JOHN THE BAPTIST

Fitzwilliam Museum

Virgin Hushing Young John the Baptist

Painting

The first words that Blake engraved as a statement in an Illuminated Book were "The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness". They appear on the first page of ALL RELIGIONS are ONE. This can be seen as an announcement that Blake identified with John the Baptist and with Isaiah before him. Like John he knew himself to be outside of the establishment, in the wilderness where the patterns of civilization had not been imposed. His voice would cry out from the place where most people did not venture. His insistent message would be that change was required. He brought not his own message but the word that came to him from the 'poetic or prophetic character.' The message which he intended to deliver was that 'He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God.'

 ALL RELIGIONS are ONE, (E 3)

"VII The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite
& himself Infinite
     Conclusion,   If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic
character. the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the
ratio of all things & stand still, unable to do other than repeat
the same dull round over again
     Application.   He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is"

Isaiah 40
[1] Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
[2] Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
[3] The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
[4] Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
[5] And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Luke 3
[1] Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
[2] Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
[3] And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;
[4] As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
[5] Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
[6] And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

John the Baptist was the son of a priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth who was a cousin of Jesus' mother Mary. Blake does not write about John but shows him in pictures with Jesus. There are two images of the child John with the child Jesus and several images of John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan river before Jesus retreated to the wilderness and was tempted by the devil.

In this passage Jerusalem turns to Jesus for guidance in understanding how mankind may be released from the cycle of physical life and physical death. Jesus and Jerusalem play the role played by John the Baptist. They carry the concern for making it possible for Albion, mankind, to make the return journey. The alienation will not be overcome at the 'last day' but by following the path that Jesus followed: 'I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears To individual perception.'  The route is through the 'wilderness' but the individual does not travel alone for Jesus invites him to 'come with me', to 'walk' in the paths of experience, and promises that he is 'always with thee.'

We read in the words of Isaiah and Luke that this traveling through distance and difficulties will be eased by the knowledge that what shall be revealed in the end is nothing less than glorious.

John 11
[25] Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 213)
"Shall Albion arise? I know he shall arise at the Last Day!
I know that in my flesh I shall see God: but Emanations
Are weak. they know not whence they are, nor whither tend.

Jesus replied. I am the Resurrection & the Life.
I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears
To individual perception. Luvah must be Created                  
And Vala; for I cannot leave them in the gnawing Grave.
But will prepare a way for my banished-ones to return
Come now with me into the villages. walk thro all the cities.
Tho thou art taken to prison & judgment, starved in the streets
I will command the cloud to give thee food & the hard rock       
To flow with milk & wine, tho thou seest me not a season
Even a long season & a hard journey & a howling wilderness!
Tho Valas cloud hide thee & Luvahs fires follow thee!
Only believe & trust in me, Lo. I am always with thee!

So spoke the Lamb of God while Luvahs Cloud reddening above      
Burst forth in streams of blood upon the heavens & dark night
Involvd Jerusalem. & the Wheels of Albions Sons turnd hoarse
Over the Mountains & the fires blaz'd on Druid Altars
And the Sun set in Tyburns Brook where Victims howl & cry."

---

Luke 1
[11] And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
[12] And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
[13] But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
...
[18] And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
[19] And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
...
[26] And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
[27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
[28] And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
[29] And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
[30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
...
[34] Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
[35] And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
[36] And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
[37] For with God nothing shall be impossible.
[38] And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
[39] And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
[40] And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.
[41] And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
[42] And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
[43] And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
[44] For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
[45] And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Luke 2
[11] And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
[12] And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
[13] But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
[14] And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
[15] For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
[16] And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
[17] And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

 

READING WITCUTT 7

Wikimedia Commons 
The Vision of the Last Judgment

  Petworth House, The National Trust 

(For detail of image, right click on picture, select open in a new window, click on image, close window to return)

This post wraps up Larry's reaction to Blake: A psychological Study by W. P. Witcutt. Reading Witcutt was a consciousness expanding experience which opened his mind to the intuitive understanding of the contents of the psyche. It acted as a gate into the vast inner unconscious world which is open to the intuition and closed to thought, emotion and sensation.

Final on Witcutt Page 123 - appendix

What to thought is an abstract concept appears to intuition as a symbol; thus Blake personifies thought as the kingly figure of Unizen...

