GOLGONOOZA

Metropolitan Museum
Angel of the Divine Presence Bringing Eve to Adam

Blake didn't intend to be pinned down to a single interpretation of his images. He developed the image Golgonooza from scratch and added layers of meaning as his imagination enriched an expanding panoramic vision.

Analytically we can say that Golgoonoza is:

>the city of art & Manufacture,
>spiritual Four-fold London eternal,
>the place where souls of the dead are given bodies,
>the internal organs of the human body,
>the printing house in Lambeth where William and Catherine produced books,
>the location of the furnaces of Los and the looms of Enitharmon,
>our own spiritual activities which contribute to the building the Kingdom of God.    

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 231)
 "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.   
  Imagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable
Universe is but a faint shadow & in which we shall live in our
Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies
are no more." 

Milton, Plate 24 [26], (E 120)
"But Golgonooza is namd Art & Manufacture by mortal men.          

In Bowlahoola Los's Anvils stand & his Furnaces rage;
Thundering the Hammers beat & the Bellows blow loud
Living self moving mourning lamenting & howling incessantly
Bowlahoola thro all its porches feels tho' too fast founded
Its pillars & porticoes to tremble at the force                  

Of mortal or immortal arm: and softly lilling flutes
Accordant with the horrid labours make sweet melody
The Bellows are the Animal Lungs: the hammers the Animal Heart
 The Furnaces the Stomach for digestion. terrible their fury" 

Milton, Plate 26 [28], (E 123)
"And every Generated Body in its inward form,
Is a garden of delight & a building of magnificence,
Built by the Sons of Los in Bowlahoola & Allamanda
And the herbs & flowers & furniture & beds & chambers
Continually woven in the Looms of Enitharmons Daughters          
In bright Cathedrons golden Dome with care & love & tears
For the various Classes of Men are all markd out determinate"

Jerusalem, Plate 10, (E 153)
"it is the Reasoning Power
An Abstract objecting power, that Negatives every thing
This is the Spectre of Man: the Holy Reasoning Power             
And in its Holiness is closed the Abomination of Desolation

Therefore Los stands in London building Golgonooza
Compelling his Spectre to labours mighty; trembling in fear
The Spectre weeps, but Los unmovd by tears or threats remains

I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans           
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create

So Los, in fury & strength: in indignation & burning wrath
Shuddring the Spectre howls. his howlings terrify the night
He stamps around the Anvil, beating blows of stern despair
He curses Heaven & Earth, Day & Night & Sun & Moon               
He curses Forest Spring & River, Desart & sandy Waste
Cities & Nations, Families & Peoples, Tongues & Laws
Driven to desperation by Los's terrors & threatning fears

Los cries, Obey my voice & never deviate from my will
And I will be merciful to thee"

Commentary from Northrop Frye in Fearful Symmetry:

Page 252
"Los is the builder of the eternal form of human civilization, and is therefore a smith, a worker in metal and fire, the two great instruments of civilized life.
Page 253
"If we combine the fact that Los is a blacksmith with the fact that Orc is his medium, we get the furnace as a symbol of the natural body. On the level of a conscious will to live the hammer is the heart-beat, the bellows the lungs and the furnace the whole metabolism of a warm-blooded animal. The same is true of the risen or spiritual body, but that body is part of Golgonooza, which is conceived a huge machine shop or foundry, a vast cubicle into which the whole physical world has to be thrown before the refined gold of the New Jerusalem can emerge from it. There are seven furnaces in Los's smithy, corresponding to the Seven Eyes, and they are associated with wheels in a way which we shall explain more fully later. In them are to be found Ezekiel's 'wheels within wheels,' imaginative energy as opposed to the interlocking compulsions of nature which we see represented in physical machinery. The allusions of the finger of God touching the seventh furnace refer of course to the coming of Jesus."

Earlier posts with the label Golgonooza. 

Convention

Blake was in anything unconventional.  Here is what Malcom Macdonald had meant by that:

The beginning of The Sanity of William Blake"

All criticism is based upon some 
standard of convention. Yet, in 
spite of the fact that our edu- 
cation necessarily favours such 
standard, our instincts are often finely re- 
bellious in their repudiation of convention. 
And we secretly honour all who outdare 
custom, though we openly fear and perhaps 
deride them. The weakness of convention 
as a standard of criticism lies in this, that 
we are able to estimate a given work only 
so long as it falls within our educational 
experience ; whereas if it does not, there 
remains no system that will give it justice. 
How can one judge, say, of ethics in Mars, 
when he is entirely ignorant of its condi- 
tions ? or of habits in Mile End if he do 
not share its quite reasonable dislike of his 
own culture ? or of manners in May Fair 
when he can but envy, not emulate, its 
comfortable morality ? We publicly pity 
and even pretend to despise all who are not 
of the fold ; yet in our hearts we often 
admire them. It is indeed curious. Though 
we know our conventions are but dummies 
of formalism, we cringe like very Pharisees 
before them and hug it to our hearts that 
we are as other men. Nevertheless, though 
the Gentiles defy our Gods, we grant them a 
right to live as long as they do not question 
our respectability or marry our daughters. 
Are they not picturesque, these outlaws, and 
do they not add to the gaiety of life ? Be 
they inspired poet or filthy fakir, sour- 
hearted Diogenes or pearly-toothed nautch 
girl, we gaze at them from afar and marvel 
even if we profit nothing by their example. 
In brief, those who are caged have mighty 
respect for those who fly ; if only, alas ! 
until some one shall bring the birds to earth 
with broken wing. The genius, the prophet, 
the poet, is necessarily in his work and 
mode of life outside the law that binds the 
masses into correct behaviour. Therefore 
he is beyond understanding, though the 
ignorant people may follow him from afar. 
He is beyond understanding, because few 
have virtue enough to gauge the uncon-  
ventional virtues. The schools judge only 
by their standards of examination, and cast 
out a poet as unfit. The professions 
measure by the success of their sleekest 
members ; and, as it is a law of nature that 
the eccentric shall not survive, they starve 
him. The academies of Art can judge of 
nothing that is not so firmly and viciously 
correct that all fear of its kindling the 
imagination vanishes.

