51

From the supporting arms of the Eternal Saviour

who dispos'd

The pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality

Upon The Rock of Ages, Watching over him with Love

& Care.

CK. I. 461-468)

End of The First Night [first draft] -

The "Council of God" receive the messengers from Beulah, hear their account, and close "the Messengers in clouds around/Till the time of the End" (K. I. 552-553), or until re-unification with the infinite. Infinite being is seen as a flux between a "Multitude" and "One Man." Movement between these two forms of being is by contraction and expansion of the senses. As those in the infinite contract their senses, they contract into their individuality and "behold Multitude" (K. I. 471). As they expand, they merge their individualities into one, in "that One Man/They call Jesus the Christ" (K. I. 472-473):

Then those in Great Eternity met in the Council of

God

470 As one Man, for contracting their Exalted Senses

They behold Multitude, or Expanding they behold as

one,

As One Man all the Universal family; & that One Man They call Jesus the Christ, & they in him & he in

them

Live in Perfect harmony, in Eden the land of life,

475 Consulting as One Man above [Mount Gilead del.l the Mountain of Snowdon Sublime.

CK. 1. -469-475)

A distinction between Eden and Beulah is made by Blake. To summarize these two aspects of infinite being, Eden is associated with the 'day' of the infinite in which inclusion within Divine energy occurs, while Beulah is associated with the `night¹ of the infinite. Together, the cycle is one of "Days & nights of revolving joy" (K. I. 16).

The messengers from Beulah tell the Council that although Albion is asleep, his component energies are not: