SPIRITUAL FRIENDS

Blake was much aware of spiritual friendship: relationships built on eternal considerations rather than material ones. He numbered Butts, Cumberland and Linnell among his spiritual friends and conversed with them on topics relating to his visionary experience.

A Vision: The Inspiration of the Poet
(Elisha in the Chamber on the Wall) c.1819-20?

In an atypical picture by Blake, thought to have been produced around 1820, he pictured a  prophet who can be identified by his surroundings. The little room with its bed, table, stool and candlestick are those of Elisha, provided by a woman who recognized  him as a spiritual friend with whom she could share her material comforts. A second person is in the room with Elisha; we can assume that this is a messenger from God carrying a visionary experience to Elisha.

KJV
2 Kings 4
[8] And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
[9] And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.
[10] Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
[11] And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.

A spiritual friend is one who supports you on your spiritual journey. Blake could talk with the three men mentioned above about his visions, his failures and setbacks, his openings to the light, and the direction the Imagination was leading him. The relationship was reciprocal, Blake gave these men encouragement and enlarged their abilities to perceive the immortal, invisible world which was so available to him. 

Descriptive Catalog, (E 535)
NUMBER III.
Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the nine and twenty Pilgrims on
their journey to Canterbury.

"The principal figure in the next groupe, is the Good 
Parson; an Apostle, a real Messenger of Heaven, sent in every 
age for its light and its warmth.  This man is beloved and 
venerated by all, and neglected by all: He serves all, and is 
served by none; he is, according to Christ's definition, the 
greatest of his age.  Yet he is a Poor Parson of a town.  Read 
Chaucer's description of the Good Parson, and bow the head and 
the knee to him, who, in every age sends us such a burning and a 
shining light.  Search O ye rich and powerful, for these men and 
obey their counsel, then shall the golden age return: But 
alas! you will not easily distinguish him from the Friar or the 
Pardoner, they also are "full solemn men," and their counsel, you 
will continue to follow."

Letters, (E 703)
"Mr Cumberland, Bishopsgate, Windsor Great Park
 
Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. Augst 26. 1799
Dear Cumberland
...

"Pray let me intreat you to persevere in your Designing it is
the only source of Pleasure   all your other pleasures depend
upon It.  It is the Tree Your Pleasures are the Fruit.  Your
Inventions of Intellectual Visions are the Stamina of every thing
you value.  Go on if not for your own sake yet for ours who love
& admire your works. but above all For the Sake of the Arts.  Do
not throw aside for any long time the honour intended you by
Nature to revive the Greek workmanship.  I study your outlines as
usual just as if they were antiques.
     As to Myself about whom you are so kindly Interested.  I
live by Miracle.  I am Painting small Pictures from the Bible.
For as to Engraving in which art I cannot reproach myself with
any neglect yet I am laid by in a corner as if I did not Exist &
Since my Youngs Night Thoughts have been publishd Even Johnson &
Fuseli have discarded my Graver.  But as I know that He who Works
& has his health cannot starve.  I laugh at Fortune & Go on &
on.  I think I foresee better Things than I have ever seen.  My
Work pleases my employer & I have an order for Fifty small
Pictures at One Guinea each which is Something better than mere
copying after another artist.  But above all I feel myself happy
& contented let what will come having passed now near twenty
years in ups & downs I am used to them & perhaps a little
practise in them may turn out to benefit.  It is now Exactly
Twenty years since I was upon the ocean of business & Tho I laugh
at Fortune I am perswaded that She Alone is the Governor of
Worldly Riches. & when it is Fit She will call on me till then I
wait with Patience in hopes that She is busied among my Friends.
     With Mine & My Wifes best compliments to Mr Cumberland
I remain
Yours sincerely
WILLm BLAKE"

Letters, (E 781)
"Mr Linnell, Cirencester Place, Fitzroy Square
[February 1827]
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 I go on as I think improving my
Engravings of Dante 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
     I have Thought & Thought of the Removal. & cannot get my
Mind out of a State of terrible fear at such a step. the more I
think the more I feel terror at what I wishd at first & thought
it a thing of benefit & Good hope you will attribute it to its
right Cause Intellectual Peculiarity that must be Myself alone
shut up in Myself or Reduced to Nothing.  I could tell you of
Visions & dreams upon the Subject I have asked & intreated Divine
help but fear continues upon me & I must relinquish the step that
I had wished to take & still wish but in vain
     Your Success in your Profession is above all things to me
most gratifying. may it go on to the Perfection you wish & more
So wishes also Yours Sincerely
WILLIAM BLAKE"

Letters, (E 728)
"Mr Butts, Grt Marlborough Street
Felpham April 25: 1803
My Dear Sir
...
 And now My Dear Sir Congratulate me on my return to London
with the full approbation of Mr Hayley & with Promise--But Alas!
     Now I may say to you what perhaps I should not dare to say
to any one else.  That I can alone carry on my visionary studies
in London unannoyd & that I may converse with my friends in
Eternity.  See Visions, Dream Dreams, & prophecy & speak Parables
unobserv'd & at liberty from the Doubts of other Mortals. perhaps
Doubts proceeding from Kindness. but Doubts are always pernicious
Especially when we Doubt our Friends Christ is very decided on
this Point.  "He who is Not With Me is Against Me" There is no
Medium or Middle state & if a Man is the Enemy of my Spiritual
Life while he pretends to be the Friend of my Corporeal. he is a
Real Enemy--but the Man may be the friend of my Spiritual Life
while he seems the Enemy of my Corporeal but Not Vice Versa
...
 I rejoice & I tremble "I am fearfully & wonderfully made".  I had
been reading the cxxxix Psalm a little before your Letter
arrived."

