A R T I C L E

Blake’sMoon-ArkSymbolism

NicholasO.Warner

Blake/AnIllustratedQuarterly,Volume14,Issue2,Fall1980,pp.44-59

BLAKE'S MOON-ARK SYMBOLISM

NICHOLAS O. WARNER

To a reader-viewer going through Blake's work chronologica l ly , the moon-ark or moon-boat probably seems a minor, perhaps even merely

decorative mot i f . The image does not enter the Blakean canon un t i l f a i r l y l a t e , 1804 and a f t e r , and then appears but sparsely--one l ine in Milton, four pictures in Jerusalem, a design from the Dante i l l u s t r a t i o n s . Yet an examination of the moon-boat image w i l l reveal i t s close connections to the basic Blakean themes of s p i r i t u a l degeneration and ul t imate redemption through the saving power of the imagina-t ion and of Chr is t 's mercy. Furthermore, Blake's yoking of moon and boat resul ts in an image of both s p i r i t u a l i l luminat ion and s p i r i t u a l t ransportat ion from one state of moral consciousness to another. Thus, i f we study the moon-boat in re la t ion to i t s sources in a r t and myth, modified by Blake into a moti f compatible with his own iconography, we w i l l discern i t s value as a vehicle of t rans i t i on from a lower to a higher state of s p i r i t u a l perception, and as a symbol of redemptive power.

So f a r , the only c r i t i c to discuss the subject in deta i l has been Albert S. Roe, who concentrates on a moon-boat from one of Blake's designs for Dante's Divine Comedy. I would l i ke to begin by examining th is i l l u s t r a t i o n , and then go on to a more thorough analysis of the whole phenomenon of the moon-ark in Blake's work. My procedure w i l l be to demonstrate the symbolic values of the moon-boat as they arise from Blake's ass imi la t ion and trans-formation of t rad i t i ona l mot i fs .

The moon-boat described by Roe appears in the drawing e n t i t l e d "The Angelic Boat Wafting Over the Souls for Purgat ion," in which an angel standing in a crescent-shaped boat bears souls away to Purgatory

( i l l u s . 1). Roe convincingly argues that th is crescent boat indicates Blake's association of th is "scene with Beulah, for Beulah too is a place where s p i r i t s come and go. . . .

n l Imp l i c i t in Roe's

analysis is the view of the moon-boat as a symbol of sp i r i t ua l t r a n s i t , and of Beulah as a t rans i t iona l s ta te : "Man is thus shown in th is design in the i n -between realm of Beulah. As the s p i r i t s embrace on the shore, the angelic boat guided by the Divine Imagination waits to take them back to the eternal joy of Eden. "

2

I believe that Roe's in te rpre ta t ion can be elaborated and extended to the moon-ark images of Milton and Jerusalem. The sole moon-ark image in Milton occurs verba l ly , in Blake's reference to Ololon, the emanation of M i l ton , who descends in to "Felphams Vale" and the "Fires of I n t e l l e c t " in the form of a "Moony Ark" {Milton 42:7-9). Ololon's descent marks the poem's triumphant conclusion, in which God and man, as well as Milton and his emanation, are uni ted. But why does Blake describe Ololon as an ark, and why is the ark "Moony"? To answer th is question we must f i r s t turn to Jerusalem. After examining the moon-boat i l l u s t r a t i o n s from Jerusalem, we can return to the f igure of Ololon with a f u l l e r , more luc id sense of her symbolic value. However, in order to understand how Blake uses the moon-arks of Jerusalem as symbols of

1 Blake: "The Angelic Boat Wafting Over the Souls for Purgat ion." Courtesy of the Trustees of the B r i t i sh Museum.

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redemption, sp i r i t ua l t rans i t i on and refuge, we must also see how Blake re-casts a number of t rad i t i ona l images to form his own moon-ark iconography.

Blake was rather miscellaneous in adapting general and speci f ic sources for his union of boat and moon into a single image. The posi t ive symbolism of the boat in Blake is not surp r i s ing , as the image of the ship or boat is nearly always benign both in Western and Eastern symbolism. The moon, on the other hand, often functions as a baleful symbol, a source of lunacy, an emblem of mutab i l i ty and i n -constancy. Yet there ex is t posi t ive a l ternat ive instances of lunar symbolism, and i t is on these that Blake seems to have drawn for the purposes of his own image of the moon-ark. I would l i ke to focus b r i e f l y on three such areas of posi t ive lunar assoc ia t i ons - - f i r s t , some general, scattered images of the moon as pos i t i ve ; second, a moon-boat moti f possibly fami l ia r to Blake from medieval and Renaissance Christ ian a r t ; t h i r d , the moon-boat symbolism set fo r th by the English ant iquar ian, Jacob Bryant.

