29

The Spectre is still an aspect of Tharmas and acts in accordance

with Tharmas' primal impulse. In the series of actions that follow, the Spectre and Enion 'copulate^' in a grotesque parody of the harmonious interfusion of masculine and feminine energies in the infinite. This parody has two consequences: first, the fusion is Nature in the sense that their copulation fertilizes the first universe; second, the energies of Los and Enitharmon are transmitted into the womb of Enion to be born as time and space.

The fusion of the Spectre with Enion begins when she weaves Tharmas' finite energies into the "woof" of the Earth:

Wond'ring she saw her woof begin to animate, & not

As Garments woven subservient to her hands, but having

a will

85 Of its own, perverse & wayward. Enion lov'd & wept.

Nine days she labour'd at her work. & nine dark sleepless

nights;

But on the tenth [bright del.] trembling morm, the Circle

of Destiny complete.

Round roll'd the sea, Englobing in a wat'ry Globe, self

balanc'd.

A Frowning Continent appear'd where Enion in the desart,

90 Terrified in her own Creation, viewing her woven shadow,

Sat in a [sweet del.] dread intoxication of [false woven

bliss del.] [self woven sorrow del.]

Repentance & Contrition

[He spurn'd Enion with his foot; he sprang aloft in Clouds

Alighting in his drunken joy in a far distant Grove, del.l (K. I. 83-93)

If the emendations are considered, it appears that Blake originally intended Enion to be in a psychological state of delusive ecstasy. The tenth morning was "bright," and she was in a "sweet" state of "false woven bliss" [second reading "self woven sorrow"). The concept of sorrow proved to be Blake's final version, for finally it is in a state of "dread intoxication of Repentance & Contrition" that Enion works. The later emendations anticipate Enion's future existence on the "margin of Non Entity" (K. II. 422).