INTEGRATION

Wikipedia Commons

A Large Book of Designs

Albion Rose

"Albion rose from where he labourd at the Mill with Slaves

Giving himself for the Nations he danc'd the dance of

Eternal Death"

 In Blake's Four Zoas: The Design of a Dream by Brian Wilkie and Mary Lynn Johnson we read of the finalizaton of of the poem in the last 31 lines which Blake wrote. The Four Zoas ends quickly after each of the Zoas has returned to his proper position and resumed his ordained function: Tharmas the shepherd, Urizen the Plowman, Luvah the Weaver, and Urthona the Blacksmith.

The final task is reassembling Albion in his pristine unity. All of the dividing, dissension and disintegration that went before is counter-balanced by synthesyzing the symbols which were so carefully developed in analyzing the process of dividing the Eternal Man.

Four Zoas , Night IX, (E 406)

"The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     

And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night  
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires  the evil is all consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice   
Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth

For Tharmas brought his flocks upon the hills & in the Vales
Around the Eternal Mans bright tent the little Children play
Among the wooly flocks The hammer of Urthona sounds              
In the deep caves beneath his limbs renewd  his Lions roar
Around the Furnaces & in Evening sport upon the plains
They raise their faces from the Earth conversing with the Man

How is it we have walkd thro fires & yet are not consumd
How is it that all things are changd even as in ancient times    

PAGE 139 
The Sun arises from his dewy bed & the fresh airs
Play in his smiling beams giving the seeds of life to grow
And the fresh Earth beams forth ten thousand thousand springs of life
Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los                
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
Departed & Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War The war of swords departed now
The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns           

                  End of The Dream

Only Luvah and Vala do not return to their original functioning. They are cast into the 'World of Shadows' until the 'winter is over and gone'. We may think of the unconscious as the shadow world which is unknown to consciousness. In our world of time and space Luvah and Vala function in the outer world of which we are conscious.  But although the dream is over the final restoration is not complete.  Until time and space no longer exist and have been subsumed by Eternity, the place of Luvah and Vala will remain in the shadowy unconscious where they will not disturb the unity of Albion's consciousness. 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405) 

"Luvah & Vala woke & all the sons & daughters of Luvah
Awoke they wept to one another & they reascended
To the Eternal Man in woe he cast them wailing into              
The world of shadows thro the air till winter is over & gone"

Urthona too has a place in the unconscious where his work is continued. He feeds the conscious mind with the bread of sweet thought and the wine of delight.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405)

"But the Human Wine stood wondering in all their delightful Expanses
The Elements subside the heavens rolld on with vocal harmony

Then Los who is Urthona rose in all his regenerate power

The Sea that rolld & foamd with darkness & the shadows of death  
Vomited out & gave up all the floods lift up their hands
Singing & shouting to the Man they bow their hoary heads
And murmuring in their channels flow & circle round his feet

PAGE 138 
Then Dark Urthona took the Corn out of the Stores of Urizen
He ground it in his rumbling Mills Terrible the distress
Of all the Nations of Earth ground in the Mills of Urthona
In his hand Tharmas takes the Storms. he turns the whirlwind Loose
Upon the wheels the stormy seas howl at his dread command        
And Eddying fierce rejoice in the fierce agitation of the wheels
Of Dark Urthona Thunders Earthquakes Fires Water floods
Rejoice to one another loud their voices shake the Abyss
Their dread forms tending the dire mills The grey hoar frost was there
And his pale wife the aged Snow they watch over the fires        
They build the Ovens of Urthona Nature in darkness groans
And Men are bound to sullen contemplations in the night
Restless they turn on beds of sorrow. in their inmost brain
Feeling the crushing Wheels they rise they write the bitter words
Of Stern Philosophy & knead the bread of knowledge with tears & groans

Four Zoas , Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)

"Such are the works of Dark Urthona  Tharmas sifted the corn
Urthona made the Bread of Ages & he placed it
In golden & in silver baskets in heavens of precious stone
And then took his repose in Winter in the night of Time"

Letters,To Flaxman, (E 709)

"My Friend & Thine Descend & Ascend with the Bread & the Wine The Bread of sweet Thought & the Wine of Delight Feeds the Village of Felpham by day & by night"

Songs and Ballads, (E 476)

"Then shall we return & see
The worlds of happy Eternity

& Throughout all Eternity             
I forgive you you forgive me
As our dear Redeemer said                                   
This the Wine & this the Bread"

__________________________________________________

WAR

Wikipedia Commons

America 

Plate 6, Copy a

War is Blake's method of separating Truth from Error. The condition of War in Eternity is the clash of ideas or as David Erdman writes in Prophet Against Empire on Page 356, the separation of 'wheat from chaff.'

Blake distinguishes between the Wars of Man which in Eternity are experienced as visionary, and the violent conflicts with which we are familiar. Ololon looking down into our world sees that War has become the vehicle of decay & death. Ideas are meant to be expressions of the Divine Vision and not cause for bitterness and terror.

