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"