LARRY'S JOURNAL 2

British Museum
Song of Los
Copy a, Page 2

Larry's Journal 

Tues Dec 27, 1984

"Thanks for everything.

Reflections about computing. I have transferred much of my idealism to it. I see it as an instrument for democratization.  At least it invites a meritocracy. I would like to make it available to all possible. I see it as a possible escape from various forms of poverty, providing new opportunities for many people in many ways. Praise the Lord.

In Night 9 of 4Z Blake put on the mantle of John and allowed himself the luxury of letting his imagination soar with the visions of the apocalyptic future. All Mystery's tyrants are drown'd in a torrent of black blood. The symbol suggests the essential meaninglessness of their endeavors."
 
Ellie
May 2017

In 1984 Larry was still intoxicated with his Blake studies but he had transferred much of his interest to the developing field of personal computing for exhilarating  stimulation.

Having learned from William Blake and John of Patmos that the two dimensions of apocalypse are the death of the diseased body of the old dispensation and the birth of the glorious freshly minted coin of the New Jerusalem, his hope was that mankind would be able to use the new gift of expanded mental capabilities embodied in computers to overcome his blindness and to open his doors of perception.

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 565)
 "The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science. 
Mental Things are alone Real what is Calld Corporeal Nobody Knows
of its Dwelling Place it is in Fallacy & its Existence an
Imposture  Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought Where is
it but in the Mind of a Fool.  Some People flatter themselves
that there will be No Last Judgment & that Bad Art will be
adopted & mixed with Good Art That Error or Experiment will make
a Part of Truth & they Boast that it is its Foundation these
People flatter themselves   I will not Flatter them 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"  

Four Zoas, Night VI, Page 69, (E 346)
"art thou Urizen
Art thou like me risen again from death or art thou deathless
If thou art he my desperate purpose hear & give me death
For death to me is better far than life. death my desire
That I in vain in various paths have sought but still I live     
The Body of Man is given to me I seek in vain to destroy
For still it surges forth in fish & monsters of the deeps
And in these monstrous forms I Live in an Eternal woe
And thou O Urizen art falln never to be deliverd
Withhold thy light from me for ever & I will withhold            
From thee thy food so shall we cease to be & all our sorrows
End & the Eternal Man no more renew beneath our power  
If thou refusest in eternal flight thy beams in vain
Shall pursue Tharmas & in vain shalt crave for food I will
Pour down my flight thro dark immensity Eternal falling         
Thou shalt pursue me but in vain till starvd upon the void
Thou hangst a dried skin shrunk up weak wailing in the wind

So Tharmas spoke but Urizen replied not. On his way
He took. high bounding over hills & desarts floods & horrible chasms
Infinite was his labour without end his travel   he strove       
In vain for hideous monsters of the deeps annoyd him sore
Scaled & finnd with iron & brass they devourd the path before him
Incessant was the conflict. On he bent his weary steps
Making a path toward the dark world of Urthona. he rose
With pain upon the dreary mountains & with pain descended   
And saw their grizly fears & his eyes sickend at the sight
The howlings gnashings groanings shriekings shudderings sobbings burstings
Mingle together to create a world for Los. In cruel delight"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 121, (E 391)
"And the Eternal Man Said Hear my words O Prince of Light   
PAGE 122 
Behold Jerusalem in whose bosom the Lamb of God
Is seen tho slain before her Gates he self renewd remains
Eternal & I thro him awake to life from deaths dark vale
The times revolve the time is coming when all these delights
Shall be renewd & all these Elements that now consume            
Shall reflourish. Then bright Ahania shall awake from death
A glorious Vision to thine Eyes a Self renewing Vision  
The spring. the summer to be thine then Sleep the wintry days
In silken garments spun by her own hands against her funeral
The winter thou shalt plow & lay thy stores into thy barns       
Expecting to recieve Ahania in the spring with joy
Immortal thou. Regenerate She & all the lovely Sex
From her shall learn obedience & prepare for a wintry grave
That spring may see them rise in tenfold joy & sweet delight
Thus shall the male & female live the life of Eternity           
Because the Lamb of God Creates himself a bride & wife
That we his Children evermore may live in Jerusalem
Which now descendeth out of heaven a City yet a Woman
Mother of myriads redeemd & born in her spiritual palaces
By a New Spiritual birth Regenerated from Death" 

Revelation 21
[1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
[2] And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
[4] And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

RECOGNIZE ERROR

Wiki Art
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel - Ezekias, Manasses, Amon

Three generations in the line of Jesus' ancestors are represented in a single tempera of Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling: Hezekiah, Manasseh and Amon.

