ABSTRACT
William Blake began conventionally within the pre-existing framework of organized Christianity, but as his thinking progressed, his myth, as reflected in a chronological survey of his composite art, that is, self-produced books that are a combination of both visual and verbal components, gradually evolved from the linear duality of exoteric Christianity to the cyclical restoration projected by the esoteric myth of Christian kabbalism. Blake initiates the act of myth-making by personifying the major concepts associated with the problem he was exploring. In the process, he would not only name Urizen, but he would expand the identity so that, exceeding the more narrow negation of the visionary faculty, the figure would signify the broader religious establishment that historically, it was believed, suppressed that faculty. Visually, several of the engravings suggest that Blake was beginning to generate an image to be used for Urizen. The devolution of vision into law is projected by the preliminaries.
