British
Library Four Zoas Manuscript Page 93 |
"Life up thy blue eyes Vala & put on thy sapphire shoes
O Melancholy Magdalen behold the morning breaks
Gird on thy flaming Zone. descend into the Sepulcher
Scatter the blood from thy golden brow the tears from thy silver locks
Shake off the waters from thy wings & the dust from thy white garments
Remember all thy feigned terrors on the secret Couch
When the sun rose in glowing morn with arms of mighty hosts
Marching to battle who was wont to rise with Urizens harps
Girt as a Sower with his seed to scatter life abroad
Arise O Vala bring the bow of Urizen bring the swift arrows of light
How ragd the golden horses of Urizen bound to the chariot of Love
Compelld to leave the plow to the Ox to snuff up the winds of desolation
To trample the corn fields in boastful neighings. this is no gentle harp
This is no warbling brook nor Shadow of a Myrtle tree
But blood & wounds & dismal cries & clarions of war
And hearts laid open to the light by the broad grizly sword
And bowels hidden in hammerd steel rippd forth upon the Ground
Call forth thy Smiles of soft deceit call forth thy cloudy tears
We hear thy sighs in trumpets shrill when Morn shall blood renew
So sung the demons of the deep the Clarions of war blew loud
Orc rent her & his human form consumd in his own fires
Mingled with her dolorous members strewn thro the Abyss
She joyd in all the Conflict Gratified & drinking tears of woe
No more remaind of Orc but the Serpent round the tree of Mystery
The form of Orc was gone he reard his serpent bulk among
The stars of Urizen in Power rending the form of life
Into a formless indefinite & strewing her on the Abyss
Like clouds upon the winter sky broken with winds & thunders
This was to her Supreme delight The Warriors mournd disappointed
They go out to war with Strong Shouts & loud Clarions O Pity
They return with lamentations mourning & weeping
Invisible or visible drawn out in length or stretchd in breadth
The Shadowy Female varied in the War in her delight
Howling in discontent black & heavy uttering brute sounds
Wading thro fens among the slimy weeds making Lamentations
To decieve Tharmas in his rage to soothe his furious soul
To stay him in his flight that Urizen might live tho in pain
He said Art thou bright Enion is the Shadow of hope returnd
And She said Tharmas I am Vala bless thy innocent face
Doth Enion avoid the sight of thy blue watry eyes
Be not perswaded that the air knows this or the failing dew
Tharmas replid O Vala once I livd in a garden of delight"
Wiki Commons Illustrations to Young's Night thoughts |
The image calls to mind the situation of Urizen as he may have contemplated the consequences of entering the world of mortality. The figures in the lower world show diminishment as thy drink the dark wine of mortality. Their covered sensory organs indicate that the acute perception which they enjoyed in Eternity was one of the first losses experienced in materiality.
Four Zoas, Night IX, PAGE 121, (E 390)
"Urizen wept in the dark deep anxious his Scaly form
To reassume the human & he wept in the dark deep
Saying O that I had never drank the wine nor eat the bread
Of dark mortality nor cast my view into futurity nor turnd
My back darkning the present clouding with a cloud"
Several entries in the Blake Dictionary by S Foster Damon assist in understanding Blake's imagery:
SERPENT (Page 365)
"The Serpent has been
a symbol of evil ever since it seduced Eve into eating of the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Blake gives the
serpent a number of overlapping meanings, all related.
...
The longest analysis of this process is Blake's study of the degeneration of Revolution. Orc is compelled by Urizen to assume the serpent form and climb the Tree of Mystery. He has lost all semblance of his original humanity and has descended into 'that State called Satan'. He encircles Man with his twenty-seven folds of his false heavens or churches 'in forms of Priesthood'. Thus Orc, originally enemy of religion, becomes his own opposite."
...
The longest analysis of this process is Blake's study of the degeneration of Revolution. Orc is compelled by Urizen to assume the serpent form and climb the Tree of Mystery. He has lost all semblance of his original humanity and has descended into 'that State called Satan'. He encircles Man with his twenty-seven folds of his false heavens or churches 'in forms of Priesthood'. Thus Orc, originally enemy of religion, becomes his own opposite."
DEATH (Page 99)
"Death of the physical
body is the shedding of the shell which the soul, or spiritual
body, has grown for protection in this world. It is the return
of the soul to Eternity. ... The inner being knows nothing of
death, death exists only in the conscious mind and the world of
matter. It is learned only by Experience. ... Only man fears
death...But man's fears are augmented by the religion of Satan.
... Spiritual Death is sacrificing oneself for another."
Milton, PLATE 38
[43], (E 139)
"Such are the Laws of Eternity that each shall mutually
Annihilate himself for others good, as I for thee"
"Such are the Laws of Eternity that each shall mutually
Annihilate himself for others good, as I for thee"
TREE OF MYSTERY (Page
410)
"The Tree of Mystery is
the contrary of the Tree of Life. It is the Tree of Death, the
forbidden tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, whose fatal
fruit brings spiritual death, causing man to set mimself up as a
god (Elohim - judges.) It is the system of Morality, the false
church of Mystery, the Whore of Babylon. On this Tree Jesus was
crucified.
...
until the web of religion falls of its own weight and entangles Urizen."
...
until the web of religion falls of its own weight and entangles Urizen."
WAR (Page 441)
"War on earth is 'energy enslaved'. It is the 'fever of the human soul'. After Luvah is sealed in the furnace of affliction, he reappears in the lower form of Orc; and the demons cry: 'Luvah King of Love, thou art the king of rage & death'. When Orc breaks loose and embraces the Shadowy Female (the debased Vala), war enters the material world."
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