State Church

British Museum

Lucifer and Pope

1794

The following is from Larry Clayton's unpublished book Ram Horn'd with Gold: The Spiritual Autobiography of William Blake.

Chapter 7

A State Church

England has always had a State Church. Although many fat books have been written about it, the English Reformation primarily signified Henry VIII's declaration of independence from the papacy. Through the Middle Ages religious and temporal authority had existed side by side in continuous alliance and usually with a minimum of tension. At the high point of papal authority in 1077 a Holy Roman Emperor waited for three days in the snow outside the door until Pope Gregory VII saw fit to receive him. The Pope considered the kings and princes of Europe his spiritual children.

Henry VIII was a child who grew up. When the Pope denied him permission to put away his wife in favor of a later romantic interest, Henry declared himself in effect the pope of the English Church and gave himself the necessary dispensation. That was the major event of the English Reformation; thereafter the ultimate authority of the Church of England resided with the Crown.

By Blake's standards a State Church is the ultimate abomination. He was aware that in the second century at least one Emperor had attempted to enforce the worship of his person as God throughout the Roman Empire, resulting in considerable persecution of those Jews and Christians who refused. Much of the New Testament addressed the problem. In 312 A.D. Constantine took over the Church and made it an arm of the State. That's the way Blake saw it in the 18th Century.

In America we take for granted the separation of Church and State as a constitutional principle. This limits the sort of power that corrupted Henry VIII. In England many people feel comfortable with a State Church, but traditions of freedom have limited its power. A large proportion of the population exist in religious groups outside of the State Church, and probably an even larger proportion have no significant religious attachment.

Even in Blake's day the tradition of dissent was an accepted part of the established order. True,the State Church operated Oxford and Cambridge for its own purposes, primarily preparing clergymen. But dissenting academies had arisen to provide a form of education in many ways superior to that of the established universities, especially in the new areas of science and industry. Dissenters largely carried out the Industrial Revolution.

The 17th Century had witnessed an explosion of dissent in which the head of State and Church had lost his own head. But the Restoration in 1660 reinstated the former arrangements. The Commonwealth struggle had led to a general disgust with religious controversy. Enthusiasm came to be despised and feared by clergy and laity alike. Conventional 18th Century religion had little to do with the feelings. It was rather an intellectual and political matter.

One of Blake's four zoas, Urizen aptly portrays the God of the majority of Anglicans during Blake's age. The State Church existed as a facade or symbol of order and authority, but with limited power, temporal or spiritual.

The State Church, like the Jewish Sanhedrin, represented a minority of the people, the conservative establishment types, the squirearchy, the people who for centuries had controlled society. Frequently the landowner's younger son became the priest, though his character may have been dissolute. Politics dictated clerical appointments. Pluralism was common, the same man being appointed to a number of church positions. He would hire a curate to look after each parish's affairs, often at a tenth of the income which the parish provided him.

The bishops served primarily as political officials; they spent most of their time in London sitting in the House of Lords, where they generally provided a faithful voting block for the Crown. Tithes were the law of the land and enforced much as the income tax is today, much of the proceeds going to the clergy. It was a convenient arrangement, but it could not last; there was too much dissent, too much growth, too much creativity. Change was overtaking all England's institutions, and the Church was no exception. The religious changes had been quietly gathering force for centuries.

Side by side with Henry VIII's Reformation had existed a grass roots movement which we may call the Radical Reformation. It was made up of less worldly types than Henry, people who took their religion more seriously. One such group departed England in 1619 aboard the Mayflower. Their descendants became the Established Church in New England and spun off dissents from their dissent, like that of Roger Williams.

William Penn brought shiploads of other irregulars to found a new colony. The Pilgrims, the Baptists, the Quakers of necessity learned to coexist--with one another, with other Eurpoean religious groups, and with the Cavaliers of Virginia, who were solidly Anglican. All cooperated in throwing off the yoke of the mother country. In this melting pot religious groups learned to compete in an ecclesiastical form of free enterprise. It represented quite an improvement over the religious wars that had decimated Europe in previous centuries.

