Urizen

Urizen is a symbol of the human mind, a limiter of energy, a legislator, an envious tyrant, a revengeful conscience. As a political allegory, he personifies England . ^[2] The word Urizen is probably derived from a combination of the words “your reason” - “your mind”, or from similar Greek words meaning “to draw with a compass”, “limit” and “horizon”.

In his engravings and paintings, Blake depicts him, as a rule, in the form of a gray-haired bearded old man, sometimes with a giant compass in his hand, with the help of which he creates and limits the Universe, or with networks symbolizing laws and society, which he, like a web, entangles people. Sometimes he is depicted with an open book, or surrounded by several impressive folios, in which are written the laws he invented for humanity.

Victor Zhirmunsky defines this Blake character:

“Urizen - the biblical Jehovah , or Jupiter of ancient mythology, the creator of the material world, subject to the blind laws of mechanical necessity, the heavenly and earthly tyrant, the enemy of spiritual freedom and the enslaver of humanity, revered by all religions that sanctify violence and hypocritically preach humility - a monstrous image similar to Demogorgon in the “Released Prometheus“ Shelley ”. ^[3]

Initially, Urizen and its opposite Los formed a kind of unity in which Urizen represented the mind, and Los imagination. In the later advanced mythological system of Blake, Urizen becomes one of the four Zoa (or Beasts) resulting from the fall and division of Albion, the original and eternal Man, into four principles: rational, sensual, bodily and intuitive, represented by Urizen, Luva, Tarmas and Urtona .

In Blake’s works, Urizen embodies the Satanic principle and is likened to Milton's Satan from Paradise Lost . Blake himself wrote about this in one of his early prophetic books, “The Marriage of Paradise and Hell” (1790):

“... in Paradise Lost, the Ruler or Mind is called the Messiah . And the one who at the beginning was the Archangel or the lord of the myriad heavenly armies is called the Devil or Satan , and his child - Sin or Death. But in the book of Job , the one Milton calls the Messiah is called Satan. For both hostile parties operate in this story ... The biblical Jehovah is none other than the one who dwells in fiery hell. ” ^[4]

Achania , the emanation or female equivalent of Urizen and the mother of their many offspring, embodies pleasure. Urizen calls it “Sin” and removes it from himself, for he, the embodiment of the mind, cannot understand the need for pleasure. Their children are sections and subsections of Urizen's mind and intuition. Their three daughters are Elet, Uvet and She represent the three parts of the human body: head , heart and loins . Their four sons, Tiriel , Uta , Grodna and Fuzon , embody the four elements: air , water , earth and fire . Urizen curses his children, for he understands that "neither the flesh nor the spirit are able, at least for a moment, to withstand his iron laws" ^[5] . Four of his sons with arms rebel against his father, but then, at the Last Judgment , they reunite with him.

The name Urizen was first mentioned by Blake in the book “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” (1793). The dishonored maiden Oothoon curses Urizen and his teachings, calling him the "Demon of Delusion" and the "father of jealousy."

“O Urizen! Creator of men! mistaken Demon of heaven!	„O Urizen! Creator of the people! Lost Demon of Heaven!
Thy joys are tears, thy labor vain to form men to thine image.	Your joys are tears, your work of creating people in their own image is useless.
How can one joy absorb another? Are not different joys	Can one joy absorb another? Is there other joys
Holy, eternal, infinite? and each joy is a Love ... “	Not sacred, not eternal, not infinite? And every joy is Love ... ” [6]

Urizen also appears in America (1793) and Europe (1794), strewn with leprosy and shedding tears for Britain’s defeat in the American War. It is described in more detail in the so-called "First Book of Urizen" (1794).

Blake's original myth represents Urizen as the embodiment of abstract ideas, and his first essence is the abstraction of the human self. Urizen, the primitive Priest of reason, having risen in Eternity and separating himself from other Immortals, creates a huge disgusting emptiness and fills it with elements. Considering himself holy and wise, he proceeds to compile a list of various sins, writing them in a copper book, which serves as a collection of laws. He addresses the Immortals with a speech, summarizing his deep and secret thoughts and explaining how he, in the fight against the elements and terrible power, called the “seven deadly sins,” created elastic firmness. But the Immortals are indignant, they are outraged by Urizen, who rebelled against Eternity, and in anger scatter in different directions. The wrath of the Immortals turns into a fire devouring the army created by Urizen.

