The Chebar Flood

By the Rivers of Babylon . . . .

There Babylon is builded in the Waste, founded in Human desolation.
O Babylon thy Watchman stands over thee in the night
Thy severe Judge all the day long proves thee O Babylon
With provings of destruction, with giving thee thy hearts desire.
But Albion is cast forth to the Potter his Children to the Builders
To build Babylon because they have forsaken Jerusalem
The Walls of Babylon are Souls of Men: her Gates the Groans
Of Nations: her Towers are the Miseries of once happy Families.
Her Streets are paved with Destruction, her Houses built with Death
Her Palaces with Hell & the Grave; her Synagogues with Torments
Of ever-hardening Despair squard & polishd with cruel skill
(William Blake, Jerusalem 24:17-35)

The White House

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
(Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence)

Hanging Gardens of Bablyon 1

In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, when I was in the community of exiles by the Chebar Canal, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month -- it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin -- the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, by the Chebar Canal, in the land of the Chaldeans. And the hand of the Lord came upon him there

I looked, and lo, a stormy wind came sweeping out of the north -- a huge cloud and flashing fire, surrounded by radiance; and in the center of it, in the center of the fire, a gleam as of amber. In the center of it were also the figures of four creatures. And this was their appearance . . . .
(Ez 1:1-5)

Hanging Gardens of Babylon 2

See, see the Chariot and those rushing wheels
That whirl'd the Prophet up at Chebar flood;
My spirit some transporting Cherub feels,
To bear me where the Towers of Salem stood,
Once glorious Towers, now sunk in guiltless blood;
There doth my soul in holy vision sit,
In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatic fit.
Milton, "The Passion" 36-42

	Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wanders far away, Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.
Fourfold the Sons of Los in their divisions: and fourfold, The great City of Golgonooza: fourfold toward the north And toward the south fourfold, & fourfold toward the east & west Each within other toward the four points: that toward Eden, and that toward the World of Generation, And that toward Beulah, and that toward Ulro: Ulro is the space of the terrible starry wheels of Albions sons: But that toward Eden is walled up, till time of renovation: Yet it is perfect in its building, ornaments & perfection.		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. Blake, Jerusalem 12:43-60

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In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, when I was in the community of exiles by the Chebar Canal, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month -- it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin -- the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, by the Chebar Canal, in the land of the Chaldeans. And the hand of the Lord came upon him there I looked, and lo, a stormy wind came sweeping out of the north -- a huge cloud and flashing fire, surrounded by radiance; and in the center of it, in the center of the fire, a gleam as of amber. In the center of it were also the figures of four creatures. And this was their appearance . . . . (Ez 1:1-5)