Paracelsus (Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus von Hohenheim) Research Papers (original) (raw)

Tätä tutkielmaa voi kutsua biografis-kriittiseksi esseeksi, sillä se palauttaa ensinnä mieliin William Blaken (1757-1827) elämäkerran ja taiteellisen kehityksen ääriviivat; Pyrin siis tässä hahmottamaan joitakin suuntaviivoja siitä, miten William Blaken intellektuaalinen ja moraalinen persoonallisuus muuttuu, kehkeytyy, edistyy hänen elämänsä mittaisella taipaleella kohdusta hautaan samalla kun hänen esteettiset ja hengelliset ambitionsa kehkeytyvät, varioivat ja muovautuvat. Matkan varrella vertailen Blaken aatteita sellaisten modernin aikakauden huomattavien intellektuellien kuten mm. Arthur Schopenhauerin, G. W. F. Hegelin, Karl Marxin, Friedrich Nietzschen, Sigmund Freudin ja C. G. Jungin keskeisiin oivalluksiin. Tärkeä metodologinen viitekehys tässä tutkielmassani on ollut jungilainen syvyyspsykologia. Tämä tarkoittaa, että tutkimusmetodini on paikoin pikemminkin ”assosioiva”, ei niinkään historiallis-kriittinen: Etsin Blaken runouden ja taiteen aatteellisia yhtymäkohtia ja samankaltaisuuksia maailman uskontojen pyhien kirjoitusten ja arkaaisten mytologisten lähteiden kanssa, mutta en aina niinkään pyri kriittisesti todentamaan aatehistoriallisia vaikutussuhteita. Tutkimusotteeni siis olettaa jungilaisittain ilmaisten kollektiivisen piilotajunnan vaikutuksen sekä William Blaken tajuntaan ja runolliseen ilmaisuun että arkaaisempiin mytologisiin ja hengellisiin lähteisiin, jonka tässä kontekstissa oletetaan selittävän niiden väliset, enemmän tai vähemmän ilmeiset samankaltaisuudet. Jungilaisen syvyyspykologian soveltaminen Blaken runouden ja taiteen tutkimukseen ei ole täysin uutta, sillä tätä metodologista viitekehystä ovat edellä soveltaneet mm. Kathleen Raine (1969; 1982, 267-298), Christine Gallant (1978), Edward F. Edinger (1986), June Singer (2000), Marko Hautala (2003), joista varsinkin Kathleen Rainen(1969) huomiot ovat olleet itselleni merkittäviä. Painotan tässä tutkielmassani etenkin Blaken kaunokirjallista ilmaisua kun taas hänen visuaalinen ilmaisunsa on tässä yhteydessä saanut verraten vähän huomiota osakseen. Tutkimusmetodini voi nähdä kuuluvan sekä vertailevan uskontotieteen että vertailevan kirjallisuustieteen mutta myös vertailevan filosofian piiriin. Tutkimusongelmani voidaan määritellä siten, että tarkoitukseni tässä on luodata menneisyyden enteitä, nykyhetken enteitä ja tulevaisuuden enteitä 1700-1800-lukujen taitteessa industrialismin aikakaudella Iso-Britanniassa eläneen William Blaken profetiallisessa taiteessa ja runoudessa.

2020.
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ENGLISH SUMMARY

William Blake (1757-1827), who occasionally has been characterized as ”a Pre-Romantic” poet and graphic artist, can be seen in the perspective of intellectual history as a prophetic visionary and an individualistic forerunner in the crux of 18th century Enlightenment and 19th century Romanticism, located somewhere in the land of eternal twilight between light and shadow, Apollonian and Dionysian, Day and Night. Blake’s mode of thought can be seen as a representative of the Marriage of Enlightenment and Romanticism, because it has elements from both Enlightenment and Romanticism (even though those two are often seen in intellectual history as each others’ antithesis). Closer study of Blake’s art and life shows very clearly that in his case this marriage was real yet rather turbulent, since Blake had significant polemics with both the philosophers of Enlightenment and the poets of Romanticism of his own historical epoch.

This study shows that the development of the life and art of poet & visual artist William Blake consists of seven distinctive phases, which are here entitled: 1. Childhood and Youth (1757-1784), 2. Illuminated Printing (1784-1789), 3. Anti-Swedenborgian Turn (1789-1790), 4. Lambeth of London (1790-1795), 5. Felpham of Sussex (1796-1803), 6. Visions of Albion Trilogy (1803-1820), 7. Old Age (1820-1827). As main sources for this biographical-critical dissertation I have used the biographies of William Blake written by Gilchrist (1863), Wilson (1927), Lindsay (1978), King (1991), Ackroyd (1995), Bentley (2001), and Churton (2015). In this task, the commentaries of William Blake’s creative writings by Ostriker (1977), Bloom (1988), and Summerfield (1998) have also proved to be highly useful to me. I’m significantly indebted here also to meritorious books like S. Foster Damon: William Blake – His Philosophy and Symbols (1924) and S. Foster Damon: A Blake Dictionary – The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (1965).

The focus of this study is in understanding the development of Blake’s poetical ideas in light of Comparative Religious Studies, Comparative Literature and Comparative Philosophy. The methogological framework of this dissertation is significantly based on Jungian depth psychology. This means that my methodology here is not so much as historical-critical, but it is based more on the free association: I seek for parellelism and similarities in the holy scriptures of world religions and archaic mytological sources with Blake’s arts and creative writings, but I do not always try to critically prove intellectual historical influence backgrounds. So, in Jungian terminology my research methodology supposes the influence of collective unconsciousness on both Blake’s mind and arts and also the more archaic mythological and spiritual sources, which is seen here as an explonation for their more or less apparent similarities and parallelism.

Blake’s epic poetry was influenced by the ancient religious philosophy of Jewish, Christian, Gnostic and Neoplatonist kind. There is parallelism in Blake’s Lambeth Prophecies with the religious philosophies of Hindu mythology, Vedanta, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Ismailism, Kabbalah and Alchemy. There can be found also a synthesis of Ophite, Naassene, Cainite, Sethian, Nicolaite, Valentian and Manichaean Gnosticism in Blake’s poetical ideas. Blake’s tendency to Non-duality, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Mystical Anarchism and criticism of Moralism finds its parallel in the ancient philosophy of Classical Taoism. I have also observed that Blake’s ”Dialectical Idealism” anticipates some of the major themes in the German history of philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries; I have proved here also that the dialectical elements in the thought of Blake, Hegel and Marx are significantly indebted to the mystical theology of Jacob Boehme.

There can be found a fourfold criticism in William Blake’s poetical philosophy: First of all, a criticism of Emanuel Swedenborg’s theological works, which can be seen almost as if an echo of Immanuel Kant’s critique of metaphysical dogmatism. Secondly, a criticism of rationalizing materialistic and reductionistic tendencies of the 18th century French Enlightenment, which can be seen as an anticipation of Romanticism of Novalis and his generation. Thirdly, a criticism of the social defects of the early phase of British Industrialism, which can be seen as anticipation of the sociological observations of Karl Marx. Fourthly, a criticism of the (mainstream) dogmatic Christian theology, which can be seen as anticipation of the Anti-Christian fin de siècle philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Some of William Blake’s poetical ideas bring in mind some of the essential findings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung in the field of psychology.

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