Saturn
image credit:
https://www.moleiro.com/vista/estaticos/formateadas/moleiro.com-SS-4f635aa166264_6.jpg
To recapitulate the journey of our Divine Spark so far:
- Plate 1: The Divine Spark does not exist separate from the Divine.
- Plate 2: The Divine Spark exists as a Unity, Fire and Water (Soul and Spirit) united as Air and sent on a quest to learn about existence in the Material World. (Kether)
- Plate 3: The Divine Spark becomes aware of its Duality. (Chokmah)
- Plate 4: The Divine Spark discerns (separates) its Fire and Water. (Binah)
Plates 2-3-4 are the Trinity of Unity, Awareness, and Discernment. The Trinity of Unity, Awareness, and Discernment are mirrored in the first Plates of the Parables (“as above, so below”).
Plates 5-11 are the Solar Path, the Dry Path, the Path of Action, the Path of Sacrifice. This Path is intellectual, characterized by rational, reasonable thought, resulting in philosophers and sages. Herakles’ Labors (and the Zodiac) describe the Actions (Disciplines) that demonstrate the Virtues needed to purify the Dense (Material) Body. (And his later actions purified his Vital (Etheric) Body.)
Plates 12-18 are the Lunar Path, the Humid Path, the Path of Devotion, the Path of Love. This path is emotional, characterized by intuitive thought, resulting in prophets and mystics. Psyche’s Tasks (and the Planets) describe the Reconciliations that demonstrate the Processes needed to purify the Desire (Astral) Body.
The image Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer provides a scaffold to organize our exploration of the next set of Plates:
The Lion represents the Solar Path; the Phoenix represents the Lunar Path.
The Lion represents Leo; the Phoenix represents Scorpio.
Scorpio is the only Zodiac sign with three symbols: the Scorpion, the Eagle, and the Phoenix. The Scorpion represents dissolution. The Eagle represents transformation. The Phoenix represents purification.
The arrangement of planetary symbols around the chalice hints at the planets that must be reconciled, aligned to the two Laws described by Heindel in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception:
- Rebirth and Consequence (Saturn and Jupiter)
- Repulsion and Attraction (Mars and Venus)
The other two planets to be reconciled are the Sun and the Moon (Sulfur and Quicksilver). (The hermaphroditic philosophical Mercury is the solvent and does not need to be reconciled.)
(The Planets can also be viewed as representing the Elements and the Principles:
- Saturn as Water;
- Jupiter as Air;
- Mars as Fire;
- Venus as Earth;
- The Sun as Sulfur;
- The Moon as Quicksilver; and
- The Star (at the bottom of the image) as Salt.)
As the Trinity and the first two Plates of the Parables recapitulated Unity, Awareness, and Discernment, Plate 11 represents Unity, and the first two Plates of the Flasks recapitulate Discernment and Awareness (in opposite order, since the Solar and Lunar Paths are, in some ways, opposite each other).
Plate 12 starts with an image of Saturn in a chariot. (Note that Saturn’s staff does not have wings and does not have multiple ‘intersections’ of snakes; it is not the same as Hermes’ caduceus.) The wheels of the chariot have symbols of Aquarius and Capricorn, both signs of Saturn and both traveling in the same direction (so the Centers and the Vortices for Saturn are brought into alignment).
Later in the text (discussing Plate 19), the author of Splendor Solis states that “Dissolution is nothing but a killing of the moist with the dry, in fact a PUTREFACTION, and consequently turns the MATTER black.” Plate 12 is described with:
Firstly, a heat powerful enough to soften and melt these parts of the earth
that have become thick, hard and baked.
Plate 12 is replete with images of death: a gallows with a hanged man, a pig being slaughtered, a funeral procession, but also with rebirth: fields being tilled, an animal skin being skinned and tanned (so it can be used in a new way), and cripples receiving alms. Many of the people on the Plate are wearing black, and this card represents Putrefaction, the Nigredo stage of the Humid Path.
In the flask, a black liquid is being fed to the dragon (“the Spirit is added again to the Body”) and bellows, pointed at the dragon’s heart, encourage the internal fire to burn hotter.
As Herakles guided us on the Solar Path, Psyche guides us on the Lunar Path. Psyche is frequently pictured with wings like a butterfly, indicating that she has passed through both the caterpillar and chrysalis stage and has transformed into a butterfly, reminiscent of Scorpio’s transition of Scorpion to Eagle to Phoenix.
Psyche was youngest daughter of a King and Queen. Her beauty inspired pilgrims to pay homage to her (and the pilgrims in turn neglected to worship Aphrodite). Jealous of the attention Psyche received, Aphrodite instructed her son Eros to shoot Psyche with an arrow and cause her to “be seized with a burning passion for the lowest of making… someone so degraded that in all the world he can find no wretchedness to equal his own” (Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass by Apuleius). Intending to comply with his mother’s wishes, Eros accidentally wounded himself with his arrow and fell in love with Psyche.
They lived together happily (though Eros hid his identity from Psyche, only visiting her in the darkness of night), until Psyche’s jealous sisters convinced her to break her promise to Eros and attempt to look upon him using a lamp while he slept. Eros awoke and recognized her betrayal. He left her. Some translate his parting words as “love cannot live without trust” or “love cannot dwell with suspicion”. For our interpretation, I consider Psyche’s action to indicate a lack of faith.
Before she can reunite with Eros, Psyche must complete several tasks assigned to her by Aphrodite. The first task, the Sorting of the Grains, aligns with Plate 12. For this task, Aphrodite piled seeds into a dune, instructing Psyche to separate them (requiring discernment) into smaller piles of each type of seed. Psyche considered this task impossible, but a colony of ants took pity on her and separated the seeds for her.
This is the Nigredo phase of the Lunar Path. Psyche was ruled by her emotions. The Scorpion represents dissolution, and the text tells us that the heat of this stage is “powerful enough to soften and melt these parts of the earth that have become thick, hard and baked”. (During the Solar or Dry Path, the heat creates dry ashes; during the Lunar or Humid path, the heat melts and creates a liquid.)