Psalms 139
[12] Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
[13] For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
[14] I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
[15] My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
[16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Spiritual friends know one another as the Psalmist was aware that he was known by God. Spiritual friends share the knowledge that the essence of each has always been with God and is known by God in every particular. They know that their lives have been written by God to be joined in an exchange deeper than the accidents of time and place.

---

Ian Mulder, the friend to whom I am indebted for producing my Divine Economy blog as an e-book, has now issued an e-book of his own work: Wayfaring. You will find that his observations, and recollections stimulated by his walks near his home in Buckinghamshire, England reveal a world infused with light.

Milton 13

Rosenwald LC

Milton Plate 47

\

The fiery figure is Los and the one kneeled down is Milton.

Plate 22 [24]

Tho driven away with the Seven Starry Ones into the Ulro
Yet the Divine Vision remains Every-where For-ever. Amen.

And Ololon lamented for Milton with a great lamentation. 

 While Los heard indistinct in fear, what time I bound my sandals 

On; to walk forward thro' Eternity, Los descended to me: 

 And Los behind me stood; a terrible flaming Sun: just close 

Behind my back; I turned round in terror, and behold. 

Los stood in that fierce glowing fire; & he also stoop'd down 

And bound my sandals on in Udan-Adan; trembling I stood 

Exceedingly with fear & terror, standing in the Vale Of 

Lambeth: but he kissed me and wishd me health. 

And I became One Man with him arising in my strength: 

Twas too late now to recede. Los had enterd into my soul:
(Erdman 116-17)

Lambeth (where Blake lived before in 1800 moving to Felpham)
suggests that 'the moment' is 1800-03:

What Erdman calls the 'prophetic climax' "a vision of their imminent
return to London" (in 1803):

The poem ends with this apocalypse (Erdman 144):
Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path
A moment, & my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body
And my sweet Shadow of Delight stood trembling by my side
Immediately the Lark mounted with a loud trill from Felphams Vale
And the Wild Thyme from Wimbletons green & impurpled Hills
And Los & Enitharmon rose over the Hills of Surrey
Their clouds roll over London with a south wind, soft Oothoon
Pants in the Vales of Lambeth weeping oer her Human Harvest
Los listens to the Cry of the Poor Man: his Cloud
Over London in volume terrific, low bended in anger.(Erdman 143-44)

We're very close to the end of the poem with this apocalypse:

(Erdman 144):

Rintrah & Palamabron view the Human Harvest beneath

Their Wine-presses & Barns stand open; the Ovens are prepar'd

The Waggons ready: terrific Lions & Tygers sport & play

All Animals upon the Earth, are prepard in all their strength

[PLATE 43 [50]]

To go forth to the Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations

Finis

ALBION THE SLEEPER

The prophet Elisha is not mentioned by name by Blake. However an experience of Elisha is a prototype of the awakening of Albion. We are signaled of this connection by the words 'he sneezed seven times' as Albion began to wake. The incident narrated in Second Kings tells of Elisha restoring life to a child by stretching his warm body on the cold body of the lifeless child. Albion begins to return to life when the 'limit of contraction' was fixed.

2 Kings 4
[31] Geha'zi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, "The child has not awaked."
[32] When Eli'sha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed.
[33] So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.
[34] Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.
[35] Then he got up again, and walked once to and fro in the house, and went up, and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
[36] Then he summoned Geha'zi and said, "Call this Shu'nammite." So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, "Take up your son."
[37] She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took up her son and went out.  

Blake provide two contrasting word pictures of Albion lying on his 'couch of death.' From his appearance to the natural eye Blake describes a corpse on a rock in the midst of watery materiality. To the spiritual eye the scene is of angels hovering over a sleeping man.

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 99, (E 371)
"Then All in Great Eternity Met in the Council of God           
as one Man Even Jesus upon Gilead & Hermon                     
Upon the Limit of Contraction to create the fallen Man
The Fallen Man stretchd like a Corse upon the oozy Rock        
Washd with the tides Pale overgrown with weeds    

That movd with horrible dreams hovring high over his head
Two winged immortal shapes one standing at his feet
Toward the East one standing at his head toward the west
Their wings joind in the Zenith over head                 
Such is a Vision of All Beulah hovring over the Sleeper     

The limit of Contraction now was fixd & Man began
To wake upon the Couch of Death   he sneezed seven times
A tear of blood dropped from either eye again he reposd
In the saviours arms, in the arms of tender mercy & loving kindness 
Then Los said I behold the Divine Vision thro the broken Gates 
Of thy poor broken heart astonishd melted into Compassion & Love
And Enitharmon said I see the Lamb of God upon Mount Zion      
Wondring with love & Awe they felt the divine hand upon them"   

Closer attention to the angels that Blake describes, reveals that these are the angels or cherubim whose place is above the mercy seat resting on the Ark of the Covenant. Blake is intimating that the mercy through which Albion awoke was provided by God as an eternal connection between God and man.    

