As the alchemist must do his work in four worlds simultaneously if he would achieve the Magnum Opus, a table showing the analogies of the three principles in the four worlds may clarify the relationship which the various parts bear to each other. The early masters of the art of alchemical symbolism did not standardize either their symbols or their terms. Thus it required great familiarity with the subject combined with considerable intuitive power to unravel some of their enigmatical statements. The third and fourth divisions of the following table are given alternative renderings, owing to the fact that some authors did not draw a clear line between spirit and soul. According to the Scriptures, spirit is indestructible, but soul is destructible. Obviously, then, they are not synonymous. It is clearly stated that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," but "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." The table of analogies, as nearly as they can be established, is as follows:

["The soul containeth the first principle; and the soul's spirit the second principle in Ternario sancto, in the holy Ternary; and the outward...

["It has in it the first Principle; the spirit of the soul has the second; and the astral or starry spirit in the elements has the third, viz. this...

First, the four Elements break off from the [one] Element, and then the Source [or working Faculty] of the third Principle ceases; and that is the...

The Symbol is interpreted as follows: (1) The Infinite Unmanifest manifests itself in the Elemental Soul; (2) the Elemental Soul takes upon itself...

Now to speak in a creaturely way, Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal, are understood to be thus. S U L is the Soul or the Spirit that is risen up, or in a...

Although in the Originality of both of them there is no Separation; but only the outward and third Principle, the syderial and elementary Kingdom [Reg...

According to this delineation or prefiguration of the soul, all things in this world are made; for the corrupted soul works or endeavoureth...

But when the Spirit of the four Elements parts, then the right Soul (which was breathed into Adam) stands in its Principle; for it is so subtle, that ...

But now the astral birth generateth the animated soulish birth, viz. the third, which stands in the word, wherein the incorporated or compacted word l...

But if the Soul be regenerated in the Holy Ghost, so that its Center to the Regeneration springs forth o., then it sees with two Lights, and lives in ...