Blake: Urizen

Here are some notes on The Book of Urizen, which is one of Blake's "prophetic" works. The PDF "Overview" found below was prepared by Aubrey Laughlin, an SJSU grad student. In the synopsis below, I repeat the key events several times to give them different nuances.The prophetic works include (in chronological order): Tiriel (c.1789)

The Book of Thel (c.1789)

America a Prophecy (1793)

Europe a Prophecy (1794)

Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793)

The [First] Book of Urizen (1794)

The Book of Ahania (1795)

The Book of Los (1795)

The Song of Los (1795)

Vala, or The Four Zoas (begun 1797, unfinished, abandoned c.1804)

Milton, A Poem (1804-1810)

Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–1820)

The [First] Book of Urizen (1794) was created using what Blake called "illuminated printing,” with the coloured ink being painted on the copperplate before the page was printed. Only eight copies survive. Urizen’s story is retold in variations in The Book of Los (1795) and The Song of Los (1795).

The [First] Book of Urizen is a parody of the Book of Genesis.

Earth was not: nor globes of attraction

The will of the Immortal expanded

Or contracted his all flexible senses.

Death was not, but eternal life sprung. (36-39)

Within creation there are a lot of different Eternals, including Urizen and Los. Urizen is a blind exile who was kept from eternity and who establishes a world that he could rule. Urizen evokes “Your Reason” in Blake's mythology, an alienated faculty that leads to “laws” and repression/oppression.

Urizen is the "primeaval priest" who became separated from the other Eternals and made a world of religious dogma. Urizen is similar to Satan, in Blake’s mythology, although he also bears resemblances at times to God and Job.

Los and Enitharmon give birth to their son Orc, who embodies the spirit of revolution and freedom. Enitharmon emanates from Los's pity for Urizen.

So “in the beginning” occurs the fall of Urizen, the Satanic force, in a similar way to Milton's Satan. Creation, however, was already the fall, according to Blake. Urizen is the representation of abstraction, which is a passive and mental force disconnected from reality. Los, in the fallen world, enters the world as the fire of imaginative energy. However, he too falls and becomes mechanical and regular. Los is the creator of life systems and of the sexes, which leads to the creation of his partner Enitharmon. Eventually, human forms are created and Orc is born as an evolution of life.

Urizen's first four sons are representative of a pagan alchemy, rather than a Christian theology:

Thiriel, Air

Utha, Water

Grodna, Earth

Fuzon, Fire, (see Chapter VIII).

Fuzon later plays a major role in The Book of Ahania, published in 1795.

In order to rule, Urizen creates laws:

Laws of peace, of love, of unity;

Of pity, compassion, forgiveness. . . .

One curse, one weight, one measure

One King, one God, one Law. (78ff.)

Urizen creates a structure to protect himself from life, and he is doomed because he divides himself from the other eternal forces.

And a roof, vast petrific around,

On all sides He fram'd: like a womb;

...Like a human heart strugling & beating

The vast world of Urizen appear'd.

Another Eternal, Los, goes after Urizen and tries to get him under control:

In chains of the mind locked up,

Like fetters of ice shrinking together,

Disorganiz'd, rent from Eternity.

Los beat on his fetters of iron (190-193)

Out of himself Urizen creates living things that torment him. He turns against the other Eternals. He starts to believe he is holy. From Urizen's body a new world is formed, and, from Los's pity of Urizen, the first female is born, Enitharmon. Los and Enitharmon have a child, Orc, whose crying awakens the slumbering Urizen. Once awakened, Urizen begins frantic measurements, quantifying the earth into material existence. Urizen grows sickened by his creation and attempts to rein in its suffering with his "Net of Religion," which only leads to a stultifying and miserable existence for the earth and his children.He is chained by Los, the prophet, from whom Urizen had been rent:

In contemplating himself, he is able to discover sins and records them in a book of brass that are a combination of Newton, the laws of Moses, and deism that force uniformity.

The rest of the Eternals in turn become indignant at Urizen's turning against eternity, and they establish the essence of the sins within living beings.

This torments Urizen, who falls into a sleep, which allows Los to appear. Los' duty within the work is to watch over Urizen, and Urizen is seen as an eternal priest while Los takes the position of eternal prophet (see Chapter 5 verse 4)

Los forges a human image for Urizen in the course of seven ages, but pities him and weeps. From his tears Enitharmon is born. She then bears the child of Los, Orc, whose cries awaken Urizen, who begins to assess the world he has created. But it isn't a good creation, and Urizen's

soul sicken'd! he curs'd

Both sons & daughters: for he saw

That no flesh nor spirit could keep

His iron laws one moment. (443-446)

In response to his four sons (the elements, see above) and daughters of earth, he creates a "Net of Religion, (Chapter 8, verse 9) which serves to enslave the mind. At the end of the poem, Fuzon assembles all the "children" of Urizen who have escaped the "Net of Religion," and they leave Urizen's world, now termed "earth: "So Fuzon call'd all together / The remaining children of Urizen: / And they left the pendulous earth" (520ff.). The departure of Fuzon shows that Urizen has caused events he cannot understand.

Themes

• "Without Contraries is no Progression." The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Songs of Innocence and Experience echo this assertion, and we see it in The Book of Urizen.
• Creation myth about a god of reason
• Urizen is an eternal self-focused being who creates himself out of eternity.
• This creation is taken up again in The Four Zoas with a primal man, Albion, being the original form.
• Urizen represents abstractions and is an abstraction of the human self. He also represents the chains of reason that are imposed on the mind.
• Blake dislikes Newtonian reason and the enlightenment (Locke), because he thinks they reject the human imagination.