Exodus 25
[1]The LORD said to Moses,
[16] And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.
[17] Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
[18] And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.
[19] Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.
[20] The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.
[21] And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
[22] There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Victoria And Albert Museum

Christ in the Sepuchure Guarded by Angels

When Blake pictured the body of Christ in the sepuchure he replicated the image he had in his mind of the cherubim at the mercy seat and of the angels hovering over the body of Albion.   

Milton, Plate 13 [14], (E 106) 

"The Elect shall meet the Redeem'd. on Albions rocks they shall meet 
Astonish'd at the Transgressor, in him beholding the Saviour. 
And the Elect shall say to the Redeemd. We behold it is of Divine 
Mercy alone! of Free Gift and Election that we live. 
Our Virtues & Cruel Goodnesses, have deserv'd Eternal Death. 
Thus they weep upon the fatal Brook of Albions River."

Milton 12

Rosenwald L of C
Milton Plate 45

Milton is holding up Urizen; they have crossed the Arnon:

From the Blake Dictionary we get an idea of Arnon in the Bible.

From Bible in Milton
Milton, Plate 19 [21], (E 112)
"Urizen emerged from his Rocky Form & from his Snows,

And he also darkend his brows: freezing dark rocks between
The footsteps. and infixing deep the feet in marble beds:
That Milton labourd with his journey, & his feet bled sore
Upon the clay now chang'd to marble; also Urizen rose,
And met him on the shores of Arnon; & by the streams of the brooks

Silent they met, and silent strove among the streams, of Arnon
Even to Mahanaim , when with cold hand Urizen stoop'd down
And took up water from the river Jordan: pouring on
To Miltons brain the icy fluid from his broad cold palm.
But Milton took of the red clay of Succoth , moulding it with care
Between his palms: and filling up the furrows of many years
Beginning at the feet of Urizen, and on the bones
creating new flesh on the Demon cold, and building him,
As with new clay a Human form in the Valley of Beth Peor."

At other places in 'Blake' we learn that Los  got the better of Urizen and learned to love his greatest enemy.

Arnon:

Arnon means "rushing torrent". The Arnon was a river rising in the mountains of Gilead, E of the Jordan, and reaching the Dead Sea through a stony and precipitous chasm of red and yellow sandstone. The name is also applied to the valley, or valleys, (Num 21:13,26; Deut 3:8; Josh 12:1; Judg 11:22; Isa 16:2; Jer 48:20).

ARTHUR & ALBION

Although we are first struck by the resemblance of the motif of sleep in the myth of King Arthur and Blake's myth of Albion, there is another remarkable  correspondence. The female characters in the myth of Arthur are the source of much of the difficulties which destroy the kingdom. Arthur's queen Guenevere proves to be unfaithful to him. His half sister Morgan, together with her son lead the rebellion which results in the end of the fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table. Merlin loses his freedom and power to the woman who was his protege. Furthermore the motif of the virginal maiden who exercises dominion over and requires devotion from her knight is prominent in the story.

We see in Enitharmon, Vala and Enion the same characteristics displayed in the women of Camelot. Enitharmon, as the queen of heaven is most like Guenevere, queen of Camelot. They both turn from their own men to others. Enitharmon aligns herself with Urizen or the Spectre. Guenevere chooses Arthur's 'best knight' as her paramour. Each woman rules in a world where the characteristics of the female are designed to undermine the role which the male should play.
 
Vala like Morgan is bent on obscuring and subverting the culmination of the possibility for achieving the unifying vision.
 
Enion like Nimue prevents the vision of wholeness from being revealed by withdrawing and fleeing.

Yale Center for British Art Jerusalem
Plate 54

Blake is speaking of more than the unpleasantness that results when men allow themselves to serve bossy women, he is writing about the consequences of the active, inner, spiritual principle becoming subservient to the passive, outer, material principle. 




Here is the situation as presented in William Blake's Circle of Destiny by Milton O Percival:
 
"It is easy to see, then, how great is the violence done to the divine plan when man, in his impiety, begins to reason about his apparently dual self and sets the feminine contrary above the masculine - the emanation above its spiritual source...The principles of life are thrown into reverse. The effect is taken as the cause. The emotional life takes precedence over the intellectual life. Beulah sets itself up as Eden. When this happens Eden and Beulah are both lost, and the sexual  strife of the sundered contraries is set up in Ulro. The struggle in Ulro takes many forms. It the emotions threatening to engulf the intelligence. It is outward nature threatening to extinguish the inner light. It is conventional technique warring against original genius. It is the moral ideal of a passive rather than an active good. In brief, the division is fourfold - of the head, heart, loins, and body, with all they imply." (Page 95)   

Jerusalem, Plate 64, (E 215)
"Of the Mundane Shell which froze on all sides round Canaan on
The vast Expanse: where the Daughters of Albion Weave the Web
Of Ages & Generations, folding & unfolding it, like a Veil of Cherubim
And sometimes it touches the Earths summits, & sometimes spreads
Abroad into the Indefinite Spectre, who is the Rational Power.

