.
Perhaps it is inevitable that archetypal images appear in many settings with varied associations. The archetype of the shepherd and the sheep fits that description. In Blake the shepherd recurs as a metaphor for more than one of his characters; for instance, Tharmas is the shepherd, just as Urthona is the blacksmith, Urizen is the plowman and Luvah is the weaver. The ram, and the lion also appear as protectors of the fold the role usually assigned to the shepherd.
In Night Nine of the Four Zoas which is a culmination of the myth of the fall and division of Albion and his redemption and reunification, there is a passage amidst some of his loveliest poetic images, of the ram in that protective role. This passage deals not with Tharmas but with Luvah and his emanation Vala.
Plate 128.25-27
"So spoke the Sinless Soul & laid her head on the downy fleece
Of a curld Ram who stretchd himself in sleep beside his mistress
And soft sleep fell upon her eyelids in the silent noon of day"
For more of the passage in the Four Zoas click below.
4z's Night Nine go to 126.36, page 396
The poetic image of Vala asleep beside the ram recalls a visual image from America, A Prophecy, a scene of great peace and pastoral beauty. This image is ironically in the midst of an account of outbreak of revolution, the activity of Orc who is best known as Los's son.
Click below for links to the picture.
Asleep Beside the Ram
or
try this one.
This brings us to the poem from which Larry named this blog. In a letter to his friend Thomas Butts, Blake enclosed a poem know as 'My First Vision of Light.'
" ...And I heard his voice Mild
Saying This is My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold
Who awakest from sleep
On the sides of the Deep
On the Mountains around
The roarings resound
Of the lion & wolf
The loud sea & deep gulf
These are guards of My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold"
Here Blake himself becomes the 'Ram hornd with Gold' and identifies his 'fold' and the protective elements around it. It is a transforming experience for him, encouraging him to overcome the temptation to write for a popular audience and henceforth to speak only from the internal, eternal Imagination.
Letter to Thomas Butts
Saturday, October 3, 2009
WHY RAM HORN'D?
.
Perhaps it is inevitable that archetypal images appear in many settings with varied associations. The archetype of the shepherd and the sheep fits that description. In Blake the shepherd recurs as a metaphor for more than one of his characters; for instance, Tharmas is the shepherd, just as Urthona is the blacksmith, Urizen is the plowman and Luvah is the weaver. The ram, and the lion also appear as protectors of the fold the role usually assigned to the shepherd.
In Night Nine of the Four Zoas which is a culmination of the myth of the fall and division of Albion and his redemption and reunification, there is a passage amidst some of his loveliest poetic images, of the ram in that protective role. This passage deals not with Tharmas but with Luvah and his emanation Vala.
Plate 128.25-27
"So spoke the Sinless Soul & laid her head on the downy fleece
Of a curld Ram who stretchd himself in sleep beside his mistress
And soft sleep fell upon her eyelids in the silent noon of day"
For more of the passage in the Four Zoas click below.
4z's Night Nine go to 126.36, page 396
The poetic image of Vala asleep beside the ram recalls a visual image from America, A Prophecy, a scene of great peace and pastoral beauty. This image is ironically in the midst of an account of outbreak of revolution, the activity of Orc who is best known as Los's son.
Click below for links to the picture.
Asleep Beside the Ram
or
try this one.
This brings us to the poem from which Larry named this blog. In a letter to his friend Thomas Butts, Blake enclosed a poem know as 'My First Vision of Light.'
" ...And I heard his voice Mild
Saying This is My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold
Who awakest from sleep
On the sides of the Deep
On the Mountains around
The roarings resound
Of the lion & wolf
The loud sea & deep gulf
These are guards of My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold"
Here Blake himself becomes the 'Ram hornd with Gold' and identifies his 'fold' and the protective elements around it. It is a transforming experience for him, encouraging him to overcome the temptation to write for a popular audience and henceforth to speak only from the internal, eternal Imagination.
