- Blake's Gnostic Myth - claranatoli
Philip Pullman, in his classic fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, owes an obvious debt of influence and inspiration to the works of John Milton. The title of the series—which comprises 1995's Northern Lights (released as The Golden Compass in North America), 1997's The Subtle Knife, and 2000's The Amber Spyglass —was taken from Paradise Lost, and the crux of the story is rooted in the heavenly battle of Milton’s epic poem.
William Blake and the Gnostic Myth
Only slightly less influential to His Dark Materials, however, are the collected works of William Blake; it can be argued, in fact, that Pullman owes an even greater debt to Blake than Milton, specifically through his strong anchor in the tenets of Gnosticism.
The Gnostic worldview is one in which the traditionally accepted order of authority in western religious belief is inverted. The being who is alternately referred to as God, The Creator, Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, is known in Gnosticism as The Demiurge: a poisonous and deceitful creature who has ensnared all people in a dark prison and convinced them that he is the one true absolute power. Conversely, in Gnostic thought the true creator of all things is hidden from the view of those who inhabit this universe; it is an energy of love and selflessness, diametrically opposed to the Demiurge.
The Book of Urizen
This is also the perspective of most of the works of Blake: his Book of Urizen, for example, describes a god figure that separates himself from his own creator in order to achieve absolute power over a small collection of secondary beings. This power is enforced by rigid laws of worship and extreme punishment for any who question his authority. The Demiurge and Urizen exist in the multi-verse of His Dark Materials as the false creator, The Authority, and his regent Metatron.
Songs of Innocence and Experience
In presenting his epic as a bildungsroman, describing the personal development of both Lyra and Will, Pullman again mirrors many of the works of Blake, most specifically The Songs of Innocence and Experience. These series of poems portray the damaging effects on a child raised in a world of strict dogmatic adherence and unquestioned acceptance of religious authority; the world, in other words, of The Demiurge and, in His Dark Materials, of The Authority and the church that represents him.
The Devil's Party
Blake famously commented that Milton was "of the devil's party without knowing it." Conversely, Blake and Pullman are both very aware of their places in the devil's party; because that position puts them in direct struggle against The Demiurge, The Authority, and the churches of the world that seek to control and repress rather than celebrate and elevate. As the angel Xaphania tells the witch Serafina Pekkala in The Amber Spyglass, "...all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. [Xaphania] and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed."
Further Reading
To continue reading about the influence of Gnosticism on the worlds of Philip Pullman, read His Dark Materials: Gnostic Myth Retold and Eden Inverted: Gnosticism in His Dark Materials.
Jerod Allen - Born and raised in Seattle, Jerod L. Allen has been writing in some capacity his entire life. His topics of interest include cinema, ...
