FALLEN ANGELS

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum

Fallen Angels

The owners of this picture, the Harvard Art Museums, give it the date 1793 which is four years before the date on the title page of The Four Zoas. It is probable that Blake began composing The Four Zoas years before the date on the Title Page. Therefore, judging from this image, it seems that a conception of falling angels or zoas was in the mind of Blake long before he began to put words to paper. 

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 64, (E 344)

"O Fool could I forget the light that filled my bright spheres
Was a reflection of his face who calld me from the deep          

I well remember for I heard the mild & holy voice
Saying O light spring up & shine & I sprang up from the deep 
He gave to me a silver scepter & crownd me with a golden crown
& said Go forth & guide my Son who wanders on the ocean      

I went not forth. I hid myself in black clouds of my wrath       
I calld the stars around my feet in the night of councils dark
The stars threw down their spears & fled naked away
We fell. I siezd thee dark Urthona In my left hand falling

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"  

Milton's Paradise Lost was illustrated by Blake for Thomas Butts in 1808. Following Milton's narration, Blake pictured on his seventh illustration, rebel angels being expelled from heaven. Prominent in Milton's tale is the idea that the angels who refused obedience to the Almighty were forced from heaven. Later after God created Adam and Eve, Satan entered Eden and tempted 'the mother of mankind' to eat the forbidden fruit. The fall of Adam and Eve led to mankind living in a fallen world which Blake described in detail.

Wikipedia Commons

Illustrations to Paradise Lost

Rout of the Rebel Angels

Paradise Lost, Book I

"The infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equaled the most high,
If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."

Book VI, 

853

1. Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked
   His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
   Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven:
   The overthrown he raised, and as a herd
   Of goats or timorous flock together thronged
   Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
   With terrors, and with furies, to the bounds
   And crystal wall of Heaven; which, opening wide,
   Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
   Into the wasteful deep: The monstrous sight
   Struck them with horror backward, but far worse
   Urged them behind: Headlong themselves they threw
   Down from the verge of Heaven; eternal wrath
   Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
   866

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      Paradise Regained, The Third Temptation

Fitzwilliam Museum

Paradise Regained

Christ Placed on the Pinnacle of the Temple

We see Blake's portrayal of the Fall of Satan in the Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Regained. This work is dated 1816-20. Milton described the passage which occurs  in Matthew 4:

[5] Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
[6] And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[7] Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Paradise Regained, Book 4

"There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright
Will ask thee skill; I to thy Fathers house
Have brought thee, and highest plac't, highest is best,
Now shew thy Progeny; if not to stand,
Cast thy self down; safely if Son of God: [ 555 ]
For it is written, He will give command
Concerning thee to his Angels, in thir hands
They shall up lift thee, lest at any time
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.

To whom thus Jesus: also it is written, [ 560 ]
Tempt not the Lord thy God; he said and stood.
But Satan smitten with amazement fell"

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   Throughout his career Blake was interested in showing how there was a fall through which entities who had enjoyed the company of God in the divine milieu, lost their heavenly status. Blake felt compelled to make it clear to mankind that he lives in a fallen state. Without such a consciousness there is no possibility of reestablishing with God a spiritual connection which restores the oneness.