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Yale Center for British Art Jerusalem Plate 92 |
This study of Blake's The Four Zoas is available on the internet. If you
are interested in the relationship between the thought of William Blake
and that of Carl Jung you may find it enlightening.
ENERGY AND ARCHETYPE: A JUNGIAN ANALYSIS OF
THE FOUR ZOAS BY WILLIAM BLAKE
by Lee T. Hamilton
From the second section of this thesis which is a detailed analysis of the poem, read quotes from the study highlighted in blue.
Night the Seventh - Page 78
Page 80-81
the Web of Urizen represent the conscious, intellectual
energies of man.
Page 82
The classical
example of this conflict is God and Satan, but even they
are only the symbols of something more basic. The god
threatened by a demon of passion represents the good and
rational mind threatened by the chaotic, primitive forces
of irrationality. It is the basic conscious v. unconscious
dialectic (Jung, V, 112).
Page 90
The bursting of the Gates of Enitharmon's heart signals
the possibility of a return to Beulah by her animus, Los.
But before Los can return to Beulah and thereby redeem
Albion and the other functions, he must reintegrate, or
reconcile, his shadow and anima; that is, he must reinte-
grate the Spectre of Urthona and Enitharmon within himself.
The Spectre of Urthona tells him what he must do.
Page 94
As this second version of "Night the Seventh" closes,
Blake introduces his doctrine of Forgiveness. This is an
essential element in the redemption of Albion and the sub-
sequent return to Eden. As Los draws Urizen from the ranks
of warring elements, he feels love for him.
"Startled was Los; he found his Enemy Urizen now
"In his hands; he wondered that he felt love
& not hate.
"His whole soul loved him." (Keynes, p. 332)
Love is the strongest force of man's being. Love and com-
passion were, to Blake, requisites for a return to man's
original state, for his return to Eden.
Night the Eighth - Page 97
As this night begins, the "Council of God," symbolized
by Jesus, meets to decide upon a course of action to redeem
Albion from his sleep of death.
Page 99
Los beholds the Divine Vision, the self, descend through
the broken gates of Enitharmon's heart. The vision re-
presents the knowledge of the self which inspires and sustains
them in their labors as they create bodies for the Spectres
of the dead.
Page 100
Urizen, seeing the Lamb of God, is baffled by his
incarnation. He is confused by the Lamb's apparently dual
nature; he is unable to account for the opposite values
which the Lamb seems to incorporate. On the one hand, he
sees Jesus related to the revolutionary passion of Orc; on
the other, he is aware of his close relationship to Luvah and
the emotion of Love. This is a salient characteristic of
the self; it is a coincidence of opposites (Jung, V, 368).
Page 108
Albion is bound around by Orc, who
himself is an unconscious content. The "scaly monsters"
vomited into the deep are the contents of the unconscious.
Because they come from Orc, they represent the contents
repressed by the ego-conscious one-sidedness of Urizen.
They are the lost memories of Eden. Again, the rock upon
which Albion sleeps symbolizes the unconscious self. Aside
from being unconscious of the eternal world, Albion is also
unaware of his own potential for internal harmony and psychic
wholeness. Both images are part and parcel of the same
general malaise, that of being cut off from one's psychic
roots or of being out of touch with the unconscious.
Night the Ninth - Page 117
Urizen's sons prepare the "Plow of ages" (Keynes, p. 365) for their father, and the sons of Urthona turn the weapons of war and engines of destruction into instruments of peace and life. Urizen begins to plow the psychic universe.
Page 118
When the Thinking function is properly reintegrated
and reunited with its anima, he no longer represses the
other functions. Consequently, Orc consumes himself in his
own "mental flames" and is restored to his normal state in
the form of Vala and Luvah, the Feeling function. Vala and
Luvah are put into Urizen's hands by the "Regenerate Man,"
Albion. By this gesture, Blake recognizes the need for
Feeling, or emotion, to be tempered by Reason.
Page 119
The feast is a symbolic reuniting of the various aspects of
the psyche. It is the reintegration of the four functions.
The food at the eternal feast is bread and wine, the
elements of the Eucharist. The feast therefore has the
spiritual quality of a communion, which is itself an act of
integration with God (Jung, IX, pt. 2, 144). In this
instance, the sharing of food represents the union of Albion
with his functions. In a larger sense, it symbolizes their
union with the God-image within man, the self.
Page 123
The poem ends as Urthona rises in his renewed power
and strength.
"Urthona is arisen in his strength, no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon, no longer the Spectre Los.
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy? where the delusive Phantom?
Departed: & Urthona rises from the ruinous Walls
In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War. The war of swords departed now,
The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns."(Keynes, p. 379)
Psychic totality, individuation, has been achieved
in a reintegration of the four functions under the auspices
of Urthona, the Intuitive function.
Hamilton notes this passage from William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols, by S. Foster Damon, Page ix:
"Blake's thought was of the clearest and deepest;
his poetry of the subtlest and strongest; his
painting of the highest and most luminous. He
tried to solve problems which concern us all,
and his answers to them are such as to place
him among the greatest thinkers of several
centuries."
