MORAVIAN MOTHER

Wikimedia Commons

Fitzwilliam Museum

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Plate 22, Spring

---

William Blake's mother Catherine had been a Moravian during her first marriage. Her husband Thomas Armitage died of consumption in 1751 and she married James Blake in 1752. James and Catherine had four sons and a daughter born between 1753 and 1764. When Catherine married James she gave up membership in the Fetter Lane Society which was her Moravian connection because of the total commitment  they required. However the principles and practices of her Moravian community would have stayed with her.

Lets look at some ways in which the Moravian traditions may have continued to influence Catherine as she raised her children. Characteristic of Moravian worship was the use of song. They wrote their own hymns, committed them to memory and often based their whole worship service on singing. They were dependent on the Bible in public and private worship for instruction and inspiration. Work, learning and spiritual nurture were woven together in their daily lives. They engaged in missionary activities to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to far flung parts of the world. They developed a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to bring them emotional and visionary experiences. Unity and Brotherhood were major themes in their activities. The sexual union of man and wife played a strong role in Moravian thought.

Now look at young William, a boy of exceptional intellectual and artistic talent, growing up with the nurture of such a mother. The accounts of Blake's childhood tell us he saw visions from a young age. The only formal schooling he had before his apprenticeship was at Pars School of Drawing. He reported that he was befriended by Old Testament prophets in childhood. His early attempts at writing poetry were published by friends in 1784. The fragments of a manuscript which goes by the name of Island in the Moon records singing among his circle of friends and includes preliminary poems of Songs of Innocence.

In Blake's major poetry we see the frequent but not explicit themes which can be traced back to the influence of his mother's Moravian background.  

 

Letters, (E 707)

"To My Dearest Friend John Flaxman these lines 

 

I bless thee O Father of Heaven & Earth that ever I saw Flaxmans face 

Angels stand round my Spirit in Heaven. the blessed of Heaven are my friends upon Earth 

When Flaxman was taken to Italy. Fuseli was giv'n to me for a season 

And now Flaxman hath given me Hayley his friend to be mine such my lot upon Earth 

Now my lot in the Heavens is this; Milton lovd me in childhood & shewd me his face  

Ezra came with Isaiah the Prophet, but Shakespeare in riper years gave me his hand 

Paracelsus & Behmen appeard to me. terrors appeard in the Heavens above 

And in Hell beneath & a mighty & awful change threatend the Earth 

The American War began All its dark horrors passed before my face Across the Atlantic to France. 

Then the French Revolution commencd in thick clouds 

And My Angels have told me. that seeing such visions I could not subsist on the Earth 

But by my conjunction with Flaxman who knows to forgive Nervous Fear 

I remain for Ever Yours 

WILLIAM BLAKE

---

Ram Horn'd with Gold

By Larry Clayton 

Chapter Eight

Bible

 

"Like Los Blake walks up and down the biblical scene from Adam to John of Patmos. He takes what best serves his purpose, or rather the biblical symbols rearrange themselves kaleidoscopically into his visions of eternity. These together add up to a cogent and provocative commentary on the Bible and on its child, the Christian faith. 

 

Out of this intuitive unconscious process arose the great themes of his faith, embodied in his art: the universal man, fallen and fractured, struggling, redeemed and returning in the fullness of time into the blessed unity from which he came. This is the essential story of the Bible for one who reads it whole and without the constraints and blinders of what I have called the black book. 

It should be said however that Blake found inspiration for his myth from many other sources beside the Bible; the secular critics have pointed them out in great detail. He drew impartially on everything in his experience, but found the Bible his richest fountain. The other sources were secondary and for the most part commentaries on or elaborations of the biblical truths. 

Much as he loved the Bible, Blake ascribed paramount authority to his visions. The true man of God has visions which refine, bring up to date, and correct the earlier visions of the earlier prophets. This is where Blake departed from the orthodox attitude to the Bible, which he called reading it black. This is where he acted on the heritage of English dissent. 

This is how he saw the New Light and became a man of the New Age."

 To be Continued.

BLAKE'S FEMALE NUDES

The images of nudes in Blake are not there to call attention to themselves but to further the contrast between between the Human Form Divine and the fallen world. Each passage of poetry and each image of 'naked beauty displayed' includes references to a darker, uglier side of reality.

