Polypus 2

This material comes from The Book of Milton

From Plate 35 (Erdman 134):
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

(In the first line Ololon spoke, but who were 'they'? Some
daughters of Beulah?) 'Passing the Polypus' could only
mean going through the miserable mess we've made of
out World; of course what Jesus did. And now we see
that Ololon, the emanation of Milton, does that.)

And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead.
Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion
And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death
In midst of these was Miltons Couch, & when they saw Eight
Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires
They thunderous utterd all a universal groan falling down
Prostrate before the Starry Eight asking with tears forgiveness
Confessing their crime with humiliation and sorrow.

(The universal groan echoes Romans 8:22 
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits 

of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for 

the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.)
**********************************************
Plate 36; Erdman 135-6:
the Lark is a mighty Angel.
(Damon 234: The Lark is a new idea coming as inspiration in the
dawn.....by definition a messenger...)
For Ololon step'd into the Polypus within the Mundane Shell
They could not step into Vegetable Worlds without becoming
The enemies of Humanity except in a Female Form

And as One Female, Ololon and all its mighty Hosts
Appear'd: a Virgin of twelve years nor time nor space was
To the perception of the Virgin Ololon but as the
Flash of lightning but more quick the Virgin in my Garden
Before my Cottage stood, for the Satanic Space is delusion
(Blake sees this reality at home. and Los took him for the
trip of Milton' s , from Heaven to Redemption:)

For when Los joind with me he took me in his firy whirlwind
My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeths shades
He set me down in Felphams Vale & prepard a beautiful
Cottage for me that in three years I might write all these Visions
To display Natures cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion.
(Blake 's revival of mental energy and perception is expressed with
the Bard's Song.)

Songs of Innocence and Experince
Wikipedia
Object 54

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Plate 37-38 (E137-8):
The Heavens are the Cherub, the Twelve Gods are Satan
And the Forty-eight Starry Regions are Cities of the Levites
The Heads of the Great Polypus, Four-fold twelve enormity
In mighty & mysterious comingling enemy with enemy
Woven by Urizen into Sexes from his mantle of years[.]
And Milton collecting all his fibres into impregnable strength
Descended down a Paved work of all kinds of precious stones
Out from the eastern sky; descending down into my Cottage
Garden: clothed in black, severe & silent he descended.

The Spectre of Satan stood upon the roaring sea & beheld
Milton within his sleeping Humanity! trembling & shuddring
He stood upon the waves a Twenty-seven-fold mighty Demon
Gorgeous & beautiful: loud roll his thunders against Milton
Loud Satan thunderd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham shore
Not daring to touch one fibre he howld round upon the Sea.

Here Milton faces Satan, just as Jesus had known centuries
before.

Polypus 1

The word 'Polypus' appears in Blake's poetry often. In Medicine a 'polypus' is a tumor, usually with a narrow base, somewhat resembling a pear, - found in the nose, 
uterus, etc., and produced by hypertrophy of some portion of the mucous membrane 

For Blake 'polypus' may be thought of as the ultimate evil.


From page 163 of Easson and Easson's commentary on Milton a Poem by William Blake:
A sea aenemone like Vala is "adjoin'd to Beulah as the Polypus to the Rock"

---

Then view'd from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus 
(E134; Plate 35: So spake Ololon in reminiscence astonishd, but they 
And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead. 
(Erdman 119) Plate24:
Plate 35 (E135):

Enveloping the Mundale Egg, the fallen world of Adam, Satan's Space, Entuthon, Benython and Ulro is Blake's Polypus.

(The Four Zoas [Nt 7b], 87[95][1st].2; E367)

From MILTON:
(Plate 34; Erdman 134)
But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates
And the Couches  of the Martyrs: & many Daughters of Beulah
Accompany them down to the Ulro with soft melodious tears
To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner.

Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing 
A self-devouring monstrous Human Death Twenty-seven fold. 
Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother 
Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight 
And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down 
The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea: 
Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell
(Plate 34; Erdman 134)

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

Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion 
And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death 
In midst of these was Miltons Couch, & when they saw Eight 
Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires 
They thunderous utterd all a universal groan falling down 
Prostrate before the Starry Eight asking with tears forgiveness 
Confessing their crime with humiliation and sorrow.


