ENION & THARMAS

 The title which Blake settled on for his first epic poem was The Four Zoas: The torments of Love and Jealousy in the Death and Judgement of Albion the Ancient Man. Blake began Night I with a quarrel between Tharmas and Enion his emanation. Tharmas is the Parent Power among the Zoas. The development of the psyche begins with him as the instinctual impule with which man is born. Tharmas, the Zoa represented by the human body and the senses, is the underlying cohesive force with which the mind begins the process of organizing the psyche. If the process is interrupted the functioning of individual aspects is disturbed.

The disturbance at the instinctual level of behavior quickly spread to the emanation. A quarrel ensued between Tharmas and Enion. Each detected sinfulness in the counterpart and felt victimized by the other. Enion's withdrawal led to her isolation and Tharmas' incessant pursuit of his lost emanation. Enion lamentrd the separation but would not turn back.

 

Original in British Library
Four Zoas
Page 6

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 6, (E 302)

"Nine days she labourd at her work. & nine dark sleepless nights
But on the tenth trembling morn the Circle of Destiny Complete
Round rolld the Sea Englobing in a watry Globe self balancd
A Frowning Continent appeard Where Enion in the Desart
Terrified in her own Creation      viewing her woven shadow
Sat in a dread intoxication of Repentance & Contrition 

There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest
Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely 
Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep
Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around
On all sides within & without the Universal Man
The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams
Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death                

The Circle of Destiny complete they gave to it a Space
And namd the Space Ulro & brooded over it in care & love
They said The Spectre is in every man insane & most
Deformd     Thro the three heavens descending in fury & fire
We meet it with our Songs & loving blandishments & give          
To it a form of vegetation But this Spectre of Tharmas
Is Eternal Death What shall we do O God pity & help  
So spoke they & closd the Gate of the Tongue in trembling fear 

What have I done! said Enion accursed wretch! What deed.       
Is this a deed of Love I know what I have done. I know
Too late now to repent. Love is changd to deadly Hate          
All life is blotted out & I alone remain possessd with Fears                                                
I see the Shadow of the dead within my Soul wandering 
In darkness & solitude forming Seas of Doubt & rocks of Repentance                                                 t
Already are my Eyes reverted. all that I behold                  
Within my Soul has lost its splendor & a brooding Fear
Shadows me oer & drives me outward to a world of woe
So waild she trembling before her own Created Phantasm

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 6 (E 303)

"She drew the Spectre forth from Tharmas in her shining loom
Of Vegetation weeping in wayward infancy & sullen youth
Listning to her soft lamentations soon his tongue began
To Lisp out words & soon in masculine strength augmenting he
Reard up a form of gold & stood upon the glittering rock
A shadowy human form winged & in his depths
The dazzlings as of gems shone clear, rapturous in fury
Glorying in his own eyes Exalted in terrific Pride
The Spectre thus spoke. Who art thou Diminutive husk & shell
If thou hast sinnd & art polluted know that I am pure 
And unpolluted & will bring to rigid strict account 
All thy past deeds [So] hear what I tell thee!
And unpolluted & will bring to rigid strict account
All thy past deeds [So] hear what I tell thee! mark it well! remember!
This world is Thine in which thou dwellest that within thy soul
That dark & dismal infinite where Thought roams up & down
Is Mine & there thou goest when with one Sting of my tongue
Envenomd thou rolist inwards to the place whence I emergd

She trembling answerd Wherefore was I born & what am I        
I thought to weave a Covering for my Sins from wrath of Tharmas

PAGE 7 (E 304)
I thought Tharmas a Sinner & I murderd his Emanations           
His secret loves & Graces Ah me wretched What have I done       
For now I find that all those Emanations were my Childrens Souls                                                      
And I have murderd them with Cruelty above atonement            
Those that remain have fled from my cruelty into the desarts     
And thou the delusive tempter to these deeds sittest before me  
In this thy world not mine tho dark I feel my world within      

Mingling his horrible brightness with her tender limbs then high she soard                                                  
Above the ocean; a bright wonder that Nature shudder'd at       
Half Woman & half Spectre, all his lovely changing colours mix  
With her fair crystal clearness; in her lips & cheeks his poisons rose                                                       
In blushes like the morning, and his scaly armour softening     
A monster lovely in the heavens or wandering on the earth,      

PAGE 8 (E 304)
Till with fierce pain she brought forth on the rocks her sorrow & woe
Behold two little Infants wept upon the desolate wind.          

The first state weeping they began & helpless as a wave
Beaten along its sightless way growing enormous in its motion to
Its utmost goal, till strength from Enion like richest summer shining                                                    
Raisd the bright boy & girl with glories from their heads out beaming                                                    
Drawing forth drooping mothers pity drooping mothers sorrow     

They sulk upon her breast her hair became like snow on mountains                                                  t
Weaker & weaker, weeping woful, wearier and wearier
Faded & her bright Eyes decayd melted with pity & love 

PAGE 9 (E 304)
And then they wanderd far away she sought for them in vain   
In weeping blindness stumbling she followd them oer rocks & mountains
Rehumanizing from the Spectre in pangs of maternal love
Ingrate they wanderd scorning her drawing her Spectrous Life    
Repelling her away & away by a dread repulsive power             
Into Non Entity revolving round in dark despair.
And drawing in the Spectrous life in pride and haughty joy      
Thus Enion gave them all her spectrous life

Then Eno a daughter of Beulah took a Moment of Time             
And drew it out to Seven thousand years with much care & affliction                                               
And many tears & in Every year made windows into Eden         
She also took an atom of space & opend its center
Into Infinitude & ornamented it with wondrous art
Astonishd sat her Sisters of Beulah to see her soft affections
To Enion & her children & they ponderd these things wondring     
And they Alternate kept watch over the Youthful terrors
They saw not yet the Hand Divine for it was not yet reveald

But they went on in Silent Hope & Feminine repose"   

It is not until the final Night of the Four Zoas that Tharmas and Enion are reunited:

---

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 130, (E 199)

[Vala the emanation of Luvah speaks]

