For Blake, the true cherubim represent the ideal of imaginative wholeness and unity – what he calls the “Human Form Divine.” They embody genuine prophetic and artistic vision. At the end of his epic poem Jerusalem, Blake depicts the “Four Living Creatures” or cherubim as framing a celebration of resurrection and unified perception.
However, Blake contrasts the true cherubim with a fallen or perverted figure he calls the “Covering Cherub.” This represents doubt, accusation, and forces that separate humanity from divine imagination (symbolized as Eden). The Covering Cherub is associated with the biblical expulsion from Eden and the “devouring sword” that bars reentry to paradise.
In Blake’s mythology, the Elohim (AKA alien god parasites, see previous post) represent aspects of the Covering Cherub – the accusing, judging forces opposed to imagination and forgiveness. Blake saw a major spiritual struggle between the true cherubim of unified vision and the Covering Cherub of division and prohibition.
Notably, Blake aims to transform the “fire-sword” of judgment wielded by the Covering Cherub into a “love-sword” of forgiveness and mercy that owns our internalizations of the parasite. This is the source of introjecting thoughts! Blake believed that humanity could overcome the restrictive mentality barring spiritual awakening. However, one HAS to want to see how we ARE lying to ourselves.
Blake also associates the cherubim with the “Four Zoas” or aspects of human consciousness that must be unified. Their fragmentation is the root cause of humanity’s fallen state in Blake’s cosmology. By reuniting these divided aspects, represented by the true cherubim, Blake believed mankind could restore divine vision.
Blake’s Nordic war-gods contend with Jehovah “among the Cherubim” of the Mercy Seat itself. Cherubim were embroidered on the Veil of the Temple: His Daughters of Albion weave an imitation Veil, “the Web of Ages & Generations, folding & unfolding it like a Veil of Cherubim” Jerusalem asks: “Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War, when Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim?”. She has her own “Cherubims of Tender-mercy” By a characteristic extension, they become the labia of the female genitals.
The Cherubim of God are the spirits of understanding which are Forgiveness. The Cherubim of Man are the Four Zoas, the “four living creatures” of Ezekiel (J 63:2). The Cherubim of the heathen are human qualities personified. “The Artist . . . in vision . . . has seen those wonderful originals called in the Sacred Scriptures the Cherubim . . . being originals from which the Greeks… copied, and all the grand works of ancient art”. “. . . These gods are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which, when erected into gods, become destructive to humanity”.
The Cherubim may become forms of prohibition. Such were the Cherubim with the flaming sword which kept fallen man from the Tree of Life. “The cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at [the] tree of life; and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.