Monday, February 18, 2013

Abram


11:31 "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran

his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's
wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees,
go into the land of Canaan;"

Blake used Abram twice:

"Adam shudderd! Noah faded!------
Lo these Human form'd spirits in smiling
hipocrisy. War Against one another; so let them War on;
slaves to the ...........Noah shrunk, beneath the waters;
Abram fled in fires from Chaldea;
Moses beheld upon Mount Sinai forms of dark
delusion" (The Song of Los; E67)


"I see in deadly fear in London Los raging round his Anvil
Of death: forming an Ax of gold: the Four Sons of Los
Stand round him cutting the Fibres from Albions hills
That Albions Sons may roll apart over the Nations
While Reuben enroots his brethren in the narrow Canaanite    
From the Limit Noah to the Limit Abram in whose Loins
Reuben in his Twelve-fold majesty & beauty shall take refuge
As Abraham flees from Chaldea shaking his goary locks
But first Albion must sleep" (Jerusalem, plate 15; Erdman 159)



Abram of course became Abraham; he was born as Abram in Ur of 
the Chaldees(in Mesopatamia). His birth according to legend is exactly 
1600 years after the Flood, or forty squared.
With his family he moved first up the Euphrates to Haran; there he
received a command from God to move (with his family and herds)
to Canaan. His story is found in Genesis Chapters 11-25.



In the Book of Milton and Jerusalem Blake included Abraham in his
thumbnail sketch of the history (of the 27 Churches);

And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their Churches 
Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methuselah, Lamech: these are Giants mighty Hermaphroditic
Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the second, Salah, Heber,
Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, these are the Female-Males
A Male within a Female hid as in an Ark & Curtains,              
Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine
Luther, these seven are the Male-Females, the Dragon Forms
Religion hid in War, a Dragon red & hidden Harlot
(Erdman: Milton 138)

Blake used Abraham most often in his design and Vision of the 
Last Judgment; in his 'Design':
"Immediately before the Throne of Christ is Adam & Eve
kneeling in humiliation as representatives of the whole Human
Race Abraham & Moses kneel on each side beneath them from the
cloud on which Eve kneels"
(Erdman 553)



 

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