As an object of l i g h t , the moon often functions as a symbolic promise of the return of the sun, as in Isaiah 30:26 ("Moreover the l i g h t of the moon shal l be as the l i g h t of the sun") and Jeremiah 31:35 ("Thus sai th the Lord, which giveth the sun for a l i g h t by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars fo r a l i g h t by n i gh t " ) . A sign of some-thing hopeful , b r i gh t , and de f in i t e in an amorphous sea of darkness (broken only by s t a r s ) , the moon goes through i t s cycle of phases with reassuring regu lar i ty^ (hence i t s many cross-cul tura l associa-t ions with rebi r th. )

1 4 As for the ship or boat, i t s

posi t ive meanings, as I mentioned e a r l i e r , are numerous and wide-ranging. The ship is often depicted as an image of sanctuary, as well as of reb i r th and immorta l i ty .

5 A frequent symbol of

refuge from a hos t i le sea, the ship also appears as a means of transcending mundane existence by t rans-port ing the soul to other wor lds.

6

Perhaps some of these associations l i e behind a moti f in Christ ian a r t that s t r i k i n g l y ant ic ipates

Blake's own use of the moon-boat, namely the appear-ance in medieval and early Renaissance ar t of d i s t i n c t l y crescent-shaped ships and boats. Now, whether there is any intended signi f icance underlying the resemblance of boat to moon in cer ta in works of ar t has not, as far as I know, received any scholar ly a t ten t ion . However, i t is l i k e l y that an act ive imagination l i ke Blake's, prone to complex symbolic associat ions, might \/ery well have made something s ign i f i can t of such a resemblance. Both the moon and the boat were accepted emblems of the Church in Christ ian iconography,

7 and perhaps i t is th is l ink

that such works express, or that i t s e l f appealed to Blake. One frequent symbol of the Church, Noah's Ark, was occasionally portrayed in crescent- l ike form, as in a medieval manuscript of uncertain date in which the ark consists of a house set in an exaggerated crescent-shaped boat ( i l l u s . 7). This picture even brings to mind some l ines about Los who, pract ica l visionary that he i s , provides Ulro with a moon to replace the los t moon of Beulah: "And Sixty Winters Los raged in the Divisions of Reuben: / Building the Moon of Ul ro , plank by plank, & r i b by r i b " [J 32:3-4).

S imi lar ly shaped boats Stu t tgar t Psal ter , though i would have seen i t . One mo however, a crescent-shaped sea ( i l l u s . 8) is par t icu la same moti f occurs several t the Geneva, or so-cal led "B Elizabeth B ib le , an English were numerous edit ions and well have seen.

8 The signi

abound in the well-known t is doubtful that Blake t i f from the Psal ter , boat in a monster-infested r l y i n te res t ing . The imes in i l l u s t r a t i o n s to reeches" or Queen Bible of which there

copies that Blake may f icance, for Blake, of a

2 Blake: d e t a i l , Jerusalem, plate 18, 8 3/4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the B r i t i sh Museum.

3 Blake: Jerusalem, plate 20, 8 3/4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the B r i t i sh Museum.

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48

crescent boat as a refuge from monstrous creatures w i l l become obvious when we real ize how his own moon-arks, especial ly those of plates 24 and 39 of Jerusalem, symbolize refuge from the sp i r i t ua l monstrosity surrounding Albion.

The presence of a moon-boat in Blake's Dante drawings leads one to suspect the possible inf luence of Dante's ea r l i e r i l l u s t r a t o r s on Blake. (We should remember, however, that in Dante there is no mention of actual moon-boats.) Flaxman immediately comes to mind, but his Dante i l l u s t r a t i o n s reveal no moons at a l l , l e t alone moon-boats. In one French version of Dante, however, the Bergaigne t rans la t ion of 1517-25, Dante is shown r id ing in a small crescent-l i ke rowboat. And in a fourteenth-century I t a l i a n manuscript, a d i s t i n c t l y crescent-shaped boat appears in an i l l u s t r a t i o n of the City of Dis ( i l l us. 9 ) .

The s i m i l a r i t y of such i l l u s t r a t i o n s as those found in the Bergaigne t r ans la t i on , the Stu t tgar t Psal ter , and the Queen Elizabeth Bible to Blake's moon-arks suggests that Blake may have been fami l i a r with these or s imi la r sources. Although there does not seem to be any evidence for a del iberate association of moons and boats in Western a r t , i t seems clear that Blake probably encountered some Eastern designs in which he might have noticed a s i m i l a r i t y between boats and the crescent moon, for Egyptian a r t and Sumerian hymns and pictures abound in moon-boat images.

9 Even so, we can only speculate

on Blake's possible in te rpre ta t ion and transformation of the crescent boat moti f in to a symbol sui table for his own work. Whether or not ea r l i e r a r t i s t s consciously imitated the lunar crescent in t he i r moon-like boats, Blake's creat ive ly ass imi la t ive mind could easi ly have drawn such a cor re la t ion from the i r work.

On a less esoteric l e v e l , we might note that the young Blake would probably have known the b i t of B r i t i sh fo lk lo re that in terprets a crescent moon on i t s s ide, thus resembling a boat, as a good omen, a sign of favorable weather.

10 But i t is even more

certa in that Blake's moon-ark imagery derives in part from Bryant's Analysis of Antient Mythology* for which Blake is said to have engraved a ta i l p iece depict ing Noah's ark as a crescent moon ( i l l u s . 6 ) .