"Enion let Tharmas kiss thy Cheek

Why dost thou turn thyself away from his sweet watry eyes
Tharmas henceforth in Valas bosom thou shalt find sweet peace
O bless the lovely eyes of Tharmas & the Eyes of Enion 
They rose they went out wandring sometimes together sometimes alone

Why weepest thou Tharmas Child of tears in the bright house of joy

Doth Enion avoid the sight of thy blue heavenly Eyes
And dost thou wander with my lambs & wet their innocent faces
With thy bright tears because the steps of Enion are in the gardens 
Arise sweet boy & let us follow the path of Enion

So saying they went down into the garden among the fruits
And Enion sang among the flowers that grew among the trees

And Vala said Go Tharmas weep not Go to Enion"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 131,(E 399) 

"Chear up thy Countenance bright boy & go to Enion
Tell her that Vala waits her in the shadows of her garden

He went with timid steps & Enion like the ruddy morn 
When infant spring appears in swelling buds & opening flowers
Behind her Veil withdraws so Enion turnd her modest head

But Tharmas spoke Vala seeks thee sweet Enion in the shades
Follow the steps of Tharmas O thou brightness of the gardens
He took her hand reluctant she followd in infant doubts 
Thus in Eternal Childhood straying among Valas flocks
In infant sorrow & joy alternate Enion & Tharmas playd
Round Vala in the Gardens of Vala & by her rivers margin

They are the shadows of Tharmas & of Enion in Valas world"  

Four Zoas, Night IX, page 132, (E 401)

"Joy thrilld thro all the Furious form of Tharmas humanizing
Mild he Embracd her whom he sought he raisd her thro the heavens
Sounding his trumpet to awake the Dead on high he soard
Over the ruind worlds the smoking tomb of the Eternal Prophet

PAGE 133 

The Eternal Man arose he welcomd them to the Feast"  

URIZEN & AHANIA

                                       Wikipedia Commons

                                           Book of Urizen

Plate 2

 

Ahania without Urizen is passive, Urizien without Ahania is tormented by incessant unproductive activity. He repeats the same dull round because he receives no impulse from Ahania to break the cycle in which he is caught.

Take as an example the beating of the human heart. Each beat of the heart results from the discharge of an electrical charge in the upper right chamber. This causes contractions which pump blood into the arteries. But unless another charge has built up to create another impulse to cause another contraction, the heart stops beating. The period of rest when the electric charge is building is essential to the functioning of the heart. 

Ahania furnished that period of rest which impelled the mind of Urizen to have fresh ideas on which to base his reasoning. Many of us have been in the situation when our minds have constantly reviewed the same facts. Without a new thought to interrupt the loop we are blocked from any creative activity. Unfortunately Urizen did not have the self awareness to know that the loss of Ahania had left him crippled. 

NO NATURAL RELIGION, (E 2) 

"IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.

...

Conclusion, If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character. the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again 

Application. He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only."

Book of Urizen, Plate 2, (E 70) 
"PRELUDIUM TO THE [FIRST] BOOK OF URIZEN  

Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a place in the north,
Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.

Eternals I hear your call gladly,                                
Dictate swift winged words, & fear not
To unfold your dark visions of torment." 

Book of Ahania, Plate 2, (E 84)

"7: Dire shriek'd his invisible Lust                           
Deep groan'd Urizen! stretching his awful hand
Ahania (so name his parted soul)
He siez'd on his mountains of jealousy.
He groand anguishd & called her Sin,

Kissing her and weeping over her;           
Then hid her in darkness in silence;
Jealous tho' she was invisible.

8: She fell down a faint shadow wandring
In chaos and circling dark Urizen,
As the moon anguishd circles the earth;     
Hopeless! abhorrd! a death-shadow,
Unseen, unbodied, unknown,
The mother of Pestilence." 

Milton. Plate 10 [11], (E 104)
"Then Los & Enitharmon knew that Satan is Urizen          
Drawn down by Orc & the Shadowy Female into Generation
Oft Enitharmon enterd weeping into the Space, there appearing
An aged Woman raving along the Streets (the Space is named
Canaan) then she returnd to Los weary frighted as from dreams"   

Four Zoas, Night III, Page 41, (E 328) 

"O Urizen why art thou pale at the visions of Ahania 

Listen to her who loves thee lest we also are driven away.

They heard the Voice & fled swift as the winters setting sun   
And now the Human Blood foamd high, I saw that Luvah & Vala    
Went down the Human Heart where Paradise & its joys abounded   
In jealous fears in fury & rage, & flames roll'd round their fervid feet
And the vast form of Nature like a Serpent play'd before them
And as they went in folding fires & thunders of the deep
Vala shrunk in like the dark sea that leaves its slimy banks     
And from her bosom Luvah fell far as the east & west
And the vast form of Nature like a Serpent roll'd between.     

She ended. for from his wrathful throne burst forth the black hail storm    

Am I not God said Urizen. Who is Equal to me
Do I not stretch the heavens abroad or fold them up like a garment

He spoke mustering his heavy clouds around him black opake
...

PAGE 43 
Then thunders rolld around & lightnings darted to & fro
His visage changd to darkness & his strong right hand came forth
To cast Ahania to the Earth be siezd her by the hair
And threw her from the steps of ice that froze around his throne

Saying Art thou also become like Vala. thus I cast thee out      
Shall the feminine indolent bliss. the indulgent self of weariness

The passive idle sleep the enormous night & darkness of Death
Set herself up to give her laws to the active masculine virtue
Thou little diminutive portion that darst be a counterpart
Thy passivity thy laws of obedience & insincerity
Are my abhorrence. Wherefore hast thou taken that fair form
Whence is this power given to thee! once thou wast in my breast
A sluggish current of dim waters. on whose verdant margin
A cavern shaggd with horrid shades. dark cool & deadly. where
I laid my head in the hot noon after the broken clods            
Had wearied me. there I laid my plow & there my horses fed
And thou hast risen with thy moist locks into a watry image
Reflecting all my indolence my weakness & my death
To weigh me down beneath the grave into non Entity
Where Luvah strives scorned by Vala age after age wandering      
Shrinking & shrinking from her Lord & calling him the Tempter
And art thou also become like Vala thus I cast thee out.

