WEAVING

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Detail of Watercolor for Blair's The Grave
Our Time Is Fixed

To live in the world of time and space - the material world - a spirit or non-material being must be clothed in matter. This is the origin of the image of the garment. Man puts on the body or flesh as his clothing. Blake's first level of meaning for the garment is this outer encrustation covering the inner identity.

The process of receiving the garment of flesh in which the spirit is enclosed is intimated in this image. The body will be woven from the thread which descends from above. Enitharmon and her Daughters with infinite care weave the web of life to form the generated body as a habitation until the Great Judgment Day.

Milton, Plate 20 [28], (E 123)
"And every Generated Body in its inward form,
Is a garden of delight & a building of magnificence,
Built by the Sons of Los in Bowlahoola & Allamanda
And the herbs & flowers & furniture & beds & chambers
Continually woven in the Looms of Enitharmons Daughters
In bright Cathedrons golden Dome with care & love & tears"

Milton, Plate 29 [31], (E 128)
"But Enitharmon and her Daughters take the pleasant charge.
To give them to their lovely heavens till the Great Judgment Day
Such is their lovely charge.
Thus Nature is a Vision of the Science of the Elohim."

Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 229)
"As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever 

The Spectres of the Dead bowl round the porches of Los
In the terrible Family feuds of Albions cities & villages
To devour the Body of Albion, hungring & thirsting & ravning
The Sons of Los clothe them & feed, & provide houses & gardens
And every Human Vegetated Form in its inward recesses 
Is a house of pleasantness & a garden of delight Built by the
Sons & Daughters of Los in Bowlahoola & in Cathedron"

Jerusalem, Plate 84, (E 242)
"Listen to your Watchmans voice: sleep not before the Furnaces
Eternal Death stands at the door. O God pity our labours. 

So Los spoke. to the Daughters of Beulah while his Emanation
Like a faint rainbow waved before him in the awful gloom
Of London City on the Thames from Surrey Hills to Highgate:
Swift turn the silver spindles, & the golden weights play soft
And lulling harmonies beneath the Looms, from Caithness in the north 
To Lizard-point & Dover in the south: his Emanation 

Joy'd in the many weaving threads in bright Cathedrons Dome
Weaving the Web of life for Jerusalem. the Web of life
Down flowing into Entuthons Vales glistens with soft affections.".