menu_book Chapter 16

CHAPTER XVI. OF JERUSALEM TO REVELATIONS. A QUARTET OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. BY WILLIAM BLAKE AND OTHERS. THIS KEEPER BOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

RECORDING BY TONY ADDISON. JERUSALEM. PART 16. But still the thunder of loss peals loud, and thus the thunders cry. These beautiful witchcrafts of Albion are gratified by cruelty.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. The man who permits you to injure him deserves your vengeance. He also will receive it. Go, spectre, obey my most secret desire, which thou knowest without my speaking. Go to these fiends of righteousness, tell them to obey their humanities,

and not pretend holiness when they are murderers, as far as my hammer and anvil permit. Go, tell them that the worship of God is honouring his gifts in other men. and loving the greatest man best, each according to his genius, which is the Holy Ghost in man. There is no other God than that God who is the intellectual fountain of humanity. He who envies or calumniates, which is murder and cruelty, murders the Holy One.

Go, tell them this, and overthrow their cup, their bread, their altar-table, their incense and their oath, their marriage and their baptism, their burial and consecration. I have tried to make friends by corporeal gifts, but have only made enemies. I never made friends but by spiritual gifts, by severe contentions of friendship and the burning fire of thought. He who would see the divinity must see him in his children, one first in friendship and love, Then a divine family, and in the midst Jesus will appear.

So he who wishes to see a vision, a perfect whole, must see it in its minute particulars, organized, and not as thou, O fiend of righteousness, pretendest. Thine is a disorganized and snowy cloud, brooder of tempests and destructive war. You smile with pomp and rigour. You talk of benevolence and virtue. I act with benevolence and virtue, and get murdered time after time. You accumulate particulars, and murder by analysing

that you may take the aggregate, and you call the aggregate moral law, and you call that swelled and bloated form, a minute particular. But general forms have their vitality in particulars, and every particular is a man, a divine member of the divine Jesus. Loss cried at his anvil in the horrible darkness weeping. The spectre builded stupendous works, taking the starry heavens like to a curtain, and folding them according to his will,

Repeating the smaragdine table of Hermes To draw Loss down into the indefinite Refusing to believe without demonstration Loss reads the stars of Albion The spectre reads the voids between the stars

Among the arches of Albion's tomb sublime Rolling the sea in rocky paths forming Leviathan and Behemoth, the war by sea enormous, and the war by land astounding, erecting pillars in the deepest hell to reach the heavenly archers. Loss beheld, undaunted, furious, his heaved hammer.

He swung it round, and at one blow, in unpitying ruin, driving down the pyramids of pride, smiting the spectre on his anvil, and the integuments of his eye and ear unbinding, in dire pain with many blows, of strict severity self-subduing, and with many tears laboring. Then he sent forth the spectre All his pyramids were grains of sand And his pillars dust on the fly's wing And his starry heavens

A moth of gold and silver Mocking his anxious grasp Thus loss altered his spectre And every ratio of his reason He altered time after time

with dire pain and many tears, till he had completely divided him into a separate space. Terrified, loss sat to behold, trembling and weeping and howling. I care not whether a man is good or evil. All that I care is whether he is a wise man or a fool. Go, put off holiness, and put on intellect, or my thunderous hammer shall drive thee to wrath which thou condemnest, till thou obey my voice. Soloth's terrified cries, trembling, and weeping, and howling, beholding.

What do I see? The Briton, Saxon, Roman, Norman, amalgamating in my furnaces into one nation, the English, and taking refuge in the loins of Albion. The Canaanite, united with the fugitive Hebrew, whom she divided into twelve and sold into Egypt, then scattered the Egyptian and Hebrew to the four winds. This sinful nation, created in our furnaces and looms, is Albion. So lost spoke, any Thalman answered in great terror in Lambeth's Vale. The poet's song draws to its period, and any salmon is no more.

