Saturday, May 17, 2014

Enion


Enion
Enion is an Emanation/mate of Tharmas, one of the four Zoas
who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. 
She represents sexuality and sexual urges while Tharmas represents sensation. 
In her fallen aspect, she is a wailing woman that is filled with jealousy. 
After the Final Judgment, she is reunited with Tharmas and able to experience 
an idealised sexual union.
(wikipedia)
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Why does the Raven cry aloud and no one pities her?
 Enion blind & age-bent wept upon the desolate wind:
Why fall the Sparrow & the Robin in the foodless winter?
Faint! shivering they sit on leafless bush, or frozen stone

Wearied with seeking food across the snowy waste; the little
Heart, cold; and the little tongue consum'd, that once in thoughtless joy
Gave songs of gratitude to waving corn fields round their nest.

Why howl the Lion & the Wolf? why do they roam abroad?
Deluded by summers heat they sport in enormous love
And cast their young out to the hungry wilds & sandy desarts

Why is the Sheep given to the knife? the Lamb plays in the Sun
He starts! he hears the foot of Man! he says, Take thou my wool
But spare my life, but he knows not that winter cometh fast.

The Spider sits in his labourd Web, eager watching for the Fly
Presently comes a famishd Bird & takes away the Spider
His Web is left all desolate, that his little anxious heart
So careful wove; & spread it out with sighs and weariness.

This was the Lamentation of Enion round the golden Feast
Eternity groand and was troubled at the image of Eternal Death.
(Four Zoas 1-17.2-18.9; E310)
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What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song 
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price 
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children 
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy 
And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain 

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage to sing on the waggon loaded with corn 
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan
To see a god on every wind & a blessing on every blast
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, & the sickness that cuts off his children
While our olive & vine sing & laugh round our door & our children
       bring fruits & flowers

Then the groan & the dolor are quite forgotten & the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains & the poor in the prison, & the soldier in the field
When the shatterd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me! 
 (Four Zoas 2-35.11-36.13 325)

 The emanation of Tharmas, Enion, is called Earth Mother.
She is noted for her complaints against cold cruel nature:
why does the Raven cry aloud and no eye pities her?
This of course is a complaint against blind nature, "red of tooth and claw";
but here's another more pointed complaint against social immorality,
where the economic world too often emulates the natural one,
which is to say there is no spirit evident in the world (that'sUlro).

If nothing else Blake demonstrates here his power as a social prophet.
Was it any more appropriate for his age than it is for ours?

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