REGENERATION

Wikipedia Commons
Gates of Paradise
Frontispiece

Four Archetypes, by C. G. Jung includes a chapter titled Concerning Rebirth. In introducing the chapter Jung made these statements on page 50:
"Rebirth is not a process that we can in any way observe. We can neither measure, weigh or photograph it. It is entirely beyond sense perception. We have to do here with a purely psychic reality.
...
Rebirth is an affirmation that must be counted among the primordial affirmations of mankind...There must be psychic events underlying these affirmations which it is the business of psychology to discuss...Two main groups of experience may be distinguished: that of the transcendence of life, and that of one's own transformation." 

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Blake did not use the term rebirth for the transformation of consciousness he advocated. He preferred to write of 'annihilation of the selfhood' or 'awaking' or 'regeneration' as his metaphors for the renovation of perception which transforms the individual. Images of rebirth permeate Blake's writing and although he seldom used the terminology of traditional religion, the transformation he sought was synonymous with that sought by Jesus as he taught and demonstrated in his ministry. 

The alteration of the mind of man may come as sudden insight, but the actual transformation is the process which begins with preparation and continues with restructuring relationships and patterns of behavior. Blake wrote of fundamental activities taking place deep within that oriented man to be ready to grasp the truth which was offered when he was ready to receive. Blake saw the position in which man found himself, however dreadful, as opportunity to invite the transforming power to enter and renovate every moment - past, present and future - because it is recognized as Eternal.

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Milton, Plate 35 [39], (E 136)
"There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply. & when it once is found
It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed.      
In this Moment Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon
Unseen beyond the Mundane Shell Southward in Miltons track" 

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 3, (E 301)
"His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity
His fall into the Generation of Decay & Death & his Regeneration 
     by the Resurrection from the dead" 

Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 55, (E 338)
"And first he found the Limit of Opacity & namd it Satan
In Albions bosom for in every human bosom these limits stand     
And next he found the Limit of Contraction & namd it Adam
While yet those beings were not born nor knew of good or Evil

Then wondrously the Starry Wheels felt the divine hand. Limit 
Was put to Eternal Death Los felt the Limit & saw
The Finger of God touch the Seventh furnace in terror            
And Los beheld the hand of God over his furnaces
Beneath the Deeps in dismal Darkness beneath immensity
PAGE 55 (SECOND PORTION) 
In terrors Los shrunk from his task. his great hammer           
Fell from his hand his fires hid their strong limbs in smoke
For with noises ruinous   hurtlings & clashings & groans 
The immortal endur'd. tho bound in a deadly sleep
Pale terror siezd the Eyes of Los as he beat round              
The hurtling Demon. terrifid at the shapes
Enslavd humanity put on he became what he beheld
He became what he was doing he was himself transformd"

Jerusalem, Plate 39 [44], (E 186)
"From Hyde Park spread their vegetating roots beneath Albion
In dreadful pain the Spectrous Uncircumcised Vegetation

Forming a Sexual Machine: an Aged Virgin Form,           
In Erins Land toward the north, joint after joint & burning
In love & jealousy immingled & calling it Religion
And feeling the damps of death they with one accord delegated Los
Conjuring him by the Highest that he should Watch over them
Till Jesus shall appear: & they gave their power to Los       
Naming him the Spirit of Prophecy, calling him Elijah"
 
Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 122)
 "The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,
He listens to the sounds of War astonishd & ashamed;
He sees his Children mock at Faith and deny Providence          
Therefore you must bind the Sheaves not by Nations or Families
You shall bind them in Three Classes; according to their Classes
So shall you bind them. Separating What has been Mixed
Since Men began to be Wove into Nations by Rahab & Tirzah
Since Albions Death & Satans Cutting-off from our awful Fields;  
When under pretence to benevolence the Elect Subdud All
From the Foundation of the World."

Jerusalem, Plate 94, (E 254)
"Time was Finished! The Breath Divine Breathed over Albion
Beneath the Furnaces & starry Wheels and in the Immortal Tomb
And England who is Brittannia awoke from Death on Albions bosom 
She awoke pale & cold she fainted seven times on the Body of Albion"

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Song 54, (E 31) 
"The Voice of the Ancient Bard.  

Youth of delight come hither:
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.
Doubt is fled & clouds of reason.
Dark disputes & artful teazing."

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 132, (E 402)
"Not for ourselves but for the Eternal family we live
Man liveth not by Self alone but in his brothers face            
Each shall behold the Eternal Father & love & joy abound
So spoke the Eternal at the Feast they embracd the New born Man
Calling him Brother image of the Eternal Father." 

