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Emerald Tablet

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Not to be confused with the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, the work of 20th-century occultist Maurice Doreal.
Emerald Tablet
Smaragdine Table; Tabula Smaragdina
Manuscript of the oldest recension of the Emerald Tablet, recension A of the Book of the Secret of Creation. (Leipzig, Vollers 832).
Ascribed toHermes Trismegistus
Compiled bypseudo-Apollonius of Tyana; pseudo-Aristotle; Jabir ibn Hayyan
LanguageArabic; possibly from earlier Greek or Syriac
Datelate 8th or early 9th century CE (earliest Arabic recension)
ProvenanceIslamicate world
State of existenceextant in various medieval manuscripts
Authenticitypseudepigraphical
GenreHermetica
Subjectcosmogony; possibly alchemy or talismanic magic
SourcesBook of the Secret of Creation
Secret of Secrets
Second Book of the Element of the Foundation
Book of the Silvery Water and the Starry Earth
vulgate

The Emerald Tablet, also known as the Smaragdine Table or the Tabula Smaragdina,[a] is a compact and cryptic text traditionally attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus.[2] The earliest known versions are four Arabic recensions preserved in mystical and alchemical treatises between the 8th and 10th centuries CE—chiefly the Secret of Creation (Arabic: سر الخليقة, romanized: Sirr al-Khalīqa) and the Secret of Secrets (سرّ الأسرار, Sirr al-Asrār).[3] It was often accompanied by a frame story about the discovery of an emerald tablet in Hermes' tomb.

From the 12th century onward, Latin translations—most notably the widespread so-called vulgate[4]—introduced the text to Europe, where it attracted great scholarly interest. Medieval commentators such as Hortulanus interpreted it as a "foundational text" of alchemical instructions for producing the philosopher's stone and making gold.[5] During the Renaissance, interpreters increasingly read the text through Neoplatonic, allegorical, and Christian lenses;[6] and printers often paired it with an emblem that came to be regarded as a visual representation of the Tablet itself.[7]

Following the 20th-century rediscovery of Arabic sources by Julius Ruska and Eric Holmyard,[8] modern scholars continue to debate its origins. They agree that the Secret of Creation, the Tablet's earliest source and its likely original context, was either wholly[9] or at least partly[10] compiled from earlier Greek or Syriac materials. The Tablet remains influential in esotericism and occultism, where the phrase as above, so below (a paraphrase of its second verse) has become a popular maxim. It has also been taken up by Jungian psychologists, artists, and figures of pop culture, cementing its status as one of the best-known Hermetica.[11]

Tis true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracle of one only thing. And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here. 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. It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior. By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you. Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing. So was the world created. From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the means is here in this. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.

— English translation of the Emerald Tablet by Isaac Newton.[12]

Background and early Arabic versions

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Part of a series on
Hermeticism
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermetic writings
Historical figures
Ancient and medieval
Early modern
Modern offshoots

Beginning from the first century BCE onwards,[b] Greek texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, appeared in Greco-Roman Egypt. These texts, known as the Hermetica, are a heterogeneous collection of works that in the modern day are commonly subdivided into two groups: the technical Hermetica, comprising astrological, medico-botanical, alchemical, and magical writings; and the religio-philosophical Hermetica, comprising mystical-philosophical writings.[14]

These Greek pseudepigraphal texts found receptions, translations, and imitations in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Middle Persian prior to the emergence of Islam and the Arab conquests in the 630s. These conquests brought about various empires in which a new group of Arabic-speaking intellectuals emerged. These scholars received and translated the aforementioned wealth of texts and also began producing Hermetica of their own.[15] By the tenth century, some Arabic-speaking Muslims had come to identify Hermes with the prophet Idris, thereby elevating the Hermetica to the level of other Islamic prophetic revelations.[16] Until the early twentieth century, only Latin versions of the Emerald Tablet were known in the Western world, with the oldest dating back to the twelfth century.[17] The older Arabic versions were rediscovered by Eric John Holmyard and Julius Ruska.[18]

Secret of Creation

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Arabic text of the Emerald Tablet from the younger recension B of Book of the Secret of Creation (man. Paris, Arabe  2300).

The oldest version of the Emerald Tablet is found as an appendix in an encyclopaedic treatise on natural philosophy meant as a cosmogony.[19] It is believed to have been compiled in Arabic in the late eighth or early ninth century.[c] The treatise bears the title Book of the Secret of Creation and the Craft of Nature.[d][23] Some scholars consider it plausible that this work is a translation of a much older Greek or Syriac original, although no such manuscript is known.[24] At the same time others think it is more likely that it was an original Arabic composition based on older materials.[25] The Arabic text presents itself as a translation of a work by Apollonius of Tyana.[e] Pseudepigraphal attributions to Apollonius were common in medieval Arabic texts on magic, astrology, and alchemy.[f][27] If the Tablet originally hailed from a pseudo-Apollonian context, it could be considered a text of late antiquity, like other such works.[28]

This earliest known version reads as follows:

Nineteenth-century Arabic text of the Emerald Tablet and part of its frame story in the Book of the Secret of Creation. (man. Tehran, Majles Library, 14456/IR1526).

The introduction to the Book of the Secret of Creation presents a narrative that outlines key philosophical and alchemical ideas. It explains that all things are composed of four elemental qualities—heat, cold, moisture, and dryness—drawn from Aristotelian theory. These elements and their combinations are said to determine the sympathetic or antagonistic relationships between beings. In the frame story, Balīnūs, a legendary figure known as the Master of Talismans,[i] discovers a crypt beneath a statue of Hermes Trismegistus. Inside, he finds a tablet made of emerald, held by an old man seated with a book.[j][32] The central part of the text is an alchemical treatise, notable for introducing—for the first time—the theory that all metals are formed from two basic substances: sulphur and mercury. This concept later became a foundational idea in medieval alchemy.[33] Emerald was the stone traditionally associated with Hermes, while quicksilver was his metal and Mercury his planet. Mars was associated with red stones and iron, and Saturn with black stones and lead.[34] People in antiquity thought of various green-coloured minerals—such as green jasper and even green granite—as emerald.[35]

The text of the Emerald Tablet appears in the Book of the Secret of Creation as an appendix. It has long been debated whether it is an extraneous piece, solely cosmogonic in nature, or whether it is an integral part of the rest of the work, in which case it could have had an alchemical significance from the outset.[36] It has been suggested that the Emerald Tablet was originally a text of talismanic magic that was only later understood as being alchemical in nature.[37] This may have been due to it having been divorced from its original context in the Book of the Secret of Creation; and instead having been commonly transmitted through the alchemical treatise containing the vulgate.[38]

1620 woodblock print of the beginning of the Guanzi section Tzu-Kung hypothesised to be the origin of the Emerald Tablet.

