:00.001-05:002024-02-02T14:14:54.287-05:00GOD ACTS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blakearchive.org/images/but330.1.378.wc.100.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="634" height="640" src="https://blakearchive.org/images/but330.1.378.wc.100.jpg" width="507" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">British Museum</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Illustrations to Young's <i>Night Thoughts</i></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Marriage of Heaven and Hell</i><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">, Plate 16, (E 40) </span>"Some will say, Is not God alone the Prolific? <b>I answer, God
only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.</b>"</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Blake reserved the word Action to denote something which is coming not through man alone but through God acting through man. </span></p><div><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Descriptive Catalogue</i>, (E 543)</span></div></span></pre></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"The <b>stories of Arthur are the acts of Albion</b>,
applied to a Prince of the fifth century, who conquered
Europe, and held the Empire of the world in the dark age, which
the Romans never again recovered."</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">When we read of the acts of Albion we are reading of Albion being a tool through<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">whom we may follow man's either placing himself under the guidance of God or <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">rejecting </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">God and turning away.</span> </span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 43 [29], (E 191)</span></span></pre></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And thus the <b>Voice Divine</b> went forth upon the rocks of Albion
<b>I elected Albion for my glory; I gave to him the Nations</b>,
Of the whole Earth. he was the Angel of my Presence: and all
The Sons of God were Albions Sons: and Jerusalem was my joy.
The Reactor hath hid himself thro envy. I behold him.
But you cannot behold him till he be reveald in his System
Albions Reactor must have a Place prepard: <b>Albion must Sleep
The Sleep of Death</b>, till the Man of Sin & Repentance be reveald.
Hidden in Albions Forests he lurks: he admits of no Reply
From Albion: but hath founded his Reaction into a Law
Of Action, for Obedience to destroy the Contraries of Man.
He hath <b>compelld Albion to become a Punisher & hath possessd
Himself of Albions Forests & Wilds! and Jerusalem is taken!</b>
The City of the Woods in the Forest of Ephratah is taken!
London is a stone of her ruins; Oxford is the dust of her walls!
Sussex & Kent are her scatterd garments: Ireland her holy place!
And the murderd bodies of her little ones are Scotland and Wales
The Cities of the Nations are the smoke of her consummation
The Nations are her dust! ground by the chariot wheels
Of her lordly conquerors, her palaces levelld with the dust
<b>I come that I may find a way for my banished ones to return
Fear not O little Flock I come! Albion shall rise again."</b></span></pre><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>Through</span><b> </b><span>following the acts of Albion we discern the journey that man travels as <br /></span><span>he is guided along the path to completeness.</span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><i>Descriptive Catalogue</i>, (E 544)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Reasons and opinions concerning acts, are not
history. Acts themselves alone are history, and these are
neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire,
Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O
historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away
with your reasoning and your rubbish. <b>All that is not action is
not worth reading. Tell me the What; I do not want you to
tell me the Why, and the How;</b> I can find that out myself, as well
as you can, and I will not be fooled by you into opinions, that
you please to impose, to disbelieve what you think improbable or
impossible. His opinions, who does not see spiritual agency, is
not worth any man's reading; he who rejects a fact because it is
improbable, must reject all History and retain doubts only.</span></pre><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Blake found that action, not opinion or explanations, provided him with a</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">n <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">understanding </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">of the spirit which was being expressed in what he discerned himself.</span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 95, (E 254)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span style="font-family: arial;">"Her voice pierc'd Albions clay cold ear. he <b>moved</b> upon the Rock
The Breath Divine <b>went forth</b> upon the morning hills, Albion mov'd
Upon the Rock, he <b>opend</b> his eyelids in pain; in pain he <b>mov'd</b>
His stony members, he saw England. Ah! shall the Dead live again
The Breath Divine <b>went forth</b> over the morning hills Albion <b>rose</b>
In anger: the wrath of God breaking bright flaming on all sides around
His awful limbs: <b>into the Heavens he walked clothed in flames</b>
Loud thundring, with broad flashes of flaming lightning & pillars
Of fire, <b>speaking</b> the Words of Eternity in Human Forms, in direful
Revolutions of <b>Action & Passion</b>, thro the Four Elements on all sides
Surrounding his awful Members. Thou seest the Sun in heavy clouds
Struggling to rise above the Mountains. in his burning hand
<b>He takes his Bow, then chooses out his arrows of flaming gold</b>
Murmuring the Bowstring breathes with ardor! clouds roll around the
Horns of the wide Bow, loud sounding winds sport on the mountain brows
Compelling <b>Urizen to his Furrow; & Tharmas to his Sheepfold;
And Luvah to his Loom: Urthona he beheld mighty labouring at
His Anvil,</b> in the Great Spectre Los unwearied labouring & weeping
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthonas Spectre in songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble. </span></pre><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When Albion began to perceive the voice of God, a cascade of action </span><span style="font-family: arial;">followed. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Hearing the voice pierce his 'clay cold</span></span> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: arial;">ear' was the key to </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: arial;">releasing movement, </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial;">speech, emotion, and thought which together restored his </span><span style="font-family: arial;">fourfold Zoas.</span></span></div><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Vision of Last Judgment</i>, (E 565)</span></span></pre></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I will not Flatter them Error is
Created Truth is Eternal <b>Error or Creation will be Burned Up &
then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear It is Burnt up
the Moment Men cease to behold it </b>I assert for My self that I do
not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance &
not Action it is as the Dirt upon my feet No part of Me. What it
will be Questiond When the Sun rises do you not see a round
Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable
company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord
God Almighty I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any
more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight I look
thro it & not with it." </span></pre><pre><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The inner life which is the life of the spirit is Eternal. Whatever is material <br />and temporal passes away. What is in response to Truth is lasting and fosters <br />development of the spiritual life.</span></p></pre><pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: arial;">Annotations to Swedenborg</i><span style="font-family: arial;">, (E 601)</span></span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span style="font-family: arial;">"<b>To hinder another is not an act</b> it is the
contrary it is a <b>restraint on action</b> both in ourselves & in the
person hinderd. for he who hinders another omits his own duty at
the time." </span></pre><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Action results from following the guidance of the spirit. Preventing another's <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">spiritual development is contrary to being led oneself.</span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Annotations to Watson,</i> (E 614)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial;">"The <b>truth</b> & certainty of Virtue &
Honesty i.e Inspiration needs no one to prove it it <b>is Evident</b>
as the Sun & Moon [<em>What doubt is virtuous even Honest that
depends upon Examination</em>] He who stands doubting of what he
intends whether it is Virtuous or Vicious knows not what Virtue
means. <b>no man can do a Vicious action & think it to be Virtuous</b>.
no man can take darkness for light. he <b>may pretend</b> to do so & may
pretend to be a modest Enquirer. <b>but he is a Knave"</b></span></pre><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There is within us the ability to discern truth. The spirit itself <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">informs us whether what we are considering is 'Virtuous or Vicious.'<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">We cannot take 'darkness for light.' </span></span></p><pre><br /></pre></span></pre><pre><p></p></pre></pre>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-23423254442837517522024-01-27T11:36:00.000-05:002024-01-27T11:36:36.095-05:00Vision of God<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.britishmuseum.org/media/Repository/Documents/2014_9/30_15/62c42051_d036_474c_b6ba_a3b6010494de/mid_00020096_001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="667" height="800" src="https://media.britishmuseum.org/media/Repository/Documents/2014_9/30_15/62c42051_d036_474c_b6ba_a3b6010494de/mid_00020096_001.jpg" width="667" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">British Museum</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;">Illustrations to Young's <i>Night </i></span><i>Thoughts</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;">First posted June 2010</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;">Northrup Frye with his background in both religious studies and literary criticism was uniquely qualified to clarify William Blake's writings - which he did in his earliest book <i>Fearful Symmetry. </i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;">In the first paragraph of Chapter 5, Frey delineates the relationship between the i</span></span>ndividual and mind of God. He refers to fallen man as the ego, which perceives the general. As a part of the Universal Creator, man perceives or creates as a mental form. It is in the mind of the totality of creative power that we are able to perceive the particular. If we see through that seed of truth planted within us, we perceive this world as a 'single creature' fallen and redeemed. Frey states, 'This is the vision of God (subjective genitive: the vision which God in us has).'</span></span><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"><br />This is the fourfold vision of which Blake speaks in a <span style="font-style: italic;">Letter to Thomas Butts</span>, (E 722):<br />"Now I a fourfold vision see<br />And a fourfold vision is given to me<br />Tis fourfold in my supreme delight<br />And three fold in soft Beulahs night<br />And twofold Always. May God us keep<br />From Single vision & Newtons sleep"<br /><br />Blake's idea that we must see not with but through the eye, is true at the level of vision as well; we are not to see the vision, or with the vision but through the vision to the transcendent reality which provides the vision and the means of apprehending it.<br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Auguries of Innocence</span>, (E 520)</span><br />"This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul<br />Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole<br />And leads you to Believe a Lie<br />When you see with not thro the Eye<br />That was born in a night to perish in a night<br />When the Soul slept in the beams of Light."</span><br /><br /><i>Fearful Symmetry</i>, Page 108:</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"The vision of the Last Judgment. said Blake, '</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">is seen by the Imaginative Eye of Every one according to the situation he holds.' And the greater the work of art, the more completely it reveals the gigantic myth which is the vision of the world as God sees it, the outlines of that vision being creation, fall redemption and apocalypse."</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><br /></div></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-6216726379229371422024-01-26T20:42:00.000-05:002024-01-26T20:42:49.393-05:00ENITHARMON WEAVES<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Bb209.1.5.ms.300.jpg/640px-Bb209.1.5.ms.300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="597" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Bb209.1.5.ms.300.jpg/640px-Bb209.1.5.ms.300.jpg" width="597" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Wikipedia Commons</div></span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Image from British Library</span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Four Zoas</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 5</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 21[23], (E 115)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"But I knew not that it was Milton, <b>for man cannot know</b></span><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">What passes in his members till periods of Space & Time</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b>Reveal the secrets of Eternity</b>: for more extensive</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Than any other earthly things, are Mans earthly lineaments."</span></span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Letters</i>, To Trusler, (E 703)</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;"> "But I am happy to find a Great Majority of <b>Fellow Mortals
who can Elucidate My Visions</b> & 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 <b>Imagination or Spiritual Sensation"</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;"><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The Everlasting Gospel</i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">, (E 520)</span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"<b>When the Soul fell into Sleep</b>
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
<b>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."</b>
</span><br /></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 18, (E 163)</span> </pre><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(For Vala produc'd the Bodies. <b>Jerusalem gave the Souls</b>)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night 8, Page 103,(E 376)</span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>"Enitharmon wove in tears</b> Singing Songs of Lamentations
And pitying comfort as she sighd forth on the wind the spectres
And <b>wove them bodies</b> 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 <b>they appeard a Universal female form</b> created
From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead
PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION)
And <b>Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusalem</b> 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"</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Annotations to Berkley</i>, (E 664)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"<b>The Natural Body is an Obstruction to the Soul or Spiritual
Body" </b></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Vision of Last Judgment</i>, (E 563)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> "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 <b>States of the Sleep which the Soul may fall into in its
Deadly Dreams of Good & Evil</b> when it leaves Paradise
following the Serpent" </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Auguries of Innocence</i>, (E 492)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"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
<b>Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night</b>
<b>When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light</b>
<b>God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night</b>
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day"
</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Auguries of Inocence</i>, (E 491)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"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
<b>A Clothing for the soul divine</b>
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine
The Babe is more than swadling Bands