Jerusalem, Plate 7, (E 150)
"O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb
Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.                
In anguish of regeneration! in terrors of self annihilation:
Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder,
And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction
Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End.
O holy Generation! [Image] of regeneration!            
O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!
Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405)
"Then Los who is Urthona rose in all his regenerate power"

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LIMITED & ETERNAL

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Near the end of his final book, Jung reached some conclusions on the ultimate questions facing man.

From C. G. Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Page 325:
"The decisive question for man is this: Is he related to something infinite or not?
...
The more a man lays stress on false possessions, the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. He feels limited because he has limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy. If we understand and feel that there is in this life a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change.
...
Only consciousness of our narrow confinement in the self forms the link to the limitlessness of the unconscious. In such awareness we experience ourselves concurrently as limited and eternal, as both the one and the other."

Perhaps Blake would have quibbled if he had heard Jung's statement that man breaks through to awareness of the unity of the limited and the eternal, through consciousness of his constraints. But both men were struggling to reconcile the poles of a paradox. Man experiences himself as divided, as living in two worlds - the sordid world of the survival of the fittest, and the divine world of innocence where 'all things work together for good.' One which imprisons him in time and space and one which invites him to soar in his imagination.

Reconciling the opposite poles of the dilemma may have come more naturally to Blake because he spoke the language of poetry whereas Jung spoke the language of science. Blake provided us with first hand images in metaphor and pictures to facilitate the experience of reconciliation. Jung analyzed dreams and myths for the material that supported ideas and concepts which he formulated intellectually.   

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All Religions are One, (E 1)
 "The Religions of all Nations are derived from
each Nations different reception of the Poetic Genius which is
every where call'd the Spirit of Prophecy."

All Religions are One, (E 1)
  As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various) So
all Religions & as all similars have one source 
  The true Man is the source he being the Poetic Genius

There is No Natural Religion, (E 2)
  The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite
& himself Infinite
     Conclusion,   If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic
character. the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the
ratio of all things & stand still, unable to do other than repeat
the same dull round over again
     Application.   He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.
 Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is"

Marriage of Heaven and Hell,Plate 13, (E 39)
 "I then asked Ezekiel. why he eat dung, & lay so long on his
right  & left side? he answerd. the desire of raising other men
into a  perception of the infinite" 

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 14, (E 39)
 "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear  to man as it is: infinite.
   For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro'
narrow chinks of his cavern."

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 18, (E 41)
"By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyss, fiery as the smoke 
of a burning city; beneath us at an immense distance was the sun,
black but shining[;] round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd
vast spiders, crawling after their prey; which flew or rather
swum in the infinite deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals
sprung from corruption. & the air was full of them, & seemd
composed of them; these are Devils. and are called Powers of the
air, I now asked my companion which was my eternal lot? he said,
between the black & white spiders 
  But now, from between the black & white spiders a cloud and
fire burst and rolled thro the deep blackning all beneath, so
that the nether deep grew black as a sea & rolled with a terrible
noise: beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest,
till looking east between the clouds & the waves, we saw a
cataract of blood mixed with fire and not many stones throw from
us appeard and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent.
at last to the east, distant about three degrees appeard a fiery
crest above the waves slowly it reared like a ridge of golden
rocks till we discoverd two globes of crimson fire. from which
the sea fled away in clouds of smoke, and now we saw, it was the
head of Leviathan. his forehead was divided into streaks of green
& purple like those on a tygers forehead: soon we saw his mouth &
red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep
with beams of blood, advancing toward [PL 19] us with all the
fury of a spiritual existence.
  My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill;
I remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, but I found
myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moon light
hearing a harper who sung to the harp. & his theme was, The man
who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds
reptiles of the mind." 

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THE SPIRIT

Wikimedia Commons
Christ in the Sepulcher Guarded by Angels

Here are statements about spirit from Page 88 of Four Archetypes, by C. G. Jung:
"In keeping with its original wind-nature, spirit is always an active, winged, swift-moving being as well as that which vivifies, stimulates, incites, fires, and inspires. To put it in modern language, spirit is the dynamic principle, forming for that very reason the classical antithesis of matter - the antithesis, that is, of its stasis and inertia. Basically it is the contrast between life and death.
...
The special development of man's idea of spirit rests on the recognition of that its invisible presence is a psychic phenomenon, i.e., one's own spirit and that this consists not only of uprushes of life but formal products too. Among the first, the most prominent are the images and shadowy presentations which occupy out inner field of vision: among the second, thinking and reason, which organize the world of images. In this way a transcendent spirit superimposed itself upon the original, natural life-spirit, and even swung over to the opposite position, as though the latter were merely naturalistic. The transcendent spirit became the supernatural and transmudane cosmic principle of order and as such was given the name of 'God,' or at least it became an attribute of the One Substance (as in Spinoza) or as one person of the Godhead (as in Christianity.)" 

