OPENING THE GATES

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Laocoon

Blake's wide ranging comments on Art, Life, Creation, Good and Evil are contained on this print. You can greatly enlarge the image by right-clicking on picture and opening in a new window.

Joseph Campbell shared with Blake a desire to open the minds of men to a perception of the infinite. We find in The Flight of the Wild Gander his thoughts on breaking through the mental resistance to becoming open to 'immediate, unmitigated, perfectly direct experience'.

The Flight of the Wild Gander:

"In the simplest of terms, I think we might say that when a situation or phenomenon evokes in us a sense of existence (instead of some reference to the possibility of an assurance of meaning) we have an experience of this kind. The sense of existence may be shallow or profound, more of less intense, accordance to our capacity or readiness; but even a brief shock...can yield an experience of no-mind: that is to say, the poetical order, the order of art. When this occurs, our own reality-reality-beyond-meaning is awakened (or perhaps better: we are awakened to out own reality-beyond-meaning), and we experience an affect which is neither thought nor feeling but an interior impact...[We] have had, for an instant, a sense of existence: a moment of unevaluated, unimpeded, lyric life - antecedent to both language and feeling; such can never be communicated empirically verifiable propositions, but only suggested by art."  (Page 186) 

Campbell thought that man was capable of making a quantum leap in consciousness as had been achieved to reach our current level of development which gave us the ability to build a civilization based on cities, agriculture, and institutions. To move to a higher development the individual consciousness would turn inward and use the imagination to create art which was an expression of existence on the other side of silence. There is no map to guide man into unexplored territory; his inner knowing must overcome his trepidation.

The Flight of the Wild Gander:

"[W]ith the rise of the modern scientific method of research in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and development in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth of the power driven machine, the human race was brought across a culture threshold...outdated bronze and iron age heritages give place to forms not imagined. And that they are giving place surely is clear. "Man is condemned," as Sartre says, 'to be free." ... For there is, in fact, in quiet places, a great deal of spiritual quest and finding...by ones and twos, there entering the forest at those points which they themselves have chosen, where they see it to be most dark, and there is no path or way." (Page 225)

No Natural Religion, (E 2)
"None could have other than natural or organic thoughts if
he had none but organic perceptions"

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 12, (E 38)
"Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God. nor heard any, in a finite
organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in
every thing, and as  I was then perswaded. & remain confirm'd;
that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared
not for consequences but  wrote."

Visions of Daughters of Albion, Plate 4, (E 48)
"Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thine eyes have fruit;
But knowest thou that trees and fruits flourish upon the earth
To gratify senses unknown? trees beasts and birds unknown:       
Unknown, not unpercievd, spread in the infinite microscope,
In places yet unvisited by the voyager. and in worlds
Over another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknown:
Ah! are there other wars, beside the wars of sword and fire!
And are there other sorrows, beside the sorrows of poverty!      
And are there other joys, beside the joys of riches and ease?
And is there not one law for both the lion and the ox?
And is there not eternal fire, and eternal chains?
To bind the phantoms of existence from eternal life?
Then Oothoon waited silent all the day. and all the night" 

Milton, Plate 32 [36], (E 132)
"Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore       
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!

The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination
The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created                  
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated   Forms cannot"

On Virgil, (E 270)
"Mathematic Form is Eternal in the Reasoning Memory.  Living
Form is Eternal Existence."

Four Zoas, Night II, PAGE 24, (E 314) 
"Mighty was the draught of Voidness to draw Existence in"

Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 87 (E 369)
"Los trembling answerd Now I feel the weight of stern repentance
Tremble not so my Enitharmon at the awful gates    
Of thy poor broken Heart I see thee like a shadow withering
As on the outside of Existence but look! behold! take comfort!
Turn inwardly thine Eyes & there behold the Lamb of God
Clothed in Luvahs robes of blood descending to redeem
O Spectre of Urthona take comfort O Enitharmon   
Couldst thou but cease from terror & trembling & affright
When I appear before thee in forgiveness of ancient injuries  
Why shouldst thou remember & be afraid. I surely have died in pain
Often enough to convince thy jealousy & fear & terror
Come hither be patient let us converse together because  
I also tremble at myself & at all my former life"

Annotations to Lavater, (E 594)
"Lavater: Sense seeks and finds the thought; the thought seeks
and finds genius.
Blake: & vice. versa. genius finds thought without seekg & thought
thus, producd finds sense

Lavater: The poet, who composes not before the moment of
inspiration, and as that leaves him ceases--composes, and he
alone, for all men, all classes, all ages.
Blake: Most Excellent

Lavater: He, who has frequent moments of complete existence,
is a hero, though not laurelled, is crowned, and without crowns,
a king: he only who has enjoyed immortal moments can reproduce
them.
Blake: O that men would seek immortal moments   O that men would
converse with God"

Laocoon, (E 273)
"The Eternal Body of Man is The IMAGINATION.
The whole Business of Man Is The Arts & All Things Common
The Old & New Testaments are the Great Code of Art
Jesus & his Apostles & Disciples were all Artists
SCIENCE is the Tree of DEATH
ART is the Tree of LIFE  GOD is JESUS

Prayer is the Study of Art
Praise is the Practise of Art
Fasting &c. all relate to Art
The outward Ceremony is Antichrist
Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done" 

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 86, (E 368) 
"Los furious answerd. Spectre horrible thy words astound my Ear
With irresistible conviction I feel I am not one of those 
Who when convincd can still persist. tho furious. controllable
By Reasons power. Even I already feel a World within
Opening its gates & in it all the real substances
Of which these in the outward World are shadows which pass away
Come then into my Bosom & in thy shadowy arms bring with thee   
My lovely Enitharmon. I will quell my fury & teach
Peace to the Soul of dark revenge & repentance to Cruelty

So spoke Los & Embracing Enitharmon & the Spectre
Clouds would have folded round in Extacy & Love uniting"

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