Elara reached out, her finger hovering over a symbol of a dying phoenix. "Death and rebirth," she whispered.
He pointed to a painting on the wall of a Rebis—a figure with two heads, one male, one female. "The 'Great Work' is the union of opposites. Sun and Moon. Logic and Intuition. Only when you bridge the two can you see the world as it truly is: a singular, vibrating thought of the Divine." Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts
Alaric smiled, a rare movement that crinkled the edges of his ink-stained eyes. "The Stone is the perfected self. We hide this truth in symbols—the Ouroboros, the serpent eating its tail—to protect the knowledge from those who would use it only for greed. If a king knew that 'multiplying gold' actually meant 'expanding one's consciousness,' he would burn our books out of boredom." Elara reached out, her finger hovering over a