For if he be that albium, I can never weave him in my looms. But when he touches the first fibrous thread like filmy dew, my looms will be no more, and I annihilate, vanish forever. Then thou wilt create another female according to thy will. Loss answered, swift as the shuttle of gold

Sexes must vanish and cease to be When Albion arises from his dread repose O lovely Anithoman When all their crimes, their punishments Their accusations of sin

All their jealousies, revenges, murders hidings of cruelty in deceit, appear only in the outward spheres of visionary space and time, in the shadows of possibility by mutual forgiveness for evermore, and in the vision and in the prophecy that we may foresee and avoid the terrors of creation and redemption and judgment, beholding them displayed in the emanative visions of Canaan in Jerusalem and in Shiloh

and in the shadows of remembrance and in the chaos of the spectre Amalek, Edom, Egypt, Moab, Amem, Asher, Philistia, around Jerusalem where the druids reared their rocky circles to make permanent remembrance of sin, and the tree of good and evil sprang from the rocky circle and snake of the druid along the valley of Rephaim from Camberwell to Golgotha

and framed the mundane shell cavernous in length, breadth, and height any Tharmon heard. she raised her head like the mild moon o runcha o palamabron what are your dire and awful purposes any tharmon's name is nothing before you you forget all my love the mother's love of obedience is forgotten and you seek a love of the pride of dominion that will divorce ochalithyram and ellenitria upon eastmore in derbyshire and along the valleys of could you love me rintra if you pride not in my love as reuben found mandrakes in the field and gave them to his mother pride meets with pride upon the mountains in the stormy day in that terrible day of rincha's plough and of satan's driving the team

ah then i heard my little ones weeping along the valley ah then i saw my beloved ones fleeing from my tent merlin was like the rintra among the giants of albion judah was like palamabrom o simeon o levi he fled away how can i hear my little ones weeping along the valley or how upon the distant hills see my beloved's tents Then, Loss again took up his speech, as any Tharmon ceased. They are not my sons, this waking death. He has become one with me.

Behold him here. We shall not die. We shall be united in Jesus. Will you suffer this, Satan, this body of doubt that seems, but is not, to occupy the very threshold of eternal life?

If Bacon, Newton, Locke deny a conscience in man, and the communion of saints and angels, condemning the divine vision and fruition, worshipping the dais of the heathen, the god of the world, and the goddess nature, mystery, Babylon the Great, the Jewet Dragon, and hidden Harlot, Is it not that signal of the morning which was told us in the beginning? Thus they converse upon Mount Tor, the graves thunder under their feet. Albion's cold lays on his rock, storms and snows beat round him. Beneath the furnaces and the starry wheels and the immortal tomb,

Howling winds cover him Roaring seas dash furious against him In the deep darkness broad lightning's glare Long thunders roll The weeds of death enwrap his hands and feet

Blown incessant and washed incessant By the forever restless sea waves foaming abroad upon the white rock. England, a female shadow, as deadly damps of the mines of Cornwall and Derbyshire

lays upon his bosom heavy, moved by the wind in volumes of thick cloud returning, folding round his loins and bosom, unremovable by swelling storms and loud rending of enraged thunders. Around them the starry wheels of their giant sons revolve,

and over them the furnaces of loss and the immortal tomb around. Aaron sitting in the tomb To watch them unceasing night and day, And the body of Albion was closed apart from all nations. Over them the famished eagle screams on bony wings, And around them howls the wolf of famine,

Deep heaves the ocean black, Thundering around the wormy garments of Albion, Then pausing in death-like silence. Time was finished. The breath divine breathed over Albion,

Beneath the furnaces and starry wheels, And in the immortal tomb, And England, who is Britannia, Awoke from death on Albion's bosom. She awoke pale and cold.

