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)
To align the plates to the Emerald Tablet:
- Plate 1: This is true and remote from all cover of falsehood.
- Plate 2: Whatever is below is similar to that which is above. Through this the marvels of the work of one thing are procured and perfected.
- Plate 3: Also, as all things are made from one, by the consideration of one, so all things were made from this one, by conjunction.
- Plate 4: The father of it is the sun, the mother the moon.
The King and Queen on Plate 4 represent Fire and Water. Fire is a purifying agent. Water, when used to clean things, can become impure or polluted. Through the process of Distillation, Fire can purify Water, making it ‘virginal’ again. Similarly, the Greek goddess Hera renewed her virginity every year (by bathing in the spring Kanathos).
Zeus, Hera’s husband, impregnated Alcmene (“Strength of the Moon”), which angered Hera. Alcmene did not want to be punished by Hera, so she abandoned her child (Herakles) in a field. Herakles was rescued and taken to Hera, who nursed Herakles without realizing who he was. At some point, Hera pushed Herakles away and her milk (Lac Virginium) sprayed, creating the Milky Way.
Hera, the Fountain of Souls, created the Milky Way with her Lac Virginium. There are tantalizing references in myths about souls traveling the Eridanus (the River of Judgment or, sometimes, the River of Incarnation). One end of the constellation Eridanus is in the Milky Way (near Orion); the other end is near the constellation of the Phoenix. Orion chases the Pleiades. At one time, the Wheel of Life (the Zodiac) revolved around the Pleiades, the Wheel representing a cycle of experience, the Pleiades representing the Soul. One of the Pleiades is Maia, the mother of Hermes. As intriguing as these references are, for now we will focus on the path of one Divine Spark, its travels described on the plates of Splendor Solis, but we will return to these references later.
The Divine Spark, in plates 1 through 4, has solve’d; now it must coagula. The Divine Spark’s quest is to “inquire as to nature of the four elements.” The next seven plates describe the Divine Spark’s descent through the planets/planes to Malkuth, where the Divine Spark has a Material Body made of the four elements.