Then All the Daughters of Albion became One before Los: even Vala!
And she put forth her hand upon the Looms in dreadful howlings
Till she vegetated into a hungry Stomach & a devouring Tongue.
Her Hand is a Court of Justice, her Feet: two Armies in Battle
Storms & Pestilence: in her Locks: & in her Loins Earthquake.    
And Fire. & the Ruin of Cities & Nations & Families & Tongues

She cries: The Human is but a Worm, & thou O Male: Thou art
Thyself Female, a Male: a breeder of Seed: a Son & Husband: & Lo.
The Human Divine is Womans Shadow, a Vapor in the summers heat
Go assume Papal dignity thou Spectre, thou Male Harlot! Arthur   
Divide into the Kings of Europe in times remote O Woman-born
And Woman-nourishd & Woman-educated & Woman-scorn'd!

Wherefore art thou living? said Los, & Man cannot live in thy presence
Art thou Vala the Wife of Albion O thou lovely Daughter of Luvah
All Quarrels arise from Reasoning. the secret Murder, and        
The violent Man-slaughter. these are the Spectres double Cave
The Sexual Death living on accusation of Sin & judgment
To freeze Love & Innocence into the gold & silver of the Merchant
Without Forgiveness of Sin Love is Itself Eternal Death

Then the Spectre drew Vala into his bosom magnificent terrific"   

Jerusalem, Plate 88, (E 246)
"For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations 
Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity
How then can I ever again be united as Man with Man
While thou my Emanation refusest my Fibres of dominion.
When Souls mingle & join thro all the Fibres of Brotherhood
Can there be any secret joy on Earth greater than this? 

Enitharmon answerd: This is Womans World, nor need she any
Spectre to defend her from Man. I will Create secret places
And the masculine names of the places Merlin & Arthur.
A triple Female Tabernacle for Moral Law I weave
That he who loves Jesus may loathe terrified Female love  
Till God himself become a Male subservient to the Female.

She spoke in scorn & jealousy, alternate torments; and
So speaking she sat down on Sussex shore singing lulling
Cadences, & playing in sweet intoxication among the glistening
Fibres of Los:"

Milton 11

Rosenwald LC
Milton 42

Erdman suggests that the image of two people may be post-coital, "the moment of the fall of Milton's star, the descent of Ololon.....as an eagle screams waking naked lovers....the reluctant sleepers are archetypically Albion and his bride, Jerusalem.

Awake, awake: we hear that over and over in the New Testament; both the  Bible and William Blake are trying to awaken us from our sleep; In MHH Blake quoted Ezekiel, who spoke of "the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite".

The concordance shows 87 occurrences to the word, 'awake' as:

I cry the watchman heareth not I pour my voice in roarings
Watchman the night is thick & darkness cheats my rayie sight
Lift up Lift up O Los awake my watchman for he sleepeth
Lift up Lift up Shine forth O Light watchman thy light is out  
O Los unless thou keep my tower the Watchman will be slain

The concordance shows 71 occurrences of the word, 'couch' as:

"Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enterd into
PLATE 42 [49]                                                t
Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder!
Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths              
Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea."

The Dove upon the stormy Sea is obviously taken from Genesis:

Gen.8

[8] Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
[9] But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
[10] And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
[11] And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
[12] And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Name the two people Albion and England represent the Lord's people.

The eagle found here is described in Jerusalem as a tradional symbol of St. John, the living trumpet of prophecy. (from page 259 of Erdman's Illuminated Blake)

GIANT ALBION

British Museum
Jerusalem
Plate 19

Descriptive Catalog, (E 543) 

"The giant Albion, was Patriarch of the Atlantic, he is the Atlas of the Greeks, one of those the Greeks called Titans. The stories of Arthur are the acts of Albion, 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."







The mythology which is formative for the British is the Legend of King Arthur. Kathleen Raine's chapter The Sleep of Albion, in her book Golgonooza: City of Imagination connects King Arthur and Blake's Albion.
 