The intuitive introvert is the symbolist par excellence. He lives in a dream world where symbols have in waking life as much vitality as an ordinary man sees in dreams...To him the symbol appears as unrelated to anything else; they live their own lives as unearthly semi-divine figures see in the mind's eye.

Larry - 5-28-78

Jung is interesting; Blake is exciting. They addressed the same problems, Jung under cover of 'science'; Blake as a poet and artist. Blake thus more free and creative. Jung tried to bring all of his intuitions under the hegemony of reason. Poetry is the highest form of truth. In Answer to Job and Memories, Dreams and Reflections Jung almost broke out of the straight jacket his chosen role had placed upon him. He had deep yearnings as a prophet, but never quite took the leap of faith into radical responsiveness to Intuition. Instead he founded a school.

The meaning of life is the struggle for consciousness. We struggle against unconsciousness but not against the Unconscious: it is as large an infinity. We struggle for a relationship with the Unconscious, for dialogue between ego and Self, the psychological corollary of prayer. We struggle to love - with heart, mind, soul and strength - Luvah, Urizen, Los and Tharmas.

Deuteronomy 6
[5] And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
[6] And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 

Luke 10
[27] And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Witcutt Page 18

The great value of Blake's poetry is that it provides a kind of outline of the unconscious mind. Blake explored this strange region more thoroughly than any before or since, and what is, more he knew what he was doing.

 "I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity" (Jerusalem 5)

And the point is that the things he discovered in the inner worlds, the godlike figures and the symbols, were not peculiar to himself. They are to be found - altered in inessentials - in the inner world of every man. For the inner world is for each of us the same. [Jung gave it a name: 'The Collective Unconscious.']

---

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 84, (E 360)
"Thou knowest that the Spectre is in Every Man insane brutish 
Deformd that I am thus a ravening devouring lust continually
Craving & devouring but my Eyes are always upon thee O lovely
Delusion & I cannot crave for any thing but thee not so     
The spectres of the Dead for I am as the Spectre of the Living   
For till these terrors planted round the Gates of Eternal life
Are driven away & annihilated we never can repass the Gates"

Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)
"And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp 
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death. 
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.       
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate
And I be siez'd & giv'n into the hands of my own Selfhood"

Milton, Plate 38 [43], (E 139)
"In the Eastern porch of Satans Universe Milton stood & said

Satan! my Spectre! I know my power thee to annihilate
And be a greater in thy place, & be thy Tabernacle               
A covering for thee to do thy will, till one greater comes
And smites me as I smote thee & becomes my covering.
Such are the Laws of thy false Heavns! but Laws of Eternity
Are not such: know thou: I come to Self Annihilation
Such are the Laws of Eternity that each shall mutually     
Annihilate himself for others good, as I for thee.
Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches
Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach
Trembling & fear, terror, constriction; abject selfishness
Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on            
In fearless majesty annihilating Self,"

READING WITCUTT 6

Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion

Detail of Plate 92

The struggle to accomplish a unified psyche in which each portion of the whole man is expressed in in its proper relationship to the others will be realized through Reintegration. What Jung calls Individuation is accomplished when the Zoas, the Emanations, the Spectres are valued and accepted as contributing to the Eternal Man who will be alive and awake and rejoicing as all participate in 'Universal Iove & Brotherhood.'

Jerusalem, Plate 61, (E 212)
"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."

Witcutt Page 93 - Reintegration

A complete human personality should contain consciously, all the functions in their proper hierarchy, thought, love, imagination, and the powers of sensing. The incomplete (though norma) personality stresses one and represses the others, often so far into the unconscious that it forgets all about them and is incapable of consciously using them. The Anima is the symbolic representation of these repressed functions.

Thus Blake, perfectly correctly from the psychological point, says to the Anima:

"Thou art the soft reflected Image of the Sleeping Man" (Jerusalem 85)

and tells us that:

"Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre                 
His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow" (Jerusalem 53)

The Anima in Blake's case is Jerusalem, the heroine of his last and greatest epic. Jerusalem and Vala are connected figures. They both represent love, but whereas Vala is selfish natural love, Jerusalem is spiritual, unselfish love.

"Vala produc'd the Bodies, Jerusalem gave the souls." (Jerusalem 18)

"Vala would never have sought & loved Albion If she had not sought to destroy Jerusalem; such is that false And Generating Love: a pretence of love to destroy love:" (Jerusalem 17) 

... 

