THE URIZEN/ORC PARAMETERS OF NIGHT VIIA


form of Ore. Their relationship also appears in the center of VIIa, in the
story told by the Shadow of Enitharmon beneath the Tree of Mystery:
Urizen's birth from the sexual intercourse between Vala and the Eternal
Man and the division of Luvah out of Vala occur as inseparable aspects of
the same event. The Luvah/Urizen "conference"'6 in the Shadow's
account re-enacts the preceding Orc/Urizen confrontation and pervades
the sexual "conference" of the Spectre and Shadow of which it is a part.
The Urizen/Luvah plot, which, in interpolated visions, has always
already occurred in the dim past, is being enacted for the first time in the
narrative proper in the guise of the confrontation between Urizen and Orc
early in VIIa. By connecting Urizen's birth as a product of the sexual tryst
between the Eternal Man and Vala (as defined in the Shadow's interpolated
vision) with Urizen's role in the political plot with Luvah and then detour-
ing this narrative complex through the Los/Enitharmon fabrication plot,
Blake transforms the initial dialectical opposition between Urizen and
Ore into a climactic structural identification of aspects of Orc and Urizen.
Further, by yoking the Shadow's interpolated vision of Urizen as "First
born of Generation" -an event that is simultaneously the division of Lu-
vah from Vala-with the Spectre's tale of Urthona dividing into male and
female, Blake entwines the Urizen/Luvah/Vala plot into the fate of Los
and Enitharmon as well (See Fig. C.1).
 The clarity of Night VIIa's structure is disturbingly undermined by the
pervasive aura of delusion introduced by the Shadow, the Spectre, and the
Tree of Mystery. The Shadow's story in VIIa overlaps/re-enacts Enithar-
mon's "Song of Vala" in Night I by virtue of the fact that Enitharmon's
Song in Night I introduced the Fallen Man, Urizen, Luvah, and Vala into
the poem, creating by means of the false morning the possibility that
Enitharmon can be perceptually confused with Vala. Similarly, the
Spectre's account of his division in VIIa overlaps his speech to Tharmas in
Night IV since both graphically express the internal feeling of sexual
division. These overlapping also call attention to discrepancies between
these accounts, revealing that the accounts in VIIa bring into conscious
existence information that acts as if it had been suppressed out of earlier
accounts. At the same time these re-enactments alter those earlier relation-
ships through a complex process offeedback.
 The Urizen/Orc plot both surrounds or narratively brackets Night VIla
(in their confrontation at the beginning and their mutual intertransforma-
tion at the end) and is most deeply embedded in it (through the Shadow's
tale of Urizen, Luvah, and Vala). That plot is, however, suffused with
perceptual delusion through the presence of the Tree, the Shadow of Eni-
tharmon, and the fruit of the Tree which as it is eaten by Los and Enithar-
mon incorporates the sexual intoxication of the Tree into the characters
who bear the burden of "redeeming." While, in one sense, Urizen's sexual
origin is the most deeply embedded fact in the poem, it is treated as a
remembrance by the Shadow and is mapped onto the narrative proper in
the confused guise of Urizen becoming an infant breathed from Enithar-


The Urizen/Orc confer-
ence begins Night Vila;
the Shadow/Spectre
conference stands in the
center and in turn is fol-
lowed by the Spectre/
Los and Los/
Enitharmon confer-
ences; Night VIIa con-
cludes with Urizen
becoming a form of
Ore.













The presence of mystify-
ing delusion subverts the
spatial clarity of Night
Vila's structure.