Raine:
"Above all the Matter of Britain centres about a fifth-century, Romanized British king or warleader, King Arthur, his chivalry, his court at Camelot, his round table, and the mysterious sanctity, neither wholly Christian nor wholly pagan, of the  Holy Grail and its Quest." (Page 161)
 
"And finally there is the legend of Arthur's death-sleep, somewhere in a secret cave where, with his knights around him, he awaits the time when he will return to restore just rule to his kingdom and to repel its enemies." (Page 163)
 
"The unfamiliar supernatural figures are those 'gods' or archetypal energies Blake discerned within the national collective life; and the central figure, whose inner drama is the theme of the whole drama is 'the Giant Albion', the collective person, so to speak, of the nation...Albion  is the sleeping 'giant' (not a king, for the 'giant' is not one man but a nation) for whose re-awakening  the 'four Zoas' and the other persons of the myth, labor." (Page 167)
 
"Blake was versed in the Arthurian literature and traditions and it is plain that the Sleeping Arthur is the model of  the majestic sleeping form of the Giant Albion." (Page 167)
 
"But the 'sleep' of the Giant Albion is conceived by Blake not as the mere passage of time but as a state of apathy, of lowering of consciousness, of forgetfulness of higher things." (Page 171)
 
"Albion's state of 'eternal death' therefore is seen not in terms of some comfortable remote myth but clearly and precisely identified as the materialist ideology to which the West has succumbed." (Page 175)

Jerusalem, Plate 54, (E 203)
"But the Spectre like a hoar frost & a Mildew rose over Albion    
Saying, I am God O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power!
Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man!
Who teach Doubt & Experiment & my two Wings Voltaire: Rousseau.
Where is that Friend of Sinners! that Rebel against my Laws!

Who teaches Belief to the Nations, & an unknown Eternal Life     
Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread.
Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment?
And build a World of Phantasy upon my Great Abyss!
A World of Shapes in craving Lust & devouring appetite

So spoke the hard cold constrictive Spectre he is named Arthur   
Constricting into Druid Rocks round Canaan Agag & Aram & Pharoh

Then Albion drew England into his bosom in groans & tears
But she stretchd out her starry Night in Spaces against him. like
A long Serpent, in the Abyss of the Spectre which augmented
The Night with Dragon wings coverd with stars & in the Wings     
Jerusalem & Vala appeard: & above between the Wings magnificent
The Divine Vision dimly appeard in clouds of blood weeping."  

Arthur is not a hero to Blake but a state through which man travels; a stage of development which is demolished when man reaches the subsequent stage of development. The Spectre, man's rational power is here named Arthur perhaps in response to Arthur's failure to achieve the Holy Grail. Blake continues his list of British Royalty who created an empire through military, political and economic power but failed to give their people the liberty to develop their inner lives. To Blake it is the prophets and poets who create the conditions in which man's humanity can reach fruition.

Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 228)    
"Voltaire insinuates that these Limits are the cruel work of God
Mocking the Remover of Limits & the Resurrection of the Dead     
Setting up Kings in wrath: in holiness of Natural Religion
Which Los with his mighty Hammer demolishes time on time
In miracles & wonders in the Four-fold Desart of Albion
Permanently Creating to be in Time Reveald & Demolishd
Satan Cain Tubal Nimrod Pharoh Priam Bladud Belin                
Arthur Alfred the Norman Conqueror Richard John
[Edward Henry Elizabeth James Charles William George]
And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories
These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around

These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates           
Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel
[Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton]  
Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer
As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever"       

Wikimedia and Yale Center for British Arts

Milton 10

Rosenwald LC
Milton 36

PLATE 36 [40] of The Book of Milton
When on the highest lift of his light pinions he arrives
At that bright Gate, another Lark meets him & back to back
They touch their pinions tip tip: and each descend
To their respective Earths & there all night consult with Angels
Of Providence & with the Eyes of God all night in slumbers
Inspired: & at the dawn of day send out another Lark
Into another Heaven to carry news upon his wings
Thus are the Messengers dispatchd till they reach the Earth again
In the East Gate of Golgonooza, & the Twenty-eighth bright
Lark. met the Female Ololon descending into my Garden
Thus it appears to Mortal eyes & those of the Ulro Heavens
But not thus to Immortals, the Lark is a mighty, Angel.
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
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[.]
Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld
The Virgin Ololon & address'd her as a Daughter of Beulah[:]
Virgin of Providence fear not to enter into my Cottage
What is thy message to thy friend: What am I now to do
Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me
Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight
Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue
(Erdman 136-37)
This of course is supposedly about Milton, but as usual Blake
lapses into his own biography.
The image represents the cottage that Blake and his wife lived in
for three years at Felpham by the Sea. We see the lark, the angel,
Ololon:
" In book two Ololon follows Milton's descent. She assumes responsibility for driving Milton into the Ulro and enters the transformative process.  
Although Ololon can be seen as Milton's emanation, Ololon is much more than that. She takes the form of a sweet river in Edan, she is a multitude of Eternals, she appears as a twelve year old virgin, a
moony ark, and finally as a garment dipped in blood containing the literal expression of the Divine 
Revelation.
Look at Golgonooza or here or here.

ALBION'S REACTOR

There is a passage in Jerusalem in we are introduced to Albion's Reactor without any preparation for his introduction. The passage is spoken by the Voice Divine, a term which is used only once in Blake's poetry. Blake uses this voice to speak of man's inability to recognize what is happening because of the limitations of his perspective.