1 1

From Bryant Blake would have learned of the ark 's association with the moon, as well as of many ingr igu ing , i f often far- fetched in terpreta t ions of Noah's ark and i t s connections to mythical f igures such as Osir is and Dionysus. According to Bryant, the ark "was a kind of crescent, such as is exhib i ted by the new moon; which in consequence of i t was made a type of the Ark. Hence, in the mythology of the Ark . . . there is cont inual ly some reference to the moon . . . the Moon and the Ark were synonymous terms."

1 2 Bryant goes on to l i nk Noah's ark to the

fes t i va l of Os i r i s , when the Egyptians "constructed by way of memorial a remarkable machine . . . an Ark in the shape of a crescent or new moon. In th is the image of Osir is was for a time concealed."

1 3

One of the i l l u s t r a t i o n s in Bryant's book (again, possibly designed by Blake himself)

1'4 depicts Osir is

in such a boat, a crescent-shaped canoe. As the ark of Noah and of Osir is the moon was, says Bryant, symbolic of renewal and b i r t h : "The Ark was cer ta in ly looked upon as the womb of nature; and

the descent from i t as the b i r t h of the w o r l d . "1 5

Both th is posi t ive value of the Ark, and the general association of the ark with the crescent moon discussed above, were accepted and elaborated by Blake in Jerusalem.

16

The f i r s t instance of moon-ark symbolism in Jerusalem occurs at plate 18, where Blake depicts two small crescent sai lboats apparently g l id ing toward one another as para l le ls to the two f igures f l y i ng in to an embrace on th is plate ( i l l u s . 2) . I t is d i f f i c u l t to assign a spec i f ic valence to these moon-boats, but we can in terpret them pos i t i ve ly i f , as seems reasonable, we see them as accompanying and/or para l le l ing the two embracing f igures , and i f in turn we iden t i f y these f igures as the necessary, complementary f r u i t s of Vala's and Jerusalem's labors, as described in the t ex t : "For Vala produc'd the Bodies. Jerusalem gave the Souls" (J 18:7). At the same t ime, these moon-boats could be images of hope, o f fe r ing us l i g h t or escape from the disasters of th is p la te- - the re ject ion of the innocent Jerusalem by the warl ike "Sons of A lb ion, j o i n ' d in dark Assembly" [j 18:5), who set up the a l l too obl ig ing Vala as the i r queen, the "Goddess Virgin-Mother" \j 18:29). The usurpation of Jerusalem's r i g h t f u l place and the disrupt ion of cosmic harmony that begin on plate 18 continue through plate 19, where Albion f a i l s to stagger out of his sp i r i t ua l stupor, and extend into plate 20, where some miniscule moon-boats reappear as tokens of hope ( i l l u s . 3). In a plate thick with despair in both the tex t and scattered designs, these three crescents (one wi th a s a i l , thus reca l l ing the boats of plate 18) are the only signs of refuge or hope. Such an in terpre ta t ion of these moon-boats w i l l be more strongly confirmed i f we now examine the moon-boats they seem to pref igure-- the larger , more impressive arks of Jerusalem 24 and 39. The moon-arks of these la te r plates embrace the meanings of those on plates 18 and 20, whi le also seeming to o f fe r Albion an a l te rnat ive from the Ulroic state he approaches in those p la tes, a refuge from the temporal-spatial sea that threatens to engulf him.

On plate 24 of Jerusalem, Blake presents a crescent moon in water as a kind of Noah's ark , much l i ke the one he supposedly engraved for Bryant's Mythology. The suggestion of Noah's ark is i n tens i f i ed by the presence of a smal l , winged, dovelike f igure in the boat .

1 7 (One thinks here

not only of the dove in the B ib l i ca l account of the deluge, but of the moon-ark ta i l p iece in Bryant, wi th a dove hovering over i t . )

In keeping with iconographic t r a d i t i o n , Blake depicts the ark during a rainstorm and on a turbulent sea.

1 8 This moon-ark, wi th even i t s p a r t i a l l y

submerged hul l shining luminously through the water, c lear ly functions as a Noah's-ark symbol, t r a d i t i o n -a l l y suggestive of hope,

19 and as a symbol of the

secur i ty and love of moon-ruled Beulah ( i l l u s . 4 ) .

In addit ion to these posi t ive associat ions, Blake's moon-ark yery possibly serves as an image of r e b i r t h . Such a connection is cer ta in ly i m p l i c i t in Bryant, in the same volume where he l inks the ark with the moon: "Osir is . . . having been confined in an ark, or c o f f i n , and in a state of

4 9

death, at las t qu i t ted his prison and enjoyed a renewal of l i f e . . . the renewal of mankind commenced from the i r issuing to l i g h t from the Ark . "

2 0 M. Esther Harding, who has made a study of

moon myths, points out a number of other sources in which the moon symbolizes the renewal of l i f e . Considering his in te res t in Eastern myths, perhaps Blake knew that "the Hindus . . . speak of the moon as carrying the souls of the dead over the waters to the sun where they l i v e a redeemed l i f e , " or that "the Chinese moon goddess a f te r the f lood gives b i r t h to a l l l i v i n g t h i n g s . "

2 1 These myths, l i ke

Blake's designs, present the moon-boat as a vehicle of s p i r i t u a l t r a n s i t i o n . Whatever Blake's spec i f ic sources (apart from Bryant) may have been, i t is clear that previous appearances of the moon-boat in both Western and Eastern t rad i t i ons would appeal to Blake in t he i r richness of symbolic reference and associat ion.