The same fluid climate existed in the mother country. Every group that immigrated contained members who remained behind and found a place in English society. The State Church, with its large and unwieldy ecclesiastical bureaucracy, existed alongside an infrastructure of non-Conformist groups. What these groups lacked in political clout they made up for in creativity, character, industry, and commercial acumen. Each group has a fascinating story. In this chapter we look at two of them which had a specific relationship to the mind of William Blake. 

...

To the best of our knowledge Blake belonged to no organized church. We do know of two groups which might generically qualify as churches, using the word in its broadest possible sense. The first gathered around the radical publisher, Joseph Johnson, Blake's primary employer and the friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestly, Richard Price, Thomas Paine and other radical intellectuals. While the conventional church exists as a primary bulwark of the status quo, Joseph Johnson's group by and large conceived of Christ as a revolutionary. Dissenters of a variety of persuasions, they were united by their awareness of the need for social and political change. They considered this the primary agenda of any truly spiritual communion.

Blake was in accord with these ideas. The Johnson group nurtured him and provided the communal support which we generally associate with church groups. The second group gathered around Blake in his last decade. It was made up of young artists, some of them devout. They looked to Blake for aesthetic and spiritual guidance and provided him the communal support that lent grace to his last years.

After Blake's Moment of Grace around 1800 he might have joined a church if he could have found one whose primary doctrine was the forgiveness of sins. But like Milton before him and Lincoln after him he never discovered a church that met his qualifications.

Anyone who loves Blake and has had a happier experience of the church could wish for him more in the way of community. Alienated from the worshiping community by its partial theology and partial practice, he was confined to his own visions and the nurture he could find at the outer fringes of the church. In addition he learned from the Christian classics of the ages, particularly the off beat ones. St. Teresa was a favorite.

...

What he Said

In 'Songs of Experience' Blake expressed some biting truths about the place of the church in the lives of ordinary people:

Songs of Experience, SONGS 37, (E 22) 
"The Chimney Sweeper  

A little black thing among the snow:
Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!  
Where are thy father & mother? say?
They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath, 
And smil'd among the winter's snow:    
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
They think they have done me no injury:
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King
Who make up a heaven of our misery." 

Surely the church has become more human since Blake's day, when it could condone the employment of five year olds as chimney sweepers and in fact their legal sale by their parents for such a purpose. Even more bald in its ecclesiastical implications is "The Little Vagabond", which sounds very much like a Ranter's song:

Songs of Experience, SONGS 45, (E 26) 
"The Little Vagabond

Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, 

But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm;
Besides I can tell where I am use'd well, 
Such usage in heaven will never do well.  
 
But if at the Church they would give us some Ale.
And a pleasant fire, our souls to regale;
We'd sing and we'd pray, all the live-long day;
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray,

Then the Parson might preach & drink & sing.
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring: 
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children nor fasting nor birch.

And God like a father rejoicing to see,  
His children as pleasant and happy as he:
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel
But kiss him & give him both drink and apparel."    

In 'Europe' , written about the same time, Blake recounts the degradation of the church with the cult of chivalry and the Queen of Heaven:

Europe, Plate 5,(E 62)
"Now comes the night of Enitharmons joy!                          
Who shall I call? Who shall I send?
That Woman, lovely Woman! may have dominion?
Arise O Rintrah thee I call! & Palamabron thee!
Go! tell the human race that Womans love is Sin!                 
That an Eternal life awaits the worms of sixty winters
In an allegorical abode where existence hath never come:
Forbid all joy, & from her childhood shall the little female
Spread nets in every secret path.

My weary eyelids draw towards the evening, my bliss is yet but new."    

Milton, Plate 38 [43], (E 139)

"Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches
Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach
Trembling & fear, terror, constriction; abject selfishness
Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on            
In fearless majesty annihilating Self, laughing to scorn
Thy Laws & terrors, shaking down thy Synagogues as webs
I come to discover before Heavn & Hell the Self righteousness
In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye
These wonders of Satans holiness shewing to the Earth     
The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, & Satans Seat
Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off
In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone:
To put off Self & all I have ever & ever Amen"

 

EIGHTH DIVINE IMAGE III

First Posted November 2012.