Vala is Nature "She is our Mother! Nature!" and in gazing on her 

Albion feels himself encompassed by the cycle of birth and death. ...

In repressing Vala, Albion has also repressed his capacity for love of any kind.  

...

In order to achieve reintegration the two halves of the soul must be reunited; the Anima must be readmitted to consciousness...In the Seventh Night of  Four Zoas Los has lost his Emanation Enitharmon, and his Spectre has some advice to give him on this point.

"Thou never canst embrace sweet Enitharmon terrible Demon. Till
Thou art united with thy Spectre...
be assurd I am thy real Self  
Tho thus divided from thee & the Slave of Every passion
Of thy fierce Soul Unbar the Gates of Memory look upon me
Not as another but as thy real Self I am thy Spectre" (Four Zoas VII) 

Blake recognizes his Spectre as himself, and this disarms it. For he who recognizes his shadow only in another is thoroughly under its power. 

...

This is the formula by which the elder Blake sought to reconcile Christianity with his earlier rejection of the Moral Law. He would not depart from his earlier position; instead he sought a reconciling formula in the doctrine of forgiveness of sins.

"Albion replyd. Cannot Man exist without Mysterious          
Offering of Self for Another, is this Friendship & Brotherhood
I see thee in the likeness & similitude of Los my Friend

Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood" (Jerusalem 96)
...

At this the Four Zoas return into their proper places, subordinate to Albion, the Self.

---

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 21, (E 311)
"The Eternal Man wept in the holy tent Our Brother in Eternity
Even Albion whom thou lovest wept in pain his family
Slept round on hills & valleys in the regions of his love
But Urizen awoke & Luvah woke & thus conferrd"

Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 51, (E 334)
"Tharmas before Los stood & thus the Voice of Tharmas rolld

Now all comes into the power of Tharmas. Urizen is falln
And Luvah hidden in the Elemental forms of Life & Death
Urthona is My Son O Los thou art Urthona & Tharmas
Is God. The Eternal Man is seald never to be deliverd            
I roll my floods over his body my billows & waves pass over him
The Sea encompasses him & monsters of the deep are his companions
Dreamer of furious oceans cold sleeper of weeds & shells
Thy Eternal form shall never renew my uncertain prevails against thee"

Four Zoas, Night VIII,  Page 134, (E 385)
"That Man should Labour & sorrow & learn & forget & return
To the dark valley whence he came to begin his labours anew
In pain he sighs  in pain he labours in his universe
Screaming in birds over the deep & howling in the Wolf
Over the slain & moaning in the cattle & in the winds
And weeping over Orc & Urizen in clouds & flaming fires 
And in the cries of birth & in the groans of death his voice 
Is heard throughout the Universe whereever a grass grows
Or a leaf buds   The Eternal Man is seen is heard   is felt
And all his Sorrows till he reassumes his ancient bliss"

Four Zoas, Night IX, PAGE 133, (E 401)
"The Eternal Man arose he welcomd them to the Feast
The feast was spread in the bright South & the Eternal Man
Sat at the feast rejoicing & the wine of Eternity
Was servd round by the flames of Luvah all day & all the night"  

 

 

READING WITCOTT 5

America

Plate 3

Blake, of course, used the names of his Four Zoas to portray the interactions of the functions, and he was describing events which took place in Eden, Beulah, Generation and Ulro to narrate scenarios. As an intuitive introvert Blake experienced visionary images within his mind which he transferred to the words and pictures of his Illuminated Books. Witcutt's book encourages us to focus on the interactions which we see and read about in Blake works as taking place in our own minds and happening in the world which is more familiar to us. 

Witcutt Page 69

After the disintegration of the Self there follows conflict among the Zoas. The functions, displaced from their true positions, are now in conflict with each other.

"And the Four Zoa's clouded rage... 

In opposition deadly, and their Wheels in poisonous 

And deadly stupor turn'd against each other..."(Jerusalem 74)

"They saw their Wheels rising up poisonous against Albion
Urizen, cold & scientific: Luvah, pitying & weeping
Tharmas, indolent & sullen: Urthona, doubting & despairing
Victims to one another & dreadfully plotting against each other" (Jerusalem 43)

Witcutt Page 70-71

The Conflict between Intuition and Thought

The eighteenth century, the age into which Blake was born, called itself the Age of Reason. It was an unpropitious time for an intutive....