Julius Ruska observed that the Tablet's cosmogony in the Book of the Secret of Creation seemed neither Islamic, Iranian, nor Christian. He speculated that it might reflect Chaldean, Harranian, or gnostic ideas from the regions northeast of Iran, along the Silk Road.[39][k] Chang Tzu-Kung proposed an origin further east[41]—as he believed Hermes Trismegistus to have been Chinese.[42] He noted that Chinese aphorisms commonly hailed from legendary slabs and steles in caves and temples.[43] Tzu-Kung produced a speculative Chinese rendition of the Tablet,[l][45] which he based on John Read's vulgate translation.[46] He then claimed the Tablet's origin to be a Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) Taoist text known as the Guanzi.[m] Joseph Needham rejected this theory as not yet having been sufficiently proved.[n][51]

Jabir ibn Hayyan

[edit]

Another early version of the Emerald Tablet is found in the Second Book of the Element of the Foundation (Arabic: كتاب أسطقس الأسّ الثاني, romanized: Kitāb Usṭuqus al-Uss al-Thānī) attributed to the eighth-century alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan.[o][53] In this somewhat shorter version, lines 6, 8, and 11–15 as found in the Secret of Creation are missing. Other parts appear to be corrupt.[54] It reads:

Secret of Secrets

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Fourteenth-century Arabic text of the Emerald Tablet from the Secret of Secrets (man. Berlin, Landberg 121).

Another text of the Emerald Tablet is found towards the end of the tenth-century pseudo-Aristotelian work known as the Secret of Secrets.[p][q] This entire treatise is framed as a pseudepigraphical letter from Aristotle to Alexander the Great during the latter's conquest of Persia and is introduced via a number of letters between the two.[r] It discusses politics, morality, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, medicine, and more.[58]

It reads:


حقا يقينا لا شك فيه
أن الأسفل من الأعلى والأعلى من الأسفل
عمل العجائب من واحد بتدبير واحد كما نشأت الأشياء من جوهر واحد
أبوه الشمس وأمه القمر
حملته الريح في بطنها، وغذته الأرض بلبانها
أبو الطلسمات، خازن العجائب، كامل القوى
فان صارت أرضا اعزل الأرض من النار اللطيف
أكرم من الغليظ
برفق وحكمة تصعد من الأرض إلى السماء وتهبط إلى الأرض
فتقبل قوة الأعلى والأسفل
لأن معك نور الأنوار فلهذا تهرب عنك الظلمة
قوة القوى
تغلب كل شيء لطيف يدخل على كل شيء كثيف
على تقدير العالم الأكبر
هذا فخري ولهذا سمّيت هرمس المثلّث بالحكمة اللدنية[59]

Ibn Umayl

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Fourteenth-century depiction of Ibn Umayl's discovery story in a pyramid from manuscript Book of the Silvery Water and the Starry Earth. (man. Topkapı Palace Library, man. Ahmet III 2075).

Similarly, an Arabic treatise called the Book of the Silvery Water and the Starry Earth[s] by Ibn Umayl[t] reproduces a version of the Tablet.[60] This treatise was translated as Latin: Tabula Chemica, lit. 'Chemical Tablet'.[61] In this version of the frame story, a stone table is discovered, resting on the knees of Hermes Trismegistus in the secret chamber of a pyramid. However, this table does not contain the Tablet text which is repeated later in the treatise.[62] It is instead inscribed with writing described as Arabic: بيرباوي, romanized: bīrbāwī, lit. 'hieroglyphic; of the pyramid'.[u]

The literary theme of the discovery of Hermes' hidden wisdom can be found in other Arabic texts from around the tenth century. The introduction of the Book of Crates provides one such example. In the narrative a Greek philosopher named Crates[v] is praying in the temple Sarapieion.[w] While in prayer he has a vision of the ancient sage.[68] It reads:

"Then I saw an old man, the most beautiful of men, seated on a chair. He was dressed in white garments and held in his hand a board attached to the chair, upon which rested a book. Before him were wondrous vessels, the most marvellous I had ever seen. When I asked who this old man was, I was told: He is Hermes Trismegistus, and the book before him is one of those that contain the explanation of the secrets he concealed from humankind."[69]

European medieval period

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On the Secrets of Nature

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Text of the Emerald Tablet in its Latin translation by Hugo of Santalla (man. Paris, Latin 13951).

The Book of the Secret of Creation was translated into Latin[x] in c. 1145–1151 by Hugo of Santalla.[y] This text does not appear to have been widely circulated.[73] Its translation of the Tablet reads as follows:

Superiora de inferioribus, inferiora de superioribus,
prodigiorum operatio ex uno, quemadmodum omnia ex uno eodemque ducunt originem, una eademque consilii administratione.
Cuius pater Sol, mater vero Luna,
eam ventus in corpore suo extollit: Terra fit dulcior.
Vos ergo, prestigiorum filii, prodigiorum opifices, discretione perfecti,
si terra fiat, eam ex igne subtili, qui omnem grossitudinem et quod hebes est antecellit, spatiosibus, et prudenter et sapientie industria, educite.
A terra ad celum conscendet, a celo ad terram dilabetur,
superiorum et inferiorum vim continens atque potentiam.
Unde omnis ex eodem illuminatur obscuritas,
cuius videlicet potentia quicquid subtile est transcendit et rem grossam, totum, ingreditur.
Que quidem operatio secundum maioris mundi compositionem habet subsistere.
Quod videlicet Hermes philosophus triplicem sapientiam vel triplicem scientiam appellat.[74][z]

Secret of Secrets

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Latin text of the Tablet in the Secret of Secrets from c. 1290–1320 (man. Oxford, Christ Church 99).

The Tablet was also translated into Latin as part of the thirteenth-century translation of the Secret of Secrets (Latin: Secretum Secretorum) by Philip of Tripoli. This entire treatise has been called "the most popular book of the Latin Middle Ages".[76][aa] Its translation of the Tablet differs significantly from both Hugo of Santalla's version and the vulgate translation. In Roger Bacon's 1255 edition it reads:

Veritas ita se habet et non est dubium,
quod inferiora superioribus et superiora inferioribus respondent.
Operator miraculorum unus solus est Deus, a quo descendit omnis operacio mirabilis.
Sic omnes res generantur ab una sola substancia, una sua sola disposicione.
Quarum pater est Sol, quarum mater est Luna.
Que portavit ipsam naturam per auram in utero, terra impregnata est ab ea.
Hinc dicitur Sol causatorum pater, thesaurus miraculorum, largitor virtutum.
Ex igne facta est terra.
Separa terrenum ab igneo, quia subtile dignius est grosso, et rarum spisso.
Hoc fit sapienter et discrete. Ascendit enim de terra in celum, et ruit de celo in terram.
Et inde interficit superiorem et inferiorem virtutem.
Sic ergo dominatur inferioribus et superioribus et tu dominaberis sursum et deorsum,
tecum enim est lux luminum, et propter hoc fugient a te omnes tenebre.
Virtus superior vincit omnia.
Omne enim rarum agit in omne densum.
Et secundum disposicionem majoris mundi currit hec operacio,
et propter hoc vocatur Hermogenes triplex in philosophia.[79]

Vulgate

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Fifteenth-century Latin text of the vulgate Emerald Tablet (man. British Library, Arundel 164, folio 155r).[80]