Two men who bore the name Manasseh figured prominently in Old Testament history. The first was one of the two sons of Joseph born before the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. He and his brother Ephraim were said to be children of an Egyptian woman, and were given half-shares when the land was distributed among the tribes in the land on Canaan.

British Museum
Manasseh
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

Later a boy only twelve years old, became king of Israel. His reign was long, corrupt and bloody. He departed from the religion of the Israelites and worshiped the gods of the enemies of Israel. This Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah and the father of Amon.  

Athough Hezekiah had followed Yahweh's command to destroy the altars to Baal, his son and grandson rebuilt them and worshiped and served Baal instead the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This is the irony of the ancestry of Jesus: it includes both the most admirable and the most despicable characters. We cannot eradicate individuals from the genetic material we receive from our ancestors. Nor can we eliminate the mistakes we make as we travel our journeys through life. But we can learn to recognize error when we see it distorting our ability to engage in creative relationships and activities. It is the repetition of the same errors which stymies development .

In Milton, Blake had his hero recognize his error and set about rebuilding his psyche in accordance with the vision which was given to him.

Kay Parkhurst Easson and Roger Easson, in their book Milton, describe the dramatic reconstruction of the personality required to get past the erroneous thinking which inhibits growth:

"Like Milton in Blake's poem, the loving reader of Blake journeys into recognition of his selfhood, that error of perception which limits imagination and spiritual growth. Reading Milton is like a journey of unlearning. Blake describes his task in Milton as displaying 'Nature's cruel holiness, the deceits of Natural Religion.' In other words, one of the basic tasks of Blake's poem is to expose the false reality of the so called 'natural world' and its assertion that it is the only reality. This 'false reality' is the result of the selfhood of each reader; it is the world we naturally perceive as 'without,' the world we externalize and desire to control and which in turn controls us. Consequently, Blake's vision of the world is so dissonant with our usual understanding that we must 'unlearn'; we must give up our preconceptions about the world and about ourselves with that world." (Page 138)    

Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)
"Then Milton rose up from the heavens of Albion ardorous!         
The whole Assembly wept prophetic, seeing in Miltons face
And in his lineaments divine the shades of Death & Ulro
He took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God

And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp               
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.       
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate
And I be siez'd & giv'n into the hands of my own Selfhood
The Lamb of God is seen thro' mists & shadows, hov'ring          
Over the sepulchers in clouds of Jehovah & winds of Elohim
A disk of blood, distant; & heav'ns & earth's roll dark between
What do I here before the Judgment? without my Emanation?
With the daughters of memory, & not with the daughters of inspiration[?]
I in my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that Evil One!              
He is my Spectre! in my obedience to loose him from my Hells
To claim the Hells, my Furnaces, I go to Eternal Death.

And Milton said. I go to Eternal Death! Eternity shudder'd
For he took the outside course, among the graves of the dead
A mournful shade. Eternity shudderd at the image of eternal death

Then on the verge of Beulah he beheld his own Shadow;
A mournful form double; hermaphroditic: male & female
In one wonderful body. and he enterd into it
In direful pain for the dread shadow, twenty-seven-fold 

Reachd to the depths of direst Hell, & thence to Albions land:  
Which is this earth of vegetation on which now I write,"

Matthew 1
[9] And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;
[10] And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;
[11] And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon

Genesis 48
[1] And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
[5] And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
[13] And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
[14] And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
[17] And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
[20] And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

Second Kings 21
[1] Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzi-bah.
[2] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
[3] For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
[4] And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
[5] And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
[6] And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
[7] And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
[8] Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
[9] But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
[10] And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,
[11] Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
[12] Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
[13] And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
[14] And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
[15] Because they have done that which was evil in my sight,and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.
[16] Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
[17] Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
[18] And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
[19] Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
[20] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
[21] And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:
[22] And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
[23] And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
[24] And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
[25] Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
[26] And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.

BLAKE'S SIBYL

Wikiart
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel - Cumaean Sibyl

Michelangelo's design for the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican included seven Hebrew prophets and five Greek sibyls arranged prominently around the borders of the central scenes. The figure of Daniel is between the Cumaean and Libyan sibyls. 

Wikimedia Commons
Cumaean Sibyl
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

 

These are the prophets and sibyls listed on the Italian Renaissance Art website: Jonah, Jeremiah, Persian Sibyl, Ezekiel, Erythraean Sibyl, Joel, Zechariah, Delphic Sibyl, Isaiah, Cumaean Sibyl, Daniel, Libyan Sibyl.