Jung emphasized that the archetype spirit has both a bright side and a dark side which can overwhelm the psyche. He states " the archetype of the spirit is capable of working for good as well as for evil, but it depends on man's free will - i.e., conscious - decision whether the good will also be perverted into something satanic." Blake seems to have preferred to use the word spirit for the benevolent force whose goal is always to bring together what is divided, to shed light in dark places and to replace suffering with joy.

To Blake the Spirit was a subjective experience abiding within humanity. Unless an individual can conceive of a reality which is not a material object accessible to the senses, the spiritual world will be inaccessible to him. Blake realized that it was not through his sense perception that he had a connection with a dimension of reality which was more expansive, more enriching and more encompassing than the natural world. He knew that spiritual perception was available to everyone who sought it but that few took advantage of its benefits. Blake's gifts were unique but his ability to use the gifts which he had received created an avenue for others to realize their own gifts, to claim them, and to put them into the service of the spiritual world into which they opened.

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 5, (E 35)
"How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
   Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?"

Milton, PLATE 40 [46], (E 141)
"I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread
And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.   
I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas;
The Four Zoa's of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies"

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)
"The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination."

Jerusalem, Plate 3, (E 145)
    "The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who
waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom,
the Divine Body; will never enter there."

Jerusalem, Plate 5, (E 147)
"To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination        
O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of ages,"

Jerusalem, Plare 27, (E 173)
 "Come to my arms & never more
Depart; but dwell for ever here:         
  Create my Spirit to thy Love:
Subdue my Spectre to thy Fear,"

Jerusalem, Plate 74, (E 229)
"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

Teach me O Holy Spirit the Testimony of Jesus! let me
Comprehend wonderous things out of the Divine Law" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 100, (E 374) 
"The battle howls the terrors fird rage in the work of death
Enormous Works Los Contemplated inspird by the holy Spirit
Los builds the Walls of Golgonooza against the stirring battle" 

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 541)
"A Spirit and a Vision are not, as the 
modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour or a
nothing: they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all
that the mortal and perishing nature can produce."

Letters, to Hayley,(E 705)
"Thirteen years ago.  I lost a
brother & with his spirit I  converse daily & hourly in the
Spirit.  & See him in my remembrance in the  regions of my
Imagination.  I hear his advice & even now write from his
Dictate--Forgive me for expressing to you my Enthusiasm which I
wish all to  partake of Since it is to me a Source of Immortal
Joy even in this world by it  I am the companion of Angels."

Four Zoas, Night VII, PAGE 84,(E 359)
"The Spectre said. Thou lovely Vision this delightful Tree
Is given us for a Shelter from the tempests of Void & Solid
Till once again the morn of ages shall renew upon us
To reunite in those mild fields of happy Eternity
Where thou & I in undivided Essence walkd about     
Imbodied. thou my garden of delight & I the spirit in the garden
Mutual there we dwelt in one anothers joy revolving
...
I was divided in darkness & oblivion thou an infant woe
And I an infant terror in the womb of Enion
My masculine spirit scorning the frail body issud forth
From Enions brain In this deformed form leaving thee there   
Till times passd over thee but still my spirit returning hoverd 
And formd a Male to be a counterpart to thee O Love"

Four Zoas, Night IX, PAGE 117, (E 386)
"And Los & Enitharmon builded Jerusalem weeping       
Over the Sepulcher & over the Crucified body
Which to their Phantom Eyes appear'd still in the Sepulcher
But Jesus stood beside them in the Spirit Separating
Their Spirit from their body. Terrified at Non Existence 
For such they deemd the death of the body. Los his vegetable hands
Outstretchd his right hand branching out in fibrous Strength
Siezd the Sun. His left hand like dark roots coverd the Moon
And tore them down cracking the heavens across from immense to immense
Then fell the fires of Eternity with loud & shrill 
Sound of Loud Trumpet thundering along from heaven to heaven
A mighty sound articulate Awake ye dead & come
To judgment from the four winds Awake & Come away"

Everlasting Gospel,(E 520)
"Thou also dwellst in Eternity       
Thou art a Man God is no more
Thy own humanity learn to adore
For that is my Spirit of Life
Awake arise to Spiritual Strife"

SPIRIT & IMAGINATION

Fitzwilliam Museum
The Ascension

Although both Blake and Jung elevated imagination to a position of importance, the perspectives from which they considered it were different. Jung, the scientist, considered imagination from an analytic perspective. Blake used extravagant language in his poetry to present the immediate experience of the imagination which Jung described. Both realized that spirit and imagination are closely allied but Blake considered imagination to be essential to living as a human.