</span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Throughout all these Human Lands<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Tools were made & Born were hands<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Every Farmer Understands<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Every Tear from Every Eye </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Becomes a Babe in Eternity"</span></div></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night IX, Page 134, (E 402)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air
<b>Let the inchaind soul shut up in darkness</b> & in sighing
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years
<b>Rise & look out his chains are loose his dungeon doors are open</b>
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
<b>The good of all the Land is before you for Mystery is no more"
</b></span></pre><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Four Zoas,</i> Night VIII, Page 98, (E 371)</span></span></div><div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Startled was Los he found his Enemy Urizen now
In his hands. he wonderd that he felt love & not hate
<b>His whole soul loved him</b> he beheld him an infant
Lovely breathd from Enitharmon he trembled within himself"</span></pre></div><div><i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Four Zoas,</i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> Night VIII, Page 98, </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;">(E 370)</span></span></div><div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"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
<b>They shall be ransoms for our Souls that we may live"</b></span></pre><pre><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VII, Page 95 [87], (E 368)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My lovely Enitharmon. <b>I will quell my fury & teach
Peace to the Soul of dark revenge & repentance to Cruelty</b>
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"</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Laocoon</i>, (E 273)</span></span></pre></div><div><pre><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Adam is only The Natural Man & not the Soul or Imagination
The Eternal Body of Man is The IMAGINATION."</span></b></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 71, (E 224)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>"As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalems Sons,
Are to the Sons of Albion: and Jerusalem is Albions Emanation"</b> </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 52, (E 200)</span>
</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> |<b>The Spiritual States of
|the Soul are all Eternal</b>
Rahab is an | To the Deists. |Distinguish between the
Eternal State | |Man, & his present State </span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 42, (E143)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path
A moment, & <b>my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body</b>
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 " </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000;"><span>Ma</span>rriage of Heaven and Hell</i><span style="color: #990000;">, Plate 4, (E 34)</span>
</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"But the following Contraries to these are True
1 Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for <b>that calld Body is
a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses.</b> 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"</span></pre></span></pre><pre><br /></pre></div></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-51402157372871213612024-01-22T11:47:00.001-05:002024-01-22T11:50:46.767-05:00EMBODIED FORMS<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.collections.yale.edu/iiif/2/ycba:1e8db656-4949-47cb-8b19-6d22be967b48/full/,1024/0/default.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="603" height="800" src="https://images.collections.yale.edu/iiif/2/ycba:1e8db656-4949-47cb-8b19-6d22be967b48/full/,1024/0/default.jpg" width="603" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Yale Center for British Art</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Jerusalem</i></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Plate </span>36 [40]</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">David Erdman, on page 315 of the Illuminated Blake, sees William (Los) and Catherine (Enitharmon) "working in Line and color." The poet's writing arm is free while his painting arm is creating. He walks the line which connects him with Enitharmon who reaches for the fruit of the vine. </span></div></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 36 [40], (E 183) </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"(I call them by their English names: English, the rough basement.
Los built the stubborn structure of the Language, acting against
Albions melancholy, who must else have been a Dumb despair.) " </span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">There is a dialog which is enacted between the inner self which is solely experienced deep within one's own mentality, and the surface of the mind that is revealed through the outer world. We tend to give more attention to what the world is telling us than to what we are being told by the thoughts which originate within our minds.</span><br /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>We are given the opportunity to bring forth the image of truth which exists within. It can be revealed in the body which lives in the outer world. </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Within us is "</span>Lovely terrible Los wonder of Eternity" who must modulate his fires by expressing them through Imagination. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Cooperation between Los, the dynamic interior, and Enitharmon, who can give form to thought, is required if the mental images are to receive life in matter. Two of the sources of dissension in the world (Urizen and Orc) are drawn from war and become objects of "</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">love & not hate"</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>Transformation of the outer world results from "</span><span>the immortal works </span><span>Of Los Assimilating to those forms Embodied & Lovely</span>." </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VII, Page 98, (E 370) </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>"O <b>Lovely terrible Los wonder of Eternity</b> O Los my defence & guide<br /></span><span>Thy works are all my joy. & in thy fires my soul delights<br /></span><span>If mild they burn in just proportion & in secret night<br /></span><span>And silence build their day in shadow of soft clouds & dews<br /></span><span>Then I can sigh forth on the winds of Golgonooza piteous forms <br /></span><span>That vanish again into my bosom <b> but if thou my Los<br /></b></span><span><b>Wilt in sweet moderated fury. fabricate forms sublime <br /></b></span><span><b>Such as the piteous spectres may assimilate themselves into<br /></b></span><span><b>They shall be ransoms for our Souls that we may live<br /></b></span><span>So Enitharmon spoke & Los his hands divine inspired began <br /></span><span>To modulate his fires studious the loud roaring flames<br /></span><span>He vanquishd with the strength of Art bending their iron points<br /></span><span>And drawing them forth delighted upon the winds of Golgonooza <br /></span><span>From out the ranks of Urizens war & from the fiery lake<br /></span><span>Of Orc bending down as the binder of the Sheaves follows <br /></span><span>The reaper in both arms embracing the furious raging flames<br /></span><span>Los drew them forth out of the deeps planting his right foot firm<br /></span><span>Upon the Iron crag of Urizen thence springing up aloft<br /></span><span>Into the heavens of Enitharmon in a mighty circle<br /></span><span>And <b>first he drew a line upon the walls of shining heaven <br /></b></span><span><b>And Enitharmon tincturd it with beams of blushing love<br /></b></span><b><span>It remaind permanent a lovely form inspird divinely human<br /></span></b><b><span>Dividing into just proportions Los unwearied labourd<br /></span></b><b><span>The immortal lines upon the heavens till with sighs of love<br /></span></b><b><span>Sweet Enitharmon mild Entrancd breathd forth upon the wind <br /></span></b><b><span>The spectrous dead Weeping the Spectres viewd the immortal works<br /></span></b><b><span>Of Los Assimilating to those forms Embodied & Lovely<br /></span></b><b><span>In youth & beauty in the arms of Enitharmon mild reposing<br /></span></b><span>First Rintrah & then Palamabron drawn from out the ranks of war<br /></span><span>In infant innocence reposd on Enitharmons bosom <br /></span><span>Orc was comforted in the deeps his soul revivd in them<br /></span><span>As the Eldest brother is the fathers image So Orc became <br /></span><span>As Los a father to his brethren & he joyd in the dark lake<br /></span><span>Tho bound with chains of Jealousy & in scales of iron & brass<br /></span><span>But Los loved them & refusd to Sacrifice their infant limbs <br /></span><span>And Enitharmons smiles & tears prevaild over self protection<br /></span><b><span>They rather chose to meet Eternal death than to destroy<br /></span></b><span><b>The offspring of their Care & Pity</b> Urthonas spectre was comforted<br /></span><span>But Tharmas most rejoicd in hope of Enions return<br /></span><span>For he beheld new Female forms born forth upon the air <br /></span><span>Who wove soft silken veils of covering in sweet rapturd trance<br /></span><span>Mortal & not as Enitharmon without a covering veil<br /></span><span>First his immortal spirit drew Urizens Shadow away <br /></span><span>From out the ranks of war separating him in sunder<br /></span><span>Leaving his Spectrous form which could not be drawn away <br /></span><span>Then he divided Thiriel the Eldest of Urizens sons<br /></span><span>Urizen became Rintrah Thiriel became Palamabron<br /></span><span>Thus dividing the powers of Every Warrior<br /></span><b><span>Startled was Los he found his Enemy Urizen now<br /></span></b><b><span>In his hands. he wonderd that he felt love & not hate <br /></span></b><b><span>His whole soul loved him he beheld him an infant<br /></span></b><span>Lovely breathd from Enitharmon he trembled within himself<br /></span> <span> End of The Seventh Night " </span> </span><hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">First Corinthians12</span></p></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>1</b>] Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.<br />[<b>2</b>] Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.<br />[<b>3</b>] Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.<br />[<b>4</b>] <b>Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.</b><br />[<b>5</b>] And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.<br />[<b>6</b>] And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.<br />[<b>7</b>] <b>But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.</b><br />[<b>8</b>] For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;<br />[<b>9</b>] To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;<br />[<b>10</b>] To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:<br />[<b>11</b>] But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.<br />[<b>12</b>] For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.<br />[<b>13</b>] For <b>by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body</b>, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.<br />[<b>14</b>] For the body is not one member, but many.<br />[<b>15</b>] If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?<br />[<b>16</b>] And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?<br />[<b>17</b>] If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?<br />[<b>18</b>] But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.<br />[<b>19</b>] And if they were all one member, where were the body?<br />[<b>20</b>] But now are they <b>many members, yet but one body.</b><br />[<b>21</b>] And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.<br />[<b>22</b>] Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:<br />[<b>23</b>] And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.<br />[<b>24</b>] For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:<br />[<b>25</b>] That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.<br />[<b>26</b>] And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.<br />[<b>27</b>] Now<b> ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.</b><br />[<b>28</b>] And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.<br />[<b>29</b>] Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?<br />[<b>30</b>] Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?<br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">[<b>31</b>] But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. </span></p><p><br /></p>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-50299117328572029342024-01-17T08:56:00.001-05:002024-01-17T16:15:29.642-05:00INDIVIDUATION<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Bb209.1.77.ms.300.jpg/640px-Bb209.1.77.ms.300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="634" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Bb209.1.77.ms.300.jpg/640px-Bb209.1.77.ms.300.jpg" width="634" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; text-align: center;">Wikipedia Commons</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VII</div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Page 39</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></span><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">To seek self-knowledge is to enter the maze through which there is no direct path.</span></span></div><hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><!--x-tinymce/html-->
</p><div style="line-height: 1.1; margin: 0.1rem 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Quotes from On the Nature of the Psyche</i>, by C G Jung:</span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 133</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Every other science has so to speak an outside; not so psychology, whose object is the inside subject of all science.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Psychology therefore culminates of necessity in a developmental process which is peculiar to the psyche and consists of integrating the unconscious contents into consciousness. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I doubt my ability to give a proper account of the change that comes over the subject under the influence of the individuation process; ... if the unconscious if to be integrated indispensable business of coming to terms with the unconscious components of the personality. Once these unconscious components are made conscious, it results not only in their assimilation to the already existing personality, but a transformation of the latter." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 134</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"the ego ... cannot easily be altered ... If the structure of the ego-consciousness is strong enough to withstand the assault ... there is an alteration of the ego as well as of the unconscious contents... the ego is ousted from its central and dominating position... the unconscious contents has vitalized the personality, enriched it and created a figure that somehow dwarfs the ego in scope and intensity...In this way the will, as disposable energy, gradually subordinates itself to the stronger factor, namely the new totality-figure I call the <i>self</i>." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 135 (Note)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Conscious wholeness consists in a successful union of ego and self, so that both preserve their intrinsic qualities. If, instead of this union, the ego is overpowered by the self, then the self too does not attain the form it ought to have, but remains on a primitive level and can express itself only in archaic symbols."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Page 136</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"the self comprises infinitely more than a mere ego, as the symbolism has shown of old. It is as much one's own self, and all other selves, as the ego. Individuation does not shut on out from the world, but gathers the world to oneself."</span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Both William Blake and Carl Jung were consumed with understanding the human psyche. As a starting point they each looked inward into their own condition. To share their insights Blake used poetic language and Jung used a more prosaic or scientific style. Each man developed his own vocabulary to describe the inner realities he discovered. But if we look closely at what they found we see the similarities. </span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;">THERE is NO NATURAL RELIGION, (E 2)</span><br /> The Author & Printer W Blake <br /></span><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">IV <b>None could have other than natural or organic thoughts if
he had none but organic perceptions</b>
V Mans desires are limited by his perceptions. none can desire
what he has not perciev'd
VI The desires & perceptions of man untaught by any thing but
organs of sense, must be limited to objects of sense.
