FOUR ZOAS VIIA / 77:5-78:19 (54:18-105:23)


 Schematic for Night
 Vila (Fig. C.1): pp.
 330-31;

 for Night VIIb (Fig.
 C.2): pp. 334-35;

for Night VIII (Fig C.3):
 pp. 338-39.


Urizen's vision of Orc
realizes in the narrative
proper Ahania's account
of Urizen's subservience
 in Night III.





















 The Tree of Mystery
 mystifies Urizen's per-
 ception of Orc.


those elements transformed from other Nights allow previously frozen
terms (such as Spectre of Urthona, Lamb of God, Satan, and Vala) to
re-surface into the narrative proper; 3) how the surfacing of these previ-
ously suppressed elements of earlier Nights gets bound up with the intro-
duction of apparently new elements (such as the Shadow of Enitharmon,
Rahab and Tirzah, the hermaphrodite, and the Synagogue of Satan); and
4) how Blake organizes these conflicting and overlapping elements into
particular experiential structures by giving them a certain order and
grouping.'


 Overlapping Narrative Elements


 The Tree of Mystery
 When, early in Night VIIa, the "Tree of Mystery" suddenly materializes
in the context of Urizen's confrontation with Orc, it seems to be a radi-
cally new element in the poem. As Urizen descends from his war against
the Spectre and Tharmas, he distinctly sees a constellation of plot elements
which he had previously believed were under his control, including the
tools and animals he commanded in the creation of the Mundane Shell in
Night II (24:9-25:5): all these elements are now, however, bound up with
Orc's fiery image. This scene projects into the narrative proper Ahania's
visionary warning to Urizen in Night III (39:1-14) that Luvah was already
in control of the steeds, tygers, and lions of Urizen and was thus already
Urizen's master. In Night VIIa Urizen's unconscious defensive reflex to
this ego-damaging information now appearing before him in the narrative
proper generates the Tree of Mystery which surrounds him, shuts off his
vision of Orc, and encloses his "book of iron"--the "dreadful letters"
Urizen "trac[es]" as he tries to "cool the flames of Orc" (78:2-3). Urizen's
book has taken on the characteristics of the "iron pen" with which he
inscribed the "books" that remained as a defensive linear stay against his
cyclic journey through Night VI (71:35-ff). The Tree of Mystery thus
enters the poem as an image of perceptual repression, or, more accurately,
of defensive perceptual mystification.
 Prior to the springing up of the Tree which entangles the book of iron
within its labyrinthine branches, Urizen cannot speak to Orc. After the
Tree appears, Urizen is able to address Orc, and the previously neutral
unspecified "rock" Urizen has been sitting on absorbs the characteristics
of his book and itself becomes a "rock of iron" (78:14) and an "iron Crag"
(78:16). Before the Tree appeared Urizen directly perceived the cave filled
with beasts and tools; after the Tree has appeared Urizen says to Orc, "No
other living thing / In all this Chasm I behold" (78:18-19). Either Urizen is
being blatantly hypocritical (and there is little indication that this is the
case) or the Tree has made it possible for Urizen to repress the most
immediately disturbing feature of Orc. The Tree of Mystery thus conceals