There is a tug of war going on between the manifestation of the Eighth Eye and the Reactor in the Forests of Albion. Within the mind of man there is confusion: to which image of God will we give our allegiance. Satan claims godship and is worshipped as God of this World. He convinces us that the here and now are the real and that Eternity is the illusion; he promotes war and repressive control through the accusation of sin and the fear of hell; he diverts man from the use of his imagination by elevating nature (the material) into the state of a goddess. Satan is a deception from which man must escape. Clarity of vision is not fooled by the veils and nets which seek to entrap. Realising that man is made in God's Image leads to the a perception of God within, who is not an accuser, judge or punisher but the source of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love.

Songs of Innocence, 18, (E 12) 
"The Divine Image.  

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
All pray in their distress:
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love,  
Is God our father dear:
And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine   
Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew.
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too" 

Northrop Frye, in Fearful Symmetry, has something to say about the progress of man through the Eyes of God and the formidable opposition to the transition to the Eighth Eye which is waged by Satan as the adversary to God and man.

 

Frye Wrote:

"The crucified Christ is the visible form of Man's dream state, and whatever is completely visible is transparent, that means the crucified Christ is a prism or lens of reality, that is, an eye, which Man is slowly trying to open. The word 'eye' associates itself at once with another part of Blake's symbolism. Seven Eyes of God, seven increasingly clear visions of the unity of God and Man in one body, in one city, have completed their work, and we are now searching for the eighth. He is still elusive, still hiding in the forests, as Blake says, and when we do get him we will have a new perception of God which will be a final confirmation of either the Blakean or the Lockian view of reality, either a newborn God or an Antichrist. Of Antichrist Paul says: 'And ye know now what withholdeth that he might be revealed in time', and Blake adds, 'But you cannot behold him until he be revealed in his system.' He also tells us to look through and not with our own eyes."  (Page 401)

2nd Thessalonians 2
[3] Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
[4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
[5] Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
[6] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

Jerusalem, Plate 43 [29], (E 191)
"Then the Divine Vision like a silent Sun appeard above
Albions dark rocks: setting behind the Gardens of Kensington
On Tyburns River, in clouds of blood: where was mild Zion Hills
Most ancient promontory, and in the Sun, a Human Form appeard
And thus the Voice Divine went forth upon the rocks of Albion    

I elected Albion for my glory; I gave to him the Nations,
Of the whole Earth. he was the Angel of my Presence: and all
The Sons of God were Albions Sons: and Jerusalem was my joy.
The Reactor hath hid himself thro envy. I behold him.
But you cannot behold him till he be reveald in his System       
Albions Reactor must have a Place prepard: Albion must Sleep
The Sleep of Death, till the Man of Sin & Repentance be reveald.
Hidden in Albions Forests he lurks: he admits of no Reply
From Albion: but hath founded his Reaction into a Law
Of Action, for Obedience to destroy the Contraries of Man[.]     
He hath compelld Albion to become a Punisher & hath possessd
Himself of Albions Forests & Wilds! and Jerusalem is taken!"

Wikipedia Commons
Inferno, Canto II, 139-141
Dante and Virgil Enter the Wood
Satan has not yet been revealed in his system but the Divine Vision makes 
itself known to mankind offering itself as the Divine Humanity. 

 Jerusalem, Plate 44 [30], (E 193)
"And the Divine hand was upon them bearing them thro darkness
Back safe to their Humanity as doves to their windows:
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthonas Spectre in Songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble.            

They wept & trembled: & Los put forth his hand & took them in
Into his Bosom: from which Albion shrunk in dismal pain;
Rending the fibres of Brotherhood & in Feminine Allegories
Inclosing Los: but the Divine Vision appeard with Los
Following Albion into his Central Void among his Oaks.           

And Los prayed and said. O Divine Saviour arise
Upon the Mountains of Albion as in ancient time. Behold!
The Cities of Albion seek thy face, London groans in pain
From Hill to Hill & the Thames laments along the Valleys"

EIGHTH DIVINE IMAGE II

First posted November 2012.

