Specific Trees:
Blake's Trees of Mystery:
Pity would be no more,
And mutual fear brings peace;
He sits down with holy fears,
Soon spreads the dismal shade
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
The Gods of the earth and sea,
Urizen is once again an integral component of the development of the Tree of Mystery.
"He writes 'dreadful letters'--the Ten Commandments--in his books of iron, and the Tree of Mystery
once more springs up under his heel, as in Ahania. The Tree soon becomes a system
of 'intricate labyrinths'--a 'Church' with its own theology, law, and political
structure" (Paley 112).
(40v:206, M 41; qtd. in Paley 114-116).
(qtd. in Paley 166).
Finally, Christ "descends in pity, and is judged by the Synagogue of Satan, in which
Vala sits triumphant 'in the cruelties of holiness'. He is condemned
to death, and crucified on the Tree of
Mystery" (Blackstone 94). However, all is
not lost. Enion, "the Generative instinct," has a song of hope; she says "The Lamb
of God has rent the Veil of Mystery, soon to return / In Clouds & Fires around the
rock & the Mysterious
tree" (FZ 420; qtd. in Blackstone 95).
"The Human Abstract"
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpillar and Fly,
Feed on Mystery.
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain
The Tree of Mystery is Blake's symbol for "the network of Church-and-State religion--the Church
as political body and the State as religious
object" (Paley 84). The Tree of Mystery
is easily seen in The Book of Urizen.
"Myth and politics converge in Blake's image of Fuzon crucified on the Tree of Mystery . . . Fuzon
is, as Frye remarks (p. 215), a sacrifice to himself. Nailed by Urizen to the Tree, he
is also a type of St. Sebastian.
Forth flew the arrows of pestilence
The image of the arrow-pierced St. Sebastian was used as an icon against disease in the Middle
Ages . . . [And] To Blake there is a terrible irony in the identification of the disease
with the cure" (Paley 84-85).
Round the pale living Corse on the tree
(4:9-10, E 86)Orc answered Curse thy Cold hypocrisy. already round they Tree
In scales that shine with gold & rubies thou beginnest to weaken
My divided Spirit Like a worm I rise in peace unbound
From wrath Now when I rage my fetters bind me more
O torment O torment A Worm compelld. Am I a worm
Is it in strong deceit that man is born. In strong deceit
Thou dost restrain my fury that the worm may fold the tree
A crest of fire rose on his forehead red as the carbuncle
Beneath down to his eyelids scales of pearl then gold & silver
Immingled with the ruby overspread his Visage down
His furious neck writ[h]ing contortive in dire budding pains,br>
The scaly armour shot out. Stubborn down his back & bosom
The Emerald Onyx Sapphire jasper berl amethyst
Strove in terrific emulation which should gain a place
Upon the mighty Fiend the fruit of the mysterious tree
Kneaded in Uveths kneading trough.
- "Love and harmony combine . . ."
Love and harmony combine,
And around our souls intwine,
While thy branches mix with mine,
And our roots together join.Joys upon our branches sit,
Chirping loud, and singing sweet;
Like gentle streams between our feet
Innocence and virtue meet.Thou the golden fruit dost bear
I am clad in flowers fair;
Thy sweet boughs perfume the air,
And the turtle buildeth there.There she sits and feeds her young,
Sweet I hear her mournful song;
And thy lovely leaves among,
There is love: I hear his tongue.There his charming nest doth lay,
There he sleeps the night away;
There he sports along the day,
And doth among our branches play.(qtd. in Adams 37).
I saw the limbs form'd for exercise, contemn'd: & the beauty of
Eternity, look'd upon as deformity & lovliness as a dry tree:
I saw disease forming a Body of Death around the Lamb
Of God, to destroy Jerusalem, & to devour the body of Albion
Terrified at the sublime Wonder, Los stood before his Furnaces.
