The Sixth Parable
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For this by its fortitude snatches the palm from all other fortitude and power.
For it is able to penetrate and subdue
everything subtle and everything crude and hard.
By this means the world was founded.
The Emerald Tablet
Yesod (Foundation)
Lords of Mind
The Sixth Parable describes a ‘murderer’ and his victim. The murderer has a “black and cruel countenance” and a double-edge sword; the victim’s dismembered body is white like Salt. Salt is the alchemical element associated with the Body. This Body is in five pieces, reminding us that a “good man” can be represented by a pentagram.
Though the text describes the murderer’s countenance as black, it closely resembles the color surrounding the black frame of the image in the middle of the disk on Plate 9. On Plate 9, that color represented the Mind. Remember back on Plate 8, that the Initiate needed to separate the Dense (Physical) Body from the Vital (Etheric) Body “prudently, with modesty and wisdom”? Prudently implies that the Initiate should separate the two bodies with his Mind. A common symbol for the Mind (or Air) is the sword. The text points out that this sword is double-edged, implying that the sword has a double purpose—connecting and disconnecting.
The strength of Mind (fortitude) has disconnected the Soul (the golden head) from the Body.
When Herakles arrived in Olympus, Hera “became” his mother, by acting out a scene of giving birth to him. Herakles died (by Zeus’ thunderbolt) and was reborn (by Hera) as immortal, joining the gods of Olympus.