William Blake's mythology
The "prophetic works" of the English poet and mystic William Blake contain a rich mythology, in which Blake worked to encode his revolutionary spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. This desire to recreate the cosmos is the heart of his work and his psychology. His myths often described the struggle between enlightenment and free love on the one hand, and restrictive education and morals on the other.
Among Blake's inspirations were John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg, and the cabalistic writings of Jacob Boehme. Blake's vision went further, in that he not only expanded on the world of Biblical revelation, but sought to transcend it by fusion with his own interpretations of druidism and paganism.
The longest elaboration of this private myth-cycle was also his longest poem - The Four Zoas: The Death and Judgment of Albion The Ancient Man - left in manuscript form at the time of his death. In this work, Blake traces the fall of Albion, who "was originally fourfold but was self divided".
The parts into which Albion is divided are the four Zoas:
- Tharmas: representing instinct and strength
- Urizen: intellect; a cruel, Old Testament-style god.
- Luvah: love, passion and emotive faculties; a Christ-like figure, also known as Orc in his most amorous and rebellious form.
- Urthona, also known as Los: inspiration and the imagination
The Blake Pantheon also includes feminine emanations that have separated from an integrated male being, as Eve separated from Adam:
- The musical Enitharmon is an emanation from Los.
- The maternal Enion is an emanation from Tharmas.
- The seductive Vala is an emanation from Luvah.
- The celestial Ahanaia is an emanation from Urizen.
Artificial mythology
