William Blake's mythology The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake contain an invented mythology, in which Blake worked to encode his spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. This desire to recreate the cosmos is the heart of ...

, Beulah, originally

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

(''bə‘ūlāh'', traditionally transliterated '' Beulah'' and meaning "married" or "espoused"), is "the realm of the

Subconscious In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion and spirituality. The concept was heavily popu ...

, the source of poetic inspiration and of dreams." It is also, according to Blake scholar Alexander S. Gourlay, "a dreamy

paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

where the sexes, though divided, blissfully converse in shameless selflessness. Beulah is available through dreams and visions to those in Ulro, the utterly fallen world." Between Eternity and Ulro, it is imagined as a place without conflict similar to a conventional image of

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

Eternity Eternity, in common parlance, is an Infinity, infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside tim ...

. However, for Blake, the idea of an everlasting peaceful Eternity is misguided and fallen.

Origins

Beulah, in its Hebrew origins, often indicates, the happy and delightful for the Lord's country (See ). This is one of names given to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

when it is rejoined to God after the exile, a prophesied attribute of the land of Israel.

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

in his ''

Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

'' also uses the name "Beuhlah". Joseph Hogan describes Bunyan's Beuhlah as "the pastoral earthly paradise (in sight of the Heavenly City) where Christian and the other pilgrims rest before crossing the River of Death and entering the Heavenly City."

Appearances

Beulah occurs 182 times in Blake's works. It first appeared in ''Night the first'' of ''

The Four Zoas ''Vala, or The Four Zoas'' is one of the uncompleted prophetic books by the English poet William Blake, begun in 1797. The eponymous main characters of the book are the Four Zoas ( Urthona, Urizen, Luvah and Tharmas), who were created by the fa ...

'', where in described as "a mild & pleasant rest", "a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely / Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around / On all sides within & without the Universal Man". In that place "The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams /Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death". ''(

'', 5:29-35) Blake also described Beulah in his poem '' Milton'': as "a place where Contraries are equally True". Blake notes that "Beulah is evermore created around Eternity; appearing / To the Inhabitants of Eden around them on all sides." And also "Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district, / As the beloved infant in his mother's bosom round incircled / With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion." ''( Milton. Book the second, 30:1-31:11)'' In the poem ''

Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion ''Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion'' (1804–1820, with additions made even later) is a prophetic book by English poet William Blake. ''Jerusalem'' is the last, longest and greatest in scope of Blake's works. Etched in handwriting ...

'' Blake develops his statements about Beulah. He notes there that in Beulah the unions of the sexes are ideal and unrestricted Jerusalem, 30:34-37, 69:14-25, 85:7-9. See also: Damon, p. 43.

Notes

References

* Bloom, Harold. ''The Visionary Company''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. * Damon, S. Foster. ''A Blake Dictionary''. Hanover: Brown University Press, Providence, Rhode Island, 1965/1975. . * David V. Erdman, David V. ''The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake''. Anchor, 1988. .

External links

Glossary
in

William Blake Archive The William Blake Archive is a digital humanities project started in 1994, a first version of the website was launched in 1996.{{cite journal, last1=Crawford, first1=Kendal, last2=Levy, first2=Michelle, journal=RIDE: A Review Journal for Digital E ...

Religion & Psychology
{{William Blake, myth William Blake's mythology