So loud in thunders spoke the King folded in dark despair
And threw Ahania from his bosom obdurate She fell like lightning
Then fled the sons of Urizen from his thunderous throne petrific 
They fled to East & West & left the North & South of Heaven
A crash ran thro the immense The bounds of Destiny were broken
The bounds of Destiny crashd direful & the swelling Sea
Burst from its bonds in whirlpools fierce roaring with Human voice
Triumphing even to the Stars at bright Ahanias fall              

Down from the dismal North the Prince in thunders & thick clouds
PAGE 44 
As when the thunderbolt down falleth on the appointed place
Fell down down rushing ruining thundering shuddering    
Into the Caverns of the Grave & places of Human Seed
Where the impressions of Despair & Hope enroot forever
A world of Darkness. Ahania fell far into Non Entity             

She Continued falling. Loud the Crash continud loud & Hoarse
From the Crash roared a flame of blue sulphureous fire from the flame 
A dolorous groan that struck with dumbness all confusion
Swallowing up the horrible din in agony on agony
Thro the Confusion like a crack across from immense to immense   
Loud strong a universal groan of death louder
Than all the wracking elements deafend & rended worse
Than Urizen & all his hosts in curst despair down rushing
But from the Dolorous Groan one like a shadow of smoke appeard
And human bones rattling together in the smoke & stamping        
The nether Abyss & gnasshing in fierce despair. panting in sobs

Thick short incessant bursting sobbing. deep despairing stamping struggling  

Struggling to utter the voice of Man struggling to take the features of Man. Struggling

To take the limbs of Man at length emerging from the smoke
Of Urizen dashed in pieces from his precipitant fall             
Tharmas reard up his hands & stood on the affrighted Ocean
The dead reard up his Voice & stood on the resounding shore

Crying. Fury in my limbs. destruction in my bones & marrow
My skull riven into filaments. my eyes into sea jellies
Floating upon the tide wander bubbling & bubbling                
Uttering my lamentations & begetting little monsters
Who sit mocking upon the little pebbles of the tide
In all my rivers & on dried shells that the fish
PAGE 45 
Have quite forsaken. O fool fool to lose my sweetest bliss
Where art thou Enion ah too near to cunning too far off  
And yet too near. Dashd down I send thee into distant darkness" 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 120, (E 389)
"The Eternal Man sat on the Rocks & cried with awful voice

O Prince of Light where art thou   I behold thee not as once
In those Eternal fields in clouds of morning stepping forth 
With harps & songs where bright Ahania sang before thy face
And all thy sons & daughters gatherd round my ample table
See you not all this wracking furious confusion
Come forth from slumbers of thy cold abstraction come forth
Arise to Eternal births shake off thy cold repose 
Schoolmaster of souls great opposer of change arise
That the Eternal worlds may see thy face in peace & joy
That thou dread form of Certainty maist sit in town & village
While little children play around thy feet in gentle awe
Fearing thy frown loving thy smile O Urizen Prince of light" 

---

Genesis 2

[1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
[2] And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
[3] And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

 

BLAKE'S EMANATION

Wikipedia Commons

Angel of the Divine Presence Bringing Eve to Adam

Each of the Zoas is both an inner being and an outer being. As an inner being his Emanation is part of himself. When his Emanation becomes expressed externally she is withdrawn from the total Zoa and he is depleted. The urge to return to the condition of completeness creates the dynamic of Blake's myth. 

Harold Bloom, Blake's Apocalypse, Page 195

"An emanation is literally what comes into being from a process of creation in which a series of effluxes flow from a creator. As a created form an emanation may be male of female or both; either way it is opposed to the Spectre of shadow, a baffled creation or residue of self that failed to emanate , to reach an outer but connected existence."

Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry, Page 73

"Abstract ideas are called spectres by Blake, and Spectre with a capital letter is the Selfhood. The corresponding term is 'Emanation', which means the total form of all the things a man loves and creates. In the fallen states the Emanation is conceived as outside, and hence it becomes the source of continuously tantalizing and elusive torment. In imaginative states it is united with and emanates from the man, hence its name." 

Milton O Percival, William Blake's Circle of Destiny, Page 98

"In union with her masculine source - the proper relation of the contraries undisturbed - the Emanation provides a 'concentering vision,' whereby faith in the unity of all life is maintained. The mind, having in this state a sympathetic and intuitive understanding of the Emanation (the life of the world of manifestations), accepts the body and its energies - all of them - and knows them to be good."

S Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary, Page 121

"It will be noted that the Emanations, when they achieve a separate existence (and get names of their own, which Spectres never do), exhibit all the characteristics of the personae of the split personality which modern science discovered. They seek for dominion, can be dangerously destructive, and fight reintegration (which seems to them like annihilation): but the moment they are reabsorbed, their voice cease altogether.

...Meanwhile the male is left a selfish and ravening Spectre. His rational power, unchecked by his lost Emanation, dominates him. He denounces all delights as sin and condemns Jerusalem the mother of sin."

Jerusalem, Plate 53, E 203
"In eternal labours: loud the Furnaces & loud the Anvils          
Of Death thunder incessant around the flaming Couches of
The Twentyfour Friends of Albion and round the awful Four
For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albions Sons
The Mystic Union of the Emanation in the Lord; Because  
Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre                 
His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow
But she is made receptive of Generation thro' mercy
In the Potters  Furnace, among the Funeral Urns of Beulah
From Surrey hills, thro' Italy and Greece, to Hinnoms vale.
Plate 54
In Great Eternity, every particular Form gives forth or Emanates
Its own peculiar Light, & the Form is the Divine Vision
And the Light is his Garment This is Jerusalem in every Man
A Tent & Tabernacle of Mutual Forgiveness Male & Female Clothings.
And Jerusalem is called Liberty among the Children of Albion" 

Jerusalem, Plate 88, (E 245)
When in Eternity Man converses with Man they enter
Into each others Bosom (which are Universes of delight)
In mutual interchange. and first their Emanations meet   
Surrounded by their Children. if they embrace & comingle
The Human Four-fold Forms mingle also in thunders of Intellect
But if the Emanations mingle not; with storms & agitations
Of earthquakes & consuming fires they roll apart in fear
For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations 
Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity
How then can I ever again be united as Man with Man
While thou my Emanation refusest my Fibres of dominion.
When Souls mingle & join thro all the Fibres of Brotherhood
Can there be any secret joy on Earth greater than this?    