</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> THERE is NO NATURAL RELIGION [b] </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I <b>Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover. </b></span>...</pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">VII <b>The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite
& himself Infinite"</b></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 2, (E 96)</span> </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Come into my hand
By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm
From out the Portals of my <b>Brain</b>, where by your ministry
The <b>Eternal Great Humanity Divine. planted his Paradise</b>,
And in it caus'd the Spectres of the Dead to take sweet forms
In likeness of himself. Tell also of the False Tongue! vegetated
Beneath your <b>land of shadows</b>: of its sacrifices. and
Its offerings; even till Jesus, the image of the Invisible God
Became its prey; a curec, an offering, and an atonement,
For Death Eternal in the heavens of Albion, & before the Gates
Of Jerusalem his Emanation, in the heavens beneath Beulah </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 4, (E 146</span>)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the <b>passage through
Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life.</b>
This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song.
<b>Awake! awake O sleeper of the</b> <b>land of shadows</b>, wake! expand!
</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine:" </span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 35 [39], (E 35)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"So spake Ololon in reminiscence astonishd, but they
Could not behold Golgonooza without passing the Polypus
A wondrous journey not passable by Immortal feet, & none
But the Divine Saviour can pass it without annihilation.
For Golgonooza cannot be seen till having passd the Polypus
It is viewed on all sides round by a Four-fold Vision
Or till you become Mortal & Vegetable in Sexuality
Then you behold its mighty Spires & Domes of ivory & gold
<b>And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead.
Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion
</b></span></pre><pre><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death"</span></b></pre><pre><i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">, PLATE 63, (213)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Jehovah stood among the Druids in the Valley of Annandale
When <b>the Four Zoas of Albion</b>, the Four Living Creatures, the Cherubim
Of Albion tremble before the Spectre, in the starry likeness of the Plow
Of Nations. And <b>their Names are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona"</b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night 1, Page 1, E 300)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">" THE FOUR ZOAS
The torments of Love & Jealousy in
The Death and Judgement
of Albion the Ancient Man</span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> by William Blake 1797
<br />...<br />Night the First</span><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The Song of the Aged Mother which shook the heavens with wrath
Hearing the march of long resounding strong heroic Verse
Marshalld in order for the day of Intellectual Battle
<b>Four Mighty Ones are in every Man;
a Perfect Unity</b> John XVII c. 21 & 22 & 23 v
<b>Cannot Exist. but from the Universal
Brotherhood of Eden</b> John I c. 14. v
The Universal Man. To Whom be
Glory Evermore Amen <Greek [kai eskanosen en [h]amen]>
[<em>What</em>] are the Natures of those Living Creatures the
Heavenly Father only
[<em>Knoweth</em>] no Individual [<em>Knoweth nor</em>] Can know
in all Eternity
<b>Los was the fourth immortal starry one</b>, & in the Earth
Of a bright Universe Empery attended day & night
Days & nights of revolving joy, <b>Urthona was his name</b>
PAGE 4
In Eden; in the Auricular Nerves of Human life
Which is the Earth of Eden, he his Emanations propagated
Fairies of Albion afterwards Gods of the Heathen, Daughter of Beulah Sing
His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity
<b>His fall into the Generation of Decay & Death & his Regeneration
by the Resurrection from the dead" </b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, (Plate 24 [26], (E 119)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"the Seven Eyes of God continually
Guard round them, but I the <b>Fourth Zoa am also set
The Watchman of Eternity</b>, the Three are not! & I am preserved
Still my four mighty ones are left to me in Golgonooza
Still Rintrah fierce, and Palamabron mild & piteous
Theotormon filld with care, Bromion loving Science
You O my Sons still guard round Los. O wander not & leave me Rintrah,"</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 28 [30], (E 126)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"While the poor indigent is like the diamond which tho cloth'd
In rugged covering in the mine, is open all within
And in <b>his hallowd center holds the heavens of bright eternity</b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 30 [33], (E 131)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweets
Forgetting that <b>within that Center Eternity expands</b>
Its ever during doors, that Og & Anak fiercely guard"</span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VIII, Page 114, (E 385)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"He touches the remotest pole & in the Center weeps
That Man should Labour & sorrow & learn & forget & return
To the dark valley whence he came to begin his labours anew
In pain he sighs in pain he labours in his universe
Screaming in birds over the deep & howling in the Wolf
Over the slain & moaning in the cattle & in the winds
And weeping over Orc & Urizen in clouds & flaming fires </span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And in the cries of birth & in the groans of death his voice
Is heard throughout the Universe whereever a grass grows
Or a leaf buds <b>The Eternal Man is seen is heard is felt
And all his Sorrows till he reassumes his ancient bliss
</b>
Such are the words of Ahania & Enion. Los hears & weeps" </span></pre><pre><br /></pre></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-20165448232730796602024-01-15T16:13:00.004-05:002024-01-15T16:13:33.761-05:00INTEGRATION<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/William_Blake_-_Albion_Rose_-_from_A_Large_Book_of_Designs_1793-6.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="590" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/William_Blake_-_Albion_Rose_-_from_A_Large_Book_of_Designs_1793-6.jpg" width="590" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Wikipedia Commons</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A Large Book of Designs</i></div></i><u style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Albion Rose</u></div></u></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;">"Albion rose from where he labourd at the Mill with Slaves</span></div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;"><div style="text-align: center;">Giving himself for the Nations he danc'd the dance of</div><div style="text-align: center;">Eternal Death"</div></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>In </span><i>Blake's Four Zoas: The Design of a Dream </i><span>by Brian Wilkie and Mary Lynn Johnson we read of the finalization of of the poem in the last 31 lines which Blake wrote. The </span><i>Four Zoas</i><span> ends quickly after each of the Zoas has returned to his proper position and resumed his ordained function: Tharmas the shepherd, Urizen the Plowman, Luvah the Weaver, and Urthona the Blacksmith.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The final task is reassembling Albion in his pristine unity. All of the dividing, dissension and disintegration that went before is counter-balanced by synthesyzing the symbols which were so carefully developed in analyzing the process of dividing the Eternal Man.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i> , Night IX, (E 406)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>"The </span><b>Sun</b><span> has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning </span></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And the mild <b>moon</b> rejoices in the clear & cloudless night
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires the evil is all consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The <b>Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds</b>
<b>One Earth one sea</b> beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & <b>one Sun</b>
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
<b>Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest</b>
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice
<b>Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day</b>
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth
For Tharmas brought his flocks upon the hills & in the Vales
Around the Eternal Mans bright tent the little Children play
Among the wooly flocks The <b>hammer of Urthona sounds
In the deep caves</b> beneath his limbs renewd his Lions roar
Around the Furnaces & in Evening sport upon the plains
They raise their faces from the Earth <b>conversing with the Man
</b>
<b>How is it we have walkd thro fires & yet are not consumd
How is it that all things are changd even as in ancient times </b>
PAGE 139
The Sun arises from his dewy bed & the fresh airs
Play in his smiling beams giving the seeds of life to grow
And the fresh Earth beams forth ten thousand thousand springs of life
<b>Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los </b>
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
Departed & <b>Urthona rises</b> from the ruinous walls
<b>In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War</b> The war of swords departed now
<b>The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns
</b>
End of The Dream</span></pre><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Only Luvah and Vala do not return to their original functioning. They are cast into the 'World of Shadows' until the 'winter is over and gone'. We may think of the unconscious as the shadow world which is unknown to consciousness. In our world of time and space Luvah and Vala function in the outer world of which we are conscious. But although the dream is over the final restoration is not complete. Until time and space no longer exist and have been subsumed by Eternity, the place of Luvah and Vala will remain in the shadowy unconscious where they will not disturb the unity of Albion's consciousness. </span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405)</span> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Luvah & Vala woke & all the sons & daughters of Luvah
Awoke they wept to one another & they reascended
To the Eternal Man in woe <b>he cast them wailing into
The world of shadows thro the air till winter is over & gone"</b></span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Urthona too has a place in the unconscious where his work is continued. He feeds the conscious mind with the bread of sweet thought and the wine of delight.</span><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405)</span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"But the Human Wine stood wondering in all their delightful Expanses
The Elements subside the heavens rolld on with vocal harmony
Then <b>Los who is Urthona rose in all his regenerate power</b>
The Sea that rolld & foamd with darkness & the shadows of death
Vomited out & gave up all the floods lift up their hands
Singing & shouting to the Man they bow their hoary heads
And murmuring in their channels flow & circle round his feet
PAGE 138
<b>Then Dark Urthona took the Corn out of the Stores of Urizen
He ground it in his rumbling Mills</b> Terrible the distress
Of <b>all the Nations of Earth ground in the Mills of Urthona</b>
In his hand Tharmas takes the Storms. he turns the whirlwind Loose
Upon the wheels the stormy seas howl at his dread command
And Eddying fierce rejoice in the fierce agitation of the wheels
Of Dark Urthona Thunders Earthquakes Fires Water floods
Rejoice to one another loud their voices shake the Abyss
Their dread forms tending the dire mills The grey hoar frost was there
And his pale wife the aged Snow they watch over the fires
They build the Ovens of Urthona Nature in darkness groans
And Men are bound to sullen contemplations in the night
Restless they turn on beds of sorrow. in their inmost brain
<b>Feeling the crushing Wheels they rise they write the bitter words
Of Stern Philosophy & knead the bread of knowledge with tears & groans</b></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;">Four Zoas</i><span style="color: #990000; white-space: normal;"> , Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Such are the works of Dark Urthona <b>Tharmas</b> sifted the corn</span></p><p style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>Urthona</b> made the Bread of Ages & he placed it
In golden & in silver baskets in heavens of precious stone
And then <b>took his repose in Winter in the night of Time"</b></span></pre></span></pre><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Letters</i>,To Flaxman, (E 709)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;"> "My Friend & Thine
Descend & Ascend with the Bread & the Wine
The Bread of sweet Thought & the Wine of Delight
Feeds the Village of Felpham by day & by night"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #990000; white-space: pre;">Songs and Ballads</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; white-space: pre;">, (E 476)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Then shall we return & see
The worlds of happy Eternity
& Throughout all Eternity
I forgive you you forgive me
As our dear Redeemer said
This the Wine & this the Bread"</span></pre><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">__________________________________________________</span></p>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-27780854441836435382024-01-02T07:51:00.000-05:002024-01-02T07:51:52.349-05:00WHOLENESS<div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Reposted from Nov 12, 2010 </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5344513206532363324" itemprop="description
