MARRIAGE

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem
Detail Plate 18

Meeting the Shadow, from the chapter by John A Sanford:

"...if we consciously carry the burden of the opposites in our nature, the secret, irrational, healing process that goes on in the unconscious can operate to our benefit, and work toward the synthesis of the personality. This irrational healing process, which finds a way around seemingly in surmountable obstacles, has a particularly feminine quality to it. It is the rational, logical masculine mind that declares that opposites like ego and Shadow, light and dark, can never be united. However the feminine spirit is capable of finding a synthesis where logic says none can be found." Page 32 

Marriage as an archetypes is the reunion of what has been separated. When man enters the condition of creation his initial state of non-differentiation is fractured. There is a cascade of divisions which follows the division between 'heaven and earth'

Genesis 1
[1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
[2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 

Consciousness grows from differentiation of one from the other: of heaven from earth, of light from darkness, of male from female. But multiplicity is not final: it reaches its limit and returns. The multitude makes the return journey to the the One bringing with it gifts from experience in Time and Space.

Blake's earliest Illuminated book was titled The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In it he contrasted accepted interpretations in literature, philosophy, and religion with alternative ideas. He aimed to shock readers into looking at the world from an imaginative rather than a rational perspective. He introduced the conventional perspective by writing: 

"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." Plate 3
 
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell the basic dichotomy between Good and Evil, as so defined, would be explored from the perspectives of the Angel and the Devil. Although Blake was not trying to reconcile Good and Evil, he was trying to disrupt the conventional ways that people accepted Good and Evil. The exploration of contraries was the method by which a Marriage could take place. The individual should actively live with the differences, not automatically accepting or rejecting, until they are brought together into a recognizable pattern which is congruent with the truth one accepts internally or consciously. 

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Among the symbols which Blake developed to work out the process of being divided and reunited are:
Beulah - married
Vala and Jerusalem - matter and spirit
Four Zoas - divided psyche
Worlds - levels of development
The final scene from Jerusalem - awakening

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Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 122)

"Lambeth mourns calling Jerusalem. she weeps & looks abroad
For the Lords coming, that Jerusalem may overspread all Nations  
Crave not for the mortal & perishing delights, but leave them
To the weak, and pity the weak as your infant care; Break not
Forth in your wrath lest you also are vegetated by Tirzah
Wait till the Judgement is past, till the Creation is consumed
And then rush forward with me into the glorious spiritual    
Vegetation; the Supper of the Lamb & his Bride; and the
Awaking of Albion our friend and ancient companion.

So Los spoke. But lightnings of discontent broke on all sides round
And murmurs of thunder rolling heavy long & loud over the mountains
While Los calld his Sons around him to the Harvest & the Vintage."

Jerusalem, Plate 20, (E 166)
"Albion lov'd thee! he rent thy Veil! he embrac'd thee! he lov'd thee!
Astonish'd at his beauty & perfection, thou forgavest his furious love:
I redounded from Albions bosom in my virgin loveliness.
The Lamb of God reciev'd me in his arms he smil'd upon us:
He made me [Jerusalem] his Bride & Wife: he gave thee [Vala] to Albion.             
Then was a time of love: O why is it passed away!
Then Albion broke silence and with groans reply'd
Plate 21
O Vala! O Jerusalem! do you delight in my groans
You O lovely forms, you have prepared my death-cup:"

Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 171)
  "The fields from Islington to Marybone, 
To Primrose Hill and Saint Johns Wood:
  Were builded over with pillars of gold, 
And there Jerusalems pillars stood.

  Her Little-ones ran on the fields                             
The Lamb of God among them seen
  And fair Jerusalem his Bride:
Among the little meadows green."

Jerusalem, Plate 29 [33], (E 175)
"Vala was Albions Bride & Wife in great Eternity
The loveliest of the daughters of Eternity when in day-break  

I emanated from Luvah over the Towers of Jerusalem
And in her Courts among her little Children offering up
The Sacrifice of fanatic love! why loved I Jerusalem!
Why was I one with her embracing in the Vision of Jesus
Wherefore did I loving create love, which never yet              
Immingled God & Man, when thou & I, hid the Divine Vision
In cloud of secret gloom which behold involve me round about  
Know me now Albion: look upon me I alone am Beauty
The Imaginative Human Form is but a breathing of Vala"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page122, (E 391)
"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"                  

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 558)
"a Youthful couple are awakd by
their Children  an Aged patriarch is awakd by his aged wife  He is
Albion our Ancestor  patriarch of the Atlantic Continent whose
History Preceded that of the Hebrews & in whose Sleep 
Creation began,"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 122, (E 391)
"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                  

Urizen Said. I have Erred & my Error remains with me"  

Jerusalem, Plate 88, (E 246)
"Los answerd sighing like the Bellows of his Furnaces

I care not! the swing of my Hammer shall measure the starry
round[.]
When in Eternity Man converses with Man they enter
Into each others Bosom (which are Universes of delight)
In mutual interchange. and first their Emanations meet
Surrounded by their Children. if they embrace & comingle
The Human Four-fold Forms mingle also in thunders of Intellect
But if the Emanations mingle not; with storms & agitations
Of earthquakes & consuming fires they roll apart in fear
For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations
Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity
How then can I ever again be united as Man with Man
While thou my Emanation refusest my Fibres of dominion.
When Souls mingle & join thro all the Fibres of Brotherhood
Can there be any secret joy on Earth greater than this?"

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 256)
"All
The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep
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

So spake the Vision of Albion & in him so spake in my hearing   
The Universal Father. Then Albion stretchd his hand into Infinitude.
And took his Bow. Fourfold the Vision for bright beaming Urizen
Layd his hand on the South & took a breathing Bow of carved Gold
Luvah his hand stretch'd to the East & bore a Silver Bow bright shining
Tharmas Westward a Bow of Brass pure flaming richly wrought   
Urthona Northward in thick storms a Bow of Iron terrible thundering.

And the Bow is a Male & Female & the Quiver of the Arrows of Love,
Are the Children of this Bow: a Bow of Mercy & Loving-kindness: laying
Open the hidden Heart in Wars of mutual Benevolence Wars of Love
And the Hand of Man grasps firm between the Male & Female Loves" 

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Gospel of Thomas (Translated by Thomas O. Lambdin)
(22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."

Romans 8
[38] For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
[39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 23
[37] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
[38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
[39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Matthew 25
[35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
[36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
[37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
[38] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
[39] Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
[40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

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In Boundaries of the Soul,  June Singer wrote:
"In his later work he [Jung] was devoted to the possibility of bringing together the opposites, to finding the harmony both within and without that is consonant with seeing the person as a whole, instead of as collection of parts and peices. The process of analysis, almost by definition, is taking apart and looking at the pieces. But this must be done with the principle in mind that the pieces,  when examined separately, are like an automobile which has been taken apart for repair. You might be able to find out what is wrong with it, but that doesn't solve the problem. Only when it is put back together again is it whole. It is more than a collection of its parts. It can do what the parts separately cannot do. It runs." Page 250