Enitharmon answerd: This is Womans World, nor need she any
Spectre to defend her from Man. I will Create secret places
And the masculine names of the places Merlin & Arthur.
A triple Female Tabernacle for Moral Law I weave
That he who loves Jesus may loathe terrified Female love  
Till God himself become a Male subservient to the Female."

LARGE COLOR PRINTS 11

First posted March 2014

Ruth 1
[11] But Na'omi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
[12] Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,
[13] would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me."
[14] Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
[15]And she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
[16] But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;
[17] where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you." 

Wikimedia
Large Color Prints
Naomi Entreating Ruth and Orpha

When you consider the import and implications of the Book of Ruth, you can understand Blake's inclusion on the picture Naomi in the series of Large Color Printed Drawings as a cycle of fall and return. First we take note of Ruth as an ancestor of Jesus. Second we observe that Naomi, Ruth and Orpha were all outsiders with experience of living in a foreign culture. Third we see that the three women suffered the experience of being widowed and left without sons or husbands to care for them. The emphasis on the return of Naomi to her hometown of Bethlehem adds another significant event that would have interested Blake.
 
Blake uses this image as an indication that the return involves a reintegration of the emanation into the complete man. Ruth exemplifies the willingness to forgo selfish interest as an expression of her love for her husband's family.  

Four Zoas, Night IX,  Page 133, (E 402)
"Not for ourselves but for the Eternal family we live
Man liveth not by Self alone but in his brothers face            
Each shall behold the Eternal Father & love & joy abound

So spoke the Eternal at the Feast they embracd the New born Man
Calling him Brother image of the Eternal Father." 

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 255)
"Jesus replied Fear not Albion unless I die thou canst not live
But if I die I shall arise again & thou with me            
This is Friendship & Brotherhood without it Man Is Not

So Jesus spoke! the Covering Cherub coming on in darkness
Overshadowd them & Jesus said Thus do Men in Eternity
One for another to put off by forgiveness, every sin

Albion replyd. Cannot Man exist without Mysterious          
Offering of Self for Another, is this Friendship & Brotherhood
I see thee in the likeness & similitude of Los my Friend

Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood"

Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 212)
[Voice of the Lord]
"Repose on me till the morning of the Grave. I am thy life.

Jerusalem replied. I am an outcast: Albion is dead!
I am left to the trampling foot & the spurning heel!
A Harlot I am calld. I am sold from street to street!
I am defaced with blows & with the dirt of the Prison!   

And wilt thou become my Husband O my Lord & Saviour?
Shall Vala bring thee forth! shall the Chaste be ashamed also?
I see the Maternal Line, I behold the Seed of the Woman!
Cainah, & Ada & Zillah & Naamah Wife of Noah.
Shuahs daughter & Tamar & Rahab the Canaanites:                  

Ruth the Moabite & Bathsheba of the daughters of Heth
Naamah the Ammonite, Zibeah the Philistine, & Mary
These are the Daughters of Vala, Mother of the Body of death
But I thy Magdalen behold thy Spiritual Risen Body"

LARGE COLOR PRINTS 3

First posted Feb 2014

Genesis 2
[21] So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
[22] and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
[23] Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones ad flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
 
Genesis 3
[2] And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
[3] but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
[4] But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die.
[5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
[6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 

Wikipedia Commons
Large Color Printed Paintings
Satan Exaulting Over Eve

The name Satan does not appear in the book of Genesis. Eve's tempter is the serpent. We owe to Milton's Paradise Lost much of the imagery involving Satan in the Fall. Satan is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament outside of the book of Job where he is assigned by God the role of testing Job.
 
In Blake's picture Satan Exaulting Over Eve we see Eve lying prone with Satan in the air above her. Satan is the active figure, armed with spear and shield, held aloft by powerful wings, surrounded by energetic flames. Eve lies sleeping with the fruit in her hand and the serpent twining her body.
 
To Blake the two phases of man's consciousness, the active and passive, are balanced in the unified man. When man, through Creation, is divided from the unifying principle which is God, he undergoes a further division which can be expressed as various contraries, one of which is active and passive. The passive becomes the female or emanation or outer expression. The creation of Eve implies that the Fall has already been initiated because man has been divided from his emanation.
 
Although we may have been taught that the Fall was an event in which Eve ate the forbidden fruit, Blake sees the Fall as the accumulation of actions which draw man farther from the unity which he experienced in Eternity. 
 
Damon states in A Blake Dictionary that: "the division of the Emanation from the Individual is a split in the personality, a stage in the Fall of Man, symbolized in Genesis by the extraction of Eve from the side of sleeping Adam...
The separated Emanation takes the female form, an event which horrifies the Eternals. Man is left 'a dark Spectre', of perhaps only in his Spectre's power. Worse yet, the Emanation acquires a will of her own, which by definition is turned against her consort." (Page 121)  
 
Spectre of Urthona speaks to Shade of Enitharmon: 
 
Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 84, (E 359)
"This thou well rememberest listen I will tell
What thou forgettest. They in us & we in them alternate Livd
Drinking the joys of Universal Manhood. One dread morn
Listen O vision of Delight One dread morn of goary blood
The manhood was divided for the gentle passions making way
Thro the infinite labyrinths of the heart & thro the nostrils issuing
In odorous stupefaction stood before the Eyes of Man
A female bright. I stood beside my anvil dark a mass
Of iron glowd bright prepard for spades & plowshares. sudden down
I sunk with cries of blood issuing downward in the veins
Which now my rivers were become rolling in tubelike forms
Shut up within themselves descending down I sunk along,
The goary tide even to the place of seed & there dividing
I was divided in darkness & oblivion thou an infant woe
And I an infant terror in the womb of Enion
My masculine spirit scorning the frail body issud forth
From Enions brain In this deformed form leaving thee there
Till times passd over thee but still my spirit returning hoverd
And formd a Male to be a counterpart to thee O Love
Darkend & Lost In due time issuing forth from Enions womb
Thou & that demon Los wert born Ah jealousy & woe
Ah poor divided dark Urthona now a Spectre wandering
The deeps of Los the Slave of that Creation I created
I labour night & day for Los but listen thou my vision
I view futurity in thee I will bring down soft Vala
To the embraces of this terror & I will destroy
That body I created then shall we unite again in bliss" 
.