And they stood around, terrified with admiration at Erins Spaces
For the Spaces reachd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth;
And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal Labour!What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-place
Of soft Ethinthus? near Tyburns fatal Tree? is that
Mild Zions hills most ancient promontory; near mournful
Ever weeping Paddington? is that Calvary and Golgotha? Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!
And there it meets Eternity again, both within and without,
And the abstract Voids between the Stars are the Satanic Wheels.There is the Cave; the Rock; the Tree; the Lake of Udan Adan;
The Forest, and the Marsh, and the Pits of bitumen deadly:
The Rocks of solid fire: the Ice valleys: the Plains
Of burning sand: the rivers, cataract & Lakes of Fire:
The Islands of the fiery Lakes: the Trees of Malice: Revenge:
And black Anxiety; and the Citiesof the Salamandrine men:
(But whatever is visible to the Generated Man,
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void.)
One hair nor one particle of dust, not one can pass away.He views the Cherub at the Tree of Life, also the Serpent,
Orc the first born coild in the south: the Dragon Urizne:
Tharmas the Vegtated Tongue even the Devouring Tongue:
A threefold region, a false brain: a false heart:
And false bowels: altogether composing the False Tongue,
Beneath Beulah . . .
. . . No more the sinful delights
Of age and youth and boy and girl and animal and herb,
And river and mountain, and city & village, and house & family.
Beneath the Oak & Palm, beneath the Vine and Fig-tree.
In self-denial! . . .
He recoil'd: he rush'd outward; he bore the Veil whole away
His fires redound from his Dragon Altars in Errors returning.
He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel Laws,
And cast it into the Atlantic Deep, to catch the Souls of the Dead.
He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping
Which stand upon the edge of Beulah; and there Albin sunk
Down in sick pallid languor! . . .
Where Albion slept beneath the Fatal Tree
And the Druids golden Knife,
Rioted in human gore,
In Offerings of Human LifeThey groan'd aloud on London Stone
They groan'd aloud on Tyburns Brook
Albion gave his deadly groan,
And all the Atlantic Mountains shook
And Albion spoke from his secret seat and said
. . .
I therefore condense them into solid rocks, stedfast!
A foundation and certainty and demonstrative truth:
That Man be separate from Man, & here I plant my seat.Cold snows drifted around him: ice coverd his loins around
He sat by Tyburns brook, and underneath his heel, shot up!
A deadly Tree, he nam'd it Moral Virtue, and the Law
Of God who dwells in Chaos hidden from the human sight.The Tree spread over him its cold shadows, (Albion groand)
They bent down, they felt the earth and again enrooting
Shot into many a Tree! an endless labyrinth of woeFrom willing sacrifice of Self, to sacrifice of (miscall'd) Enemies
For Atonement: Albion began to erect twelve Altars,
Of rough unhewn rocks, before the Potters Furnace
He name'd them Justice, and Truth . . .
Vala replied in clouds of tears Albions garment embracingI was a City & a Temple built by Albions Children.
I was a Garden planted with beauty I allured on hill & valley
The River of Life to flow against my walls & among my trees
Vala was Albions Bride & Wife in great Eternity
. . .
Why was I one with her [Jerusalem] embracing in the Vision of Jesus
Wherefore did I loving create love . . .
Instead of Albions lovely mountains & the curtains of Jerusalem
I see a Cave, a Rock, a Tree deadly and poisonous, unimaginative
Oxford take thou these leaves of the Tree of Life: with eloquence
That thy immortal tongue inspires; present them to Albion:
Perhaps he may recieve them, offerd from thy loved hands.
So spoke, unhear'd by Albion: the merciful Son of Heaven
To those whose Western Gates were open, as they stood weeping
Around Albion: but Albion heard him not; obdurate! hard!
He frown'd on all his Friends, counting htem enemies in his sorrow
Bath, mild Physician of Eternity, mysterious power
Whose springs are unsearchable & knowledge infinite.
