WORK IS DONE

We ended the post Separation of Emanations with a quotation from Percival in which he says that the " condition of deliverance is revealed in one of the concluding pages of Jerusalem." Plate 91 concludes with the word "beholding." Recalling that Blake teaches that one becomes what one beholds, we look to the next plate and see what Los is becoming.

He sees "The Briton Saxon Roman Norman" amalgamating In my Furnaces into One Nation the English.

Jerusalem, Plate 91 (E 251)
"So Los terrified cries: trembling & weeping & howling!
Beholding
PLATE 92
What do I see? The Briton Saxon Roman Norman amalgamating
In my Furnaces into One Nation the English: & taking refuge
In the Loins of Albion. The Canaanite united with the fugitive
Hebrew, whom she divided into Twelve, & sold into Egypt
Then scatterd the Egyptian & Hebrew to the four Winds!
This sinful Nation Created in our Furnaces & Looms is Albion

So Los spoke. Enitharmon answerd in great terror in Lambeths Vale

The Poets Song draws to its period & Enitharmon is no more.
For if he be that Albion I can never weave him in my Looms
But when he touches the first fibrous thread, like filmy dew
My Looms will be no more & I annihilate vanish for ever
Then thou wilt Create another Female according to thy Will.

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
Amalek, Edom, Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Ashur, Philistea, around Jerusalem"

Europe A Prophecy
Plate 11



Jerusalem, Plate 92, in a low keyed way presents the turning point in the saving of Albion. The poet has envisioned the unified body as amalgamating all nations (represented by Briton Saxon Roman Norman) into a single entity. Los is able to see that this totality is the Albion who exists within the furnaces of Los and the looms of Enitharmon. Albion is not pure or unblemished but is a 'sinful nation.'

This Albion incorporating the entirety which exists in Eternity signals the end of the world of generation which has been the field in which experience has been gained. Enitharmon realizing that time cannot impinge on the Eternal nor space impinge on the Infinite, knows the work or Los and Enitharmon is done. Duality likewise is abolished by Universality. The Emanation will have no external existence but will be included as an essential aspect of the fully expressed Man of Imagination.

In the Eternal World which is our beginning and ending, we may behold without becoming. It will not be necessary to experience error in order to avoid it. We will 'Foresee & Avoid The terrors of Creation & Redemption & Judgment.'

And so Percival can say 'the purpose of the fires has been accomplished.'

In Blake's myth we see an echo of the words of Paul written in the Book of Romans as he reflects on the tribulation we experience in life:

5:3-5 - This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys - we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have some experience of the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.
5:6-8 - And we can see that it was while we were powerless to help ourselves that Christ died for sinful men. (J. B. Phillips translation)
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