Letter to Thomas Butts
Perhaps it is inevitable that archetypal images appear in many settings with varied associations. The archetype of the shepherd and the sheep fits that description. In Blake the shepherd recurs as a metaphor for more than one of his characters; for instance, Tharmas is the shepherd, just as Urthona is the blacksmith, Urizen is the plowman and Luvah is the weaver. The ram, and the lion also appear as protectors of the fold the role usually assigned to the shepherd.
In Night Nine of the Four Zoas which is a culmination of the myth of the fall and division of Albion and his redemption and reunification, there is a passage amidst some of his loveliest poetic images, of the ram in that protective role. This passage deals not with Tharmas but with Luvah and his emanation Vala.
Plate 128.25-27
"So spoke the Sinless Soul & laid her head on the downy fleece
Of a curld Ram who stretchd himself in sleep beside his mistress
And soft sleep fell upon her eyelids in the silent noon of day"
For more of the passage in the Four Zoas click below.
4z's Night Nine go to 126.36, page 396
The poetic image of Vala asleep beside the ram recalls a visual image from America, A Prophecy, a scene of great peace and pastoral beauty. This image is ironically in the midst of an account of outbreak of revolution, the activity of Orc who is best known as Los's son.
Click below for links to the picture.
Asleep Beside the Ram
or
try this one.
This brings us to the poem from which Larry named this blog. In a letter to his friend Thomas Butts, Blake enclosed a poem know as 'My First Vision of Light.'
" ...And I heard his voice Mild
Saying This is My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold
Who awakest from sleep
On the sides of the Deep
On the Mountains around
The roarings resound
Of the lion & wolf
The loud sea & deep gulf
These are guards of My Fold
O thou Ram hornd with gold"
Here Blake himself becomes the 'Ram hornd with Gold' and identifies his 'fold' and the protective elements around it. It is a transforming experience for him, encouraging him to overcome the temptation to write for a popular audience and henceforth to speak only from the internal, eternal Imagination.
Letter to Thomas Butts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Dark Satanic Mills
The famous hymn called 'Jerusalem' is found in the Preface of Blake's poem Milton:
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land."
From Little Black Boy in Songs of Innocence we read "To learn in joy upon our fathers knee."
"Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets."
(Numbers ch 11, verse 29)
Like most of what Blake wrote 'Satanic Mills has more
than one meaning. The most obvious one might be the
monuments to the Industrial Revolution that took
thousands of landless, homeless peasants and paid them
a pittance to work 16 hours a day at a deadening,
repetitive task.
That happened not just to adults but to very young
children. Charles Dickens novels gives a taste of that
outrage, and it was echoed as late as the mid 20th
century in furniture and garment factories in this
country.
More basic to Blake's spiritual and psychological
orientation was the sense in which it was applied in
the last post: "the same dull round", applicable to the
essentially meaningless lives that millions of people
live.
They may or may not go to essentially meaningless
churches (or taverns) in search of something made
inaccessible to them by the deadening atmosphere of the
schools they attended.
At the end of Chapter Three of Jerusalem (Plate 76;
E230-31) Blake imagined the horrible reality of a
return to the beginning of history at its end:
"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down
continually That not one Moment of Time be lost & every
revolution Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola &
Cathedron.
And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their
Churches Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; these are the Giants mighty,
Hermaphroditic Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the Second,
Salah, Heber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah: these
are the Female Males: A Male within a Female hid as in
an Ark & Curtains. Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul,
Constantine, Charlemaine, Luther. these Seven are the
Male Females: the Dragon Forms The Female hid within a
Male: thus Rahab is reveald Mystery Babylon the Great:
the Abomination of Desolation
Religion hid in War: a Dragon red, & hidden Harlot
But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death &
Hell Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in
Mercy
Thus are the Heavens formd by Los within the Mundane
Shell And where Luther ends Adam begins again in
Eternal Circle...."
"where Luther ends Adam begins" expressing the
fear that there will be only 'another dull round' of
history..
But Blake saw a happier outcome as you find portrayed at
the ends of The Four Zoas and Jerusalem.
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land."
