Myths 1

Reposted from April 16, 2013.  The Book of Thel (Here's a plate from Thel (Plate 4, I believe:)        This myth is one of Blake's early examples of the descent of the soul:        Thel, one of the Immortals (in the vales of Har) is attracted to the life below (as we all were). After hearing the encouragement of the Lilly of the valley, the little cloud, the helpless worm, and the clod of clay she ventures down: Book of Thel, Plate 6, (E 6)  "The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar:  Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown; She saw the couches of the dead,..... The Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek. Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales of Har" Book of Thel Plate 4, Copy F        In this early poem Blake asks the question, is life here in the world worth living? (The question is partly answered in The Little Girl.)        This poem may also be considered a commentary on Innocence and Experience: the vales of Har represent Innocence while the northern bar leads to Experience. Descent from Eden leads to Experience, and when fully experienced, one may return to his (eternal) origin. Thel chose not to go through that journey, so it doesn't express Blake's myth except to act as a preamble. Cave of the Nymphs Unquestionably the Bible was Blake's primary source in developing his primary myth of creation, fall, regeneration (or 'rdemption') and return. However he was fully capable of using other sources, and in The Sea of Time and Space he drew primarily upon Homer (and Plato).(Kathleen Raines' book Blake and Tradition gives a good source for interpretation of the Cave of the Nymphs as used by Blake.) A condensation of Raines' great work may be found at Blake and Antiquity, which contains considerable material on the Sea of Time and Space.        Three things stand out prominently in this wonderful picture:        On the right is the cave of the nymphs who conduct innocent souls by the northern gate down into mortal life.        Below the cave spread across the bottom is the Sea of Time and Space.        On the upper left you see a representation of the Heavenly Realm.        Homer wrote about the Cave of the Nymphs in the 13th Book of the Odyssey: "At the head of this harbour there is a large olive tree, and at no great distance a fine overarching cavern sacred to the nymphs who are called Naiads. There are mixing bowls within it and wine-jars of stone, and the bees hive there. Moreover, there are great looms of stone on which the nymphs weave their robes of sea purple--very curious to see--and at all times there is water within it. It has two entrances, one facing North by which mortals can go down into the cave, while the other comes from the South and is more mysterious; mortals cannot possibly get in by it, it is the way taken by the gods."        The Arlington Tempera contains virtually all of the items in Homer's description. Blake faithfully followed Homer in furnishing his cave. The Naiads use the mixing bowls and stone jars to prepare provisions for the descending souls. On the looms the nymphs weave bodies for them; the purple indicates these bodies contain blood.        Blake loved the looms and used them repeatedly in his prophecies; in his larger prophecies he described the "nymphs" as vicious wicked women; in fact there are pages of these wicked women. (The feminine of course connotes the earthly (under the moon), and the masculine heavenly (under the sun) - As offensive as this may be to many readers, I don't know any help for it. It might be considered the guideline that men used in their subjugation of women. Blake wasn't responsible; he adopted all the ancient symbols, including this one.)        Blake's picture portrays the two realms, connected by two passages, sometimes called gates or bars or stairs. The picture shows them as stairs. The prominent gate on the right, called the northern bar, is especially rich in symbols that Blake used over and over as he wrote, etched, drew and painted.        Immediately to the left of the northern gate is the southern gate of 'return' where worthy mortals ascend into the higher realm of immortality.        In the upper part of the picture the nymphs prepare souls for the descent into the "sea of time and space". The northern gate is filled with a stream, the current moving downward into the sea.        Blake shows two souls scheduled for mortal life; each possesses a tub or pail which the nymphs prepared for them containing spiritual truth and power for the hazardous journey into the world.        At the bottom of the cave one of these 'women' lies in the water blissfully asleep; her tub is turned on its side, all the spiritual things spilled and replaced by the water of mortal life.        The other woman has carefully protected her pail and against the opposition of the nymphs turned decisively back toward the higher realm; following Heraclitus she may be said to be a dry soul. (This scene evokes Jesus' story of the wise and foolish virgins. The dry soul also suggests Thel, who crossed the northern bar, but drew back in horror at the miry clay ahead. The two imaginary humans represent the choices that each of us make every moment: to go the heavenly way or the worldly way, the two ways that that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:13-14.)        In the symbolic language water denotes matter, the inferior, the worldly. Souls in the higher realm are attracted by the moisture. 'Time and space' is a sea where mortal creatures suffer adventures that may be creative or destructive. Similar and closely related to dry and moist souls are those awake and those sleeping (this runs like a current throughout the Bible and through Blake as well.) The Sea of Time and Space Arlington Tempera Arlington Court Devon         The River of Adonis in the cave issues into the Sea of Time and Space (one of the common titles of Blake's tempera). There is (relatively) little to report about the sea; it's just about life, about my life and your life and every brother or sister's life.        But emerging from the sea we find Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey on the near shore; with his back to the shore he is putting something in the water: in accordance with Leucothea's instructions he is returning her (magic) girdle which she had lent him so he could swim ashore. In the distance Leucothea appears getting her girdle and dissolving "in a spiral of radiant cloud" (Blake and Antiquity page 6).        Behind Odysseus stands his protector goddess, Athena pointing him to the courts above.        (The return of Odysseus to his home closely parallels Elijah's ascent on the fiery chariot into Heaven, and of course the Ascension of Our Lord. The thing to remember is that rather than material events these are metaphors. Our metaphors are spacious and temporal; not so in Eternity.)        The upper left of the picture shows God upon a chariot, driven by the Four Zoas and surrounded by the immortals. God appears to be a right sleepy god; the import is that it's the inner God who goes to sleep when the soul finds the couch of death and awakens to mortal life (Blake and Antiquity page 15). Raine quotes: "05 My Eternal Man set in Repose 06 The Female from his darkness rose" The Gates of Paradise, (E 386) For more detail look at these posts.        Once you've grasped the whole of this story you may notice how closely it parallels the primary Bible myth of Creation, Fall and eventual Redemption. It's the old, old story, and in the end there's only one story. (Jesus gave us an abbreviated version of it with The Prodigal Son.)

