The Second Parable
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Its power is perfected.
The Emerald Tablet
Geburah (Strength)
The text specifies that the scene depicted on Plate 6 occurs at Daybreak. The Initiate, in Nigredo, stands on the seventh and sixth rung of a ladder leaning on a tree. A crown surrounds the trunk of the tree at its base. It appears that the Initiate is stepping down the ladder, in order to hand a stem to one of the men standing below.
Birds are taking flight from the tree, except for one large black bird with a white head. The text refers to this bird as the Ravenhead, which “became white” (so Nigredo passing to the Albedo stage).
The scene below is of women bathing, with a Citrinitas woman and a Rubedo woman waiting on them, holding the Nigredo clothing of the bathers.
The stem alludes to the fable The Aeneid’s “The Golden Bough”, written by the Roman poet Virgil. (Interestingly, the stem in the Parable is described as silver, but in the Descriptions of the Splendor Solis Pictures chapter later in the text, the plate is described as containing “a Tree with Golden branches and fruit.”)
Aeneas, a hero of the Trojan War, was told by the oracle Sibyl of Cumae that he needed to visit the Underworld to speak with the spirit of his dead father. In order to travel through the Underworld safely, he needed a Golden Bough (branch).
Said Sibyl of Cumae:
Hidden in a dark tree is a golden bough, golden in leaves and pliant stem, sacred to Persephone, the underworld’s Juno, all the groves shroud it, and shadows enclose the secret valleys. But only one who’s taken a gold-leaved fruit from the tree is allowed to enter earth’s hidden places.
The Aeneid Book VI by Virgil, translated by A.S. Kline
Aeneas was led to an oak tree with a branch of golden leaves by a pair of doves. He obtains the Golden Bough and uses it to visit the spirit of his father in the Underworld. His father, Anchises, tells him of the transmigration of souls and then of Aeneas’ descendants, who will become the Alban Kings (eventually founding Rome). (Alban from albus, meaning white or fair.) Then his father led him through the Gates of Sleep, and Aeneas returns to “the air above”.
In The Cosmic Doctrine, Fortune describes sleep as one type of death. Aeneas, by visiting the Underworld, “dies” and is then reborn, changing from nigredo to albedo.
Though The Other Parable doesn’t specifically mention mistletoe (which The Aeneid’s Golden Bough does), it does refer to the tree as having three kinds of Fruit. The first fruits are Pearls; this could refer to the fruit of the mistletoe, which are little white spherical berries. The second fruits are Terra Foliata, which translates to ‘leafy land’, so this could refer to mistletoe being evergreen. The third fruit is the purest Gold, which could refer to mistletoe turning slightly yellow during the winter months. I suspect, though, that this section is referring to descriptions of physical alchemy.
Potash contains potassium salts. Historically, potash was made by soaking wood ash in water (and the potassium would leach out, forming lye). If potash was baked in a kiln, it would produce pearlash, the first fruits. The salt (acetite) of potash was referred to is Terra foliate tartari, the second fruit. This albedo stage is the silver condition, which is why The Other Parable and Plate 6 refer to a silver stem, rather than the golden bough of The Aeneid. But soaking the wood ash in water to leach out the salt (dissolution, Solve) explains why the image of women bathing is included at the bottom of the plate.
Zeus (the Wind of The Emerald Tablet) was Herakles’ father; Alcmene (the Nurse) was Herakles’mother.
Herakles, as a young adult, was given the choice of two paths, usually described as Virtue and Vice. Oswald, in The Tarot of the Magicians, reframes the choice as being between Virtue [of the Soul, the Astral Body] and Sensuality [of the Material Body]. I prefer seeing the dichotomy as between the torment of Ignorance (of God) and the power of Gnosis (Knowledge of God). Ignorance is the vice of the Soul; Gnosis is the virtue of the Soul. (Corpus Hermeticum)
Interestingly, the Choice of Herakles is often referred to as the Judgment of Herakles. He discerned his options, judged them, made a choice, followed a path (and completed the Labors), and became a Hierophant. (The Tarot Trump card Judgment connects Malkuth with Hod, Hod being associated with Hermes the Hierophant.)