FLAT EARTH

Think about the world in terms of three different ways of perceiving space and time. First the sense-based world measured by rulers and clocks. Second the theoretical world of molecules and universes described by formulas and mathematics. Access to the third world is through vision which transcends the limits of space/time crossing the barrier into the infinite and eternal.

Milton, Plate 29 [31], (E 127)
"For in this Period the Poets Work is Done: and all the Great
Events of Time start forth & are concievd in such a Period
Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery.

The Sky is an immortal tent built by the Sons of Los
And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place:
Standing on his own roof, or in his garden on a mount
Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe;
And on its verge the Sun rises & sets. the Clouds bow
To meet the flat Earth & the Sea in such an orderd Space:
The Starry heavens reach no further but here bend and set        
On all sides & the two Poles turn on their valves of gold:
And if he move his dwelling-place, his heavens also move.
Wher'eer he goes & all his neighbourhood bewail his loss:
Such are the Spaces called Earth & such its dimension:
As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner,       
As of a Globe rolling thro Voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro
The Microscope knows not of this nor the Telescope. they alter
The ratio of the Spectators Organs but leave Objects untouchd
For every Space larger than a red Globule of Mans blood.
Is visionary: and is created by the Hammer of Los                
And every Space smaller than a Globule of Mans blood. opens
Into Eternity of which this vegetable Earth is but a shadow:
The red Globule is the unwearied Sun by Los created
To measure Time and Space to mortal Men. every morning.
Bowlahoola & Allamanda are placed on each side                   
Of that Pulsation & that Globule, terrible their power."

Space/time as we perceive it with our five senses is flat and linear. Blake was aware that science in his day had postulated an alternative space/time in which Earth was a 'Globe rolling thro Voidness.' Time was stretched to include geological time and astronomical time. The movement of heavenly bodies was dictated by laws formulated through scientific studies. This picture contradicted the experience of man which was the flat earth, circumscribed by his orbit of his experience. Blake picked as the 'reasoners' who portrayed this view of the world Newton, Bacon, and Locke

To Blake both the limited view of the world conveyed by the senses, and the Newtonian view represented a 'delusion of Ulro' in consequence of man having lost the 'visionary' perspective. The imagination, Los, is the vehicle through man enters the visionary world. It is a world in which the exterior world is but a shadow of what lies within man's ability to create images.

Blake exercised his ability to create images by looking within his own psyche and making a diagram of his interior world and projecting it onto what he experienced outwardly. Blake's diagram is found on Plate 32 of Milton. The forces which shaped the inner world each had a separate space of their own but overlapped as they were affected by one another and influenced another. For the fields opposite each other there was no overlapping. The active area of interaction was within an egg-shaped area containing Adam and Satan. Adam falls within the circle of Urthona, Satan within the circle of Urizen. Satan's fires functioned inside the egg-shaped area almost entirely within the areas of Tharmas, Urizen and Luvah, not Urthona. 

British Museum
Milton
Plate 32, copy A

Jerusalem, Plate 42, (E 189)
"So spoke Albion in gloomy majesty, and deepest night
Of Ulro rolld round his skirts from Dover to Cornwall.

Los answerd. Righteousness & justice I give thee in return
For thy righteousness! but I add mercy also, and bind            
Thee from destroying these little ones: am I to be only
Merciful to thee and cruel to all that thou hatest[?]
Thou wast the Image of God surrounded by the Four Zoa's
Three thou hast slain! I am the Fourth: thou canst not destroy me.
Thou art in Error; trouble me not with thy righteousness.      
I have innocence to defend and ignorance to instruct:
I have no time for seeming; and little arts of compliment,
In morality and virtue: in self-glorying and pride." 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 126, (E 395)
"Luvah & Vala henceforth you are Servants obey & live
You shall forget your former state return O Love in peace 
Into your place the place of seed not in the brain or heart
If Gods combine against Man Setting their Dominion above
The Human form Divine. Thrown down from their high Station       
In the Eternal heavens of Human Imagination: buried beneath 
In dark Oblivion with incessant pangs ages on ages
In Enmity & war first weakend then in stern repentance
They must renew their brightness & their disorganizd functions
Again reorganize till they resume the image of the human    
Cooperating in the bliss of Man obeying his Will
Servants to the infinite & Eternal of the Human form"

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