THE KEYS TO A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF BLAKE

'Sconfitta', William Blake

[ORIGINALLY POSTED AS A MESSAGE BOARD COMMENT ON THE ABOVE ILLUSTRATION AT http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2008/08/07/image-of-the-day-sconfitta-by-william-blake]

The image titled 'Sconfitta' is dark, powerful and beautiful - typical of Blake's best work. It is wonderful to see so many people reconsidering Blake - it was his own intention to "speak to future generations via a sublime allegory"

Without knowing anything of Blake we can see this much:

On the surface we see a man engaged in worshipping or appealing to a dark Sun.

At second glance the geometry of the picture reveals the Sun is a big, black cross with a circle at the centre, suggesting he is engaged in Son worship, and that which he worships is not fully illumninated to him, it is shrouded in darkness.

It could be the print quality, but one can discern a crucifix that has been painted over, or subtley suggested at within the Sun upon the hill.

Wanbliska (a contributor to the message borad where I origainlly posted this article) mentions the Four Zoas central to Blake's more cryptic and elaborate later works. In 'Jerusalem' Blake gives us a diagram of The Zoas as four interlocking circles, at the centre is a single egg containing the words 'Adam' and 'Satan' - like the familiar Vesica Piscis diagram, also frequently appearing in Blake's work, this fourfold equivalent encodes the nature of the Son of God (I have reproduced this figure further down the page).

BELOW: The top right figure is the Vesica Piscis

Blake says 'Good is the Passive that obeys reason, Evil is the active springing from Energy' - like Yin and Yang they are different halves of the same thing, as depicted in the egg I mentioned previously. Blake does not mention 'Christ' much in his work - this is because everything he describes is a single encoded message about the nature of the Son of God. To Blake (and, in my view, in truth) The Son of God is both Adam and Satan - The Son of God is Mankind in its current embryonic state (hence the egg, this is further clarified by illustrations from 'The Gates of Paradise', one labelled 'What is Man?' depicts a pupae that is also a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, another a winged infant emerging from an egg)

So the cross in 'Sconfitta' represents the Four Zoas and the Sun is their Son.

The man worshipping the Sun has long white hair and robes, recalling the depiction of Urizen familiar from Blake's perhaps most famous painting, 'The Ancient of Days' - he is in the correct position according to the fourfold diagram I mentioned previously, which also backs up this assertion.

Yet Urizen is outside of and distinct from that which he kneels before.

The fish symbol of the early christian movement is a section from the Vesica Piscis, the section where the two circles interlock, the section representing The Son of God. While the later formalised Christianity took the cross as their exoteric symbol, the symbol is 'The Tripod of Life', not two interlocking circles (like the vesica piscis) or four (as Blake depicts in his fourfold diagram of the Four Zoas and their relationship to Adam and Satan) but three - Urizen is not included in this Trinity.

BELOW: The top left figure is 'The Tripod of Life',  a common symbol for The Trinity in Catholicism,  along with two alternative common geometrical representations of 'The Trinity'. In this illustration I am cheekily suggesting that these geometric figures for the Trinity are the meaning of  the infamous 'Number of the Beast' mentioned in Revelations -

It is interesting to note here that Tolkien's Ailundale describes four principle 'Angels', though 'Melkor' (equivalent to the archetype of Urizen in Blake's cosmology) is excluded from this quaternity when he seeks to impose his own order on creation, though this starts with good intentions his works are the source of all conflict in the middle Earth legandarium). Only the names are changed - this direct equaivalence between Tolkien and Blake's cosmology is further clarified by the cover illustration of 'The Silmarillion', by Tolkien himself - it is the central section of Blake's diagrammatic representation of The Four Zoas -



Blake says 'God only acts and is in existing beings of men' - God is Mankind, is Adam is Satan is Urizen - there is only ONE.

I would disagree with Alexandria that Blake's vision is fundamentally negative - anyone who looks with open eyes upon this epoch can see the suffering and also its beauty and majesty, and this is reflected in Blake's work. But his message is ultimateley positive, that the suffering is for a purpose and of a finite duration, that 'now is the return of Adam to paradise':

"The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell. For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life; and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment. But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern." Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'

Josh

jester.me.uk

WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION

CONTROL OF THE METANARRATIVE IS ABSOLUTE CONTROL.
ART IS POWER.

WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION

Information IS mightier than the gun

They shot John Lennon down, but The Word lives on.

Art IS mightier than cancer

It took Bob Marley from us, but it could not kill our song.

Hand granades are harmless,

'Tis the man who pulls the pin.

The stories in him made him do it

The Storyteller put them in!

THE ARTISTS ARE ORGANISING INTO ARMED SOVIETS,

COLLECTIVES PREPARED TO RESORT TO EXTREME ACTS OF AUDIO-VISUAL TERRORISM

ARTISTS OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE!

jesTer

11.11.09




"Whoever controls the media controls the mind."
Jim Morrison

THE LAST PROPHETS AT THE END OF TIME - ALLISM

There are lessons to be learned from the colourful and diverse expressions of the western 'prophets' of the past few centruries, not just from their works, but from their lives. It is my contention that they all agree on a single unifying philosophy that includes everything. I will try to point out the perfect correspondence, but it may be necessary to ponder the nature of Quantum Physics in regards to the nature of consciousness in order to fully perceive for yourself the perfection & symphonic quality of the tapestry of these assertions and predictions.

The sixteenth century shoemaker Boehme was overtaken with the feeling that he had a visionary message to impart. While 'philosophy' and 'prophecy' have been closely allied throughout the ages (one describes what is, the other what will be) we can see that Boehme is saying 'I am a theologian', rather than presenting himself as an old-style 'prophet'.

The word 'prophet' is pre-loaded with ideas in the collective psyche, ideas of adulation, and for the forming of an evangelical sect, whereas these philosophers concur with the Quakers in prioritising the individual's noumnous sensations of the divine over scripture and are critical of the hierarchical churches.

On Boehme's title pages he identifies himself as 'a Theosophist' and 'The Teutonic Philosopher'. He was an influence on Blake, who preferred to identify himself as 'The Writer and Printer'. So Blake takes this further and says 'I am an Artist', yet the bulk of his work is definitely specifically prophetic** and he doesn't really beat around the bush about actually being a prophet

Many of Boehme's ideas are transfigured in form, though unchanged in essence, in Blake's grand illuminated prophecy - a prophecy no-one would even begin to understand for more than half a century after his death (even today I feel many of his ideas are commonly misinterpretted).

Later Tolkien would (probably unconsciously) weave the very same mystical core into his legendarium.

Now I come to cross-reference my thinking - I can find no discrepancy between what I myself first thought, and those who thought it first. I can demonstrate that there is no contradiction between the philosophy of Boehme, Swedenborg, Blake, Crowley, Tolkien, Krishnamurthi or myself - the diverse forms of our individual manifestations, both our written legacies and the legends of our lives - are a demonstration of this unifying philosophy.

If one perceives a single, immanent, conscious Creator [The One]? Then it follows that the manifest world is a Creation, an Artwork of which we are 'sub-creators' [The Many].

Below I have fused a paragraph from Tolkien's creation myth 'Ailundale' with a paragraph from Crowley's Book of Lies:

When they [The Ainur, Angels] were come into the Void, Iluvatar [The One] said to them 'Behold your Music!' and he showed to them a vision, giving to them sight where before there was only hearing; and they saw a new world made visible before them, and it was globed amid the Void, and it was sustained therein, but was not of it. There is no silence in that Abyss: for all that men call Silence is Its Speech. This Abyss is also called "Hell", and "The Many". Its name is "Consciousness", and "The Universe", among men. And as they looked and wondered this World began to unfold its history, and it seemed to them that it lived and grew. And when the Ainur had gazed for a while and were silent, Iluvatar said again 'Behold your music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem he himself devised or added. The Abyss of Hallucinations has Law and Reason; but in Truth there is no bond between the Toys of the Gods and thou, Melkor [the fallen Angel who imposes his own reason and law upon the natural world]  Reason and Law is the Bond of the Great Lie. Truth! Truth! Truth! crieth the Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations. Thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of a whole and tributrary to its glory.

Later still George Lucas created the meta-narrative Star Wars, bringing these ideas to a wider audience; while Dan Brown has turned sacred geometry into a series of ludicruously popular detective stories, bringing what was formerly the reserve of certain esoteric schools within reach of anyone who can read 'Janet & John'. It is not relevant whether his conclusions are correct - through narrative he is teaching the ability to reinterpret sacred texts and geometry and to use these tools not to question one's faith, but to question the orthodoxy. None of these 'not-prophets' formed 'religions' - but their ideas have penetrated more deeply into the soul of our culture than those of any of those who did.

“They say to the seers, "See no more visions!" and to the prophets, "Give us no
more visions of what is right, tell us pleasant things, prophecy illusions."
Isaiah

Blavatsky fused Boehme's ideas with those of Edward Bulwer-Lytton**, the Rosicrucian writer and Magician, amongst others. Blavatsky, Leadbetter, Bessant et al did form an organised religion based on these ideas - Theosophy. Hierarchical and corrupt, it also harboured theories of root races that, along with the Nietzcsche's Antichrist and his other works, formed a good portion of the philosophical basis for Nazism.

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last
hour." 1 John 2:18-19

The Theosophists also prophesied an imminent maitreya, a messiah. In the early twentieth century Leadbetter found him 'on the beach' and they groomed the young boy for the job. He did rather too well, disbanding The Order of The Star that had groomed him and damning organised religion (contrast with Richard Dawkins damnation of Spirituality and Religion in the same breath, as if they even shared tooth-brushes). Krishnamurthi went on to be one of the twentieth centuries most popular and profound mystical thinkers. What follows is a famous extract from the speech he delivered when he announced the end of the order and perhaps, the very beginning of the end of organised religion:

"We are going to discuss this morning the dissolution of the Order of the
Star. Many will be delighted, and others will be rather sad. It is a question
neither for rejoicing nor for sadness, because it is inevitable, as I am going
to explain....

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any
path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I
adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless,
unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor
should any organisation be formed to lead or coerce people along any particular
path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to
organise a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and
must not organise it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallised; it becomes a
creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others." Krishna Murthi

** Edward Bulwer-Lytton, That Secret 'Ghost Story' in Precis: There is an area in Leytonstone erected by Edward's father, including a Bulwer Rd and a Lytton Rd. Of all the buildings erected at the same time there is a certain address alone that has a seven-tiered shrine in the garden, erected at the same time as the building, and the basement is reputedly daubed with alchemical symbols - the supernatural activity reported at this location turned out to bear very close comparison to a Lytton story I uncovered 'The House and The Brain'. If that isn't spooky enough - my main slogan during my 'crazy' year was 'The Pen is ACTually mightier than the sword'. I gave away free notebooks with this (and 'you can rewrite the book of your life - literally!') scrawled on the inside covers, and I incorporated and illucidated this theme over and over again in my work. I thought it was Shakespeare. When I finally checked, to see the context of the original quote - it wasn't by Shakespeare - it was by Edward Bloody Bulwer-Lytton!