articleBody"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, PLATE 63, (E 213)</span><br />"Jehovah stood among the Druids in the Valley of Annandale<br />When the Four Zoas of Albion, the Four Living Creatures, the Cherubim<br />Of Albion tremble before the Spectre, in the starry likeness of the Plow<br />Of Nations. And their Names are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona"<br /><br />Milton Percival, author of <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ablake+ti%3Acircle+of+destiny+au%3Apercival&qt=advanced&dblist=638"><i>William Blake's Circle of Destiny</i></a></span></span>, was capable of revealing psychological meaning in Blake's poetry and pictures. He understood that Blake was depicting internal dynamics as he presented his Four Mighty ones in the one giant body of Albion.<br /><br />On page 20 we read:<br />"It is in his presentation of the Zoas that much of the power of Blake's myth lies. They are not the bloodless abstractions common to allegory. Blake believed in them. They are in consequence realities of the imagination, with power to terrify us as they terrified their creator. No other poet has given us so profound a sense of the helplessness of man before the primal forces of life; and no other poet, so passionate a denial of that helplessness. He fears these forces, because he sees them as demonic, with power over him; but he takes hope from the fact that these forces are in him - that they are himself. When man shall have brought them again into harmony, they will become his willing servants."<br /><br />Jung touches on several of the same paradigms of psychic development as does Percival in this passage from his Psychological Commentary in <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=nYi3NpsOq8UC&pg=PR47&lpg=PR47&dq=unconscious+forces+to+burst+out+in+full+strength&source=bl&ots=MY7ewB00ZB&sig=YT3KGWvW810tKr6UzOLAyjh3UgA&hl=en&ei=I0vRTKvWKoOKlwfnsPXQDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=unconscious%20forces%20to%20burst%20out%20in%20full%20strength&f=false"><i>Tibetan Book of the Dead</i></a></span>, Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz:<br /><br /></span><span style="color: black;">"Fear of self-sacrifice lurks deep in every ego, and this fear is often only [of] the precariously controlled demand of the unconscious forces to burst out in full strength. No one who strives for selfhood (individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which is feared also belongs to the wholeness of the self -- the sub-human, or supra-human world of psychic ‘dominants’ (archetypes) from which the ego originally emancipated itself with enormous effort, and then only partially, for the sake of a more or less illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very necessary and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: it is merely the creation of a <i>subject</i>, who, in order to find fulfillment, has still to be confronted by an <i>object</i>. This [object], at first sight, would appear to be the world, which is swelled out with projections for that very purpose. Here we seek and find our difficulties, here we seek and find our enemy, here we seek and find what is dear and precious to us; and it is comforting to know that all evil and all good is to be found out there, in the visible object, where it can be conquered, punished, destroyed, or enjoyed. But nature herself does not allow this paradisal state of innocence to continue for ever. There are, and always have been, those who cannot help but see that the world and its experiences are in the nature of a symbol, and that it really reflects something that lies hidden in the subject himself, in his own trans-subjective reality."</span><span style="color: black;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: black;">In the beginning of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Book of Urizen </span>Blake expresses a recognition of the disturbance in the psyche which has given power to a force which is '</span><span style="color: black;">Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.' He gladly hears the call to have the 'dark visions of torment' revealed to him.</span><br /><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><span style="color: black;"><i style="color: #660000;">Urizen</i><span style="color: #660000;">, PLATE 2, (E 74)</span><br />"PRELUDIUM TO THE [<em>FIRST</em>] BOOK OF URIZEN<br /><br />Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,<br />When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;<br />And gave him a place in the north,<br />Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.<br /><br />Eternals I hear your call gladly,<br />Dictate swift winged words, & fear not<br />To unfold your dark visions of torment."<br /><br />Entering in the dark, unknown aspects of the psyche changes the occupation of the mind to the experience of emotional states which are both pleasant and painful and which appear to be outside of the mind.<br /><br /><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, Plate 68, (E 222)</span><br />"Sometimes I curse & sometimes bless thy fascinating beauty<br />Once Man was occupied in intellectual pleasures & energies<br />But now my soul is harrowd with grief & fear & love & desire<br />And now I hate & now I love & Intellect is no more:<br />There is no time for any thing but the torments of love & desire<br />The Feminine & Masculine Shadows soft, mild & ever varying<br />In beauty: are Shadows now no more, but Rocks in Horeb"<br /><br />To be torn asunder, to be under the control of your own wrath, to experience fury, anguish and terror - these are the 'far worse' things of which Los and Blake know. But they know too that Albion will be made whole.<br /><br /><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, Plate 7, (E 150)</span><br />"Los answer'd. Altho' I know not this! I know far worse than this:<br />I know that Albion hath divided me, and that thou O my Spectre,<br />Hast just cause to be irritated: but look stedfastly upon me:<br />Comfort thyself in my strength the time will arrive,<br />When all Albions injuries shall cease, and when we shall<br />Embrace him tenfold bright, rising from his tomb in immortality.<br />They have divided themselves by Wrath. they must be united by<br />Pity: let us therefore take example & warning O my Spectre,<br />O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb<br />Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.<br />In anguish of regeneration! in terrors of self annihilation:<br />Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder,<br />And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction<br />Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End."<br /><br />The reunification of Albion, the archetype of the complete (individuated) individual and of the undivided mankind, restores the connection between humanity and the 'Universal Father' in 'Infinitude.'<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="color: black;"></span></span><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, PLATE 97, (E 256)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Jerusalem.e.p99.100.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="558" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Jerusalem.e.p99.100.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span><span style="font-style: italic;">Jerusalem</span>, Plate 99</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></span><br /></span></div><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5344513206532363324" itemprop="description
articleBody"><span face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>"Awake! Awake Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion<br />Awake and overspread all Nations as in Ancient Time<br />For lo! the Night of Death is past and the Eternal Day<br />Appears upon our Hills: Awake Jerusalem, and come away<br /><br />So spake the Vision of Albion & in him so spake in my hearing<br />The Universal Father. Then Albion stretchd his hand into Infinitude."</span><br /><br /><span><br /><br /><br /> </span></span></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-20817967739737356362023-12-27T06:59:00.005-05:002024-01-14T13:29:24.089-05:00GIANT FIGURES<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">First posted June 2011</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Blake was conflicted in regard to illustrating Dante's </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; font-style: italic;">Divine Comedy</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">. Although he admired Dante's genius, he deplored much in Dante's theology. Notice that Blake mentioned Dante among various luminaries in a positive role in </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: arial;">Jerusalem.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;"> , Plate 73, (E 228)</span><br />"And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories<br />These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around<br /><br />These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates<br />Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel<br />[<i>Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton</i>]<br />Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer<br />As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains<br />So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever"<br /><br />The line on Plate 73 of<i> Jerusalem</i> mentioning Dante was deleted by Blake after further consideration. Blake had included geniuses of Greek and European literature along with the most influential Old Testament characters, as individuals created by Los to preserve imagination. Apparently Blake later decided that he could not put all of these men in the same category.<br /></span><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/William_Blake-_Antaeus_Setting_Down_Dante_and_Vergil-1826.jpg" style="background-color: white; color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg6dWhHE6CICy3_R-mpcQkKRUgq7Gsbl8ToZaMVow0SQP70Kma4TeKPxiLSwJ73lsjzX1Wm6YzREwOvpjmuTzqz9nz1vn3Yo3MjSQOe3jO4azN2jB8lYlfqpvX2zUZls2n4uYY1JQSDUB5J1JTG3O_3CGS-KVQchbm_Ao67fFbBRlmb4eO_NX43pq02UHbvTj4uzLhSlE1ntjz7eKcZy8nSundN4hvAyqokWSA=s0-d" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 433px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; padding: 5px; position: relative; width: 302px;" /></a><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">When late in life Blake was commissioned to illustrate the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> Divine Comedy</span><span style="background-color: white;">, he went about the task with enthusiasm but skepticism. A particular illustration in which the giant </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antaeus" style="background-color: #ffe599; color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Antaeus</a><span style="background-color: white;"> transports Virgil and Dante to a lower circle of hell as per their request, gave Blake an opportunity to show a benevolent giant gently placing the two pilgrims on the ledge below. If Blake was making a bit of a joke by picturing an acrobatic giant clinging to the cliftside with an expression of loving concern on his face, some think that</span><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~dante/ebdsa/rh062000.htm" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Dante</span></a><span style="background-color: white;"> too was making a joke with Virgil's negotiations with Antaeus.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2010/01/alion-and-los.html" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;"></a></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Blake produced other pictures contrasting the size of giants with ordinary humans. The </span><a href="http://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2011/01/rainbow-of-revelations.html" style="background-color: #ffe599; color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Angel of Revelation</a><span style="background-color: white;"> pictures a vision being recorded by John of Patmos as he sits between the feet of the gigantic angel who commanded him to prophesy. Plate 62 of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">Jerusalem</span><span style="background-color: white;"> pictures the agonized </span><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="http://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2010/01/alion-and-los.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">giant Albion</a> </span><span style="background-color: white;">standing above the diminutive Los, the One who stood forth to warn Albion. The Eternal Zoas were giants too although we don't see them pictured with ordinary humans. In the illustrations to</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://media.britishmuseum.org/media/Repository/Documents/2014_9/30_15/3f4eb364_5ecd_4d13_98bd_a3b600ffffb9/mid_00018990_001.jpg">Night Thoughts</a></span><span style="background-color: white;"> there is occasionally a contrast between giant figures and ordinary sized ones. Much as Blake in his poetry used words to describe various levels of existence, he used size in images to portray different orders of reality. Becoming conscious of the Gigantic forms represents a mental awakening.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">It appears that Blake used the image of Antaeus, Virgil and Dante as a reminder that powerful forces may offer unexpected assistance.</span></span></span></p><p><br /></p>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-66428199429955424512023-12-25T07:27:00.001-05:002023-12-25T07:42:30.904-05:00DANTE ENGRAVINGS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Blake_Dante_Hell_V.jpg/800px-Blake_Dante_Hell_V.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="800" height="474" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Blake_Dante_Hell_V.jpg/800px-Blake_Dante_Hell_V.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Birmingham Art Museum</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Illustrations to <i>Divine Comedy</i></span></div><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u>Circle of the Lustful</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div></span></u></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-5/" style="background-color: #ffe599; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hell V </span></a></div></div><p><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">38 I learned that those who undergo this torment</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">are damned because they sinned within the flesh,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>subjecting reason to the rule of lust.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And as, in the cold season, starlings’ wings<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />bear them along in broad and crowded ranks<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />so does that blast bear on the guilty spirits:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">now here, now there, now down, now up, it drives them.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>There is no hope that ever comforts them—<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />no hope for rest and none for lesser pain.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">73 My first words: “Poet, I should willingly<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />speak with those two who go together there<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and seem so lightly carried by the wind.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And he to me: “You’ll see when they draw closer<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />to us, and then you may appeal to them<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />by that love which impels them. They will come.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">No sooner had the wind bent them toward us<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />than I urged on my voice: “O battered souls<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />if One does not forbid it, speak with us.”</span></p><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; text-align: left; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">103 <b><span>Love, that releases no beloved from loving,<br /></span>took hold of me so strongly through his beauty<br />that, as you see, it has not left me yet.</b></span></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Love led the two of us unto one death.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Caina waits for him who took our life."</span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; text-align: left; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Above is the watercolor of the <u>Circle of the Lustful</u> which was one of the six items designated for the Birmingham Museum. Blake was moved to produce engravings of his illustration to the Divine Comedy while working on the 102 watercolor sketches and drawings. This same design was engraved on copper along with six other designs. In 1937 the copperplates were sold by John Linnell's descendants to <span style="background-color: transparent;">Lessing J. Rosenwald who was a principle benefactor of the National Gallery in Wash</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">ington DC.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In various Museums are prints from the copperplates from as early as Blake's own proofs, to 25 sets made in 1968 from the copperplates in the National Gallery.<br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The set shown below is from the <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/dante.html" style="background-color: #ffe599;">National Gallery Victoria.<br /></a></span><div style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00169.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="410" height="300" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00169.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Circle Of the Lustful, Paolo and Francesca </span><span style="background-color: #f3f0eb;"> </span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00170.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="400" height="292" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00170.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></b><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><span style="background-color: #f3f0eb;">T</span><span style="background-color: white;">he Circle of the Corrupt Officials. The Devils Tormenting Ciampolo 1826-27\</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00171.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="378" height="284" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00171.jpg" width="378" /></a></div><br /></b><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14pt;">The Circle of the Corrupt Officials. The Devils Mauling Each Other 1826-27</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00172.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="388" height="284" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00172.jpg" width="388" /></a></div><br /></b><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Circle of Thieves. Agnello dei Brunelleschi Attacked by a Six-Footed Serpent 1826-</span><span style="background-color: #f3f0eb;">27</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00173.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="400" height="292" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00173.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></b><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14pt;">The Circle of Thieves. Buoso dei Donati Attacked by the Serpent 1826-27</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00174.jpg" style="background-color: #f3f0eb; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="400" height="293" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00174.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><br /></b><b style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14pt;">The Circle of the Falsifiers. Dante and Virgil Covering Their Noses Because of the Stench 1826-27</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: transparent; clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f0eb; color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00175.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="400" height="289" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00175.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">The Circle of the Traitors: Dante's Foot Striking Bocca degli Abbati 1826-27</span></b></div><div style="color: #333333; text-align: start;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)" face="freight-text-pro, georgia, serif" style="font-size: 0.9rem;">
<hr size="2" width="100%" /> </span></div></b></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Additional information about Blake's engravings for the <i>Divine Comedy</i> is available in an <a href="https://bq.blakearchive.org/24.3.essick" style="background-color: #ffe599;">article</a> by Robert Essick<span><b> </b></span>in "Blake: An Illuminated Quarterly." </span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Read commentary about Hell Canto 5 and the <u>Circle of the Lustful</u> at <a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-5/" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Digital Dante</a> provided by Columbia University.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div></div><p></p>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-41403132963993438732023-12-23T10:36:00.001-05:002023-12-23T10:38:41.123-05:00BLAKE'S DANTE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://content.ngv.vic.gov.au/retrieve.php?size=1280&type=image&vernonID=26891" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="569" height="800" src="https://content.ngv.vic.gov.au/retrieve.php?size=1280&type=image&vernonID=26891" width="569" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">National Gallery Victoria</span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Illustrations to <i>Divine Comedy</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Dante Adoring Christ</span></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></u></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Blake's 102 watercolor illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy are now distributed among seven institutions and several individuals. The dispersal took place in 1918 when John Linnell's heirs parted with their legacy. The quantity of pictures prohibited individual museums from purchasing the whole set although several museums were interested in adding them to their collection. The interested parties got together what funding they could, then they arranged a system by which each got some of what they wanted according to how much they contributed to the sellers price. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The pictures wound up going to collections in <span>England, Australia, and the United States. </span>The largest portion went to the <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/dante.html" style="background-color: #ffe599;">National Gallery Victoria</a> thanks to funding by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Felton" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Felton Bequest</a> . The 102 pictures were divided thus:</span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">National Gallery Victoria - 36 - including the first choice.<br />Tate Gallery - 20<br />British Museum - 13 <br />Birmingham Museum - 6<br />Ashmolean - 3<br /><span style="background-color: white;">Truro Museum - 1<br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Harvard Art Museum - 4<br /></span>Various private collections - 19.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The picture at the head of this post is included in those which are owned by the National Gallery Victoria. In it Blake was not expressing his own theology. Instead Blake pictured Dante's image of Christ and Dante's understanding of his own relationship to the Divine. Blake personal perception of the relationship between God and Man was totally different. Blake's Jesus willingly sacrificed himself for Mankind, and Albion (Mankind) reacted with an all consuming love and gratitude for the gift he has received. Blake himself saw Christ as gentler and more sympathetic to the rejoicing redeemed humanity than did Dante.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Jerusalem_The_Emanation_of_The_Giant_Albion%2C_copy_E%2C_object_76_%28Bentley_76%2C_Erdman_76%2C_Keynes_76%29.jpg/750px-Jerusalem_The_Emanation_of_The_Giant_Albion%2C_copy_E%2C_object_76_%28Bentley_76%2C_Erdman_76%2C_Keynes_76%29.jpg" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 76</a>, Jesus & Albion</span></div><div><br /></div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; max-width: 72%;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-24/" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span face="Swiss721BT-LightItalic, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Paradiso</span> XIV</a></span></h1><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">97 I heard: “The premises of old and new</span></span><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">impelling your conclusion—why do you<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />hold these to be the speech of God?” And I:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">“The proof revealing truth to me relies<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />on acts that happened; for such miracles,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />nature can heat no iron, beat no anvil.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">“Say, who assures you that those works were real?”<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />came the reply. “The very thing that needs<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />proof—no thing else—attests these works to you.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I said: “If without miracles the world<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />was turned to Christianity, that is<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />so great a miracle that all the rest</span></p><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; text-align: left; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">are not its hundredth part: for you were poor<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">and hungry when you found the field and sowed<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">111 the good plant—once a vine and now a thorn.</span></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>This done, the high and holy court resounded</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><span>throughout its spheres with “Te Deum laudamus,”</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><span>sung with the melody they use on high."</span></span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Four Zoas</i>, Night VIII, Page 107, (E 381)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Then Jesus Came & Died willing beneath Tirzah & Rahab".<br /></span><br /><br /></div></div><div><div><br /></div><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px;"></p></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-2334091693276371702023-12-21T09:44:00.001-05:002023-12-21T09:57:37.343-05:00FINAL YEARS<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the year 1824 Blake had finished his engravings for the <i>Illustrations of the Book of Job</i>. John Linnell had initiated the project of Blake creating engravings from the Job watercolors which were made years previously for Thomas Butts. Desiring to continue to encourage Blake's creative activities with monetary support, Linnell suggested that Blake illustrate Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i> for him. Although Blake had severe disagreements with Dante's </span><span style="font-family: arial;">theology</span><span style="font-family: arial;">, he accepted Linnell's arrangement. His Dante illustrations absorbed Blake's attention and energies until the end of his life in 1827.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For the <i>Divine Comedy</i> there were 102 watercolor illustrations produced by Blake. In addition he engraved 6 plates; a remarkable accomplishment since he was in poor health and nearing death. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Blake followed Dante by painting and engraving a scene of the punishment of a thief named <span style="background-color: white;">Agnello. The retribution was devised to fit the crime. The thief had stolen from him his own separate body by the six footed serpent.</span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00063.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="400" height="282" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00063.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">National Gallery Victoria</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Blake's <i>Illustrations to Divine Comedy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">Watercolor</div></span><span style="color: #333333; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u>The Six-Footed Serpent Attacking Agnello dei Brunelleschi </u></div></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00172.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="388" height="284" src="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00172.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="388" /></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">National Gallery Victoria</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Blake's <i>Illustrations to Divine Comedy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">Engraving</div></span><span style="color: #333333; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><u>The Six-Footed Serpent Attacking Agnello dei Brunelleschi </u></div></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/print/b/blake/images/ipd00172.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div><div><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-25/" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hell 25</span></a></div><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">49 "As I kept my eyes fixed upon those sinners,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />a serpent with six feet springs out against<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />one of the three, and clutches him completely.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It gripped his belly with its middle feet,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and with its forefeet grappled his two arms;<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and then it sank its teeth in both his cheeks;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">it stretched its rear feet out along his thighs<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and ran its tail along between the two,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />then straightened it again behind his loins.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">No ivy ever gripped a tree so fast<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />as when that horrifying monster clasped<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and intertwined the other’s limbs with its.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Then just as if their substance were warm wax,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />they stuck together and they mixed their colors,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>so neither seemed what he had been before</b>;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">just as, when paper’s kindled, where it still<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />has not caught flame in full, its color’s dark<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />though not yet black, while white is dying off.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The other two souls stared, and each one cried:<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />“Ah me, Agnello, how you change! Just see,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>you are already neither two nor one!”</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Then two heads were already joined in one,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />when in one face where two had been dissolved,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>two intermingled shapes appeared to us</b>."</span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;"><i>Letters</i>, (E 773)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;">"[To] Mr Linnell, 6 Cirencester Place, Fitzroy Square
