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38 245 They wander'd long, till they sat down upon the margin'd sea, Conversing with the visions of Beulah in dark slumbrous bliss. [Nine years they view the living spheres. Reading the Visions of Beulah del.] (K. I. 245-247) The imagery of the "margin'd sea" (the limits of Tharmas) and the "dark slumbrous bliss" symbolize the fallen context for their freedom of discourse. Significantly, they can only converse with "the visions of Beulah," for now direct communication with the Divine is sealed off their visionary relationship must become like that of sleepers to a dream. A choric dialogue between Los and Enitharmon follows their stay in the "Moony spaces of Ona del.] Eno." Enitharmon's song of the fall is the first of several, and it is important to note that each version given is from the perspective of a component energy; consequently, each version is coloured by the perceptual focus of the teller. Enitharmon's fierce virginity colours her version of the fall with perverse self-gratification. Los responds with a prophetic vision of the future; Christ's intervention, and the apocalypse of Night the Ninth. The vision of Los balances that of Enitharmon*s in the sense that he speaks of the 'future', or the cycle of salvation to come, while she speaks of the 'past', or the immediate cause of the cycle. Enitharmon selfishly enjoys her fallen state of being, so she calls Urizen down to impose his perceptual limits upon Los and thereby sustain her perverse joy. The perversity dividing Los/Apollo and Enitharmon/ Artemis has its source in the anguished copulation of the Spectre of Tharmas and Enion. Nourished by Enion's spectrous energies, the relationship matures when Los and Enitharmon descend to be stimulated by Luvah and Vala's suffering: |