BLAKE & MACDONALD II

The son of George MacDonald became an admirer of William Blake as was his father. Greville MacDonald had grown up under the influence of his imaginative father and the literary associates who visited his home. He did not however follow his father's profession but entered the field of medicine. He tried his hand a various endeavors as well, including writing a defense of William Blake's unconventional system of thought, and body of work. Aware that Blake has been considered by some of his contemporaries as 'mad', he entitled his book the Sanity of William Blake.

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Exerpts from Sanity of William Blake, 1907:

"And one remarkable point of distinction 
between these two classes is this : that the 
sane majority find the language provided 
for them by their country's traditions vastly 
in excess of their needs, while the insane 
minority are for ever discontent with their 
native tongue because of its total insufficiency 
to express what they feel and know, the 
visions they see and believe in. These, 
though they have the whole wealth of culture 
at command, are nevertheless for ever 
seeking and finding new forms of expression, 
but often only to discard them because 
they fail to express the truth. It is these 
who paint uplifting pictures the wealthy can 
never possess, whatever they pay for them ; 
who sing divine songs, as did William 
Blake, for fashion to laugh at ; who make 
wooden fiddles wail passionately, as did 
Joachim, whom even the quite sane applaud." 
...
"In what he leaves unsaid,' declared 
Schiller, 'I discover the master of Style.' 
This is very near to Blake's 'seeing through, 
and not with the eye.' And if style is 
indicated by what is left unsaid, imagination 
is indicated by the perception of what is not 
seen, and often but pointing to it, rather 
than telling it. So the idealist Blake 
discards the algebraical equation, the logical 
argument; and in place of them his only 
method of teaching is Appeal.
Appeal to what? To that very consciousness 
in man of deeps in his existence 
which science has not fathomed, but which 
the greatest teachers touch with their poetry, 
their music, their paintings, and call into 
conscious life." 
...
" When thou seest an eagle thou 
seest a portion of genius ; lift up thy head ! " 
In other words, do not dare to think you 
can cage an eagle. It cannot be done ; for 
an eagle caged is but divine energy prosti- 
tuted to the tyranny of man ; it ceases to be 
a portion of genius and is become a product 
of constraint, and a lie to the living truth. 
It is life robbed of purpose. Everywhere 
Blake is crying the same truth in the wilder- 
ness, and no one hears. Life robbed of 
liberty to fulfil breeds pestilence : this is the 
key to The Daughters of Albion. The glory 
of all desire, of all inspiration, is its 
purpose ; and if you seek to restrain these 
tigers of fire by the " horses of instruction," 
they become "tigers of wrath." This is the 
key to the books of Los and of Urizen. 
And both must be opened if we would enter 
the disordered treasure-house of the Jeru- 
salem. Blake is absolutely and persistently 
assertive of the truth of life's purpose." 
...
"Reason is minister to the imagination, and 
must never become its master."
...
"And this much must be confessed, that 
the more patiently we study Blake, the more 
clearly are we convinced of his consistency. 
We find, if we keep close to him as he 
leads us through the jungle, the abyss, the 
empyrean, that the path is certain to him, 
and that he is guided by the stars no less 
than by the pitfalls he would have us 
fathom. He has but one purpose: to lead 
us out of the eternal jungle of our individual 
warfare with death. Of the path he 
is sure, and in his purpose he never falters 
or misses the light. Nevertheless the jungle 
is as much the outcome of natural law as 
pleasant pastures; in their subjection to 
human purpose lies the difference. So what 
appears unprofitable in Blake's luxuriant 
imagination is but unprofitable perhaps from 
the point of view of our matter-of-fact 
utilitarian minds. He is but running wild 
like a child who feels that nursery restrictions 
are altogether immoral when judged from 
the standpoint of his need to live in the full 
vigour of delight ; who feels that he must 
show the wise old people how they have 
forgotten the glory of life." 

Marriage of Heaven & Hell, Plate 6, (E 35)
  "A Memorable Fancy.                        

   As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the 
enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and
insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as
the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs
of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any
description of buildings or garments.
   When I came home; on the abyss of the five senses, where a
flat  sided steep frowns over the present world. I saw a mighty
Devil folded in black clouds, hovering on the sides of the rock,
with corroding fires he wrote the following sentence now
percieved by the minds of men, & read by them on earth.   
   How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
   Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?"

