SELFHOOD

Library of Congress
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Plate 4 Detail

From Boundaries of the Soul by June Singer, Page 174:

Shadow
"The way that is sought for dealing with the shadow is a difficult one. It requires a continuing search of this dark force, and when it is found it must be brought to consciousness: this is what I am, this is what I am capable of doing...This is, moreover, not something one undertakes for a limited period in the course of the analysis, and then, when the shadow is laid to rest, can assume that he can go on to the finer more glorious aspects of the analysis. The shadow is, in truth, a devilish form, and just when you think you know who he is he changes his disguise and appears from another direction. So it is, in the Jungian analysis, that the analysand is initiated into a lifelong process, that of looking within, and being willing to reflect long and hard on what he sees there, in order to avoid being taken over by it."    


In much of Blake's writing Urizen was described as the enemy whom he was unable to forgive. Knowing himself to be an Immortal Spirit who could not measure up to the dictates of the living Soul within, Blake postulated that the inner man is overlaid with a Selfhood who binds and imprisons him in layers of self-deception. The activity of Los, the Imagination, is Spiritual and the activity of Urizen, the reason, is rational. Los and Urizen could live in harmony if each did not aim to dominate the other. But in the Enlightenment, the culture in which Blake lived, Reason had replaced God as the dominant motif.

Although Blake in his youth had outwardly resisted the ethos of his society, he came to see that his own attitude sustained the struggle for dominance which was being played out around him. A resolution between his Imagination and Reason (Intellect) would have to be reached before he was freed to deliver a message of reconciliation. The problem was generated by the false reasoning that Imagination was inferior, that Reason alone had the answers to society's ills.

In Milton Blake worked out a solution to deal with his personal Selfhood. He found that the way to free himself from his dilemma was to annihilate his Selfhood through forgiveness. By bringing his own darkness into the light and by recognizing Urizen as his brother not his Enemy, Blake began to solve the conflict within his own psyche. In himself and in his culture, reason attempted to dominate. Blake developed Los as the primary opposition to Urizen in the world in which we live. Los is the agent of Urthona who provides man's connection to the Eternal. In the book Milton, Urizen and Milton (who was the field in which the conflict was played out) struggled on the banks of the Arnon. In one particular account of self-annihilation, Milton molded a human body for Urizen out of the red clay.

In Jerusalem  Blake fixed attention on the societal Selfhood. The Great Satan, the Selfhood as the Spectre of Albion which had a grip on England, could only be illuminated by a spiritual revolution in the mind of each individual. The form that the revitalized society takes is inclusiveness: every Human Form expressing its true Identity as a contributing member of the one body. This state of reconciliation can only take form through the spiritual aspect of Albion which is Jerusalem taking form throughout the natural world.   

Jerusalem, PLATE 99, (E 258)
"All Human Forms identified even Tree Metal Earth & Stone. all
Human Forms identified, living going forth & returning wearied
Into the Planetary lives of Years Months Days & Hours reposing
And then Awaking into his Bosom in the Life of Immortality.

And I heard the Name of their Emanations they are named Jerusalem

                  The End of The Song
                     of Jerusalem"

Milton, PLATE 14 [15], (E 108)
"What do I here before the Judgment? without my Emanation?
With the daughters of memory, & not with the daughters of inspiration[?]
I in my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that Evil One!              
He is my Spectre! in my obedience to loose him from my Hells
To claim the Hells, my Furnaces, I go to Eternal Death."

Milton, Plate 16, (E 110)
a full-page design (Milton striving with Urizen)
inscribed: "To Annihilate the Selfhood of Deceit & False Forgiveness"
 
Milton, PLATE 40 [46], (E 142)
"The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal           
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination."

Jerusalem, Plate 5, (E 147)
"O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of ages,
While I write of the building of Golgonooza, & of the terrors of Entuthon:
Of Hand & Hyle & Coban, of Kwantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd & Hutton:
Of the terrible sons & daughters of Albion. and their Generations."

Jerusalem, Plate 8, (E 151)
"I will break thee into shivers! & melt thee in the furnaces of death;       
I will cast thee into forms of abhorrence & torment if thou
Desist not from thine own will, & obey  not my stern command!
I am closd up from my children: my Emanation is dividing
And thou my Spectre art divided against me. But mark
I will compell thee to assist me in my terrible labours. To beat 
These hypocritic Selfhoods on the Anvils of bitter Death
I am inspired: I act not for myself: for Albions sake
I now am what I am: a horror and an astonishment"

 Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 173)
 "And O thou Lamb of God, whom I    
Slew in my dark self-righteous pride:
  Art thou return'd to Albions Land!
And is Jerusalem thy Bride?

  Come to my arms & never more
Depart; but dwell for ever here:         
  Create my Spirit to thy Love:
Subdue my Spectre to thy Fear,

  Spectre of Albion! warlike Fiend!
In clouds of blood & ruin roll'd:
  I here reclaim thee as my own         
My Selfhood! Satan! armd in gold."

Jerusalem, PLATE 29 [33], (E 175)
"So spoke the Spectre to Albion. he is the Great Selfhood
Satan: Worshipd as God by the Mighty Ones of the Earth
Having a white Dot calld a Center from which branches out
A Circle in continual gyrations. this became a Heart           
From which sprang numerous branches varying their motions
Producing many Heads three or seven or ten, & hands & feet
Innumerable at will of the unfortunate contemplator
Who becomes his food[:] such is the way of the Devouring Power" 

Jerusalem, PLATE 49, (E 198)
"Striving to Create a Heaven in which all shall be pure & holy
In their Own Selfhoods, in Natural Selfish Chastity to banish Pity
And dear Mutual Forgiveness; & to become One Great Satan
Inslavd to the most powerful Selfhood: to murder the Divine Humanity    
In whose sight all are as the dust & who chargeth his Angels with folly!"

Jerusalem, PLATE 90, (E 250)
"Those who dare appropriate to themselves Universal Attributes
Are the Blasphemous Selfhoods & must be broken asunder
A Vegetated Christ & a Virgin Eve, are the Hermaphroditic
Blasphemy, by his Maternal Birth he is that Evil-One         
And his Maternal Humanity must be put off Eternally
Lest the Sexual Generation swallow up Regeneration
Come Lord Jesus take on thee the Satanic Body of Holiness

So Los cried in the Valleys of Middlesex in the Spirit of Prophecy
While in Selfhood Hand & Hyle & Bowen & Skofeld appropriate    
The Divine Names: seeking to Vegetate the Divine Vision
In a corporeal & ever dying Vegetation & Corruption
Mingling with Luvah in One. they become One Great Satan"

Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 258)
"Which vary according as the Organs of Perception vary & they walked
To & fro in Eternity as One Man reflecting each in each & clearly seen
And seeing: according to fitness & order. And I heard Jehovah speak 
Terrific from his Holy Place & saw the Words of the Mutual Covenant Divine" 
 
Romans 12
[20] Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, 
give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his 
head.
[21] Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

First Corinthians 3
[18] Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
[19] For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"
[20] and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
[21] So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours,
[22] whether Paul or Apol'los or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours;
[23] and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's. 

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