Doc Yoder's Notes
The [First] Book of Urizen by William Blake (1793)

Some key events:

• Urizen's separation; with all the emphasis on "self-closed, self-balanced, self-begotten" Urizen is pretty clearly associated with PL's Satan here
• Los's forging the "death image"/ body of Urizen (cf. Jer. 12:13, "giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast out forever"); also the "death image" is, of course, the body
• Los divides in Pity at Urizen's image, Enitharmon separates from him
• Los and Enitharmon mate, creating the uncontrollable Orc, whom they chain down to try to control him (cf. the binding of Isaac, the binding of Prometheus, the binding of Oothoon)
• creation of Urizen's 4 elemental sons, then the "Net of Religion"
• the Net of Religion saps the people of vision; this sapping of vision becomes the bondage in Egypt, until Fuzon comes -- Moses-like -- to lead them out of Egypt

Chapters:

1. Urizen's separation
2. Urizen's speech: "One command, one joy, one desire / One curse, one weight, one measure / One King, one God, one Law"
3. Big bang creation of the universe from Urizen's center, until Urizen is a cold dead"clod of clay"; Los weeps and begins his work of healing and of stopping the spread of Urizen's error
4. (a/b): Los gets to work, builds the body/death image of Urizen, parallels the creation from Genesis
5. Los's response to his creation: Pity divides him, until the first female, Enitharmon, is created (parallels creation of Eve)
6. Birth of Orc
7. The chaining of Orc/ the creation of the empirical method by Urizen
8. Creation of the 4 elements/sons of Urizen; Urizen that no human can obey his laws, so he creates the net of Religion
9. The spread of the net of Religion reinforces the closing of vision, until it becomes the bondage in Egypt, from which Fuzon comes to rescue the children of Urizen

Assorted things to think about:

Note the adjectives associated with Urizen in Chap. 1-3, before Los begins his work, culminating in "formless, unmeasurable" (cf. Kubla Khan's caverns "measureless to man")

When Blake invokes the more explicit language of creation, "And the first Age passed . . . " he suggests that creation really began with the creation of Adam. It is the creation of Adam that takes 6 days/ages, ergo Adam IS the universe. Chaps. 1-2 tell what happened before Genesis; chap. 3 MAY be a replay the 1st five days from Genesis

The days of creation of Urizen recall the development of the fetus in the womb

If Enitharmon is Eve, then Los is Adam, and the creation of Urizen is the human creation of God in Man's own image, that is, Los gives a body to Urizen by writing Genesis

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