Blake and Spenser

Blake knew and loved Spenser (Queen Elizabeth's poet laureate, who wrote The Faerie Queen). Raine on page 18 provided two examples from Spenser of the oldest myth central to Blake's poetry, namely the descent of the soul and eventual return, taken from


THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE
CANTO VI.....
It sited was in fruitfull soyle of old,
And girt in with two walles on either side;
The one of yron, the other of bright gold,
That none might thorough breake, nor over-stride:
And double gates it had, which opened wide,
By which both in and out men moten pas;
Th'one faire and fresh, the other old and dride:
Old Genius the porter of them was,
Old Genius, the which a double nature has.
xxxii
He letteth in, he letteth out to wend,
All that to come into the world desire;
A thousand thousand naked babes attend
About him day and night, which doe require,
That he with fleshly weedes would them attire:
Such as him list, such as eternall fate
Ordained hath, he clothes with sinfull mire,
And sendeth forth to live in mortall state,
Till they againe returne backe by the hinder gate."
Blake used this (timeless idea) in one of his earliest works, Thel; in Plate 6:
"The eternal gates terrific porter lifted up the northern bar". (Erdman, page 6)
He used the Northern (down to earth) and Southern Gates more pointedly in The Arlington Tempera. Look closely and you may see Thel at the bottom of the northern stairs with her pail still full; she's seen more than she wants to and she's purposefully going back against the stream of the nymphs heading for mortality.
The Angel is pointing the traveler back up the Southern Gate; he has tasted mortality fully and is ready to go home.
Nevertheless with the Enlightenment this sort of idea had fallen into obscurity in most of the materialistic and rational minds of England. Bacon, Newton, and Locke were the primary exponents of rationalism in Blake's day. This meant in reality that no one was interested in the kind of poetry and philosophy that interested Blake.

From the Beyond (Eternity) the world was created; man was created; time and space were created; birth and death were created; good and evil are creatures, figments of a frail and created mind.. In the world: in man, time and space we perceive duality, or a multiplicity. In Eternity we imagine Unity.

The ultimate duality is between Eternity and the World, between God and man, but this is a sometime thing-- until the end of time. As a creature the world will end; you, too, will end, as a creature.

But the vision of the mystic suggests that you are more than a creature. The writer of Genesis had such an inkling when he described man as made of the dust of the earth, but in the image of God. The Quakers believe there is 'that of God' in everyone.

Eternal Death in Blake's language refers to the soul's descent from Eden (and Beulah) to the nether regions (Ulro) where Eternity is lost and only the created remains. Lost! but not forever; Eternal Death dies, too; Eternity waits for the soul's Awakening, which may be at the moment of mortal death.

Of course there may be some bright souls who awaken before the 'moment of mortal death'.

BLAKE & MACDONALD

George MacDonald was an author who resonated to the same eternal strains played on the heavenly harp as did Blake.

MacDonald began his writing career in 1855 with a book of poems called Within and Without, a phrase which occurs twice in Blake's  Jerusalem. The two authors use the image of the couch of death with powerful results. In MacDonald's fantasy, Lilith, the couch of death is developed as a transitional stage in the process of regeneration.

From MacDonald's Lilith, Chapter 7, The Cemetery:
"I soon perceived that we were walking along an aisle of couches, on almost every one of which, with its head to the passage, lay something asleep or dead, covered with a sheet white as snow. My soul grew silent with dread. Through aisle after aisle we went, among couches innumerable. I could see only a few of them at once, but they were on all sides, vanishing, as it seemed, in the infinite.--Was it here lay my choice of a bed? Must I go to sleep among the unwaking, with no one to rouse me? Was this the sexton's library? were these his books? Truly it was no half-way house, this chamber of the dead!
'One of the cellars I am placed to watch!' remarked Mr. Raven--in a low voice, as if fearing to disturb his silent guests. 'Much wine is set here to ripen!--But it is dark for a stranger!' he added.
 
'The moon is rising; she will soon be here,' said his wife, and her clear voice, low and sweet, sounded of ancient sorrow long bidden adieu.
 
Even as she spoke the moon looked in at an opening in the wall, and a thousand gleams of white responded to her shine. But not yet could I descry beginning or end of the couches. They stretched away and away, as if for all the disparted world to sleep upon. For along the far receding narrow ways, every couch stood by itself, and on each slept a lonely sleeper. I thought at first their sleep was death, but I soon saw it was something deeper still--a something I did not know."

Milton, Plate 35 [39], (E 135)
"Loud roll the Weights & Spindles over the whole Earth let down
On all sides round to the Four Quarters of the World, eastward on
Europe to Euphrates & Hindu, to Nile & back in Clouds
Of Death across the Atlantic to America North & South

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        

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.

O how the Starry Eight rejoic'd to see Ololon descended!
And now that a wide road was open to Eternity,                   

By Ololons descent thro Beulah to Los & Enitharmon,

For mighty were the multitudes of Ololon, vast the extent
Of their great sway, reaching from Ulro to Eternity
Surrounding the Mundane Shell outside in its Caverns
And through Beulah. and all silent forbore to contend            
With Ololon for they saw the Lord in the Clouds of Ololon"

MacDonald paid tribute to Blake by choosing to adorn his bookplate with an image Blake created for Robert Blair's The Grave. It is no coincidence that the image MacDonald used is that of an old man giving up his earthly life and entering the door of death to be resurrected in the glorious light of day as a new man. 

Blake's dedication of his illustrations to The Grave, (E 480)
"The Door of Death is made of Gold,
That Mortal Eyes cannot behold;
But, when the Mortal Eyes are clos'd,
And cold and pale the Limbs repos'd,
The Soul awakes; and, wond'ring, sees
In her mild Hand the golden Keys:
The Grave is Heaven's golden Gate,
And rich and poor around it wait;
O Shepherdess of England's Fold,
Behold this Gate of Pearl and Gold!"

Here is an essay on MacDonald's  Phantastes and Lilith by Colin Manlove. 

