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Wikipedia Commons Book of Urizen Plate 14, Copy |
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
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 Second
Page 47
Urizen's creation of the Mundane Shell is the act of
the parvenu Thinking function giving final reality to the
phenomenal world, which it has drawn aside and valued as a
hedge against the possible encroachment of the unconscious.
It represents the frenzied efforts of the conscious mind,
directed by Urizen, to shore up the defenses against the
unconscious.
"Creation" is an act of consciousness. The creation
of the material universe is the separation and differentia-
tion of the minute particulars of Wholeness. This act of
separation takes place in the conscious mind of Albion.
Creation is therefore the result of the fall into conscious-
ness and a separation from Albion.
Page 49
The furnace is opened, and the molten metal that is now Luvah is allowed to pour out into furrows cut by Urizen's plow of the ages. This act symbolizes the canalization of the Feeling function by the Thinking function. Urizen forces the remains of Luvah into a furrow or form of his own design,
just as he forced the Bulls of Luvah by making them pull his plow and do his bidding. The plow symbolizes the mastery of the conscious forces over the unconscious. Wherever the plow goes, it wrests a portion of the soil from its primal, un-conscious state and gives it over to the use of man's conscious intellect (Jung, IX, pt. 2, 148).
Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self
"Since olden times the plough has stood for man's mastery over the earth: wherever man ploughs, he has wrested a patch of soil from the primal state and put it to his own use. That is to say: the fishes will rule this world and subdue it by working astrologically through man and moulding his consciousness."
Page 55
Orc is the response of the unconscious in an effort
to compensate for the conscious one-sidedness of Urizen
and the emphasis on the Thinking function.
Page 57
As a respite from the conscious life of the "hot noon" and the plow, the unconscious is a cool, dark place of rest. But the Anima and the unconscious are also in possession of all of the repressed and negative aspects of the psyche. By portraying the unpleasant contents of the psyche, as she often does in dreams, the Anima is sometimes a source of mental discomfort to the psyche.
Night the Fourth - Page 58
Page 60
As in all of the previous events of the poem, the
Council of God,who is Jesus, watches over all. Jesus
descends to set the limits of Albion's fall. He creates
the state of Satan, which is called "the Limit of Opacity,"
and the state of Adam, which is called "the Limit of Con-
traction" (Keynes, p. 304). The limit of Opacity symbolizes
the lowest limit of spiritual darkness to which Man may fall.
The Limit of Contraction symbolizes the lowest degree of con-
tracted sensual perception to which Man may fall.
Page 61
Los suffers a failure of creative imagina-
tion at this critical juncture of the narrative.3 "In terrors
Los shrank from his task; his great hammer/Fell from his hand,
his fires hid their strong limbs in smoke" (Keynes, p. 304).
This dismal scene closes the fourth night.
Night the Fifth - Page 61
Page 62-63
Urizen. He depends totally upon thinking and intellect as
automatically negates the efficacy of the other functions,
especially Luvah, who, because he is Urizen's companion
rational function, is repressed in a manner which accords
with Jung's theory of the nature of the relationship between
the dominant and inferior functions.
Page 69
Urizen declares that he will arise and "find that deep
pulsation/That shakes my cavern with strong shudders" (Keynes,
p. 311). The pulsation to which he refers is of course Orc,
the unconscious content struggling to become conscious.
Night the Sixth - Page 69
Page 69 -70
journey through the Abyss in search of Orc. Psychologically,
Page 76
Urizen's journey is an attempt of the
conscious mind to integrate the unconscious content, sym-
bolized by Orc, into a part of the whole psychic fabric.
Urizen's efforts are doomed to failure, however, because his
goal is still to dominate Albion and not to rule along with
the other Zoas in a co-equal partnership. Until he casts
off his cloak of selfhood, he cannot succeed in achieving
the harmonious integration that his journey symbolizes.
To be continued in the next post.
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