</span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;">7 June 1825
Dear Sir
I return you thanks for The Two Pounds you now send me As to
Sr T. Lawrence I have not heard from him as yet. & hope that he
has a good opinion of my willingness to appear grateful tho not
able on account of this abominable Ague or whatever it is </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;">I am in Bed & at Work </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre;">my health I cannot speak of for if it was not for Cold weather I think I
should soon get about again. Great Men die equally with the
little. I am sorry for L.d L.d he is a man of very singular
abilities as also for the Dean of Canterbury but perhaps & I
verily believe it Every Death is an improvement of the State of
the Departed. <b>I can draw as well a Bed as Up & perhaps better
but I cannot Engrave I am going on with Dante & please myself.</b>
I am dear Sir yours Sincerely
WILLIAM BLAKE"</span></span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Letters</i>, (E 778)</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre;">"To John Linnell Esqre, N 6 Cirencester Place,
Fitzroy Square
[Postmark: 2 July 1826]
My dearest Friend
This sudden cold weather has cut up all my hopes by the
roots. Everyone who knows of our intended flight into your
delightful Country concur in saying: "Do not Venture till summer
appears again". I also feel Myself weaker than I was aware,
being not able as yet to sit up longer than six hours at a
time. & also feel the Cold too much to dare venture beyond my
present precincts. My heartiest Thanks for your care in my
accomodation & the trouble you will yet have with me. But I get
better & stronger every day, tho weaker in muscle & bone than I
supposed. As to pleasantness of Prospect it is All pleasant
Prospect at North End. Mrs Hurd's I should like as well as
any--But think of the Expense & how it may be spared & never mind
appearances
<b> I intend to bring with me besides our necessary change of
apparel Only My Book of Drawings from Dante & one Plate shut up
in the Book.</b> All will go very well in the Coach. which at
present would be a rumble I fear I could not go thro. So that
I conclude another Week must pass before I dare Venture upon what
I ardently desire--the seeing you with your happy Family once
again & that for a longer Period than I had ever hoped in my
health full hours
I am dear Sir
Yours most gratefully </span></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;">WILLIAM BLAKE"</span> </span></p></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-14069718646811589252023-12-20T11:31:00.004-05:002023-12-27T21:55:56.278-05:00ESCAPING FROM DEVILS<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f7/20/b8/f720b86f0b8baec43fca0d2a0730568e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="422" height="594" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f7/20/b8/f720b86f0b8baec43fca0d2a0730568e.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: large; text-align: start;">Illustrations to Divine Comedy</i><br style="font-size: large; text-align: start;" /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: start;">Hell Canto 23</span><br style="font-size: large; text-align: start;" /><u style="font-size: large; text-align: start;">Dante and Virgil Escaping from the Devils</u></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The more attractive illustrations Blake made to Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i> are those in which the pilgrims succeed in passing through threats or impediments. Although a large share of the illustrations involve cruel punishments realistically portrayed, there are beautiful images too. The trust and friendship between Virgil and Dante is apparent in this image of the two of them escaping from the devils. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Divine Comedy</i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-23/" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: "Neutral Regular 3"; font-size: 18px;">HELL Canto 23</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">28 "For even now your thoughts have joined my own;<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />in both our acts and aspects we are kin—<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />with both our minds I’ve come to one decision.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">If that right bank is not extremely steep,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />we can descend into the other moat<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and so escape from the imagined chase.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">He’d hardly finished telling me his plan<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />when I saw them approach with outstretched wings,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />not too far off, and keen on taking us.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My guide snatched me up instantly, just as<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />the mother who is wakened by a roar<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />and catches sight of blazing flames beside her,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">will lift her son and run without a stop—<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />she cares more for the child than for herself—<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />not pausing even to throw on a shift;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">and down the hard embankment’s edge—his back<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />lay flat along the sloping rock that closes<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />one side of the adjacent moat—he slid.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">No water ever ran so fast along<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />a sluice to turn the wheels of a land mill,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />not even when its flow approached the paddles,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">as did my master race down that embankment<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><b>while bearing me with him upon his chest,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />just like a son, and not like a companion.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">His feet had scarcely reached the bed that lies<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />along the deep below, than those <b>ten demons<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />were on the edge above us</b>; but there was</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 30px; visibility: visible;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">nothing to fear; <b>for that High Providence<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />that willed them ministers of the fifth ditch,<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />denies to all of them the power to leave it."</b></span></p><hr size="2" width="100%" /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem,</i> Plate 91, (E 251)</span><br /><br />"I have tried to make friends by corporeal gifts but have only </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Made enemies: <b>I never made friends but by spiritual gifts</b>; </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">By severe contentions of friendship & the burning fire of thought. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Jesus will appear; so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Must see it in its Minute Particulars;"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Milton</i>, Plate 29</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> [31], (E 127)</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br />"And every Seven Ages is Incircled with a Flaming Fire.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>Now Seven Ages is amounting to Two Hundred Years<br />Each has its Guard.</b> each Moment Minute Hour Day Month & Year.<br />All are the work of Fairy hands of the Four Elements<br /><b>The Guard are Angels of Providence on duty evermore</b><br />Every Time less than a pulsation of the artery<br />Is equal in its period & value to Six Thousand Years.<br />PLATE 29 [31]<br />For in this Period the Poets Work is Done: and all the Great<br />Events of Time start forth & are concievd in such a Period<br />Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery."</span><div><br /></div><div><span class="text-black font-neutral-med" color="rgb(0 0 0/var(--tw-text-opacity))" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(229, 231, 235); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 45 [31], (E 194) </span></span></div><div><span class="text-black font-neutral-med" color="rgb(0 0 0/var(--tw-text-opacity))" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(229, 231, 235); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><pre><span style="font-family: arial;">"What shall I do! what could I do, if I could find these Criminals
I could not dare to take vengeance; <b>for all things are so constructed
And builded by the Divine hand, that the sinner shall always escape,
And he who takes vengeance alone is the criminal of Providence;</b>
If I should dare to lay my finger on a grain of sand
In way of vengeance; I punish the already punishd: O whom
Should I pity if I pity not the sinner who is gone astray!
O Albion, if thou takest vengeance; if thou revengest thy wrongs
Thou art for ever lost! What can I do to hinder the Sons
Of Albion from taking vengeance? or how shall I them perswade.
So spoke Los, travelling thro darkness & horrid solitude:"</span></pre><pre><br /></pre></span></span></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-20445791248804523722023-12-15T16:36:00.001-05:002023-12-15T16:36:00.154-05:00DANTE & EDEN<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">First posted May 2012</span></p><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.6px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00023/AN00023593_001_l.jpg" style="clear: left; color: #2288bb; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Blake had reservations about creating the illustrations for Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i>. Dante's ideas of sin, punishment, and a God of vengeance were far from the image of God Blake knew from experience. Although he often created his illustrations with complete adherence to Dante's descriptions, as opportunity arose Blake altered the images to convey his own ideas.<br /><i style="color: #660000;"><br /></i></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, Plate 22, (E 168)</span><br /></span><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Jerusalem then stretchd her hand toward the Moon & spoke
Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War
When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim" </span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #660000;">Jerusalem</i><span style="color: #660000;">, Plate 31 [35], (E 177)</span><br /></span><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"And the Divine voice came from the Furnaces, as multitudes without
Number! the voices of the innumerable multitudes of Eternity.
And the appearance of a Man was seen in the Furnaces;
Saving those who have sinned from the punishment of the Law,
(In pity of the punisher whose state is eternal death,)
And keeping them from Sin by the mild counsels of his love."</span></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="color: #660000;">Inscriptions, On Blake's Illustrations to Dante</i><span style="color: #660000;">, (E 688)</span><br /></span><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Whatever Book is for Vengeance for Sin & whatever Book is
Against the Forgiveness of Sins is not of the Father but of Satan
the Accuser & Father of Hell"</span> </pre><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; color: #222222; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 5px; position: relative;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00023/AN00023593_001_l.jpg" style="clear: left; color: #2288bb; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhNhCk2qzBEqWUZdhfj9oFV-8GNlQU0ab-H9fjJYsHcyqQibdqwmlcX4JfuYHEr45uSf65pO-41Mq18Q7z5uylsnlryFwgRRBAqnMgXBK_X1MMz4tyH3CbGAQodkYYB_Bvog7CtArbN4IyTCJsQ9P4G8Q62aMCf4OYQwp3eX2GYh3jRxBRt=w640-h454" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">British Museum<br />Illustrations to Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i><br />'Beatrice on the car, Matilda and Dante'</span></td></tr></tbody></table><pre></pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">One illustration which Blake seems to have taken pleasure in working on is titled <u>Beatrice on the car, Matilda and Dante</u>. <a href="http://www.wolfram.demon.co.uk/rp_dante_purgatory.html#procession" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration-line: none;">Dante</a> has arrived at the river Lethe having passed through purgatory. Virgil who has been his guide through hell and purgatory was not to cross over with him to Eden, the Earthly Paradise, because he was a pagan. Henceforth Dante's guide will be Beatrice who awaits him in the procession on the far bank. The procession is composed of entities from the Book of Revelation: the <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=5379635" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration-line: none;">candelabra </a>with seven candles, the <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=simple&format=Long&q1=four+and+twenty+elders&restrict=New+Testament&size=First+100%20%20" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration-line: none;">four-and-twenty elders </a>and the Griffin drawing the car in which Beatrice rides. The Griffin which is a combination of two animals, was used by Dante to symbolize Christ who is of a double nature. A point of disagreement between Dante and Blake concerns Beatrice who represents to Dante the church, which to Blake was not the sole vehicle for salvation but a fallen flawed institution. <br /><br />The blessedness of Eden is represented in the light which radiates from the candelabra and stretches across the heavens in a rainbow. Dante is prepared to cross the river Lethe and bathe in its waters which will wash away his memories. He will cross another river also; the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunoe" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration-line: none;">Eunoe</a><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span>whose waters will restore happy, helpful, life-giving memories to carry with him to the upper heavens.<br /><br />Although Blake portrayed a positive uplifting scene, you may notice a long string of clouds surrounding much of the procession; these are the type of clouds which Blake associates with Vala who was in such opposition to Jerusalem. This is a reminder that Dante's system diverged from the truth Blake perceived.</span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><br /></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/purgatorio/purgatorio-30/" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Canto 30-32</a></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I saw the lady who had first appeared<br />to me beneath the veils of the angelic<br />flowers look at me across the stream.