Блейк-Словарь (Деймон)/Ахания

AHANIA, or Pleasure, is the Emanation of Urizen. The division of the two is caused by the fact that Urizen, the Abstract Philosopher, has yet to learn “that Enjoyment & not Abstinence is the food of Intellect” (To Cumberland, 6 Dec 1795). The original tale of their division and her casting out is told in The Book of Ahania (1795). Once she had rejoiced when Urizen returned in the evening, the sweat pouring from his temples, after his sowing the seed of eternal science in the human soul (5:28–36); but when Fuzon’s globe of wrath divided Urizen’s loins, she became a separate being (2:32). Urizen named her “Sin” and jealously hid her in darkness, where she became a faint shadow, the “mother of Pestilence” (2:43). The poem ends with her splendid lament. Blake suppressed The Book of Ahania and recast her tale in The Four Zoas (ii; iii; ix). She is Urizen’s “Shadowy Feminine Semblance” (ii:181). They have twelve sons (ii:173, 199), who are the signs of the Zodiac, and three daughters (ii:175, 189), who are the Head, Heart, and Loins (see URIZEN’S DAUGHTERS). But Urizen resents Ahania’s influence and does not take her to the nuptial feast of Los and Enitharmon; consequently, “Urizen with faded radiance sigh’d, forgetful of the flowing wine and of Ahania, his Pure Bride; but she was distant far” (i:436). When he is away, “Trembling, cold, in paling fears she sat, a shadow of Despair; therefore toward the West, Urizen form’d a recess in the wall for fires to glow upon the pale Female’s limbs in his absence” (ii:186). When he does return, “Astonish’d & Confounded he beheld her shadowy form now separate . . . Two wills they had, two intellects, & not as in times of old” (ii:203, 206). To divide them further, Los and Enitharmon contrive to let Ahania hear Enion’s lament and see her “Spectrous form . . . in the Void, and never from that moment could she rest upon her pillow” (ii:287–90, 383–84, 419, 423–24). Distressed at Urizen’s gloom, Ahania pleads with him: “Why wilt thou look upon futurity, dark’ning present joy?” (iii:11); he replies that he fears the birth of Orc, “ & that Prophetic boy must grow up to command his Prince” (iii:18). Ahania tells him to leave the future to the Eternal One, and recounts her vision of the Darkening Man worshipping his own shadow, and of the smiting of man by Luvah (iii:27–104). Urizen in fury casts her out. “Shall the feminine indolent bliss, the indulgent self of weariness, the passive idle sleep, the enormous night & darkness of Death set herself up to give her laws to the active masculine virtue? Thou little diminutive portion that dar’st be a counterpart [Emanation], thy passivity, thy laws of obedience & insincerity are my abhorrence. Wherefore hast thou taken that fair form? Whence is this power given to thee? Once thou wast in my breast a sluggish current of dim waters on whose verdant margin a cavern shagg’d with horrid shades, dark, cool & deadly, where I laid my head in the hot noon after the broken clods had wearied me; there I laid my plow, & there my horses fed: and thou hast risen with thy moist locks into a wat’ry image reflecting all my indolence, my weakness & my death, to weigh me down beneath the grave into non Entity” (iii:114). She falls “into the Caverns of the Grave & places of Human Seed where the impressions of Despair & Hope enroot for ever” (iii:142); there she wanders lamenting. Tharmas flees from her voice while she, with her eyes towards Urizen, bewails the state of the fallen Man (viii:487–532). But at the Last Judgment, once Urizen gives up his attempt to control the other Zoas and the future, he is instantly restored to his pristine glory, and Ahania returns, only to die of joy, for Urizen’s work is not yet done. He is to plow in the winter; then she shall awake every spring (ix:179–219). After the plowing, she rises like the harvest moon, and takes her place by Urizen at the feast(ix:344–53). When the Harvest and Vintage are done, she and the other three Emanations leave the feast and go to their looms. Other references in The Four Zoas: Enitharmon deceives Los by assuming Ahania’s form, then blames him for embracing her (ii:324, 328); Vala tells Tharmas that Enitharmon, Ahania, and Enion have hidden Luvah in the form of Orc (vii b:248). In Milton 19:41, Ahania, rent apart into a desolate night, laments. I n Jerusalem 14:10–12, Los sees the four Emanations; Ahania, Enion, and Vala (but not Enitharmon) are described as three evanescent shades.