British Museum
Illustration for Blair's The Grave
Death's Door

George MacDonald

Blake's Women

Blake's Women

This is not about Catherine, Blake's wife, with whom he lived in happy conjugal relationship for 40 years (her only complaint was that he spent too much time in heaven).

Nor is it about the fictional Catherine, who only serves to titillate the gossip lover.

Nor is it about Mary Wollencraft, although the story goes that William once proposed to Catherine that he bring Mary in as a concubine; Catherine cried, and William abandoned the idea. Blake hated and dispised 'jealousy', but it seems that Catherine's jealousy on this occasion solidified a very solid marriage relationship.

None of these, this post is about the women Blake met in heaven:


Thel was a kind of foretaste of the women to come; she exposed the seediness of mortal life and went back to heaven. In her life Blake posed the question 'is mortal life of any value?' (Raine).

Lyca is a microcosm of the three main women that Blake met in heaven. In Plate 6, 7, and 8 read two ethereally beautiful poems that reveal the kernel of the 'system' Blake developed after he said, "I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's".

Vala is the main woman in Blake's myth (The Four Zoas was originally named Vala). In the development of his story Blake splits Vala into two: Tirzah (the earthly woman) and Jerusalem (the heavenly one).

In To Tirzah Blake starkly presents the dichotomy:

"[Woman], what have I do to with thee?".

From a purely material viewpoint Blake has Jesus say this to his mother, actually a quotation from The Gospel of John 2:4. From a more significant viewpoint the woman represents mortality (Mary was his mortal mother). Jesus of course is something other than mortal. From the most significant viewpoint Blake is talking about you and me: we are made of clay, but an immortal spirit resides within the 'matter'.

Jerusalem of course is the obvious biblical metaphor for the "bride of Christ" and the heavenly (eternal) kingdom.

BLAKE & SOCRATES III

An extremely painful episode in Blake's life made him profoundly aware of the pressures suffered by Socrates, Jesus, early Christians, and dissenters from established religions. The means through which Blake personally encountered the accusation, trial and acquittal by the authorities of the King was a altercation with a soldier quartered a short distance from Blake's home in Felpham.
Blake included an account of the incident in a letter to his friend Thomas Butts:  

Letters, (E 732)
[To] Mr Butts, Gr Marlborough St, London
Felpham August 16. 1803
...
 I am at Present in a Bustle to defend myself against a
very unwarrantable warrant from a justice of Peace in
Chichester. which was taken out against me by a Private in Captn
Leathes's troop of 1st or Royal Dragoons for an assault &
Seditious words.  The wretched Man has terribly Perjurd himself
as has his Comrade for as to Sedition not one Word relating to
the King or Government was spoken by either him or me.  His
Enmity arises from my having turned him out of my Garden into
which he was invited as an assistant by a Gardener at work
therein, without my knowledge that he was so invited.  I desired
him as politely as was possible to go out of the Garden, he made
me an impertinent answer I insisted on his leaving the Garden he
refused I still persisted in desiring his departure he then
threatend to knock out my Eyes with many abominable imprecations
& with some contempt for my Person it affronted my foolish Pride
I therefore took him by the Elbows & pushed him before me till I
had got him out. there I intended to have left him. but he
turning about put himself into a Posture of Defiance threatening
& swearing at me.  I perhaps foolishly & perhaps not, stepped out
at the Gate & putting aside his blows took him again by the
Elbows & keeping his back to me pushed him forwards down the road
about fifty yards he all the while endeavouring to turn round &
strike me & raging & cursing which drew out several
neighbours. at length when I had got him to where he was
Quarterd. which was very quickly done. we were met at the Gate by
the Master of the house.  The Fox Inn, (who is [my] the
proprietor of my Cottage) & his wife & Daughter. & the Mans
Comrade. & several other people My Landlord compelld the Soldiers
to go in doors after many abusive threats [from the]
against me & my wife from the two Soldiers but not one word of
threat on account of Sedition was utterd at that time.  This
method of Revenge was Plann'd between them after they had got
together into the Stable.  This is the whole outline.  I have for
witnesses. The Gardener who is Hostler at the Fox & who Evidences
that to his knowledge no word of the remotest tendency to
Government or Sedition was utterd,--Our next door Neighbour a
Millers wife who saw me turn him before me down the road & saw &
heard all that happend at the Gate of the Inn who Evidences that
no Expression of threatening on account of Sedition was utterd in
the heat of their fury by either of the Dragoons. this was the
womans own remark & does high honour to her good sense as she
observes that whenever a quarrel happens the offence is always
repeated.  The Landlord of the Inn & His Wife & daughter will
Evidence the Same & will evidently prove the Comrade perjurd who
swore that he heard me  at the Gate utter Seditious words
& D--- the K--- without which perjury I could not have been
committed & I had no witness with me before the Justices who
could combat his assertion as the Gardener remaind in my Garden
all the while & he was the only person I thought necessary to
take with me.  I have been before a Bench of Justices at
Chichester this morning. but they as the Lawyer who
wrote down the Accusation told me in private are compelld by the
Military to suffer a prosecution to be enterd into altho they
must know & it is manifest that the whole is a Fabricated
Perjury.  I have been forced to find Bail.  Mr Hayley was kind
enough to come forwards & Mr Seagrave Printer at Chichester.
Mr H. in 100L & Mr S. in 50L & myself am bound in 100L for
my appearance at the Quarter Sessions which is after Michaelmass.
...
Every one here is my Evidence for Peace & Good Neighbourhood &
yet such is the present state of things this foolish accusation
must be tried in Public.
...
 This is but too just a Picture of my Present state I pray
God to keep you & all men from it & to deliver me in his own good
time.
... 
Affectionately Yours
WILLIAM BLAKE" 

Sedition, the crime of which Blake stood accused, was punishable by imprisonment or death. Blake was brought to trial in January 1804. Through the testimony of neighbors who had witnessed the incident he was found not guilty by a jury of having said 'Damn the King.'