<br /><br />Although the veil she wore—down from her head,<br />which was encircled by Minerva’s leaves—<br />did not allow her to be seen distinctly,<br /><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5078974461984104484" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 640px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">her stance still regal and disdainful, she<br />continued, just as one who speaks but keeps<br />until the end the fiercest parts of speech:<br /><br />“Look here! For I am Beatrice, I am!<br />How were you able to ascend the mountain?<br />Did you not know that man is happy here?”<br /><br />My lowered eyes caught sight of the clear stream,<br />but when I saw myself reflected there,<br />such shame weighed on my brow, my eyes drew back<br />...<br />He fell so far there were no other means<br />to lead him to salvation, except this:<br />to let him see the people who were lost.<br /><br />For this I visited the gateway of<br />the dead; to him who guided him above<br />my prayers were offered even as I wept.<br /><br />The deep design of God would have been broken<br />if Lethe had been crossed and he had drunk<br />such waters but had not discharged the debt<br /><br />of penitence that’s paid when tears are shed.”...<br /><br />Then, when my heart restored my outer sense,<br />I saw the woman whom I’d found alone,<br />standing above me, saying: “Hold, hold me!”<br /><br />She’d plunged me, up to my throat, in the river,<br />and, drawing me behind her, she now crossed,<br />light as a gondola, along the surface.<br /><br />When I was near the blessed shore, I heard<br />“Asperges me” so sweetly sung that I<br />cannot remember or, much less, transcribe it.<br /><br />The lovely woman opened wide her arms;<br />she clasped my head, and then she thrust me under<br />to that point where I had to swallow water.<br /><br />That done, she drew me out and led me, bathed,<br />into the dance of the four lovely women;<br />and each one placed her arm above my head..."</span></div></div></div></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-23281661887979682412023-12-14T16:10:00.000-05:002023-12-14T16:10:31.566-05:00BEATRICE & DANTE<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/William_Blake_001.jpg/800px-William_Blake_001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="800" height="464" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/William_Blake_001.jpg/800px-William_Blake_001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Wikipedia Commons</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Illustrations to Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i></span></div><u><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Beatrice Addressing Dante</span></u></u><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br style="text-align: start;" /></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Dante stands on the right side of the Griffin which has the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion. The Griffin represents the dual nature of Christ, man and God. The women represent the Christian virtues of hope (green), charity (red) and faith (white). The four encircled heads stand for the four gospel writers: Matthew the man, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle. Beatrice delivers her message from the chariot. In the Book of Ezekiel the four living creatures are covered with eyes all around. The Book of Revelation tells us:</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">4:8 And the four beasts had each of them </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">six wings about him</span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">; and they were</span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> full of eyes </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">within: and </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">they rest not day and night, saying, </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Holy, holy, holy, </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Lord God Almighty, </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">which was, and is, and is to come.</span> </span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In this section Beatrice addresses Dante after his guide Virgil has been left behind.<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/purgatorio/purgatorio-29/" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Canto 29</a><br /><br />50 “Dante, though Virgil’s leaving you, do not<br />yet weep, do not weep yet; <b>you’ll need your tears<br />for what another sword must yet inflict.”</b><br /><br />73 “Look here! For I am Beatrice, I am!<br />How were you able to ascend the mountain?<br />Did you not know that man is happy here?”<br /><br />My lowered eyes caught sight of the clear stream,<br />but <b>when I saw myself reflected there,<br />such shame weighed on my brow</b>, my eyes drew back<br /><br />and toward the grass; just as a mother seems<br />harsh to her child, so did she seem to me—<br />how bitter is the savor of stern pity!<br /><br />100 Still standing motionless upon the left<br />side of the chariot, she then addressed<br />the angels who had been compassionate:<br /><br />“You are awake in never—ending day,<br />and neither night nor sleep can steal from you<br />one step the world would take along its way;<br /><br />therefore, <b>I’m more concerned that my reply<br />be understood by him who weeps beyond,<br />so that his sorrow’s measure match his sin.</b><br /><br />121 My countenance sustained him for a while;<br />showing my youthful eyes to him, I led<br />him with me toward the way of righteousness.<br /><br />As soon as I, upon the threshold of<br />my second age, had changed my life, he took<br />himself away from me and followed after<br /><br />another; when, from flesh to spirit, I<br />had risen, and my goodness and my beauty<br />had grown, <b>I was less dear to him, less welcome</b>:<br /><br />he turned his footsteps toward an untrue path;<br />he followed counterfeits of goodness, which<br />will never pay in full what they have promised.<br /><br />136 <b>He fell so far there were no other means<br />to lead him to salvation, except this:<br />to let him see the people who were lost.</b><br /><br />For this I visited the gateway of<br />the dead; to him who guided him above<br />my prayers were offered even as I wept.<br /><br />The deep design of God would have been broken<br />if Lethe had been crossed and he had drunk<br />such waters but <b>had not discharged the debt<br />of penitence that’s paid when tears are shed.”</b><hr size="2" width="100%" /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">This is what Blake has to say about sin, repentance, vengeance, and forgiveness.</span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 77, (E 232) </span></span></div><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"But Jesus is the bright Preacher of Life
Creating Nature from this fiery Law,
By self-denial & forgiveness of Sin.
Go therefore, <b>cast out devils in Christs name
Heal thou the sick of spiritual disease
Pity the evil, for thou art not sent
To smite with terror & with punishments
Those that are sick,</b> like the Pharisees
Crucifying &,encompassing sea & land
For proselytes to tyranny & wrath,
But to the Publicans & Harlots go!
Teach them True Happiness, but let no curse
Go forth out of thy mouth to blight their peace
<b>For Hell is opend to heaven; thine eyes beheld
The dungeons burst & the Prisoners set free." </b></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 25, (E 170)</span></pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Why did you take Vengeance O ye Sons of the mighty Albion?
Planting these Oaken Groves: Erecting these Dragon Temples
Injury the Lord heals but Vengeance cannot be healed:
As the Sons of Albion have done to Luvah: <b>so they have in him
Done to the Divine Lord & Saviour, who suffers with those that suffer:</b>
For not one sparrow can suffer, & the whole Universe not suffer also,
In all its Regions, & its Father & Saviour not pity and weep.
<b>But Vengeance is the destroyer of Grace & Repentance</b> in the bosom
Of the Injurer: in which the Divine Lamb is cruelly slain:
Descend O Lamb of God & <b>take away the imputation of Sin
By the Creation of States & the deliverance of Individuals Evermore Amen"</b></span></pre><pre><pre><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 61, (E 211)</span>
"Behold: in the Visions of Elohim Jehovah, behold Joseph & Mary
And be comforted O Jerusalem in the Visions of Jehovah Elohim
She looked & saw Joseph the Carpenter in Nazareth & Mary
His espoused Wife. And Mary said, If thou put me away from thee
Dost thou not murder me? Joseph spoke in anger & fury. Should I
Marry a Harlot & an Adulteress? <b>Mary answerd, Art thou more pure
Than thy Maker who forgiveth Sins & calls again Her that is Lost</b>
Tho She hates. he calls her again in love. I love my dear Joseph
But he driveth me away from his presence. yet I hear the voice of God
In the voice of my Husband. tho he is angry for a moment, he will not
Utterly cast me away. if I were pure, never could I taste the sweets
Of the Forgiveness of Sins! if I were holy! I never could behold the tears
Of love! of him who loves me in the midst of his anger in furnace of fire.
Ah my Mary: said Joseph: weeping over & embracing her closely in
His arms: Doth he forgive Jerusalem & not exact Purity from her who is
Polluted. I heard his voice in my sleep O his Angel in my dream:
Saying,<b> Doth Jehovah Forgive a Debt only on condition that it shall
Be Payed?</b> Doth he Forgive Pollution only on conditions of Purity
That Debt is not Forgiven! That Pollution is not Forgiven
Such is the Forgiveness of the Gods, the Moral Virtues of the
Heathen, whose tender Mercies are Cruelty. <b>But Jehovahs Salvation
Is without Money & without Price, in the Continual Forgiveness of Sins
In the Perpetual Mutual Sacrifice in Great Eternity!</b> for behold!
There is none that liveth & Sinneth not! And this is the Covenant
Of Jehovah: <b>If you Forgive one-another, so shall Jehovah Forgive You: </b>
That He Himself may Dwell among You. Fear not then to take
To thee Mary thy Wife, for she is with Child by the Holy Ghost
Then Mary burst forth into a Song! she flowed like a River of
Many Streams in the arms of Joseph & gave forth her tears of joy
Like many waters, and Emanating into gardens & palaces upon
Euphrates & to forests & floods & animals wild & tame from
Gihon to Hiddekel, & to corn fields & villages & inhabitants
Upon Pison & Arnon & Jordan. And I heard the voice among
The Reapers Saying, Am I Jerusalem the lost Adulteress? or am I
Babylon come up to Jerusalem? And another voice answerd Saying
Does the voice of my Lord call me again? am I pure thro his Mercy
And Pity. Am I become lovely as a Virgin in his sight who am
Indeed a Harlot drunken with the Sacrifice of Idols does he
Call her pure as he did in the days of her Infancy when She
Was cast out to the loathing of her person. The Chaldean took
Me from my Cradle. The Amalekite stole me away upon his Camels
Before I had ever beheld with love the Face of Jehovah; or known
That there was a God of Mercy: O Mercy O Divine Humanity!
O Forgiveness & Pity & Compassion! If I were Pure I should never
Have known Thee; If I were Unpolluted I should never have
Glorified thy Holiness, or rejoiced in thy great Salvation.
Mary leaned her side against Jerusalem, Jerusalem recieved
The Infant into her hands in the Visions of Jehovah. Times passed on
Jerusalem fainted over the Cross & Sepulcher She heard the voice
Wilt thou make Rome thy Patriarch Druid & the Kings of Europe his
Horsemen? Man in the Resurrection changes his Sexual Garments at will
Every Harlot was once a Virgin: every Criminal an Infant Love!
PLATE 62
Repose on me till the morning of the Grave. I am thy life."</span></pre></pre><p> </p><p> </p></div></div>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-37275583337918444712023-12-10T08:03:00.002-05:002023-12-10T08:39:37.337-05:00DANTE'S HELL<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Blake_Dante_Hell_IX.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="400" height="453" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Blake_Dante_Hell_IX.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Illustrations to Dante's <i>The</i> <i>Divine Comedy</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>The Angel at the Gate of the City of Dis</u></span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In order to continue their journey through the underworld Virgil and Dante needed assistance in transitioning from the Inferno to the Pergatorio. First <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2021/12/dante-lucia.html ">Lucia</a></span> carried the sleeping Dante up the steepest assent out of Hell. But they arrived at a locked gate guarded by Dis (or Satan or Pluto.) Virgil called for assistance and an Angel was sent to unlock the gate so that they could enter the outer reaches of Purgatory and continue their travels.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Blake portrays Virgil and Dante outside the wall. They are both fearful: Dante that they will never get out of hell, and Virgil that the help that they needed would never arrive. Above the gate in the wall, the Furies who determined the span of a human's life, threatened the travelers. When the Angel arrived he carried a wand whose touch effortlessly opened the gate.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This passage in Dante would have been one of the more pleasing for Blake to illustrate. Blake understood that Divine Intervention was required in desperate situations. When blocked by closed pathways and unfounded fears, the circumstances may necessitate help from the very force which had initiated the journey. Dante and Virgil are pictured as small and cowering in despair. The Angel is large and strong, fully capable of accomplishing his assignment.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Matthew 17<br />[20] If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. <br /></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm#cantoIII.9 "><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Divine Comedy</i></span></span></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dante Alighieri <br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Canto IX <br /></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“O my lov’d guide! who more than seven times<br />
Security hast render’d me, and drawn<br />
From peril deep, whereto I stood expos’d,<br />
Desert me not,” I cried, “in this extreme.<br />
And if our onward going be denied,<br />
Together trace we back our steps with speed.”<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> My liege, who thither had conducted me,<br />
Replied: “Fear not: for of our passage none<br />
Hath power to disappoint us, by such high<br />
Authority permitted. But do thou<br />
Expect me here; meanwhile thy wearied spirit<br />
Comfort, and feed with kindly hope, assur’d<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>I will not leave thee in this lower world.” </b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>...</b>and even now<br />
On this side of its entrance, down the steep,<br />
Passing the circles,<b> unescorted, comes<br />
One whose strong might can open us this land</b>.” </span></span></p><p></p>
<hr size="2" width="100%" /><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Jerusalem</i>, Plate 62, (E 213)</span></span></span></p><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Jesus replied. I am the Resurrection & the Life.