On Page 359 of Fearful Symmetry Northrop Frye wrote this to explain why Jerusalem may seem harsh and strident:

"He wrote Jerusalem in the age of Goya and Beethoven. And this new kind of genius has the analytic quality of a revolutionary age which will not be satisfied with an impressive appearance designed to conceal an ugly reality. 

...

[Jerusalem's] primary effort is to see the Antichrist as the face of things, the literal appearance of a fallen world. This is the fundamental difference between the approach between Jerusalem and the Four Zoas, which latter has more of the rococo spirit, and much loveliness...The motive that drives Blake on through his gloomy and tormented visions is the same motive that drove Goya through his recording the disasters of war. In both cases the charge of ugliness is irrelevant, and intensity, honesty, a grim resolve to portray experience as it is regardless of horror, and a passionately sincere clairvoyance, are the prophetic qualities involved."    

 

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 63

Jerusalem, Plate 64, (E 215)

"Then All the Daughters of Albion became One before Los: even Vala!
And she put forth her hand upon the Looms in dreadful howlings
Till she vegetated into a hungry Stomach & a devouring Tongue.
Her Hand is a Court of Justice, her Feet: two Armies in Battle
Storms & Pestilence: in her Locks: & in her Loins Earthquake.    
And Fire. & the Ruin of Cities & Nations & Families & Tongues

She cries: The Human is but a Worm, & thou O Male: Thou art
Thyself Female, a Male: a breeder of Seed: a Son & Husband: & Lo.
The Human Divine is Womans Shadow, a Vapor in the summers heat
Go assume Papal dignity thou Spectre, thou Male Harlot! Arthur   
Divide into the Kings of Europe in times remote O Woman-born
And Woman-nourishd & Woman-educated & Woman-scorn'd!

Yale Center for British Art 
Jerusalem
Title Page detail 

Jerusalem, Plate 85, (E 244)

"plant ye
The Seeds O Sisters in the bosom of Time & Spaces womb
To spring up for Jerusalem: lovely Shadow of Sleeping Albion
Why wilt thou rend thyself apart & build an Earthly Kingdom    
To reign in pride & to opress & to mix the Cup of Delusion
O thou that dwellest with Babylon! Come forth O lovely-one
Plate 86
I see thy Form O lovely mild Jerusalem, Wingd with Six Wings
In the opacous Bosom of the Sleeper, lovely Three-fold
In Head & Heart & Reins, three Universes of love & beauty
Thy forehead bright: Holiness to the Lord, with Gates of pearl
Reflects Eternity beneath thy azure wings of feathery down     
Ribbd delicate & clothd with featherd gold & azure & purple
From thy white shoulders shadowing, purity in holiness!
Thence featherd with soft crimson of the ruby bright as fire
Spreading into the azure Wings which like a canopy
Bends over thy immortal Head in which Eternity dwells        
Albion beloved Land; I see thy mountains & thy hills
And valleys & thy pleasant Cities Holiness to the Lord
I see the Spectres of thy Dead O Emanation of Albion." 

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem
Plate 32 

 Jerusalem, Plate 11, (E 154)  
 "Vala  is but thy Shadow, O thou loveliest among women!
  A shadow animated by thy tears O mournful Jerusalem!
  Plate 12
  Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?.
  Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
  But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
  What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?" 

Wikipedia Commons 
Illustration of Paradise Lost 
Satan Exulting over Eve

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 87, (E 369)
"But Los stood on the Limit of Translucence weeping & trembling
Filled with doubts in self accusation beheld the fruit  
Of Urizens Mysterious tree For Enitharmon thus spake

When In the Deeps beneath I gatherd of this ruddy fruit 
It was by that I knew that I had Sinnd & then I knew
That without a ransom I could not be savd from Eternal death
That Life lives upon Death & by devouring appetite
All things subsist on one another thenceforth in Despair
I spend my glowing time but thou art strong & mighty  
To bear this Self conviction take then Eat thou also of
The fruit & give me proof of life Eternal or I die

Then Los plucked the fruit & Eat & sat down in Despair
And must have given himself to death Eternal But
Urthonas spectre in part mingling with him comforted him  
Being a medium between him & Enitharmon   But This Union
Was not to be Effected without Cares & Sorrows & Troubles
Of six thousand Years of self denial and of bitter Contrition"  

STONING

 

Wikipedia Commons

The Woman Taken in Adultery

c.1805 for Thomas Butts

When Blake choose to illustrate the Bible he selected incidents that were apropos to the teachings he wanted to promulgate. The desire to substitute forgiveness for vengeance prompted him to illustrated the Woman Taken in Adultery just as it had prompted John to include the story in his Gospel. The two men realized that vengeance was the accepted practice for dealing with offenders against the law. The punishment for committing adultery in Mosaic Law was a particularly harsh one - the offender should be stoned to death.