David Erdman in Prophet Against Empire devotes several pages to examining the particulars of Blake's encounter with the law. The least that can be said about it is that it was traumatic for William and Catherine Blake:
Page 410
"Whatever we make of the coincidence of some of the dragoon's charges with some of Blake's prophetic opinions, however, the trial was an ordeal for Blake."
Page 411
"Yet the wounds made by the accusation and the inarticulate trial never completely healed."

On Plate 93 of Jerusalem Blake pictured three accusers and labeled them 'Anytus Melitus & Lycon', the names of three men who were involved in the proceedings against Socrates which led to the guilty verdict and his subsequent death. Blake connects the condemnation of Socrates to that of Jesus by pointing out that the accusers of both men thought their victims 'Pernicious' men. Blake puts himself in the category with Socrates and Jesus by picturing in the image an imaginative representation not of men involved in his trial, but the three Hunt brothers, who destroyed his reputation as an artist and imputed insanity to him through their published criticism in the Examiner. The pointing hand, seen six times in the image, was associated with the Hunts, whom Blake personified as 'Hand' in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, Plate 93, (E 253)
"Anytus Melitus & Lycon thought Socrates a
Very Pernicious Man   So Caiphas thought Jesus"

Wikimedia Commons
Jerusalem, Plate 93
Detail from top of Plate

The trial of Jesus:
Matthew 26
[57]Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Ca'iaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.
[58] But Peter followed him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.
[59] Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death,
[60] but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward
[61] and said, "This fellow said, `I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.'"
[62] And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?"
[63] But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."
[64] Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."
[65] Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy.
[66] What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."

The trial of Socrates:
"The accusers of Socrates proposed the punishment of death.  In proposing death, the accusers might well have expected to counter with a proposal for exile--a punishment that probably would have satisfied both them and the jury.  Instead, Socrates audaciously proposes to the jury that he be rewarded, not punished.  According to Plato, Socrates asks the jury for free meals in the Prytaneum, a public dining hall in the center of Athens.  Socrates must have known that his proposed "punishment" would infuriate the jury.  I. F. Stone noted that "Socrates acts more like a picador trying to enrage a bull than a defendant trying to mollify a jury."  Why, then, propose a punishment guaranteed to be rejected?  The only answer, Stone and others conclude, is that Socrates was ready to die."


Read more about Blake's trial in A New Kind of Man by Michael Davis.

Becoming an Individual

Becoming an Individual

Blake was born an individual, a very distinctive human being, until he got married in his early twenties.

That carried responsibilities; as a bread-winner he of necessity more or less 'joined the crowd'. But he remained a misfit (we all know such people; you may be one), call them unwilling joiners. You must have sustenance of some kind: emotional or financial, usually both.

The crowd is made up of the kind of people who watch the ads to see what people are doing so they can do the same thing, so they know what to do. People in the crowd generally want to 'get ahead' (whatever that may mean); it takes the place of 'following your bliss'; instead you try to follow the 'bliss' of the person in the crowd whom you most admire, your role model, your 'father', so to speak. (Jesus had something to say about your 'father'):

"call no man father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven". (Matthew 23:9)

In particular Blake wanted to be able to 'hold his head up'--financially and intellectually. He lent his enormous artistic gift in the service of other people; he especially admired the famous artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds--until he saw the artistic chasm that loomed between the two. He joined the 'Matthew Group', made up of very gifted people..... He rubbed shoulders with the intelligencia until he found himself rubbing elbows; they proved to be just as frustrating as anyone else (they were appropriate provocation for An Island in the Moon; the Matthews Group had been relativized.

"I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans"

Jerusalem, 10.20; E153

When Blake said that, it marked his realization that the systems he had found in Reynolds and the Matthews Group simply didn't satisfy his needs and values. With The Four Zoas he tried to systematize in poetry his own spiritual values; it led to universal incomprehension by his friends, even his best friends.

In 1800 he wrote to his friend and benefactor, George Cumberland, expressing his emphatic frustration over the commercial art he had been impressed into following, what he called 'the main chance':

"I myself remember when I thought my pursuits of Art a kind of Criminal Dissipation neglect of the main chance which I hid my face for not being able to abandon as a Passion which is forbidden by Law and Religion" (Erdman 706)

But the Magic Moment, the veritable rebirth came at the Truchsessian Gallery when he "was again enlightened with the light I enjoyed in my youth, and which has for exactly twenty years been closed from me as by a door" (Letter 51, to Hayley; Erdman 756)

The Four Zoas turned into those two masterpieces, Milton and Jersalem. But in general he moved away from 'poetry to painting' . Finally there were the Illustrations to the Book of Job; it might be called his Last Testament.

This taken from an earlier post onFriday, December 31, 2010

Blake's Main Chance

BLAKE & SOCRATES II

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

 
Blake created another picture of Socrates for Young's Night Thoughts long before he drew the visionary head for Varley. He was illustrating this passage in Part II of YOUNG’S NIGHT THOUGHTS: THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED, PART II, CONTAINING THE NATURE, PROOF, AND IMPORTANCE OF IMMORTALITY.


