Ahania:
Ahania is the Emanation of Urizen.
She is pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure. In The Book
of Ahania, she is separated from Urizen when Fuzon's
globe of wrath strikes him in the genitals. As a separate female
form, Urizen sees her as sin and hides her, repressing his sexuality.
Albion:
Albion is often used by poets as a name for England. For Blake
Albion is one of the Eternals. He is the
four-fold man; his four faculties, the Zoas
Urthona (Los), Urizen,
Luvah, and Tharmus, are
in harmony in his waking state. In his sleeping state, they are
divided from one another and in conflict, each acting as if it
were an independent whole rather than a part of a single being.
Albion is fallen and sleeping (we might say in a coma) and his
awakening will be the apocalypse. His fall creates the fallen
world and his dreams as he sleeps are the historical events of
this fallen world. In Blake's prophetic writings, particularly
The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem,
his fall is explained in several ways, depending on the point
of view from which it is seen. In the Urizen Books Urizen precipitates
the fall. Blake is just beginning to work out the nature of the
fall and the four-fold man in these early prophecies. The characters
and elements of his mythos are beginning to take shape in this
tale of the fall and the creation of the fallen world. Albion,
Tharmus, and Luvah, play little part in these prophecies.
Beulah:
Beulah ("married" in Hebrew) is one of names given to
Jerusalem when it is rejoined to God after the exile. In Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, Beulah is the pastoral earthly paradise
(in sight of the Heavenly City) where Christian and the other
pilgrims rest before crossing the River of Death and entering
the Heavenly City. For Blake Beulah is an idealized place without
conflict, the conventional image of heaven or Eternity where all
is at peace and all are one. For Blake, this notion of Eternity
is misguided and fallen. Beulah offers an escape from the energetic
effort and creative conflict of Eternity. It is a place to rest,
but also it is a temptation to escape the demands of Eternity.
It stands between Eternity and Ulro. Its inhabitants,
the daughters of Beulah, remember eternity and act as muses for
the poets (such as Blake) who dwell in Ulro. There is a detailed
description of Beulah in Milton
30.1-31.11
Emanation:
The Emanation is the visible and spatial aspect of a four-fold
division of the individual into Humanity,
Spectre, Emanation, and Shadow
(see Albion and Eternal(s)).
The emanations create the space in which Eternals meet, making
their union possible, and the emanation is the visible embodiment
of the Eternal, making it possible for the Eternal to interact
with others. The Emanation is usually the feminine aspect of the
androgynous Eternal. The separation of the Emanation from the
individual marks a stage in the fall and means that the individual
can no longer meet with others in Eternity. Thus when Enitharmon
separates from Los and takes on a separate female form, the individual
is divided internally and also divided from Eternity, being no
longer able to meet other Eternals. The failure of the parts to
recognize their divided state indicates their fallen nature.
Enitharmon:
Enitharmon is the Emanation of Urthona.
According to Damon, her name comes from "the Greek anarithmon
("numberless") or from (z)enith plus (h)armon(y)"
(124). Divided from Los
in the fall/creation of this world, she becomes his lover and
wife. She is the Eve figure in Blake's Bible of Hell, first the
mother of Orc then of "an enormous race" (Urizen
20.45) that populates Urizen's world. Thus
she is the Great Mother. She is also Pity,
spiritual beauty, and the inspiration of the poet. She is often
figured as the moon.
Eno:
Eno, an anagram for "eon" according to Damon (125),
recalls eternal life in her opening monologue to The Book
of Los. As the "aged mother" (Los 3.1),
she is capable of seeing their former eternal nature in present
fallen forms.
Eternal(s):
The Eternals, also called the Immortals, are the four-fold men
who inhabit Eternity and make up the body
of Christ, "the Eternal Great Humanity" (Milton
30.15). They meet "In the great Wars of Eternity, in
fury of Poetic Inspiration, / To build the Universe stupendous:
Mental forms Creating (30.19-20).
They are four-fold in that they are made up of Four Zoas
and also of a Humanity, Spectre,
Emanation, and Shadow.