Hereford, ancient Guardian of Wales, whose hands
Builded the mountain palaces of Eden, stupendous works!
Lincoln, Durham & Carlisle, Councellors of Los.
And Ely, Scribe of Los, whose pen no other hand
Dare touch! Oxford, immortal Bard! with eloquence
Divine, he wept over Albion: speaking the words of God
In mild perswasion: bring leaves of the Tree of Life.
The Atlantic Mountains where Giants dwelt in Intellect;
Now given to stony Druids, and Allegoric Generation
To the Twelve Gods of Asia, the Spectres of those who Sleep:
Sway'd by a Providence oppos'd to the Divine Lord Jesus:
A murderous Providence! A Creation that groans, living on Death.
Where Fish & Bird & Beast & Man & Tree & Metal & Stone
Live by Devouring, going into Eternal Death continually:
Albion is now possess'd by the War of Blood! the Sacrifice
Of envy Albion is become . . .
Thou lazy Monk they sound afar
In vain condemning glorious War
And in your Cell you shall ever dwell
Rise War & bind him in his Cell.The blood. red ran from the Grey Monks side
His hands & feet were wounded wide
His body bent, his arms & knees
Like to the roots of ancient trees
But Los, who is the Vehicular Form of strong Urthona
Wept vehemently over Albion where Thames currents spring
From the rivers of Beulah; pleasant river! soft mild parent stream
And the roots of Albions Tree enterd the Soul of Los
As he sat before his Furnaces clothd in sackcloth of hair
In gnawing pain dividing him from his Emanation;
Inclosing all the children of Los time after time.
Let the Human Organs be kept in their perfect Integrity
At will Contracting into Worms, or Expanding into Gods
And then behold! what are these Ulro Visions of Chastity [?]
Then as the moss upon the tree: or dust upon the plow:
. . .
Such are these Ulro Visions . . .
And formed into Four precious stones. for enterance from Beulah
For the Veil of Vala which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep
To catch the Souls of the Dead: began to Vegetate & Petrify
Around the Earth of Albion. among the Roots of his Tree
This Los formed into the Gates & mighty wall, between the Oak
Of Weeping & the Palm of Suffering beneath Albions Tomb.
Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity
For in the depths of Albions bosom in the eastern heaven,
They sound the clarions strong! they chain the howling Captives!
They cast the lots into the helmet: they give the oath of blood in Lambeth
They vote the death of Luvah, & they naild him to Albions Tree in Bath:
They staind him with poisonous blue, they inwove him in cruel roots
To die a death of Six thousand years bound round with vegetation
The sun was black & the moon rolld a useless globe thro Britain!
This is not warbling brook, nor shadow of a mirtle tree:
But blood and wounds and dismal cries, and shadows of the oak:
And hearts laid open to the light, by the broad grizly sword
Six months of mortality; a summer: & six months of mortality; a winter:
The Human form began to be alterd by the Daughters of Albion
And the perceptins to be dissipated into the Indefinite. Becoming
A might Polypus nam'd Albions Tree: they tie the Veins
And Nerves into two knots: & the Seed into a double knot:
They look forth: the Sun is shrunk: the Heavens are shrunk:
Away into the far remote: and the Trees & Mountains witherd
Into indefinite cloudy shadows in darkness & separation.
By Invisible Hatred adjoind, they seem remote and separate
From each other, and yet are a Mighty Polypus in the Deep!
As the Mistletoe grows on the Oak, so Albions Tree on Eternity: Lo!
He who will not comingle in Love, must be adjoind by Hate
The Rocks are opake hardnesses covering all Vegetated things.