A third Latin version can be found in an alchemical treatise likely from the twelfth century.[ab] This latter, most circulated version is called the vulgate, as it was widespread and formed the subsequent basis for all later editions and translations into European vernacular languages.[ac][81] It is found in an anonymous compilation of commentaries on the Emerald Tablet, translated from a lost Arabic text–variously called the Book of Hermes on Alchemy,[ad] the Book of Dabessus,[ae] or the Book of the Rebis.[af][82] Its translator has been tentatively identified as Plato of Tivoli, who was active in c. 1134–1145.[ag][84] However, this is merely conjecture, and although it can be deduced from other indices that the text dates to the first half of the twelfth century, its translator remains unknown.[ah][85]

Its translation of the Tablet reads:[ai]

The translator of this version did not understand the Arabic: طلسم, romanized: ṭilasm, lit. 'enigma; talisman' and therefore merely transcribed it into Latin as telesmus or telesmum. This accidental neologism was variously interpreted by commentators, thereby becoming one of the most distinctive, yet ambiguous, terms of alchemy. The word is of Greek origin, from Ancient Greek: τελεσμός, romanized: telesmos.[aj] The obscurity of this word's meaning brought forth many interpretations.[88] In the Book of Hermes on Alchemy the cryptic telesmus line was left out entirely. The vulgate's final line referring to the operation of Sol is commonly interpreted as a reference to the alchemical Great Work.[89] The Emerald Tablet was seen as a summary of alchemical principles, wherein the secrets of the philosopher's stone were thought to have been described. This belief led to its consequent popularity and the wide array of European translations of and commentaries on the text, beginning in the High Middle Ages and persisting to the present.[90]

Commentaries

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Herman of Carinthia was one of a few European twelfth-century scholars to cite the Emerald Tablet. He did so in his 1143 treatise On Essences,[ak] where he also recalled the frame story of the tablet's discovery under a statue of Hermes in a cave, from the Book of the Secret of Creation. Carinthia was a friend of Robert of Chester, who in 1144 translated the Book on the Composition of Alchemy, which is generally considered to be the first Latin translation of an Arabic treatise on alchemy.[91] An anonymous twelfth-century commentator tried to explain the aforementioned neologism telesmus in the phrase Latin: Pater omnis telesmi, lit. 'Father of all telesms' by claiming it is synonymous with Latin: Pater omnis secreti, lit. 'Father of everything secret'. The translator followed this claim with the assertion that a kind of divination, which is "superior to all others" among the Arabs is called Latin: Thelesmus.[al] In subsequent commentaries on the Emerald Tablet only the meaning of secret was retained.[92] On Minerals[am] written around 1250 by Albertus Magnus comments on the vulgate[an] Tablet.[93] Roger Bacon translated and annotated the Secret of Secrets around 1275–1280. He thought it an authentic work of Aristotle and it greatly influenced his thought.[ao] He cited it constantly, from his earliest writings to his last.[94] The most widespread commentary accompanying the text of the Emerald Tablet is that of Hortulanus. He was an alchemist, who was likely active in the first half of the fourteenth century, about whom very little is known except for what he states about himself in the introduction of the text.[ap][96] Hortulanus, like Albertus Magnus before him, saw the tablet as a cryptic recipe that described laboratory processes using "deck names". This was the dominant view held by Europeans until the fifteenth century.[97] In his commentary, Hortulanus, again like Albertus Magnus, interpreted the sun and moon to represent alchemical gold and silver.[aq][99] Hortulanus translated "telesma" as "secret" or "treasure".[ar][101]

Discovery of the Emerald Tablet in a Pyramid shown in the Rising Dawn.[102]
A serpentine Mercury beheads the Sun and Moon; golden and silver blossoms sit in a glass vessel over a flame. From the same manuscript (Zurich, Rheinau 172).[103]

From around 1420, the Rising Dawn[as] introduced one of the earliest European cycles of alchemical imagery, combining complex metaphors with the motif of glass vessels. Its illustrations depict symbolic operations such as putrefaction, sublimation, and the union of opposites through figures like Mercury, the sun and moon, dragons, and eagles. These images reflect philosophical principles including “two are one” and “nature vanquishes nature”. Drawing on late antique traditions preserved in Ibn Umayl's Book of the Silvery Water and the Starry Earth, the manuscript visualises the myth of the rediscovery of Hermetic knowledge, portraying hieroglyphic signs as divinely instituted symbols immune to verbal distortion. The Rising Dawn thus helped establish the Renaissance notion of alchemical imagery as a medium for transmitting original wisdom through visual, rather than textual, means.[104]

Renaissance and early modernity

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First emblem alchemical from Fleeing Atalanta: the wind hath carried it in its belly.
Second alchemical emblem: the earth is its nurse.

During the Renaissance, Hermes Trismegistus was widely regarded as the founder of alchemy and native to Babylon. He was thought to be a contemporary of Noah or Moses and his legend became intertwined with biblical narratives.[105] One illustrative example of the belief that Hermes invented alchemy is found in the anonymous text Who Were the First Inventors of this Art,[at] extracted from a gloss of the fourteenth-century Textus Alkimie.[au][107] This text or a later French one, incorporating much of its narrative, influenced another discovery legend claiming the tablet (and its emblem) to have been discovered after the Biblical Flood in Hebron Valley.[108]

The narrative further evolved via Hieronymus Torrella's 1496 Splendid Work of Astrological Images.[av] In it, Alexander the Great discovers a Latin: tabula zaradi, lit. 'zaradi tablet'[aw] in Hermes' tomb while travelling to the Oracle of Amun in Egypt. This story is repeated in 1617 by Michael Maier in Symbols of the Golden Table,[ax] referencing a Book of Chymical Secrets[ay] attributed to, but likely not written by, Albertus Magnus.[110] That same year, he published Fleeing Atalanta.[az] It was illustrated by Matthaeus Merian the Elder, possibly with cooperation from his cousin Theodor de Bry,[ba] with fifty alchemical emblems, each accompanied by a poem, the score of a fugue, and alchemical and mythological explanations. Among them were ones depicting verses from the Tablet.[113]

The first printed edition appeared in 1541, in Of Alchemy.[bb] It was published in Nuremberg by Johann Petreius and edited by a certain Chrysogonus Polydorus. Polydorus is likely a pseudonym used by the Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander, who edited Copernicus' On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, also published by Petreius.[114] This edition of the Emerald Tablet, which is similar to the vulgate version, is accompanied by Hortulanus' commentary.[115]

By the early sixteenth century, the writings of Johannes Trithemius marked a shift away from a laboratory interpretation of the Emerald Tablet, to a metaphysical approach. Trithemius equated Hermes' one thing with the monad of Pythagorean philosophy and the anima mundi. This interpretation of the Hermetic text was adopted by alchemists such as John Dee, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Gerhard Dorn.[116] In 1583, Dorn published On the Light of Physical Nature[bc] by Christoph Corvinus. This Paracelsian treatise drew up a detailed parallel between the Emerald Tablet and the Genesis creation narrative.[117]

Emblem

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Emblem of the Emerald Tablet from a 1600 edition of the Golden Fleece. Colour restored per Telle 1984's description.
Drawn 1586 emblem denoting colours in German. (man. Kassel, 4 Ms. chem. 60[1,3]).

