Helmet, wings, and cock

Meaning

The emblematic poem tells the reader to inspect a helmet with two wings and a cock. It supplies its own meaning: goodwill and great love toward the noble free art and pure wisdom. This explanation follows the comparison between alchemy and theosophy as closely related as a hand and body. The historical forms therefore identify features of an image, not items of laboratory equipment. The English's 'These show' retains the poem's explicit act of interpretation. Additional mythological identifications may be tempting, but this unit does not require an invented bearer of the helmet or a separate chemical meaning for the bird.