These two different four-fold divisions indicate two different
ways that Blake divides the Human faculties. The division into
Zoas dominates Blake's psychological analysis in his earlier prophecies
and The Four Zoas. The division into Humanity, Spectre,
Emanation, and Shadow is given more prominence in Milton
and Jerusalem.
Eternal Prophet:
Los is the Eternal Prophet. His office
is to preserve the vision of Eternity in
the fallen world, to arrest the fall, and ultimately to awaken
Albion.
Eternity:
Eternity is reality. It is inhabited by the Eternals
who build the worlds that they live and meet in. It is also the
community of the Eternals. Time/space is structured into universes
by the Eternals much as houses are built, but the underlying reality
that makes these universes possible is Eternity. Its chief quality
is its malleability to the creativity of the Eternals. Thus in
Eternity incommensurable and conflicting universes may be created
by different Eternals. At the same time, Eternity preserves all
forms. Urizen creates one such universe or dwelling place, but
rather than seeing it as one among many, he sees it as the only
universe and its laws, his laws, as the only laws. He sees all
other universes and Eternity itself as chaos. He shuts himself
within his world and denies Eternity.
Fuzon:
Fuzon, the fourth son of Urizen but first
conceived, is the element fire. The other three elements are represented
by three other sons of Urizen: Grodna = earth,
Thiriel = air, and Utha
= water. As the four elements, these four sons of Urizen form
the material basis of Urizen's world. As the element of fire,
the element symbolizing the energy Urizen wishes to subdue, Fuzon
rebels against Urizen, initially in The Book of Urizen
as a Moses figure who leads his people in their flight out of
Egypt, Urizen's world. In The Book of Ahania, Fuzon comes
into direct conflict with Urizen, battling with him for control
of the world. The representation of this battle draws on elements
from Greek mythology: Cronos's castration and overthrow of his
father, Uranus; the battle between the Titans led by Cronos and
Cronos's children, the Olympians, led by Zeus; and the battle
between Zeus and Typhon. However, as opposed to the Greek mythos,
Urizen defeats Fuzon and crucifies him. Thus Fuzon can also be
seen as a Christ figure. See Urizen, Plate
24, for an illustration of the birth of the four elements
and Urizen, Plate 16,
for an illustration of the element fire.
Grodna:
Grodna, the third son of Urizen, is the element
earth. The other three elements are represented by three other
sons of Urizen: Thiriel = air, Fuzon
= fire, and Utha = water. As the four elements,
these four sons of Urizen form the material basis of Urizen's
world. See Urizen, Plate
24, for an illustration of the birth of the four elements
and Urizen, Plate 9, for
an illustration of the element earth.
Humanity:
In the four-fold division of the individual into Humanity, Spectre, Emanation, and Shadow (see Albion and Eternal(s)), the Humanity is the essential identity
and governing faculty. It is the image of God in the individual
and thus the individual's creativity, creating the visions that
are given order and visible form by the Spectre and Emanation.
When an individual is in a fallen state, the humanity is sleeping.
Albion's humanity awakens at the Apocalypse.
Immortal(s):
See Eternal(s).
Los:
Los is the form of Urthona in the fallen world.
As the archetype of the poet-prophet and as the Eternal
Prophet, he is the creative imagination in this world. He
is the Spectre of Urthona, and Enitharmon
is the Emanation. He is time and she is space.
He is represented as a blacksmith (see Urizen, Plate
11 and Plate 18) His name
plays on "los(s)" and is "sol" (a homonym
for "soul") spelled backwards. (Backward writing plays
an important place in Blake's works. Blake engraved his metal
plates in backward writing, so that the printed image came out
in normal forward writing. Backward writing is generally a message
from the Eternals.) As poet-prophet in the
fallen world, Los is closed out of Eternity,
but still contains within him the creative fires that are the
basis of Eternity. He preserves the vision of Eternity in the
time of trouble. Through his action, the individual may regain
Eternity, but at the same time, Los is not free from error. In
the Urizen Books we can see Blake starting to develop Los as one
of his central mythical figures. Urthona and the Zoas other than
Urizen are not mentioned. The fallen individual divides into two
parts, Urizen and Los, who is rent from Urizen's
side. Their is ambiguity about the nature of this first division.
It is unclear whether Los and Urizen are two parts of the same
individual or whether they are both Eternals who are lovers. They
will in turn be divided from their Emanations. As the Eternal
Prophet and blacksmith, Los binds the abstract Urizen into visible
and concrete form, making the world of his laws manifest so that
its errors can be perceived. Los looks on Urizen and feels Pity, and Pity divides him from his Emanation,
Enitharmon. Los and Enitharmon become lovers in a narcissistic
re-union, and from their union Orc is born.
Los becomes jealous of Orc and sacrifices him to Urizen. He shuts
Enitharmon out from the vision of this world and together they
produce the race that will inhabit Urizen's world.
Luvah:
Luvah is one of the four Zoas who make up
the four-fold individual (see Albion and Eternal(s)). He is love and more generally the
passions. His Emanation is Vala, the goddess
of nature, and his fallen and spectral form
is Orc. Luvah does not appear in the Urizen
Books. The four Zoas are developed fully in the later prophecies,
The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem.
Orc:
Orc is the spirit of revolution. He is the Spectre
of Luvah. He brings war to overthrow the repressive
regime of Urizen because, as Damon notes,
"repressed love turns to war" (309).
His lover is the Shadowy Female, the material world and the Shadow of Luvah. His name is an anagram for cor,
"heart," and is also associated with orca,
"whale"--he appears as a whale in America 1.14
and 2.14 (Damon 309). He is
sometimes depicted as being covered with scales--suggesting the
serpent who tempts Eve to break the laws of Jehovah/Urizen. Also,
he is associated with fire and often depicted as surrounded by
flames (see Urizen, Plate
20). He is the son of Los and Enitharmon,
begotten of their separation. Los, in his jealousy, takes Orc
up on the mountain and binds him there as a sacrifice to Urizen.
This suggests Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22) and Prometheus'
punishment by Zeus where he is bound on Mount Atlas. His warmth
and energy awaken the dead Urizen. The actual rebellion against
Urizen is led by Fuzon, who can be seen as an Orc figure in The
Book of Ahania.
Pity:
Blake is ambivalent about the emotion Pity. In The Book of
Urizen Pity begins when Los looks on the
body of Urizen bound in chains (Urizen
13.50-51). However, Pity furthers
the fall, "For pity divides the soul" (13.53),
dividing Los and Enitharmon, who is named
Pity at her birth. Pity defuses the power of righteous indignation
and proper prophetic wrath that lead to action. Stevenson asserts:
"Pity is a distraction; the soul is divided between it and
the action a 'pitiable' state demands. This is seen as Los's division
into active male and tearful female--the latter deluding the former
(260n). In "The
Human Abstract", Blake says: "Pity would be no more,
/ If we did not make somebody Poor" (1-2). In his later works,
Blake sees Pity as an emotion that can draw beings together.
Shadow:
In the four-fold division of the individual into Humanity,
Spectre, Emanation, and
Shadow (see Albion and Eternal(s)),
the Shadow is the remainder of desire after the passion and fire
are gone. The Shadow is desire made immutable and immobile. It
is the memory of desire. In the fallen world, it is the result
of repressed desires. Thus the material world is the shadow of
Eternity, the solid immobility of matter
rather than the energy and fire of intellectual warfare. The Shadow
is usually, but not always, feminine. In The Book of Ahania,
Ahania becomes a shadow when she is divided
from Urizen and then hidden, no longer able
to function as his Emanation (3.38-42).
Spectre:
In the four-fold division of the individual into Humanity,
Emanation, Shadow, and
Spectre (see Albion and Eternal(s)),
the Spectre functions to define and separate the individual from
others. The Spectre acts as guardian and protector of the Emanation.
When it is separated, it is reason, trying to define everything
in terms of unchanging essences. It tries to freeze Eternity
in a single state. It becomes the Selfhood, trying to impose an
immutable and thus false identity on the individual. It resists
change, growth, and the very creativity which is the true nature
of the Humanity. Thus it is the negation. The Spectre is usually
the masculine aspect of the androgynous Eternal.
Tharmas:
Tharmas is one of the four Zoas who make up
the four-fold individual (see Albion and Eternal(s)). He is the senses and the body in
that in Eternity the body is the flexible
senses. He doesn't emerge as a figure in Blake's mythos until
the later prophecies, The Four Zoas, Milton,
and Jerusalem.
Thiriel:
Thiriel, the first son of Urizen, is the element
air. The other three elements are represented by three other sons
of Urizen: Grodna = earth, Fuzon
= fire, and Utha = water. As the four elements,
these four sons of Urizen form the material basis of Urizen's
world. See Urizen, Plate
24, for an illustration of the birth of the four elements
and Urizen, Plate 14,
for an illustration of the element air.
Ulro:
Ulro is the realm of torment, suffering, and death. It is this
fallen, material world, which has lost contact with Eternity.
It is a realm of error and misperception where everything is reversed.
It is the world created by Urizen and governed
by his laws. The term is used by Blake only in his later prophecies,
The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem.
Urizen:
Urizen is one of the four Zoas who make up
the four-fold individual (see Albion and Eternal(s)). He is reason, the rational faculty
of the individual. His name is a pun for "your reason."
However, it may also be derived from the Greek term for "to
limit," the root for "horizon." His function is
to limit and give outline to the creative energy of the individual.
He has a similar function to the Spectre.
His Emanation and consort is Ahania. When
he is separated from the other Zoas and falls, he tries to stop
the creative activity of the Eternals and to fix the world in
one state. As a result he creates the fallen material universe,
Ulro as Blake terms it in his later prophecies. In the Urizen
Books Blake begins to develop this central figure in his mythos.
Here he is seen as one of the Eternals, not just a single faculty
or part of an Eternal. However, the rending apart of Urizen and
Los can be seen as the beginning of the notion that Urizen is
just part of a whole. As the creator of the fallen world, Urizen
takes on the role of the monotheistic deity and lawgiver, Jehovah,
or the Nobodaddy of "To Nobodaddy."
In his role of founder of this religion, the creator of the net
of religion, he is the Primeval Priest. In his pursuit of single
rule, he is also the archetypal King, the political oppressor.
Urthona
Urthona is one of the four Zoas who make up
the four-fold individual (see Albion and Eternal(s)). He is the creative imagination.
His name is a pun on "Earth Owner." He is a blacksmith
who creates forms in his smithy, building the world. His Spectre
is Los, and his Emanation
is Enitharmon. In the fallen world he is manifest
as Los, the Eternal Prophet who keeps the
vision of Eternity in the time of trouble.
Urthona does not appear in the Urizen books. Although his name
appears in the early prophecies, America and Europe,
he is not developed as a figure in Blake's mythos until the later
prophecies, The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem.
In the Urizen Books, we can see Blake starting to develop this
figure in Los.
Utha:
Utha, the second son of Urizen, is the element
water. The other three elements are represented by three other
sons of Urizen: Grodna = earth, Thiriel
= air, and Fuzon = fire. As the four elements,
these four sons of Urizen form the material basis of Urizen's
world. See Urizen, Plate
24, for an illustration of the birth of the four elements
and Urizen, Plate 12,
for an illustration of the element water.
Zoas:
The Zoas are the fundamental aspects of the four-fold individual:
the creative imagination (Urthona), the reason
(Urizen), the emotions (Luvah),
and the body (Tharmas) (see Albion
and Eternal(s)). The Zoas function together
in an Eternal, making it possible for it to act in the community
that inhabits and gives shape to Eternity.
If the Zoas become disordered, if one of them usurps the role
of another, the individual (for Blake Albion) falls into Ulro
and a deadly sleep. Albion awakens when each Zoa resumes its proper
role.