From the late sixteenth century onwards, the Emerald Tablet was often accompanied by a symbolic figure called Latin: Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis, lit. 'Emerald Tablet of Hermes'. This figure is encircled by an acrostic in Latin: Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem, lit. 'Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone' whose seven initials form the word Old French: vitriol, lit. 'sulphuric acid'. At the top, the sun and moon pour into a cup above the planetary symbol ☿ representing Mercury. Surrounding this mercurial cup are the four other planets, representing the classic association between the seven planets and the seven metals. Though, many of the extant copies of the emblem are not set in colour, it was originally polychrome[bd]—linking each planetary-metallic pair with a specific colour, thus rendering: gold–Sol-gold, silver–Luna–silver, grey–Mercury–quicksilver, blue–Jupiter–tin, red–Mars–iron, green–Venus–copper, and black–Saturn–lead. At the centre are a ring and a globus cruciger; at the bottom, the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Three charges represent, according to the accompanying poem, the three principles[be] of Paracelsian alchemical theory: the eagle signifying quicksilver and the spirit, the lion signifying sulphur and the soul, and the star signifying salt and the body. Finally, two Schwurhands appear alongside the image, affirming the creator’s veracity.[118]

The oldest known printed reproduction of this emblem is found in the Golden Fleece,[bf] attributed to Salomon Trismosin—likely a pseudonym employed by a German Paracelsian. Wherein the image was accompanied by a didactic alchemical poem in German titled Außlegung und Erklerung des Gemelds oder Figur (lit. 'Interpretation and Explanation of the Painting or the Figure').[bg] This poem explained the emblem's symbolism in relation to the Great Work and the classical goals of alchemy: wealth, health, and long life. The emblem is largely derivative. The colours, symbols and associations are all found in different Paracelsian works from the same period and unlikely to be influenced by the Tablet itself. The association with the cryptic text might have served primarily as a legitimation for an artwork also meant to be read metaphorically. Additionally, the image first spread in the circle of Karl Widemann, a known Paracelsian mystifier.[120] Initially, the image was presented alongside the Emerald Tablet as a merely ancillary element. However, in printed editions of the seventeenth century, the poem was omitted, and the emblem came to be known as the symbolic or graphical representation of the Emerald Tablet. The emblem proliferated quickly, was frequently reproduced, and gained narrative antiquity. From Ehrd de Naxagoras in his 1733 Supplement to the Golden Fleece[bh] came an example of such a narrative. In the aforementioned discovery legend a woman named Zora finds "a precious emerald plaque" engraved with this emblem in Hermes' grave in Hebron Valley.[121] The emblem thus came to be conceptualised of as part of the esoteric tradition of interpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs. It also came to serve as an example of the Renaissance-Platonic and alchemical belief that "the deepest secrets of nature could only be appropriately expressed through an obscure and veiled mode of representation”.[122]

Nuremberg edition

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Text of the Emerald Tablet, from Johannes Petreius' Of Alchemy.

The 1541 Nuremberg edition from Johannes Petreius' Of Alchemy—largely similar to the vulgate—reads:

French sonnet translation

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Title page of the quoted work by Hesteau.

In the fifteenth century an anonymous French version, set in verse, appeared. A revised 1621 sonnet version by Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement [fr] reads:[123]

Enlightenment

[edit]
Beginning of the tractate On the Authorship of the Emerald Tablet from the Egyptian Oedipus vol. 2 no. 1.

From the dawning seventeenth-century Enlightenment onward, a number of authors began to issue challenges to the attribution of the Emerald Tablet to Hermes Trismegistus. Chronologically first among them was the former alchemist Nicolas Guibert. He believed the ancients had never mentioned alchemy by name and the practice of identifying gold and silver by the names of planets was an idea first advanced by Proclus. He argued, therefore, that the Emerald Tablet must be inauthentic.[124] These attacks were supported by a rising spectre of doubt surrounding all things Hermetic, following a linguistic analysis by Isaac Casaubon, calling into question the authenticity of the Corpus Hermeticum and Hermes himself.[125] The most prominent attack came from Athanasius Kircher in his Egyptian Oedipus. Kircher rejected the Emerald Tablet’s attribution to Hermes Trismegistus, as it did not support his interpretation of hieroglyphs; he argued that the Tablet’s “barbaric” Latin[bi] betrayed a much later, post‐classical origin. Additionally, he pointed out that no ancient Greek philosophers ever mention it—a silence he took as evidence of forgery. Further, he associated it with a group of alchemists he considered delusional[bj] and rejected the story of its discovery in Hermes’ tomb as a pure figment of their imagination. He applied critical arguments he otherwise rejected—for example when defending the legitimacy of the Corpus Hermeticum—when the text in question conflicted with his aims.[128] Kircher’s critique was forceful enough to draw out a response from the Danish alchemist Ole Borch in his 1668 On the Origin and Progress of Chemistry.[bk] In which Borch sought to distinguish genuinely ancient Hermetic writings from later forgeries and to re‐value the Emerald Tablet as truly Egyptian in origin.[129] Amid this climate of inquiry and doubt a 1684 tractate by Wilhelm Christoph Kriegsmann [de] deployed linguistic analysis—incorporating Hebrew—to assert that Hermes Trismegistus was not the Egyptian Thoth but the Phoenician Taaut—whom Tacitus identifies as Tuisto, the legendary divine progenitor of the Germanic peoples.[130] The debate continued and both Borch’s and Kriegsmann’s treatises were reprinted (alongside many others) in Jean-Jacques Manget's Curious Chemical Library.[131]

The Emerald Tablet was still translated and commented upon by Isaac Newton, who rendered the recondite Latin: telesmus as "perfection".[132] But the result of this age of upheaval and inquiry was the gradual decline of alchemy during the eighteenth century. The hardest blow to alchemy's legitimacy was the advent of modern chemistry and the work of Lavoisier—with the 1720s marking the turning point when alchemy lost the trust of the emergent chemical community.[133] The emerging category of modern science fundamentally conflicted with the practical and theoretical traditions of alchemy. It left no room for alchemists within the new definition of the scientist, leading to a sharp decline in alchemical works after the 1780s.[134]

Modernity and present

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The Magician, from the 1909 Rider–Waite tarot deck, often thought to represent the concept of "as above, so below".

Esotericism and academia

[edit]

The Emerald Tablet continued to interest esotericists—and beginning in the 1850s and lasting up to the 1920s the newly emerging occultist current. In France the first occultist, Éliphas Lévi,[135] considered it the most important magical text.[bl] Additionally, figures like Stanislas de Guaïta and Papus spent little time engaging with the broader Hermetic tradition but focused much of their efforts onto exegesis of the Tablet. In Italy Giuliano Kremmerz authored a long commentary on it.[137] English scholars such as John Chambers initiated the academic study of the Hermetica. However, the most influential figure in this endeavor was George R.S. Mead. He began his examinations in the Theosophical Society, but broke with it in 1879. From thereon he developed a scholarly objectivity when engaging with the material while not concealing his personal occultist beliefs.[bm][139]

The co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatsky produced exegetical interpretations of the Tablet.[140] She also popularized a paraphrase of the second verse of the vulgate: "as above, so below".[141] This use—along with that in the Kybalion[bn][143]—propelled it to become an oft-cited motto. Later in the twentieth century, it would rise to particular prominence in New Age circles.[144] This led to its adoption as a title for various works of art.