Jung's primary interest was the psyche and he tended to view the spirit in relationship to psychological development. Blake saw the spirit as primary: the Zoas were meant to serve the spirit which was eternal and immortal. Jung was reticent about overstating the role of the spirit in humanity's development but he paid homage to it as a source of creativity.

Four Archetypes, by C. G. Jung, Page 90:

"The hallmarks of spirit are firstly, the principle of spontaneous movement and activity; secondly the spontaneous capacity to produce images independently of sense perception; and thirdly the autonomous and sovereign manipulation of these images. The spiritual entity approaches primitive man from outside; but with increasing development gets lodged in man's consciousness and becomes a subordinate function, thus apparently forfeiting its original character of autonomy. That character is retained only in the most conservative views, namely in religion. The descent of spirit into the sphere of human consciousness is expressed in the myth of the divine vous [mind] caught in the embrace of tvous [form ?]. This process continuing over the ages, is probably an unavoidable necessity, and the religious would find themselves in a very forlorn situation if they believed in the attempt to hold up evolution. Their task, if they are well advised, is not to impede the ineluctable march of events, but to guide it in such a way that it can proceed without fatal injury to the soul...He himself did not create the spirit, rather the spirit makes him creative."

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 555)
"This World of Imagination is
Infinite & Eternal whereas the world of Generation or Vegetation
is Finite & Temporal"

Milton, Plate 10 [11], (E 104)
"The nature of a Female Space is this: it shrinks the Organs
Of Life till they become Finite & Itself seems Infinite."

Marriage of Heaven & Hell, Plate 12, (E 38)
 "Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God. nor heard any, in a finite
organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in
every thing, and as  I was then perswaded. & remain confirm'd;
that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared
not for consequences but  wrote."

Europe, Plate 10, (E 63)
"Thought chang'd the infinite to a serpent; that which pitieth:   
To a devouring flame; and man fled from its face and hid
In forests of night; then all the eternal forests were divided
Into earths rolling in circles of space, that like an ocean rush'd
And overwhelmed all except this finite wall of flesh.            
Then was the serpent temple form'd, image of infinite
Shut up in finite revolutions, and man became an Angel;
Heaven a mighty circle turning; God a tyrant crown'd." 

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 131) 
"The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination" 

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 231)
"Imagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable
Universe is but a faint shadow & in which we shall live in our
Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies
are no more.  The Apostles knew of no other Gospel.  What were
all their spiritual gifts? What is the Divine Spirit? is the Holy
Ghost any other than an Intellectual Fountain? What is the
Harvest of the Gospel & its Labours? What is that Talent which it
is a curse to hide? What are the Treasures of Heaven which we are
to lay up for ourselves, are they any other than Mental Studies &
Performances? What are all the Gifts. of the Gospel, are they not
all Mental Gifts? Is God a Spirit who must be worshipped in
Spirit & in Truth and are not the Gifts of the Spirit Every-thing
to Man? O ye Religious discountenance every one among
you who shall pretend to despise Art & Science! I call upon you
in the Name of Jesus! What is the Life of Man but Art & Science?
is it Meat & Drink? is not the Body more than Raiment? What is
Mortality but the things relating to the Body, which Dies? What
is Immortality but the things relating to the Spirit, which Lives
Eternally! What is the joy of Heaven but Improvement in the
things of the Spirit? What are the Pains of Hell but Ignorance,
Bodily Lust, Idleness & devastation of the things of the
Spirit?" 

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CONTRARY ENERGIES

Wikipedia Commons Jerusalem Plate 84

In Four Archetypes, Carl Jung provides some of his insights into his understanding of the operation of opposite polarities in psycho dynamics. Blake and Jung were both exploring the inner realities for which we use the term psyche. For this reason they tended to use a common terminology but with either glaring or subtle differences. Neither expected to be able to describe the workings of the psyche in rational terms.

 

Blake might agree with Jung's statement on page 150 of Four Archetypes:
"The concepts of complex Psychology are, in essence, not intellectual formulations but names for certain areas of experience, and though they can be described they remain dead and irrepresentable to anyone who has not experienced them."

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On page 40 Jung speaks of the origin of 'paired opposites' as a result of getting in touch with the 'secret fear' hidden in the unconscious. He associates the process with an experience of resolution which is so personal that words cannot capture it.
 