In his studies of Michelangelo's art Blake copied from a print the Cumaean Sibyl. Michelangelo and Blake owed a debt to Greek art and thought although their principal obligation was to the Hebrew narratives of the Old Testament. 

The distilled wisdom of the Greeks was embodied in the female sibyls parallel to the Hebrew wisdom being embodied in the prophets. The sibyls provided their guidance through oracles offered to supplicants seeking advice. The words of the prophets were written in books and collected by scholars to be read for their instruction and edification. The sibyls acted through intuitive processes which reached directly into the psyche, whereas the prophets used historical experiences to speak to the intellect with the aim of modifying man's understanding. There is no evidence that the methods of the sibyls were less influential on Blake's attempts to communicate than were the prophets' methods. Blake wrote poetry not law.

ON HOMERS POETRY, (E 269)
"Every Poem must necessarily be a perfect Unity, but why Homers is
peculiarly so, I cannot tell: he has told the story of
Bellerophon & omitted the judgment of Paris which is not only a
part, but a principal part of Homers subject
  But when a Work has Unity it is as much in a Part as in the
Whole. the Torso is as much a Unity as the Laocoon
  As Unity is the cloke of folly so Goodness is the cloke of
knavery  Those who will have Unity exclusively in Homer come out
with a Moral like a sting in the tail: Aristotle says Characters
are either Good or Bad: now Goodness or Badness has nothing to do
with Character. an Apple tree a Pear tree a Horse a Lion, are
Characters but a Good Apple tree or a Bad, is an Apple tree
still: a Horse is not more a Lion for being a Bad Horse. that is
its Character; its Goodness or Badness is another consideration.
  It is the same with the Moral of a whole Poem as with the Moral
Goodness& Morality, are secondary considerations &
belong to Philosophy & not to Poetry, to Exception & not to Rule,
to Accident & not to Substance. the Ancients calld it eating of
the tree of good & evil.
  The Classics, it is the Classics! & not Goths nor Monks, that
Desolate Europe with Wars.                                                                

ON VIRGIL              
Sacred Truth has pronounced that Greece & Rome as Babylon &
Egypt: so far from being parents of Arts & Sciences as they
pretend: were destroyers of all Art.  Homer Virgil & Ovid confirm
this opinion & make us reverence The Word of God, the only light
of antiquity that remains unperverted by War.  Virgil in the
Eneid Book VI. line 848 says Let others study Art: Rome has
somewhat better to do, namely War & Dominion
  Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroyd it     a
Warlike State never can produce Art.  It will Rob & Plunder &
accumulate into one place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell &
Criticise, but not Make.
  Mathematic Form is Eternal in the Reasoning Memory.  Living
Form is Eternal Existence.
  Grecian is Mathematic Form
  Gothic is Living Form" 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)
 "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. just as the Imaginative Image
returns by the seed of Contemplative
Thought the Writings of the Prophets illustrate these conceptions
of the Visionary Fancy by their various sublime & Divine Images
as seen in the Worlds of Vision
... 
The Greek Muses which are not Inspiration as the Bible is. 
Reality was Forgot & the Vanities of Time & Space only Rememberd
& calld Reality Such is the Mighty difference between Allegoric
Fable & Spiritual Mystery Let it here be Noted that the Greek
Fables originated in Spiritual Mystery & Real Vision 
and Real Visions Which are lost & clouded in Fable & Alegory
while the Hebrew Bible & the Greek Gospel are
Genuine Preservd by the Saviours Mercy The Nature of my Work is
Visionary or Imaginative it is an Endeavour to Restore the Golden Age
     This world of Imagination is the World of
Eternity it is the Divine bosom into which we shall all go after
the death of the Vegetated body   This World is
Infinite & Eternal whereas the world of Generation or Vegetation
is Finite & Temporal    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. around him were seen the Images of
Existences according to a certain order suited to my Imaginative Eye"

Vision of Last Judgment,(E 560) 
 "A Mother
Meets her  Family in the Arms of their Father these are
representations of the Greek Learned & Wise as also of those of
other Nations such as Egypt & Babylon in which were multitudes
who shall meet the Lord coming in the Clouds" 

LARRY'S JOURNAL

 Larry's Journal
1985 - Fri April 5

"Warm today. Life is good.

