Plate 52
|The Spiritual States of |the Soul are all Eternal Rahab is an | To the Deists. |Distinguish between the Eternal State Man, & his present State
He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher
of Natural Morality or Natural Religion. he is a flatterer who
means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that
Babylon which he foresees shall shortly be destroyed, with the
Spiritual and not the Natural Sword: He is in the State named
Rahab: which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of
Man.
You O Deists profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity:
and you are so: you are also the Enemies of the Human Race and of
Universal Nature. Man is born a Spectre or Satan and is altogether
an Evil, and requires a New Selfhood continually and must continually
be changed into his direct Contrary. But your Greek Philosophy
(which is a remnant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in
his Vegetated Spectre: an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence
to Man, as the Ancients saw plainly by Revelation to the intire
abrogation of
Experimental Theory. and many believed what they saw, and
Prophecied of Jesus.
Man must and will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion
of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the
Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God; and
destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God.
Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the
Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches
Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not
the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine
Name Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God
of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and
Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or
Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart.
This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism
is the same and ends in the same.
Voltaire Rousseau Gibbon Hume. charge the Spiritually Religious
with Hypocrisy! but how a Monk or a Methodist either, can be a
Hypocrite: I cannot concieve. We are Men of like passions with
others and pretend not to be holier than others: therefore, when a
Religious Man falls into Sin, he ought not to be calld a
Hypocrite: this title is more properly to be given to a Player
who falls into Sin; whose profession is Virtue and Morality and the
making Men Self-Righteous. Foote in calling Whitefield,
Hypocrite: was himself one: for Whitefield pretended not to be
holier than others: but confessed his Sins before all the World;
Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot escape my charge that you are
Pharisees & Hypocrites, for you are constantly talking of the
Virtues of the Human Heart, and particularly of your own, that
you may accuse others and especially the Religious, whose errors,
you by this display of pretended Virtue, chiefly design to
expose. Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature; he found them Evil
and found no friend. Friendship cannot exist without Forgiveness
of Sins continually. The Book written by Rousseau calld his
Confessions is an apology and cloke for his sin and not a confession.
But you also charge the poor Monks and Religious with being the
causes of War: while you acquit and flatter the Alexanders and
Caesars, the Lewis's and Fredericks: who alone are its causes its
actors. But the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never
be the cause of a War nor of a single Martyrdom.
Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never
can be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is, To
Conquer by Forgiveness. All the Destruction therefore, in
Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural
Religion.
I talkd with the Grey Monk as we stood
in beams of infernal light
The blood. red ran from the Grey Monks side
His hands and feet were wounded wide
His body bent, his arms and knees
Like to the roots of ancient trees
When Satan first the black bow bent
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent
He forgd the Law into a Sword
And spilld the blood of mercys Lord.
Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine!
O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
Your Grecian Mocks and Roman Sword
Against this image of his Lord!
For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!
(Erdman 200-202)
***************************************
Notes:
In Chapter Three, To the Deists, Blake gave free rein to his life long hostility to Conventional Religion, which in upper classes at least boiled down to Deism. They believed in a God who created the world (like a monstrous watch) and left it to function thereafter on its own; This God (in the far away) had little or no concern for his human creatures. This was about as opposite to Blake's faith and values as one could get.
So In Plate 52 he resorted to detailed reasoned arguments, pretty much tearing that faith to pieces.
In particular “Natural Morality or Natural Religion” was the way Deists described their faith.
Quakers believed ‘there was that of God in every man’, and Blake (like Christians) might have said 'that of God in Redeemed men'.
Anyway Blake goes on to excoriate those who call Christians hypocrits:
“Man must and will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion
of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, and will erect the
Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God;”
There he describes Deism as the Religion of Satan.
I know of nothing in Blake’s corpus more eloquent than the Monk of Charlemaine:
"O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
Your Grecian Mocks and Roman Sword
Against this image of his Lord!
For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!"