I've recently become more aware that the practice of stoning is still being enacted. Last week I watched The Kite Runner, a movie which showed the stoning to death of a woman punished by the Taliban for violating Sharia law in Afghanistan. A less dramatic incident was shown in the movie, Loving Vincent about Van Gogh. A group of boys injured him by throwing large stones while his was painting in a field. His offense was being peculiar and an outsider who would not conform.        

Blake's picture does not portray a scene of violence. Instead shows the avoidance of violence through the withdrawal of the accusers. The accused woman is left with Jesus who refuses to be her accuser. She is free to leave with the admonition to sin no more. Blake makes us aware of the severity of the threat against her only by the fact that her hands are bound behind her back.

Blake's awareness of the violence of stoning as a method of punishment is shown in his image of The Blasphemer which illustrates Leviticus, Chapter 24.

[10] And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp;
[11] And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)
[12] And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them.
[13] And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
[14] Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
[15] And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.
[16] And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.
...
[23] And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Jerusalem, Plate 25, (E 170)

"Why did you take Vengeance O ye Sons of the mighty Albion?
Planting these Oaken Groves: Erecting these Dragon Temples
Injury the Lord heals but Vengeance cannot be healed:            
As the Sons of Albion have done to Luvah: so they have in him
Done to the Divine Lord & Saviour, who suffers with those that suffer:
For not one sparrow can suffer, & the whole Universe not suffer also,

In all its Regions, & its Father & Saviour not pity and weep.
But Vengeance is the destroyer of Grace & Repentance in the bosom
Of the Injurer: in which the Divine Lamb is cruelly slain:
Descend O Lamb of God & take away the imputation of Sin
By the Creation of States & the deliverance of Individuals Evermore Amen

Thus wept they in Beulah over the Four Regions of Albion
But many doubted & despaird & imputed Sin & Righteousness       
To Individuals & not to States, and these Slept in Ulro." 

Jeremiah 31

[33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[34] And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

John 8

[5] Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
[6] This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
[7] So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
[8] And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
[9] And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
[10] When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
[11] She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Book of Urizen

Library of Congress
Book of Urizen
Plate3

From  Larry's Blake Primer, Myth 2

We find the earliest organized statement of Blake's myth in a medium sized poem written in 1794. The Book of Urizen served as a prototype for 'The Four Zoas', which was to follow. It contains among other things a parody of Genesis. Blake found the orthodox doctrine of creation unsatisfying, as many people have to this day, so he set out to present an alternative. He followed 'Paradise Lost' and the Gnostics in placing the Fall before Creation.

       In his myth the Fall of Man involved a fall in part of the divine nature and led to the creation of a fallen world. Such a Creation Story represents a sophistication of the elemental biblical one. Paradise Lost is an obvious recreation of the Bible story, and B.U. is a recreation of P.L., beginning as a simple inversion. 

       The doctrine of contraries, which we found in Marriage of Heaven and Hell, appears in B.U. in the form of two Eternals, Urizen and Los. The poem develops their careers in nine chapters. Following closely some of the Gnostic texts Urizen separates from the other Eternals, writes the Book of Brass, and declares himself God, whereupon he is shut out of Eternity and Los appointed his watchman (Chapters 1-3). Los confines Urizen with the limits of time and space and in "seven ages of dismal woe" binds him down into the five shriveled senses of the human body (Chapter 4).

       This frightful condition leads Los to pity, which divides his soul and results in the separation of his emanation, Enitharmon. Eternity shudders at this further breakup of Man into the sexual contraries. Even more shocking to the Eternals, Los begets his likeness on his own divided image. The Eternals shut out this fallenness from Eden, and Los becomes blind to Eternity (Chapter 6)Section 10. Los binds his son, Orc, with the Chain of Jealousy. Urizen explores his dens, discovers that no one can obey or keep his iron laws for one minute and that life lives upon death.

