IX: HIS UNIVERSE-THE CREATION OF THE WORLD: SPECTRE AND EMANATION-THE FALL I AND REGENERATION OF MAN T is to the world of the invisible that we now find ourselves transported, a world which existed before our material world, and which will exist always; the only one whose existence is real, though we are not aware of it, seeing only its shadow projected in time and space, and taking that shadow for substance. This world is organized like ours: it has its circles, its cosmography, its hierarchy of powers. Blake could have given an exact description of it, as the visionaries and the Gnostics did of theirs. Perhaps he did so. But in what remains of the Prophetical Books, we find only fragments of description, " Here a little and there a little." It is only by joining the fragments, by comparing them, by interpreting or by explaining some through others, that any definite idea of his conception of this universe and its inhabitants is reached. Even then, the description is not complete. There are many blanks to be filled, many contradictions and doubtful interpretations. At the same time, we find here and there reminiscences of the Gnostics and the Cabalists, of Boehme and Swedenborg. But they are reminiscences only, and sometimes, perhaps, only coincidences: they are never copies. Blake's visions and conceptions left his mind with undoubtedly personal attributes, even though they may have sprung from older ideas. He could not have read the Gnostic writers: but he was not far from being a Gnostic himself, and, like them, was saturated with the spirit of the Hebrew prophets and the Apocalypse. He knew the Cabalistic theories, and had adopted some of them; but they left no deep traces in his work. He took much from Boehme, whom he greatly admired. As to Swedenborg, after having studied him minutely and long admired him, he gradually changed his opinion of him, and believed himself to have far surpassed him in knowledge of the invisible. We shall see later on how much Blake owes to each of his predecessors, and how he has reshaped their thoughts and rebuilt their universe. But his world is no imitation, either of Swedenborg's, with its regions infinitely divided to correspond with the divisions of the human body, or of Dante's, with its concentric circles. Neither is it the universe of the Cabala with its spheres and its Sephiroth, nor the Gnostic system of Eons, with its successive emanations of worlds from the Supreme Mystery, its Archons, Liturges, Angels, and all the hierarchy of an organized kingdom. Blake's universe is outside space, and has no form, no centre from which all life is derived, no Initial Mystery, no “primum mobile.” One might almost say it has no God. There is hardly any indication of a Supreme Power. Somewhere there are beings whom he calls the Eternals, who seem to govern the world, but who, like the ancient Gods of the classics, apparently have their power strictly limited. We find the spirits disputing before their assembly. But Palamabron called down a Great Solemn Assembly.1 The Innocent should be condemn'd for the Guilty? Then an Eternal rose, So spake the Eternal, and confirm'd it with a thunderous oath." 2 It is before these same Eternals that Milton offers to return to the world, to instruct humanity again in the mysteries of the invisible universe. And, at the end of time, there is a feast of the Eternals, to celebrate the welcoming back of man, regenerate now, into their midst. And the Eternal Man Sat at the feast rejoicing, and the wine of Eternity They embraced the new-born Man, Calling him Brother, image of the Eternal Father. 4 As for this Eternal Father, who might be the Supreme Deity, he is nowhere described. He reflects his image on each of us, but we know nothing more of him than that. He has no part to act, no word to speak, in Blake's poems, and we cannot tell whether the God of his childhood, the God of the first" Songs of Innocence," is this Divine Father or only one of these Eternals, walking among men. Like the great Prabrahm, the First Mystery, the Ineffable, He is doubtless lost to sight in some undiscoverable region beyond the reach even of the eternal Spirit of men and gods. 1 Milton: 6:46. 2 Milton, 9:15, 27. 3 Vala: Night IX, 613. 'Id., 638. The Eternals themselves dwell far off, seeing rather than sharing the life of men, like the immortals whom Homer tells of, in their palace on Olympus, when forbidden to take part in the struggle between the Trojans and the Greeks. They send forth their messengers, the prophets and the poets; and Blake invokes them before revealing his truths to the world. Eternals, I hear your call gladly. Dictate swift winged words, and fear not To unfold your dark visions of torment. 1 There are many, and yet live as one: the same spirit breathes through them all: they are the Eternal Family, are conscious of perfect unity, and form an indivisible Eternity. We find their names, or rather, the names of seven of them, mentioned in " Jerusalem "; 2 and in Vala we read of the Seven Eyes of God, and the Seven Lamps of the Almighty. The seven are one within the other. 