But what is the s igni f icance of a l l th is symbolic richness fo r reader-viewers of Jerusalem? What is the moon-ark's re la t ion to the tex t of plate 24, which i t s e l f depicts the weakness, delusion and despair a f f l i c t i n g Albion? For one th ing , the visual image of the moon-boat counters and corrects Albion's assertions of hopelessness. The text of plate 24 concludes wi th one of Albion's numerous fa i l u res at

4 Blake: d e t a i l , Jerusalem, plate 24, 8 3 / 4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the B r i t i s h Museum.

5 Blake: d e t a i l , Jerusalem, p late 39, 8 3 / 4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the B r i t i s h Museum.

so rejuvenation, and despite the appearance of Chr is t , Albion sinks back to deathly sleep: " I d ie! I die in thy arms tho Hope is banished from me" [j 24:60). Yet the moon-ark dominating the p la te , wi th i t s suggestions of Noah's ark, of l i f e and hope, shows that hope is not actual ly banished at a l l , as Albion erroneously th inks. The moon-ark stands as a reminder of the very l i f e that Albion is in danger of los ing , for i t can bear him away from Ulro toward Beulah and Eden i t s e l f , which Blake elsewhere ca l l s "the land of l i f e " {The Four Zoas, I , 21:6). As Albion himself ind icates, sp i r i t ua l death and ann ih i la t ion are not ident ica l — i f he f a i l s to escape from his lethargy, he w i l l " l i v e " an eternal death of the s p i r i t {J 23:40). This moon-ship of Beulah, though tempest-tossed, of fers Albion a shelter of love and hope that can s t i l l bear him away from the torments of Ulroic death, i f only he can muster the courage to board i t .

A symbol o moon-ark also s Beulah serves a Blake's Heaven the moon-ark th some sense of a pos i t ive associ frequent negati While a refuge, ark symbolizes

f Beulah, of i t s love and hope, the uggests i t s e l f as a boundary, for s a boundary between Eden and Ulro, and He l l . (Perhaps the aspect of at s ign i f i es a boundary even implies

tension or balance between the ations of the moon-ark and the moon's ve associations wi th mutab i l i t y . the state of Beulah that the moon-

is also characterized by a "peri lous

equipoise"2 2

between the ascent to Eden and the f a l l in to Ulro.) As the text of plate 24 shows, Beulah is a boundary that Ulro-bound Albion is quickly s l ipp ing past. The moon-ark reminds us that Beulah, l im i ted as i t i s , is a step to Eden, a step that can lead to Albion's redemption i f he w i l l only attempt to regain Beulah and then move on to Eden. As the moon i t s e l f has served as a token of the warming l i g h t of the sun in numerous cu l tu res , so here the moon-boat is a reminder to Albion of Eden, the f i e r y , sun-ruled world of the imagination. But instead of regaining Beulah at th is po in t , Albion continues to degenerate, as evidenced by the cosmic disrupt ion wi th in his own system: "The Sun f led from the Britons forehead: the Moon from his mighty l o ins " [J 24:10). This l ine consti tutes a verbal prophecy of what we w i l l see graphical ly presented on the fo l lowing p la te , 25—Albion in u t ter

6 Blake: "Noah's Ark," in Jacob Bryant's Analysis of Antient Mythology, 1807, Vol. I I I .

7 Anonymous: "Le retour de la coulombe a l 'd rche, ' plate xxv of La Bible toute historiee et figuree de la John Eylands Library. Courtesy of the John Rylands Library.

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53

degradation as he is tor tured by the Female Wil l ( i l l u s . 10). The s h i f t of the moon image of plate 24 to that of plate 25 s t r i k i n g l y para l le ls Albion's own degeneration. Both the moon (Albion's emotional center) and the sun (his sp i r i t ua l center) are displaced from the i r posit ions of loins and forehead (the sources of passion and thought?) and end up on Albion's legs in a kind of symmetry that is fear fu l fo r a l l the wrong reasons. Blake, of course, frequently l inks sun and moon; yet here, in the context of both the design and text of th is p la te , the i r pa i r ing possesses negative connotations as i t underscores the i r displacement from the or ig ina l posit ions of forehead and lo ins .

Blake's repet i t ion of the moon image of plate 24 on the plate fo l lowing i t serves as a b i t t e r reminder of Alb ion's unfal len s ta te , as well as of the r ich promises the moon-ark of plate 24 s t i l l held. The hopes symbolized by the moon-boat seem far away indeed when the i r emblem, l i ke the sun, has metamorphosed into a mere ta t too on Albion's leg .