It is in Milton that Blake develops his concept of the Eighth Image of God. First the Eighth Divine Image appears as Milton's sleeping body which arose and walked with the seven in Eden. The intimation here is that Milton has the potential for being the Eighth Image himself.

Milton, Plate 15 [17], (E 109)
"As when a man dreams, he reflects not that his body sleeps,
Else he would wake; so seem'd he entering his Shadow: but
With him the Spirits of the Seven Angels of the Presence
Entering; they gave him still perceptions of his Sleeping Body;
Which now arose and walk'd with them in Eden, as an Eighth   
Image Divine tho' darken'd; and tho walking as one walks
In sleep; and the Seven comforted and supported him."

The Shadowy Eighth is with the Seven in Beulah when the heavens are rended and the descent is made into the deeps of Ulro. The Shadowy Eighth and Los join the Watchers of the Ulro in desperation.

Milton, Plate 20 [22], (E 114) 
"But many of the Eternals rose up from eternal tables
Drunk with the Spirit, burning round the Couch of death they stood
Looking down into Beulah: wrathful, fill'd with rage!            
They rend the heavens round the Watchers in a fiery circle:
And round the Shadowy Eighth: the Eight close up the Couch
Into a tabernacle, and flee with cries down to the Deeps:
Where Los opens his three wide gates, surrounded by raging fires!
They soon find their own place & join the Watchers of the Ulro.  

Los saw them and a cold pale horror coverd o'er his limbs
Pondering he knew that Rintrah & Palamabron might depart:
Even as Reuben & as Gad; gave up himself to tears.
He sat down on his anvil-stock; and leand upon the trough.
Looking into the black water, mingling it with tears.            

At last when desperation almost tore his heart in twain
He recollected an old Prophecy in Eden recorded,
And often sung to the loud harp at the immortal feasts
That Milton of the Land of Albion should up ascend
Forwards from Ulro from the Vale of Felpham; and set free        
Orc from his Chain of Jealousy, he started at the thought"

The Eighth then joined with the Seven becoming the Eight Immortal Starry-Ones who rejoice at the descent of Ololon.  

Milton, Plate 35 [39], (E 135)
"And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead.
Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion
And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death
In midst of these was Miltons Couch, & when they saw Eight
Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires        
They thunderous utterd all a universal groan falling down
Prostrate before the Starry Eight asking with tears forgiveness
Confessing their crime with humiliation and sorrow.

O how the Starry Eight rejoic'd to see Ololon descended!
And now that a wide road was open to Eternity,   
              
By Ololons descent thro Beulah to Los & Enitharmon,"

The culmination of the descent of Ololon to Felpham's Vale and into the Fires of Intellect is the release of the Divine Revelation in the 'Litteral' expression. The Starry Eight became One Man Jesus the Saviour and Ololon becomes his garment.

The Angel of the Divine Presence
original in Fitzwilliam Museum

 

Milton, Plate 42 [49], (E 143) 

"Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale 

In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings 

Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic'd in Felphams Vale 

Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became 

One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs 

The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood 

Written within & without in woven letters: & the Writing 

Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral expression: 

A Garment of War, I heard it namd the Woof of Six Thousand Years"

 

Read posts on Ololon, the Moony Ark, and the Mystical Marriage for further detail.

 

EIGHTH DIVINE IMAGE

First Posted October 2012

Jerusalem, Plate 55,(E 204)
"And they Elected Seven, calld the Seven Eyes of God; 
Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus.
They namd the Eighth. he came not, he hid in Albions Forests
But first they said: (& their Words stood in Chariots in array
Curbing their Tygers with golden bits & bridles of silver & ivory)"

To Blake the seven Spirits or Angels elected by the Eternals to be the guardians of the created world were incomplete. They were to be joined by an Eighth whose presence was not yet fully expressed to mankind. Since Blake identifies the seventh Eye of God with Jesus, the eighth will be the revelation of God which follows that of Jesus. We know that Jesus promised to leave with us his spirit which would be with us always. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and filled them with his presence. However God's Kingdom remained within the hearts, minds and bodies of men and did not spread to cover the earth as the disciples hoped it would.