Milton, Plate 34 [38], (E 134) 

"And Ololon looked down into the Heavens of Ulro in fear
They said. How are the Wars of Man which in Great Eternity       
Appear around, in the External Spheres of Visionary Life
Here renderd Deadly within the Life & Interior Vision
How are the Beasts & Birds & Fishes, & Plants & Minerals
Here fixd into a frozen bulk subject to decay & death?
Those Visions of Human Life & Shadows of Wisdom & Knowledge      
Plate 35 [39]
Are here frozen to unexpansive deadly destroying terrors[.]
And War & Hunting: the Two Fountains of the River of Life
Are become Fountains of bitter Death & of corroding Hell
Till Brotherhood is changd into a Curse & a Flattery
By Differences between Ideas, that Ideas themselves, (which are  
The Divine Members) may be slain in offerings for sin"

Blake writes of the transition from corporeal war to mental war as The Four Zoas is brought to a close "as an extended song of harvest." Erdman furnishes the details. "Enion and Tharmas are at last united, appearing in Eden as innocent boy and girl in Eternal Childhood, he the rivers and seas, she the moon that woos them. ...The clouds of war dissipate and sink into the Seas of Tharmas. "... 

"Urizen combines the drying and cutting operations, and the winnowing is done by Tharmas as Tongue making the honest man's ultimate separation of wheat from chaff, exulting over the downfall of the great Whore and and all her "Kings & Councellors & Giant Warriors":

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 134, (E 402)
"O Mystery Fierce Tharmas cries Behold thy end is come            
Art thou she that made the nations drunk with the cup of Religion
Go down ye Kings & Councellors & Giant Warriors
Go down into the depths go down & hide yourselves beneath
Go down with horse & Chariots & Trumpets of hoarse war

Lo how the Pomp of Mystery goes down into the Caves              
Her great men howl & throw the dust & rend their hoary hair
Her delicate women & children shriek upon the bitter wind
Spoild of their beauty their hair rent & their skin shriveld up
Lo darkness covers the long pomp of banners on the wind
And black horses & armed men & miserable bound captives          
Where shall the graves recieve them all & where shall be their place
And who shall mourn for Mystery who never loosd her Captives
Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air
Let the inchaind soul shut up in darkness & in sighing           
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years
Rise & look out his chains are loose his dungeon doors are open
And let his wife & children return from the opressors scourge
They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream
Are these the Slaves that groand along the streets of Mystery    
Where are your bonds & task masters are these the prisoners
Where are your chains where are your tears why do you look around
If you are thirsty there is the river go bathe your parched limbs
The good of all the Land is before you for Mystery is no more
Then All the Slaves from every Earth in the wide Universe        
Sing a New Song drowning confusion in its happy notes
While the flail of Urizen sounded loud & the winnowing wind of Tharmas
So loud so clear in the wide heavens & the song that they sung was this 
Composed by an African Black from the little Earth of Sotha"

After referring to the above passage near the end of the Four Zoas, Erdman continues: 

"This is the end so long foretold, and now Tharmas recites the beginning foretold in America, repeating Blake' paraphrase of the second and third demands of the Declaration of Independence, Life having been attained. The slaves and prisoners attaining Liberty are urged to pursue their Happiness as earth-owners, free of religion's tithes: The good of all the Land is before you for Mystery is no more"

Declaration of Independence

"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

America, Plate 6, (E 53)

"The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;
The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd.
Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing! awakening!
Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst; 

Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field:
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;
Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years;
Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open.     
And let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge;
They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream.
Singing. The Sun has left his blackness, & has found a fresher morning
And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;
For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease." 

Matthew 3

[11] I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that
 cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
[12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and 
gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire.
[13] Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 

INTERLUDE

First posted November 2018.

Yale Center for British Art
America
Plate 9

Larry wrote this in his Journal in January 1985:

"Four Zoas Night IX - reading a passage from Vala's interlude, I am charmed with the language. I realize that much of Blake's attraction to me is as an escape from the sordid world, a pleasant world like great music - with very little relationship to the rest of life. That passage, owing much to the myth of Cupid and Psyche and to the biblical Song of Solomon shows Blake as teller of tales, as bearer of the culture of the millennia. That is so foreign to our heedless, blind, 20th century consciousness. It is a form of transcendence, and an approach to the immortality for which Vala longs; a bright airy world of limitless dimensions.

Los is that prophet who walks walks up and down 6000 years allowing time and space for such moments to occur and to be made permanent in the Body and the Spirit."  

In November 2018 Ellie added:

When we read the Old Testament or Blake's Prophecies we find many disturbing passages. We may be inclined to close the book to avoid subjecting ourselves to the negative feelings engendered by reading of struggles among competing individuals or entities. Were it not for the hope of finding gems of truth and beauty embedded in the mire of confusion and dissension we may not read on.

One on Larry's favorite expressions was, "The Bible is all poetry, and poetry is the highest form of truth." Like the Bible, Blake's writing (even the prose) is poetry. It is not to be taken literally but metaphorically. It points to truth which is beyond expression. Blake's God availed himself of the opportunity to begin again repeatedly. We might follow that lead and begin again when reading gets rough.

Jerusalem, Plate 75, (E 230)
"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down continually
That not one Moment of Time be lost & every revolution
Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola & Cathedron."

