FOUR ZOAS VIIB / 95:1-93:37 (75:11-100:1)


The relation of the war
 plot to the conference
 between the Spectre of
 Urthona and the
Shadow of Enitharmon


















Note: page order inver-
 sion in Night VlIb




War explicitly manifests
itself as religion begin-
 ning in Night Vllb:










 first, in relation to Uri-
zen's own repressed sex-
 uality;


can approach the terrifying substance of Orc's consolidated image. Only
as Tharmas and Urizen meet does explicit warfare between them become a
conscious focus of the narrative. As their war immediately incorporated
the "squadrons of Urthona," syntax became so ambiguous as to identify
the combatants with each other (recreating the ambiguity of the Nuptial
Song). Since Tharmas is never shown fighting but always retreating,
withdrawing, the war of Urizen and Tharmas is always receding and is
never enacted except by proxy. Night VIIa unfolds a version of the war
that diverts Urizen's battle into purely sexual channels: Urizen's primary
conscious obsession is to undermine the prolific sexuality that he projects
onto Los and Enitharmon (who in the narrative proper actually seem to be
living out a barren sex life due in part to the divisive perceptual mystifi-
cation of the Tree and its narrative roots in the Chain of Jealousy which has
divided Los and Enitharmon). Urizen hopes to fulfill his desire to subvert
Los's sexual energy by luring down the Shadow of Enitharmon (a charac-
ter Urizen virtually creates or crystallizes) beneath the Tree, by which
means he believes the Spectre will destroy Los; but the opposite happens,
and myriad "sons & daughters" are born to Los and Enitharmon in Night
VIII, in large part because of the tryst of the Spectre and the Shadow.
 Thus in VIIb and VIII Urizen redirects his energies toward outright
warfare of a different sort -a warfare that also becomes "Religion," a word
that first appears in Night VIIb. Though Urizen has been obliquely
associated with a form of religion by means of his sons'sacrificial altar for
Ahania in Night II or by means of his claim that he is "God" in Nights I
and III, Blake has very carefully refrained from using the term "Religion"
in explicit connection with Urizen. It is in the context of religion as a
necessary corollary of war in VIIb and VIII that Urizen's final downfall
into the raging lustful sexual dragon occurs. This context also allows
previously suppressed characters to re-surface: Jerusalem, the Lamb of
God, and Satan (a name that had been mentioned once as a son of
Jerusalem in Night I and again as a "Limit" in Night IV, contexts that only
dimly connect "Satan" with external referential meaning). New charac-
ters also appear in this context: the "hermaphroditic" form of the war
Urizen is fighting, the "Synagogue of Satan," and Rahab.
 In its revised form, Night VIIb begins with an emphasis on Urizen
triumphantly crying to his "warriors," an action that gives way to his
chaining the "Universal Empire" by "laborious" work. This situation
parodies the opening of Night II, for it is abundantly clear that this time
Urizen is not consciously assuming legitimate authority, but rather creat-
ing works to usurp power: he builds a "temple" with a "Secret place" in its
"inner part" "reversing all the order of delight / That whosoever entered
into the temple might not behold / The hidden wonders allegoric of the
Generations / Of secret lust" (96:1-5). This inner sanctum is a precise
transformation of Urizen's "Golden Hall" of Night II which is geometri-
cally so interior that it is virtually unapproachable, the place where "His
Shadowy Feminine Semblance" reposed. In Night II Urizen's denial of his