Page 40

"one identifies whenever there is a secret fear to be exorcised. What is feared is the unconscious and its magical influence. ...It is a psychological fact that a soon as we touch on these identifications we enter the realm of the syzgies, the paired opposites, where the One is never separated from the Other, its antithesis. It is field of personal experience which leads directly to the experience of individuation, the attainment of the self...This realm is so entirely one of immediate experience that it cannot be captured by any formula, but can only be hinted at to one who already knows."

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Jung states that the fundamental organization of the psyche is based on polarity. Opposites form the poles in the energy system which drives the psyche. We cannot say anything about the psyche other than what the psyche is saying about itself. What we learn from the psyche is true even if to the reason it contradicts itself.
 

Page 149

 "The conflict between the two dimensions of consciousness is simply an expression of the polaristic structure of the psyche, which like any other energy system is dependent on the tension of opposites. That is why there is no general psychological propositions which could not just as well be reversed: indeed reversibility proves their validity. We should remember that in any psychological discussion we are not saying anything about the psyche, but the psyche is speaking about itself."

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We are familiar with Blake's contrary states as characteristic of the level of existence called Beulah which is basically the domain of Luvah and Vala. Damon tell us that it is "the realm of the Subconscious ... the source of poetic inspiration and dreams."
 

These passages from Blake indicate the fundamental position which he perceived to indicate the work of contraries. Like Jung he thinks that working out the relationships between contraries is necessary in order to understand the dynamics of the human psyche. The work goes on in the depths of the mind as well as in the place where life is experienced externally. 'Love Pity and Sweet Compassion' form the milieu in which the reconciliation of contraries is accomplished. The contraries must be brought together in order that additional battles within the psyche can be undertaken and resolved. Beulah is provided as a protected place of repose until the Soul awakes to further realizations.

 

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 3, (E 34)

"Without Contraries is no progression.  Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence.
  From these contraries spring what the religious call Good &
Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason[.] Evil is the active 
springing from Energy.
  Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."

Milton, Plate 30 [33], (E 129)  
"There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills           
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district       
As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah,
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest."

Milton, Plate 48, (E 196)
"Eternity groan'd. & was troubled, at the image of Eternal Death!

Beneath the bottoms of the Graves, which is Earths central joint,
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally true:
(To protect from the Giant blows in the sports of intellect,     
Thunder in the midst of kindness, & love that kills its beloved:
Because Death is for a period, and they renew tenfold.)
From this sweet Place Maternal Love awoke Jerusalem 
With pangs she forsook Beulah's pleasant lovely shadowy Universe
Where no dispute can come; created for those who Sleep."  

FOUR FUNCTIONS

On Page 116 of Four Archetypes, Carl Jung made this statement:

" I have said previously that three functions can be differentiated, and only one remains under the spell of the unconscious...It is an empirical fact that one function becomes more of less successfully differentiated, which on that account is known as the superior or main function, and together with extroversion or introversion constitutes the type of conscious attitude. This function has associated with it one or two partially differentiated auxiliary functions which hardly ever attain the same degree of differentiation as the main function, that is the same degree of applicability by the will. Accordingly they possess a higher degree of spontaneity than the main function which displays a large measure of reliability and is amenable to intentions. The fourth, inferior function proves to be inaccessible to our will. It appears now as a teasing and distracting imp, now as a deus ex machina. But always it comes and goes of its own volition. From this it is clear that even the differentiated functions have only partially freed themselves from the unconscious; for the rest they are still rooted in it and to that extent operate under its rule. Hence the three 'differentiated' functions at the disposal of the ego have three corresponding unconscious components that have not yet broken loose from the unconscious. And just as the three conscious and differentiated parts of these functions are confronted by a fourth, undifferentiated function that acts as a painfully disturbing factor, so also the superior function seems to have its worst enemy in the unconscious. Nor should we omit to mention one final turn of the screw: like the devil who delights in disguising himself as an angel of light, the inferior function secretly and mischievously influences the superior function most of all, just as the latter represses the former most strongly."

The fact that Jung and Blake each divided the psyche into four discrete entities causes us to look for similarities and difference in their views. The emphasis in this paragraph from Jung is upon the roles played by various functions and the degree of consciousness they exhibit. An individual psyche is dominated by one function which expresses the way the individual presents himself. Blake wrote of the alteration of the position of the Zoas as a breakdown in one organization of the psyche as it was replaced by another. To Blake the four Zoas as they existed in the eternal dimension were unblemished; they each played a role which was essential but there was no conflict. When Urizen conceived of the idea of moving into Urthona's domain with the help of Luvah the whole balance was disturbed. Jung's system originated with four functions of unequal power. Any of the functions might be dominant with its opposite weakened to an inferior position. A disturbance in Jung's system came from lack of consciousness especially in the function that is opposite to the superior function. Jung emphasized the battle between the conscious and the unconscious as the dynamic motivating psychic activity. The motive force in Blake's dynamic was re-assuming the balanced forces among the Zoas so that each expressed its proper role as part of a fourfold psyche.