A figure also influenced by Blavatsky was the Dutch founder of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, Jan van Rijckenborgh.[145] He used the Tablet to derive the crux of his own worldview and ascribed much antiquity to it.[146] The world's most extensive collection of Hermetica is found in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica,[bo] which was founded by a memer of the Lectorium, Joost Ritman.[148] Perennialists as a whole have kept their distance from Hermeticism and its receptions in Western esotericism more generally. However, one of the best-known modern commentaries on the Tablet was produced by the traditionalist, Titus Burckhardt.[149]

A prominent academic reception of the Tablet occurred in Carl Jung's psychology of alchemy.[150] He saw it as the paramount text of alchemy. Jung had read Ruska 1926 and was familiar with the Arabic text of the Book of the Secret of Creation and the debates surrounding the text's age and original language. He focused his textual analysis mainly, however, on the Latin vulgate text.[bp][151] The Tablet’s alchemical operations—most notably the “operation of the sun”—became, for Jung, powerful metaphors: the sun’s “art” of creating gold is none other than consciousness splitting from a “primeval” archetypal source, working through the “prima materia” of the psyche, and reuniting to generate a transformed, individuated self.[152]

[edit]

At the beginning of the twentieth century, alchemy fascinated the surrealist André Breton. He saw in Hermetic practice a model for “transubstantiating the world” and resisting the modern reign of miserablism.[153] In the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto he said: "Heraclitus is surrealist in dialectic. Lully is surrealist in definition. Flamel is surrealist in the night of gold."[154] He believed the aim of surrealism should be to ascertain the point within the mind where life and death, real and imaginary, past and future etc no longer seem contradictory.[bq][156] This approach could be seen as merely Hegelian, but Breton's circle was steeped in living Hermeticism: the Surrealists devoured Fulcanelli, tried to enlist Eugène Canseliet and René Guénon for La Révolution surréaliste, and flocked to Maria de Naglowska's occult soirées in early‑1930s Paris.[br][158] Additionally, Hegel's philosophy itself was influenced by esoteric thinkers, like Jakob Böhme and Emanual Swedenborg—a fact Breton was acutely aware of.[159] In the introduction of a 1942 essay, Breton overturned the Emerald Tablet’s dictum “as above, so below” by invoking the image of a soaring bird and a lift descending into a mine-shaft clashing.[bs] The metaphor led up to his new commandment: “Never believe in the interior of a cave, always in the surface of an egg”. Breton thereby employed alchemy to collapse depth and surface. He used it as a means to bind dichotomous forces into a seamless whole. He saw Max Ernst, who claimed to have been born from an egg, as that very “alchemical egg”—his birth myth and his art as having fused celestial and chthonic forces into that single whole.[161]

Jorge Ben released the studio album A Tábua de Esmeralda ("The Emerald Tablet") in 1974. In it, he explored the theme of alchemy through tracks like “Os Alquimistas estão chegando Os Alquimistas,” “Errare Humanum Est,” and “Hermes Trismegisto e Sua Celeste Tábua de Esmeralda,” using reiterated modal phrases that evoked a liturgical resonance. The album exemplified Ben’s distinctive fusion of samba with elements of jazz and rock, shaped by his percussive, self-taught guitar technique and supported by musicians from across the spectrum of Música popular brasileira. Some Música popular brasileira-traditionalists saw this as a concession to the US garage rock-inspired style known as Jovem Guarda.[162]

Manfred Kelkel composed Tabula Smaragdina (Op. 24) between 1975 and 1977. Conceived as a ballet hermétique, the work aimed to unite his passions for esotericism, alchemy, and music. Kelkel sought to render sound and thought visible through graphic mandalas, which mapped zodiac signs, planets, and the four elements onto instruments, scales, and rhythms. During performance, twelve symbolic images were projected alongside a simplified conventional score—transforming each page of the work into both stage scenery and musical instructions. To structure the piece, Kelkel drew on sources such as Chinese trigrams, fractal geometry, medieval magic squares, and the harmony of the spheres. He created twelve successive movements, each named after a phase in the alchemical process—such as Nuptiae chymicae and Coagulatio—and each possessing its own emblem and formal rules. The result was a codified "metamusic", designed to awaken hidden cosmic and psychological resonances through structured, alchemical transformations.[163]

Khunrath's illustration used in Dark.

In the 2010s German time travel television series Dark, the mysterious priest Noah has a large image of a graphic depiction of an emerald tablet, featuring the text of the Emerald Tablet, tattooed on his back. The image, which stems from Heinrich Khunrath's Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1609), also appears on a metal door in the caves that are central to the plot. Several characters are shown looking at copies of the text.[164] A verse from the 1541 Nuremberg version Latin: Sic mundus creatus est, lit. 'So was the world created' plays a prominent thematic role in the series and is the title of the sixth episode of the first season.[165]

Notes

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  1. ^ Latin rendering of Arabic: لوح الزمرد, romanized: lawḥ al-zumurrudh, lit. 'the tablet of emerald' Arabic pronunciation: [lawħ az.zu.mur.ruð].[1]
  2. ^ The earliest unambiguous evidence dates from the first century BCE, but some texts may go back as far as the second or third century BCE.[13]
  3. ^ Kraus 1943 dates this text to c. 813–833.[20] Weisser 1980 dates it to c. 750–800.[21] An earlier dating attempt by Ruska 1926 placed it between the sixth and eighth centuries CE.[22]
  4. ^ Arabic: كتاب سر الخليقة وصنعة الطبيعة, romanized: Kitāb Sirr al-Khalīqa wa-Ṣanʿat al-Ṭabīʿa also known as the كتاب العلل, Kitāb al-ʿilal, 'Book of Causes'.
  5. ^ Arabised name Arabic: بلينوس, romanized: Balīnūs or Arabic: بليناس, romanized: Balīnās.[26]
  6. ^ A list of other Arabic texts attributed to Apollonius with brief discussions may be found in Weisser 1980, pp. 28–39.
  7. ^ This translation was prepared by Wikipedia editors. A translation based on the superseded edition of Ruska 1926, pp. 158–159 may also be found in Rosenthal 1975.[29]
  8. ^ Imperative directed at a male recipient.
  9. ^ Arabic: صاحب الطلسمات, romanized: sāḥib al-ṭilasmāt.[30]
  10. ^ "The Lineage and Cause of the Wisdom of Balīnūs

    Now I shall inform you of my origin and the cause of my wisdom. I was an orphan from among the people of Ṭuwāna (Arabic: طوانة), possessing nothing. In my city stood a statue of Hermes, erected upon a column of glass. Upon it was inscribed in the primordial tongue: “I am Hermes Trismegistus (Arabic: هرمس المثلث بالحكمة, romanized: Hirmis al-Muthallath bi-'l-Ḥikma). I manifested this sign openly, and veiled it through my wisdom, so that none may reach it except a sage like myself.” And upon the front of the column was written: “Whosoever desires to know the Secret of Creation (Arabic: سر الخليقة, romanized: sirr al-khalīqa) and the Craft of Nature (Arabic: صنعة الطبيعة, romanized: ṣanʿa al-ṭabīʿa), let him look beneath my feet.”

