Europe: A Prophecy By William Blake

William Blake’s “Europe: A Prophecy”, produced in 1794, is not intended to be a prophecy, other than a way to expose the hidden motives and consequences of human decisions. Blake uses mythical creatures he has created to depict the country’s history.  “Los” is the imagination and eventful source of redemption. Blake uses an old bearded man named “Urizen”, that is the reasonable and vengeful Jehovah of the Old Testament as a front piece to his prophecy. Apart from “Urizen”, there is “Luvah”, which represents the senses, and “Tharmas”, which represents the emotions of the Old Testament. Each one of these characters has a female being that is commonly a negative character trying to dominate their male counterpart. The epic poem describes Europe seeing the interaction between “Los” and his emanation “Enitharmon”, who represents pity. This interaction results in the birth of “Orc”, the spirit of energy, adding importance to salvation. “Orc’s” birth angers “Urizen” and makes “Los” jealous, which consequently makes “Orc” bound. The poem describes “Enitharmon’s” dream as she sleeps for eighteen-hundred years. It opens with the birth of a “secret child” which is a reference to the birth of Jesus Christ and closes with “Orc” being free from bondage and appearing in the “vineyards of red France” as an apocalyptic second coming.

When people view Europe against the other Continental Prophecies, they see it as a glorification of the French Revolution, publicizing a close end to the old world order and the beginning of a universal liberation of mankind. But that is only one common theory people assume out of this poem. Competing theories suggest that Blake may have intended his Continental Prophecies to inherit the political views and revolutions of many. Blake uses the “Principle of rhetorical indeterminacy”, which is the principle of vague ideals, where the reader is forced into an active role of having to interpret the poem. This makes people participate in the construction of meaning, which is what Blake is trying to do. William Blake’s Europe prophecy is intended to tell the story of the industrialism of Europe. Twisting historical events to make them apart of his mythical story. But his story serves a purpose. It shows how certain ideals have influenced Europe throughout history in a non beneficial way according to religion and motives. These intentions and motives are always going to be interpreted, as long as William Blake’s prophecies exist.

Background and Summary of America: A Prophecy: By Makenna Childers

America: A Prophecy, the poem by William Blake, was written in two parts; "Preludium" and “A Prophecy”. The “Preludium”, the first part of the poem, explains how the prince of England is a dragon, and how literally speaking in stories the dragon is slayed by the hero, as well as biblically the dragon is also defeated. But also for tells part of the prophecy, buy telling the myth of the Orc. “A Prophecy” the main portion, was inspired by the American Revolution, although it’s not rewriting the history, but emphasizes the glory of the spirit that is the revolution. It examines the controversies between the Angel of Albion (England) and several aspects that deal with the American Colonies. These controversies escalated to the point that George Washington made an impacting speech to warn Americans that the Angel of Albion was going to come and imprison them all. After this speech, the founding fathers didn’t have to do much against the angel. The Orc intervened between the Angel of Albion and the American Colonies in a fiery burst. Most of this battle was then fought between the Orc and the Angel of Albion. The Angel of Albion then goes on to gather the “Thirteen Angels” that represent the original thirteen American Colonies, although these said Angels revolted and refused to be obedient the Albion. Instead, they dropped their scepters and united with the founding fathers to stand against Albion. In anger, the Angel of Albion sent plaques to the American Colonies hoping to get back for “taking” their Angels. But the Orc stopped the plagues before they reached the colonies and sent them back toward England. These plagues then sickened and defeated the Angel of Albion. Blake shows the rebellion of the Thirteen Angels as natural fight to end the oppression and renew their society to move forward.

In 1793 William Blake painted the picture above to go with his “America: A Prophecy”, one of his continental prophecies. This piece expresses his feelings towards the 18^th century rigid structural life and art forms. He goes for the more soft and rounded lines and edges to create this beautiful piece of work.

"The Revolutionary Vison of William Blake" by Thomas J. J. Altizer (Reading Response)

"The Revolutionary Vision of William Blake" by Thomas J. J. Altizer is a very in depth article about the belief's of William Blake. The article depicts how Blake views the institutionalism of Christianity. These prophecies reflect how he views the modern world’s own self annihilation of God. Blake’s prophecies, beliefs and poetry have revolutionarily changed the way poetry is represented. Altizer states, “Even so, he has had virtually no influence upon either our politics or our religion, and this despite the fact that he is hailed as our greatest modern prophet.”, thus, making Blake a very renowned person. Blake’s coincidentia oppositorum, which is Latin for the unity of opposites, is the main focus of the article. In which he unites the body God with the body of Satin. His prophecy of the Christian Doctrine relates to all of his prophecies because Christianity is one of the world’s most popular religions. Altizer sums up the works of other major poets and philosophers in which Blake was influenced by and also influenced, like for example, Dante, Milton, G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. By compiling the works of other poets and philosophers, Blake, is able to come up with his own belief about the Christian Doctrine. Blake believes that the self-alienation of God is the calling forth of the dead body of god, which is the body of Satan, making Satan and God the same being in a sense. Altizer clarifies by saying “Self-alienation of God, wherein Absolute Being becomes its own ‘other,’ thereby withdrawing into itself and becoming self-centered or ‘evil.’ That self alienation culminates in death, a death that is the death of the alienation or evil of the divine Being.” In other words, God has lost his own true connection to himself, which is no different then Satin, making God project a fake being to others. Modern day people are also so lost within industrialism, that we have lost our touch with our true selves and project a fake being to others. This causes us to be self centered and make things like Christianity, be projected the wrong way. Satan’s self alienation ties along with that of Christian believers, thus making him contribute to modern day believers, which again makes him no different than God.

My own idea about the article is that Blake is clearly pointing out what we have done to Christianity. People these day’s do not reflect a true being and cannot be intact with their inner selves. This makes the religion of Christianity contradict itself due it its followers and believers. For example, the article proclaims “The death of Christ was the death of God.” I view it as God not thinking of himself and thinking of others because the sacrifice of Christ was for the people. But thinking of others before yourself is nearly impossible when you don’t know your true self. In a sense, Christ was projecting a false being to others and making his followers believe a false divine being. Over the years, people have been making God play a role that was not intended to be. I think this has caused the institutionalism of Christianity because people have been adding there own theories throughout the birth of Christianity. These theories and ideas are also reflections of people’s self alienation. Putting non radical ideas into a very new religion. I think that Blake’s prophecy of the Christine Doctrine is a very well educated and philosophical belief. Relating to the way religion its self can be contradicted would be people who are very close minded in their beliefs. Religion is supposed to be open minded and people shouldn’t care about other people’s business because focusing on oneself is much more important. This article relates to one of Blake’s most famous quotes, “The most sublime act is to set another before you." This would mean that the most inspiring act would be setting another before oneself. It’s so empyreal because Blake believes that we have lost our true selves and setting another person before we even know who we are, is the most sublime act there could be. It relates because God is setting forth the people before he even knows what he is himself is and what he has created. William Blake’s foretold prophecies are very hard to be examined and explained but they will always be some of the most astonishing works in the history of poetry.