BIOMEDICAL IMAGERY IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S THE FOUR ZOAS by Elizabeth F. Mahon B. Sc., Dalhousie University, 1930 M. A., University of C a l i f o r n i a , Berkeley, 1931 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS i n the Department of English We accept t h i s thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1970 I n p r e s e n t i n g t h i s t h e s i s i n p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t o f t h e r e q u i r e m e n t s f o a n a d v a n c e d d e g r e e a t t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a , I a g r e e t h a t t h e L i b r a r y s h a l l m a k e i t f r e e l y a v a i l a b l e f o r r e f e r e n c e a n d s t u d y . I f u r t h e r a g r e e t h a t p e r m i s s i o n f o r e x t e n s i v e c o p y i n g o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r s c h o l a r l y p u r p o s e s may be g r a n t e d by t h e H e a d o f my D e p a r t m e n t o r by h i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s . I t i s u n d e r s t o o d t h a t c o p y i n g o r p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r f i n a n c i a l g a i n s h a l l n o t be a l l o w e d w i t h o u t my w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . D e p a r t m e n t o f ^ ^ l ^ f T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a V a n c o u v e r 8, C a n a d a D a t e '^/yo Abstract William Blake, i n The Four Zoas, uses the human body as a metaphor to describe stages i n the f a l l , transformation, and approach toward Apocalypse of the "Universal Man" l a t e r c a l l e d the giant Albion. Biomedical imagery depicting d i s t o r -t i o n and displacement of body parts or functions i s an importr-ant aspect of t h i s metaphor. Of p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t to t h i s t h e s i s are images of d i v i s i o n , augmentation, encasement, eruption, and reunion i n the poem, The Four Zoas, with some emphasis on the Spectre of Urthona as a d i v i s i v e form of Los. N This Spectre's role i s of fundamental importance i n Blake's myth f o r the achievement of reintegration of f a l l e n Albion. Blake's use of the words, "E t e r n i t y , " " v i s i o n , " "Imagination," "emanation," "Spectre," "shadow," are examined i n some of his other works as an aid f o r explication of hi s myth as i s the way i n which Blake uses metaphor and modulating symbol to give us a r i c h e r and hence a clearer v i s i o n of the events r e l a t i n g to the F a l l and Apocalypse. Morphological imagery i l l u s t r a t -ing the F a l l and sparagmos of the God-Man Albion i s described as a d i s t o r t i o n of both bodily organs and f a c u l t i e s , i . e . psychic states. The manner i n which Blake uses t h i s imagery suggests a movement from a healthy state of expanded v i s i o n to a diseased state i n which man's powers of perception are dulled or extinguished. This change i n Albion from a state of intense c r e a t i v i t y i n Eden to a state of chaotic p a s s i v i t y i n the f a l l e n world i s a change from wakefulness to sleep. This sleep produced the dream-nightmare state described i n The Four Zoas. Blake's dramatis personae emerge as symbolic counters and i n t h e i r symbolic method of narration they reveal how error must be given form i n order to eliminate i t . An analogy i s drawn between the symbolic F a l l , movement toward Apocalypse, and a pseudo cancerous growth that originates by c e l l u l a r d i v i s i o n , spreads by augmentation, coalesces into encasement but f i n a l l y erupts with explosive force thus re-ordering the elements into a healthy h o l i s t i c g e s t a l t . S i m i l a r i t i e s between Blake's elimination of mind-body dichotomy i n h i s mythic v i s i o n of man and F. S. Per l s ' concept of an organismic whole which creates reintegration of d i s -eased f a c u l t i e s are explored at some length. The Phoenix-like quality of the contradictory a f f i l i a t i o n between blood and water predominant i n The Four Zoas i s compared to the physio-l o g i c a l response i n l i v i n g c e l l s to these p o t e n t i a l l y destruc-t i v e and r e s t o r a t i v e elements. The imagery Blake uses i l l u s -t r a t e s h i s doctrine of contraries. The Urizen - Ore cycles are touched upon, as i s the p r o v i d e n t i a l Luvah - Jesus p r i n -c i p l e which aids Los i n his mission of reversing the e f f e c t s of the F a l l . The importance of Los's Spectre, the Spectre of Urthona, i n t h i s movement toward Apocalypse i s elaborated upon. The outcome of the struggle between the contrary states of Los and the Spectre of Urthona w i l l be the determinant i n t h i s movement. TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Introduction 1 - 2 Chapter I . . . . . . 3 - 1 9 Chapter I I 2 0 - 2 9 Chapter I I I . . . 30 - 41 Chapter IV 4 2 - 8 0 Chapter V . . . . 81 - 113 Footnotes 114 - 116 Notes to the Text 117 A Selected Bibliography ', . 118 - 121 Introduction William Blake, i n h i s Prophetic Writings, uses the human body as a metaphor to describe stages i n the f a l l , transformation, and approach toward Apocalypse of the "Uni-versal Man" l a t e r c a l l e d the giant Albion (FZ 1:11, K264; FZ 1:477, K277)."'" Imagery depicting d i s t o r t i o n , displacement or disruption of body parts or functions i s an important aspect of t h i s metaphor. This imagery i s sometimes drawn from biomedical or zoological science. Some knowledge of these f i e l d s may serve as an aid i n understanding how the imagery works i n Blake fs poetic myth. Of p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t to t h i s study are images of d i v i s i o n , augmentation, encase-ment, eruption, and reunion i n the poem, The Four Zoas. with some emphasis on the Spectre of Urthona as a d i v i s i v e form of Los. He i t i s who becomes instrumental i n achieving reintegration of the f a l l e n Albion. With regard to imagery, Hugh Kenner i n The Art of Poetry (New York, 1965) e n t i t l e s one of h i s chapters, "The Image: What the Words Actually Name"; Kenner elaborates: an image: a thing the writer names and introduces because i t s presence i n the piece of writing w i l l release and c l a r i f y meaning, . . . an image introduces a thing rather than a con-cept, . . . the tes t of an image i s not i t s o r i g i n a l i t y but the illumination of thought and emotion i t provides (pp. 3 8 , 5 0 ) . Extending the idea of the image, Northrop Frye writes, "an image i s not merely a verbal r e p l i c a of an external object, 2 but any unit of a verbal structure seen as part of a t o t a l pattern or rhythm" (Fables of Identity, N.Y., 1963, p. 1 4 ) . These mental images or "units of a verbal structure" taken c o l l e c t i v e l y form the imagery components or essence of a poem. This i s the sense i n which I use the word "imagery." Bioraedicine, a modern coinage, i s defined i n The Random House Dictionary (1966) as being " c l i n i c a l medicine dealing with the relationships of body chemistry and function; b i o - meaning l i f e ; medical: curative, medicinal, therapeutic." I w i l l qualify t h i s d e f i n i t i o n by including the important realm of psychology as being also related to body chemistry and physiology. The term "biomedical" then refers to thera-peutic l i f e i n the f u l l e s t sense. Biomedical imagery i s that imagery which depicts either decaying or regenerative l i f e processes i n the dramatis personae of Blake's myth. Before dealing s p e c i f i c a l l y with imagery i n The Four Zoas, i t i s necessary to discuss some Blakean concepts and poetic techniques. CHAPTER I "Et e r n i t y " and " v i s i o n " are important words i n Blake's myth of creation and f a l l . This myth i s not si m i l a r to the account i n Genesis; for Blake, the f a l l and creation were simultaneous occurrences which took place i n Eternity. This i s not Eternity i n the usual sense of the word; i t i s not an endless prolongation of time that w i l l begin i n the future. I t i s a state of mind equated with Truth (VLJ K617); i t i s "the mental category through which we [ i n our world] perceive the unfalien world." This unfalien world i s a state which Blake believed to be co-existent with^our present world. This Eternity or Truth can be created i n moments of v i s i o n when great c r e a t i v i t y , whether i n the world of art or of science, or of s o c i a l endeavour, c a l l s into being a l l the imaginative forces of man. Blake sees the p o e t - a r t i s t as the prime agent capable of t h i s v i s i o n : "The nature of the true a r t i s t ' s work i s Visionary or Imaginative; i t i s an Endeavour to Restore what the Ancients c a l l ' d the Golden Age" (VLJ K 6 0 5 ) . Or again: This world of Imagination i s the world of Eternity; i t i s the divine bosom into which we s h a l l a l l go af t e r the death of the Vegetated body. This world of Imagination i s I n f i n i t e & Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, i s F i n i t e & . . . Temporal. There Exist i n that Eternal World the Permanent R e a l i t i e s of Every Thing which we see r e f l e c t e d i n t h i s Vegetable Glass of Nature. Eternity, the visionary or imaginative power, i s t o t a l insight into a l l past, present, future. Blake c a l l s i t f o u r f o l d v i s i o n i n hi s famous l i n e s : Now I a fo u r f o l d v i s i o n see, And a four f o l d v i s i o n i s given to me; T T i s f o u r f o l d i n my supreme delight And threefold i n soft Beulah fs night And twofold Always. May God us keep From Single v i s i o n & Newton1s sleep! (Letters, K818) The other l e v e l s of imaginative experience mentioned i n these l i n e s w i l l be discussed l a t e r ; here I w i l l concentrate on the fou r f o l d v i s i o n i n the state c a l l e d Eternity. Blake i s always wr i t i n g about states of mind and the mental energy involved i n these states. Such energy i n Eter-n i t y i s metaphorically envisioned as a gigantic human body with a l l i t s parts, both mental ( i . e . reason, emotion, i n -s t i n c t , imagination) and physical ( i . e . head, heart, l o i n s , digestive system, s k e l e t a l structures) held together i n a homeostatic condition, i . e . i n a r e l a t i v e l y harmonious state of tension. This unfallen body was one of the "Giant forms" or "Eternals" who inhabited Eternity. Since only mental things are r e a l for Blake, Eternity, c a l l e d Eden, i s a place as well as a state. The "Giant form" or "Eternal" was "a Perfect Unity . . . [which] / Cannot Exist but from the Uni-versal Brotherhood of Eden, / The Universal Man," (FZ 1 : 9-11, K264). This Universal Man or Albion i s the father of a l l man-kind, he i s "our Ancestor, p a t r i a r c h of the A t l a n t i c Continent, 5 whose History Preceded that of the Hebrews & i n whose Sleep, or Chaos, Creation began" (VLJ K609). Frye describes Albion as being, " t h i s higher unit or body of l i f e [which] i s u l t i -mately God, the t o t a l i t y of a l l imagination" (FS, p. 4 3 ) . In an operative sense t h i s t o t a l i t y i s the fourfold v i s i o n of the Edenic state described i n the above quotation from Blake ts Letters. This state i s an inexhaustible fountain of creative energy. The products of t h i s energy were c a l l e d Emanations by Blakej they were the t o t a l form of a l l that was created and loved and i n Eternity were i n e x t r i c a b l y bound to the creator because they were projections of the better part of the s e l f . Albion*s Emanation was Jerusalem: In Great Eternity every p a r t i c u l a r Form gives f o r t h or Emanates I t s own peculiar Light, & the Form i s the Divine Vision And the Light i s his Garment. This i s Jerusalem i n every Man A Tent & Tabernacle of Mutual Forgiveness, Male & Female Clothings. And Jerusalem i s c a l l e d Liberty among the Children of Albion. ( J 5 4 : l - 5 , K684) I f we t r a n s l a t e the f i r s t three l i n e s of the quotation into terminology dealing with our world, we may l i k e n Albion and Jerusalem to the corporeal body and i t s skin, or to the sun and i t s rays. The sun cannot be conceived as not producing radiati o n any more than the body e x i s t i n g without i t s skin. They are inseparable. Although Blake does not use the word i n s p i r a t i o n i n these l i n e s , h i s "Divine V i s i o n " i s equivalent 6 to the usual dictionary d e f i n i t i o n of divine or poetic i n s p i r -ation as a power compelling creation or expression. Albion i s then the power and Jerusalem the expression of that power. The greatest crime would be an attempt to set divine i n s p i r a t i o n apart from creator. Albion committed t h i s crime; Albion f e l l . He set Jerusalem apart from himself and replaced hi s divine i n s p i r a t i o n with a delusion c a l l e d Vala. Blake v i s u a l i z e s t h i s f a l l i n terms of human behaviour. In the unf a l l en state -Albion was androgynous; he con-tained within himself his female portion, Jerusalem. One account of h i s f a l l i s t o l d by the Shadow Of Eni'tharmon i n Night V i l a of The Four Zoas: . . . now l i s t e n , I w i l l t e l l Thee Secrets of Eternity which ne'er before unlock'd My golden l i p s nor took the bar from Enitharmon's breast. Among the Flowers of Beulah walk'd the Eternal Man [Albion] & SAW Vala, the l i l l y of the desart melting i n high noon; Upon her bosom i n sweet b l i s s he fainted . . . . (236-241, K326) Beulah i s the state of repose which the creating mind must drop into for r e s p i t e from the ferocious c r e a t i v i t y of Eden. I t i s a lovely garden inhabited by females and one of i t s adornments was Vala, "the l i l l y of the desart." This i l l u s o r y adornment took Jerusalem's place i n Albion's bosom. Casting out of the emanation i s the casting out of part of oneself; i t i s an attempt to externalize one's inner nature. Instead of the oneness of a l l things i n one universal body which i s God, 7 pernicious dualism had now appeared. The female w i l l that was part of Albion and that had worked i n harmony with him i s now a separate creation to whom he succumbs, " i n sweet b l i s s . " In Jerusalem Blake writes: "Jerusalem i s named Liberty" ( 2 6 : 3 , K649); when l i b e r t y or freedom i s l o s t i n any way one becomes subservient to another. Albion forgot h i s divine v i s i o n and, . . . r e v e l T d i n delight among the Flowers [of Beulah] Vala was pregnant & brought f o r t h Urizen, Prince of Light, F i r s t born of Generation. Then behold a wonder to the Eyes Of the now f a l l e n Man; a double form Vala appear Td, a Male And female; shudd'ring pale the Fallen Man r e c o i l f d From the Enormity & c a l l ' d them Luvah & Vala, turning down The vales to f i n d his way back into Heaven, but found none, For h i s f r a i l eyes were faded & his ears heavy & d u l l . (FZ Vila:243-250, K 3 2 6 ) A gross d i s t o r t i o n i s the re s u l t of t h i s separate existence of the two e n t i t i e s i n Albion; he now has " f r a i l eyes," ears that are "heavy and d u l l . " He i s unable to regain h i s great imagin-ati v e v i s i o n . This distorted, diseased state i s the f a l l e n condition of man. The f u l l impact of Albion's obsession with Vala i s given on plate t h i r t y - f o u r of Jerusalem: "Art thou Vala?" rep l i e d Albion, "image of my repose! "0 how I tremble! how my members pour down milky fear! "A dewy garment covers me a l l over, a l l manhood i s gone! "At thy word & at thy look, death enrobes me about "From head to feet, a garment of death & eternal fear. "Is not that Sun thy husband & that Moon thy glimmering V e i l ? "Are not the Stars of heaven thy Children? art thou not Babylon? "Art thou Nature, Mother of a l l ? . . . ( 2 - 9 , K660) 8 Albion's f a l l e n v i s i o n sees what was previously within him as being outside himself; he sees h i s environment, vegetative nature, as "a dewy garment" which i s now not part of himself but i s a subject-object world having male ("the Sun") and female ("that Moon") c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . The "garment of death" i s existence i n t h i s world. He shudders at the sight and c a l l s "the Enormity . . . Luvah & Vala" (quoted above, FZ V i l a : 249 , K 3 2 6 ) . Foster Damon i d e n t i f i e s Luvah and Vala i n t h i s context as Passion and Nature (William Blake, Gloucester, 1 9 5 8 , p. 3 7 9 ) ; Luvah represents man's emotional or passional l i f e and the female Vala i s the outward nature or material universe that man f a l l s i n love with. In some passages she i s the separated female w i l l which w i l l always try to dominate the male (e.g. she i s "born to drink up a l l his powers," FZ IX, K373) • She i s a Tirzah-Rahab f i g u r e who, i n the l a t e r pro-phecies, corresponds to the b i b l i c a l Great Whore of Babylon. According to t h i s account given by the Shadow of Enitharmon there are several stages to the f a l l of Albion: casting out of Jerusalem and replacing her with Vala; coupling of Albion and Vala which produces f a l l e n Urizen "Prince of Light" (quoted above, FZ V i l a : 2 4 2 , K326) who i s i d e n t i f i e d as Reason by Damon (Blake, p. 3 7 9 ) ; Vala appearing as a double form i s divided into the male Luvah and the female Vala. The ef f e c t upon Albion i s p i t i f u l : . . . the Fallen Man [ i s ] Seeking to comfort Vala: she w i l l not be comforted. 9 Sick'ning l i e s the Fallen Man, h i s head sick, h i s heart f a i n t ; Refusing to behold the Divine Image which a l l behold And l i v e therby, he i s sunk down into a deadly sleep. (FZ 1:284-291, K 2 7 2 ) Albion's moment of respite i n Beulah has been prolonged into a "deadly sleep" of death. Death f o r Blake frequently means our l i f e and Albion's sleep i s the creation and the history of our f a l l e n world. Albion i s asleep throughout most of Blake's prophecies and although mentioned b r i e f l y as being semi awake or awakening i n Nights VIII and IX (16-17, K 3 4 1 ; 617-20, K373) of The Four Zoas and i n Milton (20:25, K 5 0 2 J , , i t i s not t i l l the f i n a l plates of Jerusalem that the story emerges of the awakening and apocalypse of a reintegrated Albion. Because f o r Blake, God i s man, the F a l l was an attempt to s p l i t d i v i n i t y , or, as Frye puts i t , "the f a l l of man i n -volved a f a l l i n part but not a l l of the divine nature" (FS, p. 4 3 ) , and again, "the o r i g i n a l f a l l of Albion from a garden into a waste land was a loss of creative power, and so was an imaginative c a s t r a t i o n " (FS, p. 388). Harold Bloom describes the f a l l as "a forsaking of the a c t i v i t y of Eden f o r the pass-i v i t y of Beulah; a movement of.decay, from the inner to the outer world" ( c i t e d i n Erdman: The Poetry and Prose of William Blake. N.Y., 1965, pp. 877-8). Frye, discussing Albion's f a l l as being due to h i s idolatrous adoration of h i s female p r i n -c i p l e , writes, "the r e s u l t was that Luvah or Ore, the sexual 10 aspect of him [Albion] assumed control i n place of the i n t e l -l e c t u a l one (M 21:21; M 38:39) and plunged us a l l into a world dominated by a sense of sexual shame" ("Notes f o r a Commentary o n Milton." c i t e d i n The Divine Vision, ed. V. de S. Pinto, Lond., 1957, pp. 108-9). The paradox that t h i s o r i g i n a l f a l l of Albion produced our present world of "Generation" i s , as Frye comments, "quite consistent with the pattern of Blake's symbolism" (FS p. 388). This may be i l l u s t r a t e d by examining the f i r s t two stanzas of Blake's l y r i c , "To Tirzah": Whate'er i s Born of Mortal B i r t h Must be consumed with the Earth To r i s e from Generation free: Then what have I to do with thee? The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride, Blow'd i n the morn; i n evening died; But Mercy chang'd Death into Sleep; The Sexes rose to work & weep. (K 220) The "Mercy" here i s the d i v i n i t y of Jesus which changed A l -bion's "Death" (used here l i t e r a l l y to mean a reduction into non-entity) into "sleep." Albion's creative energy of Etern-i t y has now been changed into a state of chaotic p a s s i v i t y ; but out of t h i s p a s s i v i t y are born the male and female forms that can " r i s e from Generation f r e e . " The creation was an act of mercy. Only through work i n t h i s world as men and women are we able to become reintegrated into the t o t a l i t y of God-Albion. However, we are handicapped by possessing 11 f a l l e n sense perception; we see a d u a l i s t i c subject-object world. This i s the state that Blake c a l l s "Generation"; i t i s the state of twofold v i s i o n . This l a t t e r term, l i k e nearly a l l terms that Blake uses, has more than one meaning. To understand Blake's use of the word " v i s i o n " i t i s necessary to know something about the way i n which Blake uses symbols. A symbol i s not j u s t a sign equalling a r a t i o n a l analogue; i t i s more l i k e an emblem which has multiple r e f e r -ences. In studying Blake's work we must s t a r t with p r i o r conceptions, we must assume that the whole universe i s i n t e r -penetrated by a series of correspondences which give i t a unity that i s a l l pervasive. Gn the other hand, every element i n the universe i s unique and d i s t i n c t from every other one. There i s an interrelatedness of everything and a uniqueness of the i n d i v i d u a l as well; when these two are put together a mode of knowledge i s obtained that takes on the character of meta-phoric apprehension. This idea i s expressed i n a poem which Blake sent to h i s fr i e n d Thomas Butts: For double the v i s i o n my Eyes do see, And a double v i s i o n i s always with me. With my inward Eye ' t i s an old Man grey; With my outward, a T h i s t l e across my way. (K 817) Twofold v i s i o n here i s something other than seeing a subject-object world. The poem i s an example of one way that Blake uses symbols. The symbols modulate. The f i r s t thing i s known 12 i n terms of the second. The "inward Eye" sees the t h i s t l e as being unique, i t sees' i t as "an old Man grey," the uniqueness of the t h i s t l e resonates l i k e a plucked s t r i n g . The image of the "old Man grey" that the t h i s t l e c a l l s into being resonates s i m i l a r l y . V i s u a l i z i n g these symbols simultaneously i s l i k e hearing two musical notes resonating i n unison; they become i d e n t i f i e d as one. Yet t h i s i d e n t i f i c a t i o n can not be abso-l u t e because i t must be q u a l i f i e d by saying that i t cannot be made into a grammar such as t h i s t l e always equals man. I t depends upon the point of view of the observer. Rather, there i s a concatenation of c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s i n each symbol; various q u a l i t i e s i n t h i s t l e or man arouse a resonance of one order i n one person and not i n another. Twofold v i s i o n i s r e l a t i v e l y easy to grasp but three-f o l d and fo u r f o l d v i s i o n present a d i f f e r e n t problem. Three-f o l d v i s i o n i s an event that occurs i n the scale of v i s i o n rather than being a d i f f e r e n t kind of v i s i o n ; i t i s a continuum of metaphoric v i s i o n which merges into symbolic v i s i o n . Four-f o l d v i s i o n i s completely synoptic; the whole of being i s per-ceived simultaneously. I t implies something about the quality of the v i s i o n rather than the p a r t i c u l a r nature of i t . This can be v i s u a l i z e d : 13 The slant l i n e represents degrees of v i s i o n (a) to (d), the horizontal l i n e no v i s i o n at a l l . Somewhere at (a) the meta-phor becomes a symbol and d i s t i n c t i o n between them i s a purely academic one. The lowest degree of v i s i o n would be at the lowest point on the slant l i n e (d) and i s single v i s i o n ; i t perceives only sense data. During moments of great insight i t i s possible to att a i n threefold and ultimately apocalyptic fourfold v i s i o n as i s described i n Blake's poem to Thomas Butts while at Felpham: To my Friend Butts I write My f i r s t V i s i o n of Light, On the yellow sands s i t t i n g . The Sun was Emitting His Glorious beams From Heaven's high Streams. Over Sea, over Land My Eyes did Expand Into regions of a i r Away from a l l Care, Into regions of f i r e Remote from Desire; The Light of the Morning Heaven's Mountains adorning: In p a r t i c l e s bright The jewels of Light D i s t i n c t shone & cl e a r . Amaz'd & i n fear I each p a r t i c l e gazed, Astonish'd, Amazed; For each was a Man Human-form'd. Swift I ran, For they beckon'd to me Remote by the Sea, Saying: Each grain of Sand, Every Stone on the Land, Each rock &• each h i l