HUMAN FORM

Blake Archive

Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost

Butts Set

Christ Offers to Redeem Man

There are only two ultimate realities to Blake: the Divine Humanity and the Human Form.

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 131)

"the Spectre of Albion, who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine.
But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form" 

We are given life in the Human Form by the Divine Humanity. The Human Form we receive is Four-fold. It is not unified but divided into four Faces directed toward the four compass points. Each of the 'four mighty ones' manisfests in one of these psychological directions.

  

Jerusalem, Plate 15, (E 159)

"In every Nation of the Earth till the Twelve Sons of Albion
Enrooted into every Nation: a mighty Polypus growing
From Albion over the whole Earth: such is my awful Vision.   

I see the Four-fold Man. The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation. The Spectre & its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present & Future, existing all at once
Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!
That I may awake Albion from His long & cold repose."       
So this is the arrrangement of the Four-fold Man: 

Humanity - Man's inmost part (North) 

Fallen Emanation (East) 

Spectre (South)

Cruel Shadow (West) 

The spiritual dimension of man is his Humanity, the God in whose image he is created. As a Zoa the Humanity corresponds to Urthona.

His fallen Emanation is the form that is expressed in the material world: feminine, passive, and capable of developing a separate will which seeks dominion over the male. It is in Luvah and his World, Beulah, that the fallen Emanation is most evident.

When the Emanation separates from the man, he is left "a selfish and ravening Spectre. His rational power, unchecked by his Emanation, dominates him."(Damon, page 121) The fallen Urizen, or Satan is analogous with the Spectre.

Tharmas must be the cruel shadow. This implies that the body and the senses are delusive reflections of the spirit and spiritual sensation.

Jerusalem, Plate 10, (E 153)

"The Spectre answer'd. Art thou not ashamd of those thy Sins

That thou callest thy Children? lo the Law of God commands
That they be offered upon his Altar: O cruelty & torment
For thine are also mine! I have kept silent hitherto,            
Concerning my chief delight: but thou hast broken silence
Now I will speak my mind! Where is my lovely Enitharmon
O thou my enemy, where is my Great Sin?  She is also thine
I said: Now is my grief at worst: incapable of being
Surpassed: but every moment it accumulates more & more           
It continues accumulating to eternity! the joys of God advance
For he is Righteous: he is not a Being of Pity & Compassion
He cannot feel Distress: he feeds on Sacrifice & Offering:
Delighting in cries & tears & clothed in Holiness & solitude
But my griefs advance also, for ever & ever without end          
O that I could cease to be! Despair! I am Despair
Created to be the great example of horror & agony: also my
Prayer is vain I called for compassion: compassion mockd
Mercy & pity threw the grave stone over me & with lead
And iron, bound it over me for ever: Life lives on my
Consuming: & the Almighty hath made me his Contrary
To be all evil, all reversed & for ever dead: knowing
And seeing life, yet living not; how can I then behold
And not tremble; how can I be beheld & not abhorrd

So spoke the Spectre shuddring, & dark tears ran down his shadowy face
Which Los wiped off, but comfort none could give! or beam of hope
Yet ceasd he not from labouring at the roarings of his Forge
With iron & brass Building Golgonooza in great contendings
Till his Sons & Daughters came forth from the Furnaces
At the sublime Labours for Los. compelld the invisible Spectre  

Plate 11
To labours mighty, with vast strength, with his mighty chains,
In pulsations of time, & extensions of space, like Urns of Beulah
With great labour upon his anvils, & in his ladles the Ore
He lifted, pouring it into the clay ground prepar'd with art;
Striving with Systems to deliver Individuals from those Systems; 
That whenever any Spectre began to devour the Dead,
He might feel the pain as if a man gnawd his own tender nerves.

Then Erin came forth from the Furnaces, & all the Daughters of Beulah
Came from the Furnaces, by Los's mighty power for Jerusalems
Sake: walking up and down among the Spaces of Erin:              
And the Sons and Daughters of Los came forth in perfection lovely!
And the Spaces of Erin reach'd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth.

Los wept with exceeding joy & all wept with joy together!
They feard they never more should see their Father, who
Was built in from Eternity, in the Cliffs of Albion."

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 156)

"And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,               
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North. 

Jerusalem, Plate 37 [41], (E 184)

[illustration, with inscription, reversed] 

"Each Man is in his Spectre's power
          Untill the arrival of that hour,
          When his Humanity awake
          And cast his Spectre into the Lake" 

Jerusalem, Plate 44 [30], (E 193)

"And the Divine hand was upon them bearing them thro darkness
Back safe to their Humanity as doves to their windows:
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthonas Spectre in Songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble."

Jerusalem, Plate 79, ( E 236)

"O Vala! Humanity is far above
Sexual organization; & the Visions of the Night of Beulah"

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 255)

"Then Jesus appeared standing by Albion as the Good Shepherd
By the lost Sheep that he hath found & Albion knew that it
Was the Lord the Universal Humanity, & Albion saw his Form     
A Man. & they conversed as Man with Man, in Ages of Eternity

And the Divine Appearance was the likeness & similitude of Los"

Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 257)

"Driving outward the Body of Death in an Eternal Death & Resurrection   
Awaking it to Life among the Flowers of Beulah rejoicing in Unity
In the Four Senses in the Outline the Circumference & Form, for ever
In Forgiveness of Sins which is Self Annihilation. it is the Covenant of Jehovah

The Four Living Creatures Chariots of Humanity Divine incomprehensible
In beautiful Paradises expand These are the Four Rivers of Paradise   
And the Four Faces of Humanity fronting the Four Cardinal Points
Of Heaven going forward forward irresistible from Eternity to Eternity
And they conversed together in Visionary forms dramatic"

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 536)

 "These Gods
are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which,
when 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."

Last Judgement, (E 553)

"many Infants appear in the Glory
representing the Eternal Creation flowing from the Divine
Humanity in Jesus who opens the Scroll of Judgment upon his knees
before the Living & the Dead"