SATAN

Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations of the Book of Job

Satan Before the Throne of God

The work that is done in the psyche is not all easy and pleasant. It involves tearing down as well as building up. It includes dividing as well as uniting. In the Book of Job, Satan was given the task of testing God's servant Job who was though to be perfect. It turned out that there was a lot of internal work that he needed to do before he knew his own defects and failing. Satan was the instrument through which Job was able to evolve into self-knowledge and a right relationship with God.

Blake describes Satan as having a unique place in the scheme of things. He has no permanent existence as either body or spirit. He exists only as a function and is created when his function needs to be performed. Satan is a state which man passes through along his journey through Eternal Death or life as it is known in this world. He is called the Miller of Eternity because he breaks down the hardened routines we accept as our personalities or who we are. If one's psyche is under the control of a mistaken but pervasive behavior, Satan may intervene to reveal the destructiveness of that arrangement. 

Something has to play the role of showing us what changes will make it possible for an individual to be freed from the chains that bind him to the status quo. Psychological development is a process which is never complete. Satan is a miller; he grinds the hard grains until the are fit to make bread to feed the soul of man. Along with Rintrah, the plowman, he breaks hardened surfaces so that the work of Palamabron, Los and Blake may be accomplished. 

Perhaps we encounter Satan in our dreams when we enter a dark place where we see chaos and destruction. The unconscious mind is signaling us that change is imminent. We have the option of making the necessary changes of becoming their victim. Albion resisted change and suffered the consequences.  

Milton, Plate 3, (E 97)

"At last Enitharmon brought forth Satan Refusing Form, in vain
The Miller of Eternity made subservient to the Great Harvest
That he may go to his own Place Prince of the Starry Wheels

Plate 4 
Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty
In the hands of Palamabron. Where the Starry Mills of Satan
Are built beneath the Earth & Waters of the Mundane Shell
Here the Three Classes of Men take their Sexual texture Woven
The Sexual is Threefold: the Human is Fourfold              
If you account it Wisdom when you are angry to be silent, and
Not to shew it: I do not account that Wisdom but Folly.
Every Mans Wisdom is peculiar to his own Individ[u]ality
O Satan my youngest born, art thou not Prince of the Starry Hosts
And of the Wheels of Heaven, to turn the Mills day & night?  
Art thou not Newtons Pantocrator weaving the Woof of Locke
To Mortals thy Mills seem every thing & the Harrow of Shaddai
A scheme of Human conduct invisible & incomprehensible
Get to thy Labours at the Mills & leave me to my wrath,

Satan was going to reply, but Los roll'd his loud thunders.   

Anger me not! thou canst not drive the Harrow in pitys paths.
Thy Work is Eternal Death, with Mills & Ovens & Cauldrons.
Trouble me no more. thou canst not have Eternal Life

So Los spoke! Satan trembling obeyd weeping along the way.
Mark well my words, they are of your eternal Salvation"        

Jerusalem, Plate 35  [39], (E 181)
"By Satans Watch-fiends tho' they search numbering every grain
Of sand on Earth every night, they never find this Gate.
It is the Gate of Los. Withoutside is the Mill, intricate, dreadful
And fill'd with cruel tortures; but no mortal man can find the Mill
Of Satan, in his mortal pilgrimage of seventy years              

For Human beauty knows it not: nor can Mercy find it! But 
In the Fourth region of Humanity, Urthona namd[,]
Mortality begins to roll the billows of Eternal Death
Before the Gate of Los. Urthona here is named Los." 

Descriptive Catalogue, Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims, (E 535)

"Thus the reader will observe, that
Chaucer makes every one of his characters perfect in his kind,
every one is an Antique Statue; the image of a class, and not of
an imperfect individual.
  This groupe also would furnish substantial matter, on which
volumes might be written.  The Franklin is one who keeps open
table, who is the genius of eating and drinking, the Bacchus; as
the Doctor of Physic is the Esculapius, the Host is the Silenus,
the Squire is the Apollo, the Miller is the Hercules, &c.
Chaucer's characters are a description of the eternal Principles
that exist in all ages.  The Franklin is voluptuousness itself
most nobly pourtrayed:
Page 21
              "It snewed in his house of meat and drink."
  The Plowman is simplicity itself, with wisdom and strength
for its stamina.  Chaucer has divided the ancient character of
Hercules between his Miller and his Plowman.  Benevolence is the
plowman's great characteristic, he is thin with excessive labour,
and not with old age, as some have supposed.
               "He would thresh and thereto dike and delve
               For Christe's sake, for every poore wight,
               Withouten hire, if it lay in his might."
Visions of these eternal principles or characters of human
life appear to poets, in all ages; the Grecian gods were the
ancient Cherubim of Phoenicia; but the Greeks, and since them the
Moderns, have neglected to subdue the gods of Priam.  These Gods
are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which,
when [P 22] erected into gods, become destructive to humanity.
They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man, or of
society.  They ought to be made to sacrifice to Man, and not man
compelled to sacrifice to them; for when separated from man or
humanity, who is Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity, they
are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers.
  The Plowman of Chaucer is Hercules in his supreme eternal
state, divested of his spectrous shadow; which is the Miller, a
terrible fellow, such as exists in all times and places, for the
trial of men, to astonish every neighbourhood, with brutal
strength and courage, to get rich and powerful to curb the pride
of Man.

Jerusalem, Plate 31 [35], (E 177)

"Then the Divine hand found the Two Limits, Satan and Adam,

... 

"Albion goes to Eternal Death: In Me all Eternity.
Must pass thro' condemnation, and awake beyond the Grave!
No individual can keep these Laws, for they are death
To every energy of man, and forbid the springs of life;
Albion hath enterd the State Satan! Be permanent O State!
And be thou for ever accursed! that Albion may arise again:
And be thou created into a State! I go forth to Create           
States: to deliver Individuals evermore! Amen.

So spoke the voice from the Furnaces, descending into Non-Entity

 [To Govern the Evil by Good: and States abolish Systems.]" 

Romans 8 - Phillips Translation 

Verses 38-39 

        I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor
        life, neither messenger of Heaven nor monarch of earth,
        neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow,
        neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor
        anything else in God's whole world has any power to
        separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our
        Lord!