Blake seeks to provide the Golden String which can lead us through the labyrinth of our experience or his own poetry.

Friday, August 12, 2022

SYMBOLISM

Wikipedia Commons
Book of Urizen
Plate 4, Copy A

Northrop Frye and Foster Damon each included in his definitive Blake book a helpful chart showing associations of symbols with the individual Zoas. Frye used The Four Zoas as his reference point whereas Damon used Jerusalem. Below are selected associations from their charts.

Fearful Symmetry, Frye, page 277:

In Four Zoas

1. Eternal Name    Luvah              Urizen            Tharmas            Urthona

2. Time Name        Orc                  Satan                C. Cherub            Fancy

3. Sense                 Nose                Eye                  Tongue                 Ear

4. Position              Center              Zenith              Circumference      Nadir

5. Nature                Stars                 Sun                 Moon                Mountains

6. Element              Fire                   Air                   Water                    Earth

7. Place                  Soil                   City                 Garden             Underground

8. Virtue                 Love                  Faith                Hope                   Vision 

9. Vice                    Hatred              Doubt               Despair             Dullness

 

A Blake Dictionary by Damon, page 212:

In Jerusalem - Fourfold Correspondence

1. Name             Urthona                 Luvah              Urizen               Tharmas 

2. Meanings       Imagination            Emotions            Reason            Senses         

3. Places             Nadir                     Center                Zenith              Circumference

4. Desires            Friendship             Love                   Hunger            Lust  

5. Worlds             Eternity                  Beulah                Ulro                 Generation

6. Sense               Ears                      Nostrils               Eyes                Tongue

7. Elements          Earth                      Fire                    Air                    Water

8. Symbols            Sun                        Moon                 Stars                Earth


Jerusalem, Plate 97, (E 256) 
 "Then Albion stretchd his hand into Infinitude.
And took his Bow. Fourfold the Vision for bright beaming Urizen
Layd his hand on the South & took a breathing Bow of carved Gold
Luvah his hand stretch'd to the East & bore a Silver Bow bright shining
Tharmas Westward a Bow of Brass pure flaming richly wrought   
Urthona Northward in thick storms a Bow of Iron terrible thundering.

And the Bow is a Male & Female & the Quiver of the Arrows of Love,
Are the Children of this Bow: a Bow of Mercy & Loving-kindness: laying
Open the hidden Heart in Wars of mutual Benevolence Wars of Love"
 

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