The Complete Poems
Page 89
ANTICHRIST: In Christian tradition, the Beast of Revelation 13:17, Christ’s great opponent who will be conquered at the Second Coming.
ARAM: Biblical son of Cush, grandson of NOAH, ancestor of the Arameans; also a Hebrew name for Syria.
ARISTON: In Herodotus, a Spartan king who stole his bride from his best friend. In B., a ‘king of beauty’ in legendary Atlantis.
ARNON: A Jordanian river which runs through a great gorge into the Dead Sea. In B., the female sexual tract (Damon, Dictionary), hence a symbol of birth.
ARTHUR: Legendary British king who established the Round Table and the code of chivalry which idealized war and womankind. He was deceived by his queen (Gwineverra) and slain in treacherous battle, but is supposed one day to return. He is identified with the northern constellation Boötes, which circles around the Pole Star (associated with war in B.).
ASHER: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
ATLANTIC: The ocean which separates Britain from America. In B. the two were once united in a single golden continent (ATLANTIC MOUNTAINS or ATLANTIC HILLS), now flooded and lost like the legendary Atlantis. The sea is ‘the Sea of Time and Space’.
BABEL: City founded by the warrior-monarch Nimrod on the plain of Shinar (Mesopotamia). Site of the Tower of Babel.
BABYLON: Capital city of the Babylonian (Mesopotamian) Empire, a chief foe of Israel, by which Jerusalem was sacked, her Temple destroyed and the Hebrews taken into captivity. In Christian apocalyptic literature, Babylon, with its luxurious living, stands for Rome, persecutor of Christianity. She is ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth’ and will be overthrown at the Second Coming. B. also identifies her with Rahab. See MYSTERY; RAHAB.
BACON, FRANCIS: 1561–1626. First Baron Verulam, statesman and philosopher, a founder of modern scientific method. ‘Bacon Newton & Locke’ constitute B.’s false trinity of English rationalists.
BATH: A popular spa in the eighteenth century, site of an unfinished Norman cathedral. Bath’s Rev. Richard Warner was a famous pacifist preacher in B.’s day.
BENJAMIN: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
BETH PEOR: See PEOR.
BEULAH: 1. Heb. ‘married land’, the name which will be given Palestine when returned to God’s favour (Isaiah 62:4).
2. In Pilgrim’s Progress, a happy land where the pilgrims dwell until crossing the river JORDAN (Death) into eternal life. 3. In B., a dream-world paradise presided over by the moon, and by beautiful comforting females. It is a resting-place from the vigorous life of EDEN (Eternity), but too-prolonged rest may lead to ULRO (Materialism). For fallen Mankind, Beulah is the way back to Eden: it is the subconscious, and the source of poetry. See EDEN; GENERATION; ULRO.
BEULAH, DAUGHTERS OF: B.’s Muses.
BEULAH, CHURCHES OR HEAVENS OF: The lower border of Beulah consists of churches, which to fallen man seem like heavens above him. There are three (brain, heart, loins); twelve (Paganism); or twenty-seven (official Judeo-Christianity).
BOADICEA: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
BOWEN: See ALBION, SONS OF.
BOWLAHOOLA: A workshop of LOS in GOLGONOOZA; Man’s digestive system; a region of anvils and furnaces where unborn souls receive bodies; Law. Associated with ALLAMANDA, the circulatory system.
BRERETON: See ALBION, SONS OF.
BRITANNIA: In f, England, wife of Albion, who divided at the Fall into VALA (the dominant female) and Jerusalem (the true but rejected female).
BROMION: Gr. bromios, ‘roaring’. In VDA, a self-justifying rapist: rational science or technology brutally applied. Elsewhere, a son of LOS: the artist’s science. See also RINTRAH; PALAMABRON; THEOTORMON.
CAMBEL: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
CANAAN: The Biblical Promised Land, conquered by the Israelites.
CANTERBURY: Seat of the English Church. B. at times guardedly refers to it as VERULAM, which was within its ecclesiastical province.
CATHEDRON: Cathedral? Catherine? A building in GOLGONOOZA, where ENITHARMON and her daughters weave the web of life. The womb; possibly the art of painting.
CHALDEA: Biblical nation hostile to the Hebrews. The Patriarch Abraham’s original native land.
CHARLEMAINE: 742–814. Founder of the Holy Roman Empire.
CHEMOSH: Moabite god, worshipped by burning children alive.
CHERUB: See COVERING CHERUB.
CHERUBIM: In the Old Testament, winged beings or figures associated with the majesty and inaccessibility of God. Cherubim guard the Garden of Eden after Man’s expulsion. Carved cherubim guard the Ark of God within the Holy of Holies. Embroidered, they adorned the veil of the Temple. Elsewhere, they bear God’s throne or chariot. Ezekiel identifies them with his visionary ‘living creatures’. In Christian literature they become the high angelic order (Wisdom) second only to seraphim (Love).
In B. cherubim are sometimes angelic spirits and merciful intercessors, sometimes representatives of Pagan or Norse mythology, but most often guardians of Holiness, separating Man from union with the Divine. As sexual symbols the two cherubim which cover the Ark are female labia; the cherubim depicted on the Veil constitute the hymen. See COVERING CHERUB.
CHEVIOT: Hills on the English–Scottish border, location of the war–ballad ‘Chevy Chase’.
CHURCHES: See TWENTY-SEVEN CHURCHES.
CIRCLE OF DESTINY: In FZ, set in motion at the Fall, it crashes at the Flood. Historically corresponds to the Olympian period in mythology, in which even Zeus is subject to Destiny.
COBAN: See ALBION, SONS OF.
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT: 288?–337. Roman ruler, founder of Christian Empire.
CONWENNA: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
CORDELLA: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
COVERING CHERUB: In Ezekiel (28:1–19) the blasphemous Prince of Tyre who says ‘I am a God’ is identified with the ‘cherub that covereth’. In B. this figure represents Churches throughout history, and is identified as ANTICHRIST at the close of f. See CHERUBIM.
DAN: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
DAUGHTERS OF ALBION: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
DIVINE FAMILY: (Universal Family; Eternal Family; the Eternals) The community of perfect beings in Eternity (Eden). Seen close by, they are multitudes of individuals. Seen from afar, they are One Man, Jesus. ALBION is originally a member of this family, and ultimately reunites with it.
DIVINE HUMANITY: God; Jesus.
DRAGON: B.’s symbol of Empire.
DRUIDS: The priests and judges of primitive Britain and Gaul. According to B. and his eighteenth-century sources, they: (1) Originated in Britain and formed the first patriarchal religion. B. identifies them with the Hebrew Patriarchs. (2) Practised human sacrifice, burning victims or slaying them alive on stone altars. (3) Worshipped the oak. (4) Built huge stone serpenttemples at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, Avebury, Verulam and elsewhere.
EDEN: Dwelling-place of the Divine Family of Eternals; region of perfectly fulfilled ‘fourfold’ humanity. Lesser and lower realms are BEULAH, GENERATION and ULRO.
EDOM: Another name for Esau, son of Jacob, who lost his birthright and blessing. A nation hostile to Israel.
EGYPT: The nation from which Moses led the Jews; symbol of hostility, cruelty and slavery.
ELOHIM: Heb. ‘God’. A name for God used in Genesis I and elsewhere; a collective plural form. See SEVEN EYES OF GOD.
ELYNITTRIA: A daughter of LOS and ENITHARMON, emanation of PALAMABRON.
EMANATION: B.’s term for the female portion of Man. In Eternity, where Man is bisexual, the Emanation is a part of any being, and is experienced as his inspiration and dwelling-place. In the Fall, she becomes a separate being, and the reunion of Man and his emanation is necessary for re-entry to Eternity. The Four Zoas each have emanations, as do other male figures. See also SHADOW, SPECTRE.
ENION: Anyone? Emanation of THARMAS, Man’s sensation, and power of coherence. In the Fall, as he becomes chaotic Flood, she becomes water vapour, tears and the ‘watery grave’, an aged and helpless D
emeter-figure. She is the parent of LOS and ENITHARMON.
ENITHARMON: Enion + Tharmas; In Harmony; Gr. anarithmon, ‘numberless’. The emanation of LOS, the Eternal Prophet; his Muse; his Pity; in fallen form, an archetypal jealous, elusive and cruel Female Will. In BU, the first female. In Europe, a selfish sky-goddess. Insofar as they work for Man’s regeneration, Los is Time, Enitharmon is Space; Los is Sun, Enitharmon is Moon; Los is Poetry, Enitharmon is Painting; Los is the blacksmith of souls, Enitharmon is the weaver of bodies. At times: Los is Blake, Enitharmon is Catherine Blake.
ENO: Eon; One. The undefined ‘aged Mother’ who speaks The Book of Los, sings The Four Zoas and is a nurse of souls in BEULAH.
ENTUTHON BENYTHON: A gloomy forest of error in ULRO. It surrounds the city of GOLGONOOZA (Art) and contains the black lake UDAN-ADAN (Formlessness).
EPHRAIM: See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Son of JOSEPH, younger brother of MANASSEH. The land allotted to his tribe included the sanctuary-city SHILOH in Mt Ephraim, as well as the city of Shechem. Its powerful capital, TIRZAH, became the capital of the secessionist Northern Kingdom of Israel.
ERIN: Archaic name for Ireland; in B., symbolizes hope for Liberty.
ERYTHREAN SEA: B.’s name, following the antiquarian Bryant, for the Indian Ocean.
ESAU: See EDOM.
ESTRILD: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
ETERNAL PROPHET: See LOS.
ETERNALS: See DIVINE FAMILY.
ETHINTHUS: Daughter of LOS and ENITHARMON; a moon-goddess, her consort is Manathu-Vorcyon.
EUPHRATES: The river which flows by Babylon.
EYES OF GOD: See SEVEN EYES OF GOD.
FELPHAM: Coastal village in Sussex, where B. lived under William Hayley’s patronage 1800–1803.
FEMALE, SHADOWY: See SHADOWY FEMALE.
FOUR ZOAS: From Gr. Zα, ‘living creatures’. The energies of Mankind, or of any individual man. In Eternity they are integrated as the members of a single divine being. In the Fall, they divide and war against Man and each other, split from their EMANATIONS (female counterparts) and degenerate in character. They are the agents of Man’s history, and re-unite at the final apocalypse.
Name (Emanation)
URIZEN (AHANIA)
LUVAH (VALA)
THARMAS (ENION)
URTHONA (ENITHARMON)
Title
‘Prince of light’
‘Prince of love’
Faculty
Reason
Passion
Sensation
Instinct
Eternal Role
Ploughman
Vintner
Shepherd
Blacksmith
Eternal Virtue
Faith, certainty
Love
Coherence, receptivity
Creativity
Fallen Form
‘God, Priest, King’
ORC (SHADOWY FEMALE) ‘Demon Red’
‘Parent Power’
LOS (ENITHARMON) ‘Eternal Prophet’
Fallen Character
Doubt, Tyranny
Rebellion, Revolution
Flood, Chaos
Poetry, Prophecy
Element
Air (light)
Fire (heat)
Water
Earth
Region
S. (zenith)
E. (centre)
W. (circumference)
N. (nadir)
Note: Los and Enitharmon are born from Tharmas and Enion and in turn become the parents of Orc and the Shadowy Female.
FUZON: A son of URIZEN (BU) symbolizes Rebellion against Law; fills roles of Moses, Prometheus, Christ.
GAD: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
GENERATION: The state of nature in its continuing cycle of life and death; a ‘vegetative’ world. Above it are EDEN (human perfection) and BEULAH (the dream-paradise); below it is ULRO (dead matter).
GILEAD: A region in eastern Palestine known for its balm; also Mt Gilead.
GOLGONOOZA: From Golgotha, ‘hill of skulls’. The City of Art built by Los throughout human history in the midst of the fallen material world of ULRO.
GONORILL: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
GUANTOK: See ALBION, SONS OF.
GWENDOLEN: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
GWINIFRED: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
GWINEVERRA: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
HAND: See ALBION, SONS OF.
HAR and HEVA: From Heb. har, ‘mountain’, and Lat. Eva, ‘Eve’. Parents of Mankind, in B.’s early and transitional prophetic books; a senile and helpless Adam and Eve; a representation of the failure of natural law and classical culture.
HAVILAH: Heb. ‘sand’. Land supposed to have been compassed by the Pison, one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden; Havilah and Shur bounded the Ishmaelite territory.
HEAVENS, TWENTY-SEVEN: See TWENTY-SEVEN CHURCHES.
HERMAPHRODITE: A being with both male and female sexual organs. In B., a major symbol of monstrous sterility and contradiction evolving at the end of a process of error, usually associated with war and Churches.
HERMON: Highest mountain in Palestine.
HESPERIA: Italy.
HOREB: Heb., ‘mountain of God’. The place where God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. Also another name for Mt Sinai, where God issued the Ten Commandments.
HUTTON: See ALBION, SONS OF.
HYLE: See ALBION, SONS OF.
IGNOGE: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.
ISRAEL: Jacob’s name was changed by God to Israel, and he became ancestor of the Israelites. In B., Albion and Israel were one nation in Eternity. In the Fall, they are divided.
ISRAEL, SONS OF: Jacob–Israel had twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph and Benjamin. Each founded one tribe, except for Joseph, who founded two: MANASSEH and EPHRAIM. After the Exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan, each tribe received a portion of land, except for the Levites (the priest-caste) who received forty-eight ‘cities of refuge’. After the Babylonian captivity, only two tribes – Judah and Benjamin – returned to the Holy Land; the rest were ‘Lost Tribes’.
In B., the Sons of Jacob–Israel are lost portions of Albion, who erroneously flee him and become incorporated in material bodies. Their conquest and settlement of Canaan confirm this tragic separation. Redeemed, they will return to Albion. Meanwhile, they correspond in spirit to the twelve SONS OF ALBION.
ISSACHAR: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
JEHOVAH: The personal ‘name’ of God, told to Moses at Horeb. In B., sometimes a symbol of Moral Law, sometimes a symbol of Forgiveness. See SEVEN EYES OF GOD.
JERUSALEM: The Holy City of the Bible. In B., the emanation of Albion; Liberty; the intended bride of the Lamb.
JORDAN: River forming the eastern boundary of the Promised Land; the place of Jesus’ baptism; traditionally, to ‘cross the Jordan’ means to die and enter Paradise.
JOSEPH: See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Because he was his father’s favourite, his jealous brothers stripped his ‘coat of many colours’, sold him as a slave into Egypt and pretended he was dead.
JUDAH (JUDEA): See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Judah’s lands formed the Southern Kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem. He was also the ancestor of David and Jesus.
KOBAN: See ALBION, SONS OF.
KOTOPE: See ALBION, SONS OF.
KOX: See ALBION, SONS OF.
KWANTOK: See ALBION, SONS OF.
LAMBETH: Beth is Heb. ‘house’; hence for B., ‘house of the Lamb’. London district containing B.’s home, 1791–1800.
LEBANON: Fertile mountain region north of the Holy Land.
LEUTHA: A daughter of LOS and ENITHARMON, EMANATION of BROMION; sometimes paired with ANTAMON and SATAN. She represents female exotic impulse and allure, miscalled ‘Sin’. Her vale (valley) is the female genital region.
LEUTHA’S DOGS, ISLE OF: The Isle of Dogs, a dock area of London known for vice.
LEVI: See ISRAEL, SONS OF.
LOCKE, JOHN: 1632–1704. Most popularly accepted English philosopher of the eighteenth century. In B., he is objectionable for the belief that the human mind at birth is a blank slate without innate ideas, and that all knowledge and motivation must thus derive ultimately from sense-experience. ‘Bacon, Newton & Locke’ constitute B.’s false trinity of English rationalists.
LONDON STONE: A Roman milestone set in central London. In B., a symbol of Druid human sacrifice and the errors of rationalism.
LOS: (Loss; Sol) ‘The Eternal Prophet’, fallen form of the Zoa Urthona (see FOUR ZOAS). He is Prophecy, Poetry, the creative impulse throughout human history; Time; the sun of Imagination. He is the blacksmith of Man; at times he is William Blake. His major works are: (1) the binding of Urizen (BU, BL, FZ); (2) the building of GOLGONOOZA (FZ, M, J).
LUBAN: The gate of GOLGONOOZA, City of Art, which faces on this world. Site of CATHEDRON, where bodies are woven, and Los’s palace, furnaces and forge, where souls are wrought. The omphalos or vagina (Damon, Dictionary) of this world.
LUCIFER: ‘Light-bearer’, morning star. Traditionally identified with the fallen SATAN. See SEVEN EYES OF GOD.
LUTHER, MARTIN: 1483–1546. Founder of the German Reformation; for B., a father of militant (and military) Protestantism. See TWENTY-SEVEN CHURCHES
LUVAH: Love, lover, lava. ‘Prince of Love’; Man’s passions, both active and suffering. In FZ, his struggle with URIZEN for control of Man produces the Fall. In this world he is manifested as ORC (active Rebellion) and the incarnate and crucified Lamb (passive Suffering). In political allegory (f) he is France, Urizen is England. Redeemed (FZ IX), he becomes first Eros, then the Dionysian ruler of the Last Vintage whose wine-press is war on earth, and finally a servant. See FOUR ZOAS.
MALDEN (MALDON): A port in south-east England; B. associates it with Druidism.
MANASSEH: See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Older son of JOSEPH, brother of EPHRAIM. His lands became part of the apostate Northern Kingdom, whose capital was TIRZAH.
MEDWAY: A river emptying into the Thames.
MEHETABEL: See ALBION, DAUGHTERS OF.