Besides incorporat ing the posi t ive symbolic associations of plate 24, the moon-ark of plate 39 i l l u s t r a t e s , i f somewhat ob l ique ly , the tex t which accompanies i t . The struggle for Albion's sp i r i t ua l awakening has been dragging on throughout the poem, and f i n a l l y , " fur ious raging" l o s exhorts Albion's fr iends and brothers to s t retch a "hand to save the f a l l i n g Man" («7 38:12-14). Responding to Los's urging,

With one accord in love sublime, & as on Cherubs wings

They Albion surround wi th kindest violence to bear him back

Against his w i l l thro Los's Gate to Eden: Four-f o l d ; loud!

Their Wings waving over the bottomless Immense: to bear

Their awful charge back to his native home: but Albion dark,

Repugnant; r o l l s his Wheels backward into Non-

Ent i ty

{j 39:1-6)

We can easi ly see the extension of the symbolism of plate 24 into plate 39, where a related yet d i f fe ren t sor t of moon-boat sa i l s over the water. The simple crescent of plate 24 has grown into a house set in a moon-like boat, and the dove of the ea r l i e r plate has been replaced by two great wings f lanking the house ( i l l u s . 5 ) . In addit ion to

8 Anonymous: "Christ Calming the Sea," from The Stuttgart Psalter. Courtesy of Princeton Univ. Press and the Department of Art and Archaeology of Princeton Universi ty wi th the cooperation of the Universi ty of Utrecht.

9 Anonymous: "The City of D is , " from the 14th century i l l u s t r a t e d manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy.

of fe r ing a v is ion of hope and r e b i r t h , the design on the upper part of plate 39 supplies a visual complement to the tex t . This winged moon-boat, followed and perhaps impelled by the two angelic s p i r i t s behind i t (two of the fr iends and brothers mentioned in the t e x t ) , symbolical ly para l le ls the tex t ' s account of the attempt to bear the fa l len Albion back through Los's gate to Eden. As a refuge from the non-ent i ty threatening Alb ion, th is moon-boat seems to symbolize those q u a l i t i e s , already suggested on plate 24, that can serve as a kind of s p i r i t u a l barque bearing Albion back to sp i r i t ua l heal th.

In i t s very funct ion as a conveyance between two s ta tes , the moon-ark of plate 39 can also be seen as the kind of boundary between Eden and Ulro that we recognized in the ark of plate 24. Indeed, the winged moon-boat of plate 39 seems a variant of the winged disk-boundary appearing on plate 33 of Jerusalem. The design on plate 33 reveals Albion fa in t i ng back in Chr is t 's arms, a scene verbal ly described on plates 23 and 24, when Albion declares a l l hope to be banished from him ( i l l u s . 11). Now, j us t what the winged globe of plate 33 represents is unclear. In discussing th is image, W. J . T. Mitchel l notes that in Wil l iam Stukeley's Abury , winged orbs are interpreted as symbols of d i v i n i t y , while Mitchel l himself , without spec i f i ca l l y indent i fy ing the globe in Blake, argues that i t is an emblem of the "eternal support of P i t y . "

2 3 Such

an in terpre ta t ion of the winged orb of plate 33 would be consistent with Blake's para l le l depict ion of both Christ and the disk as supporting A lb ion- -the winged disk supports Alb ion's foo t , j us t as Christ supports him in his arms. However, i t is also possible that the orb actual ly does represent the moon. David Erdman iden t i f i es the orb as such, maintaining that i t s "continents are those of the moon, not e a r t h . "

2 4 Furthermore, winged moons are

not unknown in mythology. An ancient Assyrian moti f represents the moon as winged

25 ( i l l u s . 12); Jacob

Bryant, in a section of his Mythology on the symbolic l inks between moon and b u l l , presents an i l l u s t r a t i o n of a winged f u l l moon among other lunar emblems ( i l l u s . 13). Should we in te rp re t th is winged orb as a moon, we can go on to see i t as an emblem of Beulah, serving as a kind of border between Albion and the Ulroic scene at the bottom of the p l a te , presided over by a bat-winged creature ( i l l u s . I I ) .

2 6

( In Blake's textual counterpart to th is design, Jerusalem 23:24-25, Albion is described as being upon the "edge of Beulah.") The s i m i l a r i t y between the winged moon images of plates 33 and 39 ( i f indeed the disk of 33 is the moon) emphasizes the s i m i l a r i t y of t he i r symbolic funct ions. In any event, the disk of plate 33, be i t moon, sun, ea r th , or some other orb, is equipped wi th wings, and hence is ready to move, i f necessary. The vehicular , winged moon-boat of plate 39, l i k e i t s motionless counterpart in the e a r l i e r p la te , represents a boundary between Eden and Ulro at the same time that i t is already moving, under the guidance of the two s p i r i t s , to convey Albion back to Eden.

