Jerusalem, Plate 1 (E 144)
[Frontispiece]
[Above the archway:]
"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land
His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion
[On right side of archway:]
Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment
[On left side, in reversed writing:]
Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!"
Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat
"In Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality of everything in the universe.
"...Unseen and not directly measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence, like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum. Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."
________________________
Northrop Frye, The Double Vision;
Page 84
"If the spirit of man and the spirit of God inhabit the same world, that fact is more important than the theological relation between them."
Page 85
"There is nothing unique about death itself...
In the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present, every moment we have lived through we have also died out of into another order. Our life in the resurrection, then, is already here, and waiting to be recognized."
_______________________
LISTEN
The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
Within the sound of silence
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
The Sound of Silence lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
oh. my. goodness. thank you so much, Ellie. I'm going to sit with this awhile.
ReplyDeleteone question: In the Blake print, who is the man and where is he going? where does the door/arch lead? to the Void? what is the man carrying? another hat? besides the one on his head?
I take this to be Los entering the tomb, unknown or void for the sake of bringing the light of spiritual truth to the dark underworld.
ReplyDeletePsychological the void is what we fear, deny and avoid. By entering Los becomes our guide and companion through the labyrinth of Eternal Death which we call life.