The Book of Lambspring appeared in Prague around 1625, a sequence of fifteen emblems depicting the stages of the Great Work. Each image conceals a teaching; each teaching points beyond itself to the transformation of the soul.
The first emblem shows two fish swimming in the sea. "These are the spirit and the soul," the text explains. "They swim together in the body as fish swim in water. Catch them both, and you have begun the work."
"In the body there is soul and spirit.
The soul desires to rise; the spirit to sink.
Neither alone can accomplish the work.
They must be united, and their union
Requires the death of what kept them apart."
The second emblem shows a deer and a unicorn meeting in a forest. The deer is the body, swift and earthly. The unicorn is the spirit, fierce and heavenly. "In the forest of the soul, these two must meet. At first they fight. Then they recognize each other. Then they become one animal, more powerful than either."
The third emblem shows a serpent crucified on a cross. "This is the dissolution of the fixed. What was rigid must become fluid. What was solid must evaporate. The serpent wisdom must die on the cross of matter before it can be resurrected."
"Do not hasten through the stages.
Each death requires its full duration.
The impatient alchemist
Opens the vessel too soon
And finds only ashes, not gold."
The middle emblems show fighting wolves, dragons devouring each other, a three-headed dragon emerging from fire. Violence and destruction precede rebirth. "You cannot skip the battle," the text warns. "The opposites within you must war until they exhaust themselves. Only then can peace come."
The final emblems show the philosopher's stone emerging, a king rising from the earth, a resurrected figure bathed in light. "What was dead is alive. What was lead is gold. What was scattered is unified. The work is complete."
But the last emblem contains a warning: "Do not think you have arrived. Each completion is a new beginning. The work spirals upward eternally. There is no final achievement, only deeper and deeper participation in the mystery."
Teaching 12
Trust the process through its stages. The fighting, the dissolution, the darkness — all are necessary. Do not open the vessel too soon. Let each death complete itself before expecting resurrection.