I t is in connection wi th the idea of the moon-boat as both conveyance and boundary that a suggestion in Bryant's Mythology becomes usefu l . Throughout his discussion of the ark 's ancient

54

symbolism, Bryant implies that the moon­ark, in

addit ion to i t s other symbolic values, represents "an intermediate state between a lost wor ld , and a

world renewed."27 In terms of Blake's own symbolism, Beulah (of which the moon is chief emblem) could be

viewed as such an intermediate s ta te , between the

l os t death­world of Ulro and the renewed and renewing

world of Eden. Albion himself needs to be redeemed

from the l os t world of Ulro, of non­ent i ty , through

the intermediate stage of Beulah, before going on

in to Eden; and what more appropriate image for his sp i r i t ua l conveyance than a moon­ark, at once a

boat, source of l i g h t , emblem of Beulah, and symbol of the redemption that Albion so desperately needs.

In addi t ion to the moon­boats we have been

discussing, there is a verbal instance of what might be cal led a moon­boat in Jerusalem when, in

a pair of obscure verses, Los announces that "The

Sun shal l be a scythed char iot of Br i t a i n : the

Moon, a Ship / In the Br i t i sh Ocean" [j 56:18­19). These l ines appear in a passage marked by images of holocaust, and are d i f f i c u l t to i n t e rp re t , fo r the

re lat ionship of sun and moon to the surrounding

imagery is not clear. S. Foster Damon sees the

moon here as a symbol of love and Beulah, represent­ing a barque of refuge from the Sea of Time and

Space.28 Yet the imagery of sun and moon in these

l ines dis turbs , rather than calms. What we have

here, af te r a l l , is imagery of great cosmic disorder,

with sun and moon fa l len to ear th . The sun as a

"scythed char io t " suggests destruct ion, and the real moon, i f one may be permitted so fatuous a statement, simply does not belong in the Br i t i sh ocean. There

is nothing in the context of these two l ines to

indicate a posi t ive reading of these displaced

ce les t ia l objects , and the only way to make sense

of them is to f i t them in with the ent i re l i t any of ev i ls of which they are a part . In th is moon image

we have not a redemptive moon­ark, but a symbol of disrupt ion s imi la r to that of plate 25, where the

sun f lees from Albion's forehead, and the moon from

his "mighty l o i n s . "

Thus far we have considered Blake's ark as the

union of moon and boat. Yet there is another

10 Blake: Jerusalem, plate 25, 8 3/4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the Br i t i sh Museum.

11 Blake: Jerusalem, plate 33, 83/4 x 6 1/4 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the Br i t i s h Museum.

12 Assyrian Winged Moon on Assyrian cy l inder , from

■Symbolism of Greek Coins, by Agnes Baldwin Bre t t , 1916. Courtesy of the American Numismatic Society.

5 5

dimension to Blake's moon-ark symbolism that depends on an apparent l i n k , in Blake's mind, between the Ark of Noah and the Ark of the Covenant. The connection between the two arks w i l l provide us wi th a t rans i t i on from the symbolism of the moon-boats to that of Ololon, the "Moony Ark" of Milton.

In his commentary on Jerusalem, Joseph Wicksteed finds several connections between Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant, suggested by one of the designs we have been discussing, plate 39 of Jerusalem. Wicksteed notes that the ark of th is plate must have been "associated by Blake wi th the Ark of the Covenant as described in Bacon's New Atlantis, wi th i t s attendant angels guiding i t from heaven."

29

Wicksteed goes on to note the close association between the two arks as the resu l t of the Vulgate's use of the word area for both, although the Hebrew words for the two arks are qui te d i f f e ren t . A s imi la r association is found in Bryant, who discusses the merging of the symbolism of Noah's ark , the rainbow (God's f i r s t covenant with man), and the Ark of the Covenant: "Upon the rest ing of the ark upon Mount Bar is , and the appearance of the Bow in the clouds, i t pleased God to make a covenant wi th man . . . A memorial of th is was preserved in the Gentile worlds. They represented the great event under the type of an Ark . . ..which they sty led Ba r i t h , in a l lus ion to the covenant. Some ages a f te r . . . another Ark by divine appointment was framed . . . and th is too was cal led the Ark of the Covenant."

30 I t is worth not ing, in l i g h t of

Bryant's comments, that there seems to be a s im i la r l i nk ing of Noah's ark, the rainbow, and the Ark of the Covenant in Blake. Blake's depict ion of Noah's ark in his i l l u s t r a t i o n , "Epitome of Hervey's Medita-t ions Among the Tombs, shows the rainbow above the ark i l l u s t r a t e d in Bryant, in that both vessels seem to be mirrored or para l le led by the rainbow arc in the sky ( i l l u s . 6 and 14). In both "Hervey's Meditations" and the design from Bryant, i t is almost as i f the rainbow covenant and Noah's ark become analogous images, both f igures of God's mercy, a s igni f icance t h a i , as I have shown, is appropriate for the moon-arks of Jerusalem as w e l l .