Matthew 28
[18] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
[19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
[20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

John 14
[9] Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
[17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
[25] These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
[27] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

The Ascension 
original in Fitzwilliam Museum

Acts 2
[1] And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
[2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
[3] And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
[4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

 

 

 

 

To this hoped for Kingdom of the Spirit of Christ which would come forth through the activity of the Holy Spirit, Blake gave form as the Eighth Divine Image. 

 

VISION OF ST JOHN

The book of Revelation was important to Blake for multiple reasons. Primarily as a book of visions which Blake himself experienced as communications from God. Furthermore John of Patmos was giving an account of the new world which would replace the world of sin and death in which we live. Blake used the sleep of Albion as a symbol for the "passage through Eternal Death" until the breath Divine begins the process of restoration of the unity of all things. 

John of Patmos and William Blake both used symbolic language to convey spiritual truth.

Jerusalem, Plate 4, (E 146)
"Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the passage through
Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life.

This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song.  

Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! expand!
I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine:
Fibres of love from man to man thro Albions pleasant land.
In all the dark Atlantic vale down from the hills of Surrey
A black water accumulates, return Albion! return!                
Thy brethren call thee, and thy fathers, and thy sons,
Thy nurses and thy mothers, thy sisters and thy daughters
Weep at thy souls disease, and the Divine Vision is darkend:"

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 87, (E 369)

"But This Union
Was not to be Effected without Cares & Sorrows & Troubles
Of six thousand Years of self denial and of bitter Contrition

Revelation 21

[22] And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
[23] And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
[24] And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
[25] And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
[26] And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

British Museum

St John the Evangelist before a vision of Christ

This is the passage illustrated by the image:

Revelation 1

[9] I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
[10] I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
[11] Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
[12] And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
[13] And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
[14] His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
[15] And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
[16] And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
[17] And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
[18] I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
[19] Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
[20] The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Hebrews 4

[12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

In Ego and Archetype, Edward F Edinger wrote this about signs and symbols on page 109:

"Man needs a world of symbols as well as a world of signs. Both sign and symbol are necessary but should not be confused with one another. A sign is a token of meaning that stands for a known entity. By this definition, language is a system of signs, not symbols. A symbol on the other hand, is an image or representation which points to something essentially unknown, a mystery. A sign conveys abstract,objective meaning whereas a symbol conveys living, subjective meaning. A symbol has a subjective dynamism which exerts a powerful attraction and fascination on the individual. It is a living, organic entity which acts as a releaser and transformer of psychic energy. We may say that a sign is dead, but a symbol is alive.

...

The archetypal psyche is constantly creating a steady stream of living symbolic imagery. Ordinarily this stream of images is not consciously perceived except through dreams or through waking fantasy when the conscious level of attention has been lowered. However, there is reason to believe that even in the full waking state this system of symbols charged with effective energy continues to flow beyond the notice of the ego."  

These are the passages in which Blake mentioned Patmos or Revelations:

 Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 141) 

"No sooner she had spoke but Rahab Babylon appeard
Eastward upon the Paved work across Europe & Asia
Glorious as the midday Sun in Satans bosom glowing:
A Female hidden in a Male, Religion hidden in War        
Namd Moral Virtue; cruel two-fold Monster shining bright
A Dragon red & hidden Harlot which John in Patmos saw

And all beneath the Nations innumerable of Ulro
Appeard, the Seven Kingdoms of Canaan & Five Baalim
Of Philistea. into Twelve divided, calld after the Names      
Of Israel: as they are in Eden. Mountain. River & Plain
City & sandy Desart intermingled beyond mortal ken

But turning toward Ololon in terrible majesty Milton
Replied. Obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man
All that can be annihilated must be annihilated

That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery"

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 114, (E 385) 

