On our recent family vacation to Montreal, I found a beautiful little copy of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. The kids and I read a couple poems together over dinner, especially ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’. If you haven’t read it, Blake juxtaposes the beginning of the book, Innocence, with the latter half, Experience. (His choice of the word experience is purposefully in contrast to what one might expect the opposite of innocence to be, sin. We had a good talk about why he made that choice, and about the concept of sin, in general. I, for one, don’t believe in ‘sin’ as it is usually used today. I don’t believe in black marks on our souls for which we will pay later out of some sort of cosmic retribution. But I do believe that we make choices that affect our experience, and can impact generations after us.)
Have you read The Tyger?
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
If you’d like to read a quick commentary on the poem, click here.
The following first day (Sunday, in Quakerspeak) during Meeting for Worship, the poem kept coming back to my mind. And I thought about the idea in Isaiah of the wolf lying with the lamb…writers throughout time have grappled with the idea of the predator and the prey. They have to be explained somehow in order to understand God, or to resolve God on earth. And it dawned on me that we have a responsibility to process this within ourselves if we ever expect to see peace and justice on the earth.
We cannot expect external peace if we allow ourselves to indulge in internal conflict between the parts of ourselves we like, the lamb, and the parts of ourselves we would rather hide, and cannot comfortably explain…the ‘tyger’ within.
During Meeting it really felt like a moral call to reach inner integration. A parallel comes to my mind between ‘as above, so below’ and ‘as within, so without.’ What we allow to live and grow inside ourselves, we will also support the growth of outside of ourselves. Humans around the world with inner conflict support endless outer conflict.
This all felt like a great way to approach the New Year - I’m inspired to take personal integration to a new level in order to be a force of peace and balance in my family and local community!
Here is my list for 5 practices for greater personal integration:
1) Journal with honesty. Forgive yourself for feelings and reactions you aren’t proud of.
2) Develop a daily meditation practice in which you focus on your breath. Notice the workings of your mind.
3) Work with crystals that push you to face your ‘shadow self’ - malachite, pietercite, and pyrite would make a powerful group for the work. Make sure to take breaks, and to clear these crystals frequently.
4) Work on personal boundaries - be upfront about what you cannot do, and cannot handle.
5) Take time to laugh and enjoy the things you love!
As an aside, my favorite song, Summertime in England, mentions William Blake. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
