The Book of Thel

The “silver rod” where Wisdom cannot be found represents a scepter or staff that would have been used in traditional kingship or even high-ranking ecclesiasts before the rise of nationalism and the consequent fall of the papacy in the 16th and 17th centuries.

[4] The religious connotations of the rod and bowl help explain the disillusionment that many Romantic writers, notably William Blake, had with the state church.

[5] Should one accept this interpretation, the rod and bowl are transformed from an imperishable state to one of mortal flesh, and the reader acknowledges that a voice of authority is narrating the poem’s action.

The connection between the mole’s pit and the subterranean area that Thel enters in plate 6 suggests the disparate knowledge between beings in separate domains.

She spends her time wandering on her own, trying to find the answer to the question that torments her: why does the springtime of life inevitably fade so that all things must end?

The question is "Why do the physical senses darken the soul by excluding it from the wisdom and joy of eternity?"

Thel is the allegory of the unborn spirit who has gathered experience from her own discoveries and has decided to remain forever innocent.

However, once Thel enters the world of experience, she cowers in terror at the thought of mortality and the uselessness of human beings if every action leads toward the grave.

This can also be interpreted as Thel’s fear of losing innocence and virginity upon entering the world of adult sexuality.

[6] William Blake has put a microscope on the conflict between innocence and experience and he has found that innocence must take on a more elevated meaning, one found through suffering, that Thel can never reach so long as she is gripped by her fear of opening herself up to risk.

[8] A visual criticism of Thel's fearful rejection of the natural progression from innocence to experience appears in the drawing containing the words "The End": children riding a serpent, a frequent iconographic symbol in Blake (cf.