Blake himself gave us a visual rendi t ion of the Ark of the Covenant that resembles the house-like st ructure of Jerusalem 39 ( i l l u s . 15). Here, in th is engraving for the Protestant's Family Bible,

31

Blake has shown Joshua safely crossing Jordan through the miraculous powers of the Ark. Blake would not f a i l to note that both B ib l i ca l arks had provided salvat ion from water, both were signs of God's mercy, both were places of refuge ( in Noah's case, fo r l i v i n g beings, in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, for sacred ob jec ts ) . Moreover, the winged house-boat of Jerusalem 39 can reasonably be said to recal l the B ib l i ca l descr ipt ion of the Ark of the Covenant found in Exodus 37 and 38, f o r , as Blake himself noted, that Ark was attended by winged cherubim: "The holy s p i r i t l i k e a Dove is surrounded by a blue Heaven in which are the two cherubim that bowd over the Ark fo r here the temple is opened in Heaven." The yery next l i ne that Blake wr i tes l inks the Ark of the Covenant with that of Noah, through the image of the Dove--"the Ark of the Covenant is as a Dove of Peace."

32

These subtle yet deep l inks between the two arks in Blake mul t ip ly the iconic force of the moon-ark, and extend not only i t s own range of symbolic reference, but that of Ololon as w e l l . Having examined Blake's transformative vis ion of t r ad i t i ona l iconography, we can return to the image of Ololon wi th a f u l l e r understanding of her i den t i t y as a "Moony Ark"--as a f igure that incorporates many of the symbolic aspects of the arks we have been studying.

Both "Dove upon a stormy sea" (Milton 42:6) (we should remember here Blake's association of the Dove of Noah wi th the Ark of the Covenant) and "Moony Ark , " Ololon descends to Felpham's Vale. In so doing, she, l i ke the moon-arks of Jerusalem, transcends the barr iers between various states of consciousness and being. She contains w i th in hersel f Beulah's love, as well as the redemptive, merciful qua l i t i es that characterize Blake's moon-ark symbols. Hence, Ololon too is a "Moony Ark," a metaphor that becomes even more su i tab le because she is female, and thus, in accordance wi th much t rad i t i ona l feminine symbolism, has a mysterious l i nk to the moon and is also a type of protect ive vessel. Even Christ is wrapped in a kind of shel ter ing mantle by 01olon--"wonderful! round his limbs / The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in Blood" (Milton 42:11-12). This p ro tec t i ve , enclosing aspect of Ololon connects her to the Ark of the Covenant, which, in Catholic t r a d i t i o n , was interpreted as a type of the protect ive V i r g i n .

3 3 I f , moreover, as

Roe points out , Beulah is equivalent to Blake's Purgatory, then Ololon may be his "Foederis Area," the Church's t r ad i t i ona l symbol of woman as shel ter -ing Ark of the Covenant which enshrines the Son of God, as Ololon enwraps Chr is t .

36

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5 7

58

. il„ V I .tir.-.-»»fc« K* r r * i I * V* I* IWrmrfVr K."*

13 overleaf. Blake: "Tauri Lunat i , " in Jacob Bryant's Analysis of Antient Mythology, 1807, Vol I I I .

14 overleaf. Blake: "Epitome of James Hervey's

'Meditations Among the Tombs,"' 16 7/8 x 11 1/2 i n . Courtesy of the Trustees of the Tate Gal lery.

15 above. Blake: "Joshua Crossing Jordan," in the Protestant's Family Bible.

3 9

In connection with t h i s dimension of Ololon's symbolism, we might observe that Erich Neumann

defines images of the ship, and Noah's ark in

par t i cu la r , as components of the "vessel symbolism

of the feminine," and describes the many myths in

which the moon functions as "the great lamp, the

vessel of l i g h t of the female godhead."3t+ Ololon, as both ark and moon, c lear ly incorporates the

powerful symbolism Neumann describes. Only when we

recognize Ololon's re la t ion to the moon­ark and Ark of the Covenant do these added layers of her meaning

become apparent.

As I indicated ea r l i e r , the reference to Ololon

as a "Moony Ark" is not clear wi th in the context of Milton alone. I t would seem that Blake had already conceived of Ololon's signi f icance in the terms I have used, yet he did not develop the moon­ark image

f u l l y and coherently enough for his reader­viewers unt i l he produced the series of moon­arks in

Jerusalem. Looking back, then, from Jerusalem, we

can perceive how abundant the phrase "Moony Ark" actual ly i s . Furthermore, the moon­boat's re la t ion

to the text in Jerusalem, however obl ique, is none­theless de f i n i t e . A careful at tent ion to the rapport between tex t and design from plate 18 through 39 of Jerusalem can expand our perception of that poem

while also shedding l i g h t on the f igure of Ololon. The s im i la r rapport between Blake's symbolism and

ea r l i e r motifs can help us more f u l l y understand his moon­ark iconography, as well as his creat ive

assimi lat ion of t r a d i t i o n .

1 Alber t S. Roe, Blake's Illustrations to the "Divine Comedy" (Pr inceton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1953), p. 140.

2 Roe, p. 141.

3 Juan C i r l o t , A Diotionary of Symbols, t rans . Jack Sage (N. Y.: Philosophical L ib ra r y , 1962), p. 206.

'' M. Esther Harding, Woman's Mysteries Ancient and Modern (N. Y.: Colophon Books, 1971), p. 109.

