Bonus Episode - Before the Bite: William Blake and the Psychology of Watching

What if the most important moment in the Garden of Eden happened before the forbidden fruit? In this bonus episode, Dr. Allison Sucamele explores William Blake's Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve through the lenses of psychology, literature, and art. Together, we'll examine the quiet moment before the Fall, the emergence of self-consciousness, Jung's concept of the Shadow, and the power of the inner observer that shapes how we see ourselves. Join us for a thoughtful reflection on curiosity, consciousness, and the voices that influence our inner lives—and discover why Blake's visionary illustration remains as psychologically relevant today as it was over two centuries ago.

Resources

The Huntington Library (with curatorial notes):
Illustration 5 to Milton's *Paradise Lost*: *Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve*

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Lemon Tree Coaching Podcast, where inner work meets everyday life. I'm your host, Dr. Allison Succamelli. Yesterday we explored Adam and Eve through the lens of psychology, not simply as a story about sin, but as a story about the birth of human consciousness. And today's bonus episode is inspired by one of William Blake's most psychologically fascinating works of art, which he created for John Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan watching the endearments of Adam and Eve, which captures something extraordinary. Not the fall itself, but the quiet psychological moment before it. And to clarify, I'm not an art historian, but I think it's important to connect art, psychology, and literature wherever we can. And with that said, for the sake of this episode, I will be referring to Blake's work of fine art as an illustration because he did execute it in pen, ink, and watercolor on paper rather than as an oil painting on canvas. And the research says that Blake didn't see illustration as secondary to painting. He believed that poetry, visual art, and spirituality should work together. So, kind of along the same lines of what I was just saying before regarding the importance of connecting psychology and the arts. And as we know, Blake often wrote poetry, designed the pages, engraved the plates, hand colored them, and painted accompanying images himself. And in Blake's world, words and images are inseparable. And I really do love that. And I was so excited when I first discovered that Blake, who created this illustration, is also the same Blake, who is one of England's greatest poets, writers, engravers, and visionary thinkers. And I studied his works in college, Songs of Innocence and Experience, including some of my personal favorites, The Tiger and the Lamb, under the guidance and wisdom of Professor Victor at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. Honestly, some of my favorite early college memories. Carl Jung also admired Blake's symbolic imagination, and many scholars today view Blake as anticipating Young's ideas about archetypes, the shadow, and the unconscious by more than a century. And this is one of the reasons I chose Blake's illustration for this bonus episode, as it is the perfect bridge between yesterday's exploration of Genesis and the psychology of consciousness. So let's dissect the illustration. And maybe you're somewhere where you can look it up, maybe you are already familiar with it, or you can look up the image later. But at first glance, it doesn't look like the Garden of Eden story we usually imagine. There's no dramatic moment of Eve reaching for the fruit, no bite, no accusation, no shame. Instead, Adam and Eve are simply together. They're resting, they're close, they're completely unaware that above them, hidden in the branches, Satan quietly watches. And that detail changes everything. And most works of art of Eden ask, when did they make the wrong choice? Blake asks a much more psychological question: what happens before the choice? And that is where I think this painting becomes timeless. Psychology tells us that many of the most important events in our lives don't begin with an action. They begin with an observation, a thought, a story, a possibility. And before any behavior changes, attention changes. And Blake illustrates that invisible moment. Adam and Eve are still living in secure attachment. Their nervous systems are regulated. Their world is predictable. Their relationship is marked by trust and connection. Nothing has been disrupted, and yet disruption has already entered the garden. Not physically, but psychologically. Satan becomes the embodiment of something we all experience, that first intrusive voice, the whisper that asks, what if what you have isn't enough? What if there's something you're missing? What if you should question what has already felt safe? And whether we understand Satan literally, symbolically, or psychologically, Blake recognizes that every human life eventually encounters an observing force that introduces doubt into certainty. And Carl Jung would later describe something remarkably similar through the idea of the shadow, those aspects of ourselves and our experience that exist outside conscious awareness until they begin asking for our attention. And Blake lived more than a hundred years before Jung, yet somehow he illustrates the very moment the unconscious first enters consciousness. And what also fascinates me is that Satan is watching. And in psychology, observation matters. And when we become self-conscious, we begin imagining ourselves through someone else's eyes. We wonder how we're being evaluated, whether we're enough, whether we're lovable, whether we're acceptable. Many of us spend years living under an imagined observer, not God's gaze, not even another person's, but an internal critic that we've slowly constructed over time. And it's always watching, always evaluating, and always comparing. And Blake seems to understand that the loss of innocence doesn't begin when someone takes a bite of fruit. It begins when we stop experiencing life directly and begin experiencing ourselves as objects of judgment. And that's a profoundly psychological insight. And perhaps the greatest tragedy in Eden wasn't simply disobedience. Perhaps it was the birth of self-consciousness detached from self-compassion. And maybe that's why so much healing involves returning not to innocence, because we can't, but to presence. Okay, so there you have it. Thank you for joining me for this short bonus reflection. And if yesterday and today's episode sparked your curiosity, I encourage you to spend a few minutes simply looking at Blake's artwork. Don't rush past it. Sit with it. Notice where your eyes go first. Notice what emotions arise before you begin analyzing them. Sometimes a painting doesn't simply illustrate a story. Sometimes it quietly tells one about us. Until next time, this is Dr. Allison Sukamelli. Keep following the road inward and remember the sweetest fruit often grows where curiosity and compassion meet. Take care and I'll see you next week.