Themes From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
(Ulver - 1998)







1. The Argument
2. The Voice Of The Devil
3. A Memorable Fancy 1
4. Proverbs Of Hell
5. A Memorable Fancy 2
6. A Memorable Fancy 3
7. A Memorable Fancy 4
8. A Memorable Fancy 5
9. A Song Of Liberty






1. The Argument

[plate 2]
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
hungry clouds swag on the deep, once meek, and in a perilous path,
the just man kept his course along the vale of death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow, and on the barren heath
sing the honey bees, then the perilous path was planted:
and a riverland a spring on every cliff and tomb:
and on the bleached bones red clay brought forth.
Till the villain left the paths of ease, to walk in perilous paths,
and drive the just man into barren climes.
Now the sneaking serpent walks in mild humility,
and the just man rages in the wilds where lions roam.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
hungry clouds swag on the deep.

[plate 3]
As a new heaven is begun,
and it is now thirty-three years since its advent:
the eternal hell revives.
And lo! Swedenborg is the angel sitting at the tomb:
his writings are the linen clothes folded up.
Now is the dominion of Edom,& the return of Adam into Paradise;
see Isaiah XXXIV & XXXV chap: without contraries is no progression.
Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy,
love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call good & evil.
Good is the passive that obeys reason.
Evil is the active springing from energy.
Good is heaven, evil is hell






2. The Voice Of The Devil

[plate 4]
All bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following errors:
1. that man has two real existing principles: viz: a body & a soul
2. that energy call'd evil is alone from the body,& that reason,
call'd good, is alone from the soul.
3. that God will torment man in eternity for following his energies.
But following contraries to these are true:
1. man has no body distinct from his soul; for that call'd body is a portion
of soul discern'd by the five senses, the chief inlets of soul in this age.
2. energy is the only life and is from the body
and reason is the bound and outward circumference of energy.
3. energy is eternal delight.

[plates 5-6]
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the
unwilling. And being restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is
only the shadow of desire. The history of this is written in Paradise
Lost,& the governor or reason is call'd Messiah. and the original
Archangel, or possessor of the command of heavenly host, is call'd the
Devil or Satan, and his children are call'd Sin & Death. But in the book
of Job, Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan. For this history has been
adopted by both parties. It indeed appear'd to reason as if desire was
cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell & formed a
heaven of what He stole from the abyss. This is shewn in the gospel, where
He prays to the Father to send the comforter, or desire, that reason may
have ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the bible being no other than (the
Devil den). he who dwells in flaming fire, know that after Christ's
death, he became Jehovah. But in Milton, the father is destiny, the son, a
ratio of the five senses,& the holy-ghost, vacuum! Note: the reason
Milton wrote in ferrets when he wrote of angels & God. And at liberty when
of devils & hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party
without knowing it.






3. A Memorable Fancy 1

1. man has no body distinct from his soul; for that call'd body is a portion
of soul discern'd by the five senses, the chief inlets of soul in this age.
2. energy is the only life and is from the body
and reason is the bound and outward circumference of energy.
3. energy is eternal delight.

[plates 5-6]
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the
unwilling. And being restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is
only the shadow of desire. The history of this is written in Paradise
Lost,& the governor or reason is call'd Messiah. and the original
Archangel, or possessor of the command of heavenly host, is call'd the
Devil or Satan, and his children are call'd Sin & Death. But in the book
of Job, Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan. For this history has been
adopted by both parties. It indeed appear'd to reason as if desire was
cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell & formed a
heaven of what He stole from the abyss. This is shewn in the gospel, where
He prays to the Father to send the comforter, or desire, that reason may
have ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the bible being no other than (the
Devil den). he who dwells in flaming fire, know that after Christ's
death, he became Jehovah. But in Milton, the father is destiny, the son, a
ratio of the five senses,& the holy-ghost, vacuum! Note: the reason
Milton wrote in ferrets when he wrote of angels & God. And at liberty when
of devils & hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party
without knowing it.