Wikimedia Commons
Jerusalem
Plate 26, Copy A
British Museum

But the Divine Voice knows the plan that was envisioned for mankind and how it was subverted by one aspect withdrawing from the unity. Because mankind is within creation he is unable to see the whole picture or recognize the force which is acting against the reunification of the Divine Humanity. Although the Reactor is not identified by the Divine Voice, we know that one of his names is Satan. He acts against: against receiving the Divine Vision; against reconciling the contraries; against enjoying the liberty which flows from exercising the Divine Arts of Imagination.

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E231)
"I know of no other
Christianity and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body
& mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination." 

 Jerusalem, Plate 43, (E 191)
"And thus the Voice Divine went forth upon the rocks of Albion    

I elected Albion for my glory; I gave to him the Nations,
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: Albion must Sleep
The Sleep of Death, 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 compelld Albion to become a Punisher & hath possessd
Himself of Albions Forests & Wilds! and Jerusalem is taken!
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
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.

So saying, the mild Sun inclosd the Human Family."

Minna Doskow, in William Blake's Jerusalem, gives this insight into Satan as an "erroneous cognitive concept or 'self-delusion'":

"The Divine Voice also supplies the imaginative view of Albion's separation from his Spectre Satan. First, he differentiates Satan's negativity from Albion's sleep, exemplifying the difference between a state and an individual within that state, and second, he shows how Albion's malfunctioning mind produces Satan, who absorbs and dominates him, exemplifying the difference between the creation and its creator. As pure negativity, Satan is the 'reactor' who can only oppose and deny like the Spector of Albion's sons in chapter 1. He also tries to destroy what is positive and grounds 'his Reaction into a law/Of Action, for Obedience to destroy the Contraries of Man'. As negativity, Satan lacks independent concrete existence, so he establishes Albion's historical institutionalized religion in order to achieve such existence...Satan, however, unknowingly serves eternal purposes in his actions (as Los's Spectre does too), for negativity must first become concrete in order to be exposed and abolished. Satan must 'be revealed in his system', which is Albion's religion with its codes and laws before exiled humanity can return to its divinity...Falsehood must be embodied before it can be recognized as error and corrected. This is the constant imaginative truth which unifies all of existence, true of religious as well as rational error." 

Milton 9

In a letter to William Hayley dated in 1803 Blake wrote:
"I know that our
deceased friends are more really with us than when they were apparent to our mortal part. Thirteen years ago. I lost a brother & with his spirit I converse daily & hourly in the Spirit. & See him in my remembrance in the regions of my Imagination. I hear his advice & even now write from his Dictate--Forgive me for expressing to you my Enthusiasm which I wish all to partake of Since it is to me a Source of Immortal Joy even in this world by it I am the companion of Angels."

This image is obviously a mirror image of the earlier one of William himself, whereas this one has Robert as its subject. The two boys were inseparable until Robert died. You might say that much of what Blake thought about and wrote about was deeply influenced by the experience of Robert's death.  Blake found that the shape of their relationship before and after was essentially the same.

That's a good way that you and I may feel when a loved one dies.

New York Public Library

Milton

Plate 33

There is no text to this plate so we can only describe what we see, and consider its

implications. Robert, younger brother of William Blake died in 1787 when William was 30. From his death Robert was thought to be in constant contact with William.

In essence that indicates what William thought about life and death, time and eternity. He thought that both things were accessible.

Here you can find 56 posts addressing Eternity,

and you can find 56 posts addressing Experience.

GLOBE OF FIRE II

Los, the Imagination, carries his globe of fire to provide light and energy to the intuitive mind which discerns the spiritual dimension. Urizen is likewise endowed with a globe of fire so that the mind might reason and understand through the intellect. No light is brighter than that of the Eternal Urizen before the fall. The role of reason is preeminent until Urizen, the Prince of Light, refuses to accept the role of guide to the newly created man.

British Museum
Small Book of Designs
Plate 7, Copy A
From Plate 22, Book of Urizen

Urizen continues to carry his globe of fire after his fall into the dark abyss. His fate is to explore with a dim light which leads him into erroneous pathways. He substitutes his books of descriptions and laws for his faith in the ever expanding light.

It was Blake's belief that if man's ability to reason led him to depend on his own powers to give structure and meaning to the world, he was sorely deceived. Reason is capable of discerning and manipulating the finite and material; Intuition or Imagination sees the Infinite and Eternal 

There is No Natural Religion, (E 2)
  "I  Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
  II  Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not
the same that it shall be when we know more.
...
     Application.   He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is"

Book of  Urizen, Plate 20, (E 81)
"1. Urizen explor'd his dens
Mountain, moor, & wilderness,
With a globe of fire lighting his journey
A fearful journey, annoy'd
By cruel enormities: forms                                       
Plate 23
Of life on his forsaken mountains"

Four Zoas, Night II, Page 23,(E 313)
"Rising upon his Couch of Death Albion beheld his Sons
Turning his Eyes outward to Self. losing the Divine Vision
Albion calld Urizen & said. Behold these sickning Spheres  
Whence is this Voice of Enion that soundeth in my Porches  
Take thou possession! take this Scepter! go forth in my might    
For I am weary, & must sleep in the dark sleep of Death
Thy brother Luvah hath smitten me but pity thou his youth
Tho thou hast not pitid my Age   O Urizen Prince of Light"

