THE SOUL'S JOURNEY VI

First posted April 2012

Center left portion of Arlington Tempera

By relating the themes in Blake's Arlington Tempera to myths from ancient Greece, Kathleen Raine, in Blake and Tradition, supplies a key to understanding the puzzling picture:

"The living spirits of light and water, reborn in their everlasting youth from Blake's imagination are age-old. They enact the perpetual cycle of the descent and return of souls between an eternal and a temporal world, and the journey through life, under the symbol of a crossing of the sea. Of this journey, the voyage of Odysseus, his dangers and his adventures, his departure and his home-coming to Ithaca, is the type and symbol. In Blake's painting the figure on the sea-verge is Odysseus, newly landed on his native shore, in the cove of the sea god Phorcys, close to the Cave of the Nymphs." (Page 75)

The picture is opened to Homer's archetypal myth by looking through Raine's eyes:
"Odysseus, for the Neoplatonists, symbolised man, whose progress from birth to death, through material existence, is likened to the hero's perilous journey." (Page 79)

The sea itself dominates this segment to the picture. Kathleen Raine identifies the kneeling man in the red robe as Odysseus. The Odyssey records an account of Odysseus' return to his home over the waters after the Battle of Troy. In his sea journey he encounters a series of adventures which expose him to various situations which have psychological import.

Instead of representing the trials of man as he gains experience, Blake suggests the whole of life's journey by portraying a single event from Odysseus' story upon the mighty sea. Probably the main clue to the identity of the man kneeling on the shore is the turning of the gaze away from the direction in which the man is tossing an object into the sea. The account of such an event is in Book V of the Odyssey where the goddess Leucothea (Ino) instructs Odysseus on how to return her girdle which has saved his life:

"Which you shall cast far distant from the shore
Into the Deep, Turning thy face away."

Leucothea had come to the rescue of Odysseus after he had lost all his men and his last ship and even the raft to which he was clinging. In his desperation, Odysseus is assisted by the sea itself in the form of the girdle of the goddess providing the means through which he may reach the islands of the Phaeacians.

On the horizon, the sea goddess accompanied by four horses, is reaching upward into a cloud. Raine tells us that Blake identified the girdle with the body, and that Blake often used the cloud to represent the body. So this portion of the image represents the end of the cycle of physical embodiment of the Soul. Odysseus has relinquished the physical body which was lent to him to traverse the sea (of time and space). Raine points out that Homer used a team of four stallions as a metaphor for the ship which took Odysseus on the final stage of his journey from Phaeacia where he relinquished the girdle. His ultimate destination was Ithaca, the home to which he was returning. The Cave of the Nymphs in the upper right portion of the Arlington Tempera where the descent into a material body began lies near the shore of his homeland.

In The Eternal Drama, Edward Edinger provides this insight into the conclusion of the journey of Odysseus: for the final stage of the return, the body was not required because the ships of the Phaeacians themselves understand the thoughts and minds of men. (Page 121)

Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 121)
"And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of awe.

Fellow Labourers! The Great Vintage & Harvest is now upon Earth
The whole extent of the Globe is explored: Every scatterd Atom
Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet
All the Wisdom which was hidden in caves & dens, from ancient
Time; is now sought out from Animal & Vegetable & Mineral

The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)

"The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night 
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires the evil is all consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds 
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy"

 

THE SOUL'S JOURNEY V

First posted April 2012

Lower left portion of Arlington Tempera

Following the clockwise circle of life, the soul having been clothed in the garment of flesh, is prepared to enter the Sea of Time and Space. Human life flows into the river of time to be under the dominion to the three fates. Providing the cord with which the fates will allot the life span of each individual, is Blake's Zoa Tharmas. Here is the third male in the picture. In Blake's myth he represents the body including the senses; his element is water. This portion of the Arlington Tempera represents the entry of the soul into the mortal world. The body is experienced as divided from the soul and subject to death.

The three fates are seen allocating the thread of life, measuring it and determining its length. Through the fates we are introduced to the death of the physical life.