4. Proverbs Of Hell

[plates 7-10]
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy, drive your cart and
your plow over the bones of the dead, the road of excess leads to the
palace of wisdom. Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. The cut worm forgives the
plow. Dip him in the river who loves water. A fool sees not the same tree
that a wise man sees. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a
star. Eternity is in love with the productions of time. The busy bee has
no time for sorrow. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of
wisdom, no clock can measure. All wholsom food is caught without a net or
a trap. Bring out number, weight & measure in a year of dearth. No bird
soars too high, if he soars with his own wings. A dead body revenges not
injuries. The most sublime act is to set another before you. If the fool
would persist in his folly, he would become wise. Folly is the cloke of
knavery. Shame is pride's cloke. Prisons are built with stones of law,
brothers with bricks of religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of
God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is
the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. Excess of
sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. The roaring of lions, the howling of
wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are
portions of eternity too great for the eye of man. The fox condemns the
trap, not himself. Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth. Let man wear the
feel of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep. The bird a nest, the
spider a web, man friendship. The selfish smiling fool,& the sullen,
frowning fool shall be thought wise, that they may be a rod. What is now
proved was only once imagin'd. The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet
watch the roots; the lion the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the
fruits. The cistern contains: the fountain overflows. One thought fills
immensity, always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid
you. Every thing possible to be beliv'd is an image of truth. The eagle
never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow. The
fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion. Think in the
morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. He who
has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you. As the plow follows words, so
God rewards prayers. The tygers of wrath are the wiser than the horses of
instruction. Expect poison from the standing water. You never know what is
enough unless you know what is more than enough. Listen to the fool's
reproach! It is a kingly title! The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the
mouth of water, the beard of earth. The weak in courage is strong in
cunning. The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow; nor the
lion, the horse, how he shall take his pray. The thankful receiver bears a
plentiful harvest. If others had not been foolish, we should be so. The
soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd. When thou seest an eagle, thou
seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head! As the caterpiller chooses
the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on. So the priest lays his curse on the
fairest joys. To create a little flower is the labour of ages. Damn
braces: bless relaxes. The best wine is the oldest, the best water the
newest. Prayers plow not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not! The head
sublime, the heart pathos, the genitals beauty, the hands & feet
proportion. As the air to bird or the sea to fish, so is contempt to the
contemptible. The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl that every
thing was white. Exuberance is beauty. If the lion was advised by the fox,
he would be cunning. Improve (me) nt makes strait road; but the crooked
roads without improvement are roads of genius. Sooner murder an infant in
its cradle than nurse unacted desires. Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be beliv'd.
Enough! Or too much.

[plate 11]
The ancient poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or geniuses.
Calling them by names and adoring them with the properties of woods,
rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and
numerous senses could perceive. And particulary they studied the genius of
each city & country, placing it under its mental deity; till a system was
formed, which some took advantage of,& enslav'd the vulgar by attempting
to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began
priesthood; choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And it length
they pronounc'd that the gods had order'd such things. Thus men forgot
that all deities reside in the human breast.






5. A Memorable Fancy 2

[plates 12-13]
The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they
dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them; and whatever they did
not think at the time that they would be so misunderstood,& so be the
cause of imposition. Isaiah answer'd: 'I saw no God, nor heard any, in a
finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in
every thing, and as I was then persuaded,& remain confirm'd, that the
voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for
consequences, but wrote. ' Then I asked: 'Does a firm perswasion that a
thing is so, make it so? ' He replied: ' All poets believe that it does,&
in ages of imagination this firm perswasion removed mountains; but many
are not capable of a firm perswasion of any thing. ' Then Ezekiel said:
'The philosophy of the east taught the first principles of human
perception: some nations held one principle for the origin,& some
another; we Israel taught that the poetic genius (as you now call it) was
the first principle and all the others merely derivative, which was the
cause of our despising the priests & philosophers of other countries, and
prophecying that all gods would at last be proved to originate in ours &
to be tributaries of the poetic genius; it was this that our great poet
king David desired so fervently & invokes so pathetic'ly, saying this he
conquers enemies & governs kingdoms; and we so loved our God, that we
cursed in his name all the deities of surrounding nations and asserted
that they had rebelled; from this opinions the vulgar came to thin that
all nations would at last be subjected to the Jews. 'This' he said 'like
all firm perswasions, is come to pass; for all nations belive the Jews'
code and worship the Jews' God, and what the greater subjection can be? 'I
heard this with some wonder,& must confess my own convivtion. After dinner
I ask'd Isaiah to favour the world with his lost works; he said none of
equal value was lost. Ezekiel the same of his. I also asked Isaiah what
made him go naked and bare foot three years? He answer'd: 'The same that
made our friend Diogenes, the Grecian. 'I then asked Ezekiel why he eat
dung,& lay so long on his right & left side? He answer'd 'The desire of
raising other men into perception of the infinite: this the North American
tribes practise,& is he honest who resists his genius or conscience for
this sake of present ease or gratification? (plate 14) The ancient
tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six
thousand years is true, as I have heard from hell. For the Cherub with his
flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and
when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and
holy, whereas it now appears finite & corrupt. This will come to pass by
an improvement of sensual enjoyment, but first the notion that man has a
body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do by printing
in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in hell are salutary and in
medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite
which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is. Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he
sees things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern






6. A Memorable Fancy 3

[plate 15]
I was in a printing house in hell & saw the method in which knowledge is
transmitted from generation to generation. In the first chamber was a
dragon-man, clearing away the rubbish from a cave's mouth; within, a
number of dragons were hollowing the cave. In the second chamber was a
viper folding round the rock & the cave, and others were adorning it
with gold, silver and precious stones. In the third chamber was an eagle
with wings and feathers of air: he caused the inside of the cave to be
infinite; around were numbers of eagle-like men, who built palaces in the
immense cliffs. In the fourth chamber were lions of flaming fire, raging
around & melting the metals into living fluids. In the fifth chamber were
unnam'd forms, which cast the metals into the expanse. There they receiv'd
by men who occupied the sixth chamber, and took the forms of book & were
arranged in libraries.

[plates 16-17]
The giants who formed this world
into its sensual existence and now seem to live in it in chains, are in
truth the causes of its life & the sources of all activity; but the chains
are the cunning of weak and tame minds which have power to resist energy,
according to the proverb, the weak in courage is strong in cunning. Thus
one portion of beings is the prolific, the other the devouring: to the
devourer it seems as if the producer was in his chains: but it is no so,
he only takes portions of existence and fancies that the whole. But the
prolific would cease to be prolific unless the devourer, as a sea received
the excess of his delights. Some will say: 'Is not God alone the prolific?
' I answer: 'God only acts & is, in existing beings or men'. These two
classes of men are always upon earth,& they should be enemies: whoever
tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence. Religion is an
endeavour to reconcile the two. Note: Jesus Christ did not wish to unite,
but to seperate them, as in the parable of sheep and goats!& He says: 'I
came not to send peace, but a sword. ' Messiah or Satan or tempter was
formerly thought to be one of the antediluvians who are our energies.






7. A Memorable Fancy 4

[plates 17-20]
An angel came to me and said: 'O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible! O
dreadful state! Consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for
thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career. 'I said:
'Perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we will
contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most
desirable. ' So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the
church vault. At the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill we went, and
came to a cave: down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way, till a
void boundless as a nether sky appear'd beneath us.& we held by the roots
of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said: 'If you please we will
commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is here also: if
you will not, I will? ' But he answered: 'Do not presume, o young-man, but
as we here remain, behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness
passes away. ' So I remain'd with him, sitting in a twisted root of an
oak; he was suspended in a fungus, which hung with the head downward into
the deep. By degrees we beheld the infinite abyss, fiery as the smoke of a
burning city; beneath us, at an immense distance, was the sun, black but
shinning; round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd vast spiders,
crawling after their prey, which flew, or rather swum, in the infinite
deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption;& the
air was full of them,& seem'd composed of them: these are devils, and are
called powers of the air. I now asked my companion which was my eternal
lot? He said: 'Between the black & white spiders' but now, from between
the black & white spiders, a cloud and fire burst and rolled thro' the
deep. Black'ning all beneath, so that the nether deep grew black as a
sea,& rolled with a terrible noise; beneath us was nothing now to be seen
but a black tempest, till looking east between the cloudes & waves, we saw
a cataract of blood mixed with fire, and not many stones' throw from us
appear'd and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent; at last, to
the east, distant about three degrees, appear'd a fiery crest above the
waves; slowly it reared like a ridge of golden rocks, till we discover'd
two globes of crimson fire, from which the sea fled away in clouds of
smoke; and now we saw it was the head of Leviathan; his forehead was
divided into streaks of green & purple like those on a tyger's forehead:
soon we saw his mouth & red gills hung just above the raging foam, tinging
the black deep with beams of blood, advancing towards us with all the fury
of a spiritual existence. My friend the angel climb'd up from his station
into the mill; I remain'd alone;& then this appearance was no more, but I
found myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moonlight
hearing a harper, who sung to the harp;& his theme was: 'The man who never
alters his opinion is like standing water,& breeds reptiles of the mind. '
But I apose and sought for the mill,& there I found my angel, who,
surprised asked me how I escaped? I answer'd: 'All that we saw was owing
to your metaphysics; for when you ran away, I found myself on a bank by
moonlight hearing a harper. But now we have seen my eternal lot, shall I
shew you yours? ' He lugh'd at my proposal; but I by force suddenly caught
him in my arms,& flew westerly thro' the night, till we were elevated
above the earth's shadow; then I flung myself with him directly into the
body of the sun; here I clothed myself in white & taking in my hand
Swedenborg's volumes, sunk from the glorious clime, and passed all the
planets till we came to Saturn: here I staid to rest,& then leap'd into
the void between Saturn & fixed stars. 'Here', said I, 'Is your lot, in
this space, if space it may be call'd. ' Soon we saw the stable and the
church,& I took him to the altar and open'd the bible, and lo! It was a
deep pit, into which I descended, driving the angel before me; soon we saw
seven houses of brick; one we enter'd; in it were a number of monkeys,
baboons,& all of that species, chain'd by the middle, grinning and
snatching at one another, but witheld by the shortness of their chains:
however, I saw that they sometimes grew numerous; and then the weak were
caught by the strong, and with a grinning aspect, first coupled with,&
then devour'd, by plucking off first one limb and then another, till the
body was left a helpless trunk; this, after grinning & kissing it with
seeming fondness, they devour'd too; and here & there I saw one savourily
picking the flesh off of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoy'd us
both, we went into the mill,& in my hand brought the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was Aristotele's analitycs. So the angel said: 'Thy
phantasy has imposed upon me,& thou oughtest to be ashamed. 'I answered:
'We impose on one another, & it is but lost time to converse with you
whose works are only analytics. ' Opposition is true friendship.