"And Los & Enitharmon took the Body of the Lamb 
Down from the Cross & placd it in a Sepulcher which Los had hewn
For himself in the Rock of Eternity trembling & in despair 
Jerusalem wept over the Sepulcher two thousand Years
PAGE 115 [111] 
Rahab triumphs over all she took Jerusalem
Captive A Willing Captive by delusive arts impelld
To worship Urizens Dragon form to offer her own Children
Upon the bloody Altar. John Saw these things Reveald in Heaven
On Patmos Isle & heard the Souls cry out to be deliverd 
He saw the Harlot of the Kings of Earth & saw her Cup
Of fornication food of Orc & Satan pressd from the fruit of Mystery
But when she saw the form of Ahania weeping on the Void
And heard Enions voice sound from the caverns of the Grave
No more spirit remained in her She secretly left the Synagogue of Satan" 

Jerusalem, Plate 48, (E 196)

"In silence the Divine Lord builded with immortal labour,         
Of gold & jewels a sublime Ornament, a Couch of repose,
With Sixteen pillars: canopied with emblems & written verse.
Spiritual Verse, order'd & measur'd, from whence, time shall reveal.
The Five books of the Decologue, the books of Joshua & Judges,
Samuel, a double book & Kings, a double book, the Psalms & Prophets 
The Four-fold Gospel, and the Revelations everlasting" 

Vision of Last Judgment, Page 80, (E 558) 

"Four Angels descend headlong  with four trumpets to
awake the Dead. beneath these is the Seat of the Harlot <namd>
Mystery in the Revelations.  She is [bound] siezed by
Two Beings each with three heads they Represent Vegetative
Existence. <as> it is written in Revelations they strip her naked
& burn her with fire <it represents the Eternal Consummation of
Vegetable Life & Death with its Lusts  The wreathed Torches in
their hands represents Eternal Fire which is the fire of
Generation or Vegetation it is an Eternal Consummation Those who
are blessed with Imaginative Vision see This Eternal Female &
tremble at what others fear not while they <despise &> laugh at
what others fear> <Her Kings & Councellors & Warriors descend in
Flames Lamenting & looking upon her in astonishment & Terror. &
Hell is opend beneath her Seat on the Left hand>. beneath her
feet is a flaming Cavern in which is seen the Great Red Dragon
with Seven heads & ten Horns [who] <he has Satans book
of Accusations lying on the rock open before him> <he> is bound
in chains by Two strong demons they are Gog & Magog" 

Vision of Last Judgment, Page 83, (E 561)

 "The Cloud that opens rolling apart before the throne &
before the New Heaven & the New Earth is Composed of Various
Groupes of Figures particularly the Four Living Creatures
mentiond in Revelations as Surrounding the Throne these I suppose
to have the chief agency in removing the 
old heavens & the old Earth to make way for the New Heaven & the
New Earth to descend from the throne of God & of the Lamb. that
Living Creature on the Left of the Throne Gives to the Seven
Angels the Seven Vials of the wrath of God <with> which they
hovering over the Deeps beneath pour out upon the wicked their
Plagues the Other Living Creatures are descending with a Shout &
with the Sound of the Trumpet Directing the Combats in the upper
Elements" 

JUDAS

Tate Gallery

Judas Betrays Him

Watercolour for Thomas Butts

Matthew 26

[1] And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples,
[2] Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.
[3] Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,
[4] And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
[5] But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.

[14] Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
[15] And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
[16] And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

[45] Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
[46] Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.
[47] And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
[48] Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
[49] And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.
[50] And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
[51] And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
[52] Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

[57] And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 

Jesus in Blake's picture seems to be an island of peace in a sea of controversy. Jesus knew that the transformation that he was offering to men was contrary to the practices of those with religious power. Jesus had shown his charismatic power when he road into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna from the crowd. That there was a reaction from the opposition was to be expected. 

Jesus prepared himself to be reviled and rejected. Though he be betrayed, attacked, humiliated, accused, imprisoned, and condemned to a brutal death, he wavered not from the path he was following.