 

CAVERNS OF THE GRAVE III

First posted August 2011

The Grave Personified
Illustration for Robert Blair's The Grave

 




















The connotation of the 'Caverns of the Grave' is the depths of the unconscious including depression and despair. Ahania and Enion are in the vicinity of the Caverns of the Grave when they wander near the borders of non-entity. Ironically despair and hope are both seen in this world of darkness. There is an implication that confrontations take place in 'Caverns of the Grave' which result in rebirth. Twice Blake juxtapositions 'Caverns of the Grave' with 'places of Human Seed' which must represent a deep level of the ability to recreate at the human or imaginative level.
 

Four Zoas , Page 43, 44, (E 329)

"Down from the dismal North the Prince in thunders & thick clouds
As when the thunderbolt down falleth on the appointed place
Fell down down rushing ruining thundering shuddering
Into the Caverns of the Grave & places of Human Seed
Where the impressions of Despair & Hope enroot forever
A world of Darkness. Ahania fell far into Non Entity"

Four Zoas, Page 90, 91, SECOND PORTION) (E 363)
"The Prester Serpent ceasd the War song sounded loud & strong
Thro all the heavens Urizens Web vibrated torment on torment
Thus in the Caverns of the Grave & Places of human seed
The nameless shadowy Vortex stood before the face of Orc
The Shadow reard her dismal head over the flaming youth
With sighs & howling & deep sobs that he might lose his rage
And with it lose himself in meekness she embracd his fire
As when the Earthquake rouzes from his den his shoulders huge
Appear above the crumb[l]ing Mountain. Silence waits around him
A moment then astounding horror belches from the Center
The fiery dogs arise the shoulders huge appear
So Orc rolld round his clouds upon the deeps of dark Urthona
Knowing the arts of Urizen were Pity & Meek affection
And that by these arts the Serpent form exuded from his limbs
Silent as despairing love & strong as Jealousy"

Four Zoas, PAGE 122 [108], (E 383)
"Tharmas on high rode furious thro the afflicted worlds
Pursuing the Vain Shadow of Hope fleeing from identity
In abstract false Expanses that he may not hear the Voice
Of Ahania wailing on the winds in vain he flies for still
The voice incessant calls on all the children of Men
For she spoke of all in heaven & all upon the Earth
Saw not as yet the Divine vision her Eyes are Toward Urizen
And thus Ahania cries aloud to the Caverns of the Grave

Will you keep a flock of wolves & lead them will you take the wintry blast
For a covering to your limbs or the summer pestilence for a tent to abide in
Will you erect a lasting habitation in the mouldering Church yard
Or a pillar & palace of Eternity in the jaws of the hungry grave
Will you seek pleasure from the festering wound or marry for a Wife
The ancient Leprosy that the King & Priest may still feast on your decay
And the grave mock & laugh at the plowd field saying
I am the nourisher thou the destroyer in my bosom is milk & wine
And a fountain from my breasts to me come all multitudes
To my breath they obey they worship me I am a goddess & queen
But listen to Ahania O ye sons of the Murderd one"

Four Zoas, Page 113 [109], (E 384)
"These are the Visions of My Eyes the Visions of Ahania
Thus cries Ahania Enion replies from the Caverns of the Grave"

Rahab reaches a point of transformation when she hears 'Ahania weeping on the Void', and 'Enions voice sound from the 'caverns of the Grave'. Rahab, as Mystery, is burned with fire but her subsequent form, Deism, is raised from the ashes.

Four Zoas, PAGE 115 [111], (E 385)
"Rahab triumphs over all she took Jerusalem
Captive A Willing Captive by delusive arts impelld
To worship Urizens Dragon form to offer her own Children
Upon the bloody Altar. John Saw these things Reveald in Heaven
On Patmos Isle & heard the Souls cry out to be deliverd
He saw the Harlot of the Kings of Earth & saw her Cup
Of fornication food of Orc & Satan pressd from the fruit of Mystery
But when she saw the form of Ahania weeping on the Void
And heard Enions voice sound from the caverns of the Grave
No more spirit remained in her She secretly left the Synagogue of Satan
She commund with Orc in secret She hid him with the flax
That Enitharmon had numberd away from the Heavens
She gatherd it together to consume her Harlot Robes
In bitterest Contrition sometimes Self condemning repentant
And Sometimes kissing her Robes & jewels & weeping over them
Sometimes returning to the Synagogue of Satan in Pride
And Sometimes weeping before Orc in humility & trembling
The Synagogue of Satan therefore uniting against Mystery
Satan divided against Satan resolvd in open Sanhedrim
To burn Mystery with fire & form another from her ashes
For God put it into their heart to fulfill all his will

The Ashes of Mystery began to animate they calld it Deism
And Natural Religion as of old so now anew began
Babylon again in Infancy Calld Natural Religion"

In the late stages of the Four Zoas, as grief is being transformed to joy, the 'caverns of the Grave' is once more a symbol of the rebirth for 'those risen again from death '.

Four Zoas, Page 135, 136, (E 404)
"All round the heavenly arches & the Odors rose singing this song

O terrible wine presses of Luvah O caverns of the Grave
How lovely the delights of those risen again from death
O trembling joy excess of joy is like Excess of grief

So sang the Human Odors round the wine presses of Luvah "

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DESIGN 4 - OOTHOON

For each of the eight images in the Large Book of Designs, I will republish an earlier post to shed light on how the picture fits into Blake's overall myth of Creation, Fall and Apocalypse. 