[plates 21-22]
I have always found that angels have the vanity to speak of
themselves as the only wise; this they do with a confident insolence
sprouting from systematic reasoning, Swedenborg boasts that what he writes
is new; Tho' it is only the contents or index of already publish'd books.
A man carried a monkey about for a shew,& because he was a little wiser
than the monkey, grew vain, and conciev'd himself as much wiser than seven
men. It is so with Swedenborg: He shews the folly of churches & exposes
hypocrites, till he imagines that all religious,& himself the single one
on earth that ever broke a net. Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not
written one net truth, now hear another: he has written all the old
falsehoods. And now hear the reason. He conversed with angels who are all
religious & conversed not with devils who all hate religion. For he was
incapable thro' his conceited notions. Thus Swedenborg writings are a
recapitulation of all superficial opinions, and an analysis of the more
sublime but not further. Have now another plain fact. Any man of
mechanical talents may, from the writings of Paracelus or Jacob Behmen,
produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborg's, and from
those of Dante or Shakespear an infinite number. But when he has done
this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only
holds a candle in sunshine.






8. A Memorable Fancy 5

[plates 22-24]
Once I saw a Devil in a flame of fire. Who arose before an angel that sat
on a cloud, and the devil utter'd these words: 'The worship of God is:
honouring His gifts in other men. Each according to his genius, and loving
the greatest men best: those who envy or caluminate great men hate God;
for there is no other God, ' The angel hearing this became almost blue,
but mastering himself grew yellow.& at last white, pink,& smiling, and
then replied: 'Thou idolater, is not God one? & Is not He visible in
Jesus Christ? And has not Jesus Christ given his sanction to the law of
ten commandments, and are not all other men fools, sinners & nothings? '
The devil answer'd: 'Bray a fool in a mother with wheat. Yet shall not his
folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought
to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how He has given His sanction
to the law of ten commandments: did He not mock at the Sabbath, and so
mock the sabbath's god? Murder those who were murdered because of Him?
Turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? Steal the labour of
others to support him? Bear false witness when He omitted making a defence
before Pilate? Covet when He pray'd for His disciples, and when He bid
them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge
them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten
commandments. Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from
rules! When He had so spoken, I beheld the angel who stretched out his
arms, embracing the flame of fire & he was consumed and arose as Elijah.
Note: this angel who is now become a devil, is my particular friend; we
often read the bible together in its infernal or diabolical sense which
the world shall have if they behave well. I have also the bible of hell,
which the world shall have whether they will or no. One law for the lion &
ox is oppression.


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