Left alone, Urizen builds a stone roof, frames himself with veins and blood vessels to protect himself from the fires of the Immortals. Looking at Urizen, Los , the Eternal Prophet, representing Inspiration, cries because Urizen, who embodies the mind, has torn himself from Eternity. Out of compassion, he creates a bodily form for Urizen, but, weary of labor, Los bifurcates into male and female - this is how Enitharmon appears, his emanation that gives birth to his son named Orc , the embodiment of rebellious energy. And "even Eternity froze in fright / At that hour when the Man was born!". ^[7]

And here the Immortals tightly protect from the Eternity of the Vine and his creation. ^[8] Because of his jealousy of his son, Los decides to chain his son with a strong chain, woven from the links of this jealousy, to a stone rock "under the deadly shadow of Urizen." The cry of Orc awakens Urizen from a dead dream, and with it all Nature awakens. ^[9]

Urizen, looking at his ugly creation, is horrified. He curses his children, who “dry out”, turning into reptiles. Humanity is deprived of Eternity. However, the son of Urizen Fuson, the embodiment of the fire element, like Moses , leads his people out of Egypt . ^[ten]

The story of Urizen continues in The Book of Achania (1795), the Blake version of the Bible book Exodus . The book tells about the conflict between father and son - Urizen and Fuzon, as well as the suffering of Achania - his wife and mother. Fuson rebels against his father, entering into a struggle with him. He sends a red-hot ball of his anger at his father, who, turning into a fiery ray, pierces a heavy wrought iron disk thrown by Urizen into it. This ray also cuts through the loins of Urizen, and Achania-soul is separated from it. For five centuries, the fire ray of Fuson wanders in Egypt until Los forges the Sun out of it. Meanwhile, Urizen is preparing revenge. After killing the terrible Serpent , he makes a stone-thrower from his ribs and launches a fragment of a poisoned rock in Fuzon. Urizen then crucifies the body of the murdered son on the Mystery Tree. Achania's pitiful song completes the poem.

In the “Book of Los” (1795), the action is transferred back to the beginning of the creation of the world , where Los, chained to the fallen Urizen, is forced to guard him. In anger, Los breaks the shackles and enters the eternal rivers of fire. This fire hardens. Los breaks it into small fragments and ends up in the void. For centuries, it has been falling into the Abyss until it manages to separate the heavy from the light and thus create light. In the rays of this light, Los sees how the monstrous skeleton of Urizen hangs over the abyss. Los makes a hearth, anvil and hammer, and works nights and days to shape Urizen. The following describes the seven days of creation, where the role of the Creator is Los. The efforts of Losa end with the creation of the first man.

In the poem Vala, or the Four Zoa (1795-1804), the concept of Urizen takes on a slightly different dimension. It says that Urizen, the prince of Light, in the "fallen" or "lower" world is the son of Albion and Vala (Nature). ^[11] Albion, in Blake, is the original Man who lives in heavenly Eden (or Eternity) as a member of the divine family of the Immortals, who together form the One Man, or Jesus . In Albion, as in any other person, four Beasts or Zoa live and act (which in Greek means "living creatures"). These Four Zoas (The Four Zoas) are parts of Tetramorf ( Greek τετραμορφος - four species) or four winged creatures described in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel , one, with four faces (human, lion, bull and eagle), as well as in the Revelation of John The theologians , represented in the form of “four animals,” guarding the four corners of the Throne of the Lord and the four limits of Paradise. Blake calls them the following names:

• Urizen - the mind of Man;
• Luva (Luvah) - his passions, emotions;
• Tarmas (Tharmas) - his body, feelings and sensations;
• Urton (Urthona) - his instinct, intuition, imagination.

These four Zoa have different properties and perform different functions. Urizen or Prince of Light - a plowman, builder, energy limiter, creator of laws. It is located in the south (or at the zenith). He personifies faith and confidence. His sensory organ is eyesight, eyes. His place in the head of man. Of the four elements, Urizen represents air (light). His metal is gold . His art is architecture .

However, the unity of these four Zoa was broken even before the poem began, when Man became passive and moved away from Eden. Separated from him, his four Zoa entered the war with each other. Urizen and Luva (that is, the mind and passions of Man) argued for absolute power, while Urizen refused to serve Man, and Luva seduced Man with his emanation Vala - the personification of Nature. Tarmas and Urtona (bodily and intuitive) also came into conflict. Finding themselves in a state of decline, the four Zoa carried along with them Man. All of them were separated from their emanations, and the so-called “fall” of Man occurred, which meant a departure from unity, a departure into the alienation and deadness of the material world. Ancient Man falls asleep and sleeps throughout the history of mankind until the Last Judgment. The protector of the Ancient Man becomes Los / Urton, and Jesus is his savior.

The continuation of the history of Urizen is contained in two subsequent prophetic poems by Blake: "Milton" (1804-1811?) And "Jerusalem" (1804-1820?).

For William Blake, creating a complex and non-trivial mythology of his own was not an easy whim. This mythology arose gradually in the process of a deep analysis of his own spiritual experience, which he called the Prophetic Vision, as a result of which he came to the following conclusion:

Considering that the Creator of this World was a very Cruel Being, and at the same time worshiping Christ, I cannot help but exclaim: “Oh, how the Son is different from the Father!” First the Almighty comes to give a head blow. It is followed by Jesus Christ with a balm to heal the wound. ^[12]

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