84
Little
Miss
Muffett
unquestionably
represents
Malkah;
for
she
is
unmarried.
She is seated upon
a "tuffet";
id
est, she
is the
unregen-
erate soul upon Tophet, the pit of hell.
And she
eats
curds
and whey,
that
is,
not the pure milk of the mother,
but milk which
has undergone
decomposition.
But who
is
the
spider?
Verily
herein
is
a
venerable
arcanum
con-
noted!
Like
all
insects,
the
spider
represents
a
demon.
But
why
a
spider?
Who
is
this spider " who taketh hold with
her hands,
and
is
in
King's Palaces
"? The name of this
spider
is
Death.
It
is
the
fear of
death which
first makes the soul aware of its forlorn condition.
It would
be interesting
if
tradition
had preserved
for us Miss Muffett's
subsequent
adventures.
But we must proceed
to
consider
the interpretation
of the following
rime
:
Little Jack Horner
Sat in
a
corner,
Eating
a
Christmas
pie.
He stuck in his thumb,
And pulled
out
a
plum,
And said
:
"What
a good boy am
I!
"
In
the
interpretation
of this
remarkable
poem
there
is
a
difference
between
two great schools
of Adepts.
One holds
that Jack
is
merely
a
corruption
of John, Ion, he who goes