No Other Gospel

Larry wrote this in 2009 but never posted it. These are Larry's comments on the prose section which begins the Fourth Chapter of Jerusalem: To the Christians.

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 231)

To the Christians.

"We are told to abstain from fleshly

desires that we may lose no time from the

Work of the Lord. Every moment lost, is a

moment that cannot be redeemed every

pleasure that intermingles with the duty

of our station is a folly unredeemable and

is planted like the seed of a wild flower

among our wheat." (cf Matthew 13:25)

This is quite a departure from the young 'pleasure lover'
who wrote MHH. It seems like Blake had stopped reading
Swedenberg and taken up Wesley. He had very likely been

reading the first chapter of Galatians when he wrote the
following:

"I know of no other Christianity and of no
other Gospel than the liberty both of body
and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of
Imagination."

Blake, a voracious reader and student of

religion, had seen many other

Christianities and Gospels, but now in his

forties, he had his own Visions of these

Divine Realities.

"Imagination the real and eternal World of
which this Vegetable Universe is but a
faint shadow and in which we shall live in
our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when
these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no
more."

Blake carefully differentiated between ''our

Eternal or Imaginative Bodies" and our

"Vegetable Mortal Bodies".

"The Apostles knew of no other Gospel.
What were all their spiritual gifts?
What is the Divine Spirit? is the Holy Ghost
any other than an Intellectual Fountain?"

A really daring redefinition of the Holy Ghost!

"What is the Harvest of the Gospel & its Labours?
What is that Talent which it is a curse to hide?
What are the Treasures of Heaven which we are
to lay up for ourselves, are they any other than
Mental Studies & Performances? What are all the
Gifts. of the Gospel, are they not all Mental Gifts?
Is God a Spirit who must be worshipped in Spirit
& in Truth and are not the Gifts of the Spirit
Everything to Man?

you who shall pretend to despise Art & Science!
I call upon you in the Name of
Jesus! What is the Life of Man but Art &
Science? is it Meat & Drink? is not the
Body more than Raiment? What is Mortality
but the things relating to the Body, which
Dies? What is Immortality but the things
relating to the Spirit, which Lives
Eternally! What is the joy of Heaven but
Improvement in the things of the Spirit?
What are the Pains of Hell but Ignorance,
Bodily Lust, Idleness & devastation of the
things of the Spirit[?]

Answer this to yourselves, & expel from
among you those who pretend to despise the
labours of Art & Science, which alone are
the labours of the Gospel: Is not this
plain & manifest to the thought? Can you
think at all & not pronounce heartily!
That to Labour in Knowledge. is to Build
up Jerusalem: and to Despise Knowledge, is
to Despise Jerusalem & her Builders."

Here Blake slams the 'know nothings', the

proudly ignorant of whom we have a fair

number in the 21st century.

" And remember: He who despises mocks a
Mental Gift in another; calling it pride &
selfishness & sin; mocks Jesus the giver
of every Mental Gift, which always appear
to the ignorance-loving Hypocrite, as
Sins. but that which is a Sin in the sight
of cruel Man, is not so in the sight of
our kind God.