Letters, To Thomas Butts, (E 722)
    " Now I a fourfold vision see
     And a fourfold vision is given to me
     Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
     And three fold in soft Beulahs night
     And twofold Always.  May God us keep
     From Single vision & Newtons sleep" 
Milton, Plate 3, (E 97)

"Terrified Los stood in the Abyss & his immortal limbs
Grew deadly pale; he became what he beheld: for a red
Round Globe sunk down from his Bosom into the Deep in pangs  
He hoverd over it trembling & weeping. suspended it shook
The nether Abyss in temblings. he wept over it, he cherish'd it
In deadly sickening pain: till separated into a Female pale
As the cloud that brings the snow: all the while from his Back
A blue fluid exuded in Sinews hardening in the Abyss       
Till it separated into a Male Form howling in Jealousy

Within labouring. beholding Without: from Particulars to Generals
Subduing his Spectre, they Builded the Looms of Generation
They Builded Great Golgonooza Times on Times Ages on Ages
First Orc was Born then the Shadowy Female: then All Los's Family
At last Enitharmon brought forth Satan Refusing Form, in vain
The Miller of Eternity made subservient to the Great Harvest
That he may go to his own Place Prince of the Starry Wheels
Plate 4                                                     
Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty
In the hands of Palamabron. Where the Starry Mills of Satan
Are built beneath the Earth & Waters of the Mundane Shell
Here the Three Classes of Men take their Sexual texture Woven
The Sexual is Threefold: the Human is Fourfold"              

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 256)
"Soon all around remote the Heavens burnt with flaming fires    
And Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona arose into
Albions Bosom: Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds
Of Heaven Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity
Plate 97
Awake! Awake Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion
Awake and overspread all Nations as in Ancient Time
For lo! the Night of Death is past and the Eternal Day
Appears upon our Hills: Awake Jerusalem, and come away"

Wikipedia Commons


Book of Urizen


Copy G, Plate 16 

SHADOWY WORLD

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem
Plate 14

We live within force fields which carry 'messages.' Receivers may be either the senses of animate beings or sensors which respond in ways outside of sense perception. The world outside of our limited consciousness we perceive as shadow because we have not developed our means of perception.

Blake wrote:
"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into 
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch 
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above                
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion"
Jerusalem, Frontispiece

In the book Four Archetypes, by C G Jung on page 57 is the statement:

"I should only like to point out that the inferior function is practically identical with the dark side of the human personality. The darkness which clings to every personality is the door into the unconscious and the gateway of dreams, from which those two twilight figures, the shadow and the anima, step into our nightly visions or, remaining invisible, take possession of our ego-consciousness. A man possessed by his own shadow is forever standing in his own light and falling into his own traps."

The Shadow world to Blake is not distant but the world in which we live. We enter into it when we relinquish our ability to perceive Eternity. The features of the natural landscape are perceived to be our reality rather than messengers pointing to realities of the Eternal dimension. However this world is for a purpose: 
"But whatever is visible to the Generated Man, 
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void."

Although this world of shadow is a poor substitute for the Eternal world of Reality it is provided to man as a gift and a mercy until he is capable of bearing the light which is too strong or bright for his weak senses to assimilate into a more expansive vision.

Ego-consciousness in Jung's system develops out of its predecessor the unconscious, which continues to exist and to maintain abilities which assert influence. The tendency of the ego-consciousness is to reject the content of the unconscious as obsolete and unworthy of attention. Jung asserts that if the unconscious is not allowed to find expression in the conscious mind it will subvert activities of the ego-consciousness through surreptitious devices.
 
It could be said that Blake's shadow world in which we live is Jung's unconscious which the ego-consciousness is constantly attempting to draw into the realm of consciousness. However, Blake's Eternity is not Jung's consciousness because it is not limited to the individual as is Jung's concept. A point at which Blake and Jung agree is that there is no need to discard the dark contents which are unacceptable to a higher level of development. The material whose value has gone unrecognized can be transformed and assimilated as the psyche is made whole.

---

Jerusalem, Plate 13, (E 157)
"The Vegetative Universe, opens like a flower from the Earths center:
In which is Eternity. It expands in Stars to the Mundane Shell   
And there it meets Eternity again, both within and without,
And the abstract Voids between the Stars are the Satanic Wheels.