Four Zoas , Night IV. PAGE 56, (E 337)
"The Corse of Albion lay on the Rock the sea of Time & Space
Beat round the Rock in mighty waves & as a Polypus
That vegetates beneath the Sea the limbs of Man vegetated
In monstrous forms of Death a Human polypus of Death"

Milton O. Percival, who wrote William Blake's Circle of Destiny, helps us to connect entry into the wartry world of Tharmas with the division into the contraries of spirit and matter; male and female:

"Henceforth the world will know both good and evil and the rigors of vengeance for sin.

Still, Tharmas is not satisfied. Though, as the principle of life within the physical universe he scorns matter, he cannot live with out it. Separated from Enion, he finds himself little more than a formless and meaningless will to be. What is more, he can find no release from his suffering; he is now "immortal in immortal torment." Deathless in his despair, he wanders seeking oblivion. Enion alone can provide it. It is to satisfy this hunger of one contrary for another that the mortal world is made. It is built at Tharmas's command in forms of "death and decay," in the hope that "some little semblance" of Enion may return. In short a mortal world is the logical answer to a dualism of spirit and matter. It is the only conceivable world that will take account of both the physical contraries, one of which has been driven into matter." (Page 184)

 

Milton, Plate 29 [31], (E 128) 

"Tirzah & her Sisters 

Weave the black Woof of Death upon Entuthon Benython 

In the Vale of Surrey where Horeb terminates in Rephaim 

The stamping feet of Zelophehads Daughters are coverd with Human gore 

Upon the treddles of the Loom, they sing to the winged shuttle: 

The River rises above his banks to wash the Woof: 

He takes it in his arms: be passes it in strength thro his current 

The veil of human miseries is woven over the Ocean 

From the Atlantic to the Great South Sea, the Erythrean.

Such is the World of Los the labour of six thousand years.
Thus Nature is a Vision of the Science of the Elohim.            

                 End of the First Book."

Four Zoas , Night IV, Page 48, (E 332)
"Deformd I see these lineaments of ungratified Desire
The all powerful curse of an honest man be upon Urizen & Luvah
But thou My Son Glorious in brightness comforter of Tharmas
Go forth Rebuild this Universe beneath my indignant power
A Universe of Death & Decay. Let Enitharmons hands
Weave soft delusive forms of Man above my watry world
Renew these ruind souls of Men thro Earth Sea Air & Fire
To waste in endless corruption. renew thou I will destroy
Perhaps Enion may resume some little semblance
To ease my pangs of heart & to restore some peace to Tharmas

Los answerd in his furious pride sparks issuing from his hair
Hitherto shalt thou come. no further. here thy proud waves cease"

THE SOUL'S JOURNEY IV

First posted April 2012

Lower right portion of Arlington Tempera
From Myspace

Only four males are encountered in the Arlington Tempera. The first was the sleeping charioteer; the second was the partner in the couple outside of the cave commented on in the last post. This section of the image contains no males. Raine sees the work of Los going on the flames which are visible in a few spots of this portion; but we see only females engaging in the activities here portrayed. The female when separated from the male becomes the projected or outer world to the interior world of form represented by the divided male. The import of the picture in its entirety is the Cycle of Life, or as I have entitled it in my series of posts: The Soul's Journey.

Represented in this section is the Soul's being born to Death, and her dying to to Life Eternal. The womb of the cave has become a tomb because the entry into this new life ends the Soul's consciousness of life Eternal. Death is the metaphor for man's journey through experience to regain awareness of the Eternal.

Blake represents this birth/death in the metaphor of receiving a garment or body which clothes the soul in this world of mortality. The females in this section are in the process of descending or ascending; weaving a garment or receiving a woven garment; carrying their water or spilling their water; winding or unwinding the 'golden string'. Entering the world of generation is a blessing and a curse, a mercy and a trial; both aspects are suggested here.

Look for the spindles being held aloft by three joyful maidens with a loom; the thread which connects the girl with the thread wound on her hands to the woman behind the tree with the ball in her right hand; the girl on the right who is being woven into a net; the figure who holds the fabric which is being dragged into the water; the woman climbing the stair with her bucket and reaching upward; the sleeping girl whose container is being emptied into the stream.