4) Oothoon Chained  
_______________  
Saturday, January 09, 2016

EMANATION

Wikimedia Commons
Marriage of Heaven & Hell
Plate 1, Copy I 

Associated with each of the Zoas is an Emanation, the female counterpart of the male. Ahania is the feminine nature of Urizen, Enion of Tharmas, Vala of Luvah, and Enitharmon of Los who stands in for Urthona. Blake is not reluctant to picture the Emanations as they appear in the natural world but their appearance in Eternity is beyond even Blake.

Blake was indebted to the heterodox tradition for his development of the concept of emanation. A Christian Gnostic theologian of the third century presented the idea of emanation descending from God into lower forms of existence. The emanations were "not separate existencies so much as personified agencies." However, like Blake, Valentinius saw the the emanative portions falling into "only a partial knowledge of the hidden God."

As we read in Frye's Fearful Symmetry, "The word "emanation" in Blake means the object-world; creature in Eden, female in Beulah, object or nature in Generation, abstraction in Ulro." (Page 127). We follow in Blake the descent of the emanation through the four levels of spiritual consciousness as she attempts to reascend to "depth which the understanding cannot fathom."

Brief Analysis of the Sects, Heresies, and Writers of the First Three Centuries PRINTED FOR JAMES COOPER, TRINITY STREET, in 1857 elucidates the concept of emanations:

From Page 29 read the words of Valentinus. To read the Greek words go to the website.

"The theory of emanations, which was in some measure adopted by all Gnostics, received considerable increase from the fertility of his speculative powers. He supposed a Supreme Being, infinite, invisible, incomprehensible, and therefore called the depth which the under- standing cannot fathom, who, having spent numberless ages in repose, resolved to reveal himself, and for this purpose employed his thought, Evvota, also called silence, who alone had dwelt with, or within him. The first manifestations, or AEons, produced, were intelligence, and  truth. These AEons are to be considered only as revealed forms of the Supreme Being ; not separate existencies so much as personified agencies, whose combination constituted the Plenoma, or fulness, of the attributes and perfections of the Godhead. They comprised altogether thirty AEons, of whom half were supposed to be males, active agencies, and the other half females, i.e., passive principles. In proportion as these AEons were removed from the Supreme God, they decreased in knowledge and perfection. The lower AEons had, therefore, only a partial knowledge of the hidden God, and the desire of one of them in particular, 'Siorjyiaj to know more of him produced a concision in the Pleroma, one result of which was that Jioia gave birth to an imperfect being, who was incapable of remaining in the Pleroma, and was cast out into Chaos. This being, called Achamoth, formed the Demiurgos, by whom the world was made, and reduced to a rude and shapeless mass of matter to some degree of order.

Jerusalem, Plate 92, (E 252) 
"Los answerd swift as the shuttle of gold. Sexes must vanish & cease

To be, when Albion arises from his dread repose O lovely Enitharmon:
When all their Crimes, their Punishments their Accusations of Sin: 
All their Jealousies Revenges. Murders. hidings of Cruelty in Deceit
Appear only in the Outward Spheres of Visionary Space and Time.
In the shadows of Possibility by Mutual Forgiveness forevermore
And in the Vision & in the Prophecy, that we may Foresee & Avoid
The terrors of Creation & Redemption & Judgment. Beholding them 
Displayd in the Emanative Visions of Canaan in Jerusalem & in Shiloh
And in the Shadows of Remembrance, & in the Chaos of the Spectre" 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 562)  

"Jesus is surrounded by Beams of Glory in which are
seen all around him Infants emanating from him   these represent
the Eternal Births of Intellect from the divine Humanity   A
Rainbow surrounds the throne & the Glory in which youthful
Nuptials recieve the infants in their hands   In Eternity Woman is
the Emanation of Man she has No Will of her own There is no such
thing in Eternity as a Female Will"

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WEAVING 2

British Library

Four Zoas Manuscript

Page 8

Enion and her two infants Los and Enitharmon - time and space.

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Living in the world of time and space carries its own implications. There are limitations which are placed on the embodied spirits. Time arrives in sequential events which have precursors and consequences. In space Individuals are distinct from one another: they can affect each other and be affected. Blake sees time and space providing the setting for interactions which generate his myth of creation, fall and redemption. This World is the cradle which is provided for man to assume the Definite Form intended for his integrated Body/Soul. 

Another name Blake gave to the time/space in which man is to experience and mature, is the Mundane Egg within the Mundane Shell. It is woven by Enion but not as a garment subservient to her hands. In the previous post we considered the garment as the body woven as a covering for the Spirit. The garment Enion weaves is the outer expression of a world constructed from sense data and cognitive functioning. Like the Garment of Flesh, the Circle of Destiny is experienced as an exterior reality in which one lives, ignoring the fact that it is but the covering for deeper existence which is hidden. 

Jerusalem, Plate 56, (E 206)
"This World is all a Cradle for the erred wandering Phantom:
Rock'd by Year, Month, Day & Hour; and every two Moments
Between, dwells a Daughter of Beulah, to feed the Human Vegetable
Entune: Daughters of Albion. your hymning Chorus mildly!
Cord of affection thrilling extatic on the iron Reel:
To the golden Loom of Love! to the moth-labourd Woof
A Garment and Cradle weaving for the infantine Terror:
For fear; at entering the gate into our World of cruel           
Lamentation: it flee back & hide in Non-Entitys dark wild
Where dwells the Spectre of Albion: destroyer of Definite Form."