I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears
To individual perception. Luvah must be Created
And Vala; for I cannot leave them in the gnawing Grave.
But <b>will prepare a way for my banished-ones to return</b>
Come now with me into the villages. walk thro all the cities.
Tho thou art taken to prison & judgment, starved in the streets
I will command the cloud to give thee food & the hard rock
To flow with milk & wine, <b>tho thou seest me not a season
Even a long season & a hard journey</b> & a howling wilderness!
Tho Valas cloud hide thee & Luvahs fires follow thee!
Only believe & trust in me, Lo. I am always with thee!"</span></span></pre><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Marriage of Heaven and Hell</i>, Plate 21, (E 43)</span> <br /></span></span></p><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> "Have now another plain fact: Any man of mechanical talents
may from the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten
thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborg's.
and <b>from those of Dante or Shakespear, an infinite number.
But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows
better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine</b>."</span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></pre><pre><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Inscriptions</i>, (E 690) </span></span></span></pre><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <b>"It seems as if Dantes supreme Good was something Superior to
the Father or Jesus</b> [<i>as</i>] <for> if he gives his rain to
the Evil & the Good & his Sun to the just & the Unjust He could
never have Builded Dantes Hell nor the Hell of the Bible neither
in the way our Parsons explain it It must have been originally
Formed by the Devil Himself & So I understand it to have been
<b> Whatever Book is for Vengeance for Sin & whatever Book is
Against the Forgiveness of Sins is not of the Father but of Satan
the Accuser & Father of Hell</b>"
</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Letters</i>, (E 781)</span></span></span></pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Mr Linnell, Cirencester Place, Fitzroy Square <br />[February 1827]</span></span><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dear Sir
I thank you for the Five Pounds recievd to Day am getting
better every Morning but slowly. as I am still feeble &
tottering. tho all the Symptoms of
my complaint seem almost gone as the fine weather is very
beneficial & comfortable to me <b>I go on as I think improving my
Engravings of Dante</b> more & more & shall soon get Proofs of these
Four which I have & beg the favor of you to send me the two
Plates of Dante which you have that I may finish them
sufficiently to make some Shew of Colour & Strength"</span></span></pre><p></p>
<hr size="2" width="100%" /><pre><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></pre><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Notes from <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/34585979/3727558333791844471">post</a></span> by</span></span><b> </b>John Stamps<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">"A pentecostal wind announces the arrival of a great spiritual power: “A sound like the sound of a violent wind.” A great spiritual siege is about to erupt against the malevolent forces of darkness.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">God sends us an anonymous angel.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">He holds a wand — a little tiny wand!</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">All the warnings by the demons and the Furies were one-hundred-and-ten percent bluster and bluff. Virgil and Dante enter the iron walls of Dis completely unopposed.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">We see how the demons bluster, bluff, and threaten us. But we know their only power is deceit and deception. If you buy the lies of the demons, their power is terrifying."</span></span></span></p><p></p>
<hr size="2" width="100%" /><p></p>ellie Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13708032405797473211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34585979.post-83949690349299835742023-11-27T08:54:00.003-05:002023-11-27T08:54:54.339-05:00Church 8<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience%2C_copy_AA%2C_1826_(The_Fitzwilliam_Museum)_object_45_The_Little_Vagabond.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="297" height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience%2C_copy_AA%2C_1826_(The_Fitzwilliam_Museum)_object_45_The_Little_Vagabond.jpg" width="402" /></a></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="mw-mmv-title">Fitzwilliam Museum</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span class="mw-mmv-title">Songs of Innocence and of Experience</span></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="mw-mmv-title">Plate 45,Copy AA </span><i><span class="mw-mmv-title"><br /></span></i></span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><h3><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
What he Said</span></span></h3><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span>In 'Songs of Experience' Blake expressed some biting truths about the </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">place </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">of the church in the lives of ordinary people:</span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"A
little black thing among the snow,<br />
Crying "'weep! 'weep!" in notes of
woe!<br />
"Where are thy father & mother? Say?" <br />
They are both gone up to
the church to<br />
pray. Because I was happy upon the heath,<br />
And
smil'd among the winter's snow,<br />
They clothed me in the clothes of
death,<br />
And taught me to sing the notes of woe. <br />
And because I
am happy & dance & sing,<br />
They think they have done me no injury,<br />
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,<br />
Who
make up a heaven of our misery." <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(<u>The Chimney Sweeper</u> from Songs of Experience, Song 37, (E 22)) <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Surely the church has become more human since Blake's day, when it
could condone the employment of five year olds as chimney sweepers and
in fact their legal sale by their parents for such a purpose. Even more
bald in its<br />
ecclesiastical implications is <u>The Little Vagabond</u>, which
sounds very much like a Ranter's song:<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> "Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, <br />
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm; <br />
Besides I can tell where I am used well, <br />
Such usage in heaven will never do well.<br />
But if at the Church they would give us some Ale, <br />
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale, <br />
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day, <br />
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray. <br />
Then the Parson might preach, & drink, & sing, <br />
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring; <br />
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church, <br />
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch. <br />
And God, like a father rejoicing to see <br />
His children as pleasant and happy as he, <br />
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel, <br />
But kiss him, & give him both drink and apparel." <br />
(<u>The Little Vagabond</u>, Song 45, (E 26) )<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
In <a href="http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/blake/europe_a_prophecy" rel="nofollow"><i><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Europe</span></i></a>, written about the same time, Blake recounts the degradation of the church with the cult of chivalry and the Queen of Heaven:<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
"Now comes the night of Enitharmon's joy! <br />
Who shall I call? Who shall I send, <br />
That Woman, lovely Woman, may have dominion? <br />
Arise, O Rintrah, thee I call! & Palambron, thee! <br />
Go! tell the Human race that Woman's love is Sin; <br />
That an Eternal life awaits the worms of sixty winters <br />
In an allegorical abode where existence hath never come. <br />
Forbid all Joy, & from her childhood shall the little female <br />
Spread nets in every secret path." <br />
(<i>Europe</i> 5:1ff, (E 62) )<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
Enitharmon's grammar in the second line indicates her essential falsity,<br />
assuming the place of the true God (See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%206:8;&version=9;" rel="nofollow"> <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Isaiah 6</span></a><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">
</span> ). But after 1800 Blake<br />
rehabilitates Enitharmon, and Rahab becomes his
symbol of the false church;<br />
she continually afflicts Jerusalem and
finally crucifies Jesus (See 4Z and J).
<br />
Blake used the word
'church' in some rather unconventional ways. In Milton,<br />
Plate 37 and
later in 'Jerusalem' Plate 76 he divided human history into 27<br />
Churches,
made up of three groups. The first corresponds to the nine<br />
antediluvian
patriarchs (Adam to Lamech) taken from Genesis 5. The second<br />
group
includes the patriarchs from Noah to Terah, the father of Abraham. For<br />
the third series Blake chose seven famous religious leaders from Abraham
to<br />
Luther; each of these represents for Blake a certain type or phase
of religious<br />
history:<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
The first two groups were <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/druids.html" rel="nofollow"> <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">druidic</span></a> (devoted to cultic murder), but Abraham<br />
began to curtail human sacrifice when he chose a ram instead of Issac (See <br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022:1-18;&version=9;" rel="nofollow">Genesis 22</a>
</span> ). Moses brought the Law; Solomon represents Wisdom. Paul<br />
represents
the early Christian Church. Constantine marks its embrace by the<br />
highest
satanic power. Charlemayne founded the Holy Roman Empire, and<br />
Luther
brings us to the modern age. All of these except Paul resorted to war;<br />
therefore Blake referred to these Churches as "Religion hid in war". <br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
Blake felt that he had described a natural progression going nowhere
for<br />
"where Luther ends, Adam begins again in Eternal Circle", but this
"Eternal<br />
Circle" is interrupted by Jesus, who, "breaking thro' the
Central zones of Death & Hell,/ Opens Eternity in Time & Space,
triumphant in Mercy". There in its most concentrated form is Blake's
6000 year history of the church.<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
Bear in mind that 27 is a super sinister number; <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Frye">Frye</a></span>
described it as "the<br />
cube of thee, the supreme aggravation of three". A
happier constellation of 28 (a composite of the complete numbers four
and seven) occurs in <i>Jerusalem</i> where England's cathedral cities are
called the Friends of Albion. With this image Blake recognized that in
spite of all its sins the church had exercised a beneficent influence
upon the course of history. Blake habitually picked one of these cities to represent an important historical personage.<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
For
example Ely, the cathedral city of Cambridgeshire, stands for Milton,
the greatest man produced by Cambridge. Verulam, an ancient name for<br />
Canterbury, represents <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Bacon/Advert-Touching-Holy-War.html" rel="nofollow"> Francis Bacon</a></span> , one of Blake's chief devils.
Professor<br />
Erdman informed us that Bath represents Rev. Richard Warner, a
courageous<br />
minister who preached against war in 1804, when to do such a
thing bordered<br />
on sedition. Blake's admiration for Warner led to the
prominence which he gave Bath in the second chapter of <i>Jerusalem</i>.<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
Aside from these prophetic and poetic excursions the Blakean doctrine of<br /> the church found in the myth is roughly as follows: The Church is Beulah. The<br /> majority of the population exist beneath it, spiritually asleep, living what Blake<br /> called Eternal Death without even a murmur of discontent. Their eyes are closed to the spirit. They are seeds that do not generate. The hungry generally take refuge in a church and surrender their spiritual destiny into the keeping of a priest or a priestly community.<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
A few still suffer hunger and eventually may <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/greek/philosopher/myth_allegory_cave_plato.html#top"> come out into the sunlight</a></span> .<br /> That chosen few are, like Blake, compelled to live in a state of tension with the<br /> church that belongs to the world. The best of them continually court martyrdom and may be honored posthumously if at all. But of such is the kingdom of heaven, where like Blake they cast off the enslavement of other men's systems and create their own.<br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
(Nels Ferre, who may or may not have known Blake, wrote a short parable<br />
that describes the Blakean doctrine of the church as well or better than
Frye did. It appears in the beginning of a small book entitled<span style="background-color: #ffe599;"> <a href="http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=35217305&src=frg2" rel="nofollow"> The Sun and the Umbrella</a>. </span>The image of the church as an umbrella keeping us from the full force of the Sun is compelling and quite Blakean. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(See also <span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><a href="http://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2010/01/religion-and-war.html" rel="nofollow">Religion and War</a></span>) </span></span><br />
</p>Larry Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11571190213288384302noreply@blogger.com0