From Blake and Tradition by Kathleen Raine:

"Two figures in the right foreground provide visible evidence that Blake was working not merely from Homer but from Porphyry; for of them there is no mention in Homer's text. They illustrate the parable of the tubs, from the Gorgias; Socrates tell how the temperate soul possesses of full tub, whereas the soul overcome by passion is like a pierced tub which can never be filled... These two conditions Blake has illustrated by two women. One sober and resolute, has turned her back on the swirling waters and begun to climb the steps of the cave, against the current of generation.

...

Close to her, in the right foreground, the uninitiated soul, dominated by desire, lies sunk in 'deadly sleep.'" (Page 13) 

 
Jerusalem, Plate 1, (E 144)
"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into

Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch in the world of mortality
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 behold the Vision of Albion

Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment

Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!"

Jerusalem, Plate 67, (E 220)
"And the Twelve Daughters of Albion united in Rahab & Tirzah
A Double Female: and they drew out from the Rocky Stones
Fibres of Life to Weave, for every Female is a Golden Loom
The Rocks are opake hardnesses covering all Vegetated things
And as they Wove & Cut from the Looms in various divisions
Stretching over Europe & Asia from Ireland to Japan
They divided into many lovely Daughters to be counterparts
To those they Wove, for when they Wove a Male, they divided
Into a Female to the Woven Male. in opake hardness
They cut the Fibres from the Rocks groaning in pain they Weave;
Calling the Rocks Atomic Origins of Existence; denying Eternity
By the Atheistical Epicurean Philosophy of Albions Tree
Such are the Feminine & Masculine when separated from Man
They call the Rocks Parents of Men, & adore the frowning Chaos
Dancing around in howling pain clothed in the bloody Veil."

 

THE SOUL'S JOURNEY III

First posted April 2012

 Upper right portion of Arlington Tempera

Moving clockwise from the image in the last post we get the first intimation that Blake is weaving Homer's Odyssey into the fabric of his picture. As noted earlier Blake and Thomas Taylor were friends during the time that the Neoplatonist Taylor was translating Porphyry's Greek to English. From Chapter 13 of Taylor's translation on the Odyssey we read:

"High at the head a branching olive grows
And crowns the pointed cliffs with shady boughs.
A cavern pleasant, though involved in night,
Beneath it lies, the Naiades delight:
Where bowls and urns of workmanship divine
And massy beams in native marble shine;
On which the Nymphs amazing webs display,
Of purple hue and exquisite array,
The busy bees within the urns secure
Honey delicious, and like nectar pure.
Perpetual waters through the grotto glide,
A lofty gate unfolds on either side;
That to the north is pervious to mankind:
The sacred south t'immortals is consign'd."

ON THE CAVE OF THE NYMPHS IN THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF THE ODYSSEY
Taylor's translation of Porphyry

In Blake and Antiquity, Kathleen Raine wrote:

"Porphyry says that the Cave of the Nymphs was no invention of Homer's, and that such caves have been from very ancient times sacred to the female powers. A cave, or den, he says, is a symbol of the world; and he quotes from Plato's Republic the famous passage that describes mankind as dwelling in a cavern where only shadows of real things are seen." (Page 8) 

...

The small figure of a nymph pouring water from an urn and the reclining lovers near her are an emblem of the source of all life...birth into the cave is a death from eternity, the sleep of forgetfulness that overcomes those who, as in Plato's parable, drink the waters of Lethe and are born to earth." (Page 9)

Blake's picture has moved away from the initial unity in Eternity which was broken by the fall into unconsciousness symbolized by the sleeping charioteer. Appropriately the process of generation is to begin in a cave as human life begins in the Mother's womb. The particular cave Blake uses as his symbol is the Cave of the Nymphs described by Homer. Within the cave in Blake's portrayal are the Naiades with urns upon their heads. Signalling the process which is beginning is a Nymph emptying her urn producing a stream of water flowing down the hillside. Nearby lies a couple reminding us that male and female have been differentiated and will unite in procreation, the process of dividing by uniting which characterizes our world.

Two prevalent symbols of life for Blake in this world are water and the female. Water represents the milieu which wipes away the consciousness of the Eternal. The flood introduces the Sea of Time and Space which masks from man his origin. The ability to perceive the Eternal and Infinite, from which man proceeds, is lost in the sensory data from matter. The female is the emanative portion of man which provides the perspective of dualism which leads to the constant dividing, judging and discarding in which man engages. These two processes are introduced in this little portion of the picture and will be developed as we proceed through the clockwise cycle.