"Arise O Sons give all your strength against Eternal Death
A Web of Death: & were it not for Bowlahoola & Allamanda
No Human Form but only a Fibrous Vegetation
A Polypus of soft affections without Thought or Vision
Must tremble in the Heavens & Earths thro all the Ulro space[.]
Throw all the Vegetated Mortals into Bowlahoola
But as to this Elected Form who is returnd again
He is the Signal that the Last Vintage now approaches
Nor Vegetation may go on till all the Earth is reapd
So Los spoke." 

But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates
And the Couches of the Martyrs: & many Daughters of Beulah
Accompany them down to the Ulro with soft melodious tears
A long journey & dark thro Chaos in the track of Miltons course
To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner
Then view'd from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus
Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing
A self-devouring monstrous Human Death Twenty-seven fold[.]
Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother
Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight
And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down
The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:
Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell

Plate 29; E 126:
But Rintrah & Palamabron govern over Day & Night 
In Allamanda & Entuthon Benython where Souls wail: 
Where Orc incessant howls burning in fires of Eternal Youth, 
Within the vegetated mortal Nerves; for every Man born is joined 
Within into One mighty Polypus  and this Polypus is Orc.

Mundane 3

          Erdman   PLATE 20 [22]   page 114
....................
Now Albions sleeping Humanity began to turn upon his Couch;
Feeling the electric flame of Miltons awful precipitate descent.

'He came down' like Jesus Milton came down from Heaven
to save us all.  Albion represents 'us all'; we are asleep on 0ur 
materialistic 'couch' (or perhaps in Ulro!)

What follows in a beautiful poem:

Seest thou the little winged fly, smaller than a grain of sand?
It has a heart like thee; a brain open to heaven & hell,
Withinside wondrous & expansive; its gates are not clos'd,
I hope thine are not: hence it clothes itself in rich array;
Hence thou art cloth'd with human beauty O thou mortal man.
Seek not thy heavenly father then beyond the skies:

(Blake cautions us against the conventional faith with no
conception of 'the God within'.)
There Chaos dwells & ancient Night & Og & Anak old:
For every human heart has gates of brass & bars of adamant,
Which few dare unbar because dread Og & Anak guard the gates
Terrific! and each mortal brain is walld and moated round
Within: and Og & Anak watch here; here is the Seat
Of Satan in its Webs; for in brain and heart and loins
Gates open behind Satans Seat to the City of Golgonooza
Which is the spiritual fourfold London, in the loins of Albion

Thus Milton fell thro Albions heart, travelling outside of Humanity
Beyond the Stars in Chaos in Caverns of the Mundane Shell.

Both the City of Golgonooza and the Mundane Shell represent
Los's attempt to rescue humanity from Ulro.

But many of the Eternals rose up from eternal tables
Drunk with the Spirit, burning round the Couch of death they stood
Looking down into Beulah: wrathful, fill'd with rage!
They rend the heavens round the Watchers

The frontispiece of Blake's  Jerusalem pictures a man clothed as a watchman entering a dark doorway. He carries the watchman's light to illuminate the 'perilous path' whose entry he steps into wearing his sandals (which he strapped on in the poem Milton). The figure is Los beginning his journey through the underworld which Persephone entered before him. Blake describes it as 'the passage through Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life.' (Jerusalem, Plate 4, E 146)

in a fiery circle:
And round the Shadowy Eighth: the Eight close up the Couch
.............

From The Four Zoas, Night one:
Then they Elected Seven. called the Seven
Eyes of God & the Seven lamps of the Almighty
The Seven are one within the other the Seventh is named Jesus
The Lamb of God blessed for ever
(Erdman  312 -13)
.........

                                      Page 115
Into a tabernacle, and flee with cries down to the Deeps:
Where Los opens his three wide gates, surrounded by raging fires!
They soon find their own place & join the Watchers of the Ulro.
Los saw them and a cold pale horror coverd o'er his limbs
Pondering he knew that Rintrah & Palamabron might depart:
Even as Reuben & as Gad; gave up himself to tears.
He sat down on his anvil-stock; and leand upon the trough.
Looking into the black water, mingling it with tears.