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 128, (E 397) 
"So spoke the Sinless Soul & laid her head on the downy fleece 
Of a curld Ram who stretchd himself in sleep beside his mistress
And soft sleep fell upon her eyelids in the silent noon of day

Then Luvah passed by & saw the sinless Soul
And said   Let a pleasant house arise to be the dwelling place
Of this immortal Spirit growing in lower Paradise 

He spoke & pillars were builded & walls as white as ivory
The grass she slept upon was pavd with pavement as of pearl
Beneath her rose a downy bed & a cieling coverd all

Vala awoke. When in the pleasant gates of sleep I enterd
I saw my Luvah like a spirit stand in the bright air 
Round him stood spirits like me who reard me a bright house
And here I see thee house remain in my most pleasant world
Page 129 
My Luvah smild I kneeled down he laid his hand on my head
And when he laid his hand upon me from the gates of sleep I came
Into this bodily house to tend my flocks in my pleasant garden

So saying she arose & walked round her beautiful house
And then from her white door she lookd to see her bleating lambs 
But her flocks were gone up from beneath the trees into the hills

I see the hand that leadeth me doth also lead my flocks
She went up to her flocks & turned oft to see her shining house
She stopd to drink of the clear spring & eat the grapes & apples

She bore the fruits in her lap she gatherd flowers for her bosom
She called to her flocks saying follow me O my flocks

They followd her to the silent valley beneath the spreading trees
And on the rivers margin she ungirded her golden girdle
She stood in the river & viewd herself within the watry glass
And her bright hair was wet with the waters She rose up from the river
And as she rose her Eyes were opend to the world of waters"

Letters, To Butts, (E 713)

     "In his beams of bright gold
     Like dross purgd away
     All my mire & my clay
     Soft consumd in delight
     In his bosom sun bright
     I remaind.  Soft he smild
     And I heard his voice Mild
     Saying This is My Fold
     O thou Ram hornd with gold
     Who awakest from sleep
     On the sides of the Deep
     On the Mountains around
     The roarings resound
     Of the lion & wolf
     The loud sea & deep gulf
     These are guards of My Fold
     O thou Ram hornd with gold
     And the voice faded mild
     I remaind as a Child
     All I ever had known
     Before me bright Shone" 

Song of Solomon
Chapter 2
[8] The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
[9] My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.
[10] My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
[11] For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
[12] The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
[13] The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
[14] O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
[15] Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
[16] My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
[17] Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

 

DRIVING THE PLOW

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 79,  (E 355) 
"Urizen answerd Read my books explore my Constellations 
Enquire of my Sons & they shall teach thee how to War
Enquire of my Daughters who accursd in the dark depths
Knead bread of Sorrow by my stern command for I am God
Of all this dreadful ruin"  

Wikipedia Commons
Illustration to the Book of Job
Butts Set, Page 12

It is not the simple, easy, pleasant things which offer the greatest benefit or prove to be the most worth doing. The world could have been arranged in such a way that there was no variation, no change, no challenge. But without obstacles to be overcome, problems to be solved, unpredictability to be considered, life would indeed be a 'dull round' of repetition.  

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 543)
"Mr. B. has done, as all
the ancients did, and as all the moderns, who are worthy of fame,
given the historical fact in its poetical vigour; so as it always
happens, and not in that dull way that some Historians pretend,
who being weakly organized themselves, cannot see either miracle
or prodigy; all is to them a dull round of probabilities and
possibilities; but the history of all times and places, is
nothing else but improbabilities and impossibilities; what we 
should say, was impossible if we did not see it always before our 
eyes."

Blake puts in the hand of Urizen the plow as the instrument that keeps stirring the events which comprise the complexities of existence. Living as we do in the world of time and space, we learn from demonstration, from experiencing, from seeing the indefinite become definite. It is the reasoning mind which is assigned the task of taking the material which it encounters and defining the value in it whether it be truth or error. Without the labor of Urizen performing the work of breaking up, and turning over the soil comprised of thoughts and actions, there would be no possibility for the work of Los, imagination, to continue.   

Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 121)
"There Los puts all into the Press, the Opressor & the Opressed
Together, ripe for the Harvest & Vintage & ready for the Loom.

They sang at the Vintage. This is the Last Vintage! & Seed
Shall no more be sown upon Earth, till all the Vintage is over
And all gatherd in, till the Plow has passd over the Nations     
And the Harrow & heavy thundering Roller upon the mountains

And loud the Souls howl round the Porches of Golgonooza
Crying O God deliver us to the Heavens or to the Earths,
That we may preach righteousness & punish the sinner with death
But Los refused, till all the Vintage of Earth was gatherd in.  

And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of awe.

Fellow Labourers! The Great Vintage & Harvest is now upon Earth
The whole extent of the Globe is explored: Every scatterd Atom
Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet
All the Wisdom which was hidden in caves & dens, from ancient    
Time; is now sought out from Animal & Vegetable & Mineral- 121 -

The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,"

Jerusalem, Plate 29 [33], (E 175)       
"Turning his back to the Divine Vision, his Spectrous
Chaos before his face appeard: an Unformed Memory.

Then spoke the Spectrous Chaos to Albion darkning cold
From the back & loins where dwell the Spectrous Dead

I am your Rational Power O Albion & that Human Form              
You call Divine, is but a Worm seventy inches long
That creeps forth in a night & is dried in the morning sun
In fortuitous concourse of memorys accumulated & lost
It plows the Earth in its own conceit, it overwhelms the Hills
Beneath its winding labyrinths, till a stone of the brook        
Stops it in midst of its pride among its hills & rivers[.] 
Battersea & Chelsea mourn, London & Canterbury tremble
Their place shall not be found as the wind passes over[.]
The ancient Cities of the Earth remove as a traveller
And shall Albions Cities remain when I pass over them            
With my deluge of forgotten remembrances over the tablet
 So spoke the Spectre to Albion. he is the Great Selfhood
Satan: Worshipd as God by the Mighty Ones of the Earth"

Jerusalem, Plate 41 [46], (E 188)
"Thou art in Error Albion, the Land of Ulro:               
One Error not remov'd, will destroy a human Soul
Repose in Beulahs night, till the Error is remov'd
Reason not on both sides. Repose upon our bosoms
Till the Plow of Jehovah, and the Harrow of Shaddai
Have passed over the Dead, to awake the Dead to Judgment.     
But Albion turn'd away refusing comfort."