Milton, Plate 37 [41], (E 138)
"From Star to Star, Mountains & Valleys, terrible dimension
Stretchd out, compose the Mundane Shell, a mighty Incrustation
Of Forty-eight deformed Human Wonders of the Almighty
With Caverns whose remotest bottoms meet again beyond
The Mundane Shell in Golgonooza, but the Fires of Los, rage
In the remotest bottoms of the Caves, that none can pass
Into Eternity that way, but all descend to Los
To Bowlahoola & Allamanda & to Entuthon Benython"

Four Zoas , Page 43, (E 329)

"Down from the dismal North the Prince in thunders & thick clouds
As when the thunderbolt down falleth on the appointed place
Fell down down rushing ruining thundering shuddering
Into the Caverns of the Grave & places of Human Seed
Where the impressions of Despair & Hope enroot forever
A world of Darkness. Ahania fell far into Non Entity"

Post on the Work of Los.

 

THE SOUL'S JOURNEY II

 First posted April 2012

Arlington Tempera 

Detail of Upper Left

 

 

 

 

The upper left area of the Arlington Tempera can represent the starting point in the cycle which is portrayed in the picture. Sitting in a chariot or on a throne is a figure who appears to be asleep. Behind him is a radiant sun. In Greek mythology the sun god is Apollo; the parallel in Blake's mythology is Urizen whom Damon calls the 'Charioteer of the material sun.'

To the right is a team of four horses under the precarious control of four maidens. Urizen is the 'limiter of Energy' as well as the 'Prince of Light' (Damon.) As Urizen falls asleep his horses are loosed to destroy the unity which is the condition of Eternity. Energy is released to become manifest in time and space. The section of the picture shone above captures the fire, light and activity of Eternity. Moving into time and space this energy will be contained and transformed.

Kathleen Raine in Blake and Tradition makes these comments on this section of the picture (Page 96):

"The god in the chariot of the sun is a strange figure. He appears to be intended to resemble the traditional Apollo, although he has no 'bow of burning gold' - and there is a striking resemblance to the figure of in God in the Job engravings, the fifth plate, 'Then went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord.' There the drowsy God is not actually sleeping, as he appears to be here; yet the symbolic event, though stated in other terms, is parallel. The separation of Satan (the Selfhood, as Blake invariably defines him) from God (the Divine Humanity) is about to initiate a cycle of Experience, a descent and return, in the suffering of Job, as is here symbolized by the voyage of Odysseus across the stormy sea of time and space, and his final home-coming. One thinks of the opening lines of The Gates of Paradise:

My Eternal Man set in Repose,
The Female from his darkness rose."

This description of the fall by Urizen in the Four Zoas presents images reminiscent of those in the portion of the Arlington Tempera shown above:

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 64, (E 343)
"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"

THE SOUL'S JOURNEY

First posted April 2012 

Illustrations to Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress

 

We revisit the Arlington Tempera about which much more needs to be said. I plan to relate more of what Kathleen Raine writes in Blake and Tradition about the Arlington Tempera. However today I will first repost material from two of Larry's posts from September 2009 & 11. Raine treats the Arlington Tempera in a section of her book which she names: The Myth of the Soul. The Soul's journey is traced in the wanderings of Vala and in the imagery of the Arlington Tempera.

Larry Clayton's post:

" A most significant key to Blake's symbolism came to light only in 1947 when Arlington Court was bequeathed to the British National Trust. Among the furnishings there was a large tempera by Blake, called alternatively The Sea of Time and Space or The Cave of the Nymphs. This treasure had been hidden from public eyes for a century.

(Most of us are unlikely to see the original, but Blake and Antiquity by Kathleen Raine offers several glimpses of the picture with a detailed account of the symbols it contains. There is no better way to begin an understanding of Blake at the deeper level than to read carefully and study this small and accessible book.)

The picture contains the essential symbolism of Blake's myth; the theme goes back to Homer, then to Plato and Porphyry.

