Monday, June 02, 2014

Stars and Light

The Bible begins with "Let there be Light."  The creation of Man came later.
The Sun appears much later:

Gen.15

  1. [12] And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
  2. [17] And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces
The moon appears much later:

Gen.37

  1. [9] And he [Joseph] dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, 
  2. I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
The Sun in itself is expremely bright.
The Moon much less so.
The Stars provide a poor imitation of Light.

The Sun is associated with Day when Man is conscious;
The Moon is associated with Night when Man is unconscious and appears only as a dream.

In Blake's Myth the Sun or Light leads to Man's masculine or mental life--in the head.
The Moon or Darkness leads to Man's feminine or emotional life--in the heart.

In the Myth the Sun  has its maximum splendour in the South;
When the Sun goes down, its eclipse ordinarily suggests that Man is tired from the day's work.

"The minor eclipse of Night may be thought of as the normal fatigue of the mind, a period of relaxation where it may be renewed for increased activity....Man is illuminated in his night of mental darkness by the moon of Beulah--- a love so all-inclusive that it provides a sustaining faith."

Accompanied by the moon of Beulah are the stars, each sending a sliver to light to kept Man from utter Darkness of Eternal Death:


"On clouds the Sons of Urizen beheld Heaven walled round         t
They weighd & orderd all & Urizen comforted saw                 
The wondrous work flow forth like visible out of the invisible   
For the Divine Lamb Even Jesus who is the Divine Vision         
Permitted all lest Man should fall into Eternal Death
For when Luvah sunk down himself put on the robes of blood
Lest the state calld Luvah should cease. & the Divine Vision
Walked in robes of blood till he who slept should awake          

Thus were the stars of heaven created like a golden chain
To bind the Body of Man to heaven from failing into the Abyss   
fEach took his station, & his course began with sorrow & care    

In sevens & tens & fifties, hundreds, thousands, numberd all    
According to their various powers. Subordinate to Urizen         
And to his sons in their degrees & to his beauteous daughters"
(FZ Erdman 321 -22)

If you recall that Sun is related to the Head and Masculinity and 
Moon to Heart and feminine Emotions, you may see that the
Stars represent something less than Daylight or an attempt by
Urizen to control life and see yourself as God; he isn't found in
Sun but in emotional ideas which he seeks to enthrone.

This is only the beginning of a study of Stars four in Percival's Circle of Destiny.

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