The Chemical Wedding:

Confirmation original Latin: "Confirmatio." The author is seeking a sign to confirm the validity of his earlier dream.

...the dream I had when I was released from the tower; yet I did not dare to rely boldly upon a dream. For this reason, I pondered to and fro for so long that, due to great exhaustion, hunger and thirst entered my stomach. Therefore, I soon pulled out my bread and sliced it. Then, a snow-white
A White Dove sitting on a Mercurial tree original Latin: "Columba Alba arbori Mercuriali insidens." In alchemy, the "Mercurial tree" often represents the growth of the philosopher's stone, and the dove symbolizes the volatile spirit or purity.

dove—which had been sitting in the tree though I had not noticed her—spied it. Perhaps following her usual habit, she flew down and approached me quite secretly. I gladly shared my food with her, which she accepted, and I was somewhat refreshed again by her beauty. But as soon as her enemy, a
Black Raven original Latin: "Corvus Niger." The raven often represents "nigredo" or the blackening stage of alchemy, associated with putrefaction or death.

black raven, caught sight of her, he immediately darted toward the dove. He did not want anything from me, but desired to take what belonged to the dove, who could defend herself in no other way than by flight.
Toward the south original Latin: "Versus meridiem."

They both flew together toward the south. This angered and distressed me to such an extent that, without thinking, I hurried after the
The author stumbles onto the second path thoughtlessly original Latin: "Autor incidit in 2. viam incogitanter."

wicked raven. Thus, against my will, I ran nearly the length of a field along one of the marked paths, driving away the raven and rescuing the dove. Only then did I realize how thoughtlessly I had acted, and that I had already entered upon a path from which I dared not deviate (under penalty of great punishment). And although I might have been able to comfort myself to some degree, what troubled me most was that I had left my little sack and bread back by the tree,