...hed. completing the word "accomplished" from the previous page

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD

OR, THE TABLE OF PARADISE

This complex engraving, crafted by Matthäus Merian, serves as a visual map of the "Great Work." At the center is the Tree of the Metals, bearing seven stars representing the planetary metals: Gold (Sun), Silver (Moon), Mercury (Mercury), Copper (Venus), Iron (Mars), Tin (Jupiter), and Lead (Saturn). The surrounding medallions containing a unicorn, eagles, and a mermaid represent the various volatile and fixed states of the matter. At the base, the three figures—a warrior on a lion, a philosopher, and a courtier—represent the different "regimens" or stages of mastery over the sulfurous and mercurial principles.

The Tree of Knowledge.

In this single figure, the wise student may behold the entire process of our Art. As the tree draws its nourishment from the earth and is perfected by the heat of the Sun, so too does our Stone the Philosopher's Stone grow from a humble "earth" through the steady application of natural heat.

The Sun and the Moon original: Sol et Luna; representing the masculine/Sulfur and feminine/Mercury principles look down upon the work, for without their balanced influence, the tree can bear no fruit. The seven stars are the seven steps of sublimation the process of vaporizing and condensing a substance to purify it and fixation.

Observe the Unicorn a symbol of the pure, penetrating Spirit of Mercury and the Crowned Eagles symbols of the "volatile" parts of the matter that have been "fixed" or brought under control; these are the spirits that the chemist must learn to bind. At the root of the tree sits the Lion the "Red Lion," a symbol of the raw, energetic force of nature or philosophical sulfur, which must be ridden and tamed by the solar warrior.

Nature is one.

All that has been written in many books is here condensed into one image. Do not seek elsewhere for the secret, for the Tree of the Philosophers grows in the garden of Nature, requiring only the "water that does not wet the hands" and the gentle fire of the spirit.