Lettters, To Butts, (E 324)

"But if we fear to do the dictates of our
Angels & tremble at the Tasks set before us. if we refuse to do
Spiritual Acts. because of Natural Fears or Natural Desires!  Who
can describe the dismal torments of such a state!--I too well
remember the Threats I heard!--If you who are organized by Divine
Providence for Spiritual communion.  Refuse & bury your Talent in
the Earth even tho you should want Natural Bread. Sorrow & Desperation
pursues you thro life! & after death shame & confusion of face to
eternity--Every one in Eternity will leave you aghast at the Man
who was crownd with glory & honour by his brethren & betrayd
their cause to their enemies.  You will be calld the base Judas
who betrayd his Friend!--Such words would make any Stout man
tremble & how then could I be at ease? But I am now no longer in
That State & now go on again with my Task Fearless. and tho my
path is difficult.  I have no fear of stumbling while I keep it"

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 142)

 "To cast off the idiot Questioner who is always questioning,
But never capable of answering; who sits with a sly grin
Silent plotting when to question, like a thief in a cave;
Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge; whose Science is Despair   
Whose pretence to knowledge is Envy, whose whole Science is
To destroy the wisdom of ages to gratify ravenous Envy;
That rages round him like a Wolf day & night without rest
He smiles with condescension; he talks of Benevolence & Virtue
And those who act with Benevolence & Virtue, they murder time on time
These are the destroyers of Jerusalem, these are the murderers
Of Jesus, who deny the Faith & mock at Eternal Life:"

DELETIONS

 

 If you look at the above Plate 3 of Jerusalem it reads:

"After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean, I again display my Giant forms to the Public: My former Giants &

Fairies having reciev'd the highest reward possible: the 

____ and __________ of those with whom to be connected, is to be ________: I cannot doubt that this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly recieved The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________ 

________________________________________________ 

_______________ I also hope the Reader will

be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God __
____ and Lord ____ to whom the Ancients
look'd and saw his day afar off, with trembling & amazement.
     The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who
waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom,
the Divine Body; will never enter there.  I am perhaps the most
sinful of men! I pretend not to holiness! yet I pretend to love,
to see, to converse with daily, as man with man, & the more to
have an interest in the Friend of Sinners.  Therefore
____ Reader, ________ what you do not
approve, & ____ me for this energetic exertion of my
talent. 

     Reader! _____ of books! _____ of
     heaven,
     And of that God from whom ___________________"

The blank lines and words were stripped from the copper plate by Blake before the plate was printed. Something had so angered Blake that he was moved to remove from the plate specific references.

 

With the deletions restored we read on Page 145 of Erdman's Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake:

"After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean, I
again display my Giant forms to the Public: My former Giants &
Fairies having reciev'd the highest reward possible: the
[love] and [friendship] of those with whom to
be connected, is to be [blessed]: I cannot doubt that
this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly
recieved
     The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes
[no Reader will think presumptuousness or arroganc[e] when he
is reminded that the Ancients acknowledge their love to their
Deities, to the full as Enthusiastically as I have who
Acknowledge mine for my Saviour and Lord, for they were wholly
absorb'd in their Gods.] I also hope the Reader will
be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God [of
Fire] and Lord [of Love] to whom the Ancients
look'd and saw his day afar off, with trembling & amazement.
     The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who
waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom,
the Divine Body; will never enter there.  I am perhaps the most
sinful of men! I pretend not to holiness! yet I pretend to love,
to see, to converse with daily, as man with man, & the more to
have an interest in the Friend of Sinners.  Therefore
[Dear] Reader, [forgive] what you do not
approve, & [love] me for this energetic exertion of my
talent.

    Reader! [lover] of books! [lover] of
    heaven,
    And of that God from whom [all books are given,]"  

The first chapter of Jerusalem, which begins on page 3, is addressed "To The Public." In The Stranger from Paradise G.E Bentley presents the idea that the poor reception and criticism of his Exhibition and the Descriptive Catalogue of the exhibition turned Blake against the public for whom Jerusalem was being written. Blake's extravagant language and references to visionary experiences made his work unacceptable to conventional readers.