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PLATE 53
Jerusalem Chap 3. But Los, who is the Vehicular Form of strong Urthona Wept vehemently over Albion where Thames currents spring From the rivers of Beulah; pleasant river! soft, mild, parent stream And the roots of Albions Tree enterd the Soul of Los As he sat before his Furnaces clothed in sackcloth of hair In gnawing pain dividing him from his Emanation; Inclosing all the Children of Los time after time. Their Giant forms condensing into Nations & Peoples & Tongues Translucent the Furnaces, of Beryll & Emerald immortal: And Seven-fold each within other: incomprehensible To the Vegetated Mortal Eye's perverted & single vision The Bellows are the Animal Lungs. the hammers, the Animal Heart The Furnaces, the Stomach for Digestion; terrible their fury Like seven burning heavens rang'd from South to North Here on the banks of the Thames, Los builded Golgonooza, Outside of the Gates of the Human Heart, beneath Beulah In the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion. In fears He builded it, in rage & in fury. It is the Spiritual Fourfold London: continually building & continually decaying desolate! In eternal labours: loud the Furnaces & loud the Anvils Of Death thunder incessant around the flaming Couches of The Twentyfour Friends of Albion and round the awful Four For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albions Sons The Mystic Union of the Emanation in the Lord; Because Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow But she is made receptive of Generation thro' mercy In the Potters Furnace, among the Funeral Urns of Beulah From Surrey hills, thro' Italy and Greece, to Hinnoms vale.
PLATE 54In Great Eternity......(Erdman 202-3)
Notes on Plate 53:
Thou lazy Monk they sound afar
In vain condemning glorious War
And in your Cell you shall ever dwell
Rise War and bind him in his Cell.
Gibbon arose with a lash of steel
And Voltaire with a wracking wheel
The Schools in clouds of learning rolld
Arose with War in iron and gold.
Plate 52
The zoa Los/Urthona has a double name (Urthona is the Eternal name and Los the fallen name. Los was sitting in Beulah, but falling further into Ulro sitting before his furnace. At the furnace the bellows are the animal’s lungs. the hammers the animal’s (beating) heart, and the furnaces the Stomach. (He described these entities otherwise in Milton.)
And there he (the creative zoa) built Golgonooza (which I describe as the worldly replica of the Kingdom of God). He was fearful and full of rage and called it ‘fourfold London’ (a variation of Jerusalem) “continually building and continually decaying desolate!”
“Because Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre [and] an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow”
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PLATE 54 In Great Eternity, every particular Form gives forth or Emanates Its own peculiar Light, & the Form is the Divine Vision And the Light is his Garment This is Jerusalem in every Man A Tent & Tabernacle of Mutual Forgiveness Male & Female Clothings. And Jerusalem is called Liberty among the Children of Albion But Albion fell down a Rocky fragment from Eternity hurld By his own Spectre, who is the Reasoning Power in every Man Into his own Chaos which is the Memory between Man & Man The silent broodings of deadly revenge springing from the All powerful parental affection, fills Albion from head to foot Seeing his Sons assimilate with Luvah, bound in the bonds Of spiritual Hate, from which springs Sexual Love as iron chains: He tosses like a Cloud outstretchd among Jerusalems Ruins Which overspread all the Earth, he groans among his ruind porches [ Reason Pity Wrath This World Desire ] But the Spectre like a hoar frost & a Mildew rose over Albion Saying, I am God O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power! Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man! Who teach Doubt & Experiment & my two Wings Voltaire: Rousseau. Where is that Friend of Sinners! that Rebel against my Laws! Who teaches Belief to the Nations, & an unknown Eternal Life Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread. Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment? And build a World of Phantasy upon my Great Abyss! A World of Shapes in craving Lust & devouring appetite So spoke the hard cold constrictive Spectre he is named Arthur Constricting into Druid Rocks round Canaan Agag & Aram & Pharoh Then Albion drew England into his bosom in groans & tears But she stretchd out her starry Night in Spaces against him. like A long Serpent, in the Abyss of the Spectre which augmented The Night with Dragon wings coverd with stars & in the Wings Jerusalem & Vala appeard: & above between the Wings magnificent The Divine Vision dimly appeard in clouds of blood weeping.
(Erdman 203-4)
Notes on Plate 54
The text begins:
“In Great Eternity, every particular Form gives forth or Emanates
Its own peculiar Light, & the Form is the Divine Vision
And the Light is his Garment This is Jerusalem in every Man”
This is a central idea in Blake’s lexicon or vocabulary: Form and Light! We find it frequently mentioned in his poetry. Form and Light suggest Spirit and Body, Male and Female.
Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation
And they Elected Seven, calld the Seven Eyes of God;
Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus.