Jerusalem, Plate 55, (E 205)
"Every one knows, we are One Family! One Man blessed for ever

Silence remaind & 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 & 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 & flatterer:
For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars
And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.
The Infinite alone resides in Definite & 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! & Who shall we send before our face?"

Jerusalem, Plate 17, (E 207)
"Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is Religion    
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.

Wonder siezd all in Eternity! to behold the Divine Vision. open
The Center into an Expanse, & the Center rolled out into an Expanse."

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 213)
"that Los in despair oft sat, & often ponderd
On Death Eternal in fierce shudders upon the mountains of Albion 
Walking: & in the vales in howlings fierce, then to his Anvils
Turning, anew began his labours, tho in terrible pains!

Plate 63
Jehovah stood among the Druids in the Valley of Annandale
When the Four Zoas of Albion, the Four Living Creatures, the Cherubim
Of Albion tremble before the Spectre, in the starry likeness of the Plow
Of Nations. And their Names are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona"

Four Zoas, Night VI, Page 70, (E 346)
"Writing in bitter tears & groans in books of iron & brass
The enormous wonders of the Abysses once his brightest joy

For Urizen beheld the terrors of the Abyss wandring among        
The ruind spirits once his children & the children of Luvah
Scard at the sound of their own sigh that seems to shake the immense
They wander Moping in their heart a Sun a Dreary moon
A Universe of fiery constellations in their brain
An Earth of wintry woe beneath their feet & round their loins 
Waters or winds or clouds or brooding lightnings & pestilential plagues
Beyond the bounds of their own self their senses cannot penetrate"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 124, (E 393)
 "The Sons of Urizen Shout Their father rose The Eternal horses
Harnessd They calld to Urizen the heavens moved at their call
The limbs of Urizen shone with ardor. He laid his ha[n]d on the Plow
Thro dismal darkness drave the Plow of ages over Cities
And all their Villages over Mountains & all their Vallies
Over the graves & caverns of the dead   Over the Planets
And over the void Spaces over Sun & moon & star & constellation

Then Urizen commanded & they brought the Seed of Men            
The trembling souls of All the Dead stood before Urizen
Weak wailing in the troubled air East west & north & south
PAGE 125 
He turnd the horses loose & laid his Plow in the northern corner
Of the wide Universal field. then Stepd forth into the immense 

Then he began to sow the seed he girded round his loins
With a bright girdle & his skirt filld with immortal souls
Howling & Wailing fly the souls from Urizens strong hand         

For from the hand of Urizen the myriads fall like stars
Into their own appointed places driven back by the winds
The naked warriors rush together down to the sea shores
They are become like wintry flocks like forests stripd of leaves
The Kings & Princes of the Earth cry with a feeble cry           
Driven on the unproducing sands & on the hardend rocks
And all the while the flames of Orc follow the ventrous feet
Of Urizen & all the while the Trump of Tharmas sounds
Weeping & wailing fly the souls from Urizens strong hand
The daughters of Urizen stand with Cups & measures of foaming wine
Immense upon the heavens with bread & delicate repasts

Then follows the golden harrow in the midst of Mental fires
To ravishing melody of flutes & harps & softest voice
The seed is harrowd in while flames heat the black mould & cause
The human harvest to begin Towards the south first sprang 
The myriads & in silent fear they look out from their graves

Then Urizen sits down to rest & all his wearied Sons
Take their repose on beds they drink they sing they view the flames
O f Orc in joy they view the human harvest springing up
A time they give to sweet repose till all the harvest is ripe" 

ASSENT TO REALITY

 Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 139, (E 407) 
 "The Sun arises from his dewy bed & the fresh airs
 Play in his smiling beams giving the seeds of life to grow 
 And the fresh Earth beams forth ten thousand thousand springs of life
 Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
 Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los
 Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
 Departed & Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
 In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
 For intellectual War The war of swords departed now 
 The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns 
 
                      End of The Dream"
 
Blake saw human development as process not product. The Four Zoas was intended not to delineate the Man who has been transformed, but to demonstrate the process through which Man goes to arrive at transformation. The unified status which he attained was not a permanent condition but a jumping off point for continued differentiation and integration. The tools which had served Man in his earth-bound life had been war and religion through which he had hammered out his existence in a natural world of limitations and uncertainties. With no further need to be in conflict within himself Man turns to his inner resources to guide his further progress.

Growing seeds, flowing springs, and ruined walls made possible a new paradigm to represent the activity of the New Man: Intellectual War supported by 'the golden armour of science' growing out of intuition and imagination supplied by Urthona.        

The images which Blake choose to structure the progress of Man through life are set forth in this passage from Frye's Fearful Symmetry. Frye traces stages of developmental potential through the the vegetative seed, to the mammalian embryo, to the oviparous egg. In this illustration for Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, we notice in the foreground a female figure lying in the snow. Blake was calling to our minds Vala as an image of the natural world where the seed contains the potential for development. In the center of the picture is an enclosed space in which the holy family rejoices in the arrival of new life. The enclosure is the womb in which the new man is nurtured until he is born of the spirit. The winged being in the arc of a rainbow partakes of the Dove of the Spirit which has been released from the egg of mortality.