4 Z's IV - Tharmas "rap'd bright Enitharmon far apart from Los." I just (maybe for the first time) realized the analogy with the making of Eve. "O how Los howl'd at their rending asunder."

Blake imagines a time before that when man and woman were one flesh - a happier time.

"That deadly night when Urizen gave the horses of Light into the hands of Luvah."
Blake - and everyone else - knows that intellect (the province of Urizen) is contaminated  by Desire. Reason has become rationalized. Self interest is universally mistaken for Truth.

Ellie revolted against the general statement I was making last night about the corruption of colleges by money. A sad scene. She was saying that she doesn't want to hear the things I want to say.

I want to make statements about universal fallenness - which naturally no one wants to hear. It seems very important to me for people to become fully aware of the fallenness of the world in which they live. Everyone's existence is contaminated, corrupted, depraved, oppressed and diminished by it. People refuse to make the connection that we are all members of the one fallen, corrupt world."

---

Ellie's Comment
May 2017

Since I was not a student of Blake in 1985, I didn't realize that I was trying to play Ahania to Larry's Urizen. I was trying to warn Larry's intellectual side about failing to find the joy and delight in applying the intellect to seeking solutions to the world's problems. 

He however was responding as Los to Enithamon as she tried to draw him away from his prophetic role to become engrossed in materiality. 

Blake knew that he had to avoid both the pitfalls of projecting only the woes of the fallen world which stunted him, or only the joy of the visionary world which beckoned. For neither the joy nor the woe was the complete picture. It was the interplay of pain and pleasure, of shadow and light, of loss and gain, which provided the dynamic for a soul at home in two worlds.   

Is this why Eve was initially separated from Adam: to initiate the creative dialogue which illuminates the appreciation of the 'not I' by the 'I?' 
 

Found on Internet
Frontispiece: Book of Ahania

 Book of Ahania, Plate 4, (E 88)
 "Chap: V

1: The lamenting voice of Ahania            
Weeping upon the void.
And round the Tree of Fuzon:
Distant in solitary night
Her voice was heard, but no form
Had she: but her tears from clouds         
Eternal fell round the Tree

2: And the voice cried: Ah Urizen! Love!
Flower of morning! I weep on the verge
Of Non-entity; how wide the Abyss
Between Ahania and thee!                      

3: I lie on the verge of the deep.
I see thy dark clouds ascend,
I see thy black forests and floods,
A horrible waste to my eyes!

4: Weeping I walk over rocks                 
Over dens & thro' valleys of death
Why didst thou despise Ahania
To cast me from thy bright presence
Into the World of Loneness

5: I cannot touch his hand:                  
Nor weep on his knees, nor hear
His voice & bow, nor see his eyes
And joy, nor hear his footsteps, and
My heart leap at the lovely sound!
I cannot kiss the place                     
Whereon his bright feet have trod,

Plate 5
But I wander on the rocks
With hard necessity.

6: Where is my golden palace
Where my ivory bed
Where the joy of my morning hour         
Where the sons of eternity, singing

7: To awake bright Urizen my king!
To arise to the mountain sport,
To the bliss of eternal valleys:

8: To awake my king in the morn!        
To embrace Ahanias joy
On the bredth of his open bosom:
From my soft cloud of dew to fall
In showers of life on his harvests.

9: When he gave my happy soul                   
To the sons of eternal joy:
When he took the daughters of life.
Into my chambers of love:

10: When I found babes of bliss on my beds.
And bosoms of milk in my chambers               
Fill'd with eternal seed
O! eternal births sung round Ahania
In interchange sweet of their joys.

11: Swell'd with ripeness & fat with fatness
Bursting on winds my odors,                     
My ripe figs and rich pomegranates
In infant joy at thy feet
O Urizen, sported and sang;

12: Then thou with thy lap full of seed
With thy band full of generous fire         
Walked forth from the clouds of morning
On the virgins of springing joy,
On the human soul to cast
The seed of eternal science.

13: The sweat poured down thy temples           
To Ahania return'd in evening
The moisture awoke to birth
My mothers-joys, sleeping in bliss.

14: But now alone over rocks, mountains
Cast out from thy lovely bosom:                          
Cruel jealousy! selfish fear!
Self-destroying: how can delight,
Renew in these chains of darkness
Where bones of beasts are strown
On the bleak and snowy mountains
Where bones from the birth are buried
Before they see the light.

