CONSEQUENCES: BUILDING GOLGONOOZA


 Was opened new heavens & a new Earth beneath & within
 Threefold within the brain within the heart within the loins
 (87:7-10)

While Los's labouringg" in VIIa rouses him from his brooding jealous
lethargy that has dominated his consciousness since Night V, it is a re-
enactment, not only of his building of Golgonooza in Night V, but his
building of the body in Night IV, with the distinct locations of birth
(brain, heart, and loins) folded "within" one another. Insofar as the build-
ing of Golgonooza re-enacts the creation of the body, it is precisely the
opposite of the Spectre's desire to annihilate the body. Perhaps more dis-
turbingly, the image of "Domes" in the context of a "threefold" structure
approximates "The wondrous building & three Central Domes" (30:16)
of Urizen's geometrical universe in Night II. The connection with Uri-
zen's universe is strengthened when Golgonooza later reappears with
"many porches where branch the Mysterious Tree" (90:3). These impli-
cations call attention to the narrative fact that though the building of
Golgonooza in VIIa purports to give hope of a specific sort-a hope for
alternative existence (that is, a strand of events entirely different from
those that flowed out of the building of Golgonooza in V) -this action
issues out of the Shadow's delusiveness and is performed within the Tree of
Mystery.
 The hovering presence of the Shadow and the Tree over all this action
has been temporarily suppressed out of the narrative proper, but it sud-
denly floods back in:
 But Los stood on the Limit of Translucence weeping & trembling
 Filled with doubts in self accusation beheld the fruit
 Of Urizens Mysterious tree For Enitharmon thus spake
 (87:13-15)


At the moment Enitharmon speaks to Los again directly (after a conversa-
tional lapse since Night II), we are immediately thrust away from the
momentary confidence of witnessing a "Sublime" world being created.
Our response must be close to Los's own-a state of doubt as to how to
judge these actions and self-accusation at succumbing so readily to narra-
tive temptations. Golgonooza now seems to make possible an awareness
of Eternal Death (which in Night V it was built to overcome), for Enithar-
mon's verbal temptation of Los with the Tree's fruit makes her suddenly
conscious of a need for "ransom" from "Eternal Death," and makes her
recognize that she has "Sinnd." Enitharmon's need for conversation upon
recognizing/constituting her "Sin" constrains Los and Enitharmon to
re-enact yet again the hiding/searching dialectic which Tharmas/Enion
initially performed in Night I, and which the Shadow and Spectre have
themselves just re-enacted. While Enitharmon's Shadow projected guilt
onto Vala, Enitharmon accuses herself of sin. Enitharmon becomes aware
of "devouring appetite" (87:19) in herself and asks Los also to eat of the


In Night V, Golgonooza
is associated with a
"fourfold" structure
(60:1) but in Night Vila
with a "Threefold"
structure.














In Night VIIa Gol-
gonooza is built in the
context of the Shadow
and the Tree.


The reader participates
in Los's self-doubt and is
surprised by the narrat-
or's prediction of a
future union of Los and
Enitharmon.