WILLIAM BLAKE

AND THE BOOK OF JOB
 
 
 

{THERE are books written in human history that heal souls. Julian of Norwich's Showing of Love is one of them. Another is Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy . Another, Dante's Commedia. All use as their model, the Book of Job from the Bible. Following them, William Blake illustrated this Book of Job and his engravings similarly convey wisdom and healing to despair and to trauma.



Blake shows Job and his wife surrounded by their children and their flocks, at prayer, the Lord's Prayer, their musical instruments hung in the tree, the sun setting behind a Gothic cathedral.

Then, in a series of engravings, Blake shows Satan, in the likeness of Job's son rebelling against his father, negotiating with God, Job's temptation. Here, as Job's faith is weakening, his sons and daughters killed, his flocks lost, the cathedral now become a Stonehenge, about the murdering of children, Job gives alms to a beggar in his own likeness, patronizingly, God above him, in their image, the way blocked by Satan's tumult.

Jon is increasingly tormented, by even his friends. He now sees God, in his own image, as his Terrifyer. But this is a false God, mirroring the falseness in himself. He struggles and proclaims, 'For I know that my Redeemer liveth'.

'When the morning Stars sang together, & all the Sons of God shouted for joy'. Again harmony returns. Job and God mirror each other, not in terror but wonder.

God then shows Job the wonders of the Creation, Behemoth and Leviathan, like Satan, all of his creating, all beneath him.

Job's family and flocks are restored. 'And God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning'. They now play their instruments in joy, are like the Morning Stars/Sons of God, the Sun rising on the right. In Innocence again, and Wisdom.
 

Psychiatry, with Freud and Adler, omitted the spiritual aspect, rebelled against God. Viktor Frankl returned psychiatry to its spiritual dimension. Likewise, Alcoholics Anonymous sees the importance of faith for healing, not seeking power only in oneself, as does fallen Satan, but in acknowledging beyond oneself a 'Higher Power', the true God, not the false of one's own mirroring and its anguish and hate and terror. Then can come the music of the Morning Stars singing together.

Go to the Blake Archive Websites at http://www.blakearchive.org/

JULIAN OF NORWICH, HER SHOWING OF LOVE AND ITS CONTEXTS ©1997-2024 JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY  || JULIAN OF NORWICH  || SHOWING OF LOVE || HER TEXTS || HER SELF || ABOUT HER TEXTS || BEFORE JULIAN || HER CONTEMPORARIES || AFTER JULIAN || JULIAN IN OUR TIME ||  ST BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN  ||  BIBLE AND WOMEN || EQUALLY IN GOD'S IMAGE  || MIRROR OF SAINTS || BENEDICTINISM|| THE CLOISTER  || ITS SCRIPTORIUM  || AMHERST MANUSCRIPT || PRAYER|| CATALOGUE AND PORTFOLIO (HANDCRAFTS, BOOKS ) || BOOK REVIEWS || BIBLIOGRAPHY ||

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