PREFACE, Page 187:
"Of all their heathen worthies, Socrates (it is well known) was the most guarded, dispassionate, and composed: yet this great master of temper was angry; and angry at his last hour; and angry with his friend; and angry for what deserved acknowledgment; angry for a right and tender instance of true friendship towards him. Is not this surprising? What could be the cause? The cause was for his honour; it was a truly noble, though, perhaps, a too punctilious, regard for immortality. For his friend asking him, with such an affectionate concern as became a friend, “where he should deposit his remains,” it was resented by Socrates, as implying a dishonourable supposition, that he could be so mean, as to have a regard for anything, even in himself, that was not immortal. 

This fact well considered, would make our infidels withdraw their admiration from Socrates; or make them endeavour, by their imitation of this illustrious example, to share his glory: and, consequently, it would incline them to peruse the following pages with candour and impartiality; which is all I desire; and that, for their sakes: for I am persuaded, that an unprejudiced infidel must, necessarily, receive some advantageous impressions from them. July 7, 1744."

There was no disagreement among Socrates, Young and Blake on the immortality of the soul. Young's hope was that doubters might be encouraged to perceive the truth of their immortality through his poem. In his illustrations Blake went further than Young in presenting the visionary experience which came to him not through thought or reasoning, or through second hand accounts, but which he perceived through spiritual sensation. Proof of spiritual realities through rational arguments, such as Socrates offered, were worse than useless to Blake because they inclined man to trust his Spectre instead of looking to vision.

The Spectre substitutes morality for a perception of the infinite. Jesus attempted to demonstrate that placing the law above human values did harm and not good. The law became an impediment to achieving the good which was sought. As St Paul said, "The good that I would I do not" (Romans 7:19). Blake's disagreement with Socrates was over the philosopher's affirmation that man being guided by the moral law could achieve goodness. 

Luke 6
[1] On a sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
[2] But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath?"
[3] And Jesus answered, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
[4] how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?"
[5] And he said to them, "The Son of man is lord of the sabbath."
[6] On another sabbath, when he entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered.
[7] And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.
[8] But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come and stand here." And he rose and stood there.
[9] And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?"
[10] And he looked around on them all, and said to him, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was restored.
[11] But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Songs of Innocence & of Experience, (E 14)
Song 21 
"And there the lions ruddy eyes,
Shall flow with tears of gold:
And pitying the tender cries, 
And walking round the fold:
Saying: wrath by his meekness
And by his health, sickness,
Is driven away,
From our immortal day." 

Milton, Plate 15 [17],(E 109)
"As when a man dreams, he reflects not that his body sleeps,
Else he would wake; so seem'd he entering his Shadow: but
With him the Spirits of the Seven Angels of the Presence
Entering; they gave him still perceptions of his Sleeping Body;
Which now arose and walk'd with them in Eden, as an Eighth   
Image Divine tho' darken'd; and tho walking as one walks
In sleep; and the Seven comforted and supported him.

Like as a Polypus that vegetates beneath the deep!
They saw his Shadow vegetated underneath the Couch
Of death: for when he enterd into his Shadow: Himself:           
His real and immortal Self: was as appeard to those
Who dwell in immortality, as One sleeping on a couch
Of gold; and those in immortality gave forth their Emanations
Like Females of sweet beauty, to guard round him & to feed
His lips with food of Eden in his cold and dim repose!           

But to himself he seemd a wanderer lost in dreary night."

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)
"All that can be annihilated must be annihilated

That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery
There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary
The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries
The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination."

Jerusalem, Plate 36 [40], (E 182)
"O! how the torments of Eternal Death, waited on Man:     
And the loud-rending bars of the Creation ready to burst:
That the wide world might fly from its hinges, & the immortal mansion
Of Man, for ever be possess'd by monsters of the deeps:
And Man himself become a Fiend, wrap'd in an endless curse,
Consuming and consum'd for-ever in flames of Moral Justice.      

For had the Body of Albion fall'n down, and from its dreadful ruins
Let loose the enormous Spectre on the darkness of the deep,
At enmity with the Merciful & fill'd with devouring fire,
A nether-world must have recievd the foul enormous spirit,
Under pretence of Moral Virtue, fill'd with Revenge and Law."

Blake and Boehme Key II

THE CLAVIS OR KEY 

OR AN EXPOSITION OF SOME PRINCIPAL
WORDS AND MATTERS.

Continuing with the words of Jacob Boehme:

13. I will write but a short description of the divine  manifestation, yet as much as I can comprehend in brief; and expound the strange words for the better understanding of our books; and set down here the sum of those writings, or a model or epitome of them, for the consideration and help of beginners: The further exposition of it is to be found in the other books. or revelation.

Boehm wrote the 'Key in 1623, a year before his death. By 'our books' we understand that 

B. is referred to all his works, in the same way that WB might refer to with his own books.

How God is to be considered without Nature and Creature.

14. MOSES saith, The Lord our God is but one only God. In another place it is said, Of him, through him, and in him are all things: in another, Am not I he that filleth all things? And in another, Through his Word are all things made, that are made. Therefore we may say that he is the original of all things: He is the eternal * unmeasurable Unity.

Blake's Jerusalem, like most of his works goes through the Fall to Ulro, Generation,

Regeneration at Beulah to the ultimate Unity.

15. For example, when - I think what would be in the place of this world, if the four elements and the starry firmament, and. also nature itself, should perish and cease to be, so that no nature or creature were to be found any more; I find there would remain this eternal Unity, from which nature and creature have received their original.

