FOUR ZOAS VIIA, VIIB, VIII / 85:19-105:55 (30:23-105:55) Differences between the accounts of the "dead" in Nights VIIa and VIIb How the first appearance of the Synagogue of Satan aligns it structur- ally with the Spectre's role in Night Vila Eden visualize this luring cruelty as Rahab's reweaving into "mantles" and "webs of torture" the "sweet clothing" of Los and Enitharmon (which is unwoven by Satanic forces). The Sons' account thus analyzes into sequen- tial processes the events of VIIa (Los and Enitharmon's "forms sublime") and of VIIb ("the shadowy females clouds") that are the preconditions of the emergence of the dead in those two Nights. In VIIb (though not in VIIa) the bursting dead are explicitly called "Satans" and in the aggregate are called "Satan" (95:11-14). In VIIa (though not in VIIb) the bursting dead are explicitly said to be males without counterparts (85:19; 87:31). In these latter two cases, the Spectre of Urthona is present, conditioning the context by his ravening lust. In Night VIII these two accounts are transformed into a single momentous event which nevertheless seems quite different from both: "Satan" bursts (is born) from the hermaphroditic war as "A male without a female coun- terpart" (104:23, 25), simultaneously with the descent (birth) of the Lamb of God (indeed, the two events constitute one another). It is only after "The Lamb of God stood before Satan opposite" (105:1) that Urizen calls the "Synagogue of Satan" together to condemn the Lamb. The Synagogue first appears in the context of Urizen's fabricated war machinery: as his machinery proliferates, Urizen communes "with the Serpent of Orc in dark dissimulation / And with the Synagogue of Satan in dark Sanhedrim / To undermine the World of Los" (100:32-34). Blake thus introduces the Synagogue in the context of Urizen re-enacting his conference with Ore in VIIa, in which he plotted to bring the Shadow down to the Spectre; in both cases, Urizen communes with the Serpent of Ore to undermine the world of Los. Introduced in this context, the "Synagogue" is structurally aligned with the Spectre of Urthona who drops out of VIII except for one elliptical mention of "the Spectre" (106:39): the implicit presence of the Spectre of Urthona in the Syna- gogue would account at least in part for Satan's appearance as a "male without a female counterpart." Thus, Urizen's calling the Synagogue together to judge the Lamb is a complex but specifically elaborated detour of his plot to undermine Los. Urizen's first meeting with the Synagogue is in "dark Sanhedrim" (100:33), implying the secrecy of the plot in the Tree of Mystery. Urizen's second meeting with the Synagogue is in "dire Sanhedrim" (105:5), indicating that this assembly or council is plotting actions which the narrator believes will be disastrous and the cause of great suffering rather than redemption. As the Synagogue meets, "A False Feminine Counterpart Lovely of Delusive Beauty" (105:11) beams in its midst. Narratively she functions (in her singular form) as a false feminine counterpart for Satan in his role as consolidated male without female counterpart and (in her divided form) as a false counterpart for the mul- titude of the dead (named "Satans" in VIIb), who overlap the multiple males bereft of female counterparts in VIIa. Just as the Satan who bursts from the hermaphroditic war as a male without a female counterpart hides "the shadowy female Vala" (104:22-27), so Rahab, the False Feminine