page_title: The Book of Urizen
section_title: Themes
hierarchical_section_title: The Book of Urizen / Themes
caption_attribution_description: The First Book of Urizen, copy "G", plate 9. Relief Etching with monotyped color. In the Collection of the Library of Congress. Object 9 (Bentley 7, Erdman 7, Keynes 7)
context_page_description: The Book of Urizen is one of the major prophetic books of the English writer William Blake, illustrated by Blake's own plates. It was originally published as The First Book of Urizen in 1794. Later editions dropped the "First". The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake's mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. The book describes Urizen as the "primeaval priest" and tells how he became separated from the other Eternals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious dogma. Los and Enitharmon create a space within Urizen's fallen universe to give birth to their son Orc, the spirit of revolution and freedom.
  In form the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis. Urizen's first four sons are Thiriel, Utha, Grodna and Fuzon. The last of these plays a major role in The Book of Ahania, published in 1795.
context_section_description: The Book of Urizen is a creation myth that is similar to the Book of Genesis. Blake's myth surrounding Urizen is found in many of his works, and can trace back to his experiments in writing myths about a god of reason in the 1780s, including in "To Winter". In the work, Urizen is an eternal self-focused being who creates himself out of eternity. This creation is taken up again in The Four Zoas with a primal man, Albion, being the original form. In this work, it is only Urizen, the representation of abstractions and is an abstraction of the human self. From himself he first divides unknown shapes that begin to torment him. He also turns against the other Eternals and believes himself holy. In contemplating himself, he is able to discover sins and records them in a book of brass that are a combination of Newton, the laws of Moses, and deism that force uniformity. The rest of the Eternals in turn become indignant at Urizen's turning against eternity, and they establish the essence of the sins within living beings. This torments Urizen, who falls into a sleep, which allows Los to appear. Los' duty within the work is to watch over Urizen, and Urizen is seen as an eternal priest while Los takes the position of eternal prophet.
  Parts of the story were later revised in The Book of Los and The Book of Ahania, two experimental works. The focus on Urizen emphasises the chains of reason that are imposed on the mind. Urizen, like mankind, is bound by these chains. The point of both The Book of Urizen and the retelling in The Book of Los is to describe how Newtonian reason and the enlightenment view of the universe combine to trap the human imagination. In the Newtonian belief the material universe is connected through an unconscious power which, in turn, characterises imagination and intellect as accidental aspects that result from this. Additionally, imagination and intelligence are secondary to force. This early version of a "survival of the fittest" universe is connected to a fallen world of tyranny and murder in Blake's view.
  The poem portrays Orc and his three-stage cycle, whose stages are connected to historical events, although the latter are removed in The Four Zoas. In the beginning is the fall of Urizen, the Satanic force, in a similar way to Milton's Satan. Creation, however, was the fall. Urizen is the representation of abstraction, which is a passive and mental force disconnected from reality. Los, in the fallen world, enters the world as the fire of imaginative energy. However, he too falls and becomes mechanical and regular. Los is the creator of life systems and of the sexes, which leads to the creation of his partner Enitharmon. Eventually, human forms are created and Orc is born as an evolution of life.
caption: Copy G, plate 9.
  
   "Los howld in a dismal stupor,
   Groaning! gnashing! groaning!
   Till the wrenching apart was healed
  
  But the wrenching of Urizen heal'd not..."
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