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 5, (E 302) 
"So saying he sunk down into the sea a pale white corse
In torment he sunk down & flowd among her filmy Woof  
is Spectre issuing from his feet in flames of fire
In gnawing pain drawn out by her lovd fingers every nerve 
She counted. every vein & lacteal threading them among
Her woof of terror. Terrified & drinking tears of woe
Shuddring she wove--nine days & nights Sleepless her food was tears
Wondring she saw her woof begin to animate. & not  
As Garments woven subservient to her hands but having a will
Of its own perverse & wayward Enion lovd & wept

Nine days she labourd at her work. & nine dark sleepless nights
But on the tenth trembling morn the Circle of Destiny Complete 
Round rolld the Sea Englobing in a watry Globe self balancd 
A Frowning Continent appeard Where Enion in the Desart
Terrified in her own Creation      viewing her woven shadow
Sat in a dread intoxication of Repentance & Contrition" 

Milton, PLATE 18 [20],(E 110)  
"The Shadowy Female seeing Milton, howl'd in her lamentation
Over the Deeps. outstretching her Twenty seven Heavens over Albion

And thus the Shadowy Female howls in articulate howlings

I will lament over Milton in the lamentations of the afflicted   
My Garments shall be woven of sighs & heart broken lamentations
The misery of unhappy Families shall be drawn out into its border
Wrought with the needle with dire sufferings poverty pain & woe
Along the rocky Island & thence throughout the whole Earth
There shall be the sick Father & his starving Family! there      
The Prisoner in the stone Dungeon & the Slave at the Mill
I will have Writings written all over it in Human Words
That every Infant that is born upon the Earth shall read
And get by rote as a hard task of a life of sixty years
...
Orc answerd. Take not the Human Form O loveliest. Take not
Terror upon thee! Behold how I am & tremble lest thou also
Consume in my Consummation; but thou maist take a Form
Female & lovely, that cannot consume in Mans consummation
Wherefore dost thou Create & Weave this Satan for a Covering[?]  
When thou attemptest to put on the Human Form, my wrath  
Burns to the top of heaven against thee in Jealousy & Fear.
Then I rend thee asunder, then I howl over thy clay & ashes
When wilt thou put on the Female Form as in times of old
With a Garment of Pity & Compassion like the Garment of God      
His garments are long sufferings for the Children of Men
Jerusalem is his Garment & not thy Covering Cherub O lovely
Shadow of my delight who wanderest seeking for the prey."

Milton, Plate 37 [41], (E 138)
"From Star to Star, Mountains & Valleys, terrible dimension
Stretchd out, compose the Mundane Shell, a mighty Incrustation
Of Forty-eight deformed Human Wonders of the Almighty
With Caverns whose remotest bottoms meet again beyond       
The Mundane Shell in Golgonooza,"

.

CATHERINE BLAKE 5

Yale Center for British Art
Tempera with pen and black ink on a copper engraving plate
The Horse

Blake had a long history of being disappointed in dealings with commercial printing projects. Another occurred when Hayley originated an enterprise in which Blake was to illustrate some ballads for children which Haley would provide. The local printer Seagrave would do the letterpress printing while Blake would supply four engravings for each poem. The expenses and the profits would both accrue to Blake. Hayley was trying to teach Blake to accumulate wealth but it didn't work out that way. Hayley and his affluent friends did not purchase enough copies to cover Blake's monetary expense, much less the labor that he and Catherine spent on engraving, printing, collating and distributing. 

Four of the projected sixteen ballads with their illustrations were released as broadsides about 1802. Later Blake engraved additional plates allowing for the publication of a book in 1805. 

Blake wrote to Hayley of his extreme disappointed that his engraving of The Horse was to be eliminated from the published book. The engraving work had already been done but he would not be paid if the ballad was not included. The Yale Center of British Art owns the painting which Blake made of his engraving of The Horse and considers it "the gem of the painting collection." A reproduction of the engraving, colored by Blake, is included in G.E. Bentley's Biography of William Blake (Pt 97.) It is a tiny image, 4 3/16 x 2 1/2 inches, done with meticulous care, richly colored and showing dimension and tension.

I think that Blake's fondness for this image may have rested on more than the quality of his workmanship. I see in the woman the face and composure of Blake's Catherine. Her defense of the child from harm, is the protection which she gave to the work through which she and her husband made imagination manifest. The energy of the horse which dominates the picture is not suppressed but contained. Notice that the drama takes place below the surface of the ground and above the surface of the water. Perhaps Blake represented three kinds of strength in his image. The horse has the ferocity of creative energy seeking expression, the woman has the serenity of spirit whose power would not be overcome, the child received not only protection but release to carry her independent identity where it led her.  

Letters, (E 762)
[To William Hayley] [22 January 1805] "I must now express my thanks for your generous manner of proposing the Ballads to him on my account, and inform you of his advice concerning them; and he thinks that they should be published all together in a volume the size of the small edition of the Triumphs of Temper, with six or seven plates. That one thousand copies should be the first edition, and, if we choose, we might add to the number of plates in a second edition. And he will go equal shares with me in the expense and the profits, and that Seagrave is to be the printer. That we must consider all that has been printed as lost, and begin anew, unless we can apply some of the plates to the new edition. I consider myself as only put in trust with this work, and that the copyright is for ever yours. I therefore beg that you will not suffer it to be injured by my ignorance, or that it should in any way be separated from the grand bulk of your literary property. Truly proud I am to be in possession of this beautiful little estate; for that it will be highly productive I have no doubt, in the way now proposed; and I shall consider myself a robber to retain more than you at any time please to grant. In short, I am tenant at will, and may write over my door, as the poor barber did, "Money for live here." I entreat your immediate advice what I am to do, for I would not for the world injure this beautiful work, and cannot answer P[hillip]'s proposal till I have your directions and commands concerning it; for he wishes to set about it immediately, and has desired that I will give him my proposal concerning it in writing. I remain, dear Sir, Your obliged and affectionate WILL BLAKE" [From the Gilchrist Life]
Letters, (E 763) To William Hayley Esqre Felpham near Chichester, Sussex Friday [22 March 1805; Postmark: 25 March] Dear Sir This Morning I have been with Mr Phillips & have intirely settled with him the plan of Engraving for the new Edition of the Ballads--The Prints 5 in Number I have Engaged to finish by 28 May. they are to be as highly finishd as I can do them the Size the same as the Serena plates the Price 20 Guineas Each half to be paid by P-- The Subjects I cannot do better than those already chosen, as they are the most eminent among Animals Viz The Lion. The Eagle. The Horse. The Dog. Of the Dog Species the Two Ballads are so preeminent & my Designs for them please me so well that I have chosen that Design in our Last Number of the Dog & Crocodile. & that of the Dog defending his <dead> Master from the Vultures of these five I am making little high finishd Pictures the Size the Engravings are to be. & am hard at it to accomplish in time what I intend. Mr P--says he will send Mr Seagrave the Paper directly. ...
P.S. Your Desire that I should write a little Advertisement at the Beginning of the Ballads has set my Brains to work & at length producd the following. Simplicity as you desired has been my first object. I send it for your Correction or Condemnation begging you to supply its deficiency or to New Create it according to your wish. _____________________ The Public ought to be informd that [The following] <These> Ballads were the Effusions of Friendship to Countenance what their Author is kindly pleased to call Talents for Designing. and to relieve my more laborious [employment] engagement of Engraving those Portraits which accompany The Life of Cowper Out of a number of Designs I have selected Five hope that the Public will approve of my rather giving few highly labourd Plates than a greater number & less finishd. If I have succeeded in these more may be added at Pleasure WILL BLAKE" Letters, (E 765) [4 June 1805] Dear Sir, I have fortunately, I ought to say providentially, discovered that I have engraved one of the plates for that ballad of The Horse which is omitted in the new edition; time enough to save the extreme loss and disappointment which I should have suffered had the work been completed without that ballad's insertion. I write to entreat that you would contrive so as that my plate may come into the work, as its omission would be to me a loss that I could not now sustain, as it would cut off ten guineas from my next demand on Phillips, which sum I am in absolute want of; as well as that I should lose all the labour I have been at on that plate, which I consider as one of my best; I know it has cost me immense labour. The way in which I discovered this mistake is odd enough. Mr. Phillips objects altogether to the insertion of my Advertisement, calling it an appeal to charity, and says it will hurt the sale of the work, and he sent to me the last sheet by the penny (that is, the twopenny) post, desiring that I would forward it to Mr. Seagrave. But I have inclosed it to you, as you ought and must see it. I am no judge in these matters, and leave all to your decision, as I know that you will do what is right on all hands. Pray accept my and my wife's sincerest love and gratitude. WILL BLAKE" [From the Gilchrist Life]

