THE THRESHOLD OF NIGHT IX


Urizen being forgetful again-this time "Forgetful of his own Laws"
(106:23). Enion attributes her "hope [which] drowns all my torment" to
her feeling that "I am now surrounded by a shadowy vortex drawing / The
Spectre quite away from Enion" (109:25-26), but this action is a version of
(or perspective on) Enion's experience in Night I when this same process
drove her "Into Non Entity" and simultaneously rehumanized her (9:3).
There, it was Los and Enitharmon who were "drawing in the Spectrous
life" (9:7). In Night II the drawing away of the Spectre which simultane-
ously drew Ahania toward Enion's lamentation was also the action of a
"vortex": "Thus livd Los driving Enion far into the deathful infinite /
That he may also draw Ahania's spirit into her Vortex" (34:97-98). And the
form in which the "shadow" appears in her tempting form before Orc in
VIIb is also a "shadowy Vortex" (91:2). Thus, in spite of the rich scattered
references to redemption, Enion's speech is fraught with contradictory
signals which by no means, however, completely overwhelm or cancel out
the redemptive possibilities. Since alongside glimpses of apocalyptic hope
often encased in ambiguous syntax Enion's vision incorporates the very
imagery associated with the horrific events of earlier Nights, her cry must
be, as VIIa appeared to be, a redemptive perspective on prior events and,
like VIIb, an ironic perspective on a "delusive... shadow of hope."
 At first, the "triumph" of Rahab itself seems to be made possible by
 Los's despairing response to the words of Enion: "Such are the words of
 Ahania & Enion. Los hears & weeps / And Los & Enitharmon took the
 Body of the Lamb / Down from the Cross & placd it in a Sepulcher"
 (110:29-31). Rahab's triumph immediately issues from this event in the
 narrative proper. Whereas Rahab's mediate perception of the words of
 Ahania and Enion, via Los taking the Body from the Cross, reifies her
 triumph, her direct perception of these females leads to the division of
 Satan against Satan: "But when she saw the form of Ahania weeping on
 the Void / And heard Enions voice sound from the caverns of the Grave /
 No more spirit remained in her She secretly left the Synagogue of Satan"
 (111:8-10). Satan dividing against Satan structurally parallels the dual
 form of Night VIII's opening Council/Beulah vision. The Synagogue (as
 part of the divided Satan) decides to "burn Mystery" at the behest of the
 suddenly intrusive "God [who] put it into their heart to fulfill all his will";
 though this seems to be an act of self-destruction, "The Ashes of Mystery
 began to animate" (111:20-22). While this event refers directly to the
 deceptive falling of Vala earlier into "a heap of Ashes" (28:5) as a result of
 Urizen's creation in Night II, it points ahead to another burning of Mys-
 tery in Night IX: "In the fierce flames the limbs of Mystery lay consum-
 ing" (119:1). In planting the seed of the possibility that these ashes may
 re-animate indefinitely, over and over again, as they have already done in
 both II and VIII, Blake ushers us into Night IX with frustrated hopes,
 indeterminate expectations, and unsteady judgments.


Residues of prior events
in Enion's speech near
the end of Night VIII




















Near the beginning of
Night VIII, Los and Eni-
tharmon claimed to see
or behold the Divine
Vision or the Lamb; near
the end, Los hears
Ahania's and Enion's
words which make the
dead Body of the Lamb
reappear.