MINUTE PARTICULARS

From William Blake's Jerusalem: Plate 91

"He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the
    midst
Jesus will appear; so he who wishes to see a Vision; a perfect
    Whole       
Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou
O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized
And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War
You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of benevolence & virtue!
I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time:
You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you
May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law:
And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular.
But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every
Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus.    

So Los cried at his Anvil in the horrible darkness weeping!"

Looking at this passage as a whole, we look into a conundrum. Part of
the problem is that if we try to apply it to others, we are either
fault-finding or projecting. If we apply it to ourselves, we are Jungians.

Let's take it one section at a time.

 "He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children
  One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine Family, & in the midst
  Jesus will appear;"

This path to Jesus may be thought of as the path through 'innocence'.
It is direct and uncomplicated but not open to many of us. It is the way
of participating in the creative process through immersion in God's
love.

The following lines suggest a more complex process of achieving
wholeness. It involves altering consciousness and breaking down the
patterns that dominate our thinking. Blake is looking deep into the
human psyche:

"o he who wishes to see a  Vision; a perfect Whole
  Must see it in its Minute Particulars; Organized & not as thou
  O Fiend of Righteousness pretendest; thine is a Disorganized
  And snowy cloud: brooder of tempests & destructive War"

He focuses our attention on the processes through which we organize
people, places, things, ideas or whatever, convincing ourselves that it
is the right way, the only way. Perceiving reality in the wrong way
(materialistically and legalistically) gives a clouded, distorted picture
which leads to anger and destructiveness.

"You smile with pomp & rigor: you talk of  benevolence & virtue!
  I act with benevolence & virtue & get murderd time after time:"

Then he talks of hiding behind the persona and failing to connect with
the 'real' in others thereby taking the life from them and from ourselves.

"You accumulate Particulars, & murder by analyzing, that you
  May take the aggregate; & you call the aggregate Moral Law:
  And you call that Swelld & bloated Form; a Minute Particular."

He points out the errors of living in the mind and constructing
further defenses against the 'real' (spiritual) world, leading to a
confusion of categories.

 "But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars: & every
 Particular is a Man; a Divine Member of the Divine Jesus."

Now he reaches the level of integration: SEEING the Divine Image in
all, including within ourselves. This is Blake's reply to his implied
question of how to 'see a Vision, a Perfect whole.'

 "So Los cried at his Anvil in the horrible darkness weeping!"

Los is undergoing this process himself and watching with anguish
as humanity is remolded and reborn.

Jesus as the healer: The Raising of Lazarus