British Museum

Illustration to "The Horse. Ballad the Sixteenth" in Hayley's "Ballads"

CATHERINE BLAKE 3

Blake filled Robert's notebook after his beloved Brother's death. When he ran out of pages he turned the notebook upside down and filled it from the opposite direction. The portrait of Catherine was inverted when he wrote text for A Vision for the Last Judgment.

Among the notes and sketches in Blake's Notebook appear two images of his wife. Bake used the Notebook to record images and ideas as they occurred to him. These two images were not intended for inclusion in future works of art. They were spontaneous responses to the domestic scene which surrounded him. This was the woman who shared his bed and his table, who ran errands for him and helped with the printing process. She was Enitharmon to Blake's Los. When inspiration came to him, she helped him bring his vision into the physical world. 

 
"And first he drew a line upon the walls of shining heaven    
And Enitharmon tincturd it with beams of blushing love"
                                                                          Four Zoas 

If William and Catherine had to struggle to adapt to living together as husband and wife, we would find remnants of their striving in Blake's poetry and pictures. In the Four Zoas, Enitharmon suggested to Los that her efforts had less value or permanence than his did. The products of her hands 'vanish again into my bosom.' If her work could be assimilated into the forms sublime which Los was fabricating, their life together would acquire a new dimension.

This can be seen as a breakthrough in the relationship of the young couple. If William recognized that Catherine was capable of working as an artist alongside him as he produced the Illuminated Books, it would eliminate some of the tension between them. Her creative energy would be directed toward producing something of real sustained value. He would benefit by not being alone against all the forces which conspired to thwart his achieving his aspirations.

Alexander Gilchrist wrote in his early biography of Blake that the production of the Illuminated Books was a joint project. Other authors may be dependent on designers, engravers, printers and publishers but Blake found another way to present the product of his creativity. Together "the Poet and his wife did everything in making the book, - writing, designing, printing, engraving, - everything except manufacturing the paper: the very ink, or color rather, they did make." He didn't mention coloring the images and binding the books at which Catherine became proficient.

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 98 [90], (E 370) 
Enitharmon spread her beaming locks upon the wind & said   
O Lovely terrible Los wonder of Eternity O Los my defence & guide 
Thy works are all my joy. & in thy fires my soul delights
If mild they burn in just proportion & in secret night
And silence build their day in shadow of soft clouds & dews
Then I can sigh forth on the winds of Golgonooza piteous forms  
That vanish again into my bosom   but if thou my Los
Wilt in sweet moderated fury. fabricate forms sublime    
Such as the piteous spectres may assimilate themselves into
They shall be ransoms for our Souls that we may live

So Enitharmon spoke & Los his hands divine inspired began  
To modulate his fires studious the loud roaring flames
He vanquishd with the strength of Art bending their iron points
And drawing them forth delighted upon the winds of Golgonooza 
From out the ranks of Urizens war & from the fiery lake
Of Orc bending down as the binder of the Sheaves follows   
The reaper in both arms embracing the furious raging flames
Los drew them forth out of the deeps planting his right foot firm
Upon the Iron crag of Urizen thence springing up aloft
Into the heavens of Enitharmon in a mighty circle

And first he drew a line upon the walls of shining heaven    
And Enitharmon tincturd it with beams of blushing love

It remaind permanent a lovely form inspird divinely human
Dividing into just proportions Los unwearied labourd
The immortal lines upon the heavens till with sighs of love
Sweet Enitharmon mild Entrancd breathd forth upon the wind   
The spectrous dead Weeping the Spectres viewd the immortal works
Of Los Assimilating to those forms Embodied & Lovely
In youth & beauty in the arms of Enitharmon mild reposing"

Jerusalem, Plate 14, (E 158)
"Los also views the Four Females:
Ahania, and Enion, and Vala, and Enitharmon lovely.              
And from them all the lovely beaming Daughters of Albion,
Ahania & Enion & Vala, are three evanescent shades:
Enitharmon is a vegetated mortal Wife of Los:
His Emanation, yet his Wife till the sleep of death is past.

Such are the Buildings of Los! & such are the Woofs of Enitharmon!" 

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