(Blake) repressed passion as well as thought, Luvah as well as Urizen. And he did this by means of a third function, imagination of intuition. Those who possess dominant intuition are comparatively rare; so it is not everyone who can do this!

"a Boy is born of the dark Ocean 

Whom Urizen doth serve... 

that Prophetic boy 

Must grow up to command his Prince" (Four Zoas III)

Witcutt Page 73

The Conflict between Thought and Feeling  

See Reading Witcutt 4
https://woeandjoy.blogspot.com/2020/12/reading-witcutt-4.html

Witcutt Page 82

The Conflict between Intuition and Feeling

This conflict is played out in the fractured relationship between Los representing Intuition and his son Orc representing Feeling.

"But when they came to the dark rock & to the spectrous cave 

Lo the young limbs had strucken root into the rock & strong 

Fibres had from the Chain of Jealousy inwove themselves 

In a swift vegetation round the rock & round the 

Cave And over the immortal limbs of the terrible fiery boy 

In vain they strove now to unchain. In vain with bitter tears 

To melt the chain of Jealousy. not Enitharmons death 

Nor the Consummation of Los could ever melt the chain 

Nor unroot the infernal fibres from their rocky bed  

Nor all Urthonas strength nor all the power of Luvahs Bulls 

Tho they each morning drag the unwilling Sun out of the deep 

Could uproot the infernal chain. for it had taken root" ( Four Zoas V)  

Witcutt Page 86  

The Conflict between Intuition and Sensation

Tharmas is the most repressed and unconscious of the Zoas, and his actions are correspondingly hard to understand.

"Now thou dost know what tis to strive against the God of waters 

 So saying Tharmas on his furious chariots of the Deep 

Departed far into the Unknown & left a wondrous void 

Round Los. afar his waters bore on all sides round. with noise 

Of wheels & horses hoofs & Trumpets Horns & Clarions" (Four Zoas IV)

Witcutt Page 89  

The Conflict between Thought and Sensation

So in the right state of affairs, Urizen supplies Tharmas with light, and Tharmas Urizen with food. This is perfectly correct symbolism. Thought enlightens sensation, and sensation provides thought with the matter to brood upon.

"The Body of Man is given to me I seek in vain to destroy 

For still it surges forth in fish & monsters of the deeps 

And in these monstrous forms I Live in an Eternal woe 

And thou O Urizen art falln never to be deliverd 

Withhold thy light from me for ever & I will withhold 

From thee thy food so shall we cease to be & all our sorrows 

End & the Eternal Man no more renew beneath our power" (Four Zoas VI)

Witcutt Page 90  

The Conflict between Feeling and Sensation

These are the two most repressed functions, and their conflict takes place in the lowest depths of the unconscious. Los (the Ego) is quite unaware of it.

"Luvah slew Tharmas the Angel of the Tongue ...

Los knew not yet what was done: he thought it was all in Vision 

In Visions of the Dreams of Beulah among the Daughters of Albion Therefore the Murder was put apart in the Looking-Glass of Enitharmon." (Jerusalem Plate 63)

 

Witcutt Page 91

 

Blake is the poet of the inner world of man, and peculiarly of these symbolic representations of the four functions which he calls the Four Zoas.

 

 

READING WITCUTT 4

Library of Congress 

Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Detail from Plate 5

Whether on not William Blake had experienced a trauma in his youth which left a residue of unresolved guilt, it does seem clear that he was constantly attempting to understand how his mind worked. Getting a grasp of Albion, the Four Zoas, their Emanations and Spectres was his way of expanding his consciousness.

In Witcutt's chapter 'The Anatomy of Disintegration' he works with some of the breakdowns in the initial interactions of the Zoas before beginning the process of restoring completeness. 

Witcutt Page 59

The object of the innumerable hero-questors is to find the castle, to witness the manifestations of its symbols, and to restore the Priest King to life and health.

Larry's comment

Speaking of the Grail legends - in which as in Blake the sick king is the Self. The search is the only worthwhile purpose in life - to awaken - to achieve identity, to find (and enter) the kingdom of heaven, to become conscious, to know what one is doing, thus to have the power to cease from evil and learn to do good. This is the true meaning and purpose of building Golgonooza. Hurrah. Thanks, Lord, for showing me the way.