Four Zoas, Night VI, Page 70, (E 346)
"Los brooded on the darkness. nor saw Urizen with a Globe of fire
Lighting his dismal journey thro the pathless world of death

Writing in bitter tears & groans in books of iron & brass
The enormous wonders of the Abysses once his brightest joy

For Urizen beheld the terrors of the Abyss wandring among        
The ruind spirits once his children & the children of Luvah
Scard at the sound of their own sigh that seems to shake the immense
They wander Moping in their heart a Sun a Dreary moon
A Universe of fiery constellations in their brain
An Earth of wintry woe beneath their feet & round their loins  
Waters or winds or clouds or brooding lightnings & pestilential plagues
Beyond the bounds of their own self their senses cannot penetrate
As the tree knows not what is outside of its leaves & bark
And yet it drinks the summer joy & fears the winter sorrow
So in the regions of the grave none knows his dark compeer       
Tho he partakes of his dire woes & mutual returns the pang
The throb the dolor the convulsion in soul sickening woes"

Brian Wilke and Mary Lynn Johnson comment on Urizen's Globe of Fire in their book Blake's Four Zoas, The Design of a Dream:
" By the light of his 'Globe of Fire' - common daylight, which is all that remains of his brilliant intelligence - Urizen surveys his accursed universe, an 'Abyss' of dissociated entities, and he methodically records his observations in books of iron and brass." (Page 128)

Milton 8

Other Plates on Milton have had appreciable images at the top, while this one has it in the lower area. 

Text for this Plate

PLATE 33 [36]
And the Divine Voice was heard in the Songs of Beulah Saying     

When I first Married you, I gave you all my whole Soul
I thought that you would love my loves & joy in my delights
Seeking for pleasures in my pleasures O Daughter of Babylon
Then thou wast lovely, mild & gentle. now thou art terrible      
In jealousy & unlovely in my sight, because thou hast cruelly
Cut off my loves in fury till I have no love left for thee
Thy love depends on him thou lovest & on his dear loves
Depend thy pleasures which thou hast cut off by jealousy
Therefore I shew my jealousy  & set  before you Death.     
Behold Milton descended to Redeem the Female Shade

From Death Eternal; such your lot, to be continually Redeem'd
By death & misery of those you love & by Annihilation
When the Sixfold Female percieves that Milton annihilates
Himself: that seeing all his loves by her cut off: he leaves     
Her also: intirely abstracting himself from Female loves
She shall relent in fear of death: She shall begin to give
Her maidens to her husband: delighting in his delight
And then & then alone begins the happy Female joy
As it is done in Beulah, & thou O Virgin Babylon Mother of       
     Whoredoms
Shalt bring Jerusalem in thine arms in the night watches; and
No longer turning her a wandering Harlot in the streets
Shalt give her into the arms of God your Lord & Husband.

Such are the Songs of Beulah in the Lamentations of Ololon

Erdman 132-33)

 
Erdman 32/36:

Rosenwald L of C
Milton  36

'To be redeemed by death': a strange idea; most of us think of death as the end of everything.  In Blake's poems we should discriminate between Death and death. Roughly speaking death is a change of demeanor perhaps; Death is the condition of leaving Mortality to enter Eternity.

Annihilation is a term Blake used repeatedly; we must continually annihilate the Selfhood:

Ephesians 4:

as the truth is in Jesus:
[22] That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
[23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
[24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
[25] Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Re the Mundane Shell look at Milton Book the First:

"PLATE 4                                                       

Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty
In the hands of Palamabron. Where the Starry Mills of Satan
Are built beneath the Earth & Waters of the Mundane Shell
Here the Three Classes of Men take their Sexual texture Woven
The Sexual is Threefold: the Human is Fourfold              
(Erdman 97)

Or look at Milton's Track.

GLOBE OF FIRE

Wikimedia Commons Jerusalem
Frontispiece, Copy B 

 
Los is forever entering the door of the dark underground carrying his illumination. He enters the interior of Albion and finds the expressions of his Divine Humanity distorted by a hidden influence. In this passage the light of his globe of fire reveals a hardening of the minute particulars into grains of sand. No action that Los can take can remove the damage he sees.
 
He sees that the problems he encounters are connected to the exercise of the moral law which hardens men against their brothers. The moral law is a system which sustains itself by allowing vengeance in return for offenses. Reaction to the system involves one in the system which is the source of the damage.
 
Los with his globe of fire must continue his journey through the dark places making known the disastrous consequence that man inflicts upon himself by turning against the Divine Vision. 
  

Jerusalem, Plate 44 [30], (E 194)
"So Los in lamentations followd Albion, Albion coverd, 
Plate 45 [31]
His western heaven with rocky clouds of death & despair.

