Plate 78

PLATE 78

                                                                

                 Jerusalem. C 4

 The Spectres of Albions Twelve Sons revolve mightily

Over the Tomb & over the Body: ravning to devour

The Sleeping Humanity. Los with his mace of iron

Walks round: loud his threats, loud his blows fall

On the rocky Spectres, as the Potter breaks the potsherds;    

Dashing in pieces Self-righteousnesses: driving them from Albions

Cliffs: dividing them into Male & Female forms in his Furnaces

And on his Anvils: lest they destroy the Feminine Affections

They are broken. Loud howl the Spectres in his iron Furnace

While Los laments at his dire labours, viewing Jerusalem,    

Sitting before his Furnaces clothed in sackcloth of hair;

Albions Twelve Sons surround the Forty-two Gates of Erin,

In terrible armour, raging against the Lamb & against Jerusalem,

Surrounding them with armies to destroy the Lamb of God.

They took their Mother Vala, and they crown'd her with gold:    

They namd her Rahab, & gave her power over the Earth

The Concave Earth round Golgonooza in Entuthon Benython,

Even to the stars exalting her Throne, to build beyond the Throne

Of God and the Lamb, to destroy the Lamb & usurp the Throne of

    God

Drawing their Ulro Voidness round the Four-fold Humanity  

Naked Jerusalem lay before the Gates upon Mount Zion

The Hill of Giants, all her foundations levelld with the dust!

Her Twelve Gates thrown down: her children carried into captivity

Herself in chains: this from within was seen in a dismal night

Outside, unknown before in Beulah, & the twelve gates were fill'd

With blood; from Japan eastward to the Giants causway, west

In Erins Continent: and Jerusalem wept upon Euphrates banks

Disorganizd; an evanescent shade, scarce seen or heard among

Her childrens Druid Temples dropping with blood wanderd weeping!

And thus her voice went forth in the darkness of Philisthea 

     

My brother & my father are no more God hath forsaken me

The arrows of the Almighty pour upon me & my children

I have sinned and am an outcast from the Divine Presence!

(Erdman 233-34)

Plate 78

Notes: 

Blake's arch-enemy Hand has a ravening beak and a cock's comb, "a signal of the morning" (Erdman Illuminated page 357) (Recall Peter's denial that he knew Jesus).

The material sun in setting signaling the rise of the Eternal Sun.

Hand is sitting on the rocky cliff of Albion, like John sat on the Isle of Patmos.

Here like the previous Plate Blake leaned heavily on biblical sources. 

“Spectres of Albions Twelve Sons”:

These are the 12 sons of Albion ..... ravning to devour The Sleeping Humanity”.

Pitting against them is Los like the “Potter breaks the potsherds; [Have Thine Own way, Lord]

This is the age old conflict between the mortal life of Materialism and the Eternal principle Dashing in pieces Self-righteousnesses and leading to  immortal life. It runs through Jerusalem from Plate 1 to 100.

Loud howl the Spectres in his iron Furnace

While Los laments ...Sitting before his Furnaces clothed in sackcloth of hair;

This is reminiscent of John the Baptist:

Matthew 3:4 “And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair”

Or of Job:16:15 “I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin” 

They (Sons of Albion) took their Mother Vala, and they crown'd her with gold:    

They namd her Rahab, & gave her power over the Earth 

She stood for War and Female Love, the epitome of Fallenness. 

Initially she had seduced a sleepy Albion and bore those twelve sons of mischief, violence and lust.

Jerusalem’s Twelve Gates thrown down: her children carried into captivity Herself in chains:

Shades of the Old Testament; the children of Israel were always leaning into female religion  and being carried away with Jerusalem leveled.

Jerusalem's voice went forth in the darkness of Philisthea. (Read about the Philistines (Cf Judges 13:1):

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

    

My brother & my father are no more God hath forsaken me

The arrows of the Almighty pour upon me & my children

For this you might look through the Psalms, such as psalm 38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.