"Let every Christian as much as in him
lies engage himself openly & publicly
before all the World in some Mental
pursuit for the Building up of Jerusalem "

Jerusalem
Plate 100 

 

Urizen, Los and Enitharmon building Jerusalem

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CIRCLE OF DESTINY

When Blake became acquainted with Thomas Taylor they were young men in their twenties. They shared intellectual interests and middle class backgrounds. Neither was educated in the established system. Taylor was working as a clerk and busily translating Greek literature to English. Blake was supporting himself with engraving and avid to publish his poetry and graphic art. Blake consumed the Greek translations which Taylor published as source material for his own evolving mythology. Taylor became enamored with the religion of the Greeks. He gave up the practice of Christianity in favor of the worship of the Greek pantheon. Blake's spiritual evolution was toward a deepening of his Christian faith, not away from it. He found that an appreciation for other religious practices provided him with more imagery to convey the process of unifying God and Man. Although Taylor and Blake went their separate ways, there may have been a rapprochement in later years.
 
Blake's painting which is often called the Arlington Tempera was far from typical of the subject matter which he ordinarily painted and it was on a scale unusual for his works. He treated not a single event but a tapestry of multiple events spread over time and space, and transcending Time and Eternity. Blake's painting is dated c.1821. Taylor published in 1823 a volume titled Select Works of Porphyry. Included in the book is an 'appendix Explaining Wanderings of Ulysses by translator.' Blake's picture and Taylor's explanation are two treatments of the same events in different media. Whatever their differences they could affirm the 'Circle of Destiny' through which Man returns to the source from which he came.

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This is Taylor's conclusion of "appendix Explaining Wanderings of Ulysses by translator":
"By what leading stars shall we direct our flight, and by what means avoid the magic of Circe, and the detaining charms of Calypso? For thus the fable of Ulysses obscurely signifies, which feigns him abiding and unwilling exile, though pleasant spectacles were continually presented to his sight; and every thing was proffered to invite his stay, which can delight the senses and captivate the heart. But our true country, like that of Ulysses, is from whence we came and where our father lives."

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Wikimedia Commons
Arlington Tempera
Arlington Court Devon

Four Zoas, Night I, PAGE 5, (E 302)
"In Eden,Females sleep the winter in soft silken veils   
Woven by their own hands to hide them in the darksom grave
But Males immortal live renewd by female deaths.     in soft
Delight they die & they revive in spring with music & songs
Enion said Farewell I die     I hide. from thy searching eyes    

So saying--From her bosom weaving soft in Sinewy threads
A tabernacle for Jerusalem she sat among the Rocks     
Singing her lamentation. Tharmas groand among his Clouds
Weeping, then bending from his Clouds he stoopd his innocent head     
And stretching out his holy hand in the vast Deep sublime        
Turnd round the circle of Destiny with tears & bitter sighs
And said.     Return O Wanderer when the Day of Clouds is oer

So saying he sunk down into the sea a pale white corse
In torment he sunk down & flowd among her filmy Woof 
His Spectre issuing from his feet in flames of fire
In gnawing pain drawn out by her lovd fingers every nerve
She counted. every vein & lacteal threading them among
Her woof of terror. Terrified & drinking tears of woe
Shuddring she wove--nine days & nights Sleepless her food was tears
Wondring she saw her woof begin to animate. & not  
As Garments woven subservient to her hands but having a will
Of its own perverse & wayward Enion lovd & wept

Nine days she labourd at her work. & nine dark sleepless nights
But on the tenth trembling morn the Circle of Destiny Complete
Round rolld the Sea Englobing in a watry Globe self balancd

A Frowning Continent appeard Where Enion in the Desart
Terrified in her own Creation      viewing her woven shadow
Sat in a dread intoxication of Repentance & Contrition 

There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest
Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely 
Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep
Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around
On all sides within & without the Universal Man
The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams
Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death                

The Circle of Destiny complete they gave to it a Space
And namd the Space Ulro & brooded over it in care & love
They said The Spectre is in every man insane & most
Deformd     Thro the three heavens descending in fury & fire
We meet it with our Songs & loving blandishments & give          
To it a form of vegetation But this Spectre of Tharmas
Is Eternal Death What shall we do O God pity & help            
So spoke they & closd the Gate of the Tongue in trembling fear" 

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Romans 5
5:3-5 - This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys - we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have some experience of the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.

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LOOK WITHIN

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

When you look in a mirror a reflection of your own exterior greets your eyes. It is fascinating to see a young child seeing himself in a mirror for the first time. He first perceives the image as other than himself and reaches for it. Perhaps next he looks into the eyes of the other and sees it looking back. Eventually he may realize that the baby in the mirror is no other than himself. He is attracted to the baby he can't touch, but who, unlike a picture, moves and smiles and seems alive.

Blake sees man looking into his own Bosom with his spiritual eyes and having a similar experience of discovery. What he sees is not the persona or image which he presents to the outside world. He sees his Heaven, his idealized image of himself and his world as it would appear if his doors of perception were cleansed. His Earth is also visible to him: the ruin of a man in a ruined world. 

Jerusalem, Plate 71, (E 225)

"as in your own Bosom you bear your Heaven
And Earth, & all you behold, tho it appears Without it is Within
In your Imagination of which this World of Mortality is but a Shadow."

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