    The people paid no attention to these words and merely gazed beneath the statue’s feet, yet they saw nothing. As for me, I was weak in nature, but when I grew and my nature matured, and I read the inscription on the column, I grasped its meaning. I went and stood beneath the column, and behold—I discovered a dark subterranean passage, a lair (Arabic: سرب, romanized: sarab), into which no sunlight penetrated.

    When I attempted to enter it, turbulent winds arose within, unceasing, so that I could not enter due to the darkness, and my flame would not remain lit because of the force of the wind.

    This troubled me deeply, and sorrow filled my heart. Overcome by fatigue and reflection upon my hardship, I fell asleep, burdened and distressed. Then, in my dream, I saw an old man resembling me in form and appearance. He said to me:
    “O Balīnūs, arise and enter this lair, that you may reach the knowledge of the Secret of Creation and perceive the Craft of Nature.” I said: “I cannot see in its darkness, and my fire does not remain lit because of the wind.”
    He replied:
    “O Balīnūs, place your light in a clear vessel (Arabic: إناء صاف, romanized: ināʾ ṣāfin), so that the wind may not reach it. Thus, you will see by it in the darkness.”

    This delighted me, and I realised that I had attained my goal. I asked him: “Who are you, that you have bestowed this grace upon me?” He said: “I am your Perfect Nature (Arabic: طبيعتك التامة, romanized: ṭabīʿatuka al-tāmma).”

    I awoke full of joy, placed my flame in a clear vessel as instructed, and entered the passage. There I saw an old man seated upon a throne of gold. In his hand was a tablet of green emerald (Arabic: زبرجد أخضر, romanized: zabarjad akhḍar or Arabic: زمرذ أخضر, romanized: zumurrudh akhḍar), upon which was written:
    “This is the Craft of Nature.”
    And in front of him lay a book bearing the inscription:
    “This is the Secret of Creation (Arabic: سر الخليقة, romanized: sirr al-khalīqa) and the Knowledge of the Causes of Things (Arabic: علم علل الأشياء, romanized: ʿilm ʿilal al-ashyāʾ).”

