MUNDANE SHELL

New York Public Library 

Milton

Plate 32

The Mundane Shell represents the skull which encloses the brain in which consciousness resides. It provides a field for interaction between exterior data and the processing through which the brain makes use of the data. Blake realized that the individual requires experience to evolve into an integrated being capable of discerning truth from falsehood, spirit from matter, eternity from time.  

Within the brain Blake discerned the Four Zoas, four ways which the brain had devised to make use of information it received. He was aware that his own brain was inclined to react to various input in any of these four ways.  

Blake saw Experience to be the tool provided for synthesizing four competing methods into a single cooperating unity. Each of Blake's Zoas travels a convoluted path because he is unable to discern the ways of thinking which are automatic to the other Zoas. Blake's solution is in 'offering of Self for Another': through 'forgiveness,' 'brotherhood' and 'every kindness.' Every part of ourselves must learn to give oneself for every other.

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 3, (E 34) 

" Without Contraries is no progression.  Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence."

Songs of Innocence, Plate 9, (E 9) 

"And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face      
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove." 

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 255)

"Jesus replied Fear not Albion unless I die thou canst not live
But if I die I shall arise again & thou with me            
This is Friendship & Brotherhood without it Man Is Not

So Jesus spoke! the Covering Cherub coming on in darkness
Overshadowd them & Jesus said Thus do Men in Eternity
One for another to put off by forgiveness, every sin

Albion replyd. Cannot Man exist without Mysterious          
Offering of Self for Another, is this Friendship & Brotherhood
I see thee in the likeness & similitude of Los my Friend

Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood"

Quote from Livewired, by David Eagleman, Page 20-21:

"[F]or humans at birth, the brain is remarkably unfinished, and interaction with the world is necessary to complete it... 

The flexibility of your brain allows the events of your life to stitch themselves directly into the neural fabric. Its a great trick on the part of Mother Nature...all from the seeds of a small collection of genes. Our DNA is not a blueprint: it is merely the first domino which kicks off the show.

[N]euronal networks require interaction with the world for their proper development."

Milton, Plate 17 [19], (E 110) 

"But Miltons Human Shadow continu'd journeying above
The rocky masses of The Mundane Shell; in the Lands
Of Edom & Aram & Moab & Midian & Amalek.                         

The Mundane Shell, is a vast Concave Earth: an immense
Hardend shadow of all things upon our Vegetated Earth
Enlarg'd into dimension & deform'd into indefinite space,
In Twenty-seven Heavens and all their Hells; with Chaos
And Ancient Night; & Purgatory. It is a cavernous Earth          
Of labyrinthine intricacy, twenty-seven folds of opakeness
And finishes where the lark mounts; here Milton journeyed
In that Region calld Midian among the Rocks of Horeb
For travellers from Eternity. pass outward to Satans seat,
But travellers to Eternity. pass inward to Golgonooza.           

Milton, Plate 34 [38], (E 134) 

"Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell

Four Universes round the Universe of Los remain Chaotic
Four intersecting Globes, & the Egg form'd World of Los
In midst; stretching from Zenith to Nadir, in midst of Chaos.
One of these Ruind Universes is to the North named Urthona       
One to the South this was the glorious World of Urizen
One to the East, of Luvah: One to the West; of Tharmas.
But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen in the South
All fell towards the Center sinking downward in dire Ruin

Here in these Chaoses the Sons of Ololon took their abode"        

A Blake Dictionary by S Foster Damon states: "Los creates the mundane egg as a protection."

 Milton, Plate 25, (E 122)

"For in every Nation & every Family the Three Classes are born    
And in every Species of Earth, Metal, Tree, Fish, Bird & Beast.
We form the Mundane Egg, that Spectres coming by fury or amity
All is the same, & every one remains in his own energy"

Milton, Plate 2, (E 96) 

"Come into my hand    
By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm
From out the Portals of my Brain, where by your ministry
The Eternal Great Humanity Divine. planted his Paradise,
And in it caus'd the Spectres of the Dead to take sweet forms
In likeness of himself."

Milton, Plate 28 [30], (E 126) 

"Antamon takes them into his beautiful flexible hands,
As the Sower takes the seed, or as the Artist his clay
Or fine wax, to mould artful a model for golden ornaments,      
The soft hands of Antamon draw the indelible line:
Form immortal with golden pen; such as the Spectre admiring
Puts on the sweet form; then smiles Antamon bright thro his windows
The Daughters of beauty look up from their Loom & prepare.
The integument soft for its clothing with joy & delight."  Jerusalem, Plate 58, (E 208) 

Jerusalem, Plate 59, (E 208) 

"This Los formed into the Gates & mighty Wall, between the Oak    
Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering beneath Albions Tomb,
Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity

For Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic          
One to the North; Urthona: One to the South; Urizen:
One to the East: Luvah: One to the West, Tharmas;
They are the Four Zoas that stood around the Throne Divine"