There is the Cave; the Rock; the Tree; the Lake of Udan Adan;
The Forest, and the Marsh, and the Pits of bitumen deadly:
The Rocks of solid fire: the Ice valleys: the Plains             
Of burning sand: the rivers, cataract & Lakes of Fire:
The Islands of the fiery Lakes: the Trees of Malice: Revenge:
And black Anxiety; and the Cities of the Salamandrine men:
(But whatever is visible to the Generated Man,
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void.)           
The land of darkness flamed but no light, & no repose:
The land of snows of trembling, & of iron hail incessant:
The land of earthquakes: and the land of woven labyrinths:
The land of snares & traps & wheels & pit-falls & dire mills:
The Voids, the Solids, & the land of clouds & regions of waters:
With their inhabitants: in the Twenty-seven Heavens beneath Beulah:
Self-righteousnesses conglomerating against the Divine Vision:
A Concave Earth wondrous, Chasmal, Abyssal, Incoherent!
Forming the Mundane Shell: above; beneath: on all sides surrounding
Golgonooza: Los walks round the walls night and day.
He views the City of Golgonooza, & its smaller Cities:
The Looms & Mills & Prisons & Work-houses of Og & Anak:
The Amalekite: the Canaanite: the Moabite: the Egyptian:
And all that has existed in the space of six thousand years:
Permanent, & not lost not lost nor vanishd, & every little act,  
Word, work, & wish, that has existed, all remaining still
In those Churches ever consuming & ever building by the Spectres
Of all the inhabitants of Earth wailing to be Created:
Shadowy to those who dwell not in them, meer possibilities:
But to those who enter into them they seem the only substances   
For every thing exists & not one sigh nor smile nor tear,
PLATE 14
One hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away."

EXCHANGE OF ENERGIES

Wikipedia Commons
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

You can't turn poetry into prose and not lose the essence which has been distilled into elusive images. But you can live with the images until they begin to yield that essence. Blake's Horses of Light are an image which deserves to be lived with.

We know that the Horses of Light were connected to the initial incident which initiated the fall of the Eternal Man into disunity. The Horses of Light belonged to Urizen, the Prince of Light but he agreed to exchange them with Luvah, the Cup Bearer of the Eternals for the Wine of the Almighty.

---

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 64, (E 344)
[Urizen speaks]
I well remember for I heard the mild & holy voice
Saying O light spring up & shine & I sprang up from the deep 
He gave to me a silver scepter & crownd me with a golden crown
& said Go forth & guide my Son who wanders on the ocean      

I went not forth. I hid myself in black clouds of my wrath       
I calld the stars around my feet in the night of councils dark
The stars threw down their spears & fled naked away
We fell. I siezd thee dark Urthona In my left hand falling

I siezd thee beauteous Luvah thou art faded like a flower
And like a lilly is thy wife Vala witherd by winds               
When thou didst bear the golden cup at the immortal tables
Thy children smote their fiery wings crownd with the gold of heaven
PAGE 65 
Thy pure feet stepd on the steps divine. too pure for other feet
And thy fair locks shadowd thine eyes from the divine effulgence
Then thou didst keep with Strong Urthona the living gates of heaven
But now thou art bound down with him even to the gates of hell

Because thou gavest Urizen the wine of the Almighty             
For steeds of Light that they might run in thy golden chariot of pride
I gave to thee the Steeds   I pourd the stolen wine
And drunken with the immortal draught fell from my throne sublime"

---

In Blake's Milton there is has an account of a similar exchange. Palamabron was convinced to relinquish the Harrow of the Almighty to Satan, Prince of the Starry Hosts and the Wheels of Heaven. Palamabron would assume the labor at Satan's Mills. However Palamabron could not control Satan's horses: the energies which provide order in the universe.  Nor could Satan maintain order among the horses and servants who with Palamabron provided the conditions for the work of the Almighty to proceed.

Milton, Plate 4, (E 97)                                       
"Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty 
In the hands of Palamabron. Where the Starry Mills of Satan
Are built beneath the Earth & Waters of the Mundane Shell
Here the Three Classes of Men take their Sexual texture Woven
The Sexual is Threefold: the Human is Fourfold" 

Milton, Plate 7, (E 100)
"The first, The Elect from before the foundation of the World:
The second, The Redeem'd. The Third, The Reprobate & form'd
To destruction from the mothers womb: follow with me my plow! 

