Winged and unwinged birds and dragons

Meaning

The feathered and unfeathered birds, also figured as two dragons, distinguish volatile and fixed powers. The unwinged retains the winged: reversing that direction would reverse the point of the image. Their conjunction describes restraint of flight without simple destruction of the spiritual capacity.

The accompanying plant comparison makes upward striving compatible with the body’s restraining mass. Later the return of wings through renewed dissolution shows that the imagery is not a permanent zoological classification of two ingredients. The source’s desirable volatile principle must also be kept distinct from the harmful volatile sulphur condemned elsewhere. Wings name a local relation to flight and fixation, not a fixed chemical identity.