 

Especially damaging to Blake's reputation was the critique in The Examiner of Blake's Exhibition of 1809 and the catalogue which accompanied it. In it Robert Hunt savaged the Exhibition and repeatedly accused Blake of insanity. Although Blake had support from his friends, his hopes of gaining public support were shattered. Not until after 1818, states Bentley, had Blake "committed himself to publishing and public engraving once more."  

 

David V Erdman in his volume The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake provides the following Textural Note (E 789). Erdman was able to appreciate 'the energetic exertion of [Blake's] talent. 

 

Textual Notes, BY DAVID V. ERDMAN

 "Etching, however, did establish a text that was definitive in
the sense of fixed.  Once he had applied words to copper and
etched surrounding surfaces away, Blake could not alter a letter
except by laborious mending; he could scratch away words and even
lines but could not easily add new ones.  He called his plates
"stereotypes" because on each he had made a piece of copper text
and illustration into a single solid for printing (and subsequent
coloring).
     Blake was understandably reluctant to cancel whole plates,
but that does not mean he regarded the making of a set of plates
as the definitive completion of his poem; few of his "canonical"
works lack indications of the addition or removal of one or more
plates.  With a more ductile medium he might well have forged a
more perfect and more truly definitive canon.  Yet he managed to
make a virtue of the patchwork effects of his patching: a gallery
of plates does not trap the observer as might a serpentine closed
circle of 'fair copy'.  Windows are left for the imagination,
which may also leap from words to illustrations and back as one
series supplements the other."

BEING & BECOMING 2

Wikipedia Commons

Illustrations to Blair's The Grave 

Death of the Good Old Man 

There is no trauma when the Good Old Man dies. His sons and daughters give thanks for his life and legacy. His Identity is stripped of the accidents which accumulated in his passage through life in the body. He is free to continue his life in the Spirit which assumed a physical body to live in the physical world. The good and creative deeds of his earthly live are not lost but  achieve immortality with him as aspects of his Identity. Lost only are his failures and misdeeds which have no place in the heavenly realm.  

Second Timothy 4

[17] Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
[18] And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 Fearful Symmetry, by Northrop Frye, Page 247 :

"The real man, therefore, is the total form of the creative acts and visions which he evolves in the course of his 'Becoming' life. The latter exists in time and space, But his 'Being' or real existence is a work of art, and exists, like the work of art, in the unity of time and space which is infinite and eternal. The imagination or Being, then, is immortal, a form constructed out of time but existing in what Paul calls the 'fullness of time.' We arrive at the conception of immortality as soon as we grasp the idea of the reality which is not merely a part of an indefinite persistence of an indefinitely extensive physical world. But for that very reason immortality cannot mean the indefinite survival of a 'Becoming' life arrested at some point in its development...as in most conceptions of an immortal personality. What is immortal about the man is the total form of his creative acts, and these total forms are the characters, or 'identities,' as Blake calls them, of the men who made them, the isolating of what is eternally humane in them from the accidents of Becoming. ...those good deeds are the eternal reality of Everyman, the spiritual form of Everyman."

Galatians 4:4-7, English Standard Version

⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 

⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 

⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!Father!” 

⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Jerusalem, Plate 77, (E 232) 

"What is
Mortality but the things relating to the Body, which Dies? What
is Immortality but the things relating to the Spirit, which Lives
Eternally! What is the joy of Heaven but Improvement in the
things of the Spirit? What are the Pains of Hell but Ignorance,
Bodily Lust, Idleness & devastation of the things of the
Spirit?" 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 556)

"In Eternity one Thing never Changes into
another Thing Each Identity is Eternal"

Annotations to Swedenborg, (E 604)

 "Essence is not Identity but from Essence proceeds
Identity & from one Essence may proceed many Identities as from
one Affection may proceed. many thoughts   Surely this is an
oversight
     That there is but one Omnipotent Uncreate & God I agree but
that there is but one Infinite I do not. for if all but God is
not Infinite they shall come to an End which God forbid
     If the Essence was the same as the Identity there
could be but one Identity. which is false
     Heaven would upon this plan be but a Clock but one & the
same Essence is therefore Essence & not Identity"

Laocoon,  (E 273)

"The whole Business of Man Is The Arts & All Things Common"