       FINIS"

BLAKE & DANIEL

Wikimedia Commons
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel - Daniel

There are several dramatic stories in Book of Daniel with which Blake was thoroughly familiar. Blake's well known figure of Nebuchadnezzar is his representation of the powerful king who was reduced to the condition of a beast until he developed awareness. Daniel's accounts of the three prophets who were consigned to the furnace being accompanied by 'the son of man' influenced Blake's poignant accounts of characters being thrown into the furnaces of affliction to be made whole. The image of the man with legs of iron, loins of brass, breast of silver and head of gold was equally influential on Blake. But in his portrait of Daniel, Blake did not refer to these incidents but to the representation of Daniel among the prophets painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

British Museum
Daniel
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

To Blake, Daniel was a true prophet: a man who dreamed dreams and saw visions; a man who could discern truth which was hidden from others. Both Blake and Daniel conveyed the truth which was given to them according to their individual abilities, but always with the caveat that they could only reveal what their audience was able to receive.   

Daniel 7
[25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
[26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
[27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
[28] Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 543)
 "The antiquities of every Nation Under Heaven, is no less
sacred than that of the Jews.  They are the same thing as Jacob
Bryant, [P 44] and all antiquaries have proved.  How other
antiquities came to be neglected and disbelieved, while those of
the Jews are collected and arranged, is an enquiry, worthy of
both the Antiquarian and the Divine.  All had originally one
language, and one religion, this was the religion of Jesus, the
everlasting Gospel.  Antiquity preaches the Gospel of Jesus.  The
reasoning historian, turner and twister of causes and
consequences, such as Hume, Gibbon and Voltaire; cannot with all
their artifice, turn or twist one fact or disarrange self evident
action and reality.  Reasons and opinions concerning acts, are not
history.  Acts themselves alone are history, and these are
neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire,
Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus.  Tell me the Acts, O
historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away
with your reasoning and your rubbish.  All that is not action is
not [P 45] worth reading.  Tell me the What; I do not want you to
tell me the Why, and the How; I can find that out myself, as well
as you can, and I will not be fooled by you into opinions, that
you please to impose, to disbelieve what you think improbable or
impossible.  His opinions, who does not see spiritual agency, is
not worth any man's reading; he who rejects a fact because it is
improbable, must reject all History and retain doubts only."

PASSING THRU STATES

Wikipedia Commons
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel - Eleazar and Mathan

The number of figures which Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel is said to be 343. In our post about the Reposing Traveller we focused on an image identified as Aminidab, an ancestor of Jesus. Michelangelo painted 22 pictures bearing names of individuals in Matthew's list of the ancestor's of Jesus. The individuals are identifiable only because Michelangelo supplied names. The pictures consistently show men, women and children in situations which may involve tensions among family members. "In them Michelangelo has portrayed the anger and unhappiness of the human condition."(wiki) The impression conveyed is that the generations leading up to the birth of Jesus suffered hardships related to unredeemed humanity. 

British Museum
Mathan
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

A picture which Blake sketched when he was young was that of Mathan. He was named in Matthew's book of generation of Jesus Christ among the 42 individuals - some famous and powerful, others little known and humble. Perhaps Blake thought of states when he considered the generations which preceded Jesus. Blake promulgated the idea that we necessarily should distinguish men from the states in which they temporarily find themselves. Although individuals go from state to state, there is consistency in the available states through which they travel. Blake could see that Michelangelo's representations of the ancestors of Jesus were not individuals but states which led to the possibility of the state 'savior' eventually entering into the generated world.

 

Matt.1

[1] The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Jerusalem, Plate 25, (E 170)
"Descend O Lamb of God & take away the imputation of Sin
By the Creation of States & the deliverance of Individuals
     Evermore Amen"

Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 228)
"Which Los with his mighty Hammer demolishes time on time
In miracles & wonders in the Four-fold Desart of Albion
Permanently Creating to be in Time Reveald & Demolishd
Satan Cain Tubal Nimrod Pharoh Priam Bladud Belin                
Arthur Alfred the Norman Conqueror Richard John
[Edward Henry Elizabeth James Charles William George] 
And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories
These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around
These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates           
Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel
[Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton] 
Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer
As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever" 

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)
"Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches       
And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.

Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore       
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!"

Jerusalem, Plate 31 [35], (E 177)
"Albion goes to Eternal Death: In Me all Eternity.
Must pass thro' condemnation, and awake beyond the Grave!
No individual can keep these Laws, for they are death
To every energy of man, and forbid the springs of life;
Albion hath enterd the State Satan! Be permanent O State!
And be thou for ever accursed! that Albion may arise again:
And be thou created into a State! I go forth to Create           
States: to deliver Individuals evermore! Amen.