They namd the Eighth. he came not, he hid in Albions Forests
But first they said: and their Words stood in Chariots in array
Curbing their Tygers with golden bits and bridles of silver and
ivory)
Let the Human Organs be kept in their perfect Integrity
At will Contracting into Worms, or Expanding into Gods
And then behold! what are these Ulro Visions of Chastity[!]
Then as the moss upon the tree: or dust upon the plow:
Or as the sweat upon the labouring shoulder: or as the chaff
Of the wheat-floor or as the dregs of the sweet wine-press
Such are these Ulro Visions, for tho we sit down within
The plowed furrow, listning to the weeping clods till we
Contract or Expand Space at will: or if we raise ourselves
Upon the chariots of the morning. Contracting or Expanding Time!
Every one knows, we are One Family! One Man blessed for ever
Silence remaind and every one resumd his Human Majesty
And many conversed on these things as they labourd at the furrow
Saying: It is better to prevent misery, than to release from
misery
It is better to prevent error, than to forgive the criminal:
Labour well the Minute Particulars, attend to the Little-ones:
And those who are in misery cannot remain so long
If we do but our duty: labour well the teeming Earth.
They Plow'd in tears, the trumpets sounded before the golden Plow
And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds
of heaven
Crying: Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with unhewn
Demonstrations
Let the Indefinite be explored. and let every Man be judged
By his own Works, Let all Indefinites be thrown into
Demonstrations
To be pounded to dust and melted in the Furnaces of Affliction:
He who would do good to another, must do it in Minute
Particulars
General Good is the plea of the scoundrel hypocrite and flatterer:
For Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized
Particulars
And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.
The Infinite alone resides in Definite and Determinate Identity
Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood
continually
On Circumcision: not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion
So cried they at the Plow. Albions Rock frowned above
And the Great Voice of Eternity rolled above terrible in clouds
Saying Who will go forth for us! and Who shall we send before our
face?
(Erdman 204-5)
Notes on Plate 55:
This plate begins with an account of activity of ‘those who disregard all mortal things’, in other words the Eternal Ones. They had observed the redemption of Albion and his parts (described in the previous chapter). Some wanted to 'go down’ to Beulah, but others urged caution: 'don’t get mixed up with the dead’, they said, because the Divine Man had forbidden them Satan’s veil (prevalent in mortal life). “a veil the Saviour born and dying rends”. "So saying an eternal deed was done..” Blake proceeds to picture the tumultuous event. It led to their election “of the Seven Eyes of God” (Night 1 of The Four Zoas dwells on the Seven Eyes, and Milton Percival has a chapter on them; it’s profitable to read both of these interpretations.)
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Plate 56:
Plate 56
PLATE 56
Then Los heaved his thund'ring Bellows on the Valley of Middlesex
And thus he chaunted his Song: (the chant is on Plate 55)
the Daughters of Albion reply.
What may Man be? who can tell! But what may Woman be?
To have power over Man from Cradle to corruptible Grave.
He who is an Infant, and whose Cradle is a Manger
Knoweth the Infant sorrow: whence it came, and where it goeth:
And who weave it a Cradle of the grass that withereth away.
This World is all a Cradle for the erred wandering Phantom:
Rock'd by Year, Month, Day & Hour; and every two Moments
Between, dwells a Daughter of Beulah, to feed the Human Vegetable
Entune: Daughters of Albion. your hymning Chorus mildly!
Cord of affection thrilling extatic on the iron Reel:
To the golden Loom of Love! to the moth-labourd Woof
A Garment and Cradle weaving for the infantine Terror:
For fear; at entering the gate into our World of cruel
Lamentation: it flee back & hide in Non-Entitys dark wild
Where dwells the Spectre of Albion: destroyer of Definite Form.
The Sun shall be a Scythed Chariot of Britain: the Moon; a Ship
In the British Ocean! Created by Los's Hammer; measured out
Into Days & Nights & Years & Months. to travel with my feet
Over these desolate rocks of Albion:
O daughters of despair!
Rock the Cradle, and in mild melodies tell me where found
What you have enwoven with so much tears & care? so much
Tender artifice: to laugh: to weep: to learn: to know;
Remember! recollect what dark befel in wintry days
O it was lost for ever! and we found it not: it came
Plate 56
And wept at our wintry Door: Look! look! behold! Gwendolen
Is become a Clod of Clay! Merlin is a Worm of the Valley!
Then Los uttered with Hammer & Anvil: Chaunt! revoice!
