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The Emerald Tablet is an ancient text purporting to reveal the secret of the primordial substance and its transmutations. This tablet claims to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus, meaning Hermes the Thrice-Greatest. According to legend, Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary of both Abraham and Moses owning to an extremenly long life span. After his death, he was memorialized as a God by the Greeks who called him Hermes and the Egyptians who called him Thoth.

Over the aeons this tablet has also been called the Smaragdine Table, the Tabula Smaragdina and The Secret of Hermes.

Though the document is attributed to have originated at around the time of Moses (circa 1400 BC), the oldest documented source for the text is the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar written in Arabic in the mid 10th century. The   compendium contains advice for rulers, and reproduces within it a letter (translated into Arabic) from Aristotle to Alexander the Great in which Aristotle shares the stanzas of the Emerald tablet with the Macedonian conqueror.

A translation of the Emerald Tablet from the Arabic writings of the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar into English is shown below:

1. It contains an accurate commentary that can’t be doubted.
2. It states: What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.
3. And all things sprang from this essence through a single projection. How marvelous is its work! It is the principle part of the world and its custodian.
4. Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it.
5. Father of talismans and keeper of wonders.
6. Perfect in power that reveals the lights.
7. It is a fire that became our earth. Separate the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that which is coarse, through care and wisdom.
8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it.
9. The greatest power overcomes everything that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse.
10. The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.
11. The scholars made this their path.
12. This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with wisdom.
13. This is his last book that he hid in the catacomb.

In 1541 the Arabic version of the Emerald Tablet taken from the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar was translated into Latin by Chrysogonus Polydorus of Nurembug.

1. Verum, sine mendatio, certum et verissimum:
2. Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
3. Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae ab hac una re, adaptatione.
4. Pater eius est Sol. Mater eius est Luna.
5. Portavit illud Ventus in ventre suo.
6. Nutrix eius terra est. Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic.
7. Virtus eius integra est si versa fuerit in terram.
8. Separabis terram ab igne, subtile ab spisso, suaviter, magno cum ingenio.
9. Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum.
10. Sic habebis Gloriam totius mundi.
11. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.
12. Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit.
13. Sic mundus creatus est.
14. Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi.
15. Completum est quod dixi de operatione Solis.

Issac Netwon translated the Latin version of the Emerald Tablet into English circa 1675. His version is shown below:

1. Tis true without lying, certain most true.
2. That which is below is like that which is above that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.
3. And as all things have been arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
5. the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.
6. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
   • Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.
8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
9. By this means ye shall have the glory of the whole world thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
10. Its force is above all force. for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
    • So was the world created.
11. From this are and do come admirable adaptations whereof the means or process is here in this.
12. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
13. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.

Here is a contemporary rendering of the 1541 Latin text:

1. It is true, without error, certain and most true,
2. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing.
3. And as all things were from the one, by means of the meditation of the one, thus all things were born from the one, by means of adaptation.
4. Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon, the Wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
5. The father of the whole world (or of all of the initiates) is here.
6. Its power is whole if it has been turned into earth.
7. You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, sweetly, with great skill.
8. It ascends from earth into heaven and again it descends to the earth, and receives the power of higher and of lower things.
9. Thus you will have the Glory of the whole world.
10. Therefore will all obscurity flee from you.
11. Of all strength this is true strength, because it will conquer all that is subtle, and penetrate all that is solid.
12. Thus was the world created.
13. From this were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the means. Therefore am I named Thrice-Great Hermes, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
14. It is finished, what I have said about the workings of the Sun.

Because of its longstanding popularity, the Emerald Tablet is the only piece of non-Greek Hermetica to attract widespread attention in the West. The reason that the Emerald Tablet was so valuable is because it contained the instructions for the goals of alchemists. It hinted at the recipe for alchemical gold, as well as how to set one’s level of consciousness to a new degree.

The Emerald Tablet has been credited as an influence for the best selling book and film, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, that also says our intentions and emotions will manifest in our lives and the world.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Hermetic Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.