From Little Black Boy in Songs of Innocence we read "To learn in joy upon our fathers knee."
"Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets."
(Numbers ch 11, verse 29)
Like most of what Blake wrote 'Satanic Mills has more
than one meaning. The most obvious one might be the
monuments to the Industrial Revolution that took
thousands of landless, homeless peasants and paid them
a pittance to work 16 hours a day at a deadening,
repetitive task.
That happened not just to adults but to very young
children. Charles Dickens novels gives a taste of that
outrage, and it was echoed as late as the mid 20th
century in furniture and garment factories in this
country.
More basic to Blake's spiritual and psychological
orientation was the sense in which it was applied in
the last post: "the same dull round", applicable to the
essentially meaningless lives that millions of people
live.
They may or may not go to essentially meaningless
churches (or taverns) in search of something made
inaccessible to them by the deadening atmosphere of the
schools they attended.
At the end of Chapter Three of Jerusalem (Plate 76;
E230-31) Blake imagined the horrible reality of a
return to the beginning of history at its end:
"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down
continually That not one Moment of Time be lost & every
revolution Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola &
Cathedron.
And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their
Churches Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; these are the Giants mighty,
Hermaphroditic Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the Second,
Salah, Heber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah: these
are the Female Males: A Male within a Female hid as in
an Ark & Curtains. Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul,
Constantine, Charlemaine, Luther. these Seven are the
Male Females: the Dragon Forms The Female hid within a
Male: thus Rahab is reveald Mystery Babylon the Great:
the Abomination of Desolation
Religion hid in War: a Dragon red, & hidden Harlot
But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death &
Hell Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in
Mercy
Thus are the Heavens formd by Los within the Mundane
Shell And where Luther ends Adam begins again in
Eternal Circle...."
"where Luther ends Adam begins" expressing the
fear that there will be only 'another dull round' of
history..
But Blake saw a happier outcome as you find portrayed at
the ends of The Four Zoas and Jerusalem.
Dark Satanic Mills
The famous hymn called 'Jerusalem' is found in the Preface of Blake's poem Milton:
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land."
From Little Black Boy in Songs of Innocence we read "To learn in joy upon our fathers knee."
"Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets."
(Numbers ch 11, verse 29)
Like most of what Blake wrote 'Satanic Mills has more
than one meaning. The most obvious one might be the
monuments to the Industrial Revolution that took
thousands of landless, homeless peasants and paid them
a pittance to work 16 hours a day at a deadening,
repetitive task.
That happened not just to adults but to very young
children. Charles Dickens novels gives a taste of that
outrage, and it was echoed as late as the mid 20th
century in furniture and garment factories in this
country.
More basic to Blake's spiritual and psychological
orientation was the sense in which it was applied in
the last post: "the same dull round", applicable to the
essentially meaningless lives that millions of people
live.
They may or may not go to essentially meaningless
churches (or taverns) in search of something made
inaccessible to them by the deadening atmosphere of the
schools they attended.
At the end of Chapter Three of Jerusalem (Plate 76;
E230-31) Blake imagined the horrible reality of a
return to the beginning of history at its end:
"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down
continually That not one Moment of Time be lost & every
revolution Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola &
Cathedron.
And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their
Churches Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; these are the Giants mighty,
Hermaphroditic Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the Second,
Salah, Heber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah: these
are the Female Males: A Male within a Female hid as in
an Ark & Curtains. Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul,
Constantine, Charlemaine, Luther. these Seven are the
Male Females: the Dragon Forms The Female hid within a
Male: thus Rahab is reveald Mystery Babylon the Great:
the Abomination of Desolation
Religion hid in War: a Dragon red, & hidden Harlot
But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death &
Hell Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in
Mercy
Thus are the Heavens formd by Los within the Mundane
Shell And where Luther ends Adam begins again in
Eternal Circle...."
"where Luther ends Adam begins" expressing the
fear that there will be only 'another dull round' of
history..
But Blake saw a happier outcome as you find portrayed at
the ends of The Four Zoas and Jerusalem.
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land."
