“Albion beheld thy beauty”. Vala, Jerusalem and Blake’s Holistic Approach to the Cosmos

Moving from the current relevance of Blakean studies and focusing on the two female characters of Vala and Jerusalem, this essay discusses the author’s still debated approach towards nature and femininity. Vala’s role as a terrifying goddess of Nature can be reassessed if read in the light of the symbolism of the Egyptian deity Isis, in its turn associated with the topos of the veil and with the weaving imagery. Also considering the figures of Thel and Lyca, this study is an attempt to demonstrate that Blake’s revolutionary use of the writ-ten and visual media celebrates the necessity of an empathic identification between the Human, the Natural, and the Divine: on the model of ancient Mysteries, this relationship of inter-in-dependence between microcosm and macrocosm can be comprehended only through initiatory revelation.