l , Each fountain & r i l l , Each herb & each tree, Mountain, h i l l , earth & sea, 14 Cloud, Meteor & Star Are Men Seen Afar. I stood i n the Streams Of Heaven's bright beams, And saw Felpham sweet Beneath my bright feet In soft Female charms; My Eyes more & more Like a Sea without shore Continue Expanding, The Heavens commanding, T i l l the Jewels of Light, Heavenly Men Beaming bright, Appear'd as One Man . . . (K 804-5) In the state of single v i s i o n the sands are just grains of yellow sand on the seashore. The f i r s t transformation i s a metaphorical one, the sands become "jewels of Light," and then, each p a r t i c l e becomes a man. The transformation extends to the various physical features of the landscape; the whole world becomes humanized. The a f f e c t i v e response of the poet i s then modified: he looks on the landscape as he would look on "soft Female charms"; his feelings toward the landscape are heterosexual. This i s the state of Beulah, which i s a mental state as well as a place--the lower Eden of Eternity. The perceiver's point of view has changed when he achieves three-f o l d v i s i o n . The poet's eyes "more & more / Continue Expand-ing " t i l l i n a state of f o u r f o l d v i s i o n he attains a synoptic view of a l l the human atoms coalescing u n t i l they "Appear'd as One Man." This "One Man" i s Jesus. The poet i n an apoca-l y p t i c moment i s aware of h i s d i v i n i t y . His mental world has 1 5 been changed and he w i l l now l i v e d i f f e r e n t l y . This i s stated i n the remainder of the poem, "Like dross purg Td away / A l l my mire & my clay . . . I remain'd as a Child; / A l l I ever had known / Before me bright Shone." The "C h i l d " i s not a c h i l d i n the ordinary sense of the word but i s now the c h i l d of en-lightened wise innocence that has absorbed the experience of apocalyptic v i s i o n . In at t a i n i n g t h i s , the poet ("0 thou Ram Horn'd with gold") has acquired defences against the blows of l i f e . The blows of l i f e are described: On the Mountains around The roarings resound Of the l i o n & wolf, The loud Sea & deep gulf. These are guards of My Fold, . . . (K 8 0 5 ) The word "These" refers to the various obstacles i n l i f e ; the "My" re f e r s to Jesus who i s the speaker at t h i s point i n the poem. For Blake, l i f e consists of p o l a r i t i e s , i t s blows ("Mountains," itroarings," "lionS&Swolf," "loud Sea & deep gulf") are not negative obstacles to be overcome but are also p o s i t i v e i n the sense that they serve to arm man as a battering ram i s armed i n order to engage i n c o n f l i c t ; t h i s i s a working by f r u i t f u l collaboration through opposition. Harmonious ten-sion between the contraries and f u l l use of the imaginative powers lead i n e v i t a b l y to apocalyptic v i s i o n . Frye equates four l e v e l s of human existence with Blake's four states of v i s i o n : 16 The lowest i s that of the i s o l a t e d i n d i v i d u a l r e f l e c t i n g on his memories of perception and evolving generalizations and abstract ideas. This world i s single, the d i s t i n c t i o n of subject and object i s l o s t and we have only a brooding subject l e f t . Blake c a l l s t h i s world Ulro; i t i s his h e l l , and h i s symbols for i t are symbols of s t e r i l i t y , c h i e f l y rocks and sand. Above i t i s the ordinary world we l i v e i n , a double world of subject and object, of organism and environment, which Blake c a l l s Generation. No l i v i n g thing i s completely adjusted to t h i s world except the plants, hence Blake usually speaks of i t as vegetable. Above i t i s the imaginative world and Blake divides t h i s into an upper and a lower part, . . . the lower Paradise he c a l l s Beulah, a term derived from Isaiah which means "married," . . . i t i s a t r i p l e world of lover, beloved and mutual creation; the father, the mother and the c h i l d . . . . The highest possible state, therefore, i s not the union of lover and beloved, but of creator and creature, of energy and form. This l a t t e r i s the state f o r which Blake reserved the name Eden . . . . This world . . . i s fo u r f o l d , expanding to i n f i n i t y l i k e the four points of the compass which i n t h i s world point to the i n d e f i n i t e . (FS pp. 4 8 - 5 0 ) This Edenic state with i t s union of creator and crea-ture (emanation), of energy and form, has been described above as being the condition of the unfalien Albion. I t may be attained momentarily i n our f a l l e n world during a period of fourf o l d v i s i o n ; when i t i s sustained, great art i s created because the a r t i s t ' s imaginative powers are brought into f u l l c r e a t i v i t y . Imagination i s an extremely important word i n Blake's vocabulary. In the poem Milton Blake writes, "The Imagination i s not a State; i t i s the Human Existence i t s e l f " ( 3 2 : 3 2 , K522). Frye^ explains the term imagination as Blake uses i t . Although we have f i v e senses we have only one mind. The eye, for i n -stance, i s merely a lens for the mind to look through. Percep-17 t i o n i s a mental act, consequently when our legs walk, i t i s the mind that walks the legs. Therefore there i s no d i s t i n c -t i o n between mental and bodily acts. The mind means the act-ing man; i f man perceived i s a form or image, man perceiving i s a former or imaginer. "Imagination" i s the regular term used by Blake to denote man as an acting and perceiving being: a man's imagination i s his l i f e . In Blake's work, the words "Mental" and " i n t e l l e c t u a l " are synonymous with "imaginative";;, "Fancy" means the imagination but "fantasy" r e l a t e s to memory and i t s "spectres." It i s through art that we understand why perception i s meaningless unless the imagination orders the material that comes to us. Such ordering when associated with genius rather than with mediocrity produces " v i s i o n " as Blake uses the term. This " v i s i o n " i s the goal of a l l energy, freedom, and wisdom. The way i n which Blake uses metaphor and modulating symbol i s an example of the way h i s imagination ordered the material that came to i t . Although Blake's symbols modulate, t h i s does not mean they are i n f i n i t e l y suggestive; they must be understood within the l i m i t e d but complex framework of Blake's cosmos. The metaphor may range from A combining with B to A being i d e n t i f i e d with B, or, the i d e n t i t y can have a number of d i f f e r e n t aspects. I t i s useless to look for fixed symbols i n Blake. For example, the Albion-Jesus-Luvah meta-phor i n one context means that Albion can p a r t i c i p a t e i n the Luvah p r i n c i p l e of compassionate love: "Albion c a l l ' d Urizen 18 & said: . . . / Thy brother Luvah hath smitten me, but p i t y thou his youth . . . » (FZ 11:3-7, K 280); i n another context, Jesus puts on Luvah's "robes of blood": For the Divine Lamb, Even Jesus who i s the Divine Vision, Permitted a l l , l e s t Man should f a l l into Eternal Death; For when Luvah sunk down, himself put on the robes of blood Lest the state c a l l ' d Luvah should cease; & the Divine V i s i o n Walked i n robes of blood t i l l he who slept should awake. (FZ 11:261-5, K 287) "Man" here i s Albion; "Luvah sunk down" refer s to Luvah's f a l l ; "himself" refers to Jesus; "the state c a l l ' d Luvah" i s love and the "he" i n the l a s t l i n e refers again to Albion. The passage following the above quotation describes a cycle of nature and i m p l i c i t i n i t i s the concept that f a l l e n Luvah i s also a dying nature god f i g u r e . Thus the Albion-Jesus-Luvah association resonates i n the "robes of blood" symbol. I t i s as i f a note i n music c a l l e d Albion i s struck, i t reson-ates and the Jesus aspect comes up, then you s t r i k e another note, the resonance brings up the Luvah aspect; when the two notes are sounded together they become one, i . e . Jesus becomes Luvah. Another i l l u s t r a t i o n of a complex symbol i s found i n the lament of Urizen i n Night VI: My songs are turned into c r i e s of Lamentation Heard on my Mountains, & deep sighs under my palace roofs, Because the Steeds of Urizen, once swifter than the l i g h t , Were kept back from my Lord & from h i s chariot of mercies. (FZ 206-9) 19 The words "my Lord" are t e n t a t i v e l y Jesus, Albion + Jesus, or Jesus + Albion. The meaning of any p a r t i c u l a r metaphor or symbol Blake uses w i l l depend upon whatever aspect of the material he chooses to present i n any given context. Gleckner,^ discuss-ing Blake's l y r i c s , emphasizes that point of view and context are a l l important; the same holds true for the prophetic writ-ings. Blake's constant s h i f t i n g of perspective requires considerable a g i l i t y on the part of the reader; the associa-tions of the symbol, no matter how oblique or vague they may seem to be, must be c a r e f u l l y considered. This unique way of using symbols that burgeon with meaning creates a d i f f e r e n t ordering of material which gives us ultimately a ri c h e r , hence a clearer v i s i o n of the events r e l a t i n g to the F a l l and Apocalypse i n Blake's myth. CHAPTER I I The r i c h e r v i s i o n Blake gives us i s enormously sug-gestive but my immediate purpose i s to concentrate on the morphological imagery depicting the F a l l and sparagmos of the God-Man Albion. As Frye indicates (FS pp. 2 8 7 , 2 8 9 , 3 8 7 ) , Blake describes the F a l l metaphorically as a sparagmos ( l i t e r a l l y : a "tearing" or "rending"). I t i s a displacement, disruption, and d i s t o r t i o n of bodily organs and f a c u l t i e s . F a c u l t i e s was the word used i n the eighteenth century f o r what we today c a l l the psychic forces of man. In Eternity Albion's f a c u l t i e s or aspects of h i s imaginative energy were "Four Mighty Ones" which formed "a Perfect Unity" (FZ 1 : 9 , K 2 6 4 ); they were "the Four Zoas that stood around the Throne Divine" (M 1 9 : 1 8 , K 5 0 0 ) . The four Faculties or Zoas had worked i n harmony i n Eden but became divided and separated when Albion f e l l . Since the F a l l was also the creation of our world, the Zoas are i d e n t i f i e d as newly created universes and are given compass points: Four Universes round the Mundane Egg . . . One to the North, named Urthona: One to the South, named Urizen: One to the East, named Luvah: One to the West, named Tharmas; They are the Four Zoas. . . . (M 1 9 : 1 5 - 1 8 , K 5 0 0 ) In a l a t e r plate i n the same poem Blake assigns these four f a c -u l t i e s or states to the head, heart, l o i n s , and digestive system: 21 And the Four States of Humanity i n i t s Repose Were shewed them. F i r s t of Beulah, a most pleasant Sleep On couches soft with mild music, tended by Flowers of Beulah, Sweet female forms, winged or f l o a t i n g i n the a i r spontaneous; The Second State i s A l i a , & the t h i r d State Al-Ulro: The F i r s t State i s i n the Head, the Second i s i n the Heart, The Third i n the Loins & Seminal Vessels, & the Fourth In the Stomach & Intestines t e r r i b l e , deadly, unutterable. (34:8-16, K 523-4) In Jerusalem ( p i . 98 K 745) Blake mixes geographical and anatomical locations; the four Zoas are variously i d e n t i f i e d as "The Four L i v i n g Creatures" or "the Four Rivers of Para-dise / And the Four Faces of Humanity" which are s p e c i f i c a l l y associated with o r i f i c e s of the head region: the eye, the "Expansive N o s t r i l s , " the mouth, and the "Labyrinthine Ear." Although i n these excerpts meaning has changed with context i t i s i n t e r e s t i n g that the location of the four states i n various bodily organs has been maintained. The F a l l , which took place i n several stages, involved not only the i n i t i a l separation of Albion but also d i v i s i o n and separation of each Zoa into mental states which Blake c a l l e d spectres, emanations, selfhoods, shadows. The meaning of these terms i s important and requires close textual analy-s i s . Sometimes Blake s p e c i f i e s meaning i n a p a r t i c u l a r con-text as when he writes i n Milton: The Negation i s the Spectre, the Reasoning Power i n Man, . . . (40:34, K 533) or i n Jerusalem: > 2 2 The Spectre i s the Reasoning Power i n Man, & when separated From Imagination and c l o s i n g i t s e l f as i n steel i n a Ratio Of the Things of Memory, I t thence frames Laws & M o r a l i t i e s To destroy Imagination, the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars, (74:10-14, K 714) The Spectre i s , i n Giant Man, insane and most deform'd.. (37:4, K 664) In these contexts the spectre i s the r a t i o n a l i z i n g power, t h i s i s the at t r i b u t e of man and of eighteenth century thought that Blake hated most. I t i s not s u r p r i s i n g that he draws i t as a hideous monster hovering over the prostrate fig u r e of helpless "Giant Man.""* (I w i l l comment l a t e r on t h i s p t e r o d a c t y l - l i k e creature.) I t i s important to di s t i n g u i s h between spectre and emanation. The emanation, already referred to i n connection with Albion's f a l l , i s the s p l i t o f f female portion of the personality which seeks a l i f e of i t s own; i t may be either dominating and destructive or he l p f u l i n bringing about re-integration. In the l a t t e r sense i t i s a projection of the better aspect of the s e l f . The spectre i s sometimes a parody of t h i s . I t i s often wildly i r r a t i o n a l , simulating an exces-sive egoism which Blake c a l l s a Selfhood. The Eternal c a l l e d Milton describes the state: I i n my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that E v i l One! He i s my Spectre! . . . (M 14:30-31, K 496) 23 ^ n Jerusalem the spectre of Urizen i s Satan and addressing Albion states: "I am your Rational Power, 0 Albion," ( 3 3 : 5 , K 6 5 9 ) ; Blake comments: "So spoke the Spectre to Albion: he i s the Great Selfhood, Satan, Worship'd as God by the Mighty Ones of the Earth," ( 3 3 : 1 7 - 1 8 , K 6 5 9 ) . The Spectre of Urthona i s a special case and I w i l l make an attempt l a t e r to define i t s function i n The Four Zoas. The Shadow i s d i f f i c u l t to define as the name would indicate. Among other things, i t does seem to represent, as Damon suggests,^ the residue of suppressed desires; at lea s t i t has t h i s meaning i n The Mar-riage of Heaven and H e l l when Blake writes, "And being re-s t r a i n fd, i t [desire] by degrees becomes passive, t i l l i t i s only the shadow of desire" (K 1 5 0 ) . These states of the Zoas (spectres, emanations, s e l f -hoods, shadows), representing various facets of f a l l e n imag-i n a t i v e energy, may act as separate e n t i t i e s or they may be intermingled, the one taking on shades of the other's meaning. This creates d i f f i c u l t i e s for Blake's readers. Blake does demand that we "Distinguish therefore States from Individuals i n those States, / States Change, but Individual I d e n t i t i e s never change nor cease" (M 3 2 : 2 2 - 3 , K 5 2 1 ) . Blake's meaning of "Identity" i s explained i n h i s own proverb i n The Marriage of Heaven and H e l l : "The apple tree never asks the beech how he s h a l l grow; nor the l i o n , the horse, how he s h a l l take h i s prey" (K 1 5 2 ) . Another important th i n g to keep i n mind while reading Blake i s to distinguish whether the p a r t i c u l a r passage deals with the unfallen or the f a l l e n state. 24 As a he l p f u l guide, a s i m p l i f i e d table adapted from Frye's study of The Four Zoas (FS p. 277) i s useful at t h i s point. I have added minor additions i n parenthesis. TABLE I Eternal Name Luvah Urizen Tharmas Urthona Time Name Ore Satan Covering Cherub Los Emanation Vala Ahania Enion Enitharmon Quality Love Wisdom Power Fancy Sense Nose Eye Tongue Ear Body Part Loins Head Heart Legs Position Centre Zenith Circumf erence Nadir Element F i r e A i r Water Earth State "Generation" Eden Beulah "Ulro" A c t i v i t y Weaver Plowman Shepherd Blacksmith Point East South West North Faculty or Psychic State)(Emotion) ( I n t e l l e c t ) ( i n s t i n c t for (imagination) Wholeness) (Jung's -terminology)' (Feeling) (Thinking) (Sensation) ( i n t u i t i o n ) Returning to the morphological imagery of the sparag-mos of Albion, when the giant body f e l l head downwards body parts with attendant f a c u l t i e s were displaced. The unfalien i n t e l l e c t u a l powers had held the highest place i n "the Golden porches" of the brain. The figure i n the myth representing 25 them i s "Urizen, Prince of Light" (FZ 1 1 : 8 , K 2 8 0 ) . Urizen's exalted place i n the human brain i s usurped by Luvah. The story of the usurpation i s t o l d i n Night I: The F a l l e n Man takes h i s repose, Urizen sleeps i n the porch, Luvah & Vala wake & (flew del.] f l y up from the Human Heart Into the Brain from thence; upon the pi l l o w Vala slumber fd, And Luvah siez'd the Horses of Light & rose into the Chariot of Day. (FZ 2 6 1 - 4 , K 2 7 1 ) Frye (FS, p. 178) notes that t h i s i s a version of the Phaeton myth and i s concerned with one of the main events of the F a l l — the seizure of the sun which belonged to Urizen, Prince of Light, by Luvah, Prince of Love. Love i s now i n the head rather than i n the l o i n s where i t had been i n Eternity; sex-u a l i t y has changed places with reason. Fallen reason i s / o dramatically i l l u s t r a t e d by what Harold Bloom c a l l s the f a n t a s t i c account of Vala's evolution (FZ 1 1 : 8 1 - 1 1 0 , K 2 8 2 ) . I t i s an account of Luvah's creation and nurturing of the deceiving beauty of h i s l o s t Emanation, Vala; she i s , i n turn, an earthworm, a scaled serpent, a dragon, and a human inf a n t . The zoological imagery Blake uses here portrays d i s t o r t i o n of the normal evolutionary processes; t h i s enhances the account of Luvah's delusion. I n i t i a l l y , the greatest disruption of Albion's body i s when h i s c i r c u l a t o r y system, which had contained the "Four Rivers of the water of l i f e " (J 9 7 : 1 5 , K 7 4 5 ) , burst i t s bounds and becomes a deluge which floods the newly created 26 universe. The four r i v e r s of Eden thus become a sea of chaos and the presiding Zoa i s watery "Tharmas" who i n Eden had been the "Parent pow'er" (FZ 1 : 2 4 , K 2 6 4 ) or the organizing power for the other f a c u l t i e s ; t h i s i s also the power that helps to bring the work of the creative a r t i s t to a successful conclu-sion. Tharmas i s , as Harold Bloom writes, (Blake's Apocalypse N.Y., 1 9 6 3 , p. 2 1 0 ) , "the body's i n s t i n c t u a l energy, which can comprehend and hold together the r i v a l energies of i n t e l l e c t , imagination, and emotion and h i s f a l l must necessarily bring . a l l the rest down with him." Albion's sense organs also underwent gross d i s t o r t i o n . In the unfallen state these senses were " a l l f l e x i b l e " (BU, K 2 2 3 ) , t h e i r c a p a b i l i t y i s described i n Night V of The Four Zoas: His eyes, the l i g h t s of his large soul, contract or else expand: Contracted they behold the secrets of the i n f i n i t e mountains, The veins of gold & s i l v e r & the hidden things of Vala, Whatever grows from i t s pure bud or breathes a fragrant soul: Expanded they behold the t e r r o r s of the Sun & Moon, The Elemental Planets & the orbs of eccentric f i r e . His n o s t r i l s breathe [with del.] a f i e r y flame, h i s locks are l i k e the forests Of wild beasts; there the l i o n glares, the tyger & wolf howl there, And there the Eagle hides her young i n c l i f f s & p r e c i p i c e s . ( 1 2 1 - 1 2 9 , K 3 0 8 ) Although the myth at t h i s point i s concerned with the bound fi g u r e of Ore i n a Urizenic world ( i . e . a c o n s t r i c t i n g world of a b s t r a c t i o n s — o u r world), h i s eyes have not l o s t the f l e x -i b i l i t y of the Edenic v i s i o n . They move from insi d e the mountains outside to where the spheres are; by contraction and expansion they comprehend and become part of the t o t a l i t y of the physical universe. Ore's n o s t r i l s have retained t h e i r o r i g i n a l capacity to breathe "a f i e r y flame"; the usual asso-c i a t i o n of t h i s image i n Blake i s with the f i r e of c r e a t i v i t y . The hair on Ore's head, while not a sense organ proper, i s used here as a s e n s i t i v e antenna-like receptor organ that has a v i t a l i t y comparable to the enormous energies of such wild beasts as the predatory l i o n , t i g e r , wolf, and eagle. The imagery suggests that Ore's being permeates a l l things, ex-tending even to the distant s t a r s . This i s consistent with Blake's cosmos which implies an i n t e r r e l a t i o n s h i p of every-thing i n i t . Ore, the bound Promethean figure, mocks at the chains of the Urizenic world; he i s held i n an unstable state of tension between a p o s i t i v e outward force and an inward, Urizenic, r e s t r i c t i n g force. These contrasting forces are ambivalent and produce a kind of " f e a r f u l symmetry"; the t e r -rors of the Urizenic world are apprehended along with the t e r r o r s of the creative forces inherent i n a f a l l e n Albion. The imagery i s reminiscent of the suggestive imagery i n Blake's l y r i c , "The Tyger." The contraries that Blake images p a r a l l e l the actual contraries found i n nature among the predatory animals where the k i l l or be k i l l e d mechanism operates to maintain the balance of nature. One of these predators, the eagle, always an important symbol i n Blake's poetry, i s a perfect image fo r the concept 28 of tenacity i n an unstable condition. I t possesses several mechanisms fo r preservation i n a creative-destructive world: the acuity of i t s v i s i o n i s keener than that of man; i t has extremely powerful wings and f l i e s higher i n routine (non migratory) f l i g h t than any other b i r d ; i t s strong toes armed with sharp claws are a necessary adaptation to i t s habitat which i s i n high barren trees growing on rocky promontories. Blake's l i n e "the Eagle hides her young i n c l i f f s & p r e c i p i c e s " has more s c i e n t i f i c v a l i d i t y than was perhaps intended. The commonly held b e l i e f that eagles nest i n t a l l trees, frequent-l y ones that have been l i g h t n i n g struck, has been recently o amended by McGahan who found golden eagles nesting on c l i f f s . The armature of the eagle strengthens i t s hold upon a precar-ious habitat and thus enables i t to overcome i t s fear of extinction. This general idea of tenacity i n a precarious state of tension which i s seen i n nature would seem to mirror forces that operate i n a state of Edenic v i s i o n bound i n a Urizenic world. In contrast to t h i s imagery of Edenic expansiveness i s the graphic account Blake gives us of the d i s t o r t i o n of the senses that took place as a r e s u l t of the F a l l . In Night I I I of The Four Zoas, Ahania, speaking to Urizen, r e t e l l s the story of the separation of Luvah: Then frown'd the F a l l e n Man [ a l t . readg. Albion! & put f o r t h Luvah from h i s presence (I heard him: frown not, Urizen, but l i s t e n to my Vision) Saying, 'Go & die the Death of Man f o r Vala the sweet wanderer. 29 I w i l l turn the volutions of your Ears outward, & bend your N o s t r i l s Downward, & your f l u x i l e Eyes englob'd r o l l round i n fear; Your w i t h 1 r i n g Lips & Tongue shrink up into a narrow c i r c l e T i l l into narrow forms you creep. . . , T (83-89, K 294) In Milton, plate f i v e , the d i s t o r t i o n s are both anatomical and p h y s i o l o g i c a l : Ah weak & wide astray! Ah shut i n narrow do l e f u l form, Creeping i n r e p t i l e f l e s h upon the bosom of the ground! The Eye of Man a l i t t l e orb, clos'd up & dark, Scarcely beholding the great l i g h t , conversing with the Void; The Ear a l i t t l e s h e l l , i n small volutions shutting out A l l melodies & comprehending only Discord and Harmony; The Tongue a l i t t l e moisture f i l l s , a l i t t l e food i t cloys, A l i t t l e sound i t utters & i t s c r i e s are f a i n t l y heard. (19-26, K 484) In these excerpts, images of encasement are used to portray functional degeneration of the eye, ear, nose, l i p s , and tongue. The movement has been from the healthy state of expanded vis i o n to the diseased state i n which man's power of sense perception has been dulled. This i s one of the c r u c i a l r e s u l t s of the o r i g i n a l sparagmos of Albion. CHAPTER I I I The change i n Albion from a state of intense creat-i v i t y i n Eden to a state of chaotic p a s s i v i t y i n the f a l l e n world i s a change from wakefulness to sleep. One of the early references to i t i s i n The French Revolution; "man [Albion] lay his faded head down on the rock / Of eter n i t y " ( 9 5 - 9 6 , K 1 3 8 ). In America t h i s rock i s c a l l e d "the Stone of night" ( 5 : 1 , K 1 9 7 ; 7 : 2 , K 1 9 8 ) ; t h i s "Stone of Night" i s referred to as the "Rock of Ages" i n l a t e r prophetic writings (FZ I: 4 6 8 , K 2 7 7 ; J 4 8 : 4 , K 6 7 7 ; J 5 7 : 1 6 , K 6 8 9 ) . Damon (Blake, p. 3 3 5 ) i d e n t i f i e s the Stone of Night with the Mosaic table of the Ten Commandments and Bloom (E, p. 8 1 5 ) claims i t sug-gests the pillows of Jacob i n Genesis 2 8 : 1 1 . In his poem, Europe. the Stone of Night Blake i d e n t i f i e s with A l b i o n f s s k u l l : Now a r r i v ' d the ancient Guardian [Urizen] at the southern porch That planted thick with trees of blackest l e a f & i n a vale Obscure enclos'd the Stone of Night; oblique i t stood, o'erhung With purple flowers and berries red, image of that sweet south Once open to the heavens, and elevated on the human neck, Now overgrown with hair and cover fd with a stony roof. ( 2 4 - 2 9 , K 2 4 1 - 2 ) Frye elaborates upon the above passage: This stone i n r e a l i t y i s not outside Albion's head, but inside i t : i t i s i n other words h i s own s k u l l ; but the image, though somewhat misleading, brings out the protective aspect of the "Rock of Ages," the fact that the l i m i t of death i s interposed 31 between l i f e and ann i h i l a t i o n ; that the physical world i s s o l i d and permanent, and orderly enough f o r the imagination to get a grip on i t : that, i n short, the Creation, though part of the F a l l , was the s o l i d bottom of the F a l l , and thus "an act of Mercy." (FS, pp. 225-6) This i s another example of the contraries that operate throughout Blake's myth. Albion's sleep on the Stone of Night was not a sleep of o b l i v i o n but a sleep which produced the dream-nightmare state incorporated i n The Four Zoas. s u b t i t l e d by Blake: "a DREAM of Nine Nights." The characters i n Blake's myth emerge from Albion's subconscious mind to give t h e i r var-ied accounts of events leading to the F a l l and Apocalypse. Since myth i s a symbolic relationship between oneself and a l l being, the d e t a i l s of which consist of a sequence of events which culminate i n an act of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n or.recognition, therefore, "the very fa c t of saying what happened reveals how the thing i n question was realized.""'"^ Blake's characters who t e l l the story thus act as agents i n the regenerative process; by t h e i r predominantly symbolic method of narration, they reveal how error must be given form ( i . e . brought to con-sciousness) before i t can be cast out. In medical p r a c t i c e the symbolic language produced by the dream requires a guru or wise man who aids the dreamer i n f i n d i n g the patterns of imagery that the symbols imply; the dreamer can then attach these patterns to concrete objects or concepts which the con-scious mind can deal with on a r a t i o n a l basis. This brings about a new insight or apocalypse. But since we are considering poetry and not case history, our main concern, as readers who wish to understand what Blake i s saying, i s to f i n d patterns i n the multitudinous array of symbols which he, as mythopoeic poet, gives us. We do not become gurus; Blake, as architect i s , i n a cert a i n sense, the guru who, for example, has Albion sneeze as a s i g -nal for reawakening and future apocalypse (FZ VIII:17, K 341). Within the poem i t s e l f are to be found a l l the necessary clues that lead to Albion's reintegration. These clues or symbolic counters include the dramatis personae, the imagery, and the various mythlettes within the larger myth. One thing to be kept i n mind i s that the symbolic counters, l i k e elements i n a dream, may play t r i c k s on us. Blake has set i t up t h i s way. This makes interpretation more d i f f i c u l t . While Blake does not play t r i c k s , h i s subtle irony and deliberate d i s t o r t i o n of syntax requires considerable dexterity on the reader's part. One i s reminded of Blake's own dictum: What i s Grand i s necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made E x p l i c i t to the Id i o t i s not worth my care. The wisest of the Ancients consider'd what i s not too E x p l i c i t as the f i t t e s t f o r Instruction, because i t rouzes the f a c u l t i e s to act. . . . (Letters. K 793) The quotation i s p a r t i c u l a r l y applicable to the texture of The Four Zoas. The great variety of l i t e r a r y devices and changes of s t y l e i n i t can at times be likened to the pyro-techniques of Wagnerian orchestration and at other times to the subtle i n t r i c a c i e s of Mozart's a r t . lieitmotifs i n music correspond to the symbolic count-ers i n Blake's poetry. They undergo v a r i a t i o n and development by having the uncanny power of suggesting i n a word or phrase a personage, an emotion, or an idea; through a process of continual transformation they unfold the meaning of the drama, the changes i n the characters, t h e i r experiences and memories, t h e i r thoughts and hidden desires. Thus, the symbolic count-ers, l i k e l e i t m o t i f s , accumulate layer upon layer of meaning u n t i l they become the drama i t s e l f . This drama which occurred during Albion's sleep i s the drama of the sparagmos of Albion. Interestingly enough the f i r s t image Blake uses to v i s u a l i z e Albion's sleep i s the very opposite of rending. I t i s one of encasement: Albion's s k u l l on the Stone of Night. A symbol from b i o l o g i c a l science i s combined with one from physical science. The bony s k u l l and the Stone of Night are modulating symbols which become i d e n t i c a l as Frye has pointed out (cited above, FS pp. 225-6). The implication here i s the concept of protection and l i m i t a t i o n . Encasement of d e l i c a t e brain ti s s u e by an o s s i f i e d covering i s , l i t e r a l l y speaking, protective; metaphorically speaking, i t i s a l i m i t i n g factor which prevents Albion from sinking into Non Ent i t y . In the passage quoted from Europe ( t h i s thesis, p. 30) we are t o l d that Albion's head had once been opened to the heavens. One i s reminded of the l i n e s from Milton: 34 Now Albion's sleeping Humanity began to turn upon hi s Couch, Feeling the e l e c t r i c flame of Milton's awful p r e c i p i t a t e descent. Seest thou the l i t t l e winged f l y , smaller than a grain of sand? I t has a heart l i k e thee, a brain open to heaven & h e l l , Withinside wondrous & expansive,: i t s gates are not clos'd: I hope thine are not: . . . ( 2 0 : 2 5 - 2 9 , K 5 0 2 ) Here, the f l y ' s brain i s open as the unfallen Albion's once was: "withinside wondrous & expansive." Commenting on t h i s passage Bloom writes: The descent of Milton begins to awaken Albion, a s t i r r i n g which inaugurates a statement of the poem's theme, the neces-s i t y of casting o f f everything i n the s e l f that i s not human. As even a f l y i s a Minute P a r t i c u l a r of creation, capable of opening within to the eternal contraries, so man i s urged a l l the more to open hi s i n t e r n a l gates to r e a l i t y . . . . (E 8 3 2 ) The roofing over of Albion's brain was an important factor i n the c l o s i n g of h i s gates. Albion's s k u l l and the f l y ' s brain are concrete and p h y s i c a l l y correct symbols because the essence of t h e i r mean-ing conjures up images of the two-opposing states i n Blake's myth. The sleeping giant A'lbion whose bony s k u l l i s anchored to and becomes one with the Stone of Night suggests not only a r i g i d and f i x e d p o s i t i o n i n r e l a t i o n to the environment but the skull-stone i s extremely close to a l i f e l e s s Ulro s t a t e — the nadir of the F a l l or " l i m i t of opacity" below which i s the chaos that would lead into a n n i h i l a t i o n or "Non-Entity." The Ulro i s Blake's death state i n which the physical body i s reduced to i n e r t matter such as rock and sand (Frye, FS. p. 208). In t h i s state the skull-stone, not only as symbol but as a physical r e a l i t y , blocks out l i g h t from Albion's brain. In contrast to t h i s , the tiny winged f l y has a c h i t -inous head capsule which allows some l i g h t to pass through i t . Symbolically speaking i t has not l o s t i t s connection with the l i g h t of Eternity. The f l y also possesses a chitinous exo-skeleton which, although not p l i a b l e , i s movable due to the f l e x i b l e a r t i c u l a r membranes between i t s s c l e r i t e s . I t i s one of the le a s t r e s t r i c t e d animals with respect to i t s en-vironment and moves with the greatest of ease. This a g i l i t y and f l e x i b i l i t y makes i t a f i t symbol as awakener of "sleeping Humanity" and as pointer of the way toward the Edenic or apocalyptic state. While Blake's image of Albion's sleep i s one of en-casement, i n h i s f i r s t attempt at portraying Apocalypse he uses images of eruption and augmentation. These are found i n the p o l i t i c a l allegory, America (K 1 9 5 ) , the theme of which i s that achievement of l i b e r t y through revolutionary action would bring about an apocalyptic state. Zoological and biomedical imagery i s used to depict emergence of t h i s state. On plate one of the poem, Ore, the s p i r i t of rev o l t , though bound, w i l l "rend these caverns" because he possesses a kind of t o t a l i t y of the same f i e r c e energy possessed by the three beasts which Blake l i n k s together by use of the word, "Sometimes" ( l . 1 3 ) . These beasts, masters of t h e i r environment, are: the eagle, 36 which Blake comments upon elsewhere, "When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; l i f t up thy head!" (MHH, K 152); the l i o n , popularly referred to as king of beasts; and the mammoth creature of the sea, the whale. Blake, by h i s choice of these p a r t i c u l a r beasts, i s i n f e r r i n g that Ore at t h i s point possesses the energy of a i r , earth, and sea. The emergence of Ore i n Blake's myth i s of the great-est importance. In "A Song of Lib e r t y " (K 159) he i s "the new born t e r r o r , . . . the new born wonder . . . with flaming hair . . . and f i e r y limbs." Frye (FS, p. 2 0 7 f f ) summarizes the importance of Ore. He i s not only Blake's Prometheus but also h i s Adonis, the dying and rev i v i n g god of his mythology. He represents victory of creative power over something mon-strous and s i n i s t e r symbolized by the dragon or b i b l i c a l sea serpent, the Leviathan. The adjective "ruddy" most frequently used to describe "red Ore" associates him with revolution, blood, rage, and sexual passion, a l l of which indicate enor-mous forms of energy. Damon'*""'' suggests h i s name i s an anagram of cor because he i s born from Enitharmon's heart (FZ V:37). The association of Ore with the ci r c u l a t o r y system i n Blake's metaphor i s a natural one. The sparagmos i n t r a d i -t i o n a l mythology was the separation of the body and blood of a god. Blood was thought to be the l i f e giving force, without which the body was an empty s h e l l . I t i s not su r p r i s i n g to f i n d references to blood and blood imagery running p e r s i s t e n t l y 37 throughout Blake's prophetic writings. I f i n the l a t e r poem, The Four Zoas. Ore i s born from Enitharmon's heart, i n the e a r l i e r p o l i t i c a l allegory, America, he arises from "the red clouds" of blood hanging over the A t l a n t i c ocean which now 12 covers what was once Eden or the l o s t A t l a n t i s . Since the subject of t h i s poem i s America's revolution against England, here c a l l e d Albion, and Ore i s the s p i r i t of revolt against "Albion's wrathful Prince" who i s George I I I , the blood meta-phor i s well chosen because i t serves several purposes: sparagmos i s depicted p o l i t i c a l l y , geographically, and ana-tomically. Blake's s i m i l e describing the b i r t h of Ore i l l u s t r a t e s t h i s : Solemn heave the A t l a n t i c waves between the gloomy nations, Swelling, belching from i t s deeps red clouds & raging f i r e s . Albion i s s i c k ! America f a i n t s ! enrag'd the Zenith grew. As human blood shooting i t s veins a l l round the orbed heaven, Red rose the clouds from the A t l a n t i c i n vast wheels of blood, And i n the red clouds rose a Wonder o'er the A t l a n t i c sea, Intense! naked! a Human f i r e , f i e r c e glowing, . . . (A 4:2 - 8 , K 197) The major image i n these l i n e s i s one of eruption. The waves are volcanoes which belch "red clouds & raging f i r e s , " which, l i k e the c i r c u l a t o r y system with i t s propulsive force shoots i t s veins to the highest point "the orbed heaven"; t h i s "orbed heaven" can be the highest point i n the universe or i t can be the human brain, seat of the imagination which i s nourished by ramifications of the anterior cardinal veins. That the red clouds of blood erupt from the A t l a n t i c " i n vast wheels of 38 blood" i s l o g i c a l and powerful imagery because two important ideas are combined i n i t . Since the heaving A t l a n t i c now covers the l o s t Eden, only out of t h i s portentous area could come the new force that i s capable of overthrowing the old tyrannyj t h i s force that expends i t s e l f i n revolutionary war i s imaged by "vast wheels of blood," l i t e r a l l y , war chariot wheels besmattered with blood. That Grc was the new force, the "Wonder" who rose from the "red clouds" i s stated ex-p l i c i t l y . Blake has, with great compression, combined imagery suggesting that the b i r t h of the rev i v i n g god i s closely a l l i e d to the same l i f e force that drives the human blood to the brain. The explosive force i s of the same dimension as that to be found i n revolutionary war. Thus, eruption releases the dynamic forces of energy that are necessary f o r reunion of the sparagmos• Continuing the p o l i t i c a l allegory, the King of England trembles at the appearance of the dynamic forces represented by Orej h i s f i r s t reaction i s to stand "beside the Stone of Night" ( p i . 5) which here must mean guarding Albion's sleeping condition, i . e . preserving h i s book of laws or status quo pos-i t i o n . Blake's d i s t o r t i o n of cosmology i n l i n e s four and f i v e may be a deliberate parody of the chaos i n the King's mind. A sudden t r a n s i t i o n occurs i n l i n e s i x . Ore's Spectre now appears; he i s i n the form of a serpent, "his horrid length s t a i n i n g the temple long / With beams of blood; & thus a voice came fort h , and shook the temple." The "serpent form" r e c a l l s 39 the "dragon form" of the King i n plate 3. The word "temple" (5s7) seems to suggest a kind of combined repository f o r the King's r e l i g i o n and laws. The fact that the Spectre's voice, u t t e r i n g prophecy ( p i . 6 ) , has the power to shake i t not only s t r i k e s t e r r o r into the heart of the King but indicates that the Spectre himself contains some sort of unnamed power. This i s possibly the f i r s t reference to a Spectre i n the minor prophecies. I have already mentioned i n chapter two (p. 22) that from Blake's own s p e c i f i c d e f i n i t i o n s , the Spectre i s the r a t i o n a l power but i s often wildly i r r a t i o n a l . These d e f i n i t i o n s w i l l hold only i n the contexts i n which they are given. C r i t i c a l opinion has been varied and tenta-t i v e regarding Blake's Spectres. For the moment i t i s note-worthy that t h i s Spectre's speech i s a great statement of l i b e r a t i o n from tyranny. Is Blake, by having the Spectre give such an important speech, suggesting that the Spectre i s the key to Ore's power? Is he, as Damon suggests, the "compulsive machinery" (Diet, p. 382) that Ore must use to be effective? An attempt w i l l be made to f i n d answers to these questions when the problem of the Spectre of Urthona (to whom Ore's Spectre i s related) i s discussed l a t e r i n t h i s t h e s i s . In the speech i t s e l f , images of encasement and the breaking out of i t are telescoped i n these pregnant l i n e s : The grave i s burst, the spices shed, the lin e n wrapped up; The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk &• dry'd 40 Reviving shake, i n s p i r i n g move, breathing, awakening, Spring l i k e redeemed captives when t h e i r bonds & bars are burst. Let the slave grinding at the m i l l run out into the f i e l d , Let him look up into the heavens & laugh i n the bright a i r ; Let the inchained soul, shut, up i n darkness and i n sighing, Whose face has never seen a smile i n t h i r t y weary years, Rise and look out; h i s chains are loose, h i s dungeon doors are open; And l e t his wife and children return from the oppressor's scourge. (A 6:2-11, K 198) The resurrection images hi g h l i g h t the theme of Ore as a rev i v i n g god. However, Apocalypse does not occur i n t h i s poem; t h i s i s consistent because i t i s , i n part, p o l i t i c a l allegory. The revo l t against George the Third by the American colonies did not bring f o r t h the Apocalypse Blake had hoped f o r . As Frye has worked out i n FS, the appearance of Ore i n America i s the beginning of a serie s of Ore cycles i n each of which Ore appears as a young dynamic force, he l a t e r matures, grows old, s o l i d i f i e s into a Urizenic f i g u r e . These cycles are repeated and p a r a l l e l the cycles of hi s t o r y . Blake l o s t f a i t h i n the idea of f i n a l Apocalypse from these h i s t o r i c a l cycles and turned h i s attention to i n d i v i d u a l Apocalypse. In t h i s mood Blake began The Four Zoas, h i s great mythical account of the struggle between the f a l l e n f a c u l t i e s of man. The f i r s t form of the t i t l e was: "VALA or The Death and Judgement of the Ancient Man, a DREAM of Nine Nights"; the second form: "The Four Zoas. The torments of Love & Jealousy i n The Death and Judgement of Albion the Ancient Man." In the second form Blake i s pinpointing the struggl between the f a l l e n f a c u l t i e s of the Zoas rather than the death and judgement of Albion. Biomedical imagery used to depict t h i s aspect of Blake's myth w i l l be discussed i n th following chapter. CHAPTER IV The F a l l and movement toward Apocalypse i n The Four Zoas may be likened to a pseudo cancerous growth that o r i g i n -ates by c e l l u l a r d i v i s i o n , spreads by augmentation, coalesces into encasement i n order to destroy the c e l l s but f i n a l l y erupts with explosive force i n an attempt to reorder the elements into a healthy h o l i s t i c g e s t a l t . I t i s not s u r p r i s i n g that Night I begins with the f a l l of Tharmas, the "Parent pow'er," t h i s Zoa i s the i n s t i n c t u a l regulatory mechanism responsible for holding the other Zoas ( i . e . f a c u l t i e s ) together i n the unity of Albion. He i s the "Mighty Father" ( 4 1 3 , K 2 7 5 ) who, as pastor, possesses a "bright sheephook." Whereas the unfalien Tharmas was the o r i g i n a l faculty of great strength and power which could a l t e r the data of experience, the f a l l e n Tharmas, as Fisher com-11 ments becomes the fixed data of f a l l e n experxence. The faculty i s now l i m i t e d to a sort of r e f l e x arc type of e x i s t -ence; i t can no longer exclusively "sense" things i n t u i t i v e l y but instead must depend upon sensations received through the sense organs. These sensations are not integrated into a gut l e v e l of experience. Shakespeare Ts F a l s t a f f i s an example of an i n t u i t i v e person who has not l o s t the sense of f e e l i n g h i s awareness; h i s large b e l l y i s not only a physical r e a l i t y but a symbol of his capacity to f e e l h i s own l i f e forces. I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g that the word Tharmas might be from the word 43 Tharm, In both the English Dialect Dictionary (New York, ed. Jos. Wright, 1 9 0 5 ) and the O.E.D. Tharm i s given as a d i a l e c t form from the Anglo-Saxon, and West Saxon's thearm. In 700 A.D. i n some works i t was glossed for the Latin Intestinum; i n 1 4 6 0 i t meant an i n t e s t i n e , c h i e f l y bowels, viscera, en-t r a i l s ; and i n 1 7 2 1 i t was used: "He that has a wide therm had never a long arm." I t was also sometimes written as Thairm. 1 4 In the f a l l e n state the senses are f i v e instead of the o r i g i n a l four. In unfalien Albion touch and taste had been combined. When Tharmas' f a l l was completed, the daughters of Beulah "clos'd the Gate of the Tongue" ( 1 0 8 , K 6 7 ) thus s p l i t -t i n g the generative and digestive functions to the deprivation of the whole being. Psychic as well as physiological hunger for both food and sex remain f o r the most part forever un-appeased as both Freud with h i s l i b i d o theory and, l a t e r , Perls"*--* with h i s emphasis on the hunger i n s t i n c t , have stressed as being the crux of the malfunctioning i n d i v i d u a l ' s l i f e prob-lem. Tharmas representing the body with i t s appetites and Enion representing the generative i n s t i n c t s are separated and endlessly search for one another. With the f a l l of Tharmas the v i v i d immediacy of sensing and experiencing was l o s t . The i n i t i a l r e s u l t of the F a l l i s one of chaos and irreparable l o s s . Tharmas' f i r s t cry i s "Lost! Lost! Lost! are my Emanations! Enion, [come forth, del.] / 0 Enion, . . ." ( 2 5 K 2 6 4 ). Tharmas' emanations, i . e . h i s children, h i s creations, are divided from him as i s h i s wife Enion who has been replaced i n h i s bosom by Enitharmon. Tharmas c r i e s out i n despair and g u i l t , " I t i s not Love I bear to Enitharmon. I t i s P i t y . " Love i s an in t e g r a t i v e power; p i t y a r i s e s from separation and i s a poor substitute for love. Torments of disturbed emotional states abound. Enion l i k e Eve i n Paradise Lost turns on Tharmas, she blames him f o r the state of chaos and sets herself up as a moral judge ( 3 5 - 4 5 ) . She wishes to become hidden, to become a shadow; she does not wish to see herself as a f a l l e n creature. She i s f i l l e d with s e l f p i t y because she has had to look upon s i n . Sin i s the dis-eased state that f a l l e n f a c u l t i e s produce. The f a l l e n p a i r accuse each other. Tharmas blames her beauty for drawing him into a state of despair which " w i l l bring self-murder on my soul. / 0 Enion," he says, "thou art th y s e l f a root growing i n ^ h e l l " ( 5 6 - 7 ) . I d e n t i t i e s are l o s t . Enion says, "Farewell, I die. 1 hide from thy searching eyes." Tharmas becomes "a pale white corse" and sinks down into the "filmy Woof" that Enion begins to weave. This i s no ordinary woof that Enion weaves. I t i s a "woof of t e r r o r " ( 8 1 , K 266) and Blake draws from anatomy to create an image of augmentation. Enion uses the v i t a l con-nectives of the body, the nerves, veins, and l a c t e a l s as woof threads. The word " l a c t e a l s " i s i n t e r e s t i n g . In modern usage l a c t e a l s are the lymphatics containing chyle which lead from the small i n t e s t i n e ; i n 1664 (acc. to the O.E.D.) the word was used i n t h i s sense: "The Stomach & guts and t h e i r appendent vessels, the l a c t e a l veins." Blake must have noted the asso-c i a t i o n with the stomach and guts and already having i n h i s mind the word Tharmas. the derivation of which was noted above, i t i s a consistent word choice on Blake's part because out of the "woof of t e r r o r " w i l l a r i s e the physical form of the Spectre of Tharmas. The nerves, veins, l a c t e a l s act as conduits, l i n e s , pipes. In Enion's determined fingers they become "sinewy threads" (69, K 266); they are powerful, robust, tendon l i k e . The material now being woven d i f f e r s greatly from the "soft s i l k e n v e i l s " that the female emana-tions wove i n Eden or gentle Beulah land (64-7, K 266) i n which they enwrapped themselves during winter to conserve t h e i r strength so that i n springtime they might act as re-s t o r a t i v e agents f o r t h e i r male counterparts—the androgynous Eternals. The manner and place of b i r t h of the Spectre of Thar-mas i s s i g n i f i c a n t . The "pale white corse" of the f a l l e n Tharmas sinks down into the sea to flow amongst Enion's "woof of t e r r o r . " Enion's fibrous threads of the woof match the f i x e d s t a t i c f i b r e s of the warp thus giving s t r u c t u r e — a n d b i r t h to a new and independent physical being, the Spectre of Tharmas (metaphor f o r a new mental s t a t e ) . An image of d i v i -sion depicts t h i s b i r t h : "His [Tharmas'] spectre is s u i n g from h i s feet i n flames of f i r e " (78, K 266). The birthplace i t -s e l f i s a place of terr o r because the unfallen Tharmas was 46 also the water of l i f e i n Beulah, the l i q u i d imagination which could, there being no r i g i d i t i e s , continually change i t s shape. The f a l l e n Tharmas, being the s p i r i t of chaos, the chief form of which i n the f a l l e n world i s the sea^has no shape, but instead, i s bounded by i t s container while at the same time i t i s continually t r y i n g to break i t s bounds and to overwhelm l i f e i n ruin. Although t h i s birthplace i s a place of t e r r o r , Blake has subtly inserted the phrase that the b i r t h took place i n "flames of f i r e . " This suggests there may be a t e r r i b l e Phoenix-like quality to t h i s b i r t h . The imagery of d i v i s i o n and augmentation contains within i t -s e l f , as pseudo cancerous c e l l s do, elements that may be res t o r a t i v e . I t i s only l i g h t l y touched upon at t h i s point i n Blake's myth but i t i s well to keep i n mind that i t may be taken symbolically or i r o n i c a l l y . There i s a great deal of subtle irony i n the passages preceding and following t h i s b i r t h . Blake i s parodying the creation myth. Tharmas i s a parody of the deity, Tharmas groan'd among his Clouds Weeping; [and del.] then bending from h i s Clouds, he stoop'd his [holy del.] innocent head, And stretching out h i s holy hand i n the vast deep sublime, Turn'd iiQund the c i r c l e of Destiny with tears & b i t t e r sighs And said: "Return, 0 wanderer, when the day of Clouds i s o'er." ( 7 1 - 5 , K 2 6 6 ) "The day of Clouds" i s the period from the F a l l to the Apoca-lypse; the "wanderer" i s Enion i.e£ "anyone." Blake i s hi n t -i n g here that there may be a restorative reunion, but i t i s only a hint because immediately aft e r t h i s comes the descrip-t i o n of Tharmas sinking down into Enion*s "filmy Woof." . Enion i s a parody of the a r t i s t creating, . . . . . T e r r i f i e d & drinking tears of woe Shudd'ring she wove nine days & nights, sleepless; her food was tears. Wond'ring she saw her woof begin to animate, & not As Garments woven subservient to her hands, but having a w i l l Of i t s own, perverse & wayward. Enion lov'd & wept. Nine days she labour Td at her work, & nine dark sleepless nights. (81-6, K 266) Enion, as artist;, i s forming a pattern; she i s weaving the nine days and the nine nights of The Four Zoas; the book parodies i t s e l f being written. But Enion i s also a parody of the creator, her woof begins to animate, to have a w i l l of i t s own. Enion both loved and feared t h i s new w i l l which was "perverse and wayward." The association between Spectre and " w i l l of i t s own" w i l l be discussed i n the following chap-ter i n connection with Frye's tentative postulate that the Spectre of Urthona i s the w i l l (FS, p. 232). Due to the augmentation process that i s taking place another entity i s created: Enion Ts shadow (90, K 266). In a c t u a l i t y i t i s a projection rather than a creation because , when one i s on t h i s side of Apocalypse, one i s unable to create but rather projects onto something else a phantasy from one's own mind. The word "created" w i l l be used i n t h i s sense i n the following comments. Enion views with t e r r o r her creation because i t i s her unreal s e l f , or, the part of her-s e l f that she fears; as already stated, Damon c a l l s the shadow the residue of suppressed desire. With t h i s creation Enion loses her i d e n t i t y meaning that now she i s given over to the spectrous aspect of Tharmas and i s i n h i s power. Whereas the shadow i s a substitute for r e a l i t y ( c f . Plato's cave myth), the Spectre i s part of r e a l i t y . The shadow i s the desire to unite; the Spectre of Tharmas i s the thing Enion unites with. Enion as God has created and the creation i s an act of s i n i n the same way that diseased cancerous c e l l s (which are also "perverse and wayward"*) are an offence against the natural order of the l i f e processes. As mother of the Spectre she i s t e r r i f i e d of her own creation but she i s also drawn to the image of her t e r r o r . Her "dread i n t o x i c a t i o n " indicates she delights i n her s i n and at the same time she f e e l s the f u l l horror of i t ; no amount of s e l f accusation w i l l overcome her g u i l t : "What have I done," said Enion, "accursed wretch! What deed? "Is t h i s a deed of Love? I know what I have done. I know "Too l a t e now to repent. Love i s chang'd to deadly Hate, "Already are my Eyes reverted; a l l that I behold "Within my soul has l o s t i t s splendor, & a brooding Fear "Shadows me o'er & drives me outward to a world of woe." So wail'd she, trembling before her own Created Phantasm d e l . (109-118, K 267) 49 This "Created Phantasm" i s the Spectre she draws forth from Tharmas i n her loom of Vegetation. Blake draws from metallurgy and zoology to give us an image of t h i s Spectre: Rear'd up a form of gold & stood upon the g l i t t e r i n g rock A shadowy human form winged. & i n hi s depths The dazzlings as of gems shone clear; . . . ( i t a l i c s mine) (126-8, K 267) I t i s important to compare t h i s image with that of Blake's winged figures appearing i n i l l u s t r a t i o n s to Job, p i . 3; the Inferno. p i . 69 Canto XXXIV; Jerusalem, p i . 37. Keeping i n mind these comparisons one can look again at Kenner's sta t e -ment, "the test of an image i s not i t s o r i g i n a l i t y but the illum i n a t i o n of thought and emotion i t provides" (quoted above, p. 1 ) . I intend to enlarge upon t h i s concept i n my attempt to c l a r i f y the meaning of the Spectre of Urthona i n chapter V of t h i s t h e s i s . For the moment i t i s s u f f i c i e n t to note the r e l a t i o n -ship between Enion, Tharmas, and the Spectre of Tharmas. The Spectre, once having been created ( i . e . projected), Three days i n s e l f admiring raptures on the rocks he flam'd, And three dark nights repin'd the solitude, but the t h i r d morn Astonish*d he found Enion hidden i n the darksom Cave. (134-6, K 267) The three days and nights echo the disappearance of Christ a f t e r the c r u c i f i x i o n but since i t has been creation at the 50 l e v e l of Enion, there can only be a parody of the c r u c i -f i x i o n . Enion remains i n the cave instead of escaping l i k e Jesus. Roles and relationships are reversed; the r e s u l t s of Enion's creation are a l l negative. The Spectre, f i l l e d with h i s own pride, becomes dominant and judgmental toward h i s mother Enion: "Who art thou, Diminutive husk & s h e l l "Broke from my bonds? I scorn my prison, I scorn & yet I love. " I f thou hast sinn'd & art polluted, know that I am pure "And unpolluted, & w i l l bring to r i g i d s t r i c t account " A l l thy past deeds; hear what I t e l l thee! mark i t well ! remember! "This world i s Thine i n which thou dwellest; that within thy soul, "That dark & dismal i n f i n i t e where Thought roams up & down, "Is Mine, & there thou goest when with one Sting of my tongue "Envenom*d thou r o l l ' s t inwards to the place [of death & h e l l del.] whence I emerg Td." ( 1 4 9 - 1 5 7 , K 2 6 8 ) The person created becomes stronger than the creator. I t i s a s i t u a t i o n with murderous and incestuous overtones. The tongue being not only a sexual organ but also an organ of speech, Tharmas can now use i t to control Enion. Like Mac-Bettys h a l l u c i n a t i o n of the dagger at the banquet the word envisioned becomes the deed; he w i l l k i l l Duncan. After the Spectre's accusations, Enion's s i n becomes clear to her: "I thought Tharmas a sinner & I murder'd hi s Emanations, "His secret loves & Graces. Ah me wretched! What have I done? "For now I f i n d that a l l those Emanations were my Children's souls, . . . ( 1 6 3 - 5 , K 2 6 8 ) Summing up the s i t u a t i o n , the Spectre of Tharmas which started out as a ser i e s of l i f e l e s s fibrous systems woven by Enion into a garment to hide herself from the gaze of Tharmas becomes, to her amazement, an independent l i v i n g entity which refuses to accept the. subservient r o l e Enion had wished to create f o r him. His f i r s t act was to spurn her ( 9 2 , K 266), then he i s going to follow her, to accuse her, to hide her i n h i s "jealous wings" (176, K 269). I t i s the Oedipus stance. Enion seeing Tharmas i n the Spectre i s seeing the husband i n the son. The relationship of Enion, Tharmas, Spectre i s a s e l f delusion of Enion's who thereby becomes "the S o l i t a r y wanderer" ( 2 0 3 , K 269) searching for her children who reject her because of her spectrous involvement. Los and Enitharmon, the "two l i t t l e Infants," the " f i e r c e boy & g i r l , " are the products of the incestuous coupling of Enion with the Spectre of Tharmas and again, the persons created tend to become stronger than t h e i r creator. They repel Enion "away & away by a dread repulsive power / Into Non E n t i t y " (218-9, K 2 7 0 ) . There i s an i n t e r e s t i n g feature with regard to the Spectre at t h i s point. I t also has the power to work for Enion as well as against her; the l i n e [she] "Rehumanizing from the Spectre i n pangs of maternal love" indicates that Enion's o r i g i n a l generative power has been restored; she has been rehumanized i n the b i r t h process. The b i r t h of Los and Enitharmon, rep-resent Time and Space, a providential act which prevents Enion ( i . e . any one of us) from f a l l i n g completely into Non 52 Entity. Regeneration, hinted at i n the l i n e : "They saw not yet the Hand Divine . . . " (230, K 270) can only come from t h i s kind of providential act. Thus the Spectre would seem to be a free f l o a t i n g psychic energy that can be used f o r either good or e v i l purposes. As has been stated previously, blood imagery runs p e r s i s t e n t l y throughout the prophetic writings. In the l a t t e r h a l f of Night I i t i s associated with Enitharmon, Los, Luvah, Vala, Urizen and Ore. I t i s pertinent to remember that i n The Book of Urizen (V, 14:7, K 230) a "globe of blood" i n i t i a t e d the b i r t h of Enitharmon. She was "the f i r s t female form now separate," and " A l l Eternity shudder'd at the s i g h t " (K 231) as well they might; they knew she was to bear "an enormous race" of f a l l e n Urizenic men. Blake reinforces t h i s forecast by p l a c i n g miniature figures inside the globule (BU, p i . 1 7 ) . Thus at one stroke two important and contradictory concepts are s i g n a l l e d . The enormous race i s reduced to miniature figures encapsulated by the l i m i t i n g membrane of the actual globule. The encasement imagery suggests several things: mind-forged manacles appear even before the b i r t h of Enitharmon, she w i l l be manacled as w i l l be a l l of her offspring; however, since Blake has chosen a globule f i l l e d with blood rather than one f i l l e d with a s t a t i c fibrous network, t h i s indicates not only the ancient b e l i e f that from blood springs some mysterious psychic l i f e force, but, from more recent s c i e n t i f i c data the f a c t that the membrane i s semipermeable. The suggestion 53 implied i s that the bounding l i n e of the image of c i r c u l a r i t y -i s counterbalanced by the p o s s i b i l i t y of eruption out of the encasement. This i s consistent with Blake's dictum: "Without contraries there i s no progression." That Blake used embryo-l o g i c a l imagery i n The Book of Urizen has already been de-scribed by Carmen K r e i t e r 1 ? but I do not think that what I am saying here has been pointed out before. Frye does make the important b i b l i c a l connection when discussing the globule of blood: The chaotic world, represented by the sea, disappears i n the apocalypse (Rev. XXI, 1 ) , i t s place being taken by a c i r c u l a t -i n g r i v e r of fresh water ('the deeps shrink to t h e i r foun-tains', as Blake says i n America). This r i v e r i s the water of l i f e restored to man, and as i t i s i d e n t i c a l with the c i r c u -l a t i n g blood of man's rise n body a l l water i s a single 'Globule of Blood', as Blake c a l l s i t . 1 " The contradictory a f f i l i a t i o n between blood and water i s affirmed i n Blake's description of the relationship between the newly created, i . e . " f a l l e n " Los and Enitharmon. Their f i r s t state i s one of intense emotional turmoil: Alternate Love & Hate his breast: hers Scorn & Jealousy In embryon passions; they kiss'd not nor embrac'd f o r shame & fear. She drave the Females a l l away from Los, And Los drave the Males from her away. They wander'd long, t i l l they sat down upon the margin'd sea, Conversing with the visions of Beulah i n dark slumbrous b l i s s . (FZ 1:237-246, K 270-1) 54 Although t h e i r emotions run the gamut of love, hate, scorn, jealousy, shame, fear, and they wander long i n such a state, i t i s not u n t i l they s i t "upon the margin fd sea" that they are able to be i n contact with the "dark slumbrous b l i s s " of the Beulah state. Despite the fa c t that i t i s the sea of time and space that i s our world, they can s t i l l have three f o l d v i s i o n . Like Adam and Eve aft e r the F a l l they ponder on the world they have l o s t . Enitharmon i n a mild voice and with "a dropping tear" sings a Song of Death, v i z . a song of our l i f e upon t h i s vegetative earth, the presiding goddess of which i s Vala or the v e i l of i l l u s i o n . The song recaps the F a l l the i n i t i a l consequence of which has already been re-ferred to i n t h i s t h e s i s . Due to the upheaval of emotional turmoil, the f a c u l t i e s represented by Urizen, Luvah, Vala have exchanged places. Enitharmon becomes defiant, "Sweet laughter siez'd me i n my sleep; s i l e n t & close I laugh'd, / For i n the visions of Vala I walk'd with the mighty Fallen One" [Albion]. She adopts not only Vala's power to d i s t o r t r e a l i t y but i n her somnolent state imagines herself to be Vala. She seizes upon an e x i s t e n t i a l point of view: there i s no certainty except such pockets of certainty as one can create. This has the i l l u s i o n of certainty. F a l l e n Albion i s puzzled by her Mona Lisa mystique; he asks: "•Why i s the l i g h t of Enitharmon darken'd i n [her del.] dewy morn? 55 "'Why i s the si l e n c e of Enitharmon a [cloud del.] ter r o r , & her smile a whirlwind, "'Why dost thou weep as Vala & wet thy v e i l with dewy tears, tt'In slumbers of my night-repose infusing a f a l s e morning, "'Driving the Female Emanations a l l away from Los? (1:268-276, K 271) Albion's f i n a l question, what has happened to the female "Once born for the sport & amusement of Man, now born to drink up a l l h is Powers," i s the t y p i c a l question asked by the wonder-ing naive male i n the presence of a rampant female w i l l at work. A l l the time Enitharmon has been singing her strange song the "sounding sea" has been echoing i n her ears. This i s the sea of Tharmas which has become a watery chaos surrounding Enitharmon. Blake's concept of the inside and the outside as being one and the same i s evident here. The chaotic sea sur-rounding Enitharmon becomes at one with her own sea of com-passionate tears. This curious commingling i s t y p i c a l of the eternal female enigma. This i n f u r i a t e s Los who smites her; he w i l l not be defeated by her Song of Death nor w i l l he be tortured by her rampant female w i l l . He i s the only Zoa who, at the F a l l , d i d not lose the Divine V i s i o n . He i s the visionary whose imaginative a c t i v i t y i s prophecy and whose perception can produce art; he represents, as John Beer notes, "the function of creative energy i n a v i s i o n l e s s w o r l d."^ At t h i s point i n the myth he uses h i s prophetic powers: 56 "I see, i n v i s i b l e descend into the Gardens of Vala, "Luvah walking on the winds! I see the i n v i s i b l e knife, "I see the shower of blood, I see the swords & spears of f u t u r i t y . (1:299-301, K 272) The shower of blood" imagery i s curious; one usually a s s o c i -ates a shower with water. The l i n e s quoted have come ju s t after Los's prophecy concerning the Incarnation of Christ; i t i s the Jesus aspect of Luvah that Blake i s presenting. There i s an implied association between water and blood as restora-t i v e and regenerative agents. Enitharmon, having recently acquired her separate female w i l l , i s f i l l e d with "Scorn & Indignation" at t h i s prophecy; she f e e l s that the Incarnation of Christ w i l l somehow diminish her own power. She c a l l s upon the sky god Urizen to descend "with horse & chariot" to wreak vengeance. The imaginative faculty i s not to be trusted; the awful reign of Reason i s about to begin that w i l l bring "War & Princedom, & Victory & Blood." I t i s the eighteenth century answer that Reason i s a l l . Urizen hears her c a l l and does descend, "Gloomy sounding: l,:Now I am God from Eternity to E t e r n i t y . m At the moment t h i s happens Luvah and Vala "shudder'd i n t h e i r Orb, an orb of blood" (1:314, K 273). Blood i s no longer l i k e an ever flowing fountain that could produce a shower; i t i s now confined within an orb; i t i s an encasement. I f one uses the red blood c e l l as a model for an "orb of blood," from a b i o l o g i c a l standpoint, the membrane of t h i s c e l l i s permeable to water but seemingly impermeable to s a l t s . 57 However, there i s an apparent paradox i n that i t i s v i r t u a l l y impossible to make a t r u l y semipermeable membrane that i s per-meable to water but not to solutes. I f too mueh water and not enough solute flow across the membrane into the c e l l , eruption takes placej i f too l i t t l e , shrinkage and d i s t o r t i o n i s the r e s u l t . Some approximate proportion of water and solute held within the corpuscle provides the necessary homeostatic con-d i t i o n . Therefore, water may be said to be both eruptive and rest o r a t i v e and an actual encasement can be the necessary condition that w i l l preserve l i f e . This analogy may not be so f a r fetched as i t might at f i r s t appear to be when one considers Blake's hatred of the i n d e f i n i t e and h i s emphasis upon the bounding l i n e i n h i s a r t . Blood and water symbolize both avenging and restorat i v e agents. Blood i s an a c t u a l i t y of war and of the s a c r i f i c e of Jesus on the cross; water can be a destructive force as i n a deluge or i t can be restorat i v e as i n a fountain. Intentional or not as t h i s juxtaposition i s on Blake's part, the fact remains that the imagery exists i n the l i n e s he wrote. When Blake associates Urizen and blood imagery i n the l a t t e r half of Night I, the i n t e n s i t y of destruction i s empha-sized by the s t a r t l i n g image of the heavens being f i l l e d with blood at the c l a r i o n c a l l for war (346, K 273). Urizen has shrieked, "The Spectre i s the Man. The rest i s only delusion & fancy." I t i s a complete inversion of Blake's assertion that "The Spectre i s i n every man insane"; i t i s the negative 58 doctrine that dominated eighteenth century thought. Urizen fs reign w i l l produce "War & Princedom, & Victory & Blood" i n these terms. The blood of destructive war i s not the s a c r i -f i c i a l blood of Jesus. Songs of celebration of t h i s Urizenic world are given i n l i n e s 347-433. Blake with f i e r c e irony parodies the communion service, the bread i s " f l e s h l y " and the wine i s "nervous"; these are strange adjectives for a strange reign that i s about to begin. Humanity w i l l be estranged i n t h i s a l i e n world. Luvah and Vala are alone, forsaken, and i n f i e r c e jealousy are suspended i n blood; the imagery refe r s back to l i n e 314 where they are encased i n an orb of blood. The nuptial song of Los and Enitharmon i s a song of war. Irony i m p l i c i t i n t h i s cannot be l o s t on the perceptive reader. Animals are c a l l e d upon to dominate man, the horse, the l i o n , the t i g e r i n turn c a l l upon the diminu-t i v e spider, "0 Spider, spread thy web! Enlarge thy bones & f i l l ' d / With marrow, sinews & f l e s h , Exalt thyself, a t t a i n a voice." The c a l l i s to achieve a state where "Man s h a l l be no more!" Blake was perhaps more prophetic than he r e a l i z e d . Today we know that only the insect world i s r e l a t i v e l y imper-vious to r a d i a t i o n . The web the spider i s c a l l e d upon to augment i s Urizen fs d i r e web of f a l s i t i e s of a l l sorts. I t i s the world Roszak describes: I f the melancholy history of revolution over the past h a l f century teaches us anything, i t i s the f u t i l i t y of a p o l i t i c s which concentrates i t s e l f single-mindedly on the overthrowing of governments, or r u l i n g classes, or economic systems. This 59 brand of p o l i t i c s f i n i s h e s with merely redesigning the tur r e t s and towers of the technocratic c i t a d e l . I t i s the foundations of the e d i f i c e that must be sought. And those foundations l i e among the ruins of the visionary imagination and the sense of human community. Indeed, t h i s i s what Shelley recognized even i n the e a r l i e s t days of the In d u s t r i a l Revolution, when he pro-claimed that i n the defense of poetry we must invoke " l i g h t and f i r e from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of c a l c u l a t i o n dare not ever s o a r . " 2 0 Blake prophesies that from the ruins of the visionary imagin-ation two important figures w i l l appear, Ore, the " f i e r c e Terror" w i l l be born and the Spectre of Urthona i s c a l l e d up: "Bursting for t h from the l o i n s of Enitharmon, Thou f i e r c e Terror, "Go howl i n vain! Smite, smite h i s f e t t e r s ! smite, 0 wintry Hammers! "Smite, Spectre of Urthona! mock the fiend who drew us down "From heavens of joy into t h i s deep. Now rage, but rage i n vain!" ( 1 : 4 3 0 - 3 ) This i s the f i r s t mention of the Spectre of Urthona i n t h i s poem; i t i s worth noting that t h i s Spectre i s introduced as a figure of great power. Apocalypse w i l l not come quickly but these two figures w i l l both help Los whose "wintry hammers" w i l l be instrumental i n releasing mankind from the f e t t e r s of the Urizenic world. The association of Enitharmon, "the f i r s t female now separate" with blood imagery i s important because i t v i v i d l y presents one of Blake's most important and persistent themes. Blake saw that the "enlightened" Urizenic world of the eigh-teenth century was dominated by the rampant female w i l l . At the o r i g i n a l f a l l the separation of Jerusalem from Albion 60 i n s t i g a t e d rampaging havoc on a l l f r o n t s . The "rampant female w i l l " i n Blake's writings does not.refer solely to a sexual d i s t i n c t i o n ; i t does ref e r to havoc amongst the f a c u l t i e s and to the dominance of one over the others. Instead of acting as a unity the organism's various ph y s i o l o g i c a l and psychological states attempt to act independently. In the l a t t e r h a l f of Night I various images and/or references v i v i d l y portray blood. I have counted some p e r t i n -ent instances which I place i n the following table: TABLE I I Count Line Suggested # Paee # Quotation response 1 K271 262 Luvah . . . f l y . . . Human Heart Negative 2 K272 287 Luvah . . . bloody beams . . . f a l s e morning Negative 3 K 2 7 2 3 0 1 the shower of blood Positive 4 K 2 7 2 311 War . . . Victory & Blood Pos i t i v e and/or Negative 5 K273 314 Luvah & Vala . . . orb of blood Negative 6 K273 346 heavens f i l l ' d with blood Negative 7 K274 352 - 4 Los . . . love . . . i n a l l hi s veins Positive 8 K274 359 Luvah and Vala standing i n the bloody sky Negative 9 K 2 7 4 3 6 4 Luvah's robes of blood Positive 10 K 2 7 4 389 Fatten'd on Human blood Negative 11 K 2 7 5 4 0 1 Children fed with blood Negative 12 K275 4 0 9 Triumphant i n the bloody sky Negative 13 K 2 7 6 4 3 0 Bursting f o r t h . . . l o i n s . . . f i e r c e Terror Positive 1 4 K 2 7 8 512 with hands of blood Negative 61 Of the fourteen counts made, nine suggest negative connota-tions, four are p o s i t i v e , and one i s ambivalent. The selected l i n e s can be t i e d i n nicely with three main elements of Blake 1s myth: f a l l of the Zoas, struggle between Urizen and Ore, and reawakening of man. The lesson of The Four Zoas according to Beer (op., ext., p. 144) that men spend t h e i r time i n 'Corpor-eal War* when they should be devoting themselves to 'Mental War' i s also contained i n the l i n e s I have selected. See counts 4,,6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13. In count 1 the word " f l y " ( i t a l i c i z e d by Blake) emphatically suggests that the natural flow of blood to the brain has been traumatically increased; the brain rather than the heart has now become the seat of the emotions. The Freudian implications of t h i s d i s t o r t i o n due to the F a l l have been pointed out by Bloom and others. From a biomedical point of view a comparison can be made with the f l i g h t of blood from c e l l s that have become cancerous. The importance of blood as a primary and v i t a l source of nourish-ment i s seen i n the early formation of blood islands on the yolk sac of the developing chick embryo; i n higher vertebrates the flow of blood into the walls of the pregnant uterus i s increased at the moment of implantation of the ovum. At puberty and concomitant with development of sexual i d e n t i t y , tumescense of the genital organs i s a natural phenomenon. The body responds p h y s i o l o g i c a l l y to changes i n psychological states as Perls (op., c i t . ) emphasizes again and again with his repeated question, "What i s your body doing?" P e r l s ' attempt 62 to bring h i s patient to an awareness of the signals the body-gives i s somewhat s i m i l a r to Blake's prophetic v i s i o n of the Apocalypse and how a r e a l i z a t i o n of t h i s v i s i o n w i l l help to reintegrate distorted f a c u l t i e s . One of the characters i n Blake's myth that could be instrumental i n bringing about the necessary changes i s Ore. His "Bursting f o r t h from the l o i n s of Enitharmon" (count i 3 above) i s an apt description of the b i r t h process; the breaking of the waters, i . e . amniotic f l u i d mixed with blood, i s the signal the body gives that p a r t u r i -t i o n has begun. Ore w i l l struggle with Urizen and threaten h i s reign; he i s c a l l e d upon to "mock the fiend who drew us down." Blake's colouring of h i s revolutionary Ore f i g u r e i s usually a bloody, f i e r y red. The Urizen-Orc struggles are also expressed i n Blake's curious poem, "The Mental T r a v e l l e r " (K 4 2 4 ) . Ore can be "the frowning Babe," the "bleeding youth," or the "aged Shadow," while Urizen can be the "Woman Old," "a V i r g i n bright," or, with savage irony, a "Garden f r u i t f u l seventy-fold." The struggles between f i e r y youthful revolutionary zeal and aged frozen r i g i d i t y go on and on; one can become the other and vice versa. The end r e s u l t wiMi never be apocalyptic v i s i o n . As Roszak has pointed out (quoted above, thesis pp. 5 8 - 5 9 ) , the foundations of the ruined visionary imagination have to be attacked rather than the e d i f i c e that r e s u l t s from these ruins. Blake used the Urizen-Orc cycles for h i s p o l i t i c a l allegory but abandoned the theme when he saw that the revolutionary 63 attack upon the p o l i t i c s of his day resulted only i n endless struggles with cycles and with nothing else. The s i m i l a r i t y between what Blake saw happening i n h i s day to what the more enlightened hippies see happening i n our society i s s e l f e v i -dent. Youth today turns i n exasperation and desperation to-ward such eastern philosophies as Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Maoism; Blake turned h i s attention f u l l y toward the ancient Hebrew prophetic v i s i o n as recorded i n the C h r i s t i a n Bible. The t h i r d element i n Blake's myth, the awakening of man, i s dealt with i n counts 2, 3, 5, 7, 9. I t i s the Luvah-Jesus p r i n c i p l e rather than the Urizen-Orc struggle that w i l l be instrumental i n bringing about f i n a l Apocalypse. The means of change w i l l not come from revolutionary Ore's struggle with Urizen i n corporeal war but w i l l come from an i n t e r n a l s p i r i t -ual and emotional change based on divine love, mutual t r u s t , and mutual forgiveness of sins as exemplified on earth by Jesus. Metaphorically speaking, Luvah, though also one of the f a l l e n f a c u l t i e s , i s also t h i s Jesus. In count 2 he i s unable to act, he i s l o s t i n "bloody beams of your f a l s e morn-ing"; Apocalypse i s not yet heralded; the "your" refers to Enitharmon who i s enmeshed i n the t o i l s of, not divine love, but profane l u s t . The suggested response i n count 5 i s one of negation due to encasement. The response i s also negative i n count 14, Luvah, with "hands of blood" wishes to smite Albion; t h i s wish i s the Satanic aspect of the Jesus p r i n c i p l e . Blake believed that part of the Creator God essence was e v i l 64 from the beginning and at the F a l l t h i s e v i l also " f e l l " into existence. When an i n d i v i d u a l w i l f u l l y remains i n t h i s state of e v i l he cannot be redeemed. The only character i n Blake's myth who so remains i s Satan, i n the f i n a l Apocalypse he must be cast out. Blake warns us about the importance of being able to dis t i n g u i s h between these i n d i v i d u a l s with t h e i r "mild obscure a r t s " and the state i t s e l f : "There i s a State nam'd Satan; learn d i s t i n c t to know, . . . "The difference between States & Individuals of those States. "The State nam'd Satan never can be redeem'd i n a l l Eternity; "But when Luvah i n Ore became a Serpent, he descended into "That State c a l l ' d Satan. . . . (FZ VIII:379-383, K 351) The ultimate degradation i s when an i n d i v i d u a l i d e n t i f i e s himself with Satan. He becomes Satan. This Blakean concept of e v i l i s explicated by Frye: The central conception i n Blake's thought might be expressed somewhat as follows: the imagination turns nature insi d e out. "Where man i s not, nature i s barren," said Blake, and by "nature" he meant the world as, say, i t would have appeared to a singl e i n t e l l i g e n c e at the beginning of human l i f e . Such an i n t e l l i g e n c e would be a ti n y center of a universe stretching away from him i n a l l direc t i o n s , a universe with plenty of resources f o r k i l l i n g him, and f u l l of force and w i l l to sur-vive, but with nothing i n i t to respond to his i n t e l l i g e n c e . The "natural man" stares h e l p l e s s l y at nature, minimizing h i s i n t e l l i g e n c e and fascinated by i t s mysterious remoteness and stupid power. He builds his own s o c i e t i e s on the analogy of nature, giving the primary place to force and cunning, so that the "natural society" which was so widely discussed i n Blake's day i s , f o r Blake, i d e n t i c a l with tyranny, class d i s t i n c t i o n s and economic i n j u s t i c e . The natural man builds h i s r e l i g i o n s on the assumptions that some "god" must lurk behind nature, combining i t s mystery with something analogous to i n t e l l i g e n c e . 65 Religion of t h i s k i n d — n a t u r a l r e l i g i o n as Blake c a l l s i t — begins by personifying the forces of nature, then goes on to erect, on the analogy of human society, a r u l i n g class of Olympian a r i s t o c r a t s , and f i n a l l y a r r i v e s at i t s masterpiece, a whiskery old man up i n the sky, with an uncertain temper and reactionary p o l i t i c a l views, whom Blake c a l l s Nobodaddy, and, i n the Prophecies, Urizen or S a t a n 2 1 ( I t a l i c s are mins). The progression i n the myth i s thus: Satan ^.Urizen •> Ore • ^Luvah ^-Los; each one i s a higher form of the one pre-ceding but one must remember that i n context each can also become any one of the others. Returning to the counts on page sixty-four of t h i s t h e s i s , counts 3, 7, 9, suggest p o s i t i v e responses. Los, the poetic s p i r i t (Luvah i n his highest form), speaks with the voice of v i s i o n and prophecy the implications of which have been discussed above. In count 7 Los repents h i s violent action toward Enitharmon, r e a l love returns and blood f i l l s " a l l h i s veins." Love and Imagination are for Blake the two most im-portant f a c u l t i e s , the word f a c u l t i e s i s used here to s i g n i f y a b i l i t i e ' s . v i z , a b i l i t y to love, a b i l i t y to imagine c r e a t i v e l y . Therefore i n h i s epic drama he placed Luvah, "Prince of Love" and Los, the poetic genius, i n s t r a t e g i c positions to bring about Apocalypse. In the i t a l i c i z e d l i n e s i n F r y e T s comment quoted above (pp. 64-65), i t i s evident that separation of the imaginative f a c u l t y from i t s f u l l p o t e n t i a l i s also a loss of i n t e l l i g e n c e . F a l l e n man imagines that he i s under the control of the stupid power of the "natural" world. Instead of being i t s master he has a phantasy that he must be i t s servant. I t I 66 t o t a l l y escapes h i s befuddled mind that there i s no " i t s . " He thus gives h i s power over to a phantasy; i n doing t h i s he i s actually giving away h i s own energy. Energy i s not only power but i s , as Blake says i t i s , "Eternal Delight." I t i s the elan v i t a l that i s l i f e . The givi n g away of energy under these perverted conditions i s an act of s e l f hatred; i t i s an i n a b i l i t y to f e e l the proper s e l f love that i s necessary for development of the divine potential i n man. Perls says, l i k e Blake, we are a l l geniuses i f we but knew i t . For purposes of, t h i s study the next important thing to examine i s the imagery and a few of the concepts that Blake develops i n the remaining Nights to present Luvah and Los as agents who w i l l bring about release from the d i v i s i v e and encasement forces that plague f a l l e n man. Night II i s a compensatory response to the chaos described i n Night I. The main active f i g u r e i s Urizen who i s the e f f i c i e n t creator of the Mundane S h e l l . This creation i s a Urizenic response to the F a l l ; i t i s an attempt to set l i m i t s on chaos. I t also symbolizes the eighteenth century's obsession with the f a l l of Rome and the concern to imitate the Augustan Roman p e r i o d — t h e longest period of peace ever known. This period was held together by a l e g a l concept of c i v i l i z a -t i o n . The fear of revolution i n the eighteenth century was also s i m i l a r to today's fear of t o t a l chaos. I t i s not so much fear of the government f a l l i n g (today i t i s too highly structured for that) as i t i s fear of a c o l l e c t i v e amnesia 67 and hence l o s s of i d e n t i t y , l o s s of the past, loss of c i v i l i -zation i t s e l f . The response i n Rome, i n the eighteenth cen-tury, and today i s a r a l l y i n g cry for law and order. A cry fo r men to create a world according to what they conceive to. be the best p r i n c i p l e s of the day. Urizen*s fear was sound and h i s intentions were good but l i k e today and l i k e former times he went about things the wrong way around; h i s concep-t i o n was f a u l t y and of t h i s he was dimly aware: "To him h i s Labour was but Sorrow & h i s Kingdom was Repentance" (208, K 285). He had placed emphasis on the b u i l d i n g of material structures according to Newtonian mathematic form rather than on a reintegration of the ultimate i d e a l order of the human i n t e g r a l . Blake describes the b u i l d i n g of the Mundane Shell with deep, deep irony; elsewhere he has commented, "Bring out number, weight & measure i n a year of dearth" (MHH, K 1 5 1 ) . This a c t i v i t y of Urizen*s i s a parody of ancient creation myths. Creation of the S h e l l i s merely a rearranging of already existent materials; a comparison can be made with Hindu creation myths where d i f f e r e n t types of c r e a t i v i t y are assigned as a gesture to each of the d i f f e r e n t gods. While the main active fig u r e of Night I I i s Urizen the main story presented i s the f a l l of Luvah. Blake has i n c o r -porated i n t h i s a very comprehensive concept of love only a few d e t a i l s of which can possibly be handled i n t h i s t h e s i s . The creation of the Mundane Shell has connections with t h i s larger concept of love. The f a l l of Luvah comes about as 68 a consequence of t h i s b u i l d i n g a c t i v i t y . Why i s t h i s so? The l o g i c of Blake's imagery suggests something l i k e the following. We are deceived by the notion that we can separate thought from form. For Blake, to give form to a thing i s to place i t i n an e x i s t e n t i a l position whereby i t may be either rejected or preserved. Urizen, the f a l l e n r a t i o n a l faculty i s not only t r y i n g to preserve the wrong kind of thing but i s t r y i n g to^ create order a l l by himself; love which i s part of the human in t e g r a l i s not brought into t h i s ; i t i s cast out; Luvah i s placed i n the "Furnaces of a f f l i c t i o n & sealed." Urizen*s " i d e a l " kind of order i s the law i d e a l l y conceived which admits of no exception. J u s t i c e does not admit mercy. The common saying, "The Law i s an Ass" i s correct; i t i s Shakes-peare's theme i n Measure for Measure. According to Blake's ethic, i d e a l morality does not l e g i s l a t e ; the ten commandments are an abomination. Codified morality i s unnecessary when you operate i n complete awareness of what the human i n t e g r a l i s a l l about. Urizen i s operating i n an i r o n i c s i t u a t i o n : order i s being imposed by reason from without, though done from a constructive impulse i t leads to consequences that are d i s -astrous. Luvah's f a l l meant the separation of the Zoa from h i s Emanation, Vala. Their love f o r one another i n the Urizenic world becomes hate to the point where they say i n horror: "What! are we terrors to one another?" (11:124, K 283). Love as a general concept i s dealt with i n the association between Luvah and Jesus; t h i s association tends to be rather b a f f l i n g at t h i s point i n the myth. Perhaps an examination of the "robes of blood" imagery w i l l be h e l p f u l . Referring back to the quotation above and to th e , l i n e , "Lest the state c a l l ' d Luvah should cease," i t i s apparent that the preservation of the state of love i s the c r u c i a l reason f o r the Incarnation; i f t h i s event had not occurred i t would have meant that man would forever have been incapable of either r e c e i v i n g or of giving love. In the same quotation i t i s Jesus, "the Divine V i s i o n " who walks i n "robes of blood." When the Incarnation Vision was given i n Night I, Eternity appear*d above them as One Man infolded In Luvah*s robes of blood & bearing a l l h i s a f f l i c t i o n s ; As the sun shines down on the misty earth, such was the Vision, . . . (363-5, K 274) here Jesus i s clothed i n Luvah's "robes of blood" and bears " a l l h i s a f f l i c t i o n s . " The state of Luvah takes on the.form of love as i t i s attached to Jesus. This image of love i s preserved and i s something that can be appealed to i n the f a l l e n world. We know i t exists; i t i s proven to us over and over again when we experience the r e i n f o r c i n g power of human love i n t h i s , our world. We only go wrong when we f a i l to dis t i n g u i s h between love and desire; desire i s wanting some-thing we do not have; desire i s possession; i t i s not bad i f we add to i t the other's desire. 70 Luvah and Vala are the symbolic counters Blake uses i n Night II to exemplify jealous possessive love. The furnaces of a f f l i c t i o n and the robes of blood images are important to an understanding of t h i s love-hate r e l a t i o n s h i p . The furnace i s a f l e x i b l e symbol; i t can go either way. L i t e r a l l y speak-ing, one can v i s u a l i z e "furnace" as furnace; while i t destroys whatever i s put i n i t , i t s f i r e , l i k e that of the alchemists can transmute base metals into gold or i t can carry on the reverse process. Since these p a r t i c u l a r furnaces were erected during the b u i l d i n g of the Mundane S h e l l ( 3 0 , K 2 8 1 ) , they are part of Urizen's apparati i n which things are ground down—in t h i s ease, Luvah and Vala—even though Vala i s not put insi d e the furnace. The furnaces of a f f l i c t i o n can also be thought of as being states of intense emotion. What happens to Luvah inside the furnace? The "furnace" as furnace consumes Luvah who, "age aft e r age, was quite melted with woe" ( 1 1 3 , K 2 8 3 ) and i n the end became simply "molten metal." The agent here i s Vala, v e i l of i l l u s i o n or goddess of nature who symbolizes outward beauty only; she i s now i n control of Luvah; she i t was who fed the furnace with f i r e i n cruel delight. Where can the f i r e come from except from the intense energy discharged when an emotional state changes from one of pure love to deadly hate? "In joy she heard h i s howlings & forgot he was her Luvah" ( 7 8 , K 2 8 2 ) . The heat generated by t h i s energy exchange i s great enough to consume also the possessor of such hate. Vala at l a s t f e l l , "a heap of ashes" ( 1 1 5 , K 2 8 3 ) . In l i n e 166 Blake with b i t t e r irony describes the work of "the Architect d i v i n e " (Urizen), the Mundane Sh e l l arises as a "wondrous s c a f f o l d [which] rear'd a l l round the i n f i n i t e " ; one notes not only the incongruity of t h i s concept but the density of implication i n Blake's use of the word " s c a f f o l d . " There i s deep black humour i n Vala's f i n a l end; the mortar of the wondrous b u i l d i n g was "mingled with the ashes of Vala" ( 1 7 1 , K 2 8 4 ) . The second metaphor to be considered i n Luvah's f a l l i s that of the "furnace" as body being a metaphor for the Imagination. I t has been pointed out above how the i n t e l l e c -t u a l powers become fantasy and specious reasoning i n the f a l l e n state. Luvah's lament from the furnaces ( 8 1 - 1 1 0 , K 2 8 2 ) record merely fantasies which can be compared with the kaleidoscopic d i s t o r t i o n s of the dream state. These, Perls says, are a l l signals the body i s giving to compel the sleeper 22 xnto an awareness of the various "holes" i n his personality. Working out from these signals Perls uses psychodrama and the "hot seat" to bring the sleeper to an awareness of h i s own d e f i c i e n c i e s ; b i t s of the unfalien state are recovered. In Blake's l i n e s , . . . 0 Lamb "Of God clothed i n Luvah's garments! l i t t l e knowest thou "Of death Eternal, that we a l l go to Eternal Death, "To our Primeval Chaos i n fortuitous concourse of incoherent "Discordant p r i n c i p l e s of Love & Hate. I suffer a f f l i c t i o n "Because I love, for I [am del.] was love, but hatred awakes i n me, . . . (Night 1 1 : 9 9 - 1 0 4 , K 2 8 2 ) Luvah i s having a fantasy that only he and not God "clothed i n Luvah's garments" ( i . e . Jesus taking on mortality) i s cap-able of knowing "death Eternal"—which i s l i f e i n our world. This i s one of the most blasphemous and despairing statements that Luvah can make. He i s actually denying the Incarnation; he i s saying that Jesus cannot know human personality, that Jesus i s unaware that we act c h a o t i c a l l y because our minds (includi n g Imagination, Reason, I n t e l l e c t ) no longer know what our bodies (Luvah's garments) are doing. We merely put on the body as i f i t were a garment, we carry i t around as excess baggage which we wish to leave unattended, or, we may consider i t to be "the l i n e n clothes folded up" (MHH, K 149) which Jesus l e f t i n the tomb but which we resurrect and worship as a fake Jesus. Thus we have no desire to be i n contact with the core of our being, with that which i s a l l of us. There may be some s i m i l a r i t y here to the thinking of Paul T i l l i c h who de-voted h i s whole l i f e to showing us that God's presence i n the world was there as the "ground" of our being. Instead of searching for t h i s "ground" Blake saw that we l i v e out our l i v e s ". . . i n f o r t u i t o u s concourse of incoherent / Discord-ant p r i n c i p l e s of Love & Hate." This i s the f e a r f u l state man finds himself i n when love i s separated from the Imagination; love i s no longer free but i s chained down by a fantasy l i f e dominated by a "Primeval Chaos." It may seem odd to the reader that I bring i n Perls who speaks not of God at a l l but i t i s apparent to me that Blake never forgets the body given to men by the Eternal Form Divine. Although Blake has said elsewhere, "Only Mental Things are Real," he i s speaking both l i t e r a l l y ("the Eye a l t e r i n g a l t e r s a l l " K426), and f i g u r a t i v e l y ; i n no sense has he ever negated the human body which our s p i r i t u a l essences inhabit. Blake was no Maniehean, h i s dictum, "Everything that l i v e s i s Holy" (K160), applies to bodily joys as well as to bodily sufferings. This would explain, i n part, the enormous importance Blake attaches to the "robes of blood" image which dominates the Luvah-Jesus concept. Any robe i s an a l l encompassing garment, that i t i s , i n the context here, a robe of blood i s not a s u r p r i s i n g image to a zoologist who can easily see i t as a vascular network pene-t r a t i n g the body i n a l l i t s areas. The heart i s the pumping organ that d i s t r i b u t e s the nourishing f l u i d of the blood stream continuously throughout l i f e and Luvah's f a l l was a sparagmos or rending away from Albion's heart. U n t i l t h i s rending i s healed there can be no reintegration of Body: Mind: Emotions. Without healing, each of the functions becomes isola t e d and attempts to act by i t s own motive power. Homeostasis i s l o s t . Blake gives an example of such d i v i s i o n i n these l i n e s : . . . they the strong scales erect That Luvah rent from the f a i n t Heart of the Fa l l e n Man, And weigh the massy [Globes del.] Cubes, then f i x them i n t h e i r awful stations. (11:142-4, K 283) 74 When scales, standard image for measurement of j u s t i c e , are separated from the heart the human i n t e g r a l i s denied. P o l -i t i c a l and cosmological imagery i s also fused into t h i s single image of Luvah rending the scales from Albion's heart. The irony here i s that Luvah i s acting l i k e Urizen did i n h i s creation of the Mundane S h e l l . J u s t i c e should i d e a l l y be administered the way Jesus administers i t seeing each case and each s i t u a t i o n for i t s own sake; to see thus into the heart, judgment can then be based on r e a l i t y . As Graham Green writes on the l a s t page of h i s novel, The Heart of the Matter, (Harmondsworth, 1 9 6 2 ) , "The Church knows a l l the rules. But i t doesn't know what goes on i n a single human heart." In Blake's myth j u s t i c e i s meted out by the r e l i g i o n that devel-oped from f a l l e n Urizen-Luvah-Orc, t h i s form of j u s t i c e no longer looks at in d i v i d u a l s but only measures the r a t i o or difference between them. In Ahania's version of Albion's f a l l ( 1 1 1 : 4 4 - 7 0 , K 2 9 2 - 3 ) two important concepts are associated: the Jesus-Luvah p r i n c i p l e and the b i r t h of a kind of spectre of Albion. The imagery i n both cases i s relevant to t h i s discussion. As the "Dark'ning Man" i s f a l l i n g , a "s o f t cloud" i n which Luvah dwells overshadows him; the Jesus p r i n c i p l e a l -though obscured i s ever present; i t p e r s i s t s , but f a l l e n man does not always recognize i t . I t does not prevent the F a l l but from Albion's "wearied i n t e l l e c t " a Shadow i s born which Blake describes i r o n i c a l l y as being, 75 "Of l i v i n g gold, pure, perfect, holyj i n white l i n e n pure he hover'd, "A sweet entrancing s e l f delusion, a wat'ry v i s i o n of Man "Soft exulting i n existence, a l l the Man absorbing. (111:51-3, K 392) Is t h i s phantasm Christ? No, i t i s a perversion of Christ symbolized by h i s "white l i n e n pure"; i t i s a fake J e s u s — a counterpart of Nobodaddy, yet i t has enormous powers, so much so that Albion i n a half slumberous dream state becomes idolatrous toward i t : "Idolatrous to h i s own Shadow, words of Eternity [ i . e . Albion] uttering; n t 0 I am nothing when I enter into judgment with thee. »»If thou withdraw thy breath I die & vanish into Hades; "' I f thou dost lay thine hand upon me, behold I am s i l e n t ; 1 , 1 I f thou withhold thine hand I perish l i k e a f a l l e n l e a f . " ' 0 I am nothing, & to nothing must return again. " ' I f thou withdraw thy breath, behold I am o b l i v i o n . ' (111:59-65, K 293) The r e p e t i t i o n of "thee," "thy," "thine," i n d i c a t e that Albion i s not, as i n another version of the F a l l ( Vila:236-41, K 326) worshipping Vala, "the l i l l y of the desart" but now worships h i s own faded i n t e l l e c t . This weakened reasoning power creates not a true r e l i g i o n but merely a concept of r e l i g i o n . This creeping Jesus concept begs to be worshipped and thus obtains power over Albion. By having power over another, one deni-grates that other, the "Human Form Divine" (K 221) becomes the human form human. The power of the Shadow and/or spectre i s a psychic force of ambivalent c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that w i l l be d i s -cussed i n chapter f i v e . 7 6 But f a l l e n Albion i s not Satan, he w i l l not be cast out. The providential aspect comes into focus, "He [Albion] ceas'd: the shadowy voice was s i l e n t , but the cloud hover*d over t h e i r heads "In golden wreathes, the sorrow Man, & the balmy drops f e l l down, "And Lo, that Son of Man, that shadowy S p i r i t of the F a l l e n One, f a i t , readg. Albion! "Luvah, descended from the cloud. In t e r r o r [Man arose, del.] Albion rose; "Indignant rose the Awful Man & turn'd his back on Vala. ( 1 1 1 : 6 6 - 7 0 , K 2 9 3 ) There i s a connection between the "robes of blood" imagery and the image of the "balmy drops" that f a l l from Luvah's cloud; one hears an echo of the b i b l i c a l balm of Gilead and drops of Jesus* s a c r i f i c i a l blood. At t h i s point i t i s only hinted that Albion i s s t i l l capable of r e j e c t i n g the i l l u s o r y world but he does not f u l l y recognize Luvah's true import; he w i l l not accept that Luvah-Jesus does descend a f t e r the balmy drops f a l l . He i s f i l l e d with prophetic dread; he sees what w i l l happen to man i n the f a l l e n world ( l . 7 2 f f . ) . The d i s t o r t i o n s of h i s diseased senses have been commented upon above (thesis, p . 2 6 ) . His g u i l t ridden self, attaches blame to Luvah whom he equates with the Satan of the Book of Job. He therefore puts f o r t h Luvah from h i s presence thus further separating the f a l l e n emotional l i f e from the weakened i n t e l l e c t . This part of the myth i s Blake*s explanation of how the C h r i s t i a n church, i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d by f a l l e n f a c u l t i e s , cursed the f i f t h sense of touch or sex and equated the emotional energy deriving from sex with s i n . The power of the spectre of Albion has been involved i n bringing t h i s about. The complexity of the Jesus-Luvah p r i n c i p l e i s em-bodied i n the symbols of cloud, Luvah, and blood. In the three references commented upon on pages f i f t y -eight and sixty-three of t h i s t h esis, the images of blood sug-gest negation but when from the cloud the balmy drops f a l l down, the state of contraries begin to operate. In the nat-u r a l order clouds are made up of water vapour but Urizen*s reign w i l l f i l l the heavens with blood. The balmy drops w i l l have to come from a combination of these two elements. The cloud symbol modulates ( 1 1 . 6 6 - 7 ) , i t becomes "golden wreathes, then "balmy drops." The central movement i s descending; Luvah i s descending; the word "gold" or "golden" i n Blake has usually p o s i t i v e suggestiveness. Luvah i s emerging by a.pro-cess of metaphorical symbolical steps. I f two aspects of Luvah are kept i n mind, the Jesus aspect and the Ore-fallen love aspect, the contrary mixture of blood and water can eas-i l y be transposed to the blood and wine symbolism of the Eucharist. A further step i n the metaphorical process i s a movement to the "wine presses of Luvah" ( i l l : 3 5 , K 292) which Harold Bloom claims are another form of Luvah's furnaces of a f f l i c t i o n ; he writes, " i n the context of temporal warfare, the wine press symbolizes enslaved energy, and the blood of Luvah streaming from i t i s a parody of the l i f e - g i v i n g blood of Albion i n the feasts of E t e r n i t y " (E, p. 871). At Apoca-lypse the wine presses w i l l be used i n reintegration. 78 Blake also attaches to the cloud symbolism such d i s -parate elements as " l i n e n clothes," " s e l f delusion," "wat'ry v i s i o n , " "wat'ry shadow"; t h i s i s a phantasm that man projects hoping thereby to create purity, holiness, and perfection but there i s something wrong with i t . I t i s too monolithic. There i s no perfection i n Blake; Eternity i s a warring state; the contraries are always operating. Therefore the blood sym-bolism must be brought i n with i t s t e r r i f y i n g implications for man. Phy s i o l o g i c a l l y man i s prepared for these implications psychologically he i s not. In a stress s i t u a t i o n the adrenal-alarm syndrome comes into play, the heart beats f a s t e r assur-i n g increased blood supply to the muscular and nervous systems automatic response to the stress s i t u a t i o n i s instantaneous. In the psychological arena man's response lags disastrously behind; i s he not perhaps more prone to remain i n h i s spectre' power than to have the enormous energy of the spectre work for him? The analogy I set up at the beginning of t h i s chapter holds true here. Blake's symbolism re blood may be likened to the physiology of cancerous versus pseudo cancerous t i s s u e s . In cancerous c e l l s there i s a blood l o s s ; i t i s the replenish-ment of blood to pseudo cancerous c e l l s that prevents t h e i r a n n i h i l a t i o n . In other words a pre-cancerous condition can be arrested by some indefinable change i n the psychological condition of the stressed animal. As stress i s lessened the 79 normal, curative r o l e of the blood comes into play and the process toward malignancy i s reversed. In Blake's myth a l l i n Urizen»s system has to be mono-l i t h i c ; a l l have to abide by Urizen's laws. Urizen sees that t h i s i s impossible because there are magnificent indefinable psychological factors at work i n each of the Zoa's psyches. The Mundane S h e l l , Urizen's attempt to l i m i t chaos and to contain a l l the errors of man, w i l l have to go, and i t does go: A crash ran thro* the immense. The bounds of Destiny were broken. The bounds of Destiny crash'd d i r e f u l , & the swelling sea Burst from i t s bonds i n whirlpools f i e r c e , roaring with Human voice, Triumphing even to the stars at bright Ahania's f a l l . (111:136-9, K. 295) Ahania, Urizen's bright emanation, has been giving her version of the F a l l i n an attempt to l u l l Urizen; she has t o l d him that since he usurped Luvah's place, the l a t t e r i s no longer any threat to him. Urizen sees through t h i s ; i t i s not as simple as Ahania puts i t . He accuses her of becoming l i k e Vala whom he blames f o r the f a l l of "active masculine v i r t u e " (116, K 295). He, l i k e Albion, senses the strength of the Luvah-Jesus p r i n c i p l e but because of hi s g u i l t ridden con-science wishes to place the blame elsewhere; he casts Ahania out. By so doing he i s throwing out the core of hi s being, he becomes an i m p o s s i b i l i t y and hi s whole world w i l l collapse. The r e s u l t of Urizen's f a l l which occurs i r o n i c a l l y by an attempt to purify his essence, i s a Noah's flood; out of "the 80 s w e l l i n g s e a " w i t h i t s " w h i r l p o o l s f i e r c e " a "Human v o i c e " i s hear d " r o a r i n g " and t r i u m p h a n t . The human v o i c e embodies t h e Luvah-Jesus p r i n c i p l e . The whole e f f e c t may be l i k e n e d t o t h e " i n n e r p s y c h i c s p r i n g " t h a t c a s t s I s h m a e l (everyman) up from t h e v o r t e x o f t h e w h i r l p o o l a t t h e end o f M e l v i l l e ' s Moby D i c k . The c r a c k i n g o f U r i z e n ' s w o r l d l e a d s t o t h e o p p o s i t e o f m o n o l i t h i c s t r u c t u r e ; i t l e a d s t o t h e s t r u g g l e between Los and h i s S p e c t r e o f Ur t h o n a . I n t h i s s t r u g g l e t h e r e a r e no r u l e s , t h e r e i s no "mathematic form" such as Newton ( i n B l a k e ' s eyes) e n v i s i o n e d , t h e i n n e r p s y c h i c f o r c e g u i d i n g i t cannot be measured any more t h a n B l a k e ' s imagery o f b l o o d and water can be measured. From t h e chaos o f Tharmas' watery w o r l d t o a U r i z e n i c w o r l d o f " o r d e r " t o t h e a p o c a l y p t i c v i s i o n o f Los's Golgonooza i s one g i a n t i m a g i n a t i v e l e a p . I n N i g h t I V B l a k e c o n c e n t r a t e s upon t h e m i s s i o n o f Los who w i l l be, t h r o u g h h i s S p e c t r e ' s power, i n s t r u m e n t a l i n r e -v e r s i n g t h e e f f e c t s o f t h e F a l l . The outcome o f t h e s t r u g g l e between t h e c o n t r a r y s t a t e s o f Los and t h e S p e c t r e o f Urthona w i l l be t h e d e t e r m i n a n t i n t h e movement toward A p o c a l y p s e . CHAPTER V The sparagmos i n Night I was a d i v i s i o n from the l o i n s of Albion; Luvah*s f a l l (Night II) was a rending of Albion's heart; i n Night I I I the d i v i s i o n was from the head, Urizen be-came an i s o l a t e d r a t i o c i n a t i n g faculty ; i ? f i n a l l y i n Night IV the imaginative s p i r i t was divided against i t s e l f . The importance Blake attached to t h i s l a s t s p l i t t i n g i s s i g n i f i e d by the prominence he gave to Urthona early i n the poem: Los was the fourth immortal starry one, & i n the Earth Of a bright Universe, Empery attended day & night, Days & nights of revolving joy. Urthona was h i s name In Eden; i n the Auricular Nerves of Human L i f e , Which i s the Earth of Eden, he h i s Emanations propagated, [Like Sons & Daughters del.] F a i r i e s of Albion, afterwards Gods of the Heathen. Daughter of Beulah, Sing His f a l l into D i v i s i o n & h i s Resurrection to Unity: His f a l l into the Generation of decay & death, & h i s Regeneration by the Resurrection from the dead. (1:14-23, K 264) Harold Bloom comments upon these l i n e s : In the unfalien world Los l i v e d i n the earth, and h i s eternal name, Urthona, may be a play on earth-owner. Then the revolv-ing earth was a movement from joy to joy, for the earth of Eden was the same as the unfalien Man's sense of hearing, the apocalyptic sense of poetry and music. In that earth of song, Urthona bred "his Emanations," . . . An emanation i s l i t e r -a l l y what comes into being from a process of creation i n which a series of effluxes flow from a creator. As a created form an emanation can be male or female or both; either way i t i s opposed to the Spectre or shadow, a baff l e d creation or r e s i -due of s e l f that has f a i l e d to emanate, to reach an outer but connected existence. The emanations of Los are h i s "Sons & 8 2 Daughters," forming f i r s t the poetic mythology of Eden ( F a i r i e s of Albion) and then the pagan Gods after the f a l l of Los, when forms of worship are abstracted from poetic tales.24 Los's f a l l was from a very great height because for Blake, the imagination or poetic genius, i s the highest of the f a c -u l t i e s . The evolution of Los as a great heroic figure i s the turning point i n the action toward Apocalypse which begins to take place i n Night IV. His struggles with h i s Spectre, i . e . the Spectre of Urthona, whom Bloom refe r s to as "the most enigmatic of Blake's mythic beings" (Apocalypse, p. 249) i s , from my point of view, the most i n t e r e s t i n g feature of the remaining Nights i n the poem. Blake's f i r s t presentation of t h i s Spectre i n t h i s Night i s an important clue to i t s meaning: A shadow blue, obscure & dismal; l i k e a statue of lead, Bent by i t s f a l l from a high tower, the dolorous shadow rose. (65-6, K 299) Bloom comments: These b r i l l i a n t l i n e s v i v i d l y present the Spectre of Urthona, the f e a r f u l ordinary ego or selfhood of f a l l e n man, a shadow of the imaginative power man once possessed. Los has yet to mature into the artist-prophet or capable imagination he i s to become, but the Spectre, who i s the burden of s e l f i n every a r t i s t , i s already a fi n i s h e d being, leaden and twisted and paradoxically cloudy (pj>. c i t . . p. 249). Bloom further comments i n the Erdman edition of Blake's works (pp. 8 7 2 - 3 ) : 8 3 The Spectre of Urthona i s possibly Blake's most o r i g i n a l invention. . . . The best commentary on him i s i n Frye [FS], pp. 292-299. Each man's Spectre of Urthona i s that part i n him that begins by fearing old age, poverty, sickness, lone-l i n e s s , and then expands to an omnipresent anxiety, a nameless dread of d e a t h - i n - l i f e , of time as an Oppressive burden d a i l y increasing i n weight. . . . The Spectre i s i r r e s o l u t e and dependent, colored dismally blue i n a parody of the color of imagination, shod and armored i n i r o n as b e f i t s a s e l f - c r i p p l e d and time-obsessed w i l l . He i s a c r i p p l e . . . but h i s strength within any a r t i s t i s a subtle and persistent r e a l i t y . Later i n t h i s chapter I w i l l r e f e r to Frye's tentative con-clusions about the Spectre of Urthona. Blake r e f e r s to t h i s Spectre twice i n Night I ( 4 3 2 , K 2 7 6 ; 5 3 0 , K 2 7 8 ) but reserves h i s description of i t t i l l Night IV, l i n e s 6 5 - 6 quoted above. I t i s important to look c a r e f u l l y at the words Blake uses i n the description. The word "blue" stands out, i t i s placed between "shadow" and "obscure & dismal." I think there i s more to Blake's choice of the word "blue" than i t s being simply a parody of the imagination as Bloom suggests. Looking at other contexts i n which Blake uses "blue" i n The Four Zoas i s somewhat informa-t i v e : Quotation Connotation Count Pasce Night Line 1 2 7 3 I 350 2 285 I I 192 3 295 II I 146 "the blue s h e l l that soon s h a l l burst away" eruption "the blue smoke r o l l e d to revive" rejuvenation "From the crash roared a flame of blue sulphureous f i r e . . . Swallowing up the h o r r i b l e din i n agony on! agony." consummation 84 4 312 VI 13 "Thou t e r r i b l e woman clad i n blue, whose strong a t t r a c t i v e power / Draws a l l into a fountain" renewal 5 312 VI 31 "Into the blue expanse" 6 341 VIII 11 "dark blue sky" 7 359 IX 97 "He l i f t s the blue lamps of h i s Eyes" rejuvenation 8 365 IX 296 "the blue walls of heaven" 9 371 IX 522 "Open the orbs of thy blue eyes & smile upon my gardens." rejuvenation LO 371 IX 531 "thy heavenly blue eyes" In counts nos. 5, 6, 8, 10, I do not f i n d any special s i g n i f i -cance other than p o s i t i v e suggestiveness as i s also to be found i n Blake's other writings such as, "blue curtains of the sky" (K 3, "Evening Star," 1. 6); "blue regions of the a i r " (K 10, "To The Muses," 1. 7); "with a blue sky spread . . ." (K 642, Jerusalem. 19:44). In the f i f t h Memorable Fancy of The Marriage of Heaven and H e l l (K 158) the word "blue" i s used to indicate an intense state of emotion: "The Angel hearing t h i s became almost blue"; t h i s i s also the case i n Jerusalem, p i . 37, K 664: "So Los apoke. But when he saw [pale altered to] blue death i n Albion's feet / Again he join'd the Divine Body, following merciful, / While Albion f l e d more indignant, revengeful covering." In plate 65 of the same poem (K 699) Luvah, i . e . C h r i s t i s being referred to when, They vote the death of Luvah & they n a i l ' d him to Albion's Tree i n Bath They stain'd him with poisonous blue, they inwove him i n cruel roots To die a death of Six thousand years bound round with vegeta-t i o n . (8-10) 85 In these l a s t three cases use of the word "blue" i s , I f e e l , very c a r e f u l l y chosen. The physiological state that i s being described i s one that goes beyond anger; i t could be c a l l e d a state of shock, p a r a l y s i s , or suppressed fury. In anger the blood i s a good healthy red colour; i n shock, p a r a l y s i s , or suppressed fury anoxia occurs. This oxygen deprivation gives the blood a bluish tinge. Blake, f r i e n d of the famous surgeon John Hunter, would most c e r t a i n l y have known t h i s . Going back to the description of the Spectre of Ur-thona as being "blue, obscure, & dismal," "blue" becomes a loaded word f i l l e d with implications. I t can s i g n i f y bound-le s s hope l i k e T. S. E l i o t ' s "Mary's colour," or i t can sug-gest obscurity, mystery, power. Perhaps i t i s not accidental that today's comic s t r i p characters Rex Morgan, super doctor, and Tarzan, super man, have blue h a i r . Possibly l i k e Samson, t h e i r strength l i e s i n t h e i r h a i r . But t h i s strength i s per-meated by shadowy mysterious forces. Forces that are also i n opposition to each other. The Spectre, although i t i s a "sha-dow" i s " l i k e a statue of lead." This would seem to be i n -congruous but i t i s t h i s incongruity that sets up the necessary tension to indicate great force. Lead i s one of the most common metals i n the earth, i t i s base i n quality, cheap, heavy, i n e l a s t i c , but p l i a b l e . In Blake's image the Spectre i s "bent by i t s f a l l from a high tower," i t i s a l l crippled up, i t s p l i a b i l i t y means that i t can be compelled or e a s i l y manipulated; i t can also be stubbornly r e s i s t a n t and act upon i t s own. 86 Night IV; opens with Tharmas who i s a mass of ambi-valences, he does not understand his feelings toward Los, Enitharmon, Enion. He i s i n a state of despair, " A l l my hope i s gone!"—despair being the l o s s of hope. Hope i s the state of the human soul that i s generally productive, i m p l i c i t i n i t i s a harmony of the soul. Hope suggests p o s s i b i l i t y of order dramatized by union of Tharmas and Enion. Tharmas i s saying, how can I f e e l love and p i t y when I don't have any hope? He, l i k e Coleridge, i s wri t i n g "Dejection: an Ode." He wants two opposing things, he wants Enion, s i g n i f y i n g l i f e and he wants oblivion^ s i g n i f y i n g death. But he looks elsewhere and not to himself f o r a solution; t h i s i n f u r i a t e s Los who, at l e a s t , i s a r e a l i s t and r e a l i z e s what they have done. The argument now i s who i s to be i n control. Tharmas i n desperation c a l l s upon "The Dark Spectre." Is he not attempting to c a l l upon some inner source of power? The dark Spectre who comes up i s not his own, but Los's. Something very important exists i n t h i s . Perhaps Tharmas cannot have access to h i s own inner power u n t i l Los's mission has been completed. Recapping b r i e f l y the struggle of contrary states i n t h i s Night, we f i r s t see ambivalent Tharmas opposing Los, he, Tharmas, wishes things were d i f f e r e n t but Los i s w i l l i n g to accept the f a l l e n world and Urizen 1s reign. Fallen Los knows he was once Urthona, "keeper of the gates of heaven," but now claims to be more powerful and says, "Urthona i s but my sha-dow." I f "shadow" here means Spectre (and Blake i s not always 87 consistent i n h i s use of these terms) i t would appear that the power the Spectre does have must have o r i g i n a l l y come from Urthona~the highest faculty. Enitharmon opposes Tharmas and blames him for the overthrow of the Urizenic world (52). Tharmas i n turn declares h i s supremacy over Urizen, "my w i l l s h a l l be my Law"; he himself w i l l now be the creator. He com-mands "the Dark Spectre" who "with dislocated Limbs had f a l l ' n , " to go fort h , to obey and l i v e . To l i v e , that i s , as best he can i n the f a l l e n world. Even though h i s bones had been splintered i n the F a l l , within the bone i s the "spungy marrow" from which osteogenesis w i l l occur. This i s the nat-ur a l process i n recovery from disease but i f the Spectre of Urthona refuses, his l o t w i l l be l i k e that of Tharmas Ts, he w i l l be ruled by "demons of despair & hope." Li v i n g i n t o t a l ambivalence w i l l give r i s e to a l l sorts of.psychosomatic i l l -nesses, "thy limbs s h a l l separate i n stench & r o t t i n g , " warns Tharmas. The Spectre has strong feelings too and w i l l not be dictated to; he reminds Tharmas that at the F a l l he, the Spectre, had seen Tharmas " r o t t i n g upon the Rocks," taking p i t y on him he had hovered over him and protected h i s "ghastly corse / From Vultures of the deep." Thus the Spectre demon-strates that even immediately aft e r h is own b i r t h ( i n t h i s case from the n o s t r i l s of Enion) he, too, has power. I t i s an a l l around b a t t l e for supremacy. Although Tharmas declares himself God (131) he d i s l i k e s the onerous r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the ro l e , "Is t h i s to be A^God? f a r rather would I be a Man / 88 To know sweet Science & to do with simple companions / S i t t i n g beneath a tent & viewing sheepfolds & soft pastures"; he gives the mission to Los to whom he says, "Take thou the hammer of Urthona: rebuild these furnaces." Again he threatens; he threatens Los with death i f he refuses his order. Like Lear he seems to l i k e the trappings of royalty but not the respons-i b i l i t y . Los i s t e r r i f i e d ; he knows that i n rebuilding U r i z -en T s ruined furnaces, i t w i l l not be, as i n the Book of Urizen, an attempt to set some l i m i t to the d i s s o l v i n g mind of Urizen, but rather to b u i l d a world of h o r r i b l e chaos, t h i s being the only kind of world that the f a l l e n Tharmas can order into being. Blake i s moving deeply into the dream fantasy element of h i s myth at t h i s point. Urizen i s sleeping i n a "stoned stupor" but i s having horrit>le nightmares that are producing some kind of power of t h e i r own; a mental transference i s taking place between hi s mind and Los's. While Los i s working to b u i l d anew the ruined furnaces he i s being compelled by a power he does not understand. Raging against Tharmas he binds Urizen by creating d i v i s i o n s of time, the seven ages of man. In doing t h i s he i s refashioning the mind i n the image of Adamic man, the only image the sundered prophet can v i s u a l -i z e as Bloom has pointed out (Apocalypse, p. 250). Gn f i r s t reading i t would appear that Los himself i s doing t h i s but looking cl o s e l y at l i n e s 170-183, one notes a peculiar transference of power. Urizen 1s nightmare " h o r r i b l e state" 8 9 causes his body f i r s t to shudder and then to freeze i n te r r o r ; semi awake he moves into a mood of "brooding contemplation" which produces "a mighty power." This i n turn a f f e c t s Los who " r o l l T d furious / His thunderous wheels from furnace to f u r -nace" around Urizen, thus binding him. Urizen, "the contem-p l a t i v e t e r r o r " i s frightened by Los*s scorn, he i s frightened with "cold i n f e c t i o u s madness." The key phrase here i s "cold i n f e c t i o u s madness," where does i t come from? Blake t e l l s us i n l i n e 1 8 3 . I t had seemed that i t was Los who was wielding the hammer, the text says so, but i t i s i n r e a l i t y Los's Spectre or "dark Urthona" who compels Los to wield i t . Power has been subtly transferred from the sky god Urizen who was o r i g i n a l l y the Prince of Light; i t has now become the diseased i n f e c t i o u s madness that the Spectre of Urthona represents at t h i s point. I t presages the madness of the dance of death that i s to come i n Night V. The Spectre has no r e a l awareness, he i s mad as Blake states over and over again: "the Spectre i s i n Every Man insane, brutish, deform Td, that I [the Spectre] am thus a ravening devouring l u s t continually craving 8Pde-vouring" (FZ 1 : 1 0 3 ) ; VII : 3 0 4 ; J 3 7 : 4 ) . The Spectre i s mad and the madness i s contagious, Los becomes demonic, he i s f i l l e d with revenge, wrath, and delight i n the cruelty h.e^is i n f l i c t -ing. The energy the Spectre possesses and transfers i s the sort of power that gives r i s e to obsessive compulsive acts. This energy i s a kind of free f l o a t i n g i d , or impersonal mass of i n t e r a c t i n g energies, which can control or be controlled by i t s possessor. 90 Margoliouth's comment on l i n e s 184-193 throws some l i g h t on the reason for Los Ts e f f o r t s : Here we have at the moment Los, Spectre, Enitharmon, Urizen, with Tharmas as a sort of compelling Destiny i n the background. Los, the unrestrained non-moral Imagination, makes use of the h o r r i b l e ghost of the creativeness of God, [the shadow/ spectre?] of which there i s something i n every man, to compel the I n t e l l e c t to a p a r t i c u l a r Weltanschauung, that of temporal succession and of the l i m i t e d human form. In so doing Los does violence to h i s own i n t u i t i o n that much i s l o s t . He i s not rebuilding Urizen's world: h i s a c t i v i t i e s make a worse one, and Enitharmon knows t h i s . He r e j o i c e s i n crushing something i n himself, eliminating some 'good* to work fo r some other •good 1. Yet at the same time he hates what he i s doing, rages 'against Tharmas hi s God 1. The r e s u l t of Los's work cannot be what Tharmas wants, for Tharmas i s backward-looking and Los forward-looking.25 In the midst of h i s demonic a c t i v i t y , Los, the "Pro-phet of E t e r n i t y " has an i n s i g h t which t e r r i f i e s him; i n worshipping a f a l s e god he sees the "Shapes / Enslav'd human-i t y put[s] on." He sees himself and what he has become, "he became what he beheld: / He became what he was doing: he was himself transform'd" (K 305). In the Spectre's power we a l l become demons. This theme i s central to Blake's myth—and to us. Our salvation, as the "Council of God on high" reveals, i s to recognize that the v e s t i g i a l image of man covered i n Luvah's robes of blood must not be l o s t ; the saving remnant of t h i s Divine V i s i o n f e l l to Los. His Spectre, instead of re-maining the burden of s e l f i n the a r t i s t , can become the com-pulsive power that makes the a r t i s t create a Golgonooza world of art that i s worth l i v i n g i n . " L i f e i s a dance and not a race," as G. K. Chesterton has said. This i s the central 91 theme of Los Ts (and of Blake's) m i s s i o n — t o warn us that while we have to l i v e i n a Urizenic world because of the F a l l , we must not allow the demonic powers of that world to compel us. I f we do, we f i n d that a l l our senses are " i n chains of the mind lock'd up" (IV:211, K 303). Blake o r i g i n a l l y intended to bring i n at t h i s point i n h i s myth the idea of the restorative function of blood as associated with Luvah's robes, but the l i n e , (Bring i n here the Globe of Blood as i n the B. of Urizen, K. 305), was deleted. Instead he presents a v i v i d picture of the dis-eased state of man when the energy of the Spectre be-comes merely muscular spasm which i f tonic wholly contracts the muscle as i n tetanus; muscle fatigue, anoxia and death follow. The spasms that seize Los are not of t h i s kind but are more l i k e the involuntary muscular twitchings as seen i n choreamania or St. Vitus dance. While Blake i s describing a pseudo dance of death by using imagery drawn from pathology he i s also preparing the reader f o r the establishment of the re-p e t i t i v e and automatic Ore cycles of history that w i l l be the main theme of Night V. Bloom explicates t h i s theme: . . . , the f i f t h Night draws us into i t s frightening theme, the cycle of i r o n i c repetitions that confines a merely organic energy, a desire that w i l l not r i s e above the natural. In these l i n e s [1-17] Los's metamorphosis into our time becomes ) complete. Blake's passion i s so black and majestic an emotion that most of h i s c r i t i c s f a l s i f y i t by evasion. The mountains are as dark and high as heaven, and as s t o n i l y deceptive. This i s the existence of man, and man indeed at h i s imagina-t i v e best; an infected, mad dance into confinement, a wither-in g up of our p o t e n t i a l . Los dances brandishing the master-9 2 l e s s hammer of Urthona, but he wields i t vainly, f o r his an v i l of c r e a t i v i t y i s cold. (Apocalypse, p. 2 5 2 ) The r e p e t i t i o n s of the cycles are i r o n i c because with each new b i r t h of Ore, enthusiasm i s at i t s height giving pro-mise of great things to come. The "cold Earth wanderers" of "The Mental T r a v e l l e r " never r e a l i z e the irony of the endless r e p e t i t i o n because t h e i r furnaces, l i k e Los's, have gone out. Man's desire w i l l never r i s e beyond the l i m i t s of his short sighted "natural" v i s i o n unless he learns to make use of the demonic power he possesses. This demonic power i s , I believe, to be found i n the Spectre of Urthona. The words "dismal" and "obscure" are key words that l i n k Blake*s description of the Spectre with Los's dance. I f the energy of the Spectre i s a kind of free f l o a t -i n g i d , i t i s worthwhile to look at the o r i g i n of t h i s term. The word i d (according to the O.E.D.) was formed i n German i n 1 8 9 1 by Weismann. I t i s defined as an ancestral germ plasm: each of the reproductive c e l l s contains i n i t s nucleus a num-ber of 'ids' and each i d represents the personality of an ancestral member of the species or of an antecedent species. Later descriptions describe the T i d s ' as chromosomes. Freud's use of the term i s somewhat d i f f e r e n t : . . . [with regard to] the elements of the psychic apparatus, . . . the c h i l d brings into the world an unorganized chaotic mentality c a l l e d the Id, the sole aim of which i s g r a t i f i c a -93 t i o n of a l l needs, the a l l e v i a t i o n of hunger, s e l f preserva-t i o n , and love, the preservation of the species. However, as the c h i l d grows older, that part of the i d which comes into contact with the environment through the senses learns to know the inexorable r e a l i t y of the outer world and becomes modified into what Freud c a l l s the ego. This ego, possessing awareness of the environment, henceforth s t r i v e s to curb the lawless i d tendencies whenever they attempt to assert themselves incom-p a t i b l y . The neurosis, as we see i t here, was, therefore, a c o n f l i c t between the ego and the i d . The ego, aware of the forces of c i v i l i z a t i o n , r e l i g i o n , and ethics, refused to allow motor discharge to the powerful sexual impulses emanating from the lawless i d , and thus blocked them from obtainment of the object towards which they aimed. The ego then defended i t s e l f by repressing them.26 I f f o r purposes of t h i s discussion we make the following equa-ti o n s : ego = Los, the i d = Spectre of Urthona; "powerful sexual impulses" = the urge toward a l l forms of c r e a t i v i t y ; "forces of c i v i l i z a t i o n " = the Urizenic world that Los (or any of us), inhabits, Blake's myth i s relevant to the world we l i v e i n . I f Los represses the Spectre there i s endless con-f l i c t within Los; i f the Spectre's energies run wild, chaos r e s u l t s and Los becomes mad. When Frye writes i n Fearful Symmetry. " i f one had to pin the conception down to a single word, one might c a l l Blake's Spectre of Urthona the w i l l " (p. 292); I agree with Frye but the obscurity i n the concept l i e s i n t r y i n g to pin down exactly where the energy of the Spectre comes from. Is i t not necessary to have some knowledge of t h i s i n order to exert the w i l l ? Does the Spectre's energy come from the germ plasm within the organism that i s passed from one generation to another as Weismann describes, or i s i t something immanent ( i n the Wordsworthian sense) i n the universe or even beyond the universe that we know? Does the 94 energy come from what Pierr e Teilhard de Chardin c a l l s the noosphere, the thinking envelope of the earth, which enters the biosphere to form a unity of mind-body function? 2^ Devel-opment of these questions l i e s beyond the scope of t h i s t h e s i s . For the present I am merely t r y i n g to point out the importance of Blake's use of the word "obscure" when he describes the Spectre of Urthona. That Los's dance was "dismal" and that the Spectre i s also "dismal" i s not coincidental. The choreamania that Los i s s u f f e r i n g from corresponds to the dancing madness which spread i n the f i f t e e n t h century from Germany throughout Europe i n epidemic proportions, i t was characterized by contortions, convulsions, and dancing. The o r i g i n and cure of h y s t e r i c a l symptoms was as much shrouded i n obscurity i n the eighteenth century as i s frequently the case today. Despite Freud and h i s great contribution to the f i e l d , modern a n a l y t i c a l psy-chiatry cannot reach the i d . Blake's attention to hysteria was probably caught by h i s reading J . G. Spurzheim's Observa-tions on the Deranged Manifestations of the Mind, or Insanity. a book Blake owned which has been l o s t according to Bentley 2 8 and Nurmi. Blake's great b a t - l i k e creature i s a symbol of c r u c i a l importance for an understanding of the Spectre of Urthona. Since the poem being discussed i s a dream of nine nights, the b a t - l i k e creature i s a dream symbol, i . e . " i t i s an image, usually a v i s u a l image, of an object, a c t i v i t y or scene; the 95 referent for the symbol i s a conception. The function of the symbol i s to express as c l e a r l y as possible the p a r t i c u l a r 29 ' . ~ conception that the dreamer has xn mind." 7 The meaning of the symbol i s understood when the referent i s brought to consciousness. Like a l l Blake's symbols, simple equations w i l l not work. There i s no b a t - l i k e creature i n The Four Zoas but there are two references to actual bats that are important to an understanding of the concept that Blake wishes to present. The f i r s t one appears i n four of the most beautiful l i n e s Blake ever wrote: The winter spread h i s wide black wings across from pole to pole: Grim f r o s t beneath & t e r r i b l e snow, l i n k ' d i n a marriage chain, Began a dismal dance. The winds around on pointed rocks Settled l i k e bats innumerable, ready to f l y abroad. (V:32-5, K 306) The "dismal dance" i s performed amidst a scene suggesting great beauty and great power. The image of winter having "wide black wings" conjures up the s i l e n t and portentuous wheeling of bats overhead. The winds are also imaged as being i n c i r c u l a r motion. These l i n e s precede the b i r t h of Ore. The themes of c i r c u l a r i t y and portentuousness predominant i n t h i s Night V are consistent with the symbols presented. The other reference i n t h i s poem i s i n l i n e 608, Night IX: The Scaly newt creeps From the stone, & the armed f l y springs from the rocky crevice, 96 The spider, the bat burst from the harden'd slime, crying To one another: "What are we & whence i s our joy & delight? Here the bat imagery i s the d i r e c t opposite to that i n the previous quotation; i t i s one of eruption and Apocalypse i s near. In the section of the poem between these two references Blake t e l l s the story of the relationship between the Spectre of Urthona and Los. I t i s a story of encasement and eruption; i t i s a story of the w i l l being chained and of the w i l l being freed. The f i r s t i n d i c a t i o n of some mysterious power a r i s i n g from f a l l e n Urthona i s found i n the l i n e s : "When dark Urthona wept i n torment.of the secret pain: "He wept & he divided & he l a i d h i s gloomy head "Down on the Rock of Eternity on darkness of the deep, "Torn by black storms & ceaseless torrents of consuming f i r e , "Within h i s breast h i s f i e r y sons chain'd down & f i l l ' d with cursings. "And breathing t e r r i b l e blood & vengeance, gnashing his teeth with pain, "Let loose the Enormous S p i r i t on the darkness of the deep. (V:53-9, K 306) The f a l l of Urthona i s being r e t o l d and since the f a l l and creation are simultaneous i n Blake, the Spectre of Urthona i s created as an "Enormous S p i r i t " that i s l e t loose "on the darkness of the deep," the "deep" being the natural waters that were once Albion's blood. 9 7 This "Enormous S p i r i t " i s a turning point i n the action and i t w i l l aid Los i n the l a t t e r f s attempt to circum-vent the r e p e t i t i o u s Ore cycles. Ore's b i r t h ( l . 6 3 ) vastly disturbs Los: Sweat & blood stood on the limbs of Los i n globes; h i s f i e r y Eyelids Faded: he rouz'd, he siez'd the wonder i n his hands & went Shuddering & weeping thro' the Gloom & down into the deeps. (V:66-8, K 3 0 7 ) Los fears establishment of the Orc-Urizen cycles which w i l l replace himself as r u l e r and bring a l l to "Eternal Death," i . e . to a state of non-entity; he i s also intensely jealous of Ore when he recognizes the Oedipal s i t u a t i o n i n which he has been placed. His only hope i s to b u i l d Golgonooza, h i s c i t y of art that w i l l give form to chaos. Urizen attempted to give form to chaos but f a i l e d . Giving form i s a p o s i t i v e act which i s consistent with the Divine Vision; by gi v i n g form one can see the t o t a l i t y of the V i s i o n . Art i s consistent with the idea of Jesus, through art and never through philosophy one understands the human divine i n t e g r a l . For Blake, understand-ing moves by means of grasping i t symbolically. The Spectre of Urthona i s the dream symbol whose psychic power comes to Los's aid both i n the b u i l d i n g of Golgonooza and i n the bind-i n g of Ore on the Tree of Mystery. In the f i r s t action Los, being compelled by the Spectre, and i n a state of "howling woe" does complete the b u i l d i n g with " p i l l a r s of iron / And brass & s i l v e r & gold f o u r f o l d " (V:73-74> K 3 0 7 ) . The a r t i s t , 98 being supplied as i t were with the tools of h i s trade, and compelled by an obsessive compulsive power does complete at l e a s t the outward form of his work. But the attempt to bind Ore i s unsuccessful, the chains of jealousy are continually reformed u n t i l they take root l i k e the branches of a banyan tree; the image suggests t o t a l encasement. Los and Enitharmon, now repentant, attempt i n vain to unchain t h e i r f i e r y , f i e r c e , r e b e l l i o u s son who has now taken on some of the characteris-t i c s of a polypus—that voraciously s e l f reproducing co-e l enterate of the sea. The parents* state i s described: . . Despair & Terror & Woe & Rage Inwrap the Parents i n cold clouds as they bend howling over The t e r r i b l e boy, t i l l f a i n t i n g by h i s side, the Parents f e l l . (V:170-2, K 309) Again the Spectre of Urthona comes to t h e i r aid, he becomes a medicine man bringing "herbs of the p i t , / Rubbing t h e i r temples, he reviv'd them." Los and Enitharmon, "Return*d back to Golgonooza, / Enitharmon on the road of Dranthon [which has some kind of p o s i t i v e association] f e l t the inmost gate / Of her bright heart burst open & again close with a deadly pain." Apocalypse i s not yet but as Night V ends the Spectre has moved into the p o s i t i o n of aiding Los i n h i s mission to b u i l d a world better than a Urizenic one. Most of Night VI deals with the negative a c t i v i t y of Urizen exploring h i s dens; his journey has been likened to Satan's i n Paradise Lost- and has long since been explicated by Dennis Saurat (Blake and Milton, Lond., 1935). 99 Toward the l a t t e r part of t h i s Night the Spectre of Urthona comes into focus. Urizen has entered the world of "Dark Urthona" (281, K 319) i r o n i c a l l y carrying with him h i s "globe of f i r e " ; i n t h i s world of darkness there i s a blackout of imaginative a c t i v i t y . Ore i s imprisoned i n i t s deadness. Bloom comments that l i n e s 33-34 contain a savage judgment of Augustan poetry and art, the imagination i s wasted down "into the d o l e f u l Vales" (E, p. 876). Los and red Ore "howling" are only b r i e f l y mentioned. The dominant figu r e i s the Spec-t r e of Urthona, now imaged i n i r o n "scaled" rather than i n p l i a b l e lead. There i s a kind of Satanic scaliness about him; he i s supported by Tharmas, hi s second i n command, who "stood i n stern defiance" beside him. As stated above I do not believe, although Harold Bloom does (E, p. 876), that the a l l i a n c e of Tharmas and the Spectre of Urthona against Urizen i n defence of Ore i s the f i r s t p o s i t i v e turn i n the poem's action. Remembering that the Spectre's power can go either way, i t i s very d i f f i c u l t to disentangle to whom i t is. attached or i f i t i s acting on i t s own. . Is Tharmas, the ordering power, making use of i t to protect the Luvah-Orc l i f e force from the s o l i d darkness or i s the Spectre, unable to act on h i s own, forced to r e l y on Thar-mas? Roles seem to be reversed as they must be i n dark Ur-thona 's night. In any event Urizen, faced by the r e v o l t of h i s own creation, i s successfully routed, he r e t i r e s "into his d i r e Web, sc a t t e r i n g fleecy snows" behind him. Yet, i n h i s 100 rout, there i s some kind of a n t i c i p a t i o n . The "Web vibrated strong, / From heaven to heaven, from globe to globe*? suggests some new creation or energy exchange. Vibrations are pulsa-tions of energy. Is i t t h i s energy from Urizen's "dire Web" that "Compulsive r o l l ' d the Comets" and threw the "Wheel im-petuous among Urthona's vales / And round red Ore; returning back to Urizen, gorg'd with blood" (320-3, K 320)? Or, has Urizen l o s t control and are other forces that he does not understand operating? There i s c e r t a i n l y a strong suggestion that energies are being recreated and are being thrown back down into "Urthona's vales." The phrase "gorg'd with blood" suggests that the Luvah-Christ p r i n c i p l e i s operating amidst t h i s complexity. Support i s given to t h i s l a s t contention i n l i n e s 10-1 3 of Night V i l a . Although Urizen has triumphed f o r the moment over Tharmas and the Spectre of Urthona, when he des-cends to Ore's cave he finds the complete opposite of what he expected to f i n d . His horses are there, not as the "horses of i n s t r u c t i o n " but as the "tygers of wrath"; his unyielding scales of j u s t i c e are here tempered by the mercy of Jesus, t h i s mercy pours holy o i l "thro' a l l the cavern'd rocks." There i s something about the bound Ore that t e r r i f i e s Urizen, Blake gives us the reason i n l i n e 151• " T e r r i f i e d Urizen heard Ore, now ce r t a i n that he was Luvah"; Ore i s a lower form of Luvah and Urizen knows that he cannot control t h i s Luvah aspect. Nevertheless, Urizen though t e r r i f i e d does not give 101 up e a s i l y : he t r i e s to absorb Ore to h i s system because he fears him; h i s ultimate imperative i s to destroy Los. He thinks that i f he can bring the f a l l e n Enitharmon's Shadow underneath h i s "wonderous tree" (113, K 3 2 3 ) , h i s Tree of Mystery and of Knowledge ( i . e . f a l s e r e l i g i o n and materialism), Los w i l l soon follow her as Adam followed Eve. The nadir of the F a l l would be reached i f Urizen accomplishing t h i s , could also compel the Spectre of Urthona to have dominion over Los. With savage irony Blake describes the Urizenic philanthropy that would ensue when a l l would be reduced to Urizen's w i l l (117-129). The speech reveals Urizen as being a thoroughly Satanic character who imposes hi s w i l l by use of the "mild a r t s " of the smooth s l i c k hypocrite. What r o l e does the Spectre of Urthona play i n Urizen's plan? Eventually he copulates with the Shadow of Enitharmon (211). Urizen brings t h i s about with great deviousness. Urizen begins with Ore whom he can control, he makes him assume a serpent form i n order to climb up the Tree of Mystery. I t i s noteworthy that Urizen does not attack Eni-tharmon d i r e c t l y , he exerts h i s control over the Shadow of Enitharmon instead. Neither w i l l he attack Los d i r e c t l y , he w i l l work on the Spectre of Urthona although his re a l enemy i s Los. Normally Urizen binds things down but here his tac-t i c s have to be d i f f e r e n t . Ore, i n serpent form, becomes the dead body of Jesus on the cross; t h i s i s what we worship i n Urizen's world. The whole thing i s a parody of the c r u c i -102 f i x i o n (the idea of which Blake abhorred). Things are turned inside out. The wine becomes poison; l i g h t becomes destruc-t i v e f i r e ; a f f e c t i o n becomes fury; thought becomes abstraction. Ore as climbing serpent becomes the "dark devourer" (156). Blake i s saying, l e t us show mankind s a c r i f i c e d on the Tree of Mystery. The Shadow of Enitharmon can be lured by the serpen-ti n e Ore simply because i t i s a shadow, i . e . the residue of suppressed desire and not the r e a l desire i t s e l f . I f we recognize and obey the l a t t e r we do not go wrong. The residue of suppressed desire i s energy used i n a perverted sense. I t i s a mental f i x a t i o n or abstraction because shadows have no i d e n t i t i e s and only occur when there i s an opaque object, i n t h i s case, Enitharmon. Urizen i s saying that i f you get hold of the perversions and l e t them take over the procreative pro-cesses you w i l l get generations of vipers instead of humans. From the copulation of the Spectre of Urthona and the Shadow of Enitharmon there w i l l be no generations of poetic geniuses. Los w i l l "Evaporate l i k e smoke & be no more" (114, K 323). A rather weird dialogue follows the copulation. The Spectre says to Enitharmon*s Shadow, do you fear Ore? did you fear h i s b i r t h — a natural one where "red flow'd the blood"? I f so, he continues, do not worry, your next joy w i l l be i n "sweet delusion." Since the Spectre can go either way, i . e . having seduced her with "the poison of sweet love" he can now comfort her. The Shadow answers that since she drank the poison (Milton*s " F r u i t / Of that Forbidden Tree"?) she cannot 1 0 3 f l y away from him even although she sees him as a " t e r r i b l e Shade" and a form "so h o r r i b l e " she would never be found being embraced by him i f she had not been drunk. Her true desire would never put up with t h i s monster but she i s only the residue of suppressed desire. In the midst of perverted thought and perverted action the Spectre speaks with some tru t h : The Spectre said: "Thou lovely Vision, t h i s d e l i g h t f u l Tree "Is given us for a shelter from the tempests of Void & S o l i d , " T i l l once again the morn of ages s h a l l renew upon us, "To reunite i n those mild f i e l d s of happy Eternity "Where thou & I i n undivided Essence walk'd about "Imbodies, thou my garden of delight & I the s p i r i t i n the garden; "Mutual there we dwelt i n one another's joy, revolving "Days of Eternity, with Tharmas mild & Luvah sweet melodious "Upon the waters. . . . (Vila: 2 6 6-275, K 3 2 6 - 7 ) The Spectre remembers the days of Eternity better than Eni-tharmon 's Shadow does. She had just given a strange account of Albion's f a l l but forgets the ending to i t . The Spectre i s reminding her of the happy times when they walked " i n undivided Essence" where she was his "garden of d e l i g h t " and he was "the s p i r i t i n the garden." The garden was the garden ready planted where desires were unrepressed and he, the Spectre, c l e a r l y i d e n t i f i e d here as the w i l l , would bring them to f r u i t i o n . Urthona's Spectre i s not an i r r a t i o n a l i d i n t h i s part of the dialogue; he i s making a great deal of sense at times. In t e l l i n g h i s own story of the f a l l of Urthona, the Spectre t e l l s how he had been "an infant t e r r o r i n the womb of 1 0 4 Enion," but that he, now aware of his separated masculine s p i r i t , had scorned her f r a i l body and "issued forth / From Enion's b r a i n " thus becoming an abstraction cut o f f from the passional l i f e . The w i l l henceforth w i l l obey the abstraction rather than the i n s t i n c t u a l emotional l i f e . This dreadful abstraction forces h i s s p i r i t , i . e . h i s w i l l , to form a male "counterpart to thee, [Shadow of Enitharmon] 0 Love, / "Dark-ened & Lost . . . poor divided Urthona" ( 2 9 3 - 6 , K 3 2 7 ) . In the Shadow of Enitharmon*s account of Albion's f a l l t o l d i n l i n e s 2 3 6 - 2 6 1 , at the moment of the F a l l separation into the sexes had also occurred, "a double form Vala appear'd, a Male / And female." Remembering that t h i s i s happening i n the spectral l i f e , i n the world of abstractions or mental f i x a t i o n s , two questions a r i s e . Is Blake's f a l l of androgynous Albion simi-l a r to Plato's myth that the o r i g i n a l egg s p l i t into male and female parts and forever a f t e r seek one another? Or, are the male and female counterparts s i m i l a r to the Jungian animus and anima, the symbolic counters i n our dream fantasies, that, when we project them onto people i n the world around us cause a l l of our sexual misunderstandings? Frieda Fordham explains Jung's terms: The anima i s expressed i n a man's l i f e not only i n projection upon women and i n creative a c t i v i t y , but i n fantasies, moods, presentiments, and emotional outbursts. An old Chinese text says that when a man wakens i n the morning heavy or i n a bad mood, that i s h i s feminine soul, h i s anima. She disturbs the attempt to concentrate by whispering absurd notions i n h i s 105 ear, s p o i l s the day by creating the vague, unpleasant sensa-t i o n that there i s something p h y s i c a l l y wrong with him, or haunts his sleep with seductive visions; and a man possessed by h i s anima i s a prey to uncontrollable emotion. The animus i n women i s the counterpart of the anima i n man. He seems to be ( l i k e the anima) derived from three roots: the c o l l e c t i v e image of man which a woman i n h e r i t s ; her own experience of masculinity coming through