       There in barest outline is The Book of Urizen. Volumes have been written to interpret it. At this point we note that Urizen, Orc (also called Luvah in later works), and Los emerge as the three principles of the psyche. In Jungian terms we would call them Reason, Feeling, and Intuition. With the addition of Tharmas, the body or Instinct, they make up the four Zoas of the complete myth. B.U. is the earliest sketch of their relationships, which form the primary subject matter of Blake's evolving myth until the critical moment when Jesus became All and Jerusalem his Bride. 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 122, (E 391)

"Thus shall the male & female live the life of Eternity           
Because the Lamb of God Creates himself a bride & wife
That we his Children evermore may live in Jerusalem
Which now descendeth out of heaven a City yet a Woman
Mother of myriads redeemd & born in her spiritual palaces
By a New Spiritual birth Regenerated from Death"           

 Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 258)

"Such is the Cry from all the Earth from the Living Creatures of the Earth
And from the great City of Golgonooza in the Shadowy Generation 
And from the Thirty-two Nations of the Earth among the Living Creatures

PLATE 99                 
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"

       Keep in mind that here, as in later writings, Blake's poetry has many levels. We are especially interested in the cosmic and psychological levels, and the most compelling dimension of the psychological is the autobiographical. In B.U. as in all the prophecies Blake tells us a great deal about himself. He lived intensely in the spiritual realm; this means that visions, motifs, attitudes come and go with great rapidity. The poetry reveals to us the course of his life. At the same time sober reflection on his biography casts light on the dynamic evolution of the myth. The student might spend time with B.U. before tackling 4Z, for it gives in outline form much of the action of the larger poem. However Urizen is hard to understand, written before the complete vision o Blake's myth had crystallized in his mind; one might question the value to spending much time on this early work.

Book of Urizen, Plate 15, (E 78)         
"Thus the Eternal Prophet was divided
Before the death-image of Urizen
For in changeable clouds and darkness
In a winterly night beneath,
The Abyss of Los stretch'd immense:       
And now seen, now obscur'd, to the eyes
Of Eternals, the visions remote
Of the dark seperation appear'd.
As glasses discover Worlds
In the endless Abyss of space,            
So the expanding eyes of Immortals
Beheld the dark visions of Los,
And the globe of life blood trembling"

Book of Urizen, Plate 19, (E 79) 
"6. Coild within Enitharmons womb
The serpent grew casting its scales,                             
With sharp pangs the hissings began
To change to a grating cry,
Many sorrows and dismal throes,
Many forms of fish, bird & beast,
Brought forth an Infant form                                     
Where was a worm before.

7. The Eternals their tent finished
Alarm'd with these gloomy visions
When Enitharmon groaning
Produc'd a man Child to the light.                               

8. A shriek ran thro' Eternity:
And a paralytic stroke;
At the birth of the Human shadow.

9. Delving earth in his resistless way;
Howling, the Child with fierce flames                       
Issu'd from Enitharmon.

10. The Eternals, closed the tent
They beat down the stakes the cords
Plate 20
Stretch'd for a work of eternity;
No more Los beheld Eternity.

11. In his hands he siez'd the infant
He bathed him in springs of sorrow
He gave him to Enitharmon."   

ALBION'S ANGUISH

 First posted Jan 2010

This post follows the thread in these two posts related to Plate 62 of Jerusalem:

ALBION & LOS
SEVEN EYES OF GOD

Perhaps Plate 62 of Jerusalem is an attempted summation of Blake's myth up to that point. Putting all of the Old Testament and New Testament allusions in the text, as well as connecting the picture to text on Plate 33 that falls much earlier in the story, points toward an amalgamation of various threads.

COLORED IMAGE: Jerusalem, Plate 62, Albion and Los

Library of Congress

In the Illumination on Plate 62, we have an example of how Blake presents the explicit and implicit simultaneously. The explicit is invariably the lessor of his communications. Although the seven spots direct us to the Eyes of God, there is a suggestion of twelve spots. The implied twelve suggests the Zodiac and other instances of twelve entities for which we may seek associations. 

The picture itself goes beyond the stated imagery of the text on either Plate 62 or Plate 33. In the introduction to William Blake's Circle of Destiny, Percival presents the overall theme of his book: that when the long cycle comes to an end, it renews (repeats) itself if error is not cast off, or it reaches the Last Judgment which ends all temporal things. Percival sees Blake presenting the whole of the cycle: from the undifferentiated status of Eternity to the Apocalypse where time ends - in all its aspects of politics, science, history, sociology, psychology and religion.