3 They are Lucifer, the angel of light; Molech, the ancient god of sacrifice; Elohim, the creator of Adam; Shaddai, the angry; Pahad, the terrified; Jehovah, the leprous, god of materialism and jealous law; and the last, Jesus, the Saviour of man. And here we can already recognize five of the names of God given in the Cabala : Jehovah, the mysterious; Elohim, who punishes, and who is also Pechad or Fear; Sadai, the all-powerful, who presides over the increase and decrease of all things; and Molech, who gives to mankind intelligence and knowledge. Man was originally one of these Eternals, and was in all points like them. He had the same power, and was eternal and infinite, filling the limitless universe. His essence was divine like theirs ; and to call them men was not in any way to degrade their nature. Thou art a Man: God is no more. 1 In fact, they were men: the essential and universal man; not like the men who make up our poor humanity, but the elemental and unique spirit, the very essence of man's nature, which makes us all recognize each other as beings of the same species. This unique essence is not merely divine: it is a god, perhaps God Himself, the "Divine Humanity." Thus God is brought down to the level of 1Book of Urizen: Preludium. 2 Jerusalem, 55, 32. 3 Vala. Night I, 406. The Everlasting Gospel. man's spirit, or man's spirit is deified and raised till it reaches God. Blake wrote in his youth: Nor is it possible to Thought A greater than itself to know: 1 But he did know God; and therefore he regarded his own thought, and the essence of our whole humanity as equal with God. This essential spirit of humanity, origin of man and equal of God, is not Adam. It is rather the pre-Adamite man of the Cabalists, the Adam Kadmon," who was before the creation, and who, divine himself, has reposed in the bosom of God from times Eternal. He was outside time and space, and consequently the physical laws of our world had no power over him. He was everywhere at once, concentrating within himself the whole universe, making one with the Great All. Being All, he had no wants, no desires: he can scarcely be said to have lived, in the sense in which we use the word. He endured. There was no material world to bar his infinite expansion, no moral law to block his way with the words "Thou shalt not." He had nothing to learn, and lived in endless self-contemplation. He was like a thought in the mind of God, inseparable from him; resembling, not even a drop in the ocean, but rather one of those myriads of forces that act on each drop, revolving through the entire mass in ceaseless torrents of life, which are nothing except in it and by it, but with it are everything. Here we see the state of primal happiness, the celestial Paradise, far above our poor Eden. It was Nirvânâ before the creation of the world, the perfect communion with God, the sharing of all the attributes of the Godhead. Earth was not, nor globes of attraction. Were there myriads of these men, these Eternals, or was there only one Eternal Man? What matters it? Number belongs to time and space. Indivisible unity embraced them all; and they were but one. It would be of little use were we to count the individual cells that make up the human body. Not one of them is conscious of its individuality; but all share equally in the complete knowledge of our existence, and all combine in us to make one. 1 Songs of Experience. A Little Boy Lost. 2 Urizen, II, But suppose one of these cells to become conscious of its own existence, and to say, "I exist, independently of the body as a whole." This thought would be the beginning of a separate creation, the formation of a personality, the first fall of man from unity. Must not something analogous occur when the newly conceived being begins to live a conscious life even in its mother's womb? In such wise came the first fall from Eternity, the first separation of something from the Divine whole, the phenomenon of creation, which, at bottom, is only a division. One of the thoughts of God separated itself from Him, as it is written in the Gospel of St. John: this Thought became the Word, which has been with Him from the beginning, and before the beginning, the word which was God. "Et verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat verbum." And the word became the Fiat, and had its echo in Eternity: the created universe was its emanation. Blake says no more than this, though he may say it differently. According to him, there was a spirit who separated himself from Eternity, from that infinite Unity constituted by the Spirit of Universal Man, both All and One, and who thus became a personality different from the Eternals, who are one though many. In separating from them, he created a kind of abstract void between them and himself he wrenched himself away from them, diminishing both himself and the Eternal Infinite at the same instant. Lo, a shadow of horror is risen Dark, revolving in silent activity, But Eternals beheld his vast forests: 1 Urizen, I, 1, 4, 5. |