31 July 2005

William Blake's Jerusalem as Divine Feminine

So much has been written on the prophetic books of William Blake that one wonders what else can be said. I offer here some comments on ‘Jerusalem’ as a manifestation of the Divine Feminine.
The idealistic usage of ‘Jerusalem’ as an ideal, perfect holy city is well-known and frequently encountered in both Jewish and Christian writers; in addition there is the ‘New Jerusalem’ of the Book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Christian Bible (Rev 3:12; 21:2), and Blake was certainly familiar with the concept as his parents were members of Emmanuel Swedenborg’s New Jerusalem Church in the London of the 1780s.
So we find Blake using the imagery of Jerusalem the city in his prophetic books, especially Milton and Jerusalem, with much of the imagery and detail coming from his residence in Lambeth during the 1790s.
Blake additionally suggests ‘Jerusalem’ as a female counterpart to the male ‘Albion’. In The Four Zoas Blake refers to “Jerusalem which now descendeth out of heaven, a City, yet a Woman” and in Jerusalem provides in plate 46 a powerful portrayal of the female Jerusalem with her daughters. In the prophetic text of Jerusalem, the Universal Father speaks through Albion to Jerusalem:

Awake! Awake Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion
Awake and over spread 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.

1 comment:

metamodo said...

Would like to know more about the subtle meaning of this Jerusalem. What do you think about this interpretation?

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
(The divine Love that shines through EGO and SUPEREGO?)
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
( Material attachments?)

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
( Give me The vibrations on our hands )
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
( desire of self realization?)
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
(give me the mastery of my own guru tatwa that pierces through the clouds of the agnya ?)

Bring me my Chariot of fire!
( Establish The lotus flower of the Sahastrara or the Kundalini ?)

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
(I will not stop the fight against the thoughts until silenced in meditation ?)

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
( I will not let go but I will use the power to awaken the Kundalini of others ?)
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land
( Until we have established the collective of Sahaja Yoga
In this world and accepted Mother in our hearts)

Bruno Descaves