SONS OF ALBION 2

Albion when divided projects on the exterior world the divisive strife which exists within the psyche. He rejects his Emanative portion, his Jerusalem. He accept as mother, Vala the Goddess Virgin-Mother. The first of Albion's sons, Hand, the 'heartless head' gains dominance and infects the thought processes of Albion. The gentle, consensus building functions - pity, forgiveness, peace, love, brotherhood, and delighting in ordinary things - are rejected in favor of aggressive attitudes - war, deadly contention, strife, unforgiving, enmity, suspicion and hatreds.

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem
Plate 26

The 'heartless head' becomes associated with sacrifice of others since he feels no empathy, having no emotional attachment to those around him. Without the bonds of love there is no compunction against sending young men to the battlefield, condemning pickpockets to the gallows, selling children to the chimney sweeps and young women to harlotry, and sentencing workers to starvation wages and unsafe conditions. Sacrifice in Biblical times included offering lambs and doves. In Blake's time it became relinquishing the nation's youth (male and female); it was the pernicious exploitation of the weak and deprived. In our times the 'heartless head' takes different forms but it is not silent or helpless, and if Blake were alive he would speak out against it.

 
Two ancient Gods, Chemosh and Moloch are associated with Hand. Both were notorious for requiring sacrifice. They infected the early Hebrew religion with practices which were later rejected. Although ritualistic sacrifice was eliminated, Hand is the reminder that whenever an attack is made that destroys the opponent, a portion of the Divine Body is sacrificed.

Jerusalem, Plate 18, (E 162)
"From every-one of the Four Regions of Human Majesty,
There is an Outside spread Without, & an Outside spread Within
Beyond the Outline of Identity both ways, which meet in One:
An orbed Void of doubt, despair, hunger, & thirst & sorrow.
Here the Twelve Sons of Albion, join'd in dark Assembly,         

Jealous of Jerusalems children, asham'd of her little-ones
(For Vala produc'd the Bodies. Jerusalem gave the Souls)
Became as Three Immense Wheels, turning upon one-another
Into Non-Entity, and their thunders hoarse appall the Dead
To murder their own Souls, to build a Kingdom among the Dead     

Cast! Cast ye Jerusalem forth! The Shadow of delusions!
The Harlot daughter! Mother of pity and dishonourable forgiveness
Our Father Albions sin and shame! But father now no more!
Nor sons! nor hateful peace & love, nor soft complacencies
With transgressors meeting in brotherhood around the table,      
Or in the porch or garden. No more the sinful delights
Of age and youth and boy and girl and animal and herb,
And river and mountain, and city & village, and house & family.
Beneath the Oak & Palm, beneath the Vine and Fig-tree.

In self-denial!--But War and deadly contention, Between          
Father and Son, and light and love! All bold asperities
Of Haters met in deadly strife, rending the house & garden
The unforgiving porches, the tables of enmity, and beds
And chambers of trembling & suspition, hatreds of age & youth
And boy & girl, & animal & herb, & river & mountain 
             
And city & village, and house & family. That the Perfect,
May live in glory, redeem'd by Sacrifice of the Lamb
And of his children, before sinful Jerusalem. To build
Babylon the City of Vala, the Goddess Virgin-Mother.

She is our Mother! Nature! Jerusalem is our Harlot-Sister     
Return'd with Children of pollution, to defile our House,
With Sin and Shame. Cast! Cast her into the Potters field.
Her little-ones, She must slay upon our Altars: and her aged
Parents must be carried into captivity, to redeem her Soul
To be for a Shame & a Curse, and to be our Slaves for ever       

So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albions   
Little-ones; to destroy the Divine Saviour; the Friend of Sinners,
Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications.
Soon Hand mightily devour'd & absorb'd Albions Twelve Sons."

Milton, Plate 36 [40], (E 137)
"Descending down into my Garden, a Human Wonder of God
Reaching from heaven to earth a Cloud & Human Form
I beheld Milton with astonishment & in him beheld            
The Monstrous Churches of Beulah, the Gods of Ulro dark
Twelve monstrous dishumanizd terrors Synagogues of Satan.
A Double Twelve & Thrice Nine: such their divisions.

And these their Names & their Places within the Mundane Shell
In Tyre & Sidon I saw Baal & Ashtaroth. In Moab Chemosh          
In Ammon, Molech: loud his Furnaces rage among the Wheels
Of Og, & pealing loud the cries of the Victims of Fire!
And pale his Priestesses infolded in Veils of Pestilence, border'd
With War; Woven in Looms of Tyre & Sidon by beautiful Ashtaroth.

In Palestine Dagon, Sea Monster! worshipd o'er the Sea.      
Thammuz in Lebanon & Rimmon in Damascus curtaind
Osiris: Isis: Orus: in Egypt: dark their Tabernacles on Nile
Floating with solemn songs, & on the  Lakes of Egypt nightly
With pomp, even till morning break & Osiris appear in the sky
But Belial of Sodom & Gomorrha, obscure Demon of Bribes
And secret Assasinations, not worshipd nor adord; but   
With the finger on the lips & the back turnd to the light
And Saturn Jove & Rhea of the Isles of the Sea remote
These Twelve Gods. are the Twelve Spectre Sons of the Druid Albion"

Jerusalem, Plate 84, (E 243)
"The Corner of Broad Street weeps; Poland Street languishes     
To Great Queen Street & Lincolns Inn, all is distress & woe.
    [three lines gouged out irrecoverably]
The night falls thick Hand comes from Albion in his strength   
He combines into a Mighty-one the Double Molech & Chemosh"