Wikimedia Commons
Illustrations to Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
Butts Set, Page 1

Northrop Frye:
"The natural man is, speaking in terms of conscious vision, an imaginative seed. Just as a seed is a dry sealed packet of solid 'matter,' so the natural mind is a tight skull-bound shell of abstract ideas. And just as a seed is surrounded by a dark world which we see as an underworld, so the physical universe, which surrounds the natural man on all sides, and is dark in the sense that he cannot see its extent, is the underworld of the mind, the den of Urthona, the cave of Plato's Republic. The majority of seeds in nature die as seeds, and in human life all natural men, all the timid, all the stupid, all the evil, remain in the starlit cavern of the fallen mind, hibernating in the dormant winter night of time. They are embryos of life only, infertile seeds, and die within the seed world. The possibility of life within them remains in the embryonic form of abstract ideas, shadows and dreams. Some of the dreams are troubled visions of the real world of awakened consciousness; others are the nightmares of paralyzing horror which all minds in a stupor of inertia are prone to. Here or there a seed puts out a sprout into the real world, and when it does so it escapes from the darkness of burial into the real world into the light of immortality. Such a seed would only have begun its development, for the vegetable life is not the most highly organized form of life, because it is till bound to nature. The animal symbolizes a higher stage of development by breaking its navel-string, and this earth-bound freedom of movement is represented in our present physical level.

The bird is not a higher form of imagination than we are, but its ability to fly symbolizes one, and men usually assign wings to what they visualize as superior forms of human existence. In this symbolism the corresponding image of nature would be neither the seed-bed of the plant nor the suckling mother of the mammal, but the egg, which has been used as a symbol of the physical universe from the most ancient times. We think of the cosmic egg chiefly in connection of the Gnostic or Orphic imagery, but the account of creation in Genesis as a watery chaos surrounded by the shell of 'firmament,' which the Spirit of God, later visualized as a dove, broods upon and brings to life, also has oviparous overtones. In Blake the firmament is the mundane shell, the indefinite circumference of the physical world through which the mind crashes on its winged assent to reality." (Page 347-8)
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URTHONA RISES [139]

We have reached the end once again of the Four Zoas having commented on additional pages from Night IX. Perhaps the final page will strike more chords in the music played by the heavenly orchestra since you have read of the resolution of the Zoas and their Emanations. Perhaps the Bread of Life and the Wine of Eternity will be more available having followed the milling of the grain and the crushing of the grapes. If Blake's words and images have entered deep within your psyche they will remain with you to be retrieved at appropriate times as you travel your Spiritual Journey.
 

Reposted from August 21, 2015

British Library
Four Zoas Manuscript
Page 139

 Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 139, (E 407)  
"The Sun arises from his dewy bed & the fresh airs
Play in his smiling beams giving the seeds of life to grow
And the fresh Earth beams forth ten thousand thousand springs of life
Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los                
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
Departed & Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War The war of swords departed now
The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns           

                  End of The Dream"

The final page of the Four Zoas is a response to early lines in Blake's poem where he declared his intention of giving an account of the Zoa named Urthona: 
"His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity His fall into the Generation of Decay & Death & his Regeneration by the Resurrection from the dead"  

The Element of Urthona is the Earth which we call our home. Blake begins and ends his poem with the Earth which is the site in which transformation must be revealed. Within the psyche of man, Urthona dwells in the Unconscious to which man turns to touch his Eternal nature. It is through Urthona that man exercises his spiritual perception and discerns vision. Through Urthona man is connected to the Eternal; not by reason, sensation or emotion but by intuition.

The dark religions which have departed are religions which were provided by the Eyes of God so that man may not fall into the abyss. There is not longer need for a religion of human sacrifice, vengeance, moral law, rationalism or a distant God reigning in the sky. Man's awareness of God residing within his own Soul is all the religion he needs. Blake's 'Sweet Science' will reign because man is able to behold everything as holy.  

Four Zoas, Page 3, Night I, (E 301) 
"Los was the fourth immortal starry one, & in the Earth
Of a bright Universe Empery attended day & night                 
Days & nights of revolving joy, Urthona was his name
PAGE 4,       
In Eden; in the Auricular Nerves of Human life
Which is the Earth of Eden, he his Emanations propagated
Fairies of Albion afterwards Gods of the Heathen, Daughter of Beulah Sing
His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity
His fall into the Generation of Decay & Death & his Regeneration by the Resurrection from the dead"

Some complain that Blake did not make it clear how the transformation from the fallen world to the unfallen world took place. The change took place in increments and could have been interrupted by a misstep at any point. But the process continued until suddenly mankind had left behind his old self and acquired a new vision, a new power, and a new image of himself and his world.

 

This passage from Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry may clarify the process through which man attains higher consciousness:

Page 259 -260
"Man stands at the level of conscious life: immediately in front of him is the power to visualize the eternal city and garden he is trying to regain; immediately behind him is an unconscious, involuntary and cyclic energy, much of which still goes on inside of his own body. Man is therefore a Luvah or form of life subject to two inpulses, one the prophetic impulse leading him forward to vision, the other the natural impulse which drags him back to unconsciousness and finally to death.
...
The imagination says that man is not chain-bound but muscle-bound; that he is born alive and everywhere dying in sleep; and that when the conscious imagination in man perfects the vision of the world of consciousness, at that point man's eyes will necessarily be open.
...
Every advance of truth forces error to consolidate itself in a more obviously erroneous form, and every advance of freedom has the same effect on tyranny. Thus history exhibits a series of crises in which a sudden flash of imaginative vision (as in the French Revolution) bursts out is counteracted by a more ruthless defense of the status quo, and subsides again. The evolution come in the fact that the opposition grows sharper each time, and will one day present a clear-cut alternative of eternal life or extermination."
 