Through the images incorporated in this picture of Albion, Blake may be suggesting a turning point in cosmic events. The ouroboros (seen as a snake around Albion's head) as a representation of cyclical experience reminds us that Albion may break the cycle or repeat it. The peacock feathers surrounding the head remind us that this is a point of transition. The Eyes of God tell us that Albion is under the protection of the Eternals though he has not returned from the world of time. The twelve eyes point to the Zodiac, another image of cyclical movement. (Percival is able to correlate the stages traversed in Blake's myth with passage through the signs of the Zodiac in Chapter VIII of his book.)

Using alchemical symbolism, Percival makes this observation: "The feminine mercury passes from black to white through an intermediate stage in which all the colors assert themselves. The symbol of this stage is the peacock's tail. The appearance of this symbol is a good omen; it means that the fire is doing its work, that death is awakening into life, or, as Paracelsus puts it alchemically, 'it showeth the workings of the philosopher's mercury on the vulgar mercury."' (Page 206)

Just as Blake wanted us to think of the events of the Old and New Testaments as we read the words of the text, in the illumination he is calling to our minds the seven days of creation, the twelve tribes of Israel, and whatever associations with the numbers seven and twelve which we may have from our reading of history, literature and numerology. The feet, cold to the point of blue death, are surrounded by the fires of destruction and redemption. And what about how Albion grasps the stone tenaciously? The face of fear, anguish and confusion suggests an agonizing decision making process like that undergone by Jesus in the Garden.

Jerusalem, Plate 33 [37], (E 179)
"And One stood forth from the Divine Family &,said    

I feel my Spectre rising upon me! Albion! arouze thyself!
Why dost thou thunder with frozen Spectrous wrath against us?
The Spectre is, in Giant Man; insane, and most deform'd.
Thou wilt certainly provoke my Spectre against thine in fury!    
He has a Sepulcher hewn out of a Rock ready for thee:
And a Death of Eight thousand years forg'd by thyself, upon
The point of his Spear! if thou persistest to forbid with Laws
Our Emanations, and to attack our secret supreme delights

So Los spoke: But when he saw blue death in Albions feet,   
Again he join'd the Divine Body, following merciful;
While Albion fled more indignant! revengeful covering"

Blake bombards us with images, as he makes us ask the question, "Which direction will Albion choose?"

Thanks to Jim and Mark for ideas included in this post.

 

JESUS & JERUSALEM

First posted Oct. 2011

Yale Center for British Arts
Paul Mellon Collection
Jerusalem, Plate 62

 

Frequently Blake used a shorthand to present his ideas. He quoted words or phrases from his sources to evoke larger bodies of ideas without stating them explicitly.

On Plate 62 of Jerusalem he points our attention to various Biblical passages to expand the context of the statements he is making about Jesus and about his own developing myth. To facilitate a more complete understanding of part of Plate 62, here are some Biblical passages which incorporated phrases from Blake's poem.

John 20:
11-12 - But Mary [Maglalen] stood just outside the tomb, and she was crying. And as she cried, she looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white who sat, one at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had lain.
20:13 - The angels spoke to her, "Why are you crying?" they asked. "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have put him!" she said.
20:14 - Then she turned and noticed Jesus standing there, without realising that it was Jesus.
20:15 - "Why are you crying?" said Jesus to her. "Who are you looking for?" She, supposing that he was the gardener, said, "Oh, sir, if you have carried him away, please tell me where you have put him and I will take him away."
20:16 - Jesus said to her, "Mary!" At this she turned right round and said to him, in Hebrew, "Master!"

Mark 1:
2 - just as the prophet Isaiah had written: "Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.

Numbers 10:
12 - and the sons of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai. Then the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.

Nehemiah 9:
19 - You, in Your great compassion, Did not forsake them in the wilderness; The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, To guide them on their way, Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go

Exodus 17:
5-6 - The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 16:
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.
 
John 11:
24 - "I know," said Martha, "that he [her brother Lazarus]
will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
25-26 - "I myself am the resurrection and the life," Jesus
told her. "The man who believes in me will live even though he
dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die
at all. Can you believe that?"

John 14:28 - You have heard me say, 'I am going away and I am
coming back to you. ' If you really loved me, you would be glad
because I am going to my Father, for my Father is greater than I.
And I have told you of it now, before it happens, so that when
it does happen, your faith in me will not be shaken.