The Way is the attempt to become conscious and the first step is to realize that you are asleep, confess your sin.

Witcutt Page 60

The Trauma causes the displacement of the Four Zoas, except Urthona in the north, whose place remains constant. Blake often depicts the four functions as facing the four cardinal points of the compass; a very common way of delineating them, as every psychiatrist knows.

Larry's comment

Urizen in the west means he fell like the setting sun. In fact he is about to die.

Four Zoas, Night VI, Page 74, (E 351)
Thus Urizen in sorrows wanderd many a dreary way
Warring with monsters of the Deeps in his most hideous pilgrimage
Till his bright hair scatterd in snows his skin barkd oer with wrinkles
Four Caverns rooting downwards their foundations thrusting forth
The metal rock & stone in ever painful throes of vegetation
The Cave of Orc stood to the South a furnace of dire flames
Quenchless unceasing. In the west the Cave of Urizen             
For Urizen fell as the Midday sun falls down into the West
North stood Urthonas stedfast throne a World of Solid darkness
Shut up in stifling obstruction rooted in dumb despair
The East was Void. 
...
But in Eternal times the Seat of Urizen is in the South    
Urthona in the North Luvah in East Tharmas in West"

Witcutt Page 66

...Before the Trauma...He was not troubled by the stern moral law which Urizen afterwards maintained against the revolt of Luvah, for Luvah had not yet revolted, was still the sweet prince of love who glided in the sunny beams.

Larry's comment:

The Law of course comes after the Fall; hence it is always associated with Fallenness. The angels only delight in doing God's will. The Law is fallen Urizen's attempt to redeem the mess.

Thus our self righteousness - the foolish delusion is that our conformity to some ideal has made us right. Carried to the logical extreme it contains the delusion that we were never wrong.

Thought and feeling had an illegitimate transaction - uglifying, maddening, depraving both.

Four Zoas, Night VI, PAGE 78 (E 353)
"For Urizen fixd in Envy sat brooding & coverd with snow
His book of iron on his knees he tracd the dreadful letters
While his snows fell & his storms beat to cool the flames of Orc
Age after Age till underneath his heel a deadly root
Struck thro the rock the root of Mystery accursed shooting up   
Branches into the heaven of Los they pipe formd bending down
Take root again whereever they touch again branching forth
In intricate labyrinths oerspreading many a grizly deep

Amazd started Urizen when he found himself compassd round
And high roofed over with trees. he arose but the stems          
Stood so thick he with difficulty & great pain brought
His books out of the dismal shade. all but the book of iron
Again he took his seat & rangd his Books around 
On a rock of iron frowning over the foaming fires of Orc

And Urizen hung over Orc & viewd his terrible wrath "             

Witcutt Page 68

The Trauma thus causes the disintegration of the Self, viewed symbolically as the separation of Albion from his children and possessions.

Larry's comment:

[The teachings of] 'The moral law ... was the reason for the repression of thought, the Fall of Urizen.' Ah, recall the young Jung: the law strictly enjoined him from thinking that giant thought, but the thought broke through. That was certainly a sort of a Fall also, but he interpreted it as grace - and rightly so.

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 79, (E 355)
"But Urizen remitted not their labours upon his rock
Page 80
And Urizen Read in his book of brass in sounding tones   

Listen O Daughters to my voice Listen to the Words of Wisdom
So shall [ye] govern over all let Moral Duty tune your tongue 
But be your hearts harder than the nether millstone
To bring the shadow of Enitharmon beneath our wondrous tree   
That Los may Evaporate like smoke & be no more
Draw down Enitharmon to the Spectre of Urthona
And let him have dominion over Los the terrible shade"

Book of Los, Plate IV, (E 94)
"7: Nine ages completed their circles
When Los heated the glowing mass, casting
It down into the Deeps: the Deeps fled
Away in redounding smoke; the Sun
Stood self-balanc'd. And Los smild with joy.        
He the vast Spine of Urizen siez'd
And bound down to the glowing illusion

8: But no light, for the Deep fled away
On all sides, and left an unform'd
Dark vacuity: here Urizen lay                        
In fierce torments oil his glowing bed

9: Till his Brain in a rock, & his Heart
In a fleshy slough formed four rivers
Obscuring the immense Orb of fire
Flowing down into night: till a Form            
Was completed, a Human Illusion
In darkness and deep clouds involvd.

