FOUR ZOAS VIII / 106:2-113:19 (25:25-113:19)


Rahab and Tirzah come
 into existence in the
 Song of the Sons ofEden
 as an analysis ofelements
 in the narrative proper.








 The exclusion of
Jerusalem from the Sons'
 Song



 The origin ofJerusalem
 in the conflict between
 the narrative and inter-
 polated accounts of
 weaving


herself While Los draws passion and affection into "wires" inside the
body, the "Daughters of Enitharmon," who from the perspective of the
narrative proper are simultaneously the weavers and the bodies being
woven, "weave the ovarium & the integument / In soft silk drawn from
their own bowels in lascivious delight" (113:9-10). This interweaving
equals Jerusalem's emergent form (though the Sons of Eden are blind to
this fact). "But Satan Og & Sihon / Build Mills of resistless wheels to
unwind the soft threads & reveal / Naked of their clothing the poor
spectres" (113:16-18). On the other hand, Rahab and Tirzah (introduced
by the Sons of Eden as analyses of the Shadowy Female and aspects of the
False Feminine Counterpart soon to enter the narrative proper) "far differ-
ent mantles prepare webs of torture" (113:19). Because, from the perspec-
tive of the narrative proper, the weavers are the woven forms, the Satanic
unweavers function as the unwoven spectres. The Satan complex in the
Sons'song thus becomes structurally identified with the unwoven spectres
and appears in the narrative proper as the Satanic "male without a female
counterpart." The substitute "mantles" are identified with the weaving
actions of Rahab and Tirzah. Thus, the Sons depict a three-phase linear
process in which two different kinds of clothing are created. But in failing
to identify Jerusalem as the form woven by Enitharmon and instead nam-
ing only the forces that unweave and reweave (the narratively identified)
Jerusalem into a new form, the Sons introduce a perceptual block to
crucial aspects of the narrative and create a further complication.
 In the Sons' account the Lamb never appears in the context of Enithar-
mon's weaving, as he does in the narrative proper, but only in the context
ofRahab's woven mantles. When the Lamb descends (and is thereby born)
into the narrative proper immediately after Satan is born, the conflict
between these two forms of weaving (Jerusalem and Rahab) is sub-
ordinated to the conflict between the image of Luvah's robes and the
garments of Rahab and Tirzah: he was "born of Fair Jerusalem / In
mystery woven mantle & in the Robes of Luvah" (104:34-35). Thus,
because Jerusalem is constituted by the woven forms of Enitharmon, Lu-
vah's robes can by no means be reductively equivalent to the forms woven
by Enitharmon. The Lamb is born unambiguously "ofJerusalem" (who is
the product of weaving by Enitharmon), but the Lamb is clothed simul-
taneously "in mystery woven mantle" (the first manifestation in the nar-
rative proper of Rahab's project ofreweaving or counter-weaving) and in
"the Robes ofLuvah" (which have existed independently of weaving since
Night I). This event-complex is the ground for the whole network of
narrative and ontological confusion that arises between the emergent
Jerusalem and the emergent Rahab, even though the narrator tries to keep
these two figures distinct.
 Jerusalem undergoes a transformation from functioning as a static
woven form to actual participation as a character in the plot of VIII. The
descent and crucifixion of the Lamb are embedded in and made possible by
the reappearance of Jerusalem in the plot. The Lamb descends "thro