5 C i r l o t , p. 281.

6 C i r l o t , pp. 281­82.

7 George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (N. Y. : Oxford Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 180­81.

8 Between i t s f i r s t ed i t i on in 1560 and i t s l as t in 1616, the

Geneva Bible was the most popular Bible in Engl ish , espec ia l ly among the kinds of Protestant sects wi th which Blake f e l t sympathy. Even a f t e r 1616, many i l l u s t r a t e d Geneva Bibles were

ava i lab le in England, and t h i s version continued in to the

eighteenth century to be more widely c i r cu la ted among many Protestants than the o f f i c i a l King James Version. For useful informat ion on the Geneva B ib l e , see Hugh Pope, 0. P., English

Versions of the Bible (Birghamton and N. Y.: Vai l ­Ba l lou Press, I n c . , 1952) and T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, Historical Catalogue

of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture, Vol . I (London: Bible

House, 1903).

'■' Maurice Farbridge, Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism

(N. Y.: KTAV Publ ishing House, I n c . , 1970), p. 92.

10 John Adlard , The Sports of Cruelty (London: Cecil & Amelia

Woolf, 1972), p. 66.

11 Ruthven Todd, Tracks in the Snow (N. Y. : Charles Scr ibner 's

& Sons, 1947), pp. 47­50. 12

Jacob Bryant, Analysis of Antient Mythology (London: J . Walker, 1807), Vol . I l l , p. 178.

13 Bryant, pp. 181­83.

K Roger R. Easson, Robert N. Essick, William Blake: Book

Illustrator (Memphis: American Blake Foundation, 1979), Vol. II, P. 2. 15

Bryant, p. 218.

16 I t would seem that Bryant 's associat ion of the Ark of Osir is

wi th resurrect ion received a cur iously negative adaptation in

Jerusalem 21 , where Blake says of the Daughters of Alb ion:

I see them die beneath the whips of the Captains! they are

taken

In solemn pomp in to Chaldea across the bredths of Europe

Six months they l i e embalmed in s i l e n t death: worshipped

Carried in Arks of Oak before the armies in the spring

Burst ing t h e i r Arks they r i se again to l i f e : they play before

The Armies: I hear t he i r loud cymbals & t he i r deadly cr ies

{j 21 :42­47)

In th is perversion of resurrect ion and of the I s r a e l i t e s ' pract ice

of carry ing the Ark of the Covenant before them, we may f i nd a

Blakean version of vict im­oppressor i d en t i f i c a t i o n that reca l l s the vicious cycles of "The Mental Trave l l e r . " In Jerusalem 21 , the Daughters of Albion emerge from t h e i r arks only to i n c i t e

t he i r former oppressor­worshippers to f u r the r e v i l . The

re la t i onsh ip between the Daughters and the armies receives deta i led exposi t ion in Jerusalem 68.

17 Copies BE of th is plate depict a dove wi th human face, a

humanized form div ine that perhaps underscores the supernatura l , redemptive qua l i t i e s of the image.

18 Louis Re"au, Iaonographie de I'art ahretien (Par is : Presses

Univers i ta i res de France, 1956), Vol . I I , no. 1 , p. 109. : 9

Re"au, p. 109.

2 0 Bryant, p. 248.

2 1 Harding, p. 109.

2^ Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry (Pr inceton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1947), p. 233.

2 3 W. J . T. M i t c h e l l , Blake's Composite Art (Pr inceton: Princeton

Univ. Press, 1978), pp. 181­82.

2,4 David V. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake (Garden Ci t y , N. Y.:

Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1974), p. 312.

2 5 Harding, p. 47.

6 The f a l l en world of the bottom por t ion of plate 33 shows the

moon dominated by the ba t ­ l i k e creature , and demonstrates the

inversion of order that t y p i f i e s Ulro , as the moon has i t s br iah t side turned away from the sun. The moon in th is lower sect ion

qui te possibly represents a corrupted moon, the emblem of Beulah

transformed, l i k e the sun of th is design, i n to par t of a f a l l e n , ev i l universe. Or perhaps we are looking at Los's moon of Ulro , which he bui lds "plank by plank" to replace the moon of Beulah

in the f a l l en wor ld , as described on the plate preceding t h i s i l l u s t r a t i o n (J 32:4).

2 7 Bryant, p. 81 .

2 8 S. Foster Damon, William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols,

2nd ed. (1924; r p t . Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1958), p. 471. 2 9

Joseph Hart ley Wicksteed, William Blake's Jerusalem: A

Commentary (London: Trianon Press, 1954), p. 178.

30 Bryant, p. 429.

31 Easson and Essick, p. 28.

i2 Wil l iam Blake, "A Vision of the Last Judgment," The Poetry

and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman (Garden Ci t y , N. Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1965), p. 552.

13 Charles L. Souvay, "Ark , " The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed.

Charles G. Herbermann et a l . , Vol. I (N. Y. : 'Robert Appleton Co., 1907), p. 724. 3,4

Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, t rans . Ralph Manheim (N. Y.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1955), pp. 256­57.