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Post by urthona2 on Sept 29, 2013 18:55:29 GMT -8
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Post by urthona2 on Sept 30, 2013 9:57:04 GMT -8
Reason corresponds to the Emperor in conventional Tarot. It depicts the seemingly godlike form of Urizen, who is Blake's southern Zoa of Mentality, the "eternal mind." His name may be a multiple pun on 'reason' or 'horizon', and 'Uranus'. Urizen, driven by self-doubt, fails to understand the need for a balance of forces, and selfishly desires to dominate eternity. Urizen is associated with the element Air and the art of Science, so he has a lofty ability to explain, quantify, and manipulate reality — but Urizen is also orthodox, moralistic, stubborn, and egotistic. He is the aspect of deity that, if unchecked, can degenerate into Satan. Supremely dualistic, Urizen represents good intentions and blind egotism, intellectual wisdom and implacable patriarchy, expansion and contraction, dynamism and stasis. Wielding his compasses as a classic symbol of this dualism, Urizen measures all things, but without compassion and true understanding. He is the "king of pride."
Like the jealous and vengeful god of the Old Testament, he is the author of absolute law, which is justice without mercy. Urizen is called the Spectre, and the adversary of spiritual consciousness. Another mocking Blakean name for him is Nobodaddy, from 'nobody's daddy'.
Sometimes associated with the sun god Apollo, Urizen is shown leaning out of the sphere of eternity into the void, in the act of measuring out what Blake calls the "mundane shell," which is the visible sky as the astral projection of the fallen world. Urizen extends his compasses downward with his left (sinister) hand, and the cosmic wind that blows his hair and beard also comes from his left.
Despite his dictatorial traits, we can also see him as the traditional Tarot figure of the kingly father who benevolently directs the actions of his subjects and children, defines limits, sets boundaries, and asserts the law.
In the border, two books of knowledge connected by a scroll of inspiration are tended by an angel who represents the holy spirit, or Comforter. These symbols have a dualistic meaning. On the one hand, they literally illustrate that truth and knowledge are linked by imagination, and presided over by love — all shown connected to Urizen through his compasses. On the other hand, these books represent Urizen's dreaded metallic books of brass (laws) and iron (war), impaled on the compass points of reason. When limited to finite perception, they deny the infinite and introduce error; when unlimited, they offer loving direction.
KEYWORDS: RATIONALITY • PATRIARCHY • AUTHORITY • REPRESSION • ORTHODOXY • ASSERTION • POSSESSION • DEFINITION • FALSE DIVINITY • SELFHOOD • DUALISM •
At this stage, consciousness realizes that it can control and define itself, wielding its intellect to create and enforce. Many seekers, fascinated with power, find it logical to stop here. www.blaketarot.com/tarot-big-book-web/tarot-bb-chapter-3.html#3-c4
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