I mind not your laugh: and your frown I not fear! and
You must my dictate obey from your gold-beam'd Looms; trill
Gentle to Albions Watchman, on Albions mountains; reeccho
And rock the Cradle while! Ah me! Of that Eternal Man
And of the cradled Infancy in his bowels of compassion:
Who fell beneath his instruments of husbandry & became
Subservient to the clods of the furrow! the cattle and even
The emmet and earth-Worm are his superiors & his lords.
Then the response came warbling from trilling Looms in Albion
We Women tremble at the light therefore: hiding fearful
The Divine Vision with Curtain & Veil & fleshly Tabernacle
Los utter'd: swift as the rattling thunder upon the mountains[:]
Look back into the Church Paul! Look! Three Women around
The Cross! O Albion why didst thou a Female Will Create?
(Erdman 206)
Reason Pity Wrath This World Desire
The words are a tetrad expressing two pair of
Contraries: Reason and Desire=Urizen and Luvah
Pity=Palambron or Satan
Wrath=Rintrah (These terms show up in Milton)
(From Paley's Jerusalem, page 217)
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“PLATE 55
When those who disregard all Mortal Things, saw a Mighty-One
Among the Flowers of Beulah still retain his awful strength
They wonderd; checking their wild flames & Many gathering
Together into an Assembly; they said, let us go down
And see these changes! Others said, If you do so prepare
For being drived from our fields, what have we to do with the
Dead?
To be their inferiors or superiors we equally abhor;
Superior, none we know: inferior none: all equal share
Divine Benevolence & joy, for the Eternal Man
Walketh among us, calling us his Brothers & his Friends:
Forbidding us that Veil which Satan puts between Eve and Adam
By which the Princes of the Dead enslave their Votaries
Teaching them to form the Serpent of precious stones and gold
To sieze the Sons of Jerusalem & plant them in One Mans Loins
To make One Family of Contraries: that Joseph may be sold
Into Egypt: for Negation; a Veil the Saviour born and dying rends.
But others said: Let us to him who only Is, and who
Walketh among us, give decision. bring forth all your fires!
So saying, an eternal deed was done: in fiery flames
The Universal Conc[l]ave raged, such thunderous sounds as never
Were sounded from a mortal cloud, nor on Mount Sinai old
Nor in Havilah where the Cherub rolld his redounding flame.
Loud! loud! the Mountains lifted up their voices, loud the Forests
Rivers thunderd against their banks, loud Winds furious fought
Cities and Nations contended in fires & clouds and tempests.
The Seas raisd up their voices and lifted their hands on high
The Stars in their courses fought. the Sun! Moon! Heaven! Earth.
Contending for Albion and for Jerusalem his Emanation
And for Shiloh, the Emanation of France and for lovely Vala.
Form and Light are the name of a 1/17/12 post in which Ellie treated an engraving of Death’s Door in Blair’s Grave, (rejected by the publisher). It’s discussed inBlake's Visionary Forms Dramatic. (It’s very useful to study this post and pursue the links that Ellie posted.)
Plate 55
Notes on Plate 56:This plate continues Blake’s story with a colloquy between Los and the Daughters of Albion. Los chants his Song in lines 1-11 and asks for a choral reply. They are anxious to weave a garment around the new born before they flee from this ‘vale of tears’.
At the end of the Plate we read:
"Look back into the Church Paul! Look! Three Women around
The Cross! O Albion why didst thou a Female Will Create?
Paul represented to Blake the primitive Church, shaped largely by the Apostle Paul.
Recall the gospel text where three women gathered around the cross, and Paul suggests that their prominence led to female domination of Religion. Isn't it still so?
Of course for Blake female denotes not the spiritual but the material.
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Plate 57
And the voices of Bath & Canterbury & York & Edinburgh. Cry
Over the Plow of Nations in the strong hand of Albion thundering
along
Among the Fires of the Druid & the deep black rethundering Waters
Of the Atlantic which poured in impetuous loud loud. louder &
louder.
And the Great Voice of the Atlantic howled over the Druid Altars:
Weeping over his Children in Stone-henge in Maiden & Colchester.
Round the Rocky Peak of Derbyshire London Stone & Rosamonds
Bower
What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church? & What
Is a Theatre? are they Two & not One? can they Exist Separate?
Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is
Religion
"the Daughters of Albion naked and drunk with blood."
Los goes to work on them in his backsmithy.
Meanwhile Urizen directs construction of his ’Might Temple’ (Synagogue of Satan).