16. So likewise, when I think with myself what is many hundred thousand miles above the starry firmament, or what is in that place where no creature is, I find the eternal unchangeable Unity is there, which is that only Good, which hath nothing either before or after it, that can add anything to it, or take anything away from it, or from which this Unity could have its original: There is neither * ground, time, nor place, but there is the only eternal God, or that only Good, which a man cannot express.

A further Consideration, How this one God is Threefold.

17. The Holy Scripture sheweth us that this only God is threefold, viz. one only [1] threefold 

essence, having three manners of workings, and yet is but one only essence, as may be seen in the outflown power and virtue which is in all things, if any do but observe it: but it is especially represented to us in fire, light, and air; which are three several [2] sorts of workings, and yet but in one only ground and substance.

Boehme attempts to put a rational face on the Trinity. I don't recall that WB did that.

18. And as we see that fire, light, and air, arise from a candle (though the candle is none of the three, but a cause of them), so likewise the eternal Unity is the cause and ground of the eternal [1] Trinity, which manifesteth itself from the Unity, and bringeth forth itself, First, in desire, or will; Secondly, pleasure, or delight; Thirdly, proceeding, or outgoing.

"And this is the manner of the Daughters of Albion in their beauty
Every one is threefold in Head & Heart & Reins, & every one
Has three Gates into the Three Heavens of Beulah which shine
Translucent in their Foreheads & their Bosoms & their Loins
Surrounded with fires unapproachable: but whom they please
They take up into their Heavens in  intoxicating  delight   
For the Elect cannot be Redeemd, but Created continually
By Offering & Atonement in the crue[l]ties of Moral Law
Hence the three Classes of Men take their fix'd destinations" 

Carl Jung thought that the Trinity should change to a 

Quaternity, the fourth being the Mother, but Blake would 

have objected vigorously. Blake seems to interpret the Bible

more freely than Boehme. 

"They are the Two Contraries & the Reasoning Negative."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

20. The pleasure, or delight is the Son; and is that which the will willeth and desireth, viz, his love and pleasure, as may be seen at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Father witnessed, saying, This is my [1] beloved Son, in whom I [2] am well pleased; hear ye him.

21. The delight is the compressure in the will, whereby the will in the Unity bringeth itself a place and working, wherewith the will willeth and worketh; and it is the feelingness and virtue of the will.

22. The will is the Father, that is, the stirring desire; and the delight is the Son, that is, the 

virtue and the working in the will, with which the will worketh; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding will, through the delight of the virtue, that is, a life of the will and of the virtue and delight.

23. Thus there are three sorts of workings in the eternal Unity, viz, the Unity is the will and desire of itself: the delight is the working substance of the will, and an eternal joy of perceptibility in the will; and the Holy Ghost is the proceeding of the power: the similitude of which may be seen in a [1] plant.

24. The [1] magnet, viz. the essential desire of nature, that is, the will of the desire of nature, [2] compresseth itself into an ens or substance, to become a plant, and in this compression of the desire becometh feeling, that is, working; and in that working the power and virtue ariseth, wherein the magnetical desire of nature, viz, the outflown will of God, worketh in a natural way.

Satan's Holy Trinity

From page 672 of Erdman:

"third state of plate, 1809-10

The Accusers of Theft Adultery Murder 

 W Blake inv & sculp
 A Scene in the Last Judgment" 

The Judge, The Accuser, The Executioner

19. The desire, or will is the Father; that is, the stirring or manifestation of the Unity, whereby the Unity willeth or desireth itself

BLAKE & SOCRATES

One of the visionary heads which Blake drew under the encouragement of Varley was of the Greek scholar and teacher Socrates. According to Crabb Robinson Blake felt closely akin to Socrates:

"In this he seemed to explain humanly what he had done, but he at another time spoke of his paintings as being what he had seen in his visions. And when he said my visions it was in the ordinary unemphatic tone in which we speak of trivial matters that every one understands and cares nothing about. In the same tone he said repeatedly, the 'Spirit told me.' I took occasion to say—You use the same word as Socrates used. What resemblance do you suppose is there between your spirit and the spirit of Socrates?' The same as between our countenance.' He paused and added—'I was Socrates.' And then, as if correcting himself, 'A sort of brother. I must have had conversations with him. So I had with Jesus Christ. I have an obscure recollection of having been with both of them.'"

Yale Center for British Art
Visionary Head Socrates

The reservations which Blake had about Socrates seemed to be that he presented himself as a philosopher not as a mystic. Blake could appreciate most enthusiastically one who acknowledged a debt to visionary experience as the source of his knowledge. Blake considered that philosophers dealt in abstract mental constructs rather than direct intuitive experience accessed through the imagination. To Blake morality as taught by Socrates was an impediment to spiritual development if it was not subservient to the indwelling Spirit through which man had direct and immediate access to the truth.

Laocoon, (E 275) 
"If Morality was Christianity Socrates was the Saviour"

Song of Los, Plate 3, (E 67)
"When Rintrah gave Abstract Philosophy to Brama in the East:
(Night spoke to the Cloud!
Lo these Human form'd spirits in smiling hipocrisy. War
Against one another; so let them War on; slaves to the eternal Elements)
Noah shrunk, beneath the waters;                                 
Abram fled in fires from Chaldea;
Moses beheld upon Mount Sinai forms of dark delusion:

To Trismegistus. Palamabron gave an abstract Law:
To Pythagoras Socrates & Plato.