So spoke the voice from the Furnaces, descending into Non-Entity"
                                         
Descriptive Catalogue, (E 536)
"Thus the reader will observe, that
Chaucer makes every one of his characters perfect in his kind,
every one is an Antique Statue; the image of a class, and not of
an imperfect individual."

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 556)
"it ought to be understood that the Persons
Moses & Abraham are not here meant but the States Signified by
those Names the Individuals being representatives or Visions of
those States as they were reveald to Mortal Man in the Series of
Divine Revelations. as they are written in the Bible these
various States I have seen in my Imagination when distant they
appear as One Man but as you approach they appear
Multitudes of Nations.  Abraham hovers above his posterity which
appear as Multitudes of Children ascending from the Earth
surrounded by Stars as it was said As the Stars of Heaven for
Multitude Jacob & his Twelve Sons hover beneath
the feet of Abraham & recieve their children from the Earth" 

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA

Detail of the Crucifixion of St. Peter 

by Michelangelo in the Cappella Paolina. 

When Blake was a young apprentice just learning his trade of engraving he choose as his subject an image from a figure by Michelangelo. Blake was familiar with the work of Michelangelo through prints which he studied to become familiar with the great art of the past. A small portion of a fresco in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican presented an image of a powerful but pensive man caught in the crowd gathered around the crucifixion of Peter. The craft of engraving requires the artist to intensely concentrate his focus on the image he is engraving . Michelangelo's figure became to Blake more than just a picture. It became Joseph of Arimathea, if became William Blake, it became everyman, it became Albion.

British Museum
Nicolas Beatrizet
(after Michelangelo)
Figure of a Man

British Museum
Student Engraving
1773

British Museum

Joseph of Arimathea Among the Rocks of Albion 

c. 1810

According to the Gospel of John it was Joseph of Arimathea who requested that Roman governor Pilate release the body of Jesus for burial. Legends grew up around Joseph including that he was Jesus' uncle, a tin merchant who had taken Jesus on a trip to England with him when Jesus was an adolescent. The legend included the idea that Joseph stood by helplessly when Jesus was crucified, perhaps standing at a distance to avoid arousing the attention of the Roman Soldiers or the Jewish authorities. The legend continued with Joseph using a Chalice to catch the blood of the Lord as it flowed from the wound in his side. The Chalice became identified as the Holy Grail and as the story goes, traveled to England with Joseph.
The legend tells of Joseph founding Christianity in England at Glastonbury in Cornwall. It is events in this tale which led to Blake's writing the lines:

"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!"

Blake did not forget the image which he had made when an apprentice to Basire. He returned to it years later reengraved it with additional detail and words to explain what it meant to him. The image tied him to Joseph of Arimathea, to Jesus, to Michelangelo and to the restored Albion which incorporated the idea of Jerusalem being built in England's green and pleasant land.

Harold Bloom commenting on The Everlasting Gospel, (E 876):
 
"But in the 1818 fragment the drama remains the static threefold scene: Christ and Lucifer arguing their opposite views before "Me" (Every man, or Joseph of Arimathea, or Blake)."

 Inscriptions, (E 671)
     "JOSEPH of Arimathea among The Rocks of Albion
     
Engraved by W Blake 1773 from an old Italian Drawing 
     This is One of the Gothic Artists who Built the Cathedrals
in what we call the Dark Ages    Wandering about in sheep skins &
goat skins of  whom  the World was not worthy   such were the
Christians in all Ages
     Michael Angelo Pinxit" 

Inscriptions, (E 671)
[on a proof of the early state of the plate]
     "Engraved when I was a beginner at Basires from a drawing by
Salviati after Michael Angelo" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 110 [106], (E 379)
"Thus was the Lamb of God condemnd to Death            
They naild him upon the tree of Mystery weeping over him
And then mocking & then worshipping calling him Lord & King
Sometimes as twelve daughters lovely & sometimes as five
They stood in beaming beauty & sometimes as one even Rahab
Who is Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots    

Jerusalem saw the Body dead upon the Cross She fled away 
Saying Is this Eternal Death   Where shall I hide from Death
Pity me Los pity me Urizen & let us build    
A Sepulcher & worship Death in fear while yet we live 
Death! God of All from whom we rise to whom we all return
And Let all Nations of the Earth worship at the Sepulcher      
With Gifts & Spices with lamps rich embossd jewels & gold

