Vala, or The Four Zoas
Encyclopedia
Vala, or The Four Zoas refers to one of the incompleted prophetic books
by English
poet
William Blake
, begun in 1797. The titular main characters of the book are The Four Zoas: (Urthona
, Urizen
, Luvah
and Tharmas
), who were created by the fall of Albion
in Blake's mythology
. It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms, and their Emanations
. Blake intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe
but, dissatisfied, he abandoned the effort in 1807, leaving it unfinished and unengraved.
's Night Thoughts
after 1795. He continued to work on it throughout the decade but slowly lost confidence that he could complete the work as he was suffering from a deep state of depression. After 1800, he was able to work on it again. The poem was later renamed The Four Zoas: The torments of Love & Jealousy in The death and Judgment of Albion the Ancient Man in 1807, and this name is used to describe a second version of the poem with the first completed between 1796 and 1802. The actual manuscript of the poem was written on proof engravings of Night Thoughts. The lines were surrounded by large designs and there was around 2,000 lines in the original edition of the poem and 4,000 in the second edition. Of Blake's revision to the work, he primarily changed the last two "nights".
Vala was much larger than any of his previous works. Europe a Prophecy
was 265 lines and was printed on copperplates that measured 23 x 17 cm. The plates used to print Vala were 41 x 32 cm. The work also took far longer than his previous works; most of Blake's designs were completed within a year, but Vala took ten years for the whole process to be completed. A notebook was probably used to draft the poem or the designs of the work, but none survived. One of the manuscript sheets was originally used to create a history of England that was abandoned by Blake in 1793. The work was never put into etching, and the manuscript was given to John Linnell
. Portions of the work were later used in his Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion.
In the second "night", the theme of women ruling is discussed but there is an emphasis on how the ability to create constricts them. Humanity is imprisoned by creation, and experience causes great pain:
The final "night" describes Los
witnessing a vision of Christ's crucifixion at the hands of Urizen
. In response:
Vala concludes:
, Visions of the Daughters of Albion
, and Blake's designs based on the Book of Enoch. Blake's beliefs emphasised the need for sexual openness in relationships and the lack of jealousy. In Vala, the idea of jealousy is a central theme and one of the basis for the story.
Between the various editions, the concept of the poem changes. The later edition was on a smaller conceptual scale, and it emphasises the concept of imprisonment found in the Book of Urizen. The early version emphasised the nature of intelligence and spiritual problems. The later edition placed an emphasis on the idea of renovation being found within Christianity. As Blake revised the poem, he added more concrete images and connected the plot to the histories of the Druids and of the Christians along with adding various locations connected to them. In both editions of the poem, Blake changed his mythological system in the Book of Urizen from a dualistic struggle between two divine powers to a struggle of four aspects split from Eternity. These aspects are Blake's Four Zoas, which represent four aspects of the Almighty God
and Vala is the first work to mention them. In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with paired Emanations
being Ahania
(wisdom, from the head), Vala
(nature, from the heart), Enitharmon
(what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), and Enion
(earth mother, from the separation of unity). As connected to Blake's understanding of the divine, the Zoas are the God the Father
(Tharmas, sense), the Son of God
(Luvah, love), the Holy Ghost
(Urthona, imagination), and Satan who was originally of the divine substance (Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala), Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania).
Blake believed that each person had a twofold identity with one half being good and the other evil. In Vala, both the character Orc
and The Eternal Man
discuss their selves as divided. By the time he was working on his later works, including Vala, Blake felt that he was able to overcome his inner battle but he was concerned about losing his artistic abilities. These thoughts carried over into Vala as the character Los (imagination) is connected to the image of Christ, and he added a Christian element to his mythic world. In the revised version of Vala, Blake added Christian and Hebrew images and describes how Los experiences a vision of the Lamb of God that regenerates Los's spirit. In opposition to Christ is Urizen and the Synagogue of Satan, who later crucifies Christ. It is from them that Deism is born.
claimed, "There is nothing like the colossal explosion of creative power in the Ninth Night of The Four Zoas anywhere else in English poetry." G. E. Bentley Jr, in 2003, believed that Blake's "most extraordinary achievement" between the "prodigious years" of 1795 and 1800 was Vala in addition to claiming that "The poem provides a profound analysis of man's limitations but no hint of escape from the prison".
William Blake's prophetic books
The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake are a series of difficult and obscure poetic works. While Blake worked as a commercial illustrator, these books were ones that he produced, with his own engravings, as an extended and largely private project...
by English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
poet
English poetry
The history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, begun in 1797. The titular main characters of the book are The Four Zoas: (Urthona
Urthona
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Urthona is one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. Specifically, he is the Zoa of inspiration and creativity, and he is a blacksmith god. His female counterpart is Enitharmon...