                   The End of the
                    Book of LOS" 

 

READING WITCUTT 3

New York Public Library
Milton
Plate 41 

Witcutt's fourth chapter, 'The Birth of the Functions', gives attention to how the functions or Zoas operate within the psyche. We see how the Zoas are paired and how the Emanation and Spectre of each, fits into a pattern which applies to each of the four. The splitting of the Emanation from man is experienced by each of the Zoas, leading to the origin of their Spectres. The autonomous behavior of the fractional parts of the Zoas is the subject to much of Blake's analysis.

From Witcutt's Blake: A Psychological Study:

 Page 44

"Jung opposes thought to feeling, and intuition to sensation. A man or dominant thought represses feeling to the lowest place of the unconscious mind, and the intuitive does the same for sensation. Thought and feeling , and intuition and sensation therefore stand at opposite poles from one another. Since each of the Zoas has a Spectre, therefore, one may expect that the Spectre is either closely connected with or is the opposing function; that Orc's Spectre, for instance, is Urizen.
...
The Spectres and Emanations are thus the connecting links between the Zoas, a fact which is important in the development of their ultimate reintegration. For a man split up into his components (as most of us are) is an incomplete or disintegrated man; therefore the connecting links between the disintegrated parts of his personality are valuable. The Spectres and Emanations are therefor essential characters in Blake's epics, which deal with nothing less than the story of the soul, its disintegration through sin and ultimate regeneration.
...
Ahania, the Emanation of Urizen, is feeling looked at by thought.
Vala, the Emanation of Luvah, is thought looked at by feeling.
Enitharmon , the Emanation of Los, is sensation looked at by intuition.
Enion, the Emanation of Tharmas, is intuition looked at by sensation." 

 

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Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 82, (E 358)
[Spoken by Shadow of Enitharmon]
"Urizen grew up in the plains of Beulah   Many Sons
And many daughters flourishd round the holy Tent of Man     
Till he forgot Eternity delighted in his sweet joy
Among his family his flocks & herds & tents & pastures

But Luvah close conferrd with Urizen in darksom night
To bind the father & enslave the brethren Nought he knew
Of sweet Eternity the blood flowd round the holy tent & rivn   
From its hinges uttering its final groan all Beulah fell
In dark confusion mean time Los was born & Enitharmon
But how I know not then forgetfulness quite wrapd me up
A period nor do I more remember till I stood
Beside Los in the Cavern dark enslavd to vegetative forms    
According to the Will of Luvah who assumed the Place
Of the Eternal Man & smote him. But thou Spectre dark
Maist find a way to punish Vala in thy fiery South
To bring her down subjected to the rage of my fierce boy"

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 84, (E 359) 
"The Spectre said. Thou lovely Vision this delightful Tree
Is given us for a Shelter from the tempests of Void & Solid
Till once again the morn of ages shall renew upon us
To reunite in those mild fields of happy Eternity
Where thou & I in undivided Essence walkd about     
Imbodied. thou my garden of delight & I the spirit in the garden
Mutual there we dwelt in one anothers joy revolving
Days of Eternity with Tharmas mild & Luvah sweet melodious
Upon our waters. This thou well rememberest listen I will tell
What thou forgettest. They in us & we in them alternate Livd 
Drinking the joys of Universal Manhood. One dread morn
Listen O vision of Delight One dread morn of goary blood
The manhood was divided for the gentle passions making way   
Thro the infinite labyrinths of the heart & thro the nostrils issuing
In odorous stupefaction stood before the Eyes of Man   
A female bright."

Jerusalem, Plate 88, (E 246)
"Los answerd sighing like the Bellows of his Furnaces

I care not! the swing of my Hammer shall measure the starry round.
When in Eternity Man converses with Man they enter
Into each others Bosom (which are Universes of delight)
In mutual interchange. and first their Emanations meet   
Surrounded by their Children. if they embrace & comingle
The Human Four-fold Forms mingle also in thunders of Intellect
But if the Emanations mingle not; with storms & agitations
Of earthquakes & consuming fires they roll apart in fear
For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations 
Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity
How then can I ever again be united as Man with Man
While thou my Emanation refusest my Fibres of dominion.
When Souls mingle & join thro all the Fibres of Brotherhood
Can there be any secret joy on Earth greater than this?" 