From Little Black Boy in Songs of Innocence we read "To learn in joy upon our fathers knee."
"Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets."
(Numbers ch 11, verse 29)
Like most of what Blake wrote 'Satanic Mills has more
than one meaning. The most obvious one might be the
monuments to the Industrial Revolution that took
thousands of landless, homeless peasants and paid them
a pittance to work 16 hours a day at a deadening,
repetitive task.
That happened not just to adults but to very young
children. Charles Dickens novels gives a taste of that
outrage, and it was echoed as late as the mid 20th
century in furniture and garment factories in this
country.
More basic to Blake's spiritual and psychological
orientation was the sense in which it was applied in
the last post: "the same dull round", applicable to the
essentially meaningless lives that millions of people
live.
They may or may not go to essentially meaningless
churches (or taverns) in search of something made
inaccessible to them by the deadening atmosphere of the
schools they attended.
At the end of Chapter Three of Jerusalem (Plate 76;
E230-31) Blake imagined the horrible reality of a
return to the beginning of history at its end:
"For Los in Six Thousand Years walks up & down
continually That not one Moment of Time be lost & every
revolution Of Space he makes permanent in Bowlahoola &
Cathedron.
And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their
Churches Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; these are the Giants mighty,
Hermaphroditic Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the Second,
Salah, Heber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah: these
are the Female Males: A Male within a Female hid as in
an Ark & Curtains. Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul,
Constantine, Charlemaine, Luther. these Seven are the
Male Females: the Dragon Forms The Female hid within a
Male: thus Rahab is reveald Mystery Babylon the Great:
the Abomination of Desolation
Religion hid in War: a Dragon red, & hidden Harlot
But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death &
Hell Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in
Mercy
Thus are the Heavens formd by Los within the Mundane
Shell And where Luther ends Adam begins again in
Eternal Circle...."
"where Luther ends Adam begins" expressing the
fear that there will be only 'another dull round' of
history..
But Blake saw a happier outcome as you find portrayed at
the ends of The Four Zoas and Jerusalem.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
LOS: POET & PROPHET
Los is the hero of Blake's myth as developed in the prophetic books. Among his many names are Eternal Poet and Eternal Prophet. As Blake's alter-ego he was the Creative Imagination, always expanding into new projects and endeavors. As a blacksmith he uses his furnaces to shape humanity through fire and the blows of his hammer. He holds the vision in times of trouble. He takes the materials at hand and puts them to the service of Jerusalem, the image of Divine Inspiration.
In describing this picture Erdman says: "The poet /blacksmith Los, naked with his steel hammer in a firm cushion of cloud, rests "wearied" from his intellectual labors, and regards the completed song/sun with anxious compassion."
SONG OF LOS, Plate 8
Los as Time, together with Enitharmon as Space brings change. He represents evolution, not in the sense of progress but of opportunity. The information, structures, and insights developed by one generation are available for use by succeeding generations to build upon. Urizen sought fixed structure and predictability. Not so Los. Nothing for him would be more deadly than restating repeatedly the same ideas in different words or applying the same rules to every situation.
The huge advances in scientific thought have come not by using a template but by creating new ways of thinking, new avenues of questioning, new fields of research. Psychology itself had a burst of development when scientific techniques were applied to understand the mysteries of human behavior which had baffled the human mind from the time man became self-reflective. We are following Los when we seek new paths and expand the horizons of our pursuits.
As William Blake said in two of his early works:
All Religions Are One
"PRINCIPLE 4.
As none by traveling over known lands can find out
the unknown. So from already acquired knowledge Man could not
acquire more. therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists"
There is No Natural Religion (b)
"I Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
II Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not
the same that it shall be when we know more.
IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round
even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated
wheels."
Blake spoke of dark Satanic Mills.
In describing this picture Erdman says: "The poet /blacksmith Los, naked with his steel hammer in a firm cushion of cloud, rests "wearied" from his intellectual labors, and regards the completed song/sun with anxious compassion."
