“
The Sages say truly
That two animals are in this forest:
One glorious, beautiful, and swift,
A great and strong deer;
The other an unicorn.
They are concealed in the forest,
But happy shall that man be called
Who shall snare and capture them.
The Masters shew you here clearly
That in all places
These two animals wander about in forests
(But know that the forest is but one).
If we apply the parable to our Art,
We shall call the forest the Body.
That will be rightly and truly said.
The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times.
The deer desires no other name
But that of the Soul; which name no man shall take away from it.”
This is a way to create a better understanding of the different parts by breaking them down into smaller components.
This emblem is about the differences that is within us all. Lambspring’s view is the stag is our soul and the unicorn is our spirit. I feel this is more about the act of thoughts and correlation to higher planes. What difference is there between soul and spirit since both are metaphysical.
The forest once again represents our body. Deep with in the forest a stag represents our mind. It states that man will be happy if he can capture them. You can’t capture thoughts as much as being a watcher of them. This is where effort needs to be applied in order to “catch” what you are thinking. Thoughts manifest into reality when proper intent is placed behind them.
The unicorn represents thoughts in its purest form. White is the process of Albedo. The alchmist has broken the darkness of the ego to let the sharp point of the inner being shine through.
If I may add a correspondence: This is the same as Malkuth (stag) and Yesod (unicorn). Malkuth is the physical realm where all the work needs to be done in. Purifying yourself via meditation and other exercises, frees one from the physical. Once freed you are now traveling in Yesod or having an out of body experience. Again the polarity exists between physical and metaphysical.