READING WITCUTT 2

Wikipedia Commons
Book of Urizen
Plate 16, Copy G 

These are the names of the Chapters in Witcutt's Blake: A Psychological Study:

1.) The Nature of Imagination

2.) The Supreme Introvert

3.) The Four Zoas

4.) The Birth of the Functions

5.) The Anatomy of Disintegration

6.) The Conflict of the Zoas

7.) Reintegration

8.) Blake's Map of the Psyche

9.) The Introvert Looks at the World

The previous post was related to the first two chapters. The third chapter aligns Jung's four functions and the Anima with Blake's Blake's Zoas and their Emanations. Witcutt identifies Albion, the Eternal Man with Jung's Self. This chapter also fits the structure of Blake's own psyche into the pattern of Jung's functions and Blake's organization of the Zoas.

Larry's notes:

The Four Zoas                        Jung                        emanation (or anima)

Urizen Satan                          thought                    Ahania
Luvah                                     feeling                      Vala-------> Jerusalem
(Orc)                                      desire    
Palambron                             value
Los                                         intuition                    Enitharmon
Tharmas                                 sensation                 Enion

Witcutt Page 33

"One function of the four is always dominant, with whom the ego or conscious self identifies itself; the other three are repressed into the unconscious, some more and some less. With Blake the dominant function was obviously intuition; in the Blakean mythology this function is symbolized by the daemon Los. 'He is the Spirit of Prophecy, the ever present Elias' (Milton), Prophecy being one of Blake's names for 'the Divine Vision' - imagination or intuition."

Witcutt Page 40

"'The introverted intuitive's chief repression falls upon the sensation of the object. His unconscious is characterized by this fact. For we find in his unconscious a compensatory extroverted sensation function of an archaic character. (Quoted from Jung's Psychological Types)' 

Accordingly, Blake's most repressed function was sensation, represented by Tharmas."

Letters, (E 721)

     "A frowning Thistle implores my stay
     What to others a trifle appears
     Fills me full of smiles or tears
     For double the vision my Eyes do see
     And a double vision is always with me
     With my inward Eye 'tis an old Man grey
     With my outward a Thistle across my way"

Milton, Plate 24 [26] , (E 121)
"Los is by mortals nam'd Time Enitharmon is nam'd Space
But they depict him bald & aged who is in eternal youth
All powerful and his locks flourish like the brows of morning    
He is the Spirit of Prophecy the ever apparent Elias
Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Times swiftness
Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment:
All the Gods of the Kingdoms of Earth labour in Los's Halls.
Every one is a fallen Son of the Spirit of Prophecy             
He is the Fourth Zoa, that stood around the Throne Divine."

 Four Zoas, Night I, Page 5, (E 302)
"Tharmas groand among his Clouds
Weeping, then bending from his Clouds he stoopd his innocent head 
And stretching out his holy hand in the vast Deep sublime        
Turnd round the circle of Destiny with tears & bitter sighs
And said.     Return O Wanderer when the Day of Clouds is oer

So saying he sunk down into the sea a pale white corpse
In torment he sunk down & flowd among her filmy Woof"  

READING WITCUTT

Wikipedia Commons
Europe
Plate 9

It was fortuitous that Larry went from studying the Russian Humanists to Jung's psychology to falling into the hands of Witcutt's psychological study of William Blake. Witcutt acted as the connecting link which made Blake appealing and engaging. Larry's first note on Witcutt was, "A fascinating and informative little book by a Jungian Christian."

Larry learned from Witcutt that Blake was an "introverted intuitive", putting him into a category which was familiar to a student of Jung. Witcutt said, "To the intuitive introvert the world of the imagination is far more vivid than the world of outer reality."

More Jungian terminology is apparent in this statement Larry wrote:

"His visions were primarily graphic. His poetry was commentary on the pictures. The work is essentially a textbook example of the archetypes and functions. A map of the Unconscious - the collective unconscious."  

Witcutt Page 17:

"There is in the unconscious mind a substratum of images which are fundamentally the same for all men, no matter what period or race. Jung called the collectivity of these images the 'collective unconscious and the images themselves the archetypes of the unconscious, or the primordial images.

To the ancients these images were the gods."

Larry wrote:

"Blake hated the Greeks, therefore renamed the gods."