SONG OF LOS, Plate 8
Los as Time, together with Enitharmon as Space brings change. He represents evolution, not in the sense of progress but of opportunity. The information, structures, and insights developed by one generation are available for use by succeeding generations to build upon. Urizen sought fixed structure and predictability. Not so Los. Nothing for him would be more deadly than restating repeatedly the same ideas in different words or applying the same rules to every situation.
The huge advances in scientific thought have come not by using a template but by creating new ways of thinking, new avenues of questioning, new fields of research. Psychology itself had a burst of development when scientific techniques were applied to understand the mysteries of human behavior which had baffled the human mind from the time man became self-reflective. We are following Los when we seek new paths and expand the horizons of our pursuits.
As William Blake said in two of his early works:
All Religions Are One
"PRINCIPLE 4.
As none by traveling over known lands can find out
the unknown. So from already acquired knowledge Man could not
acquire more. therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists"
There is No Natural Religion (b)
"I Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
II Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not
the same that it shall be when we know more.
IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round
even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated
wheels."
Blake spoke of dark Satanic Mills.
LOS: POET & PROPHET
Los is the hero of Blake's myth as developed in the prophetic books. Among his many names are Eternal Poet and Eternal Prophet. As Blake's alter-ego he was the Creative Imagination, always expanding into new projects and endeavors. As a blacksmith he uses his furnaces to shape humanity through fire and the blows of his hammer. He holds the vision in times of trouble. He takes the materials at hand and puts them to the service of Jerusalem, the image of Divine Inspiration.
In describing this picture Erdman says: "The poet /blacksmith Los, naked with his steel hammer in a firm cushion of cloud, rests "wearied" from his intellectual labors, and regards the completed song/sun with anxious compassion."
SONG OF LOS, Plate 8
Los as Time, together with Enitharmon as Space brings change. He represents evolution, not in the sense of progress but of opportunity. The information, structures, and insights developed by one generation are available for use by succeeding generations to build upon. Urizen sought fixed structure and predictability. Not so Los. Nothing for him would be more deadly than restating repeatedly the same ideas in different words or applying the same rules to every situation.
The huge advances in scientific thought have come not by using a template but by creating new ways of thinking, new avenues of questioning, new fields of research. Psychology itself had a burst of development when scientific techniques were applied to understand the mysteries of human behavior which had baffled the human mind from the time man became self-reflective. We are following Los when we seek new paths and expand the horizons of our pursuits.
As William Blake said in two of his early works:
All Religions Are One
PRINCIPLE 4.
As none by traveling over known lands can find out
the unknown. So from already acquired knowledge Man could not
acquire more. therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists
There is No Natural Religion (b)
I Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
II Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not
the same that it shall be when we know more.
IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round
even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated
wheels.
Blake spoke of dark Satanic Mills.
In describing this picture Erdman says: "The poet /blacksmith Los, naked with his steel hammer in a firm cushion of cloud, rests "wearied" from his intellectual labors, and regards the completed song/sun with anxious compassion."
SONG OF LOS, Plate 8
Los as Time, together with Enitharmon as Space brings change. He represents evolution, not in the sense of progress but of opportunity. The information, structures, and insights developed by one generation are available for use by succeeding generations to build upon. Urizen sought fixed structure and predictability. Not so Los. Nothing for him would be more deadly than restating repeatedly the same ideas in different words or applying the same rules to every situation.
The huge advances in scientific thought have come not by using a template but by creating new ways of thinking, new avenues of questioning, new fields of research. Psychology itself had a burst of development when scientific techniques were applied to understand the mysteries of human behavior which had baffled the human mind from the time man became self-reflective. We are following Los when we seek new paths and expand the horizons of our pursuits.
As William Blake said in two of his early works:
All Religions Are One
PRINCIPLE 4.
As none by traveling over known lands can find out
the unknown. So from already acquired knowledge Man could not
acquire more. therefore an universal Poetic Genius exists
There is No Natural Religion (b)
I Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. he
percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
II Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not
the same that it shall be when we know more.
IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round
even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated
wheels.
Blake spoke of dark Satanic Mills.
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