Of the first class was Satan: with incomparable mildness;
His primitive tyrannical attempts on Los: with most endearing love    
He soft intreated Los to give to him Palamabrons station;
For Palamabron returnd with labour wearied every evening
Palamabron oft refus'd; and as often Satan offer'd
His service till by repeated offers and repeated intreaties
Los gave to him the Harrow of the Almighty; alas blamable      
Palamabron. fear'd to be angry lest Satan should accuse him of
Ingratitude, & Los believe the accusation thro Satans extreme
Mildness. Satan labour'd all day. it was a thousand years
In the evening returning terrified overlabourd & astonish'd
Embrac'd soft with a brothers tears Palamabron, who also wept  

Mark well my words! they are of your eternal salvation

Next morning Palamabron rose: the horses of the Harrow
Were maddend with tormenting fury, & the servants of the Harrow
The Gnomes, accus'd Satan, with indignation fury and fire."

Milton, Plate 8, (E 101)
"Mean while wept Satan before Los, accusing Palamabron;
Himself exculpating with mildest speech. for himself believ'd
That he had not opress'd nor injur'd the refractory servants.

But Satan returning to his Mills (for Palamabron had serv'd
The Mills of Satan as the easier task) found all confusion     
And back return'd to Los, not fill'd with vengeance but with tears,
Himself convinc'd of Palamabrons turpitude. Los beheld
The servants of the Mills drunken with wine and dancing wild
With shouts and Palamabrons songs, rending the forests green
With ecchoing confusion, tho' the Sun was risen on high.       

Then Los took off his left sandal placing it on his head,
Signal of solemn mourning: when the servants of the Mills
Beheld the signal they in silence stood, tho' drunk with wine.
Los wept! But Rintrah also came, and Enitharmon on
His arm lean'd tremblingly observing all these things          
And Los said. Ye Genii of the Mills! the Sun is on high
Your labours call you! Palamabron is also in sad dilemma;
His horses are mad! his Harrow confounded! his companions enrag'd.
Mine is the fault! I should have remember'd that pity divides the soul
And man, unmans: follow with me my Plow. this mournful day    
Must be a blank in Nature: follow with me, and tomorrow again
Resume your labours, & this day shall be a mournful day"

---

Perhaps we can apply what Jung said about form and energy in relationship to the archetypes, to what Blake was saying about the exchange of psychic roles among his characters. On page 36 of Four Archetypes, by C. G. Jung, he states:

"The structure is something given, the precondition that is found to be present in every case. And this is the mother, the matrix - the form into which all experience is poured. The father, on the other hand, represents the dynamism of the archetype, for the archetype consists of both - form and energy."

If Blake's Zoas are archetypal figures it is appropriate to present them a being comprised of both a static and a dynamic component. The energy of the Zoa, according to Blake's system, will cause disastrous consequences if handed over to another Zoa. 

.

TRUTH & LIES

Yale Center for British Art

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

To Blake a lie is not a minor thing. Since mental things alone are real, to believe a lie or to promulgate a lie, is to distort reality. If the soul is awake man sees not with his natural vision but with his spiritual vision which discerns truth.

It would be impossible to engage in deceit of others and maintain the ability to recognize truth in its eternal sense. The windows of perception must be kept clean in order for the infinite to appear. But Blake tells us that if we attempt to 'Defend a Lie' we 'may be snared & caught & taken.' Deceit is not permanent because it 'forges fetters for the mind' which will be 'Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it.'

To cast off all that is false and to receive all that is true is the nature and purpose of life.

Milton, Plate 8, (E 102)
"But Palamabron called down a Great Solemn Assembly,
That he who will not defend Truth, may be compelled to
Defend a Lie, that he may be snared & caught & taken"

Songs and Ballads, Auguries of Innocence, (E 492)
"Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born 
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye 
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light"

Everlasting Gospel, (E 520)
"When the Soul fell into Sleep
And Archangels round it weep
Shooting out against the Light
Fibres of a deadly night        
Reasoning upon its own Dark Fiction
In Doubt which is Self Contradiction
Humility is only Doubt
And does the Sun & Moon blot out
Rooting over with thorns & stems     
The buried Soul & all its Gems
This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with not thro the Eye   
That was born in a night to perish in a night
When the Soul slept in the beams of Light.

Annotations to Bacon, (E 621)
"What Bacon calls Lies is Truth itself"

Songs and Ballads, Auguries of Innocence, (E 491)
"A truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent"
             
Songs and Ballads, (E 472)
"Love to faults is always blind
Always is to joy inclind                             
Lawless wingd & unconfind                       
And breaks all chains from every mind

Deceit to secresy confind                
Lawful cautious & refind                        
To every thing but interest blind               
And forges fetters for the mind"      

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"  

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 562)
"All Life consists of these Two Throwing off Error 
continually & recieving Truth  Continually."