Bloody Garment

Larry's Journal
Dec 13, 1984

Larry:
End of Milton: The Bible is the bloody garment of Jesus. Bloody in the Limey sense, fleshly, carnal. It is the sum of idealistic strivings of mortal men, encasing the divine reality. It becomes of course the created good wrapped around the creative event, Constantine and then the Inquisition wrapped around the church. Praise the Lord.

Another gigantic metaphor. Evaluating Blake from my present perspective he appears to be a gigantic spiritual presence without parallel since Paul - and perhaps since Jesus. He uniquely combines spirit and intellect. Still very little known or appreciated by society.

[The Source of Human Good by Henry Wieman]

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts 

Ellie:
The images of symbolic writing are not localized but distributed throughout the material. Blake's aim was to assemble a body of work through which one may intuit a fuller meaning than could be expressed literally. He saw that Albion encompassed a totality which emerged from all that could be said about him as he overcame error and discerned truth. The individual expressions were parts which needed the breath of life to enter them in order to make Albion alive as representative of humanity. Blake saw the Bible in the same way; it was the living word of God when one looked beyond the particulars to the unifying expression of Spirit it enclosed.

What Larry realized was that the vehicles through which truth is transmitted are inadequate however valuable they are for the tasks they perform. When the transition to the higher consciousness is achieved, when one is able to incorporate the truth one receives and live intuitively by the spirit, then the bloody garment is recognized as a means of transition not as a permanent cloak.    

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143)                                           
"Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enterd into

Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder!
Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths              
Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea.

Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale
In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings
Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale
Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became 
One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs
The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood
Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing
Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression:
A Garment of War, I heard it namd the Woof of Six Thousand Years 

And I beheld the Twenty-four Cities of Albion
Arise upon their Thrones to Judge the Nations of the Earth
And the Immortal Four in whom the Twenty-four appear Four-fold
Arose around Albions body: Jesus wept & walked forth
From Felphams Vale clothed in Clouds of blood, to enter into     
Albions Bosom, the bosom of death & the Four surrounded him
In the Column of Fire in Felphams Vale; then to their mouths the Four
Applied their Four Trumpets & them sounded to the Four winds

Terror struck in the Vale I stood at that immortal sound
My bones trembled. I fell outstretchd upon the path              
A moment, & my Soul returnd into its mortal state
To Resurrection & Judgment in the Vegetable Body
And my sweet Shadow of Delight stood trembling by my side

Immediately the Lark mounted with a loud trill from Felphams Vale
And the Wild Thyme from Wimbletons green & impurpled Hills"  

And Los & Enitharmon rose over the Hills of Surrey
Their clouds roll over London with a south wind, soft Oothoon
Pants in the Vales of Lambeth weeping oer her Human Harvest
Los listens to the Cry of the Poor Man: his Cloud
Over London in volume terrific, low bended in anger.             

Rintrah & Palamabron view the Human Harvest beneath 
Their Wine-presses & Barns stand open; the Ovens are prepar'd 
The Waggons ready: terrific Lions & Tygers sport & play 
All Animals upon the Earth, are prepard in all their strength"

Genesis 37
[31] And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
[32] And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
[33] And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
[34] And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
[35] And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
[36] And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.