    I took the book and the tablet with a tranquil heart and departed from the passage. From the book, I learned the Secret of Creation, and from the tablet, I comprehended the Craft of Nature. I acquired the Science of the Causes of Things (Arabic: علم علل الأشياء, romanized: ʿilm ʿilal al-ashyāʾ), and my name rose to prominence through wisdom. I created talismans and marvels, and came to understand the temperaments of the four natures (Arabic: الطبائع الأربع, romanized: al-ṭabāʾiʿ al-arbaʿ), their compositions, their oppositions, and their harmonies."[31]
  11. ^ Along similar lines, Wilhelm Ganzenmüller [de] had argued that all of Arab alchemy was built on a mix of pre-Islamic traditions from north-eastern Iran and the land route to India, with other influences from gnostic Christians and ancient Egypt.[40]
  12. ^ The crux of which is reproduced by Needham et al. 1980 using Ruska's translation.[44]
  13. ^ Chinese: 管子, romanized: Guǎn Zǐ More specifically, Tzu-Kung believed to have found the origin of the Tablet in chapter 49, called 'Inward Training' (內業, Nèiyè). This section is a text of rhymed prose on ataraxy, cosmic harmony, and breathing aspects of internal alchemy.[47][48] There are, however, no direct parallelisms between this text and the Tablet.
  14. ^ However, he fundamentally agreed with the idea that the Tablet could have some relation to Chinese thought.[49] Additionally, he suggested that other parts of the Secret of Creation might have Chinese origins, but he lacked access to the Arabic text to explore this further.[50]
  15. ^ Commonly known in Europe by the latinised name Geber. On the dating of the texts attributed to Jābir, see Kraus 1943.[52]
  16. ^ Latin: Secretum Secretorum; Arabic: سرّ الأسرار, romanized: Sirr al-Asrār. Arabic text edited by Badawi 1954.[55]
  17. ^ On the dating of this work, see Manzalaoui 1974.[56]
  18. ^ Though the wording by Ibn Juljul could suggest this framing was a non-essential addition to the treatise.[57]
  19. ^ Arabic: كتاب الماء الورقي والأرض النجمية, romanized: Kitāb al-Māʾ al-Waraqī wa-'l-Arḍ al-Najmiyya.
  20. ^ Whose name is at time latinised to Senior Zadith.
  21. ^ "We went towards the Pyramid (Birbāʾ) which the keepers opened, and I saw on the roof of the galleries1 of the Pyramid a picture of Nine Eagles with out-spread wings, as if they were flying, and with outstretched and open claws. In the claw of each of the eagles was a thing like the fully-drawn bow which is used by soldiers (Jund: MSS. P. and L. Ḵẖail ‘cavalry’). On the wall of the gallery on the right side of any one entering the Pyramid, and on the left side, were pictures of people standing, most perfect in shape and beauty, wearing clothes of various colours and having their hands stretched out towards a figure seated inside the Pyramid, near the pillar of the gate of the Hall. The image was situated to the left hand of whoever desired to enter into the Hall, facing the person who entered from the gallery. The image was (seated) in a chair, like those used by physicians, the chair being separate from the figure. In its lap, resting on the arms—the two hands of the figure being stretched out on its knees—was a stone slab (balāṭah)—also separate—the length of which was about 1 cubit, and the breadth about 1 span. The fingers of both its hands were bent behind the slab, as if holding it. The slab was like an open book, exhibited to all who entered as if to suggest that they should look at it. On the side, viz., in the Hall (riwāq) where the image was situated, were different pictures, and inscriptions in hieroglyphic (bīrbāwī) writing. The tablet which was in the lap of the image was divided into two halves by a line down the middle: and on one half of it towards the bottom, was a picture of two birds having their breasts (contiguous) to one another. One of them had both wings cut off, and the other had both wings (intact). Each of them held fast the tail of the other by its beak as if the flying bird wished to fly with the mutilated bird, and the mutilated bird wished to keep the flying bird with itself. These two linked birds that were holding one another appeared like a circle, a symbol of 'Two in One'. Above the head of the one that was flying was a circle and, above these two birds, at the top of the tablet close to the fingers of the image (sic!), was the representation of the crescent moon (hilāl). At the side of the Moon was a circle, similar to the circle near the two birds at the bottom. The total (of these symbols) is Five—3 at the bottom, viz., two birds and the circle: and, above, the figure of the Crescent Moon and another circle."[63]
  22. ^ Arabic: قراطس, romanized: Qarāṭas.[64] Possibly a corrupted Arabic version of the name Democritus.[65]
  23. ^ Arabic: ساراوندين, romanized: Sārāwandīn. Faivre 1988 and Houdas 1893 merely translate this to mean the Temple of Serapis.[66] But Ruska points out that Sārāwandīn is the Arabised version of Sarapieion and that Arabic: سَرافِيل, romanized: Sarāfīl is the Arabised version of Serapis—with the particle īl being reminiscent of the Arabisation of Hebrew angel names like Arabic: جبريل, romanized: Jibrīl, lit. 'Gabriel'.[67]
  24. ^ Titled Latin: Liber de secretis naturae, lit. 'Book of the Secrets of Nature'; An edition of the text was published by Françoise Hudry.[70]
  25. ^ A Latin edition of this text can be found in Hudry 1997–1999. Hudry's version of the Tablet is reproduced in Mandosio 2004b.[71] An English translation of this text may be found in Litwa 2018.[72]
  26. ^ Hudry's edition is reproduced in Mandosio 2004b, pp. 690–691. An English translation may be found in Litwa 2018.[75]
  27. ^ A Latin edition of the text can be found in Steele 1920.[77] Steele's edition is reproduced in Mandosio 2004b.[78]
  28. ^ Although there are no extant manuscripts before the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
  29. ^ Or in Latin: vulgata.
  30. ^ Latin: Liber Hermetis de alchimia.
  31. ^ Latin: Liber dabessi.
  32. ^ Latin: Liber rebis.
  33. ^ Plato of Tivoli collaborated with Abraham bar Ḥiyya. One reason given for this speculative identification by Steele & Singer 1927 is the presence of Hebraised names in the text.[83]
  34. ^ For further information about this text see Colinet 1995 and Caiazzo 2004, pp. 700–703.
  35. ^ Extant manuscripts are listed in Steele & Singer 1927.[86] Their edition of the Tablet itself is reproduced in Mandosio 2004b.[87] A transcription of the Tablet from the manuscript Arundel 164 is given by Selwood 2023—who erroneously believes Steele & Singer 1927's edition to be a mere transcript of a singular manuscript; his attribution of the text's origin to the Secret of Secrets is likewise incorrect.
  36. ^ Itself from Ancient Greek: τελέω, romanized: teleō, lit. 'to perform; accomplish; consecrate; initiate'.
  37. ^ Latin: De essentiis.
  38. ^ "Th"-initial spellings represent a corruption.
  39. ^ Latin: De mineralibus.
  40. ^ Which he mistakenly identifies as from the Latin: secretum secrelissimorum ie the Secret of Secrets.
  41. ^ Particularly his belief in astrology and natural magic.
  42. ^ "I, called Hortulanus, named from the horti maritimi [incomprehensible term, later variants change it to named from the garden or from the seaside field], wrapped in Jacobin skin, unworthy to be called a disciple of philosophy. Moved by the love of my dear one. The most certain declaration of the speech of the father of philosophers, Hermes, I intend to speak. Which speech, although it may be hidden, nevertheless the exercise of the true work, in the fatigue of my fingers, has most truly declared the whole exposition. For the concealment of the philosophers in speeches profits nothing, where the doctrine of the Holy Spirit operates."[95]
  43. ^ Ruska 1926 points out that this passage and interpretation bear great resemblance to a much earlier Hermetic work transmitted in Greek by Zosimos of Panopolis.[98]
  44. ^ "It is written afterward: Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic — that is to say, in the work of the Stone is found the final path. And note that the Philosopher calls the operation “father of all telesma,” that is to say, of every secret or of all the treasure of the entire world — that is, of every stone discovered in this world. It is here. As if he were saying: behold, I show it to you."[100]
  45. ^ Latin: Aurora consurgens.
  46. ^ Latin: Qui fuerint primi inventores hujus artis.
  47. ^ "Now the very first inventor of this science—or of the mechanical alchemical art, as one reads in several of his own books—was HERMES, who was surnamed Triplex. And this was so because in the threefold philosophy—namely in the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal—he was highest and most perfect in this art of archimia, whether conjointly or separately in the Operation of the Sun. Who, under another name and according to some, is called HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. And therefore he is called Trismegistus, because among these three—namely fluency (Latin: facundia), eloquence (Latin: eloquentia), and knowledge (Latin: scientia)—he was above all others in his day most eminent and perfect. And this same one—because he was the very first inventor of this alchemical art—is continually called Latin: PATER NOSTER, lit. 'OUR FATHER'."[106]
