Sat 15 Aug 2009 07:34:50 PM GMT

The Fall

The Fall

       Genesis tells of the first humans' Fall in the Garden of Eden. In The Four Zoas Blake tell us about the fall of Albion.

       In Milton, and Jerusalem, as well as The Four Zoas, Blake wrote volumes concerning the Fall; it could be described as the sum total of the things that Blake most disvalued about life, about society, about the psyche, his own as well as in larger dimensions. His own particularly: analyzing his own psyche Blake informed us in great and repetitious detail about the psyche ills of the world, as well as of you and me.

       In 20-21st century parlance you might say, sleep led to the disaster of the psyche falling under the dominion of sex rather than mind:
       'Primitive' societies make sex paramount and exhibit relatively little mind.

       In the more general sense Blake associated 'sex' with the female, so the emanations of the four zoas, 'female will' and 'female love' all have a large place in his demonology.

       As culture evolves mental activity gains in importance. But Blake found great areas of mental pathology, especially "Bacon, Newton, and Locke" and "Deism".

       Eden is the Eternal Realm before Creation, and Blake's garden is called Beulah, the region all around Eden. Beulah is a place for the Eternals to rest, but a dangerous place (like the Garden in Genesis). One may turn away from Eternity and choose to evaluate life in terms of good and evil (eat the apple, so to speak).

       The problem with good and evil is that we take as our own what belongs to God, and thereafter what we may acquire is good, and what we lack is evil. In Blake's language we have chosen the selfhood, to focus on I, me, and mine. Or in Ovid's language like Narcissus we have fallen in love with ourselves and chosen the watery materiality over the inward spiritual truth. In love with the world of things and thrills we have become ardent materialists. We fall into Ulro.

       As was said before, the Fall began when Luvah seized Urizen's chariot of the sun in effect blotting out the sun of Urizen. For a while (feminine) feeling ruled the world. Eventually Los, the imagination, became Urizen's chief adversary. So

       But a strange thing happened; the Spectre of Urthona came to a different plan. Los found Urizen in his hands; in a 'good war' hate turned into love; Ulro is losing its grip on Albion. So ends Night vii:
       In 4Z Blake tried over and over to give an account of the Fall; the one shown here is only one of many.

       Here are a few of the words Blake used to describe expressions of the fallen world.

sleep
The Selfhood
Good and Evil
False pity and false humility
Hypocritic Holiness








Notes

Blake used sex in a much larger context than we do today. For him masculine and feminine referred to spiritual and material, as for example the sun and the moon. The Eternals are masculine, their emanations generally feminine; they separate from their masculine component in Beulah, much like the Garden of Eden.