Mundane 2

From Wikipedia:
Book II of 'Milton' finds Blake in the garden of his cottage in Felpham. 
Ololon, a female figure linked to Milton, descends to meet him. Blake 
sees a skylark, which mutates into a twelve-year-old girl, who he thinks 
is one of his own muses. He invites her into his cottage to meet his wife. 
The girl states that she is actually looking for Milton. Milton then descends 
to meet with her, and in an apocalyptic scene he is eventually unified with 
the girl, who is identified as Ololon and becomes his own feminine aspect.

---

Plate 33 of Book of Milton (Erdman 133-34)
But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates
And the Couches of the Martyrs: & many Daughters of Beulah
Accompany them down to the Ulro with soft melodious tears
A long journey & dark thro Chaos in the track of Miltons course
To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner
Then view'd from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus
Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing
A self-devouring monstrous human Death Twenty-seven fold
Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother
Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight
And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down
The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:
Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell
Four Universes round the Universe of Los remain Chaotic
Four intersecting Globes, & the Egg form'd World of Los
In midst; stretching from Zenith to Nadir, in midst of Chaos.
One of these Ruind Universes is to the North named Urthona
One to the South this was the glorious World of Urizen
One to the East, of Luvah: One to the West; of Tharmas.
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen in the South
All fell towards the Center sinking downward in dire Ruin

PLATE 59 of Jerusalem:
And formed into Four precious stones. for enterance from Beulah
For the Veil of Vala which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep
To catch the Souls of the Dead: began to Vegetate & Petrify
Around the Earth of Albion. among the Roots of his Tree
This Los formed into the Gates & mighty Wall, between the Oak
Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering beneath Albions Tomb,
Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity
For Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic
One to the North; Urthona: One to the South; Urizen:
One to the East: Luvah: One to the West, Tharmas;
They are the Four Zoas that stood around the Throne Divine
Verulam: London: York & Edinburgh: their English names
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen Southward
(/Erdman 2O7-8)

From Jerusalem Plate 92 (Erdman 251-2):
Amalek, Edom, Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Ashur, Philistea, around Jerusalem
Where the Druids reard their Rocky Circles to make permanent Remembrance
Of Sin. & the Tree of Good & Evil sprang from the Rocky Circle & Snake
Of the Druid, along the Valley of Rephaim from Camberwell to Golgotha
And framed the Mundane Shell Cavernous in Length Bredth & Highth

Mundane 1

The word 'mundane' occurs 37 times in Blake's poetry:

Build we a Bower for heavens darling in the grizly deep
Build we the Mundane Shell around the Rock of Albion
(FZ2-24.8; E314)
The 'Bower' is the private heaven we try to build for
youselves in this sorry world ('grizly deep').

---

This from Blake's God 2:

      The rationalists of Blake's day with their radical materialism had closed themselves off from the eternal. They had imprisoned themselves in what he called the mundane shell (Milton plate 17 line 16ff). They were exclusively this worldly. Blake perceived that they worshipped the God of this World, no matter what they called him. They had most often called him Jehovah or Jesus. As a young man Blake renamed him Urizen . He spent half a lifetime studying this God of the timebound so he could cast him off and replace him with a more authentic image. Eventually he came to realize that this god's truest name is Satan. He also referred to him as the Selfhood (Jerusalem 5:21-23) and the Spectre.

From Milton, Plate 19  (Erdman 112)

Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic
One to the North, named Urthona: One to the South, named Urizen:
One to the East, named Luvah: One to the West, named Tharmas
They are the Four Zoa's that stood around the Throne Divine!

Milton Plate 36
LC

Jerusalem, Plate 59, (E208)

"For the Veil of Vala which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep

To catch the Souls of the Dead: began to Vegetate & Petrify

Around the Earth of Albion. among the Roots of his Tree

This Los formed into the Gates & mighty Wall, between the Oak

Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering beneath Albions Tomb,

Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,

The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place

Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity"