Blake's Tree

Genesis 2[9] And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 3
[22] And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
[23] Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
[24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

When he was a young boy Blake reported that he had seen a tree filled with angels; one of his parents disapproved.

In Marriage of Heaven and Hell:
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." 

"For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life."


A Poison Tree:
"I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;\
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree." 

---

From the Book of Ahania:

"For when Urizen shrunk away

From Eternals, he sat on a rock
Barren; a rock which himself
From redounding fancies had petrified
Many tears fell on the rock,
Many sparks of vegetation;                             
Soon shot the pained root
Of Mystery, under his heel:
It grew a thick tree; he wrote
In silence his book of iron:
Till the horrid plant bending its boughs    
Grew to roots when it felt the earth
And again sprung to many a tree.
 Amaz'd started Urizen! when
He  beheld  himself compassed round
And high roofed over with trees             
He arose but the stems stood so thick
He with difficulty and great pain
Brought his Books, all but the Book
Of iron, from the dismal shade
The Tree still grows over the Void
Enrooting itself all around
An endless labyrinth of woe!
The corse of his first begotten          
On the accursed Tree of MYSTERY:
On the topmost stem of this Tree
Urizen nail'd Fuzons corse
(Erdman 86-87)

For the tree of Mystery go here. 

Milton 12

Rosenwald L of C
Milton Plate 45

Milton is holding up Urizen; they have crossed the Arnon:

From the Blake Dictionary we get an idea of Arnon in the Bible.


From Bible in Milton
Milton, Plate 19 [21], (E 112)
"Urizen emerged from his Rocky Form & from his Snows,

And he also darkend his brows: freezing dark rocks between
The footsteps. and infixing deep the feet in marble beds:
That Milton labourd with his journey, & his feet bled sore
Upon the clay now chang'd to marble; also Urizen rose,
And met him on the shores of Arnon; & by the streams of the
brooks

Silent they met, and silent strove among the streams, of Arnon
Even to Mahanaim, when with cold hand Urizen stoop'd down
And took up water from the river Jordan: pouring on
To Miltons brain the icy fluid from his broad cold palm.
But Milton took of the red clay of Succoth, moulding it with care
Between his palms: and filling up the furrows of many years
Beginning at the feet of Urizen, and on the bones
Creating new flesh on the Demon cold, and building him,
As with new clay a Human form in the Valley of Beth Peor."

Milton 11

Rosenwald LC
Milton 42

Erdman suggests that the image of two people may be post-coital, "the moment of the fall of Milton's star, the descent of Ololon.....as an eagle screams waking naked lovers....the reluctant sleepers are archetypically Albion and his bride, Jerusalem.

Awake, awake: we hear that over and over in the New Testament; both the  Bible and William Blake are trying to awaken us from our sleep; In MHH Blake quoted Ezekiel, who spoke of "the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite".

The concordance shows 87 occurrences to the word, 'awake' as:

I cry the watchman heareth not I pour my voice in roarings
Watchman the night is thick & darkness cheats my rayie sight
Lift up Lift up O Los awake my watchman for he sleepeth
Lift up Lift up Shine forth O Light watchman thy light is out  
O Los unless thou keep my tower the Watchman will be slain

The concordance shows 71 occurrences of the word, 'couch' as:

"Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enterd into
PLATE 42 [49]                                                t
Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion
Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek
Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder!
Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths              
Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea."

The Dove upon the stormy Sea is obviously taken from Genesis:

Gen.8

[8] Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
[9] But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
[10] And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
[11] And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
[12] And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Name the two people Albion and England represent the Lord's people.

The eagle found here is described in Jerusalem as a tradional symbol of St. John, the living trumpet of prophecy. (from page 259 of Erdman's Illuminated Blake)

Milton 7

Here we have a good definition of Beulah

PLATE 30 [33]
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills           
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah
Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district       
As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah,
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest.

And it is thus Created. Lo the Eternal Great Humanity            
To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore Amen
Walks among all his awful Family seen in every face
As the breath of the Almighty. such are the words of man to man
In the great Wars of Eternity, in fury of Poetic Inspiration,
To build the Universe stupendous: Mental forms Creating          

But the Emanations trembled exceedingly, nor could they
Live, because the life of Man was too exceeding unbounded
His joy became terrible to them they trembled & wept
Crying with one voice. Give us a habitation & a place
In which we may be hidden under the shadow of wings              
For if we who are but for a time, & who pass away in winter
Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume
But you O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity

But grant us a Temporal Habitation. do you speak
To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus                 
The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen

So spake the lovely Emanations; & there appeard a pleasant
Mild Shadow above: beneath: & on all sides round,

PLATE 31 [34]
Into this pleasant Shadow all the weak & weary
Like Women & Children were taken away as on wings
Of dovelike softness, & shadowy habitations prepared for them
But every Man returnd & went still going forward thro'
The Bosom of the Father in Eternity on Eternity                  
Neither did any lack or fall into Error without

(Erdman 129-30)

And here is the biblical counterpart:

Isaiah 62 verse 4:

 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.





The falling star of  past Plates is enlarged here to conclude the beinning image of 'Book the Second' in what Erdman calls a "merciful embrace".

Human figures are said to "rehearse a judgment scene". To Falling men are at the corners and beside the right hand one a woman pointing up (these two thought to be like a falling 

Adam and  a rising Eve. 

Milton 6

From the Plate immediately before the one with the image we have:

"First Milton saw Albion upon the Rock of Ages,
Deadly pale outstretchd and snowy cold, storm coverd;
A Giant form of perfect beauty outstretchd on the rock

In solemn death: the Sea of Time & Space thunderd aloud
Against the rock, which was inwrapped with the weeds of death    
Hovering over the cold bosom, in its vortex Milton bent down
To the bosom of death, what was underneath soon seemd above.
A cloudy heaven mingled with stormy seas in loudest ruin;
But as a wintry globe descends precipitant thro' Beulah bursting,
With thunders loud and terrible: so Miltons shadow fell        
Precipitant loud thundring into the Sea of Time & Space.

Then first I saw him in the Zenith as a falling star,
Descending perpendicular, swift as the swallow or swift;
And on my left foot falling on the tarsus, enterd there;
But from my left foot a black cloud redounding spread over
     Europe.          

Then Milton knew that the Three Heavens of Beulah were beheld
By him on earth in his bright pilgrimage of sixty years"

(Erdman 109-10)

Rosenwald Lof C
Milton Plate 32

The star we saw above the large MILTON at Milton 2  has fallen to a point above his lower leg.  He has been coming down a series of large stone steps.

The flaming Satan (or Selfhood) we saw at Milton 3 is seen only as smoke now.
Erdman suggests that the impact of this moment is like that of the fire brought to the sons of Job.


This ends the first Book of Milton.  Near the begining of Book the Second is a mirror image of this one, but instead of Wiiliam at the top we find Robert.

As everyone knows Blake had a beloved younger brother named Robert'; William and Robert lived and conferred to one another continuously until Robert's unfortunately died, leaving William bereft.

But not entirely; William tells us that he continued to confer  day after day with Robert; he might tells us that he and Robert lived together in two wor                     qlds: mortal and eternal. William would say he preferred the eternal (supperstitiously????).