Los took the Body from the Cross Jerusalem weeping over
They bore it to the Sepulcher which Los had hewn in the rock 
Of Eternity for himself he hewd it despairing of Life Eternal" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII, PAGE 103, (E 375) 
"The sorrower of Eternity in love with tears submiss I rear
My Eyes to thy Pavilions hear my prayer for Luvahs sake
I see the murderer of my Luvah clothd in robes of blood
He who assured my Luvahs throne in times of Everlasting
Where hast thou hid him whom I love in what remote Abyss 
Resides that God of my delight O might my eyes behold
My Luvah then could I deliver all the sons of God
From Bondage of these terrors & with influences sweet   
As once in those eternal fields in brotherhood & Love
United we should live in bliss as those who sinned not 
The Eternal Man is seald by thee never to be deliverd
We are all servants to thy will O King of Light relent
Thy furious power be our father & our loved King
But if my Luvah is no more If thou hast smitten him
And laid him in the Sepulcher Or if thou wilt revenge     
His murder on another Silent I bow with dread
But happiness can never [come] to thee O King nor me
For he was source of every joy that this mysterious tree
Unfolds in Allegoric fruit. When shall the dead revive
Can that which has existed cease or can love & life Expire"

---

John 19
[33] But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
[34] But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
[35] And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
[36] For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
[37] And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
[38] And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
[39] And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
[40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
[41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
[42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Matthew 27
[57] When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
[58] He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
[59] And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
[60] And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

BLAKE'S REPOSE

British Museum The Reposing Traveller
1785

Matt.1
[1] The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[2] Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
[3] And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
[4] And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
...
[16] And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
[17] So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

William Blake was an enthusiastic admirer of Michelangelo from his youth. The first image he created independently as an apprentice engraver was a copy of a figure from the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican. Another of the images from Michelangelo's frescos which he copied from a print which was available to him was named by Blake The Reposing Traveller. Michelangelo identified the figure as Aminadab and pictured him among the ancestors of Jesus in accordance with the list of generations of Jesus Christ listed in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Wikipedia Commons
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Aminadab

Although The Reposing Traveller was an early work of Blake it epitomized themes which he incorporated in his system of thought throughout his life. We follow the metaphor of life as a journey applied in Blake's poetry from beginning to end. Simultaneously we encounter the image of rest and repose as equally essential as are movement and activity.

The state of repose for Blake finds expression in 'becoming receptive to Generation', in becoming a 'Womb', and in the sleep of Beulah.

Jerusalem, Plate 53, (E 203)
"Here on the banks of the Thames, Los builded Golgonooza,   
Outside of the Gates of the Human Heart, beneath Beulah
In the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion. In fears
He builded it, in rage & in fury. It is the Spiritual Fourfold
London: continually building & continually decaying desolate!
In eternal labours: loud the Furnaces & loud the Anvils          
Of Death thunder incessant around the flaming Couches of
The Twentyfour Friends of Albion and round the awful Four
For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albions Sons
The Mystic Union of the Emanation in the Lord; Because    
Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre                 
His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow
But she is made receptive of Generation thro' mercy
In the Potters  Furnace, among the Funeral Urns of Beulah
From Surrey hills, thro' Italy and Greece, to Hinnoms vale." 

Milton, Plate 34 [38], (E 133)
"And all the Songs of Beulah sounded comfortable notes
To comfort Ololons lamentation, for they said:
Are you the Fiery Circle that late drove in fury & fire
The Eight Immortal Starry-Ones down into Ulro dark
Rending the Heavens of Beulah with your thunders & lightnings
And can you thus lament & can you pity & forgive?
Is terror changd to pity O wonder of Eternity!

And the Four States of Humanity in its Repose,
Were shewed them. First of Beulah a most pleasant Sleep
On Couches soft, with mild music, tended by Flowers of Beulah    
Sweet Female forms, winged or floating in the air spontaneous
The Second State is Alla & the third State Al-Ulro;
But the Fourth State is dreadful; it is named Or-Ulro:
The First State is in the Head, the Second is in the Heart:
The Third in the Loins & Seminal Vessels & the Fourth            
In the Stomach & Intestines terrible, deadly, unutterable
And he whose Gates are opend in those Regions of his Body
Can from those Gates view all these wondrous Imaginations
...
Then view'd from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus
Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing       
A self-devouring monstrous human Death Twenty-seven fold
Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother
Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight
And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down
The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:             
Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell

Jerusalem, Plate 41 [46], (E 188)
"with eloquence
Divine, he wept over Albion: speaking the words of God
In mild perswasion: bringing leaves of the Tree of Life.