the contacts she makes with men i n her l i f e ; and the latent masculine p r i n c i p l e i n herself.30 This would explain the Spectre of Urthona Ts compulsion to form a male body i n order to copulate with the Shadow of Enitharmon. I t would also help to explain the s e l f c r i p p l i n g and time obsessed w i l l that Bloom f e e l s the Spectre represents (E, p. 873). But, as Bloom points out, the Spectre i s also a persistent strength i n any a r t i s t . The mating of the Spectre with the Shadow i s r e a l l y an emasculation, the o f f s p r i n g of any such mating w i l l only be "broodings" that w i l l emasculate creative a b i l i t y . The Spec-t r e had, according to his story, created a crippled Los and he, himself, can only be a "slave of that Creation I created" ( 2 9 7 ) ; he can only be a t o o l bringer to Los. Los, on the other hand, cannot create without him. Contradictory as i t may seem to be the Spectre's power i s instrumental i n turning the action toward Apocalypse. I t i s the coupling of the Spec-t r e with the Shadow of Enitharmon that brings Los to a sudden awareness of what hi s r o l e must be. The monstrous abstraction brought f o r t h by t h i s copulation i s a "wonder h o r r i b l e " (317, K 328) which t e r r i f i e s Los; t h i s "wonder h o r r i b l e " i s a re-animated form of Vala but Vala i n a more dangerous form; i t 7 1 0 6 i s the spectral form of Vala. The material universe i s bad enough i n i t s e l f to d i s t r a c t man from h i s true c r e a t i v i t y but the o f f s p r i n g of t h i s coupling i s even more horrendous because i t d i s t r a c t s man wholly from true c r e a t i v i t y . He can only be-come a genius manque' instead of a true genius. The state i s described i n Lawrence Lubie's book e n t i t l e d , The Neurotic D i s t o r t i o n of the Creative Process (Lawrence, Kansas, 1 9 6 1 ) . This spectral form of Vala who "burst the Gates of Enitharmon Ts heart with d i r e f u l Crash" i s a "Cloud" which "grew & grew / T i l l many of the Dead burst f o r t h from the bottoms of t h e i r tombs / In male forms without female counter-parts, or Emanations, / Cruel and ravening with Enmity & Hatred & War" ( 3 2 7 - 3 3 1 ) . These spectrous forms w i l l have male forms only, i . e . they w i l l only copulate with t h e i r own animae. they w i l l never be able to get beyond the projection of t h e i r own dream fantasy. The a r t i s t w i l l only be a s e l f brooding shadow who w i l l remain forever a genius manque because he has never found his own i d e n t i t y ; he cannot get beyond hi s own selfhood, therefore, h i s i n a b i l i t y to universalize h i s work w i l l be h i s downfall. Los who has not l o s t e n t i r e l y the Divine Vision because of Luvah's "robes of blood" r e a l i z e s t h i s ; he must therefore f i n d his own true i d e n t i t y by acknow-ledging the Spectre of Urthona as being part of h i s true s e l f . The change i n Los comes when, Obdurate Los f e l t P i t y . Enitharmon t o l d the t a l e Of Urthona. Los embrac'd the Spectre, f i r s t as a brother, 107 Then as another S e l f , astonish*d, humanizing & i n tears, In S e l f abasement Giving up his Domineering l u s t . (338-341, K 328) Los's insight does not come e a s i l y . He i s furious that i t was the Spectre who reminded him, "Thou never canst embrace sweet Enitharmon, t e r r i b l e Demon, T i l l "Thou art united with thy Spectre, Consummating by pains & labours "[Thy del.] That mortal body, & by Se l f a n n i h i l a t i o n back returning "To l i f e Eternal. . . . (342-345, K 328) Fury for Blake i s always a p o s i t i v e force, "The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of i n s t r u c t i o n " (MHH, K 152). The way i s now open whereby Los, by an act of w i l l , can make use of the Spectre*s enormous psychic energy. Together, They Builded Golgonooza, Los labouring [word del.] builded p i l l a r s high And Domes t e r r i f i c i n the nether heavens, for beneath Was open*d new heavens & a new Earth beneath & within, Threefold, within the brain, within the heart, within the l o i n s : A Threefold Atmosphere Sublime, continuous from Urthona's world But yet having a Limit Twofold named Satan & Adam. (378-383, K 329) The sparagmos or rending of Albion*s body w i l l thus be healed, the brain, the heart, the l o i n s w i l l resume t h e i r proper func-t i o n and w i l l no longer be at war with the imaginative powers ("Urthona*s world"). This i s to come, i t has not quite come yet at t h i s point i n Blake's myth. 1 0 8 Los and Enitharmon s t i l l have doubts but now the Spectre of Urthona as mediator comforts Los ( 3 9 7 ) and also acknowledges h i s own r e s p o n s i b i l i t y : "I am the cause "That t h i s d i r e state commences. I began the dreadful state "Of separation, & on my dark head the curse & punishment "Must f a l l unless a way be found to Ransom & Redeem. "But I have thee my [Counterpart del.] [Vegetative del.] miraculous, "These spectres have no [Counterparts d e l . ] , therefore they ravin "Without the food of l i f e . Let us Create them Coun [terparts:] "For without a Created body the Spectre i s Eternal Death." ( 4 0 3 - 4 1 0 , K 3 3 0 ) The Spectre i s acknowledging that there must be a body; a world of abstractions or mental f i x a t i o n s w i l l not do. The Spectre by i t s e l f has no l i f e of i t s own. The reiterated theme i s that there must be no dichotomy of body-mind. Bodily parts must reintegrate and operate successfully through the mental f a c u l t i e s working harmoniously together. Los then sees the v i s i o n of "Luvah's robes of blood descending to redeem," he, Los, i s able now to bring comfort to both the Spectre and to Enitharmon. He recaptures the o r i g i n a l f i r e of Urthona, ". . . look, my f i r e s enlume afresh / Before my face assemb-l i n g with delight as i n ancient times" ( 4 4 4 - 5 , K 3 3 0 ) . Urizen's plan w i l l not succeed, Los, f e e l i n g love and not hate finds h i s "Enemy Urizen now / In his hands." The union of a l l f a c u l t i e s w i l l come i n time but as Blake t e l l s us: 109 . . . This Union Was not to be Effected without Cares & Sorrows & Troubles Of s i x thousand Years of s e l f denial and [many Tears del.] of b i t t e r C o n t r i t i o n . (398-400, K 330) The millenium i s not yet. The most we can hope fo r i n t h i s Urizenic l i f e i s to create e x i s t e n t i a l l y as many times as i s possible, "a Moment i n each Day that Satan cannot f i n d . " (M: 35, K 5 2 6 ) . The choice i s ours, we are Adams, standing on the l i m i t of contraction and not of opacity as i s the case with Satan. I f we have enough insight we stand, l i k e Los, on the "Limit of Translucence," which both Frye (FS, pp. 389-92) and Bloom (E, p. 878) explicate as being the point of c r i s i s i n the f a l l e n world, where the visionary either overcomes the l i m i t a t i o n s of nature, or else sinks back, exhausted with h i s f a i l e d e f f o r t . I t i s the upper l i m i t of Beulah and from i t the way leads either up and i n to Eden or down and out to Ulro. E a r l i e r I had suggested an association between Blake's bat-winged symbol and the spectre of Urthona. Some points need c l a r i f i c a t i o n . Bat-winged imagery i n a vague and lumin-ous sense surrounds Blake's presentation of the Spectre of Urthona i n Nights IV and V (thesis, pp. 94--95). An examination of plate thirty-seven of Blake's l a s t great prophetic poem, Jerusalem, may help to throw some l i g h t upon t h i s association. The pla t e reads as follows: And One stood f o r t h from the Divine family & said: "I f e e l my Spectre r i s i n g upon me! Albion! arouze t h y s e l f ! 110 "Why dost thou thunder with frozen Spectrous wrath against us? "The Spectre i s , i n Giant Man, insane and most deform'd. "Thou w i l t c e r t a i n l y provoke my Spectre against thine i n fury! "He has a Sepulcher hewn out of Rock ready f o r thee, "And a Death of Eight thousand years, forg'd by thyself, upon "The point of h i s Spear, i f thou p e r s i s t e s t to f o r b i d with Laws "Our Emanations and to attack our secret supreme deli g h t s . " \ So Los spoke. But when he saw [pale altered to] blue death i n Albion's feet Again he join'd the Divine Body, following merciful, While Albion f l e d . . . (K 664) Blake's i l l u s t r a t i o n 0 shows a pterodactyl l i k e creature hov-ering over the prone body of "Giant Man" (Albion) who i s reposing on and almost merging into the Rock of Ages or Stone of Night. Bloom comments that t h i s i s the Spectre of Urizen or Satan, "who must be distinguished from the Spectre of Urthona. In Jerusalem. Satan i s Albion's Spectre, while the Spectre of Urthona i s the shadow-self of Los or Blake" (E, p. 851). John Middleton Murry had e a r l i e r commented that i n The Four Zoas. VII, 332-337 and VII, 338-356, "the Spectre of Urthona i s hardly to be distinguished from Urizen, . . . [ i t ] i s thus an a l t e r n a t i v e form of Urizen." 0 Examination of the pterodactyl l i k e creature suggests some i n t e r e s t i n g features. F i r s t , Pterodactvla are a f o s s i l order of f l y i n g r e p t i l e s which have many analogies i n structure with birds, but are independently developed although both birds and pterodactyls evolved from the same group of non-flying r e p t i l e s . In Blake's i l l u s t r a t i o n the creature's head and stout neck are elongated l i k e a pterodactyl's while i t s ribbed membranous I l l wings are more bat l i k e . The most s t r i k i n g feature however i s the p a i r of p i e r c i n g and wide opened eyes that are most un-bat l i k e . I t would appear that Blake has combined i n t h i s v i s u a l image several concepts. P i e r c i n g insight suggests the Spectre of Urthona which was not far from Blake*s mind when he wrote the l i n e s f o r the plate (Los: "I f e e l my Spectre r i s -i n g upon me!"); the a l t e r a t i o n of the word "pale" to "blue" death i s s i g n i f i c a n t i n the l i g h t of what I have said above regarding the i n i t i a l description of t h i s Spectre. I f the p t e r o d a c t y l - l i k e creature symbolizes both the Spectre of Urizen and of Albion and ultimately Satan himself, i t i s useful to examine Blake's i l l u s t r a t i o n of Satan i n the Dante Inferno. Dante, describing Satan i n Canto XXXIV, writes: Under each Efface of Satan] there issued f o r t h two mighty wings, of s i z e b e f i t t i n g such a b i r d : s e a - s a i l s I never saw so broad. No plumes had they; but were i n form and ,, texture l i k e a bat's: and he was flapping them. . . In Blake's i l l u s t r a t i o n , Satan's wings are heavy, membranous, and b a t - l i k e ; they are more b a t - l i k e i n appearance than the "angelic" wings that he, Blake, gives to Lucifer i n h i s i l l u s t r a t i o n s to Milton's Paradise Lost.35 Kathleen Raine states f l a t l y , "Bat-wings, i n Blake's symbolism, belong to Satan and h i s kingdom (Nature)." The comment i s made i n connection with the bat-winged female g e n i t a l i a — " T h e gates of the g r a v e " — i l l u s t r a t e d on plate f i f t y - e i g h t of Blake's Jerusalem. Is Blake being i r o n i c here 112 or i s the gate of b i r t h "hideous and bat-winged" because i t ushers i n "Platonic d e a t h - i n - l i f e " as Raine suggests? 0^ In any case Blake's use of the bat-winged figure i s a powerfully suggestive modulating symbol. The question remains, does the power the symbol represents come from the sort of energy Urthona's Spectre possesses or does i t come from Satan — o r from both? Is there some s i m i l a r i t y to the mana that people of the South Seas believe to be an immanent power i n the universe that has no w i l l of i t s own but can be used f o r bad or for good purposes? Mana i s not easy to define because i t i s a psychic energy with dynamic potency; i t i s not fi x e d i n anything but capable of being conveyed i n almost everything. Spirits could have i t and impart i t , men too might harbour i t , but even stones, s t i c k s , and other inanimate objects might possess it.37 Blake's "To see a World i n a Grain of Sand" (K 431) comes to mind, his visionary power that enabled him to see t h i s came from some combination of these psychic forces. That psychic power was believed by primitive man to come from blood may have had something to do with Blake's choice of a b a t - l i k e creature, i . e . a blood sucker, to represent one of hi s most basic concepts—the contrary states of good and e v i l that exist i n our f a l l e n world. When sparagmos took place at the F a l l Albion's blood was s p i l t and became a deluge of the natural waters of our world without which no l i v i n g c e l l can e x i s t . Thus the " d e l -uge" of Albion's blood qua water was not t o t a l catastrophe. 113 As when Adam and Eve l e f t t h e Garden o f Eden a t t h e end o f P a r a d i s e L o s t , M i l t o n t e l l s us t h a t a n o t h e r w o r l d , "A p a r a d i s e w i t h i n . . . h a p p i e r f a r " was opened t o us. I n B l a k e ' s myth t h e c r e a t i o n was a l s o an o p p o r t u n i t y p r o v i d e d we do not remain i n t h e " V a l e s o f H a r " ( i . e . memory and f a n t a s y ) . I f by impos-i n g upon t h e n a t u r a l u n i v e r s e our r e i n t e g r a t e d i m a g i n a t i o n s we r e c r e a t e a Golgonooza w o r l d we can a t t a i n t h e i n s i g h t B l a k e a t t a i n e d when he s a i d , " E v e r y t h i n g t h a t l i v e s i s H o l y . " A l b i o n ' s b l o o d i s r e g e n e r a t i v e as i s h i s f l e s h w hich i s n o u r -i s h e d by i t . H i s f a l l e n , m u t i l a t e d f l e s h l y body need n o t l i v e i n a s t a t e o f d i s - e a s e d , d i s p a r a t e , d i s c o r d a n t p a r t i c l e s o f s o l i d opaque m a t t e r ; i t can become t r a n s l u c e n t whereby t h e p a r t s work h a r m o n i o u s l y t o g e t h e r , each meshing w i t h t h e o t h e r i n p e r f e c t harmony. The mind-body dichotomy can be broken down and t h e whole become t h e i n t r i c a t e , f i n e l y p e r f e c t e d i n s t r u m e n t t h a t i t was meant t o be. T h i s i s p o s s i b l e when t h e D i v i n e V i s i o n s y m b o l i z e d by Luvah's "robes o f b l o o d " becomes our v i s i o n ; t h e sparagmos w i l l be made whole a g a i n , b o t h o r g a n i c a l l y and p s y c h i c a l l y . B l a k e ' s u se o f imagery d e p i c t i n g t h e d e g e n e r a t i v e b i o l o g i c a l s t a t e s r e s u l t i n g from t h e sparagmos i s an a i d i n t h e i l l u m i n a t i o n and c l a r i f i c a t i o n o f B l a k e ' s V i s i o n . FOOTNOTES William Blake, "The Four Zoas." c i t e d i n The Complete Writings of William Blake with Variant Readings, ed. Geoffrey Keynes, Lond., 1966, p. 263. A l l quotations and references to Blake's own works, unless otherwise stated, are from t h i s e d i -t i o n ; page references are preceded by the l e t t e r K; plate and l i n e number are given when appropriate. Abbreviations f o r Blake's and other author's works are given i n my "Notes to the Text." Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake. Boston, 1965, p. 46. ( T i t l e of t h i s text w i l l be abbreviated hereinafter to FS.) ^Material i n t h i s and the subsequent paragraph has been drawn from Frye, FS, pp. 12, 25. 4R. F. Gleckner, "Point of View and Context i n Blake's Songs," c i t e d i n English Romantic Poets, ed. M. H. Abrams, New York, I 9 6 0 , pp. 68-75. ^ i l l iam Blake, Jerusalem. A color Facsimile of the Illuminated Book, London, 1951, p i . 37. S. Foster Damon, William Blake, Gloucester, Mass., 1958, p. 318. ^C. G. Jung c i t e d i n An Introduction to Jung's Psy-chology, by Frieda Fordham, (Harmondsworth, 1963, p. 35)s "Jung considers there are four functions which we use for orien t a t i o n within and without, sensation which i s perception through our senses; thinking which gives meaning and under-standing; f e e l i n g , which weighs and values; and i n t u i t i o n , which t e l l s us of future p o s s i b i l i t i e s and gives us informa-t i o n of the atmosphere which surrounds a l l experience." In Psychological Types, p. 568, Jung says, " I n t u i t i o n i s percep-t i o n v i a the "unconscious." (Fordham's footnote 1, p. 35.) o °Harold Bloom, "Commentary," c i t e d i n The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. D. V. Erdman, New York, 1965, p. 869. (References to t h i s text w i l l be indicated by the l e t t e r E preceding pagination.) 9 J . McGahan, "The Ecology of the Golden Eagle," c i t e d i n Auk, Vol. 85, Jan., 1968, pp. 1-12 (see p. 1 ) . ^^Mircea Eliade, Myths. Dreams and Mysteries. New York, 1967, p. 15. 115 1 1 S . Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary. Providence, R.I., 1965, p. 309. l 2 B l a k e ' s version of the A t l a n t i s legend i s given on plate 10 of t h i s poem. 1 3 P e t e r Fisher, The Valley of Vision. Toronto, 1961, p. 232. 1 % a rren Stevenson, Divine Analogy: A Study of the Creation Motif i n Blake and Coleridge, chap. IV (work i n progress). •^Frederick s. Perls, Ego, Hunger and Aggression. New York, 1969, pp. 107-111. l 6Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry. Boston, 1965, p. 281. •^Carmen Kreiter, "Evolution and William Blake," c i t e d i n Studies i n Romanticism. Vol. 5, #1> May, 1965, pp. 110-8. •^Northrop Frye, "Notes f o r a Commentary on Milton." c i t e d i n The Divine Vision, ed. V. de S. Pinto, Lond., 1957, p. 110. 1 9 J o h n Beer, Blake's Humanism. New York, 1968, p. 2 2 8 . 2 0Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture. New York, 1969, p. 55. 2 1Northrop Frye, c i t e d i n Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. Northrop Frye, New York, 1953, p. xxiv. 2 2 F r e d e r i c k S. Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, Lafayette, C a l i f . , 1969, p. 2. 23H azard Adams, Blake and Yeats, Lawrence, Kansas, 1958. 2 % a r o l d Bloom, Blake's Apocalypse: A Study i n Poetic Argument, New York, 1965, pp. 209-10. 25H. M. Margoliouth, William Blake's Vala. Oxford, 1956, p. 120. 2^Sigmund Freud, The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. trans. & ed. with i n t r o d . by Dr. A. A. B r i l l , New York, 1938, p. 12. 2 ^ P i e r r e Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man. New York, 1959, p. 182. 116 2^G. E. Bentley, J r . , and Martin K. Nurmi, A Blake Bibliography. Minneapolis, 1964, p. 209. 2 9 C a l v i n S. H a l l , "A Cognitive Theory of Dream Sym-bols," c i t e d i n Psychopathology: A Source Book, eds. C. F. Reed, I. E. Alexander, S. S. Tomkins, New York, 1964, p. 264. ^ F r i e d a Fordham, op. c i t . . p. 55. Keynes, A Study of the Illuminated Books of William Blake. Poet:Printer:Prophet. New York, 1964, p i . 37. 3 2John Middleton Murry, William Blake. New York, 1964, P. 162. 33oante A l i g h i e r i , The Inferno of Dante A l i g h i e r i . Lond., 1919, p. 385. ^^William Blake, I l l u s t r a t i o n s to the Divine Comedy of Dante. Lond., 1922, p i . 69. 35John Milton, Paradise Lost. c i t e d i n The Catalogue of William Blake's Drawings & Paintings i n the Huntington Library. San Marino, 1963, p i s . IV, V, VI. ^6 * Kathleen Raine, Blake and T r a d i t i o n . 2 vols., Princeton, 1968, v o l . I, p. 234. 37i n f o r m a t i o n on mana has come from R. H. Codrington, "Mana," c i t e d i n Reader i n Comparative Religion; An Anthropo-l o g i c a l Approach, eds. W. A. Lessa, & Evan Z. Vogt, New York, 1965, P. 253. NOTES TO THE TEXT Abbreviations for Blake's Works A - A m e r i c a M - The Book a£ Urizen E - Europe £Z - TJis F o u r Zoas j . - J e r u s a l e m MHH - The M a r r i a g e of Heaven a nd H e l l M - MjltQP VLJ - A Vision of The Last Judgement A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Hazard. Blake and Yeats: The Contrary V i s i o n. Ithaca, 1954. A l i g h i e r i , Dante. The Inferno of Dante A l i g h i e r e . London, 1919. Beer, John. Blake's Humanism. New York, 1968. Bentley, G. E. and Nurmi, Martin K. A Blake Bibliography: Annotated L i s t s of Works. Studies, and Blakeana. Minneapolis, 1964. Berger, P i e r r e . William Blake. New York, 1915. Blackstone, Bernard. English Blake. Cambridge, 1949. Blake, William. The Complete Writings of William Blake with Variant Readings. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. London, 1966. . Selected Poetry and Prose. Ed. Northrop Frye. New York, 1953. . The Prophetic Writings of William Blake. Eds. D. J . Sloss and J . P. R. Wallis. Oxford, 1957, 2 vols. . Jerusalem. A color Facsimile of The I l l u s t r a t e d Book. London, 1951. . I l l u s t r a t i o n s to the Divine Comedy of Dante. London, 1922. . The Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Ed. D. V. Erdman. New York, 1965. Bloom, Harold. Blake's Apocalypse: A Study i n Poetic Argument. New York, 1965. Bronowski, Jacob. William Blake. 1757-1827: A Man Without A Mask. Harmondsworth, 1954. Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de. The Phenomenon of Man. New York, 1959. Codrington, R. H. "MANA," Reader i n Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach. Eds. W. A. Lessa and Evan Z. Vogt. New York, 1965. 119 Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake. Providence, R. I., 1965. . William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols. Gloucester, Mass., 1958. Digby, G. W. Symbol and Image i n William Blake. Oxford, 1957. Emery, Clark. William Blake: The Book of Urizen. Miami, 1966. Fisher, Peter. The Valley of Vision. Ed. Northrop Frye. Toronto, 1961. Fordham, Frieda. An Introduction to Jung's Psychology. Harmondsworth, 1963. Freud, Sigmund. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. Trans, and ed. Dr. A. A. B r i l l . New York, 1938. Frye, Northrop. Fearful Symmetry. Boston, 1947. • Fables of Identity. New York, 1963. . A C o l l e c t i o n of C r i t i c a l Essays. Englewood C l i f f s , N. J . , 1966. . "Notes f o r a Commentary on Milton." Cited i n The Divine Vision. Ed. V. de Sola Pinto. London, 1957, pp. 99-137. G i l c h r i s t , Alexander. L i f e of William Blake. London, 2 vols. Gleckner, R. F. The Piper and the Bard. Detroit, 1959. . "Point of View and Context i n Blake's Songs." Cited i n English Romantic Poets. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York, I 9 6 0 . Grant, John E. Ed. Discussions of William Blake. Boston, 1961. Green, Graham. The Heart of the Matter. Harmondsworth, 1962. H a l l , Calvin S. "A Cognitive Theory of Dream Symbols." Cited i n Psvchopathology: A Source Book. Eds. C. F. Reed, I. E. Alexander, S. S. Tomkins. New York, 1964. Harper, George M i l l s . The Neoplatonism of William Blake. Chapel H i l l , 1961. . "Apocalyptic V i s i o n and Pastoral Dream i n Blake's Four Zoas." SAO. Winter, 1965, Vol. LXIV, #1, pp. 110^-124. • ''-'^^-^ 120 Kenner, Hugh. The Art of Poetry. New York, 1965. Keynes, Geoffrey. A Study of the Illuminated Books of William Blake. Poet: Printer: Prophet. New York, 1964. K r e i t e r , Carmen. "Evolution and William Blake." Cited i n Studies i n Romanticism. Vol. 5, #1, May 1965, pp. 110-8. Kubie, Lawrence S, Neurotic D i s t o r t i o n of the Creative Process. Lawrence, Kansas, 1961. Manheim, Ralph, trans. Complex/Archetvpe/Svmbol i n the Psychology of C. G. Jung. Bollingon Series LVII, Princeton, 1959. Margoliouth, H. M. William Blake's Vala. Oxford, 1956. McGahan, J . "The Ecology of the Golden Eagle," Cited i n Auk. Vol. 85, Jan., 1968, pp. 1-12. M e l v i l l e , Herman. Moby-Dick. Eds H. Hayford and Hershel Parker. New York, 1967. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Cited i n The Catalogue of William Blake 1s Drawings & Paintings i n the Huntington Library. San Marino, 1963. Murry,, John Middleton. William Blake. New York, 1964. Perls, F. S. Ego. Hunger and Aggression. New York, 1969. . Gestalt Therapy Verbatim. Lafayette, 1969. Pinto, V. de Sola, ed. The Divine V i s i o n : Studies i n The Poetry and Art of William Blake. London, 1957. Plowman, Max. An Introduction to the Study of Blake. London, 1952. Raine, Kathleen. Blake and T r a d i t i o n . 2 vols. Princeton, 1968. Roszak, Theodore. The Making of a Counter Culture. New York, 1969. Saurat, Dennis. Blake and Milton. London, 1935. Schorer, Mark. William Blake: The P o l i t i c s of V i s i o n . New York, 1959. Spurzheim, J . G. Observations on the Deranged Manifestations of the Mind. or Insanity. London, 1817. 121 Stevenson, Warren. Divine Analogy: A Study of the Creation Motif i n Blake and Coleridge. (Work i n progress.) Wicksteed, Joseph. Blake's Innocence and Experience. Toronto, 1928. Wilson, Mona. The L i f e of William Blake. London,1927. Witcutt, W. P. Blake; A Psychological Study. New York, 1966. Wright, Thomas. The L i f e of William Blake. 2 vols. Olney, Bucks., 1929.