The First Parable
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The wind bore it in the womb.
Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection.
The Emerald Tablet
Chesed (Mercy)
The First Parable describes how the heat of the Sun penetrated the Earth, creating a “damp heat”. This damp heat grew and caused “hills and dales” (mountains and valleys). The presence of hills and dales indicate that the Earth there has matured and has a perfect mixture of “heat and cold, moisture and dryness [the principles of Aristotle’s Elements], and there the best ores may be found.”
These ores are Philosophers’ Mercury (“watery vapours with a pure, subtle earthy substance”) and Philosophers’ Sulphur (“a fiery, earthy and subtle hardness”). The image (Plate 5) associated with this parable shows two miners, one dressed in gray (silver) and one dressed in khaki (gold), digging for the ores used to create the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Sun and the Moon from Plate 4, the Gold and the Silver, have separated and formed a Tetrad. This is an image of dualities: the Sun shines on the left; rain falls on the right. The Sun is above in the sky; the Moon is below in the water.
The scene below pictures Hasveros and Esthes, which Mythcrafts describes here.
The Wind of the Emerald Tablet is Zeus; the Nurse is Alcmene, whose name means “Strength of the Moon”.