ANCIENT OF DAYS - IS GOD EVIL?

Its always good to see people returning to Blake's work  - it was, after all, his intention to 'speak to future generations' via a 'perfected allegory', of which he did not regard himself to be the author, but only 'the secretary' [note: this post was originally a response to this excellent article: Ancient of Days]

Above: William Blake's 'Ancient of Days'

That the bearded figure depicted in 'Ancient of Days' is indeed 'Urizen' is well documented and without doubt true.

I confess - I have studied Blake, not his critics. But I can find no evidence that scholars of Blake have understood that Urizen's resemblance to depictions of the OT God Yahweh is far from coincidental.

Blake is quite explicit that Urizen IS Yahweh. Take this line, from "America: A Prophesy" -

     "The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands"

Whether or not Yahweh/Urizen is 'the creator God' is not relevant to the study of Blake, for Blake maintains -

     "God only ACTS and IS in existing beings of men"

What is relevant is that the author of the Ten Commandments is categorically stated by Blake to be Urizen - as, in Exodus, when Moses asks ..

     "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"

God responds thus ..

     "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

'I AM' means 'YHWH' - this is undisputed, and central to both Judaism and Christianity. This is explained here, in the Catholic Catechism:

     In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called.

Above: Illus. from William Blake's 'Milton'

In Blake's "Milton: Book the Second" there is a diagram which explains much - mankind is depicted as an egg, a being in the process of being created by the four Zoas, here represented as four interlocking circles, with the egg of man incubated at the centre (we know that the egg represents man from Blake's 'Gates of Paradise', where man is alternately represented as an egg and a chrysalis).

That part of man which emerges from the Zoa 'Urthona' is named as 'Adam', that part which emerges from Urizen is named as 'Satan', the word 'Satan' consumed in flames. Given that Urizen IS Yahweh - does Blake regard the God of the Abrahamic faiths as 'evil'?

Yes, he does. But there is no 'evil' as we understand it in Blake's cosmology -

"Good is the passive that obeys reason... Evil is the active springing from energy" (Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)

Thus the flames that spring from the word 'Satan' in the aforementioned diagram are intended to be understood not as a fire consuming the lower portion of man, but as the very force that drives man's self-creation through the process of history.

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Those seeking further reading on this subject might like to read this post, where I conclude that Blake's "perfected allegory" of The Four Zoas has found its most popular expression in the work of Tolkien -

The Jester Speaks - Keys to A Full Understanding of Blake