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Theprophetic books of the English poet and artistWilliam Blake contain aninvented mythology, in which Blake worked to encode his spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. This desire to recreate thecosmos is the heart of his work and his psychology. His myths often described the struggle between enlightenment andfree love on the one hand, and restrictive education and morals on the other.
Among Blake's inspirations wereJohn Milton'sParadise Lost andParadise Regained, the visions ofEmanuel Swedenborg and the near-cabalistic writings ofJakob Böhme. Blake also included his own interpretations ofdruidism andpaganism.
The longest elaboration of this private myth-cycle was also his longest poem,The Four Zoas: The Death and Judgment of Albion The Ancient Man, written in the late 1790s but left in manuscript form at the time of his death. In this work, Blake traces the fall ofAlbion, who was "originally fourfold but was self-divided".[1] This theme was revisited later, more definitively but perhaps less directly, in his other epic prophetic works,Milton: A Poem andJerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion.
The parts into which Albion is divided are the fourZoas:
The Blake pantheon also includes feminineemanations that have separated from an integrated male being, as Eve separated from Adam:
The fall of Albion and his division into the Zoas and their emanations are also the central themes ofJerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion.
Rintrah first appears inThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell, personifying revolutionary wrath. He is later grouped together with other spirits of rebellion in theVisions of the Daughters of Albion:
