The Fourth Parable
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Separate the earth from the fire,
the subtle and thin from the crude and coarse,
prudently, with modesty and wisdom.
The Emerald Tablet
Netzach (Victory)
Lords of Flame
The Plate shows a man, mostly black from Calcination. His left arm is white (Albedo) and his right arm is red (Rubedo). The man has purified his Body (Nigredo to Albedo to Rubedo) and is receiving a garment of purple (a mixture of red and blue, Fire and Water) from a woman with wings of white peacock feathers and wearing a golden crown topped with a silver star. She takes the man with her to Heaven (separating the earth from the fire).
The Fourth Parable describes the Dissolution of the body:
The Spirit dissolves the body, and in the Dissolution extracts the Soul of the Body, and changes this body into Soul, and the Soul is changed into Spirit, and the Spirit is added again to the Body, for thus it has stability.
To make sense of this, we need a better understanding of the Spirit and the Soul than what is given in the vocabulary page. Max Heindel, in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, explains the involution and evolution of Spirit, but using a different vocabulary than I learned while studying The Cosmic Doctrine. During the first stage, the Divine Spirit emanates the Dense (Physical) Body. During the second stage, the Life Spirit emanates the Vital (Etheric) Body. During the third stage, the Human Spirit emanates the Desire (Astral) body. (The Human Spirit is also the Mind and the Imagination.)
Heindel describes that the three Bodies (Dense/Physical, Vital/Etheric, Desire/Astral) create three Souls (Conscious, Intellectual, and Emotional). But later, he describes the Desire/Astral Body as separating into two parts, the higher part being a “master over the lower part and over the dense and vital bodies”, forming “a sort of animal-soul with which the spirit could unite by means of the link of mind.” This reminds me of the “Higher Self” (the Soul, or Individuality) and the “Lower Self”.
(This could be mapped onto the Tree of Life with the Higher Self (Soul) being at Tiphareth and the Lower Self being at Yesod. And the Mind is currently at Hod, but when the Mental Body is fully formed, that would be at Tiphareth.)
Oswald Wirth, in The Tarot of the Magicians, has a different anatomy for the Bodies, Spirits, and Souls. One of his organizational diagrams is useful in understanding the Dissolution of the body, described in Splendor Solis.
| Spirit of the Spirit | Spirit of the Soul | Spirit of the Body |
| Soul of the Spirit | Soul of the Soul | Soul of the Body |
| Body of the Spirit | Body of the Soul | Body of the Body |
Mapping Heindel’s Spirits and Bodies onto Wirth’s chart gives us this progression:
Fire Stage: Divine Spirit emanates Dense (Physical) Body
The Divine Spirit is Spirit of the Spirit.
The Dense (Physical Body) is Body of the Body.
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | ||
| Soul | |||
| Body | Dense Body |
Air Stage: Life Spirit emanates Vital (Etheric) Body
The Life Spirit is the Body of the Spirit.
The Vital (Etheric) Body is the Body of the Soul
(because the Soul will be in the Vital (Etheric) Body).
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | ||
| Soul | |||
| Body | Life Spirit | Vital Body | Dense Body |
Water Stage: Human Spirit emanates the Desire (Astral) Body.
The Human Spirit is Soul of the Spirit.
Humans have to purify and then reunite their Soul to their Spirit,
just as the Divine wants to purify the Human Spirit and
then reunite the Human Spirit with the Divine Spirit.
The Desire (Astral) Body is the Spirit of the Soul
because the Astral Body will ‘create’ the Soul reminiscent
of how the Divine Spirit created the Human Spirit.
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | Desire Body | |
| Soul | Human Spirit (Mind) | ||
| Body | Life Spirit | Vital Body | Dense Body |
Earth Stage: Desire (Astral) Body separates into Higher Self (Soul/Individuality) and Lower Self (Personality).
The Higher Self (Individuality) is the Spirit of the Body.
The Lower Self (Personality) is the Soul of the Body.
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | Desire Body | Soul (Individuality) |
| Soul | Human Spirit | Soul (Personality) | |
| Body | Life Spirit | Vital Body | Dense Body |
Aether Stage: The Mind emanates the Mental Body.
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | Desire Body | Soul (Individuality) |
| Soul | Human Spirit | Mental Body (eventually) | Soul (Personality) |
| Body | Life Spirit | Vital Body | Dense Body |
Before we dissect (solve? 😉 ) the description of Dissolution of the body, one more piece of anatomy is useful. Heindel mentions Five Centers (described in JMG’s Five Rites) that are where the physical body and the body of life force (Vital/Etheric Body) are most closely bound.
So when “the Spirit dissolves the body”, we need to separate the Dense (Physical) Body from the Vital (Etheric) Body:
| of the Spirit | of the Soul | * | of the Body | |
| Spirit | Divine Spirit | Desire Body | * | Soul (Individuality) |
| Soul | Human Spirit | Mental Body (eventually) | * | Soul (Personality) |
| Body | Life Spirit | Vital Body | * | Dense Body |
“The Dissolution extracts the Soul of the Body
[which is the Personality, the part of us that we need to perfect during our life]
and changes this body into Soul [our Individuality].
The Soul is changed into Spirit
[The Individuality and Personality reunite, creating a unified Astral Body,
which is the Spirit of the Soul.]
The Spirit is added again to the Body, for thus it has stability.”
(Or, in alchemical parlance, it has been ‘fixed’).
But all of this is not happening in this Parable/Plate! Here, we are just separating the earth from the fire.
Herakles, who cannot remove the Shirt of Nessus, lay on a funeral pyre, hoping the fire would consume the Shirt and his mortal flesh (separating his Body from his Soul, the earth from the fire).