Times rolled on o'er all the sons of Har, time after time        
Orc on Mount Atlas howld, chain'd down with the Chain of Jealousy
Then Oothoon hoverd over Judah & Jerusalem
And Jesus heard her voice (a man of sorrows) he recievd
A Gospel from wretched Theotormon.

The human race began to wither, for the healthy built            
Secluded places, fearing the joys of Love
And the disease'd only propagated:
So Antamon call'd up Leutha from her valleys of delight:
And to Mahomet a loose Bible gave.
But in the North, to Odin, Sotha gave a Code of War,             
Because of Diralada thinking to reclaim his joy.
Plate 4
These were the Churches: Hospitals: Castles: Palaces:
Like nets & gins & traps to catch the joys of Eternity
     And all the rest a desart;
Till like a dream Eternity was obliterated & erased."

Seven Eyes of God

Chapter XII of Percival's Circle of Destiny is called The Seven Eyes

Percival speaks of "a circular movement of the Soul" or a "wheel of 

birth", which in fact is not simply directed to individuals, but cosmic.

The cosmic cycle is seven fold.  'Seven' of course is a magic number.

There are seven days of Creation and of the week; seven spirits  of

the Lord in Isaiah, seven spirits of God in Revelations, seven lamps,

seven angels of the Presence  and many, many other uses of 'seven'.

Jerusalem, Plate 55, (E 205)
"Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation
And they Elected Seven, calld the Seven Eyes of God;"

1. The First Eye: With Lucifer the soul falls away from God in selfish 

pride.

From the Four Zoas we read,
"Even Six Thousand years; and sent Lucifer for its Guard.
But Lucifer refus'd to die & in pride he forsook his charge
And they elected Molech," 

2. Molech,
"And Los said........

they Plow'd in tears incessant pourd Jehovahs rain, & Molechs

The Divine hand found the Two Limits: first of Opacity, then of
Contraction
Opacity was named Satan, Contraction was named Adam.
Triple Elohim came:"

3. Elohim:
"The Lamb of God is seen thro' mists & shadows, hov'ring 
Over the sepulchers in clouds of Jehovah & winds of Elohim"
(Milton 14 (E108) 

"Albion was the Parent of the Druids; & in his Chaotic State of
Sleep Satan & Adam & the whole World was Created by the Elohim."
(Jerusalem 27, E171)

 "Elohim wearied fainted: they elected
Shaddai."

4.Shaddai:
"Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty
In the hands of Palamabron..........
Art thou not Newtons Pantocrator weaving the Woof of Locke
To Mortals thy Mills seem every thing & the Harrow of Shaddai
A scheme of Human conduct invisible & incomprehensible"
(Milton 4:12; E98)

"he wept over Albion: speaking the words of God
In mild perswasion: bringing leaves of the Tree of Life.
Thou art in Error Albion, the Land of Ulro: 
One Error not remov'd, will destroy a human Soul
Repose in Beulahs night, till the Error is remov'd
Reason not on both sides. Repose upon our bosoms
Till the Plow of Jehovah, and the Harrow of Shaddai
Have passed over the Dead, to awake the Dead to Judgment. 
But Albion turn'd away refusing comfort."
(Jerusalem 41; E188)


"Opacity was named Satan, Contraction was named Adam.
Triple Elohim came: Elohim wearied fainted: they elected 
Shaddai."

"Shaddai angry, Pahad descended:" 

5. Pahad terrified, they sent

6. Jehovah
"And Jehovah was leprous; loud he call'd, stretching his hand to Eternity
For then the Body of Death was perfected in hypocritic holiness,
Around the Lamb, a Female Tabernacle woven in Cathedrons Looms
He died as a Reprobate. he was Punish'd as a Transgressor!
Glory! Glory! Glory! to the Holy Lamb of God
I touch the heavens as an instrument to glorify the Lord!"

(Milton; E 106)

"Mine is the fault! I should have remember'd that pity divides the soul
And man, unmans: follow with me my Plow. this mournful day
Must be a blank in Nature: follow with me, and tomorrow again
Resume your labours, & this day shall be a mournful day.....
Thick fires contending with the rain, thunder'd above rolling
Terrible over their heads; Satan wept over Palamabron
Theotormon & Bromion contended on the side of Satan
Pitying his youth and beauty; trembling at eternal death:
Michael contended against Satan in the rolling thunder
Thulloh the friend of Satan also reprovd him; faint their
reproof.
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?"
(Milton 13.23; E107) 

7. Jesus
"For this history has been adopted by both parties
It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out. but the
Devils account is, that the Messi[PL 6]ah) fell. & formed a heaven
of what he stole from the Abyss
This is shewn in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to
send the comforter or Desire that Reason may have Ideas to build
on, the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than he, who dwells
in flaming fire.
Know that after Christs death, he became Jehovah.!
Christ? and has not Jesus Christ given his sanction to the law of
ten commandments and are not all other men fools, sinners, &
nothings?
The Devil answer'd; bray a fool in a morter with wheat. yet
shall not his folly be beaten out of him: if Jesus Christ is the
greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now
hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten
commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the
sabbaths God? murder those who were murderd because of him? turn
away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of
others to support him? bear false witness when he omitted making
a defence before Pilate? covet when he pray'd for his disciples,
and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against
such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist
without breaking these ten commandments: Jesus was all virtue,
and acted from impulse: not from rules."
(Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 23, E43)

(By this Blake perhaps meant that the conventional church treated Jesus like he 
was Jehovah, a punisher instead of a Saviour.)

Of  course there were many, many occurrences of Jesus in the Bible and in 
Blake.