She fainted seven times on the body of Albion, o piteous sleep o piteous dream o god o god awake i have slain in dreams of chastity and moral law i have murdered albium in stonehenge and on london stone and in the oak groves of maiden i have slain him in my sleep with the knife of the druid o england o all ye nations of the earth behold ye the jealous wife the eagle and the wolf and monkey and owl and the king and priest were there her voice pierced albion's clay-cold ear he moved upon the rock the breath divine went forth upon the morning hills albion moved upon the rock he opened his eyelids in pain in pain he moved his stony members he saw england

ah shall the death live again the breath divine went forth over the morning hills albion rose in anger the wrath of god breaking bright flaming on all sides around his awful limbs into the heavens he walked clothed in flames loud thundering with broad flashes of flaming lightning and pillars of fire speaking the words of eternity in human forms in direful revolutions of action and passion through the four elements on all sides surrounding his awful members thou seest the sun in heavy clouds struggling to rise above the mountains in his burning hand he takes his bow then chooses out his arrows of flaming gold murmuring the bowstring breathes with ardour clouds roll round the horns of the wide bow loud sounding whims sport on the mountain brows compelling urizen to his furrow and thomas to his sheepfold and louvre to his loom

Athona he beheld mighty laboring at his anvil in the great spectre loss unwearied laboring and weeping. Therefore the sons of Eden praise Athona's spectre in songs, because he kept the divine vision in time of trouble. As the sun and moon lead forward the visions of heaven and earth, England, who is Britannia, entered Albion's bosom rejoicing, rejoicing in his indignation, adoring his wrathful rebuke. she who adores not your frowns will only loathe your smiles as the sun and moon lead forward the visions of heaven and earth england who is britannia entered albion's bosom rejoicing then jesus appeared standing by albion as the good shepherd by the lost sheep that he hath found and albion knew that it was the lord the universal humanity

and albion saw his form a man and they conversed as man with man in ages of eternity and the divine appearance was the likeness and similitude of loss albion said O Lord, what can I do? My selfhood cruel marches against the deceitful from Sinai and from Edom into the wilderness of Judah to meet thee in his pride. I behold the visions of my deadly sleep of six thousand years, dazzling around thy skirts like a serpent of precious stones and gold. I know it is myself, O my divine creator and redeemer. Jesus replied, Fear not, Albion, unless I die thou canst not live, but if I die I shall arise again, and thou with me. This is friendship and brotherhood, without it man is not. So Jesus spoke. The covering cherub coming on in darkness overshadowed them, and Jesus said,

Thus do men in eternity, one for another, to put off by forgiveness every sin. Albion replied, Cannot man exist without mysterious offering of self for another? Is this friendship and brotherhood? I see thee in the likeness and similitude of loss, my friend. Jesus said, Wouldst thou love one who never died for thee, or ever die for one who hath not died for thee?

And if God dieth not for man, and giveth not himself eternally for man, man could not exist, for man is love, as God is love. every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image nor can man exist but by brotherhood so saying the cloud overshadowing divided them asunder albion stood in terror not for himself but for his friend divine and self was lost in the contemplation of faith and wonder at the divine mercy and at loss's sublime honour do i sleep amidst danger to friends all my cities and counties do you sleep rouse up rouse up eternal death is abroad so albion spoke and threw himself into the furnaces of affliction

all was a vision all a dream the furnaces became fountains of living waters flowing from the humanity divine and all the cities of albion rose from their slumbers and all the sons and daughters of albion on soft clouds waking from sleep soon all around remote the heavens burnt with flaming fires and gerasen and luva and thamas and euthana rose into albion's bosom then albion stood before jesus in the clouds of heaven fourfold among the visions of god in eternity awake awake jerusalem o lovely emanation of albion awake and overspread all nations as in ancient time

for lo the night of death is past and the eternal day appears upon our hills awake jerusalem and come away so spake the vision of albion and in him so spake in my hearing the universal father then albion stretched his hand into infinitude and took his bow fourfold the vision four bright beaming urizen laid his hand on the south and took a breathing bow of carved gold louvre his hand stretched to the east and bore a silver bow bright shining thomas westward a bow of brass pure flaming richly wrought a thona northward in thick storms a bow of iron terrible thundering and the bow is a male and female

and the quiver of the arrows of love are the children of his bow a bow of mercy and loving-kindness laying open the hidden heart in wars of mutual benevolence wars of love and the hand of man grasps firm between the male and female loves and he clothed himself in bow and arrows in awful state fourfold in the midst of his twenty-eight cities each with his bow breathing then each an arrow flaming from his quiver fitted carefully they drew fourfold the unreprovable string bending through the wide heavens the horned bow fourfold loud sounding flew the flaming arrow fourfold murmuring the bowstring breathes with ardour clouds roll round the horns of the wide bow loud sounding winds sport on the mountain's brows the druid spectre was annihilate loud thundering rejoicing terrific vanishing

fourfold annihilation and at the clangour of the arrows of intellect the innumerable chariots of the almighty appeared in heaven and bacon and newton and locke and milton and shakespeare and chaucer a sun of blood-red and wrath surrounding heaven on all sides around glorious incomprehensible by mortal man and each chariot was sexual twofold and every man stood fourfold each four faces had one to the west one toward the east one to the south one to the north the horses fourfold and the dim chaos brightened beneath above around eyed as the peacock according to the human nerves of sensation the four rivers of the water of life south stood the nerves of the eye east in rivers of bliss the nerves of the expansive nostrils west flowed the parent sense the tongue north stood the labyrinthine ear circumscribing and circumcising the excrementitious husk and covering into vacuum evaporating

revealing the lineaments of man driving outward the body of death in an eternal death and resurrection awaking it to life among the flowers of beulah rejoicing in unity in the four senses in the outline the circumference and form for ever in forgiveness of sins which is self-annihilation it is the covenant of jehovah the four living creatures chariots of humanity divine incomprehensible in beautiful paradises expand these are the four rivers of paradise and the four faces of humanity fronting the four cardinal points of heaven going forward, forward, irresistible, from eternity to eternity, and they conversed together in visionary forms dramatic, which bright redounded from their tongues in thunderous

majesty, in visions, in new expanses, creating exemplars of memory and of intellect, creating space, creating time, according to the wonders divine of human imagination, throughout all the three regions immense of childhood, manhood, and old age, and the all-tremendous, unfathomable non-ends of death, were seen in regeneration terrific or complacent, varying, according to the subject of discourse, and every word and every character was human, according to the

expansion or contraction, the translucence or opaqueness of nervous fibres. Such was the variation of time and space, which vary according as the organs of perception vary, and they walked to and fro in eternity as one man reflecting each in each and clearly seen and seeing according to fitness and order and i heard jehovah speak terrific from his holy place and saw the words of the mutual covenant divine on chariots of gold and jewels with living creatures starry and flaming with every colour lion tiger horse elephant eagle dove fly worm and the all-wonderous serpent clothed in gems and rich array humanize in the forgiveness of sins according to thy covenant jehovah they cry

Where is the covenant of Priam, the moral virtues of the heathen? Where is the tree of good and evil that rooted beneath the cruel heel of Albion's spectre, the patriarch druid? Where are all his human sacrifices for sin in war and in the druid temples of the accuser of sin? Beneath the oak groves of Albion that covered the whole earth beneath his spectre? Where are the kingdoms of the world, and all their glory, that grew on desolation, the fruit of Albion's poverty tree, when the triple-headed Gogmagog, giant of Albion, taxed the nations into desolation, and then gave the spectrous oath?

Oh, such is the cry from all the earth, from the living creatures of the earth, and from the great city of Golgannuza in the shadowy generation, and from the thirty-two nations of the earth among the living creatures. All human forms identified, even tree, metal, earth and stone All human forms identified living, going forth and returning Weirid into the planetary lives of years, months, days and hours Reposing and then awaking into his bosom in the light of immortality

And I heard the name of their emanations They are named Jerusalem. The End of the Song of Jerusalem End of chapter 16