a mystical sense if it is denied, or else appears in other forms
in order to pursue the soul with the ghosts of murdered virtues. Man is,
as it were, in doubt concerning the principle to which the highest
leadership in life is due. "Go forth and whoever brings me the finest
carpet shall be king after my death." The carpet is something on which one
walks or stands, here representing the best way of life according to
Isaiah XXX, 21. "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right
hand and when ye turn to the left."

The three feathers are, of course, the three principles. Two of them move
at once in opposite directions [towards the east and towards the west, as
many writers on alchemy represent the two principles or breaths, anima and
corpus or [Symbol: Gold] and [Symbol: Silver]] and so come even at the
outset away from the right path. The third, symbol of the spirit, flies
straight forward and has not far to its end, for simple is the way to the
inner life. And so the spirit will speak to us if we follow its voice, at
first quite a faint voice: "But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy
mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it." (Deuteronomy XXX, 14.) Yet
the soul is not free from sadness, as the man stands still on the lower
steps of the ladder that leads up into eternal life. Simpleton is troubled
in his heart and in the humility of this affliction he discovers "all at
once" a secret door, which shows him the entrance into the mystical life.
The door is on the surface of the earth, in abasement, as the third
feather determined it in advance. As Simpleton discreetly obeyed it, he
strolled along the path that the door opened for him. Three steps, three
fundamental forces. So Christ had to descend before he could rise. The
hero of the story knocks as Christ knocks in the gospel (i.e., on the
inner door, contrasted with the law of Moses, the outer door). The big
toad with her little ones in a circle about her signifies the great mother
nature and her creatures, which surround her in a circle; in a circle, for
nature always returns upon herself in a cycle. Simpleton gets the most
beautiful carpet.

The other two beings that we call understanding and feelings (sun and moon
of the hermetic writings) look without, instead of seeking the way within;
so it comes to pass that they take the first best coarse cloths.

To bring the most beautiful ring is to bring truth, which like a ring has
neither beginning nor