VALA

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 53

Erdman's comment on this image: "Nothing is as it seems in this icon of the high priestess of Deism or State Religion, Vala dressed as Rahab."

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This post is based on material in Discussions of William Blake edited by John E Grant. Karl Kiralis' chapter, Intellectual Symbolism in Blake's Later Prophetic Writings, is the final chapter in the book.

Kiralis' aim in his article is to facilitate the reading of Jerusalem by demonstrating the use of Blake's context in interpreting Blake's symbolism. These passages focus on his character Vala whom it is essential to grasp.

Kiralis's words are shown in blue. 

Page 105

Interpreting such a key symbol as Vala requires a careful study of the text. Since she is variously defined by different characters, her whole role in the work must be considered to determine what she represents.

She is identified with Nature by two of the sons of Albion:

Jerusalem, Plate 18, (E 163) 

"Babylon the City of Vala, the Goddess Virgin-Mother. 

She is our Mother! Nature!"  

This is the fallen sons' conception of her.

The fallen Albion seems to have the same misconception.

Jerusalem, Plate 30 [34] 

"art thou not Babylon? Art thou Nature Mother of all!" 

The temporarily 'unfallen' children of Albion call Vala Jerusalem's shadow as does Blake himself.

Jerusalem, Plate 45 [31], (E 195)

"And he beheld Jerusalem in Westminster & Marybone, 

Among the ruins of the Temple: and Vala who is her Shadow," 

Blake states:  

Jerusalem Plate 70, (E 224)

"Her name is Vala in Eternity: in Time her name is Rahab" 

 

Jerusalem, Plate 78, (E 234) 

"They took their Mother Vala, and they crown'd her with gold: 

They namd her Rahab, & gave her power over the Earth 

The Concave Earth round Golgonooza in Entuthon Benython, 

Even to the stars exalting her Throne, to build beyond the Throne 

Of God and the Lamb, to destroy the Lamb & usurp the Throne of God" 

Since she is the eternal prototype of Rahab, we must recall that Rahab was clearly defined:  

Jerusalem Plate 35 [39], (E 181)

"And here begins the System of Moral Virtue, named Rahab."

Vala, then, as she appears on earth is the system of moral virtue or rational morality. She is fallen man's conception of Jerusalem, who represents eternal standards of truth and beauty, but actually she is Jerusalem's opposite, the earthly standards of truth and beauty.

They are unaware of the true meaning of Jerusalem. The maximum of liberty is obtained by granting mutual forgiveness, for it inevitable that man will err with his freedom...To reduce the margin of error, man must not artificially bind himself with moral laws but rather become wise with the 'Gifts of Spirit' through the exercise of 'the Divine Arts of Imagination.'

...Of course Vala is also nature - man's conception of the natural world and its beauty - but this is only part of what she symbolizes. Her fight to preserve herself by continuing to delude man with her false beauty and with the veil of moral virtue as she admits:  

Jerusalem, Plate 80, (E 236)
"But I Vala, Luvahs daughter, keep his body embalmd in moral laws
With spices of sweet odours of lovely jealous stupefaction:
Within my bosom, lest he arise to life & slay my Luvah
Pity me then O Lamb of God! O Jesus pity me!"     

Page 114

The reader was not to be lulled into a vague feeling that he apprehended the symbol: he was to be shocked and thus led to genuine understanding. He would be forced to know what he did not know that he might learn.

...As T.S. Elliot put it when writing his Cocktail Party, for those with a sensibility 'a meaning...gradually reveals itself according to different degrees of consciousness.'