Revelation 14:20 - And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.

This may seem like a lot of Biblical references for one short passage but with some effort you can find even more.

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 213)
[Jerusalem speaking:]
"These are the Daughters of Vala, Mother of the Body of death
But I thy Magdalen behold thy Spiritual Risen Body
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.

But Los beheld the Divine Vision among the flames of the Furnaces
Therefore he lived & breathed in hope."

As you may gather after viewing these quotes, Blake is attempting to convey much more in this Plate than has been suggested in this post.

 

Albion

First Posted October 2015

Albion has a composite character second to none. It means (originally) England, but at a deeper level it means the cosmos, which is a man!. (In this Blake agrees with the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalah, the Heavenly Man of Philo, St. Paul's heavenly man, the second Adam, and the cosmic man of Jung's psychology, and the Hindu god, Krishna.)

       

Blake's Albion, the eternal man, fell asleep into mortality in Beulah. We read at the beginning of Night 2 of the Four Zoas these ominous words:

"Rising upon his Couch of Death Albion beheld his Sons
Turning his Eyes outward to Self, losing the Divine Vision. Albion called Urizen & said:
"Take thou possession! take this Scepter! go forth in my might
For I am weary, & must sleep in the dark sleep of Death."

He divides and divides into four parts, the four zoas (strangely similar to the four functions promulgated more than a hundred years later by Carl Jung).

 

       This dissolution of the cosmic man is described at the beginning of the Four Zoas. He passes through the Circle of Destiny, and at the end of the Four Zoas he awakens from his mortal sleep and resumes his place in Eternity. That in essence is a thumbnail account of Blake's myth: descent from Eternity, struggle, and eventually return.

Wikipedia Commons

Jerusalem

Plate 76, Copy A

Albion     Jesus

 

*****************************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the archaic name for Great Britain. For other uses, see Albion (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Alban.

The White Cliffs of Dover may have given rise to the name Albion

 

 

 

 

Albion (Ancient Greek: Ἀλβίων) is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island. The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Alba (genitive Alban, dative Albain)in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh,Cornish and Breton. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.

New Albion and Albionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation.^[1][2] Captain Arthur Phillip originally named the Sydney Cove "New Albion", but for uncertain reasons the colony acquired the name "Sydney."

 

Plate 62

First posted April 2012

Trianon Press

Jerusalem

Plate 62

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 212)
"Repose on me till the morning of the Grave. I am thy life.

Jerusalem replied. I am an outcast: Albion is dead!
I am left to the trampling foot & the spurning heel!
A Harlot I am calld. I am sold from street to street!
I am defaced with blows & with the dirt of the Prison!  
And wilt thou become my Husband O my Lord & Saviour?
Shall Vala bring thee forth! shall the Chaste be ashamed also?
I see the Maternal Line, I behold the Seed of the Woman!
Cainah, & Ada & Zillah & Naamah Wife of Noah.
Shuahs daughter & Tamar & Rahab the Canaanites:         
Ruth the Moabite & Bathsheba of the daughters of Heth
Naamah the Ammonite, Zibeah the Philistine, & Mary
These are the Daughters of Vala, Mother of the Body of death
But I thy Magdalen behold thy Spiritual Risen Body
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.

But Los beheld the Divine Vision among the flames of the Furnaces
Therefore he lived & breathed in hope. but his tears fell incessant
Because his Children were closd from him apart: & Enitharmon
Dividing in fierce pain: also the Vision of God was closd in clouds
Of Albions Spectres, that Los in despair oft sat, & often ponderd
On Death Eternal in fierce shudders upon the mountains of Albion
Walking: & in the vales in howlings fierce, then to his Anvils
Turning, anew began his labours, tho in terrible pains!"

Notes: 

The Plate begins with an echo of the Mary/Joseph/Jesus account from the previous plate, followed by the maternal line found in one of the gospels-- from Cainah to Mary, which he calls the daughters of Vala.

There follows a triumphant echo of Job: “in my flesh I shall see God”.

But emanations are weak.  We understand that only Blake’s men can achieve Eternity, while their emanations sleep in Beulah.  But 'Blake's men" may be of either gender.

But Jesus replies with “I am the Resurrection and the Life”......."Only believe & trust in me, Lo. I am always with thee” (solid gospel words); so spoke the Lamb of God. 

Although fallen activity continues, "Los ......":  read the last paragraph; you should find it completely explanatory.