, Urizen
Urizen
In the complex mythology of William Blake, Urizen is the embodiment of conventional reason and law. He is usually depicted as a bearded old man; he sometimes bears architect's tools, to create and constrain the universe; or nets, with which he ensnares people in webs of law and conventional culture...
, Luvah
Luvah
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Luvah is one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. He represents love, passion, and rebellious energy. His Emanation is Vala; his fallen form is Orc. Throughout Blake's mythological system, he is...
and Tharmas
Tharmas
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Tharmas is one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. He represents sensation, and his female counterpart is Enion, who represents sexual urges. He is connected to the God the Father aspect of the...
), who were created by the fall of Albion
Albion (Blake)
In the complex mythology of William Blake, Albion is the primeval man whose fall and division results in the Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc, and Urthona/Los. The name derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain, Albion.-Sources:...
in Blake's mythology
William Blake's mythology
The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake contain a rich invented 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...
. It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms, and their Emanations
Emanationism
Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the First Reality, or Principle...
. Blake intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe
William Blake's mythology
The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake contain a rich invented 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...
but, dissatisfied, he abandoned the effort in 1807, leaving it unfinished and unengraved.
Background
Blake began working on Vala or The Death and Judgement of the Eternal Man: A Dream of Nine Nights while he was working on an illustrated edition of Edward YoungEdward Young
Edward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:He was the son of Edward Young, later Dean of Salisbury, and was born at his father's rectory at Upham, near Winchester, where he was baptized on 3 July 1683. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated...
's Night Thoughts
Night Thoughts (poem)
The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward Young published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745.The poem is written in blank verse...
after 1795. He continued to work on it throughout the decade but slowly lost confidence that he could complete the work as he was suffering from a deep state of depression. After 1800, he was able to work on it again. The poem was later renamed The Four Zoas: The torments of Love & Jealousy in The death and Judgment of Albion the Ancient Man in 1807, and this name is used to describe a second version of the poem with the first completed between 1796 and 1802. The actual manuscript of the poem was written on proof engravings of Night Thoughts. The lines were surrounded by large designs and there was around 2,000 lines in the original edition of the poem and 4,000 in the second edition. Of Blake's revision to the work, he primarily changed the last two "nights".
Vala was much larger than any of his previous works. Europe a Prophecy
Europe a Prophecy
Europe a Prophecy is a 1794 prophetic book by English poet and illustrator William Blake. It is engraved on 18 plates, and survives in just nine known copies. It followed America a Prophecy of 1793.-Background:...
was 265 lines and was printed on copperplates that measured 23 x 17 cm. The plates used to print Vala were 41 x 32 cm. The work also took far longer than his previous works; most of Blake's designs were completed within a year, but Vala took ten years for the whole process to be completed. A notebook was probably used to draft the poem or the designs of the work, but none survived. One of the manuscript sheets was originally used to create a history of England that was abandoned by Blake in 1793. The work was never put into etching, and the manuscript was given to John Linnell
John Linnell (painter)
John Linnell was an English landscape painter. Linnell was a naturalist and a rival to John Constable. He had a taste for Northern European art of the Renaissance, particularly Albrecht Dürer. He also associated with William Blake, to whom he introduced Samuel Palmer and others of the...
. Portions of the work were later used in his Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion.
Poem
The poem is divided into nine "nights". The original edition begins:- This is the Dirge of Eno which shook the heavens with wrath
- And thus beginneth the Book of Vala which Whosoever reads
- If with his Intellect he comprehend the terrible Sentence
- The heavens shall quake, the earth shall move & shudder & the mountains
- With all their woods, the streams & valleys: wail in dismal fear
In the second "night", the theme of women ruling is discussed but there is an emphasis on how the ability to create constricts them. Humanity is imprisoned by creation, and experience causes great pain:
- What is the price of Experience? do men buy it for a song
- Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
- Of all that a man hath, his house his wife his children.
- Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
- And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain (lines 11–15)
The final "night" describes Los
Los (Blake)
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Los is the fallen form of Urthona, one of the four Zoas. He is referred to as the "eternal prophet" and creates the visionary city of Golgonooza. Los is regularly described as a smith, beating with his hammer on a forge, which is metaphorically...
witnessing a vision of Christ's crucifixion at the hands of Urizen
Urizen
In the complex mythology of William Blake, Urizen is the embodiment of conventional reason and law. He is usually depicted as a bearded old man; he sometimes bears architect's tools, to create and constrain the universe; or nets, with which he ensnares people in webs of law and conventional culture...
