WEAVING THE CIRCLE


precisely the opposite-the process that hides Jerusalem. Blake prefaces
this radical redistribution of narrative elements by a key event: Tharmas
bends from his Clouds and "Turn[s] round the circle of Destiny" (5:9-11),
an act that presupposes that the "circle of Destiny" is an already existent
feature of the poem's world. Yet it is only after Tharmas turns round the
"circle" and dies (what Enion said she would do [5:5]) by sinking into the
sea, that Enion actually brings the "Circle of Destiny" into existence by
weaving it out of the sunken anatomized fibres of Tharmas (which were
initially her own): "So saying he sunk down into the sea a pale white corse /
His Spectre issuing from his feet... drawn out by her lovd fingers every
nerve / She counted. every vein & lacteal threading them among / Her
woofofterror... on the tenth trembling morn the Circle of Destiny Com-
plete / Round rolld..." (5:13-25).
 Though Enion begins to weave before Tharmas turns round the "circle,"
the "Circle" is explicitly woven out of the physically anatomized Tharmas
who emerges into the narrative only after Tharmas has turned round the
"circle" and sunk into the sea (which occasions the Spectre's fibrous sep-
aration). Tharmas' turning ofthe "circle" becomes a version ofhis original
act of hiding Jerusalem, just as Enion's weaving the "Circle" explicitly
constitutes her act of hiding Jerusalem. Since the Circle is now literally
woven out of the anatomized fibres of Tharmas, it incorporates the accus-
ing, searching pole ofthe conversation; and because Enion's woof is one of
"terror," this action implicates her even more deeply in creating the
schizophrenic state of terror she originally projected onto Tharmas: All
Love is lost Terror succeeds... yet I love thee in thy terror" (4:18, 21). Now
it is her own woof that forms and is constituted by "terror."
 This temporal overlapping (as well as the mirror-image reflected dic-
tion) reveals that the conversation and the weaving are spoken and bodily
versions of an action that comes into existence only through the poem's
narrative sequence, however much it may seem to be presupposed by the
events of the poem. Blake progressively undermines the possibility that
the Tharmas/Enion conference occurred between two separate characters:
rather, these narratively constituted beings emerge as two aspects of a state
of consciousness divided against itself in such a way that each aspect
represses his/her involvement in the other's responsibility for their condi-
tion. Theyjointly constitute the possibility of avoiding that responsibility.
 The first transitional phase, which occurred as a problematic shift
 within Tharmas' voice, displaced the present narrative action into "Eden."
 The second transitional phase occurs within the narrative voice and con-
 sciously shifts to the feminine "Beulah" rather than the male "Eden" and
 introduces Blake's quite original and unorthodox "Lamb of God" into the
 poem. This transition excludes direct reference to weaving and seasonal
 rebirth, emphasizing instead "Eternity," "vegetation," "the Spectre," and
 the possibility of sleepers who "sleep / Eternally." It occurs immediately
 following Enion's completion of the "Circle of Destiny" (woven from
 Tharmas' Spectrous fibres) and immediately before Tharmas and Enion


The causal circularity of
the emergence of the
Circle of Destiny



























The fiction that Thar-
mas and Enion are
separate characters is
undermined by sub-
sequent narrative events.






The Lamb of God as a
narrative operator, not a
conventional literary or
religious trope