CIRCUMFERENCE

Wikipedia Commons

Europe a Prophecy

Frontispiece

Energy is from the body - Tharmas. The outward circumference of Energy is reason - Urizen.

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 4, (E 34) 

"2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is
the bound or outward circumference of Energy."

In The Blake Dictionary Damon tells us that in Great Eternity the West or the Circumference is the outward body - Tharmas; the Zenith is the Head - Urizen; the Nadir is the depths within - Urthona: and the Center is the heart - Luvah.

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 156)

"And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,               
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North." 

The Four Zoas exist in each human. The complexity in each Zoa gives rise to dual perspectives for viewing our world. Externally events have one meaning, whereas Internally the meaning is different. Seen from the perspective of Vala all is material; from the perspective of Jerusalem all is spiritual.  

Jerusalem, Plate 18,(E 162)

"From every-one of the Four Regions of Human Majesty,
There is an Outside spread Without, & an Outside spread Within
Beyond the Outline of Identity both ways, which meet in One:
An orbed Void of doubt, despair, hunger, & thirst & sorrow.
Here the Twelve Sons of Albion, join'd in dark Assembly,         
Jealous of Jerusalems children, asham'd of her little-ones
(For Vala produc'd the Bodies. Jerusalem gave the Souls)" 

The process of closing the circumference darkens the center. When the individual loses the cohesiveness which the body provides he becomes subject to the whims of the emotions. Love and jealousy begin to dominate, making wholeness difficult to maintain.

Jerusalem, Plate 19,(E 164)

"Willing the Friends endur'd, for Albions sake, and for
Jerusalem his Emanation shut within his bosom;
Which hardend against them more and more; as he builded onwards  
On the Gulph of Death in self-righteousness, that roll'd
Before his awful feet, in pride of virtue for victory:
And Los was roofd in from Eternity in Albions Cliffs
Which stand upon the ends of Beulah, and withoutside, all
Appear'd a rocky form against the Divine Humanity. 

Albions Circumference was clos'd: his Center began darkning
Into the Night of Beulah, and the Moon of Beulah rose
Clouded with storms: Los his strong Guard walkd round beneath the Moon
And Albion fled inward among the currents of his rivers."

Within man is his sanctuary, his inner life, which is uncovered when Jesus rends the veil of dominance by moral law.  

Jerusalem, Plate 69, (E 223) 

"Hence the Infernal Veil grows in the disobedient Female:
Which Jesus rends & the whole Druid Law removes away
From the Inner Sanctuary: a False Holiness hid within the Center,
For the Sanctuary of Eden. is in the Camp: in the Outline,
In the Circumference: & every Minute Particular is Holy:
Embraces are Cominglings: from the Head even to the Feet;
And not a pompous High Priest entering by a Secret Place.

Jerusalem pined in her inmost soul over Wandering Reuben         
As she slept in Beulahs Night hid by the Daughters of Beulah" 

When Albion turns away from the Divine Vision, he turns outward to his selfish center, his emanative life. Damon calls Albion's Sons his affections or the States of his Center.

Jerusalem , Plate 71, (E 224) 

"As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalems Sons,
Are to the Sons of Albion: and Jerusalem is Albions Emanation    

What is Above is Within, for every-thing in Eternity is translucent:
The Circumference is Within: Without, is formed the Selfish Center
And the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.
And the Center has Eternal States! these States we now explore."

Unity within the lineaments of man is achieved when the four senses are joined within the circumference to experience forgiveness of sins and self annihilation.  

Jerusalem, Plate 98,(E 257)

"South stood the Nerves of the Eye. East in Rivers of bliss the Nerves of the
Expansive Nostrils West, flowd the Parent Sense the Tongue. North stood
The labyrinthine Ear. Circumscribing & Circumcising the excrementitious
Husk & Covering into Vacuum evaporating revealing the lineaments of Man
Driving outward the Body of Death in an Eternal Death & Resurrection   
Awaking it to Life among the Flowers of Beulah rejoicing in Unity
In the Four Senses in the Outline the Circumference & Form, for ever
In Forgiveness of Sins which is Self Annihilation. it is the Covenant of Jehovah"

---

Annotations to Swedenborg, (E 604)

"Swedenborg - ... But he who knows how to elevate his Mind above
the Ideas of Thought which are derived from Space and Time, such
a Man passes from Darkness to Light, and becomes wise in Things
spiritual and Divine . . . and then by Virtue of that Light he
shakes off the Darkness of natural Light, and removes its
Fallacies from the Center to the Circumference. 

Blake - When the fallacies of darkness are in the circumference they
cast a bound about the infinite" 

READING SYMBOLS