. In response:
- Los his vegetable hands
- Outstretch'd; his right hand, branching out in fibrous strength,
- Siez'd the Sun; His left hand, like dark roots, cover'd the Moon,
- And tore them down, cracking the heavens across from immense to immense.
- Then fell the fires of Eternity with loud & shrill
- Sound of Loud Trumpet thundering along from heaven to heaven
- A mighty sound articulate: "Awake, ye dead & come
- To Judgement from the four winds. Awake & Come away!"
- Folding like scrolls of the Enormous volume of Heaven & Earth,
- With thunderous noise & dreadful shakings, rocking to & fro,
- The heavens are shaken & the Earth removed from its place (lines 5–16)
Vala concludes:
- Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
- In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
- For intellectual War. The war of swords departed now
- The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns (lines 7–10)
Themes
Like many of Blake's works, designs in Vala depict sexual activity or the genitals of the individual. Blake used these images as part of a general celebration of sex and sexuality. This emphasis on free sexuality occurs in The Marriage of Heaven and HellThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a book by the English poet and printmaker William Blake. It is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. Like his other books, it was published as printed sheets...
, Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Visions of the Daughters of Albion is a 1793 poem by William Blake, produced as a book with his own illustrations. It is a short and early example of his prophetic books, and a sequel of sorts to The Book of Thel....
, and Blake's designs based on the Book of Enoch. Blake's beliefs emphasised the need for sexual openness in relationships and the lack of jealousy. In Vala, the idea of jealousy is a central theme and one of the basis for the story.
God in Christianity
In Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
and Vala is the first work to mention them. In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with paired Emanations
Emanationism
Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the First Reality, or Principle...
being Ahania
Ahania
Ahania is the Emanation, or female counterpart, of Urizen, Zoas of reason, in William Blake's mythology. She is the representation of pleasure and the desire for intelligence. Although Urizen casts her out as being the manifestation of sin, she is actually an essential component in Blake's system...
(wisdom, from the head), Vala
Vala (Blake)
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Vala is an Emanation/mate of Luvah, one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. She represents nature while Luvah represents emotions. Originally with Luvah, she joins with Albion and begets the Zoas...
(nature, from the heart), Enitharmon
Enitharmon
Enitharmon is a major female character in William Blake's mythology, playing a main part in some of his prophetic books. She is, but not directly, an aspect of the male Urthona, one of the Four Zoas. She is in fact the Emanation of Los, also male. There is a complex verbal nexus attached. The Zoa...
(what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), and Enion
Enion
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Enion is an Emanation/mate of Tharmas, one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. She represents sexuality and sexual urges while Tharmas represents sensation. In her fallen aspect, she is a wailing...
(earth mother, from the separation of unity). As connected to Blake's understanding of the divine, the Zoas are the God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
(Tharmas, sense), the Son of God
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
(Luvah, love), the Holy Ghost
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
(Urthona, imagination), and Satan who was originally of the divine substance (Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala), Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania).
Blake believed that each person had a twofold identity with one half being good and the other evil. In Vala, both the character Orc
Orc (Blake)
Orc is a proper name for one of the characters in the complex mythology of William Blake. Unlike the medieval sea beast, or Tolkien's humanoid monster, his Orc is a positive figure, the embodiment of creative passion and energy, and stands opposed to Urizen, the embodiment of tradition.In Blake's...
and The Eternal Man
Albion (Blake)
In the complex mythology of William Blake, Albion is the primeval man whose fall and division results in the Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc, and Urthona/Los. The name derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain, Albion.-Sources:...
discuss their selves as divided. By the time he was working on his later works, including Vala, Blake felt that he was able to overcome his inner battle but he was concerned about losing his artistic abilities. These thoughts carried over into Vala as the character Los (imagination) is connected to the image of Christ, and he added a Christian element to his mythic world. In the revised version of Vala, Blake added Christian and Hebrew images and describes how Los experiences a vision of the Lamb of God that regenerates Los's spirit. In opposition to Christ is Urizen and the Synagogue of Satan, who later crucifies Christ. It is from them that Deism is born.
Critical response
In 1945, Northrop FryeNorthrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
claimed, "There is nothing like the colossal explosion of creative power in the Ninth Night of The Four Zoas anywhere else in English poetry." G. E. Bentley Jr, in 2003, believed that Blake's "most extraordinary achievement" between the "prodigious years" of 1795 and 1800 was Vala in addition to claiming that "The poem provides a profound analysis of man's limitations but no hint of escape from the prison".
External links
- The complete text, on the website of the University of Georgia.