Renewed Albion.  

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WORKS OF URTHONA II [138]

Continuation of Works of Urthona
 
Blake presented the culmination of the Four Zoas at multiple levels or from varied perspectives. We looked at page 138 as Blake represented the reassembling of the Ancient man from divided Zoas which has assumed independent functioning when man fell from his original condition. Urthona and Tharmas, working together in Man's unconscious mind, were cooperating to provide the Bread and Wine which would sustain the unified Divine Humanity.
 
Blake inserted the following lines to portray Man in his glory as he was restored to wholeness. As man recovered, his world recovered also. Man and Nature interacted as reflections of each other, each giving and receiving, transforming and being transformed. Because the accident has been incinerated in the furnace of experience, the essence was released to walk into the unchanging but dynamic world of Eternity.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)
"The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night 
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires the evil is all consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds 
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice   
Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth

For Tharmas brought his flocks upon the hills & in the Vales
Around the Eternal Mans bright tent the little Children play
Among the wooly flocks The hammer of Urthona sounds              
In the deep caves beneath his limbs renewd his Lions roar
Around the Furnaces & in Evening sport upon the plains
They raise their faces from the Earth conversing with the Man

How is it we have walkd thro fires & yet are not consumd
How is it that all things are changd even as in ancient times"

  
When he illustrated Milton's L'Allegro, Blake provided a picture which echoes the poetic image of the New Born Man in the fresher morn of a sun restored to its original splendor. The archetypal themes running through the body of Blake's work motivate us to find enhancements to his symbols in unexpected places.

Wikimedia Commons

Morgan Library

Blake's Illustrations to Milton's L'Allegro 

'The Sun at His Eastern Gate' 

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WORKS OF URTHONA [138]

Reposted from August 19, 2015

British Library
Four Zoas Manuscript
Page 138

Four Zoas, Night IX, PAGE 138, (E 406)

"Then Dark Urthona took the Corn out of the Stores of Urizen
He ground it in his rumbling Mills Terrible the distress
Of all the Nations of Earth ground in the Mills of Urthona
In his hand Tharmas takes the Storms. he turns the whirlwind Loose
Upon the wheels the stormy seas howl at his dread command        
And Eddying fierce rejoice in the fierce agitation of the wheels
Of Dark Urthona Thunders Earthquakes Fires Water floods
Rejoice to one another loud their voices shake the Abyss
Their dread forms tending the dire mills The grey hoar frost was there
And his pale wife the aged Snow they watch over the fires        
They build the Ovens of Urthona Nature in darkness groans
And Men are bound to sullen contemplations in the night
Restless they turn on beds of sorrow. in their inmost brain
Feeling the crushing Wheels they rise they write the bitter words
Of Stern Philosophy & knead the bread of knowledge with tears & groans

Such are the works of Dark Urthona Tharmas sifted the corn
Urthona made the Bread of Ages & he placed it
In golden & in silver baskets in heavens of precious stone
And then took his repose in Winter in the night of Time

The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night  
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires the evil is all consumd
His eyes behold the Angelic spheres arising night & day
The stars consumd like a lamp blown out & in their stead behold
The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds 
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice   
Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth

For Tharmas brought his flocks upon the hills & in the Vales
Around the Eternal Mans bright tent the little Children play
Among the wooly flocks The hammer of Urthona sounds              
In the deep caves beneath his limbs renewd his Lions roar
Around the Furnaces & in Evening sport upon the plains
They raise their faces from the Earth conversing with the Man
How is it we have walkd thro fires & yet are not consumd 
How is it that all things are changd even as in ancient times"

As Blake was reaching the conclusion of the Four Zoas the fireworks were over. The wheat had been separated from the chaff: truth from error. The Zoas were in their rightful places satisfied to do their work and appreciative of the work done by their brother Zoas. Urthona was here the oldest brother, older even than Tharmas: man's consciousness of his spiritual nature was more fundamental than his consciousness of himself as a body.
 

The processes of the human brain were served by the forces of nature not the reverse as was the case when nature dictated to man and mediated reality from outer to inner. The working of Urizen was to supply grain to the mills of Urthona from which he made the Bread of Life. Man was no longer fed on the bread made by Urizen - bitter words or stern philosophy.
 

The spiritual wisdom of Urthona would be served to mankind as he worked, and loved and grew wise and beautiful. Each individual would be transformed by his restored ability to perceive the infinite in all things.
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WINE & BREAD [137]

British Library
Four Zoas Manuscript
Page 137

 Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 136, (E 405)
"They Dance around the Dying & they Drink the howl & groan        
PAGE 137 
They catch the Shrieks in cups of gold they hand them to one another
These are the sports of love & these the sweet delights of amorous play
Tears of the grapes the death sweat of the Cluster the last sigh
Of the mild youth who listens to the luring songs of Luvah

The Eternal Man darkend with Sorrow & a wintry mantle   
Coverd the Hills   He said O Tharmas rise & O Urthona

Then Tharmas & Urthona rose from the Golden feast satiated
With Mirth & joy Urthona limping from his fall on Tharmas leand
In his right hand his hammer Tharmas held his Shepherds crook
Beset with gold gold were the ornaments formed by the sons of Urizen 
Then Enion & Ahania & Vala & the wife of Dark Urthona
Rose from the feast in joy ascending to their Golden Looms
There the wingd shuttle Sang the spindle & the distaff & the Reel
Rang sweet the praise of industry. Thro all the golden rooms
Heaven rang with winged Exultation   All beneath howld loud  
With tenfold rout & desolation roard the Chasms beneath
Where the wide woof flowd down & where the Nations are gatherd together

Tharmas went down to the Wine presses & beheld the sons & daughters
Of Luvah quite exhausted with the Labour & quite filld
With new wine. that they began to torment one another and to tread 
The weak. Luvah & Vala slept on the floor o'erwearied

Urthona calld his Sons around him Tharmas calld his sons
Numrous. they took the wine they separated the Lees
And Luvah was put for dung on the ground by the Sons of Tharmas & Urthona
They formed heavens of sweetest wood of gold & silver & ivory 
Of glass & precious stones They loaded all the waggons of heaven
And took away the wine of ages with solemn songs & joy

Luvah & Vala woke & all the sons & daughters of Luvah
Awoke they wept to one another & they reascended
To the Eternal Man in woe he cast them wailing into              
The world of shadows thro the air till winter is over & gone

But the Human Wine stood wondering in all their delightful Expanses
The Elements subside the heavens rolld on with vocal harmony

Then Los who is Urthona rose in all his regenerate power
The Sea that rolld & foamd with darkness & the shadows of death  
Vomited out & gave up all the floods lift up their hands
Singing & shouting to the Man they bow their hoary heads
And murmuring in their channels flow & circle round his feet
PAGE 138 
Then Dark Urthona took the Corn out of the Stores of Urizen
He ground it in his rumbling Mills Terrible the distress
Of all the Nations of Earth ground in the Mills of Urthona
In his hand Tharmas takes the Storms. he turns the whirlwind Loose
Upon the wheels the stormy seas howl at his dread command"   

Wikimedia Commons
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Blake returned us to the beginning of the Four Zoas as he selected his image from Night Thoughts to be included on this page. His poem has been an account of a struggle between forces of darkness and light, not in the lower world alone but in the higher realms of thought and feeling, of intuition and integration. Now that the sheep had been divided from the goats the wrestling match was concluded 'not with a bang but a whimper' as TS Elliot would have it. Blake concludes the contest with play and tears and a sigh.

Man's torments resulted from 'Love & Jealousy'. His emotional nature concentrated his positive feeling on one object from which he sought to derive his meaning. This object he sought to possess and control and to exercise exclusive rights over. The intimation of Blake's title is that it not Urizen who initiated the fall from unity, but Luvah as his emanation was projected outward. He became enthralled with Vala, the outer world of nature, which replaced the inner world which furnished his identity. What ensued was Death to a consciousness of Eternity, known as Life in our present world. The sorting of Truth from Error, which Blake called Judgment, was designed to restore Albion the Ancient man to his Eternal condition.

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 1, (E 300)
       "THE FOUR ZOAS
The torments of Love & Jealousy in 
    The Death and Judgement
    of Albion the Ancient Man

   by William Blake 1797"    

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 2, (E 300)
     "Rest before Labour"

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 3, (E 300) 

[Quote in Greek] 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." [Ephesians 6:12]

        "VALA
      Night the First
The Song of the Aged Mother which shook the heavens with wrath
Hearing the march of long resounding strong heroic Verse
Marshalld in order for the day of Intellectual Battle"

On Page 137 Love and Jealousy had lost their power to dominate the psyche. Albion, the Ancient Man, had endured Death in the world of time and space, and was prepared for Judgment in the world of Eternity.

After Blake had the Eternal Man darken over the descent of the emotions into excesses of amorous and aggressive activity, he paused while Urizen's wintry mantle quelled the fervent activity. Urthona and Tharmas were called upon to carry on the work of cleansing the psyche for regeneration. The dregs which had been separated from the juice were designated to fertilize a future crop. When the Human Wine of emotion was thus prepared and purified, Urthona and Tharmas proceeded to the baking of the Bread of Ages from Urizen's corn of thought. 

When the winter of Time is over Man shall eat the Bread and drink the Wine and be satisfied.

Letters, (E 709)
"And My Brother is there & My Friend & Thine
Descend & Ascend with the Bread & the Wine

The Bread of sweet Thought & the Wine of Delight
Feeds the Village of Felpham by day & by night" 

---

Matthew 25
[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory
[32] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
[33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
[34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
[35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
[36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
[37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
[38] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
[39] Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
[40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
[41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
[42] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
[43] I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
[44] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
[45] Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
[46] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Deuteronomy 14
[29] And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

PANGS OF ETERNAL BIRTH [135]

British Library
Four Zoas Manuscript
Page 135

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 134, (E 403)
"So loud so clear in the wide heavens & the song that they sung was this
Composed by an African Black from the little Earth of Sotha

Aha Aha how came I here so soon in my sweet native land  
How came I here Methinks I am as I was in my youth
PAGE 135 
When in my fathers house I sat & heard his chearing voice
Methinks I see his flocks & herds & feel my limbs renewd
And Lo my Brethren in their tents & their little ones around them

