nous.
Actually the subject (i.e., the first material) is conceived as twofold,
bisexual. It is called by names that mean the two sexes, it is also called
"hermaphrodite." It is represented as rebis (res bina = double thing), as
a human with a male and a female head standing on a dragon. From the
conquered dragon (lion) comes forth the Double. The substance is also
called Mercurius; his staff bears the two antagonistic serpents mentioned
by Flamel. In the parable also appears an hermaphrodite, the being (Sec.
8) which the wanderer cannot distinguish, whether it be a man or a woman.
It is the original substance, Mercury, "our hermaphrodite."

In Section 9 of the parable, and also later, red and white appear in
roses. The white and the red tincture are often in alchemy compared to
white and red roses.

In Section 9 the wanderer comes to those houses where people work alone or
by twos. They work in a slovenly fashion. The alchemistic quacks are
generally called "bunglers" and "messy cooks" by the masters of the art.
These are the ones who do not work according to the "possibilities of
nature," which is, nevertheless, the touchstone of all right production.

The garden (Sec. 10, 11) is one of the "rose gardens" of which, e.g., the
alchemist, Michael Meier, likes to speak.

There are difficulties in uniting the red youths with the white maidens. A
wall separates them. The wanderer removes the obstruction in unlocking the
door. That may indicate a chemical unlocking, by which the bodies are
chemically brought nearer together.

The wanderer comes to a mill (Sec. 11). The mill naturally indicates the
already mentioned trituration of the substance. It has, however, also
reference to fermentation and in particular to that by means of meal.

Rulandus (Lex., pp. 211 ff., s. v. Fermentum): "Ferment is elixir, leaven,
or yeast as it is called; it makes porous the body that swells up and the
spirit finds a place in it so that it becomes fit to bake. As now the meal
is not yeast, but meal and water [mill water] and the whole dough is
thoroughly leavened and real yeast, so also the lapis [stone] is itself
the ferment, yet gold and mercury are also called ferment."

Now begins the main work--marriage, prison, embrace, conception, birth,
transfiguration--to which the rest of the parable is devoted.

The prison is the philosophic egg. It is also called "Athanor, a sieve,
dunghill, bain-marie (double cooker), a kiln, round ball, green