Blake has been describing the operation of the Fall: ’the ancient world of Urizen’.
The text of this Plate almost in its entirety of the chaos and disorder making up the Fall.
‘The Sons of Albion by severe War and Judgment, bonify...’
The bonified skelton appears as the lower picture.
(This from Paley’s Jerusalem page 223)
The plow maddened living creatures and plowed over Albion, who fled to the Rock of Ages. (What does it mean? think about it.)
Going back to the original plate do the two beautiful women above relate to the wife and a harlot? In the middle of the bottom of the upper picture stands St. Paul representing State Religion; in the middle of the beginning of the lower picture is a Gothic Cathedral representing Spiritual Christianity. (This from page 322 of Paley's Jerusalem.)
Recall that in Plate 56 Los said 'Look back to the Church Paul'. Does the total picture of Plate 57 refer to the three women around the Cross that Los spoke of in 56?
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Plate 58:
PLATE 58
In beauty the Daughters of Albion divide & unite at will
Naked & drunk with blood Gwendolen dancing to the timbrel
Of War: reeling up the Street of London she divides in twain
Among the Inhabitants of Albion. the People fall around.
The Daughters of Albion. divide & unite in jealousy & cruelty
The Inhabitants of Albion at the Harvest & the Vintage
Feel their Brain cut round beneath the temples shrieking
Bonifying into a Scull, the Marrow exuding in dismal pain
They flee over the rocks bonifying: Horses: Oxen: feel the knife.
And while the Sons of Albion by severe War & Judgment, bonify
The Hermaphroditic Condensations are divided by the Knife
The obdurate Forms are cut asunder by jealousy & Pity.
Rational Philosophy and Mathematic Demonstration
Is divided in the intoxications of pleasure & affection
Two Contraries War against each other in fury & blood,
And Los fixes them on his Anvil, incessant his blows:
He fixes them with strong blows. placing the stones & timbers.
To Create a World of Generation from the World of Death:
Dividing the Masculine & Feminine: for the comingling
Of Albions & Luvahs Spectres was Hermaphroditic
Urizen wrathful strode above directing the awful Building:
As a Mighty Temple; delivering Form out of confusion[.]
Jordan sprang beneath its threshold bubbling from beneath
Its pillars: Euphrates ran under its arches: white sails
And silver oars reflect on its pillars, & sound on its ecchoing
Pavements: where walk the Sons of Jerusalem who remain Ungenerate
But the revolving Sun and Moon pass thro its porticoes,
Day & night, in sublime majesty & silence they revolve
And shine glorious within! Hand & Koban archd over the Sun
In the hot noon, as he traveld thro his journey; Hyle & Skofield
Archd over the Moon at midnight & Los Fixd them there,
With his thunderous Hammer; terrified the Spectres rage & flee
Canaan is his portico; Jordan is a fountain in his porch;
A fountain of milk & wine to relieve the traveller:
Egypt is the eight steps within. Ethiopia supports his pillars;
Lybia & the Lands unknown. are the ascent without;
Within is Asia & Greece, ornamented with exquisite art:
Persia & Media are his halls: his inmost hall is Great Tartary.
China & India & Siberia are his temples for entertainment
Poland & Russia & Sweden, his soft retired chambers
France & Spain & Italy & Denmark & Holland & Germany
Are the temples among his pillars. Britain is Los's Forge;
America North & South are his baths of living waters.
Such is the Ancient World of Urizen in the Satanic Void
Created from the Valley of Middlesex by Londons River
From Stone-henge and from London Stone, from Cornwall to Cathnes
The Four Zoa's rush around on all sides in dire ruin
Furious in pride of Selfhood the terrible Spectres of Albion
Rear their dark Rocks among the Stars of God: stupendous
Works! A World of Generation continually Creating; out of
The Hermaphroditic Satanic World of rocky destiny.
(Erdman 207-8)
Notes:
The Spectre with bat wings presides over the disorder and evil of Ulro:
(This batlike Spectre appears in Chapter One on Plate 6 or here.
Notes:
Bath, Canterbury, York, and Edinburgh is Blake’s representation of the centers of Religion and Power.
The picture above bears no resemblance to the plow mentioned so prominently here; for that look at Plate 29 [33]:
Two lions seem to be pulling a plow, directed by whom? The Spectre!