And as they Wove &Cut from the Looms in various divisions
Stretching over Europe & Asia from Ireland to Japan
They divided into many lovely Daughters to be counterparts
To those they Wove, for when they Wove a Male, they divided
Into a Female to the Woven Male. in opake hardness
They cut the Fibres from the Rocks groaning in pain they Weave;
Calling the Rocks Atomic Origins of Existence; denying Eternity
By the Atheistical Epicurean Philosophy of Albions Tree
Such are the Feminine & Masculine when separated from Man
Breeding Women walking in pride & bringing forht under green trees
With pleasure, without pain, for their food is. blood of the Captive
Perusing Albions Tomb in the starry characters of Og & Anak:
To Create the lion & wolf the bear: the tyger & ounce:
To Create the wooly lamb & downy fowl & scaly serpent
The summer & winter: day & night: the sun & moon & stars
The tree: the plant: the flower: the rock : the stone: the metal:
Of Vegetative Nature: by their hard restricting condensations.
Encompassd by the frozen Net and by the rooted Tree
I walk weeping in pangs of a Mothers torment for her Children:
I waslk in affliction: I am a worm, and no living soul!
A worm going to eternal torment! raisd up in a night
To an eternal night of pain, lost! lost! lost! for ever!
Hand slept on Skiddaws top: drawn by the love of beautiful
Cambel: his bright, beaming Counterpart, divided from him
And her delusive light beamd fierce above the Mountain,
Soft, invisible: drinking his sighs in sweet intoxication:
Drawing out fibre by fibre: returning to Albions Tree
At night . . .
According to his changes: she roll'd his kidneys round
Into two irregular forms: and lookin on Albions dread Tree
She wove two vessels of seed, beautiful as Skiddaws snow;
Let us lead the stems of this Tree let us plant it before Jerusalem
To judge the Friend of Sinners to death without the Veil:
By the fruit of Albions Tree I have fed him with sweet milk
By contentions of the mighty for Sacrifice of Captives;
Humanity the Great Delusion: is changd to War & Sacrifice:
I have naild his hands on Beth Rabbim & his [feet] on Heshbons Wall:
O that I could live in his sight: O that I could bind him to my arm.
Los saw the envious blight above his Seventh Furnace
On Londons Tower on the Thames: he drew Cambel in wrath,
Into his thundering Bellows, heaving it for a loud blast!
And with the blast of his Furnace upon fishy Billingsgate,
Beneath Albions fatal Tree, before the Gate of Los:
Shewd her the fibres of her beloved to ameliorate
The envy . . .
Thy Bosom white, translucent coverd with immortal gems
A sublime ornament not obscuring the outlines of beauty
Terrible to behold for they extreme beauty & perfection
Twelve-fold here all the Tribes of Israel I behold
Upon the Holy Land: I see the River of Life & Tree of Life
I see the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven
Between thy Wings of gold & silver featherd immortal
Clear as the rainbow, as the cloud of the Suns tabernacle
Where the Druids reard their Rocky Circles to make permanent Remembrance
Of Sin. & the Tree of Good & Evil sprang from the Rocky Circle & Snake
Of the Druid, along the Valley of Rephraim from Camberwell to Golgotha
And framed the Mundane Shell Cavernous in Length Bredth & Highth
Where is the Covenant of Priam, the Moral Virtues of the Heathen
Where is the Tree of Good & Evil that rooted beneath the cruel heel
Of Albions Spectre the Patriarch Druid! where are all his Human Sacrifices
For Sin in War & in the Druid Temples of the Accuser of Sin: beneath
The Oak Groves of Albion that coverd the whole Earth beneath his Spectre
Where are the Kingdoms of the World & all their glory that greww on Desolation
The Fruit of Albions Poverty Tree when the Triple Headed Gog-Magog Giant
Of Albion Taxed the Nations into Desolation & then gave the Spectrous Oath
Such is the Cry from all the Earth from the Living Creatures of the Earth
And from the great City of Golgonooza 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 & Stone. all
Human Forms identified, living going forth & returning wearied
Into the Planetary lives of Years Months Days & Hours reposing
And then Awaking into his Bosom in the Life of Immortality.And I heard the Name of their Emanations they are named Jerusalem
The End of The Song of Jerusalem