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• The Voice of the Ancient Bard
• The Mental Traveller
• Beulah (Blake)

Beulah (/ˈbjuːlə/), "married" in Hebrew or "espoused", see for example Isaiah 62:4 (Mechon Mamre), is the happy and delightful for the Lord country (See Book of Isaiah Isaiah 62:4. This is one of names given to Palestine when it is rejoined to God after the exile, a prophesied attribute of the land of Israel. The name of Beulah used also by Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress, where it was the pastoral earthly paradise (in sight of the Heavenly City) where Christian and the other pilgrims rest before crossing the River of Death and entering the Heavenly City.

In Blake's System, this is the realm of the Subconscious, the source of poetic inspiration and of dreams. It is also the land, a dreamy paradise where the sexes, though divided, blissfully converse in shameless selflessness. Beulah is available through dreams and visions to those in Ulro, the utterly fallen world. It placed between Eternity and Ulro. This is a peaceful idealized place, with no conflict, the conventional image of Heaven or Eternity where all are one. But this notion of Eternity is misguided and fallen. Its inhabitants, the daughters of Beulah, and act as muses for the poets who dwell in Ulro. Beulah occurs 182 times in Blake.

Milton a Poem. The beginning of Book the second, copy D, 1818 (Library of Congress)

First it was appeared in Night the first of The Four Zoas (5:29-35)

 There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest
Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely
Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep Eternally.
Created by the Lamb of God around
On all sides within & without the Universal Man
The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams
Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death

Blake also described Beulah in his poem Milton ( Book the second, 30:1-31:11):

 There is a place where Contraries are equally True:
This place is called Beulah. It is a pleasure lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come, Because of those who Sleep.
Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended
With solemn mourning, into Beulah's moony shades & hills
Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah,
Enraptur'd with affection sweet and mild benevolence.

Beulah is evermore created around Eternity; appearing
To the Inhabitants of Eden around them on all sides.
But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district,
As the beloved infant in his mother's bosom round incircled
With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to
The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah
Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest...

Here is a general explanation on the visionary world of Blake in Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion (13:12-20):

 "The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments:
Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albions sons; as cogs
Are formd in a wheel, to fit the cogs of the adverse wheel.
That toward Eden, eternal ice, frozen in seven folds
Of forms of death: and that toward Beulah, stone:
The seven diseases of the earth are carved terrible.
And that toward Ulro, forms of war: seven enormities:
And that toward Generation, seven generative forms.
And every part of the City is fourfold; & every inhabitant, fourfold."

References

• Bloom, Harold. The Visionary Company. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.
• Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary. Hanover: Brown University Press, Providence, Rhode Island, 1965/1975. ISBN 0-87057-088-9.
• David V. Erdman (1988). The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake. Anchor. ISBN 0-385-15213-2.

See also

• Beulah
• Beulah (given name)

External links

• Glossary in William Blake Archive
• Religion & Psychology

Category:William Blake's mythology

The word beulah appears many times in the Four Zoas and also in Milton and in Jerusalem.

In the Four Zoas:

First it was appeared in Night 1 of The Four Zoas

"There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around On all sides within & without the Universal Man The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death"

So we might call Beulah a suburb of Heaven; you're not exactly in Heaven, but you're close.

Now go back a few lines and you may read this: "Then Eno a daughter of Beulah took a Moment of Time And drew it out to Seven thousand years with much care & affliction And many tears & in Every year made windows into Eden She also took an atom of space & opend its center Into Infinitude & ornamented it with wondrous art Astonishd sat her Sisters of Beulah to see her soft affections To Enion & her children & they ponderd these things wondring And they Alternate kept watch over the Youthful terrors They saw not yet the Hand Divine for it was not yet reveald But they went on in Silent Hope & Feminine repose"

---

Milton begins with a reference to Beulah: "Daughters of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poets Song Record the journey of immortal Milton thro' your Realms Of terror & mild moony lustre, in soft sexual delusions Of varied beauty, to delight the wanderer and repose His burning thirst & freezing hunger!" (Read on if you want to begin to understand Milton.)

On Plate 30 [33] we have this: "There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow Where no dispute can come. Because of those who Sleep. Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended With solemn mourning into Beulahs moony shades & hills Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing To the Inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides. But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah, Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest."

Pressing on to Jerusalem I found this on Erdman 156-7:

"The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments: Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albions sons; as cogs Are formd in a wheel, to fit the cogs of the adverse wheel. That toward Eden, eternal ice, frozen in seven folds Of forms of death: and that toward Beulah, stone: The seven diseases of the earth are carved terrible. And that toward Ulro, forms of war: seven enormities: And that toward Generation, seven generative forms. And every part of the City is fourfold; & every inhabitant, fourfold."

(The Eastern Gate is surely a place for another post.) Look also at the fourfold post.