4z1

These posts are indebted to Harold Bloom for an essay published in Northrup Frye's Blake, "A Collection of Critical Essays and this one, Night One, to pages 104-07.

The usual sequence of the four zoas might be Urizen - Luvah - Los - Tharmas, but the poem begins with Tharmas:

"Begin with Tharmas Parent power. darkning in the West
Lost! Lost! Lost! are my Emanations Enion O Enion
We are become a Victim to the Living We hide in secret
I have hidden Jerusalem in Silent Contrition O Pity Me
I will build thee a Labyrinth also O pity me O Enion"

Here is the beginning of an account of Tharmas' separation from his emanation, Enion.  Enion is described as the 'Earth Mother', and she embodies original 'woman' who appears when Tharmas is resting in Beulah; she has the typical attributes of a jealous wife who continually adds to the distance that exists in every human relationship. (Tharmas' and Enion's 'marriage' was certainly not made in Heaven.)

(The separation of Tharmas and Enion is told in great length as the poem goes on and led to the veritable opening of the Gate to Hell for Mankind.) 

Bloom invites us to look at this passage in Tharmas' complaint to Enion (in page 301 of Erdman):

"[Trembling & pale sat Tharmas weeping in his clouds]

Why wilt thou Examine every little fibre of my soul
Spreading them out before the Sun like Stalks of flax to dry     
The infant joy is beautiful but its anatomy
Horrible Ghast & Deadly nought shalt thou find in it
But Death Despair & Everlasting brooding Melancholy

Thou wilt go mad with horror if thou dost Examine thus
Every moment of my secret hours Yea I know                       
That I have sinnd & that my Emanations are become harlots
I am already distracted at their deeds & if I look
Upon them more Despair will bring self murder on my soul
O Enion thou art thyself a root growing in hell
Tho thus heavenly beautiful to draw me to destruction"   

His jealous Enion has obviously put considerable pressure on her 'husband';
she showed extreme anger and virtually withdrew from the relationship. -- an
example of the paradigm, 'woman's love'. (Tharmas is in the doghouse.)
Here is the consequence of Enion's separation from her Tharmas:

"A Frowning Continent appeard Where Enion in the Desart
Terrified in her own Creation viewing her woven shadow
Sat in a dread intoxication of Repentance & Contrition     

There is from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant rest
Namd Beulah a Soft Moony Universe feminine lovely 
Pure mild & Gentle given in Mercy to those who sleep
Eternally. Created by the Lamb of God around
On all sides within & without the Universal Man
The Daughters of Beulah follow sleepers in all their Dreams
Creating Spaces lest they fall into Eternal Death                

The Circle of Destiny complete they gave to it a Space
And namd the Space Ulro & brooded over it in care & love
They said The Spectre is in every man insane & most
Deformd     Thro the three heavens descending in fury & fire
We meet it with our Songs & loving blandishments & give          
To it a form of vegetation But this Spectre of Tharmas
Is Eternal Death What shall we do O God pity & help             
So spoke they & closd the Gate of the Tongue in trembling fear  

What have I done! said Enion accursed wretch! What deed.        
Is this a deed of Love I know what I have done. I know
Too late now to repent. Love is changd to deadly Hate           
A [ll] life is blotted out & I alone remain possessd
     with Fears"      (Erdman 302)

How many distraught divorces do you know whose inner feelings might be well described above.