ENO

British Museum
Book of Los
Plate 1

There is a resemblance between the image of the woman on the final plate of Gates of Paradise and the figure on the Frontispiece of the Book of Los. The speech of this Aged Mother, identified as Eno, pours forth the account of creation from Los' perspective up to the point when the Human Illusion is completed. 


The First Night of the Four Zoas identifies the book as the 'Song of the Aged Mother' through which there will be accounts of Intellectual Battle. In the Four Zoas  Eno is given the role of giving extension to time and space to provide the field of action in which the drama of the created world might take place.


In Jerusalem it is the Aged Mother who becomes the expression of all of the forces which support and enable Jerusalem (man's spiritual dimension) as she becomes discernible in the mind of the awakened being.


As indicated in Plate 18 of Gates of Paradise the Aged Mother has been present along every stage of the process of development. She functions not as the director or as an actor but as the stage manager who sets the scene and co-ordinates the action.  

Book of Los, Plate 3, (E 90)                        
"1: Eno aged Mother,
Who the chariot of Leutha guides,
 Since the day of thunders in old time
              
2: Sitting beneath the eternal Oak
Trembled and shook the stedfast Earth                 
And thus her speech broke forth.
...
Plate 5
8: But no light, for the Deep fled away
On all sides, and left an unform'd
Dark vacuity: here Urizen lay                        
In fierce torments oil his glowing bed

9: Till his Brain in a rock, & his Heart
In a fleshy slough formed four rivers
Obscuring the immense Orb of fire
Flowing down into night: till a Form            
Was completed, a Human Illusion
In darkness and deep clouds involvd."

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 3. (E 300)                     
"The Song of the Aged Mother which shook the heavens with wrath 
Hearing the march of long resounding strong heroic Verse
Marshalld in order for the day of Intellectual Battle"

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 9, (E 304)
"Then Eno a daughter of Beulah took a Moment of Time            
And drew it out to Seven thousand years with much care &
     affliction                                                
And many tears & in Every year made windows into Eden          

She also took an atom of space & opend its center
Into Infinitude & ornamented it with wondrous art
Astonishd sat her Sisters of Beulah to see her soft affections
To Enion & her children & they ponderd these things wondring     
And they Alternate kept watch over the Youthful terrors
They saw not yet the Hand Divine for it was not yet reveald
But they went on in Silent Hope & Feminine repose
But Los & Enitharmon delighted in the Moony spaces of Eno"    

Jerusalem, Plate 48, (E 196)
"Beneath the bottoms of the Graves, which is Earths central joint,
There is a place where Contrarieties are equally true:
(To protect from the Giant blows in the sports of intellect,     
Thunder in the midst of kindness, & love that kills its beloved:
Because Death is for a period, and they renew tenfold.)
From this sweet Place Maternal Love awoke Jerusalem

With pangs she forsook Beulah's pleasant lovely shadowy Universe
Where no dispute can come; created for those who Sleep.          

Weeping was in all Beulah, and all the Daughters of Beulah
Wept for their Sister the Daughter of Albion, Jerusalem:
When out of Beulah the Emanation of the Sleeper descended
With solemn mourning out of Beulahs moony shades and hills:
Within the Human Heart, whose Gates closed with solemn sound.   

And this the manner of the terrible Separation
The Emanations of the grievously afflicted Friends of Albion
Concenter in one Female form an Aged pensive Woman.
Astonish'd! lovely! embracing the sublime shade: the Daughters of Beulah
Beheld her with wonder! With awful hands she took                
A Moment of Time, drawing it out with many tears & afflictions
...
trembling the Daughters of Beulah dried
Her tears. she ardent embrac'd her sorrows. occupied in labours  
Of sublime mercy in Rephaims Vale. Perusing Albions Tomb
She sat: she walk'd among the ornaments solemn mourning.
The Daughters attended her shudderings, wiping the death sweat
Los also saw her in his seventh Furnace, he also terrified
Saw the finger of God go forth upon his seventh Furnace:         
Away from the Starry Wheels to prepare Jerusalem a place.
When with a dreadful groan the Emanation mild of Albion.
Burst from his bosom in the Tomb like a pale snowy cloud,
Female and lovely, struggling to put off the Human form
Writhing in pain. The Daughters of Beulah in kind arms reciev'd  
Jerusalem: weeping over her among the Spaces of Erin,
In the Ends of Beulah, where the Dead wail night & day." 

John 14 
[1] "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. 
[2] In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 
[3] And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 
[4] And you know the way where I am going." 
[5] Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" 
[6] Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. 
[7] If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him."