THE JOURNEY XV

British Museum
For the Sexes: Gates of Paradise
Plate 13

For the Sexes: Gates of Paradise, Plate 13, (E 266) 
"13 Fear & Hope are--Vision" 



For the Sexes: Gates of Paradise, Plate 13, (E 269) 
Keys 
"13 But when once I did descry 
 The Immortal Man that cannot Die"

Plate 13 is a death-bed scene. A vision rises from the body which is left behind in death. The man in the foreground spreads the fingers of his hand in the same way hands have been positioned in each picture since help was requested in Plate 10. The woman's gaze is not directed toward the vision which is visible to us in the picture, but toward a more distant apparition. The rising figure points upward with one hand and toward the earth with the other.

The previous plate depicted the five faceted figure entrapped with many fears and little hope. Here, through the vision which comes through death, fear and hope have been transformed. The dying man in his five aspects has seen beyond death to immortality. Eternity has become real to him. 

Life Eternal is not an extension of earthly life. Nor is it a replacement of life on earth with life in heaven. Eternal life is the plane of existence on which man lives by perceiving the infinite in all things. When man becomes conscious that he is created in the Image of God and that all men partake of that same Image, he enters Eternal life.

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)
"The Last Judgment when all those are Cast away who trouble
Religion with Questions concerning Good & Evil or Eating of the
Tree of those Knowledges or Reasonings which hinder the Vision of
God turning all into a Consuming fire When Imaginative Art &
Science & all Intellectual Gifts all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
are lookd upon as of no use & only Contention
remains to Man then the Last Judgment begins & its Vision is seen
by the [Imaginative Eye] of Every one according to the
situation he holds" 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 555)
"The Last judgment is one of these Stupendous
Visions. I have represented it as I saw it.
to different People it appears differently as every
thing else does for tho on Earth things seem Permanent they are
less permanent than a Shadow as we all know too well
     The Nature of Visionary Fancy or Imagination is very little
Known & the Eternal nature & permanence of its ever Existent
Images is considerd as less permanent than the things of
Vegetative & Generative Nature yet the Oak dies as well as the
Lettuce but Its Eternal Image & Individuality never dies. but
renews by its seed." 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 562)
"What are all the Gifts of the
Spirit but Mental Gifts whenever any Individual Rejects Error &
Embraces Truth a Last Judgment passes upon that Individual"  

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 565)
"Error is
Created Truth is Eternal Error or Creation will be Burned Up &
then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear It is Burnt up
the Moment Men cease to behold it I assert for My self that I do
not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance &
not Action it is as the Dirt upon my feet No part of Me. What it
will be Questiond When the Sun rises  do  you  not  see  a  round 
Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable
company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord
God Almighty I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any
more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight I look
thro it & not with it."  

Second Corinthians 4
[18] because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.