Blake and Taylor were approximately the same age and as young men close friends. Many people think that Taylor introduced Blake to the Platonic and Neoplatonic traditions. It seems certain that Taylor's On the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs deeply influenced the painting of the Arlington Tempera. It also introduced a great number of the most common symbols used in Blake's myth; they were used over and over throughout Blake's work."

Continuing from another post:

"The last post included a link to the Arlington Tempera. You may see it as an excellent portrayal of the Circle of Destiny.

One of the common names for the picture is The Sea of Time and Space. However Damon suggested The Circle of Life as a more appropriate term.

The sea in the picture is only one of several vital scenes; it occurs in the left foreground. The right hand part portrays the Cave of the Nymphs, found in the 13th book of the Odyssey. In fact it's from an interpretation of the cave by Porphyry, a 3rd century a Neoplatonist philosopher.

The upper left portrays Eternity. The center shows two prominent characters. The man kneeling on the shore has been given several names: Odysseus by Kathleen Raine, Luvah by Damon, Albion/Jesus by Digby, or better yet, Everyman (you and I). He has gotten close to completion of the circle of destiny; without looking at the sea he is throwing the girdle of Leucothea which she had lent him to be able to swim ashore (Blake used Book 5 of the Odyssey for this feature).

Behind 'Everyman' stands a woman, perhaps Athena (Raine), Vala (Damon), the anima (Digby). (This shows how Blake says different things to different people -- much like the Bible!)

On the right side of the picture there's an image you might imagine as a double escalator with the right side going down and the left up. Down the northern come the souls with a hankering for mortal life. Up the southern may go Everyman:

Gates of Paradise, The Keys of the Gates, (E 269)
"13 But when once I did descry
The Immortal Man that cannot Die
14 Thro evening shades I haste away
To close the Labours of my Day"

We can only suppose that Everyman, responding to the radiant woman's signal, looked up and moved!"

To conclude here is a quote from Raine's Blake and Tradition:
"The figure of the soul is symbolized by a series of female figures, each a little more complex than the last - Thel, Lyca, Oothoon, Vala, and Jerusalem. All these experience descent, suffering and return... In Jerusalem the story of the soul is Christianized but retains traces of the earlier myths out of which grew this latest expression of Blake's mature spiritual insight and perfected artistry." (Page 67,68)

 
 

MENTAL FIGHT

Wikipedia

Milton

Preface

Blake included the Preface in only the first two copies of the four known copies of Milton. The poetic section of this plate became one of the best known hymns in Great Britain when it was set to music written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. Blake's inspiration for this poem came from the legend that Jesus was the nephew of Joseph of Arimathea who on a journey as a tin merchant took the boy Jesus to what is now Great Britain. That event came to life in Blake's imagination as an indication that 'if we are but just & true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever', then 'Jesus our Lord' could be seen again 'On Englands mountains green."

The singing of the hymn Jerusalem keeps alive the idea that by exercising our mental abilities in service to our own imaginations, we can, in the spirit, transform the dark world of exploitation into the bright world of brotherhood. 

---

 
Jerusalem sung by Jacob Collier

Milton, Preface, (E 95)
 "Rouze up O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads
against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the
Camp, the Court, & the University: who would if they could, for
ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War. Painters! on you I
call! Sculptors! Architects! Suffer not the fash[i]onable Fools
to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for
contemptible works or the expensive advertizing boasts that they
make of such works; believe Christ & his Apostles that there is a
Class of Men whose whole delight is in Destroying. We do not 
want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just & true to
our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall
live for ever; in Jesus our Lord.

     And did those feet in ancient time,
     Walk upon Englands mountains green:
     And was the holy Lamb of God,
     On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

     And did the Countenance Divine,             
     Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
     And was Jerusalem builded here,
     Among these dark Satanic Mills?

     Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
     Bring me my Arrows of desire:                     
     Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
     Bring me my Chariot of fire!

     I will not cease from Mental Fight,
     Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
     Till we have built Jerusalem,                     
     In Englands green & pleasant Land."

Romans 10 

[12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 

[13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. [14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 

[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 

[16] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 

[17] So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

 

Wikipedia - 'And did those feet in ancient time'