Allen Ginsberg on William Blake continues from here
AG: That great line – “Forgetfulness dumbness necessity!” – “Forgetfulness dumbness necessity!/ in chains of the mind locked up/In fetters of ice shrinking together/ Disorganiz’d rent from Eternity,/ Los beat on his fetters of iron/ And heated his furnaces and pour’d/ Iron sodor & sodor of brass/ Restless the immortal inchain’d heaving dolorous, anguished unbearable/ Till a roof shaggy wild inclos’d/ In an orb his fountain of thought” – (That’s the skull – The “roof shaggy wild” enclosing in the brain his “fountain of thought”).
Now, Skandha one, I would say. The form, fetus, pain, suffering, the body solidified in external development. Or that’s the separation of alienation into a solidified body.
“In a horrible dreamful slumber/ like a linked chain/A vast spine writh’d in torment/ upon the wind/Shooting pain’d/ Ribs like a bending Cavern/And bones of solidness froze/ Over all his nerves of joy/ And a first Age passed over/ And a state of dismal woe..”
…This is a parody of the seven days of creation, also, as we’re getting on. There’s seven ages now.
Now, second – feeling – i.e., represented by heart and blood vessels and circulatory system -so, sensation. First was form and separation into a body, the second – feeling or heart, blood vessels or sensation.
“From the Caverns of his jointed Spine/ down sunk with fright a red/ Round globe, hot burning. deep/ Deep down into the Abyss/ Panting – Conglobing Trembling/ Shooting out ten thousand branches…” – (That’s the blood vessels, (the) circulatory system.) – “Around his solid bones/ And a Second Age (passed over)…”
[tape ends here, and then resumes]
AG: (The third Skandha) – … Eyes, reason, senses- sense discrimination, sensation discrimination, reaction. The reactions of positive, negative and indifferent, which would be a byproduct of the nervous system, which would be linked somewhat to rational eyeball senses.
“In harrowing fear rolling round/ His nervous brain shot branches/Round the branches of his heart/On high into two little orbs/And fixed in two little caves/ hiding in two little caves/Hiding carefully from the wind/ His eyes beheld the deep/And a third age passed over/And a state of dismal woe..”
And then the fourth Skandha: conception habits, that is the continuous repetition of those reactions. That would be equivalent to imagination and the ears. The imagination linking up disparate experiences; that is, linking up experiences between the gap.
“The pangs of hope..” – (Imagination) – “… began in heavy pain striving struggling/Two Ears in close volutions from beneath his orbs of vision/Shot spiring out & petrified/ As they grew. And a fourth/Age passed/ over and a state of dismal woe..”
Los is connected with sound – with the ears – is he not? And the imagination.
Student: And speech.
AG: And speech.
Student: And speech.
AG: And speech, yes. And I believe reason and the nervous system and nervous brain before that is connected with eyes-Urizen – and before that the heart, blood vessels, circulatory system and feeling are connected with …
Student: Luvah.
Student: Luvah.
AG: … Luvah.
Now, that fourth stage of conception habits I would continue to line five of page fifty-five -“In ghastly torment sick/ hanging upon the wind/ Two Nostrils bend to down to the deep -(Well, there’s Luvah – emotion- in the nose) – “And a fifth age passed over/ And a state of dismal woe/ “In ghastly torment sick/ Within his ribs bloated round/ A craving Hungry Cavern..” – Who knows what that is?
Student: The stomach..
AG: The stomach – “A craving hungry cavern.” – Stomach, digestive system, the Tharmas body.
… Thence arose his channeld Throat/And like a red flame a Tongue/ Of thirst & of hunger appear’d/ And a sixth age pass’d over/And a state of dismal woe
So all that from the “pangs of hope” – the ears, the nostrils, and the tongue I would say belong to fixed conception habit in the Buddhist Skandha system.
And finally the emergence of consciousness – of world consciousness and space consciousness and continuing open consciousness:
“Enraged & stifled with torment/ He threw his right arm to the north/ His left arm to the south/ Shooting out in anguish deep/And his feet stamp’d the Nether Abyss/ in trembling & howling & dismay/And a seventh age passed over/ And a state of dismal woe.”
And the entire creation of space and consciousness is complete.
So this is Blake’s psychological, physiological recapitulation of the birth consciousness out of nada (nothing)
Student: That position that he would be standing in would be like “Glad Day” or the…like the…
AG: Oh, that is.
Student: … extension of man… measured in the Medieval system, where the circle….
AG: (The) Leonardo da Vinci man.
Student: Right.
AG: And the “Glad Day” man. Everybody knows that “Glad Day” Leonardo da Vinci picture. Everybody know what we’re talking about? Also the Christ posture, somewhat.
Student: Right, but I mean….
AG: Except the legs spread.
Student: … you know his feet out stamping the earth.
AG: Yeah. Probably there’s a picture of that in that book – the “Glad Day” thing.
Well, I think that’s pretty great. And one thing that I’m amazed at is the Buddhist formulation of the growth of consciousness or the birth of consciousness and birth of the world seems to correlate with Blake’s homemade account. If you go through the Book of Urizen, particularly, over and over, this same development is recapitulated in many different ways. I did it last winter, I think. No, I did it one Spring – Spring of ’78 – (I) went through the Book of Urizen, and for about two weeks, pointing out the repetitive cycle (or) the repetition of this cycle of about five stages of growth, and it seemed to correlate. I don’t know whether it would correlate with other kabbalistic homunculus manufacture or not.
What were you going to say?
Audio for the above can be heard here beginning at approximately ninety-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately ninety-eight-and-a-half minutes in