The song arose to the Golden feast the Eternal Man rejoicd
Then the Eternal Man said Luvah the Vintage is ripe arise        
The sons of Urizen shall gather the vintage with sharp hooks
And all thy sons O Luvah bear away the families of Earth
I hear the flail of Urizen his barns are full no roo[m]
Remains & in the Vineyards stand the abounding sheaves beneath
The falling Grapes that odorous burst upon the winds. Arise      
My flocks & herds trample the Corn my cattle browze upon
The ripe Clusters The shepherds shout for Luvah prince of Love
Let the Bulls of Luvah tread the Corn & draw the loaded waggon
Into the Barn while children glean the Ears around the door
Then shall they lift their innocent hands & stroke his furious nose 
And he shall lick the little girls white neck & on her head
Scatter the perfume of his breath while from his mountains high
The lion of terror shall come down & bending his bright mane
And couching at their side shall eat from the curld boys white lap
His golden food and in the evening sleep before the Door     

Attempting to be more than Man We become less said Luvah
As he arose from the bright feast drunk with the wine of ages
His crown of thorns fell from his head he hung his living Lyre
Behind the seat of the Eternal Man & took his way
Sounding the Song of Los descending to the Vineyards bright      
His sons arising from the feast with golden baskets follow
A fiery train as when the Sun sings in the ripe vineyards
Then Luvah stood before the wine press all his fiery sons
Brought up the loaded Waggons with shoutings ramping tygers play
In the jingling traces furious lions sound the song of joy       
To the golden wheels circling upon the pavement of heaven & all
The Villages of Luvah ring the golden tiles of the villages
Reply to violins & tabors to the pipe flute lyre & cymbal
Then fell the Legions of Mystery in maddning confusion
Down Down thro the immense with outcry fury & despair            
Into the wine presses of Luvah howling fell the Clusters
Of human families thro the deep. the wine presses were filld
The blood of life flowd plentiful Odors of life arose
All round the heavenly arches & the Odors rose singing this son
PAGE 136 
O terrible wine presses of Luvah O caverns of the Grave
How lovely the delights of those risen again from death
O trembling joy excess of joy is like Excess of grief

So sang the Human Odors round the wine presses of Luvah

But in the Wine presses is wailing terror & despair              
Forsaken of their Elements they vanish & are no more
No more but a desire of Being a distracted ravening desire
Desiring like the hungry worm & like the gaping grave     
They plunge into the Elements the Elements cast them forth
Or else consume their shadowy semblance Yet they obstinate       
Tho pained to distraction Cry O let us Exist for
This dreadful Non Existence is worse than pains of Eternal Birth
Eternal Death who can Endure. let us consume in fires
In waters stifling or in air corroding or in earth shut up
The Pangs of Eternal birth are better than the Pangs of Eternal Death"   

Wikipedia Commons
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

If a housewife were to buy a bushel of apples to last through the winter, she would sort through the apples before she stored them. The bruised and damaged she would remove. A portion of those could be salvaged if used before decay could spread. But they could not be saved with the unblemished apples which were meant to provide nourishment through the lean times. Blake used the image of the vintage to portray the sorting process which removed what could not be preserved from the valuable uncontaminated products which had been gained through the experience of living in time.

The familiar characters of Urizen and Luvah play roles in this stage of apocalypse. The accounts of the fall of the Eternal Man into division involved Urizen and Luvah plotting to abandon their intended roles and assume the function of other Zoas. At this stage of the Four Zoas, Urizen had reassumed his position in the scheme of things, now Luvah's contamination of psychological functioning predicated on emotional decision making needed to be cleansed from the psyche. The pleasure principle based on fulfilling of desire maintained a tenacious hold and was not readily relinquished. 

Urizen as the mind's rational activity would gather the grapes without regard to their content for potential inclusion in the wine of life. Blake transitioned to focusing on the disposition of Luvah whose role in the fallen condition of man had to be reversed. The fruit that was gathered was the same that has been processed by various aspects of the natural world: the flocks and herds, the cattle, the bulls, and the lion, implying activities of the Zoas as they functioned in the natural environment. The Elemental order of the natural world sustained the continuation of the operation of the mind under control of emotional responses. The breaking of that order in the outer world removed the support which maintained Luvah's emotional control in the psyche. The old wine on which the sons of Luvah were drunk was a 'distracted ravening desire.' The 'odors of life' extracted by the winepress were the 'delights of those risen again from death.'

In Jerusalem Blake described the condition of torment when love led to jealousy which was followed by various 'species of contention.' Through the vintage Blake was, by removing the sources of infection, reversing the damage which resulted from becoming subject to this bondage.

Jerusalem, Plate 69, (E 223)
Devouring Jerusalem from every Nation of the Earth.    
Envying stood the enormous Form at variance with Itself
In all its Members: in eternal of love & jealousy:
Drivn forth by Los time after time from Albions cliffy shore,
Drawing the free loves of Jerusalem into infernal bondage;
That they might be born in Contentions of Chastity & in  
Deadly Hate between Leah & Rachel, Daughters of Deceit & Fraud
Bearing the Images of various Species of Contention
And Jealousy & Abhorrence & Revenge & deadly Murder.
Till they refuse liberty to the male; & not like Beulah
Where every Female delights to give her maiden to her husband"

 
If the grain were not harvested, winnowed and milled; if the grapes were not subjected to the winepress; it the unclean spirits were not cast out of the demoniac; apocalypse could not proceed.

Mark 5
[8] For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
[9] And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
[10] And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
[11] Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
[12] And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
[13] And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
[14] And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
[15] And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: 
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