Erdman sees the Spectre trying to push, rather than guide the plow, and he adds that the Spectre should be pulling it 'with Los in control'.
(The Illuminated Blake page 308)
Wonder siezd all in Eternity! to behold the Divine Vision. open
The Center into an Expanse, & the Center rolled out into an
Expanse.
O Demonstrations of Reason Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!
But Albion fled from the Divine Vision, with the Plow of Nations
enflaming
The Living Creatures maddend and Albion fell into the Furrow, and
The Plow went over him & the Living was Plowed in among the Dead
But his Spectre rose over the starry Plow. Albion fled beneath
the Plow
Till he came to the Rock of Ages. & he took his Seat upon the Rock.
Plate 29[33]
Plate 58
She looked & saw Joseph the Carpenter in Nazareth & Mary
His espoused Wife. And Mary said, If thou put me away from thee
Dost thou not murder me? Joseph spoke in anger & fury. Should I
Marry a Harlot & an Adulteress? Mary answerd, Art thou more pure
Than thy Maker who forgiveth Sins & calls again Her that is Lost
Tho She hates. he calls her again in love. I love my dear Joseph
But he driveth me away from his presence. yet I hear the voice of
God
In the voice of my Husband. tho he is angry for a moment, he will
not
Utterly cast me away. if I were pure, never could I taste the
sweets
Of the Forgive[ne]ss of Sins! if I were holy! I never could
behold the tears
Of love! of him who loves me in the midst of his anger in furnace
of fire.
Ah my Mary: said Joseph: weeping over & embracing her closely in
His arms: Doth he forgive Jerusalem & not exact Purity from her
who is
Polluted. I heard his voice in my sleep O his Angel in my dream:
- 211 -
Saying, Doth Jehovah Forgive a Debt only on condition that it
shall
Be Payed? Doth he Forgive Pollution only on conditions of Purity
That Debt is not Forgiven! That Pollution is not Forgiven
Such is the Forgiveness of the Gods, the Moral Virtues of the
Heathen, whose tender Mercies are Cruelty. But Jehovahs Salvation
Is without Money & without Price, in the Continual Forgiveness of
Sins
In the Perpetual Mutual Sacrifice in Great Eternity! for behold!
There is none that liveth & Sinneth not! And this is the Covenant
Of Jehovah: If you Forgive one-another, so shall Jehovah Forgive
You:
That He Himself may Dwell among You. Fear not then to take
To thee Mary thy Wife, for she is with Child by the Holy Ghost
Then Mary burst forth into a Song! she flowed like a River of
Many Streams in the arms of Joseph & gave forth her tears of joy
Like many waters, and Emanating into gardens & palaces upon
Euphrates & to forests & floods & animals wild & tame from
Gihon to Hiddekel, & to corn fields & villages & inhabitants
Upon Pison & Arnon & Jordan. And I heard the voice among
The Reapers Saying, Am I Jerusalem the lost Adulteress? or am I
Babylon come up to Jerusalem? And another voice answerd Saying
Does the voice of my Lord call me again? am I pure thro his Mercy
And Pity. Am I become lovely as a Virgin in his sight who am
Indeed a Harlot drunken with the Sacrifice of Idols does he
Call her pure as he did in the days of her Infancy when She
Was cast out to the loathing of her person. The Chaldean took
Me from my Cradle. The Amalekite stole me away upon his Camels
Before I had ever beheld with love the Face of Jehovah; or known
That there was a God of Mercy: O Mercy O Divine Humanity!
O Forgiveness & Pity & Compassion! If I were Pure I should never
Have known Thee; If I were Unpolluted I should never have
Glorified thy Holiness, or rejoiced in thy great Salvation.
Mary leaned her side against Jerusalem, Jerusalem recieved
The Infant into her hands in the Visions of Jehovah. Times passed
on
Jerusalem fainted over the Cross & Sepulcher She heard the voice
Wilt thou make Rome thy Patriarch Druid & the Kings of Europe his
Horsemen? Man in the Resurrection changes his Sexual Garments at
will
Every Harlot was once a Virgin: every Criminal an Infant Love
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Notes:
This post is obviously Blake’s reenactment of the gospel story.
Mary had ‘sinned’, and Joseph meant to do the honorable thing.
She begged for forgiveness. (We might see Mary as a figure of the Chosen People, sinning and being forgiven.)
Joseph forgave Mary. His statement points out the difference between Old and New Testament theologies: judging and being forgiven.
