LOOKING GLASS

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Enitharmon is said to be the spiritual dimension of man in the world of generation, as Jerusalem is in Eden. As such she is a reflection of  the real, true and permanent Eternal existence. Our world, although vegetated not humanised, is not disconnected from the Divine Providence. When we view a reflection the light does not come from the object we see but from the source which emanates its own light. The light in the vegetated world comes from the Eternal but not directly. It encounters matter, the watery world, where it is diminished but not extinguished. In this reflected, looking glass world there are distortions and loss of intensity and clarity.

But what we see dimly reflected deserves close attention. In the Marriage of Heaven & Hell we read: 'Eternity is in love with the productions of time'. If we reciprocate and are in love with Eternity, we will seek to be aware of every attempt Eternity makes to be revealed. The trick is look not at the glass but through to the reality.

Thel, Plate 1,(E 3)
"Ah! Thel is like a watry bow. and like a parting cloud.
Like a reflection in a glass. like shadows in the water."

Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 214) 
"Los knew not yet what was done: he thought it was all in Visions
In Visions of the Dreams of Beulah among the Daughters of Albion
Therefore the Murder was put apart in the Looking-Glass of Enitharmon

He saw in Vala's hand the Druid Knife of Revenge & the Poison Cup
Of Jealousy, and thought it a Poetic Vision of the Atmospheres   
Till Canaan rolld apart from Albion across the Rhine: along the Danube

And all the Land of Canaan suspended over the Valley of Cheviot
From Bashan to Tyre & from Troy to Gaza of the Amalekite
And Reuben fled with his head downwards among the Caverns"

Four Zoas, Page 129, (E 398)
"And on the rivers margin she [Enion] ungirded her golden girdle
She stood in the river & viewd herself within the watry glass
And her bright hair was wet with the waters She rose up from the river
And as she rose her Eyes were opend to the world of waters 
She saw Tharmas sitting upon the rocks beside the wavy sea"

Miscellaneous Poems, (E 415)
"Memory, hither come,
  And tune your merry notes;
And, while upon the wind,
  Your music floats,
I'll pore upon the stream,
Where sighing lovers dream,      
And fish for fancies as they pass
Within the watery glass.

I'll drink of the clear stream,
  And hear the linnet's song;      
And there I'll lie and dream
  The day along:
And, when night comes, I'll go
  To places fit for woe;
Walking along the darken'd valley,   
  With silent Melancholy."

Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 214)
"The Giants & the Witches & the Ghosts of Albion dance with
Thor & Friga, & the Fairies lead the Moon along the Valley of Cherubim
Bleeding in torrents from Mountain to Mountain, a lovely Victim  
And Jehovah stood in the Gates of the Victim, & he appeared
A weeping Infant in the Gates of Birth in the midst of Heaven

The Cities & Villages of Albion became Rock & Sand Unhumanized
The Druid Sons of Albion & the Heavens a Void around unfathomable
No Human Form but Sexual & a little weeping Infant pale reflected
Multitudinous in the Looking Glass of Enitharmon, on all sides
Around in the clouds of the Female, on Albions Cliffs of the Dead

Such the appearance in Cheviot: in the Divisions of Reuben
When the Cherubim hid their heads under their wings in deep
     slumbers
When the Druids demanded Chastity from Woman & all was lost."    

Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 555)
"This world of Imagination is the World of
Eternity it is the Divine bosom into which we shall all go after
the death of the Vegetated body   This World  is
Infinite & Eternal whereas the world of Generation or Vegetation
is Finite & [for a small moment] Temporal    There Exist
in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing
which we see are reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature" 

Corinthians I, 13:12
"At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!"