BLAKE'S SPACE & TIME

Letter to Butts, Nov 22, 1902, (E 722)
"This Earth breeds not our happiness"
"Another Sun feeds our lifes streams"
"We are not warmed with thy beams"
"Thou measurest not the Time to me"
"Nor yet the Space that I do see"
"My Mind is not with thy light arrayd"
"Thy terrors shall not make me afraid"

Our world is the world of time and space. It is a pale shadow of Eternity which is not limited by time and space which resulted from the fall. The fall of the Zoas into division separated them from the Divine Vision. Time and space were provided to them to arrest their fall into the abyss of non-entity.

Book of Urizen, Plate 15
"But the space undivided by existence
Struck horror into his soul"
Blake seems to have conceived of space and time as being objects of creation having come into existence to go out of existence. He sees space having been given to time as a mercy to give it form. He sees space as limited by Eternity. He considers time to be perceived as passing at different rates. The passing of time to him can be controlled. His time is the swiftest of all things and the alternative to Eternity. His time is not lost in Eternity. Time he sees varies according to the means of perception.

The work of the poet, the prophet or artist is the work of vision; it does not require an extension in time because it is contact with Eternity.

Man is placed in the tent of space and within it his mind creates his reality which is limited by his own ability to perceive the infinite. Man's limitations present him with a false picture. Man's limited senses even with the aid of the microscope or telescope do not see as the visionary sees. The possibilities are present to behold visions or to enter Eternity because man is given guidance in this world: he is not left alone.

Milton, PLATE 29 [31], (E 127)
"For in this Period the Poets Work is Done: and all the Great
Events of Time start forth & are concievd in such a Period
Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery.

The Sky is an immortal tent built by the Sons of Los
And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place:
Standing on his own roof, or in his garden on a mount
Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe;
And on its verge the Sun rises & sets. the Clouds bow
To meet the flat Earth & the Sea in such an orderd Space:
The Starry heavens reach no further but here bend and set
On all sides & the two Poles turn on their valves of gold:
And if he move his dwelling-place, his heavens also move.
Wher'eer he goes & all his neighbourhood bewail his loss:
Such are the Spaces called Earth & such its dimension:
As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner,
As of a Globe rolling thro Voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro
The Microscope knows not of this nor the Telescope. they alter
The ratio of the Spectators Organs but leave Objects untouchd
For every Space larger than a red Globule of Mans blood.
Is visionary: and is created by the Hammer of Los
And every Space smaller than a Globule of Mans blood. opens
Into Eternity of which this vegetable Earth is but a shadow:
The red Globule is the unwearied Sun by Los created"

The time/space continuum will come to an end (as all contraries will) when they are seen for what they are. Here Los explains to Enitharmon the resolution of the drama. Albion awakens, the manifestations of Albions disease come to an end. The contraries of spirit and matter, time and space, Los and Enitharmon 'vanish and cease'. Remaining are 'Visionary Space and Time'; the terrors of 'Creation & Redemption & Judgment' are foreseen and avoided. Nothing has been lost or wasted.

Jerusalem, Plate 92, (E 252)
"Los answerd swift as the shuttle of gold. Sexes must vanish & cease
To be, when Albion arises from his dread repose O lovely Enitharmon:
When all their Crimes, their Punishments their Accusations of Sin:
All their Jealousies Revenges. Murders. hidings of Cruelty in Deceit
Appear only in the Outward Spheres of Visionary Space and Time.
In the shadows of Possibility by Mutual Forgiveness forevermore
And in the Vision & in the Prophecy, that we may Foresee & Avoid
The terrors of Creation & Redemption & Judgment.
To measure Time and Space to mortal Men. every morning.
Bowlahoola & Allamanda are placed on each side
Of that Pulsation & that Globule, terrible their power."
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Clues to previous quotes:

Pulsation = energy = time
Globule = form = space

Bowlahoola is the functioning of internal organs; Alamanda is the functioning of nervous system.

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 555)
"There Exist
in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing
which we see are reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature
All Things are comprehended in their Eternal Forms in the
Divine body of the Saviour the True Vine of Eternity
The Human Imagination who appeard to Me as Coming to Judgment.
among his Saints & throwing off the Temporal that the Eternal
might be Establishd."