Then “Mary burst forth into a Song”. Another voice (among the Reapers) and a second voice recapitulates the course of Old Testament history.
In the final paragraph we see the identity between Mary and Jerusalem, both of them metaphors for the people: fallen and redeemed.
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Plate 62:
For Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic
One to the North; Urthona: One to the South; Urizen:
One to the East: Luvah: One to the West, Tharmas;
They are the Four Zoas that stood around the Throne Divine
Verulam: London: York & Edinburgh: their English names
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen Southward
And Albion was slain upon his Mountains & in his Tent.
All fell towards the Center, sinking downwards in dire ruin,
In the South remains a burning Fire: in the East. a Void
In the West, a World of raging Waters: in the North; solid
Darkness
Unfathomable without end: but in the midst of these
Is Built eternally the sublime Universe of Los & Enitharmon
And in the North Gate, in the West of the North. toward Beulah
Cathedrons Looms are builded. and Los's Furnaces in the South
A wondrous golden Building immense with ornaments sublime
Is bright Cathedrons golden Hall, its Courts Towers & Pinnacles
And one Daughter of Los sat at the fiery Reel & another
Sat at the shining Loom with her Sisters attending round
Terrible their distress & their sorrow cannot be utterd
And another Daughter of Los sat at the Spinning Wheel
Endless their labour, with bitter food. void of sleep,
Tho hungry they labour: they rouze themselves anxious
Hour after hour labouring at the whirling Wheel
Many Wheels & as many lovely Daughters sit weeping
Yet the intoxicating delight that they take in their work
Obliterates every other evil; none pities their tears
Yet they regard not pity & they expect no one to pity
For they labour for life & love, regardless of any one
But the poor Spectres that they work for, always incessantly
They are mockd, by every one that passes by. they regard not
They labour; & when their Wheels are broken by scorn & malice
They mend them sorrowing with many tears & afflictions.
Other Daughters Weave on the Cushion & Pillow, Network fine
That Rahab & Tirzah may exist & live & breathe & love
Ah, that it could be as the Daughters of Beulah wish!
Other Daughters of Los, labouring at Looms less fine
Create the Silk-worm & the Spider & the Catterpiller
To assist in their most grievous work of pity & compassion
And others Create the wooly Lamb & the downy Fowl
To assist in the work: the Lamb bleats: the Sea-fowl cries
Men understand not the distress & the labour & sorrow
That in the Interior Worlds is carried on in fear & trembling
Weaving the shuddring fears & loves of Albions Families
Thunderous rage the Spindles of iron. & the iron Distaff
Maddens in the fury of their hands, Weaving in bitter tears
The Veil of Goats-hair & Purple & Scarlet & fine twined Linen
(Erdman 208-09)
Notes:
“Formed with precious stones”: Blake used precious stones often, especially in Milton and Jerusalem; it was usually an ambivalen term, particularly connoting the inveterate attraction of various forms of Evil.
The Veil of Vala is the figleaves of the Garden. Jerusalem innocently was naked, but Vala often endeavored to cast her veil over her pure sister. So you might almost say that Vala represents Evil and Jerusalem Goodness.
That leads to the mention and brief description of the Mundane Shell (which belongs to the same family as Golgonooza). All these terms represents mortal strivings toward the Light.
Blake proceeds to name the directions and their relationship to the 4 zoas, touching once again on the most direct description of the Fall, in this case Luvah wanting to became the bearer of Urizenic Light (or Sun). There are two Suns in Blake, the mortal, physical one and the Spiritual One.
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Plate 60:
PLATE 60
The clouds of Albions Druid Temples rage in the eastern heaven
While Los sat terrified beholding Albions Spectre who is Luvah
Spreading in bloody veins in torments over Europe & Asia;
Not yet formed but a wretched torment unformed & abyssal
In flaming fire; within the Furnaces the Divine Vision appeard
On Albions hills: often walking from the Furnaces in clouds
And flames among the Druid Temples & the Starry Wheels
Gatherd Jerusalems Children in his arms & bore them like
A Shepherd in the night of Albion which overspread all the Earth
I gave thee liberty and life O lovely Jerusalem
And thou hast bound me down upon the Stems of Vegetation
I gave thee Sheep-walks upon the Spanish Mountains Jerusalem
I gave thee Priams City and the Isles of Grecia lovely!