Fearing that Albion should turn his back against the Divine Vision
Los took his globe of fire to search the interiors of Albions
Bosom, in all the terrors of friendship, entering the caves
Of despair & death, to search the tempters out, walking among 
Albions rocks & precipices! caves of solitude & dark despair,
And saw every Minute Particular of Albion degraded & murderd
But saw not by whom; they were hidden within in the minute particulars
Of which they had possessd themselves; and there they take up
The articulations of a mans soul, and laughing throw it down   
Into the frame, then knock it out upon the plank, & souls are bak'd
In bricks to build the pyramids of Heber & Terah. But Los
Searchd in vain: closd from the minutia he walkd, difficult.
He came down from Highgate thro Hackney & Holloway towards London
Till he came to old Stratford & thence to Stepney & the Isle     
Of Leuthas Dogs, thence thro the narrows of the Rivers side
And saw every minute particular, the jewels of Albion, running down
The kennels of the streets & lanes as if they were abhorrd.
Every Universal Form, was become barren mountains of Moral
Virtue: and every Minute Particular hardend into grains of sand:
And all the tendernesses of the soul cast forth as filth & mire,
Among the winding places of deep contemplation intricate
To where the Tower of London frownd dreadful over Jerusalem:
A building of Luvah builded in Jerusalems eastern gate to be
His secluded Court: thence to Bethlehem where was builded   
Dens of despair in the house of bread: enquiring in vain
Of stones and rocks he took his way, for human form was none:
And thus he spoke, looking on Albions City with many tears

What shall I do! what could I do, if I could find these Criminals
I could not dare to take vengeance; 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;
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:"  

Hebrews 4 

[12] For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints 
and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 [13] And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.  

Milton 7

Here we have a good definition of Beulah

PLATE 30 [33]
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills           
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district       
As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah,
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest.

And it is thus Created. Lo the Eternal Great Humanity            
To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore Amen
Walks among all his awful Family seen in every face
As the breath of the Almighty. such are the words of man to man
In the great Wars of Eternity, in fury of Poetic Inspiration,
To build the Universe stupendous: Mental forms Creating          

But the Emanations trembled exceedingly, nor could they
Live, because the life of Man was too exceeding unbounded
His joy became terrible to them they trembled & wept
Crying with one voice. Give us a habitation & a place
In which we may be hidden under the shadow of wings              
For if we who are but for a time, & who pass away in winter
Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume
But you O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity

But grant us a Temporal Habitation. do you speak
To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus                 
The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen

So spake the lovely Emanations; & there appeard a pleasant
Mild Shadow above: beneath: & on all sides round,

PLATE 31 [34]
Into this pleasant Shadow all the weak & weary
Like Women & Children were taken away as on wings
Of dovelike softness, & shadowy habitations prepared for them
But every Man returnd & went still going forward thro'
The Bosom of the Father in Eternity on Eternity                  
Neither did any lack or fall into Error without

(Erdman 129-30)

And here is the biblical counterpart:

Isaiah 62 verse 4:

 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.



 

The falling star of  past Plates is enlarged here to conclude the beginning image of 'Book the Second' in what Erdman calls a "merciful embrace".

  

Human figures are said to 
"rehearse a judgment scene". Two Falling men are at the corners and 
beside the right hand one a woman pointing up (these two thought to be 
like a falling Adam and  a rising Eve.)  

BLAKE & CHILDREN

Blake's attitude toward children is clearest in these lines from Songs of Innocence:

Songs of Innocence,  (E 15)
SONGS 24, Nurse's Song                

"When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,                 
My heart is at rest within my breast
And every thing else is still"

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Blake loved the joy, sweetness and exuberance of children.  He recognized that when children are protected from stress and abuse, they display a unique closeness to God. He wanted children to be unrestrained, free to be as God meant them to be: vehicles of imagination. He found that their play and laughter subdued the cares of the world.

His appreciation for the qualities of children led him to use children to symbolize productive, creative unblemished entities elsewhere. All that came from man's imagination became his children whether it was thoughts, designs, words or loves. The products of man's imagination were to be beloved, cherished and enjoyed as precious children. 
    
Blake thought that the appreciation and understanding he felt for children was reciprocated. He put great effort into producing images and poems which would please children and encourage them to continue to to see the world 'through' their eyes not 'with' their eyes, as reflections of the heaven from which they came.

Letters, To Rev Dr Trusler, (E 702)
 "But I am happy to find a Great Majority of Fellow Mortals
who can Elucidate My Visions & Particularly they have been
Elucidated by Children who have taken a greater delight in
contemplating my Pictures than I even hoped.  Neither Youth nor
Childhood is Folly or Incapacity Some Children are Fools
& so are some Old Men.  But There is a vast Majority on the
side of Imagination or Spiritual Sensation"

Annotations to Berkley, (E 663)
  "They also considerd God as abstracted or distinct from the
Imaginative World but Jesus as also Abraham & David considerd God
as a Man in the Spiritual or Imaginative Vision
     Jesus considerd Imagination to be the Real Man & says I will
not leave you Orphanned and I will manifest myself to you   he
says also the Spiritual Body or Angel as little Children always
behold [is] the Face of the Heavenly Father"  

Matthew 23
[37] "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 

Luke 18
[15] Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
[16] But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
[17] Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."