Thou art in Error Albion, the Land of Ulro:               
One Error not remov'd, will destroy a human Soul
Repose in Beulahs night, till the Error is remov'd
Reason not on both sides. Repose upon our bosoms
Till the Plow of Jehovah, and the Harrow of Shaddai
Have passed over the Dead, to awake the Dead to Judgment.     
But Albion turn'd away refusing comfort."

Jerusalem, Plate 74, (E 229)
"And the Four Zoa's are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona
In opposition deadly, and their Wheels in poisonous              
And deadly stupor turn'd against each other loud & fierce
Entering into the Reasoning Power, forsaking Imagination
They became Spectres; & their Human Bodies were reposed
In Beulah, by the Daughters of Beulah with tears & lamentations

The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man; & when separated      
From Imagination, and closing itself as in steel, in a Ratio
Of the Things of Memory. It thence frames Laws & Moralities
To destroy Imagination! the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars"

Gates of Paradise:For the Sexes, The Keys, (E 267)     
"1    My Eternal Man set in Repose
     The Female from his darkness rose
     And She found me beneath a Tree                     
     A Mandrake & in her Veil hid me
     Serpent Reasonings us entice
     Of Good & Evil: Virtue & Vice"

BLAKE'S WISDOM

Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo
Solomon

Job 28 
[12] But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? 
[13] Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
[14] The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.
[15] It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. 
[16] It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
[17] The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
[18] No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. ...
[28] And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. 

British Museum
Copy after Michelangelo
Solomon

Blake found that there was no substitute for experience. His path through life led him not where he wanted to go but where he needed to go. He sought wisdom by studying the esoteric teachings of his predecessors. He sought it by joining his contemporaries in pursuing success and popularity. He sought it by engaging in creative work which absorbed his energies incessantly. He sought it by withdrawing from the activities which engaged him in worldly pursuits

His wisdom was gained by giving his attention to the unseen world of Eternity which visited him in dreams and visions. He found it necessary to find a place where he was not drawn into the pursuits of others but could listen to voices which others could not hear. Such a voice was the voice of Enion which so moved Ahania, whom Blake calls the parted soul of Urizen, that she could not rest. 

Letters, To Mr Butts, Grt Marlborough Street, (E 728) 
"Felpham April 25: 1803

Now I may say to you what perhaps I should not dare to say
to any one else.  That I can alone carry on my visionary studies
in London unannoyd & that I may converse with my friends in
Eternity.  See Visions, Dream Dreams, & prophecy & speak Parables
unobserv'd & at liberty from the Doubts of other Mortals. perhaps
Doubts proceeding from Kindness. but Doubts are always pernicious
Especially when we Doubt our Friends Christ is very decided on
this Point.  "He who is Not With Me is Against Me" There is no
Medium or Middle state & if a Man is the Enemy of my Spiritual
Life while he pretends to be the Friend of my Corporeal. he is a
Real Enemy--but the Man may be the friend of my Spiritual Life
while he seems the Enemy of my Corporeal but Not Vice Versa"

Marriage of Heaven and Hell,(E 35)
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

Four Zoas, Night II, Page 35, (E 325)
"What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage & to sing on the waggon loaded with corn
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer

PAGE 36 
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan
To see a god on every wind & a blessing on every blast           
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, & the sickness that cuts off his children
While our olive & vine sing & laugh round our door & our children bring fruits & flowers

Then the groan & the dolor are quite forgotten & the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains & the poor in the prison, & the soldier in the field
When the shatterd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!

Ahania heard the Lamentation & a swift Vibration
Spread thro her Golden frame. She rose up eer the dawn of day 

When Urizen slept on his couch. drawn thro unbounded space
Onto the margin of Non Entity the bright Female came
There she beheld the Spectrous form of Enion in the Void  
And never from that moment could she rest upon her pillow

          End of the Second Night"
  

On page 954 of the commentary for Erdman's The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake, Bloom states:
"The fall of Urizen is caused by the failure of intellectual desire, and by intellect's revulsion from its own desires. Ahania resembles the Wisdom of Proverbs 8:22-36, daily the delight of God. She is Urizen's source of strength, the wise passivity in which he must take pleasure of else lose the active role of mental energy which is his life." 

Proverbs 8
[11] For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
[12] I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
[13] The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate., daily the delight of God
[14] Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.