  48. ^ Latin: Opus praeclarum de imaginibus astrologicis.
  49. ^ Or in the work attributed to Albertus Magnus Latin: tabula zatadi, lit. 'zatadi tablet'. Meaning a tablet made of emerald but merely transliterating the Arabic: زبرجدي, romanized: zabarjadī, lit. '(made of) emerald; peridot'.[109]
  50. ^ Latin: Symbola Aureae Mensae.
  51. ^ Latin: Liber de secretis chymicis.
  52. ^ Latin: Atalanta Fugiens.
  53. ^ The current scientific consensus favours Matthaeus Merian as the sole author.[111] A seventeenth-century text by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola asserts de Bry however, leading Godwin 2007 to suggest that, if the busy de Bry had any role to play in the creation of the engravings, it most likely would have been the figures.[112]
  54. ^ Latin: De alchemia.
  55. ^ Latin: De luce naturae physica.
  56. ^ As attested by marginal notes of a 1586 manuscript.
  57. ^ Latin: tria prima.
  58. ^ Latin: Aureum vellus.
  59. ^ This first edition of the poem and emblem were published in Switzerland in vol. III of this treatise.[119]
  60. ^ Latin: Supplementum Aurei Velleris.
  61. ^ Referring to terms like Latin: fatitudo fortis which is a corrupted variant of Latin: fortitudo fortis, lit. 'power of all powers' and also focussing in on the aforementioned Latin: tabula zatadi, lit. 'zatadi tablet'.[126]
  62. ^ He addressed them mockingly as Latin: Cimiastorum, lit. '(of) mixers' instead of the more neutral Latin: Alchemistarum, lit. '(of) Alchemists' in the tractate. In the preceding one he lampooned modern alchemists as describing the philosopher's stone with "useless prolixity and a ludicrous structure" and generally being wrong and misguided about most things.[127]
  63. ^ Latin: De ortu et progressu chemiae.
  64. ^ "Nothing surpasses, nor equals, as a synthesis of all the doctrines of the ancient world, those few sentences engraved on a precious stone by Hermes and known under the name of the Emerald Tablet; the unity of being and the unity of harmonies—whether ascending or descending— the progressive and proportional scale of the Word; the immutable law of equilibrium and the proportional advancement of universal analogies; the relation of the idea to the Word, estab­ lishing the measure of the relationship between creator and created; the mathematics of the infinite, demonstrated through the measures of a single corner of the finite—all of this is ex­ pressed in that single proposition of the great Egyptian hierophant: […] The Emerald Tablet is all of magic in a single page."[136]
  65. ^ It is for this reason that his work can be seen as the first step towards the 20th-century scholarly approaches of Richard Reitzenstein, Walter Scott, Arthur Nock, André-Jean Festugière, Gilles Quispel, Roelof van den Broek, Jean-Pierre Mahé, and Brian Copenhaver.[138]
  66. ^ Which is often speculated to be the work of William W. Atkinson, a New Thought pioneer.[142]
  67. ^ It is also notable for the scholars it has attracted to its editorial board such as Frans A. Janssen [nl] and Carlos Gilly [de].[147]
  68. ^ Exhibiting a particular textual preference for the 1541 Nuremberg edition.
  69. ^ "Everything suggests that there exists a certain point in the mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low cease to be perceived as contradictory. It is in vain, moreover, that one would seek any other motive for surrealist activity than the hope of determining this point."[155]
  70. ^ Opposition to this view is voiced by Béhar 1990: "Lacking humor, this is what Breton would accomplish for surrealist morality in his Second Manifesto. He prepared it during the summer in the solitude of the Île de Sein, rereading Hegel in Vera’s French translation, deepening his understanding of Marx and Engels. [...]It is understood that Surrealism cannot be confined to the sole social structures analyzed by Marxists: its elucidative effort focuses on the superstructures, on human expression in all its forms. Its quest is therefore akin—mutatis mutandis—to that of the alchemist: both involve a similar state of fervor, requiring a certain secrecy, a withdrawal from the public eye, in order to preserve their integrity and to uncover that point of the mind “from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low cease to be perceived in contradiction.”"[157]
  71. ^ "The bird’s vertical flight and the lift sinking ever deeper down the mine-shaft, then rising to the surface again, determined between them a hitherto unsuspected meeting-place where there clashed and blended together the shapes of the sidereal bestiary, of germination, of mechanical traction, of blossoming crystals, as well as, devil take it, some designs from the wallpaper from my room and the bundle of shadows that falls from my hat. First Commandment: Everything should be freed from its shell (from its distance, its comparative size, its physical and chemical properties, its outward appearance). Never believe in the interior of a cave, always in the surface of an egg."[160]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Arabic expression taken from Weisser 1979, p. 281, line 4.
  2. ^ Principe 2013, pp. 31–32.
  3. ^ Kraus 1943, pp. 274–275; Weisser 1980, p. 46.
  4. ^ Kahn 1994, pp. XIX, 41; Mandosio 2004b, p. 683; Caiazzo 2004, pp. 700–703; Colinet 1995.
  5. ^ Principe 2013, p. 32; Debus 2004, p. 415; Ruska 1926, pp. 193, 209.
  6. ^ Debus 2004, p. 415; Principe 2013, p. 31; Linden 2003, p. 27; Kahn 2017, pp. 324–325.
  7. ^ Faivre 1988, p. 38.
  8. ^ Steele & Singer 1927, p. 485/41; Slavenburg 2012, p. 166.
  9. ^ Kraus 1943, pp. 270–303; Weisser 1980, pp. 52–53.
  10. ^ van Bladel 2009, pp. 170–171; Rudolph 1995, pp. 134–135; Ullmann 1980, pp. 91, 93–94; Ullmann 1981, p. 122.
  11. ^ Faivre 1995, p. 19.
  12. ^ Newton 2010.
  13. ^ Bull 2018, pp. 2–3.
  14. ^ Bull 2018, pp. 1–3, 33–38.
  15. ^ van Bladel 2009, pp. 1–22.
  16. ^ van Bladel 2009, pp. 170–171.
  17. ^ Steele & Singer 1927, p. 485/41.
  18. ^ Steele & Singer 1927, p. 485/41; Slavenburg 2012, p. 166.
  19. ^ Weisser 1979, pp. 1–2.
  20. ^ Kraus 1943, pp. 274–275.
  21. ^ Weisser 1980, p. 54.
  22. ^ Ruska 1926, p. 166.
  23. ^ Kahn 1994, p. XII; Weisser 1980, pp. 10–21, 46.
  24. ^ Kraus 1943, pp. 270–303; Weisser 1980, pp. 52–53.
  25. ^ van Bladel 2009, pp. 170–171; Rudolph 1995, pp. 134–135; Ullmann 1980, pp. 91, 93–94; Ullmann 1981, pp. 122.
  26. ^ Weisser 1980, p. 22.
  27. ^ Kahn 1994, pp. XII–XV; Raggetti 2019, pp. 156–157.
  28. ^ Kahn 1994, p. XIII; Weisser 1980, pp. 10, 21; Kraus 1943, pp. 275–278.
  29. ^ Rosenthal 1975, pp. 247–248.
  30. ^ Raggetti 2019, p. 156.
  31. ^ Weisser 1979, pp. 5–7; Weisser 1980, pp. 74–75; Kahn 1994, pp. XVI–XVII.
  32. ^ Ebeling 2007, pp. 46–47, 96.
  33. ^ Kahn 1994, pp. XIII–XIV.
  34. ^ Ruska 1926, p. 115.
  35. ^ Steele & Singer 1927, pp. 488/44; Arié 1990, p. 159; Lindsay 1986, p. 202.
  36. ^ Kahn 1994, pp. XVI–XVII.
  37. ^ Mandosio 2004b, pp. 682–683, 686; Kahn 2016, pp. 22–23.
  38. ^ Kahn 2016, pp. 22–23.
  39. ^ Ruska 1926, p. 167.
  40. ^ Ganzenmüller 1938, p. 32.
  41. ^ Tzu-Kung 1972; Needham et al. 1980, p. 370.
  42. ^ Needham et al. 1980, pp. 412.
  43. ^ Needham et al. 1980, p. 372.
  44. ^ Needham et al. 1980, pp. 371
  45. ^ Needham et al. 1980, p. 370.
  46. ^ Read 1937, p. 54; Needham et al. 1980, p. 370.
  47. ^ Needham et al. 1980, pp. 372
  48. ^ Needham et al. 1980, p. 372.
  49. ^ Needham et al. 1980, p. 370.
  50. ^ Needham et al. 1980, pp. 373–374.
  51. ^ Needham et al. 1980, p. 373.
  52. ^ Kraus 1943, pp. 274–275.
  53. ^ Zirnis 1979, pp. 64–65, 90.
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  87. ^ Mandosio 2004b, pp. 691–692.
  88. ^ Mandosio 2005, pp. 140–141.
  89. ^ Kahn 2016, pp. 22–23.
  90. ^ Linden 2003, p. 27.
  91. ^ Calvet 2022, p. 140.
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  97. ^ Debus 2004, p. 415.
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  102. ^ Obrist 2003, pp. 153–154.
  103. ^ Obrist 2003, p. 152.
  104. ^ Obrist 2003, pp. 151–155.
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Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Kahn, Didier (1994). La table d'émeraude et sa tradition alchimique [The Emerald Tablet and Its Alchemical Tradition] (in French). Paris: Les Belles Lettres. ISBN 9782251470054.
  • Quispel, Gilles (2000). "Gnosis and Alchemy: The Tabula Smaragdina". In Van den Broek, Roelof; Van Heertum, Cis (eds.). From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis, Hermetism and the Christian Tradition. Leiden: Brill. pp. 303–333. doi:10.1163/9789004501973_014. ISBN 978-90-71-60810-0.
  • Ruska, Julius (1926). Tabula Smaragdina. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur [Tabula Smaragdina: A Contribution to the History of Hermetic Literature] (in German). Heidelberg: Winter. OCLC 6751465.
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