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Library of Congress Book of Urizen Copy G, Plate 14 |
The simplest cycle that is discernible in Blake is that of Fall, Return and Judgment. Man falls from the idyllic state of innocence, passes through experience and reaches a transformative event where all that can be annihilated is annihilated. This cycle is presented in multiple ways using various names, and outlining innumerable details to emphasize its importance. In fact everything that Blake writes or pictures may be placed into this cycle.
Milton O Percival titled his book which he called 'a work of interpretation', William Blake's Circle of Destiny. My next three post will be directed at following these three stages of development by connecting with earlier posts. Quotes from Percival will be the guide to interpreting the process.
William Blake's Circle of Destiny by Milton O Percival, Page 168:
"[Albion] has found the pace of Eden, where energy is free and active, too swift for his lagging spirit. He has come to prefer repose to activity and the restraint of a delusive 'good' to liberty. Beulah is in general, the world of the passive emotions - quiet, tender, given over to outward emotions and dreamy institutions. Into Beulah doubt and denial do not come, because love and pity are (until the fall) adequate to the situation.
...Albion
had come to look on the security, the lessened energy, and the
emotional serenity of which Beulah is the symbol, as the good
life. The fall is a Narcissistic thing. Albion has fallen in love
with his own passive self as it is manifested in the relaxation of
Beulah. Proud of the pity and love in Beulah, he accepts Vala as
Good. Evil is but a step away."
FALL - CREATION
ON ANOTHERS SORROW
LAMB & LION
BLAKE'S LUCIFER
THE JOURNEY XIX (Satan)
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