MINUTE PARTICULARS

From William Blake's Jerusalem: Plate 91

"He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst
Jesus will appear; so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole
Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou
O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized
And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War
You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of benevolence & virtue!
I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time:
You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you
May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law:
And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular.
But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every
Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus.

So Los cried at his Anvil in the horrible darkness weeping!"

Looking at this passage as a whole, we look into a conundrum. Part of the problem is that if we try to apply it to others, we are either fault-finding or projecting. If we apply it to ourselves, we are called Jungians. Let's take it one section at a time.

"He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst
Jesus will appear;"

This path to Jesus may be thought of as the path through 'innocence'. It is direct and uncomplicated but not open to many of us. It is the way of participating in the creative process through immersion in God's love.

The following lines suggest a more complex process of achieving wholeness. It involves altering consciousness and breaking down the patterns that dominate our thinking. Blake is looking deep into the

human psyche:

"o he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect Whole
Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou
O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized
And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War"

He focuses our attention on the processes through which we organize people, places, things, ideas or whatever, convincing ourselves that it is the right way, the only way. Perceiving reality in the wrong way(materialistically and legalistically) gives a clouded, distorted picture which leads to anger and destructiveness.

"You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of benevolence & virtue!
I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time:"

Then he talks of hiding behind the persona and failing to connect with the 'real' in others thereby taking the life from them and from ourselves.

"You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you
May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law:
And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular."

He points out the errors of living in the mind and constructing further defenses against the 'real' (spiritual) world, leading to a confusion of categories.

"But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every
Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus."

Now he reaches the level of integration: SEEING the Divine Image in all, including within ourselves. This is Blake's reply to his implied question of how to 'see a Vision, a Perfect whole.'

"So Los cried at his Anvil in the horrible darkness weeping!"

Los is undergoing this process himself and watching with anguish as humanity is remolded and reborn.

Jesus as the healer: The Raising of Lazarus