I gave thee Hand & Scofield & the Counties of Albion:
They spread forth like a lovely root into the Garden of God:
They were as Adam before me: united into One Man,
They stood in innocence & their skiey tent reachd over Asia
To Nimrods Tower to Ham & Canaan walking with Mizraim
Upon the Egyptian Nile, with solemn songs to Grecia
And sweet Hesperia even to Great Chaldea & Tesshina
Following thee as a Shepherd by the Four Rivers of Eden
Why wilt thou rend thyself apart, Jerusalem?
And build this Babylon & sacrifice in secret Groves,
Among the Gods of Asia: among the fountains of pitch & nitre
Therefore thy Mountains are become barren Jerusalem!
Thy Valleys, Plains of burning sand. thy Rivers: waters of death
Thy Villages die of the Famine and thy Cities
Beg bread from house to house, lovely Jerusalem
Why wilt thou deface thy beauty & the beauty of thy little-ones
To please thy Idols, in the pretended chastities of
Uncircumcision[?]
Thy Sons are lovelier than Egypt or Assyria; wherefore
Dost thou blacken their beauty by a Secluded place of rest.
And a peculiar Tabernacle, to cut the integuments of beauty
Into veils of tears and sorrows O lovely Jerusalem!
They have perswaded thee to this, therefore their end shall come
And I will lead thee thro the Wilderness in shadow of my cloud
And in my love I will lead thee, lovely Shadow of Sleeping
Albion.
This is the Song of the Lamb, sung by Slaves in evening time.
But Jerusalem faintly saw him, closd in the Dungeons of Babylon
Her Form was held by Beulahs Daughters. but all within unseen
She sat at the Mills, her hair unbound her feet naked
Cut with the flints: her tears run down, her reason grows like
The Wheel of Hand. incessant turning day & night without rest
Insane she raves upon the winds hoarse, inarticulate:
All night Vala hears. she triumphs in pride of holiness
To see Jerusalem deface her lineaments with bitter blows
Of despair. while the Satanic Holiness triumphd in Vala
In a Religion of Chastity & Uncircumcised Selfishness
Both of the Head & Heart & Loins, closd up in Moral Pride.
But the Divine Lamb stood beside Jerusalem. oft she saw
The lineaments Divine & oft the Voice heard, & oft she said:
O Lord & Saviour, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee?
Or hast thou been pierced in the House of thy Friends?
Art thou alive! & livest thou for-evermore? or art thou
Not: but a delusive shadow, a thought that liveth not.
Babel mocks saying, there is no God nor Son of God
That thou O Human Imagination, O Divine Body art all
A delusion. but I know thee O Lord when thou arisest upon
My weary eyes even in this dungeon & this iron mill.
The Stars of Albion cruel rise; thou bindest to sweet influences:
For thou also sufferest with me altho I behold thee not;
And altho I sin & blaspheme thy holy name, thou pitiest me;
Because thou knowest I am deluded by the turning mills.
And by these visions of pity & love because of Albions death.
Thus spake Jerusalem, & thus the Divine Voice replied.
Mild Shade of Man, pitiest thou these Visions of terror & woe!
Give forth thy pity & love. fear not! lo I am with thee always.
Only believe in me that I have power to raise from death
Thy Brother who Sleepeth in Albion: fear not trembling Shade
(Erdman 209-11)
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Notes:
In this Plate Blake identifies Albion’s Spectre as Luvah.
The fallen Luvah appears in flames of fire, but within the Furnaces the Divine Vision appeard .
In these metaphors we may see the Fall and an aspect of the return.
The primary myth of the Bible involves Creation, the Fall, prophecy and return through the life and work of the Saviour. Blake’s myth varies in the sequence: it constitutes the Fall, Creation, Prophecy, and the saving life and work of the Saviour.
The concluding paragraph is spoken by the Divine Voice and is almost entirely biblical.
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Plate 61:
PLATE 61
Behold: in the Visions of Elohim Jehovah, behold Joseph & Mary
And be comforted O Jerusalem in the Visions of Jehovah Elohim
For the Veil of Vala which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep
To catch the Souls of the Dead: began to Vegetate & Petrify
Around the Earth of Albion. among the Roots of his Tree
This Los formed into the Gates & mighty Wall, between the Oak
Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering beneath Albions Tomb,
Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity
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Plate 59:
PLATE 59
And formed into Four precious stones. for enterance from Beulah
Plate 60
Plate 59