Witcutt Page 18:

"In exploring the mythological world of Blake, we are really exploring our own minds"

Witcutt Page 19:

"The Ancient pagan religions were the products of pure imagination [intuition]...Now we worship the God of reason instead of the gods of imagination."

Witcutt Page 20:

"Nevertheless the gods are still necessary...as symbols of the inner world of man, as parts of his own soul."

Larry wrote:

"Blake's heresy was to identify religion with the imagination, the collective unconscious - the Jungian heresy. The answer is that 'one God' sprang from reason."

---

Larry wrote these comments on Blake under the influence of Witcutt. He had not yet begun seriously studying Blake's own writing. Witcutt's wrote from the point of view of an analytic psychologist. When Larry became absorbed in studying Blake he was less interested in his psychological makeup than in his spiritual perceptions. Blake's poetry as a myth of creation, redemption and apocalypse is a broad enough subject to be studied from many perspectives.

---

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 12, (E 38)
"Then I asked: does a firm perswasion that a thing is so, make
it so?
   He replied.  All poets believe that it does, & in ages of
imagination
this firm perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable
of a firm perswasion of any thing."

Milton, Plate 1, (E 95)
"We do not 
want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just & true to
our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall
live for ever; in Jesus our Lord."

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)
"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" 

FIRST VISION

Like Blake, Larry was interested in learning all that he could about the wisdom of the ages. In 1977 he had been studying Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, and Nicoll. From there he went on to pursuing C. G. Jung and his interpreters. He came across a little book by W. P. Witcutt titled Blake: A Psychological Study which proposed to use Jungian psychology as a key to understanding Blake. As a result Larry turned to studying Blake because he found his poetry more lucid and and cogent than anything he had been studying.

"My own serious interest in Blake began in 1977 when my wife brought Blake a psychological study by W. P. Witcutt home from the library. I had been on the point of a commitment to the study of Jung's voluminous writings, which at that time seemed the most creative intellectual work at hand. Witcutt diverted my commitment to Blake, which we have now."

Following his study of Witcutt Larry wrote the following on 5-18-1978.

"Some ideas about Blake's poetry:

It is naming of the selves. Sharing his visions gives great help in understanding, in gaining detachment from the hardening and rigid concrete of opinion, prejudice, passion - the principalities and powers - that work to make us automatisms, zombies, denizens of hell. It offers fresh and new ways of perceiving life - ourselves and others - it detaches us from the old man - this body of death, makes us aware of the spiritual struggle going on - we have been asleep to it - tossed under the waves, the prostrate Albion, the sick king. Blake's vivid imagery may shock us into consciousness so that we may begin to act purposely.  

Blake must have been an imaginative young boy and at some point found thinking very oppressive. Did he go from permissive and indulgent parents to a brutal taskmaster who used 'geometric logic' like Quigg did (in Caine Mutiny). He found reason and feeling horrible and his visions of them seem to center on calamity - the Fall.

He shared his visions in such a way that one might hope to understand him at a deeper, more profound and real level than do most folk including ourselves. Thus if we can achieve this understanding of Blake, we may progress in learning of others including ourselves. Then love may come forth.

The woes of Urizen do indeed move us strangely, perhaps they may evoke the Holy Spirit in a powerful way. Hurrah!

In the Four Zoas, fallen Albion gives the scepter to Urizen who builds a steel trap world, which 'has done so much harm to our imagination's elastic and vital power.' Thus he didn't hate creative thought & law but only the worship of the created good. He hated the reactionaries and identified them with reason which, no doubt, they used as a weapon against visionary liberals."  

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Wikipedia Commons
Book of Urizen
Plate 4, Copy G

Visions of Daughters of Albion, Plate 5, (E 48)
"But when the morn arose, her lamentation renewd,
The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, & eccho back her sighs.

O Urizen! Creator of men! Mistaken Demon of heaven:
Thy joys are tears! thy labour vain, to form men to thine image.
How can one joy absorb another? are not different joys           

Holy, eternal, infinite! and each joy is a Love.
...
Does not the eagle scorn the earth & despise the treasures beneath?
But the mole knoweth what is there, & the worm shall tell it thee.       
Does not the worm erect a pillar in the mouldering church yard?

Plate 6
And a palace of eternity in the jaws of the hungry grave
Over his porch these words are written. Take thy bliss O Man!
And sweet shall be thy taste & sweet thy infant joys renew!"