Plate 90

They become One with the Antichrist & are absorbd in him

PLATE 90

The Feminine separates from the Masculine & both from Man,

Ceasing to be His Emanations, Life to Themselves assuming!

And while they circumscribe his Brain, & while they circumscribe

His Heart, & while they circumscribe his Loins! a Veil & Net

Of Veins of red Blood grows around them like a scarlet robe.   

Covering them from the sight of Man like the woven Veil of Sleep

Such as the Flowers of Beulah weave to be their Funeral Mantles

But dark! opake! tender to touch, & painful! & agonizing

To the embrace of love, & to the mingling of soft fibres

Of tender affection. that no more the Masculine mingles       

With the Feminine. but the Sublime is shut out from the Pathos

In howling torment, to build stone walls of separation,

    compelling

The Pathos, to weave curtains of hiding secresy from the torment.

Bowen & Conwenna stood on Skiddaw cutting the Fibres

Of Benjamin from Chesters River: loud the River; loud the Mersey

And the Ribble. thunder into the Irish sea, as the Twelve Sons

Of Albion drank & imbibed the Life & eternal Form of Luvah

Cheshire & Lancashire & Westmoreland groan in anguish

As they cut the fibres from the Rivers he sears them with hot

Iron of his Forge & fixes them into Bones of chalk & Rock     

Conwenna sat above: with solemn cadences she drew

Fibres of life out from the Bones into her golden Loom

Hand had his Furnace on Highgates heights & it reachd

to Brockley Hills across the Thames: he with double Boadicea

In cruel pride cut Reuben apart from the Hills of Surrey      

Comingling with Luvah & with the Sepulcher of Luvah

For the Male is a Furnace of beryll: the Female is a golden Loom

Los cries: No Individual ought to appropriate to Himself

Or to his Emanation, any of the Universal Characteristics

Of David or of Eve, of the Woman, or of the Lord.           

Of Reuben or of Benjamin, of Joseph or Judah or Levi

Those who dare appropriate to themselves Universal Attributes

Are the Blasphemous Selfhoods & must be broken asunder

A Vegetated Christ & a Virgin Eve, are the Hermaphroditic

Blasphemy, by his Maternal Birth he is that Evil-One         

And his Maternal Humanity must be put off Eternally

Lest the Sexual Generation swallow up Regeneration

Come Lord Jesus take on thee the Satanic Body of Holiness

So Los cried in the Valleys of Middlesex in the Spirit of

    Prophecy

While in Selfhood Hand & Hyle & Bowen & Skofeld appropriate    

The Divine Names: seeking to Vegetate the Divine Vision

In a corporeal & ever dying Vegetation & Corruption

Mingling with Luvah in One. they become One Great Satan

Loud scream the Daughters of Albion beneath the Tongs & Hammer

Dolorous are their lamentations in the burning Forge         

They drink Reuben & Benjamin as the iron drinks the fire

They are red hot with cruelty: raving along the Banks of Thames

And on Tyburns Brook among the howling Victims in loveliness

While Hand & Hyle condense the Little-ones & erect them into

A mighty Temple even to the stars: but they Vegetate         

Beneath Los's Hammer, that Life may not be blotted out.

For Los said: When the Individual appropriates Universality

He divides into Male & Female: & when the Male & Female,

Appropriate Individuality, they become an Eternal Death.

Hermaphroditic worshippers of a God of cruelty & law!        

Your Slaves & Captives; you compell to worship a God of Mercy.

These are the Demonstrations of Los, & the blows of my mighty

    Hammer

Plate 90

So Los spoke. And the Giants of Albion terrified & ashamed      

With Los's thunderous Words, began to build trembling rocking

    Stones

For his Words roll in thunders & lightnings among the Temples   

Terrified rocking to & fro upon the earth, & sometimes

Resting in a Circle in Maiden or in Strathness or Dura.

Plotting to devour Albion & Los the friend of Albion

Denying in private: mocking God & Eternal Life: & in Public

Collusion, calling themselves Deists, Worshipping the Maternal  

Humanity; calling it Nature, and Natural Religion

But still the thunder of Los peals loud & thus the thunder's cry                                                        

These beautiful Witchcrafts of Albion, are gratifyd by Cruelty

(Erdman 249 -51)

Notes:  

Bowen: a son of Albion; thought to be connected with Blake’s trial (Damon 56)

Conwenna: a daughter of Albion, who in this case stands for Vala.

Skiddaw: 

The third largest mountain in England; in the Lake District of NE England 

The Chester, the Mersey and the Ribble are three rivers in Western England, emptying into the Irish Sea.

For the Male is a Furnace of beryll: the Female is a golden Loom

Los’ furnace shapes the ‘structures’  into Bones of chalk & Rock while Conwenna’s ‘Golden Loom’ gives them a human (material) form.


So Los cried in the Valleys of Middlesex in the Spirit of

    Prophecy

While in Selfhood Hand & Hyle & Bowen & Skofeld appropriate    

The Divine Names: seeking to Vegetate the Divine Vision

This is the whole deal:

The ‘spirit of Prophecy' is the proclamation of Eternity while all of Blake’s favorite enemies try to vegetate it.

Middlesex is the area most sacred to Blake.

(Did he put that in after meeting the Shoreham Ancients?)