From alt.magick Mon Mar 16 13:59:10 1992
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From: stark@dwovax.enet.dec.com (Todd I. Stark)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: The Emerald Tablet, text and essay
Message-ID: <1992Mar13.221642.6788@PA.dec.com>
Date: 13 Mar 92 16:15:36 GMT
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This posting contains the complete text of the tablet, in English, followed
by a moderate to long essay on The_Emerald_Tablet from a historical 
perspective from a limited set of sources (2).

The text for the tablet is also available in Latin, from the Edinger source 
listed in the references.   There is also an Arabic version, but I have never
personally come across it (and I'd have trouble typing it in, anyway !).
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		The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

'Tis true, without falsehood, and most real: that which is above is
like that which is below, to perpetuate the miracles of one thing.
And as all things have been derived from one, by the thought of one,
so all things are born from this thing, by adoption.  The sun is its
father, the moon is its mother.  Wind has carried it in its belly,
the earth is its nurse.  Here is the father of every perfection in the
world. His strength and power are absolute when changed into earth; thou
wilt separate the earth from fire, the subtle from gross, gently and with
care.  It ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again to earth
to receive the power of the superior and the inferior things.  By this means,
thou wilt have the glory of the world.  And because of this, all obsurity
will flee from thee.  Within this is the power, most powerful of all powers.
For it will overcome all subtle things, and penetrate every solid thing.
Thus the world was created.  From this will be, and will emerge, admirable
adaptations of which the means are here.  And for this reason, I am called
Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the 
world.  What I have said of the sun's operation is accomplished.

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		Essay concerning the tablet
		---------------------------

    "A very ancient text, La Table d'Emeraude, says

	'The thing that is on high is like the thing that is below,' 

     and the works of all the philosophers imbued with occult doctrines are not
     more than a long commentary on this principle.  If man is a diminutive
     of the universe, if they both obey the same mechanical, physical,
     and physiological laws, it is easy to know one by the other in one and the
     same process of study.  Whoever knows man knows the universe, and conversely,
     whoever knows the universe, knows man."

The above quote is from the French scholar of occultism, Grillot de Givry, from
an English translation of his Witchcraft_Magic_and_Alchemy.  Thus does the
'principle of correspondence' in the Emerald Tablet combine organic metaphor 
with divine analogy to express the powerful synthetic philosophy of microcosm
and macrocosm found at the core of the known occult sciences among most or all 
peoples.  

The legendary Hermes Trismegistus was probably a divinity of the Greek settlers
in Alexandria, Egypt, in the early centuries of our era.  The Greeks recognized
aspects of their own divinities in those of the Egyptians, and identified
Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, as divine inventor of magic, writing, and the
spoken word, all of which were of great sacred importance to the Egyptians.

Thoth-Hermes seems to have developed from a deity into a mythical king who
wrote over 30,000 books, and reigned for 3,226 years.  Iamblichus gave the
number of books as 20,000.  Clement of Alexandria put the number at a sober
42.  They are now believed to be a collection of anonymous writings attributed
to 'Thoth' to give them the credibility afforded books of antiquity.  They deal
in the primarily Egyptian and Greek philosophy at the core of what later 
became known as Hermeticism, the root of the best known Renaissance Magic and 
Renaissance Alchemy.   In the early part of the era when this philosophy
first seems to have flourished, there was little doubt of the historical
existence of Hermes Trismegistus, having been confirmed by such notables
as Plato, Diodorus of Sicily, Teriullian, Galen, and Iamblichus, in addition
to many others.

Of all the writing attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, only 14 or 15 short
Greek texts and some fragments preserved by Christian authors survived
into the European Renaissance, as far as we can tell.  These came under the
collective title of Corpus_Hermeticum (body of Hermetic writings), or sometimes
The_Hermetica.  It is believed that before the end of the 12th century,
a Latin translation was available in Europe, by way of Arabic Alchemists.
The first widely available version of Corpus_Hermeticum in Europe was
the 1463 translation from Greek to Latin by Italian scholar Marsilio Ficino 
for his patron, Cosimo de Medici.  This is widely believed to be the
first true esoteric writings available in Renaissance Europe, and the basis
of most or all of the esoteric traditions which followed it.  

The_Hermetica contained references to Magic, and frequent references to
Astrology, but ony vague references to Alchemy.  Later Alchemists considered
teh Hermetic writings to be precious secrets deliberately veiled in allegory
by their writer.  Possibly the most controversial idea in the writings to 
their limited-size Medieval Christian audience was that of Apotheosis, the 
secret, so-to-speak, of the Mystery Religions, whereby the individual human 
became deified, 'like a God.'  An English translation of the Corpus by Walter 
Scott was available from Shambhala Publications at one time.  I don't know if 
it still is.

The general topic of the Corpus was very reminiscent of Gnosticism, and
some of it was strikingly similar to teh Gospel of St. John.  There are also
elements that are strongly Platonic, as from Timaeus, and some which 
resemble Philo's Greek-Jewish philosophies.

The Emerald_Tablet itself was one small but very significant passage from
the Corpus, and was considered the credo of the Alchemical adepts.  It was
found, according to tradition, 

	"in the hands of Hermes' mummy, in an obscure pit where his interred
	 body lay"

					in the great pyramid of Gizeh.

By tradition, the finder was either Alexander the Great, Sarah the wife of
Abraham, or possibly Apollonius of Tyana.

It is now commonly believed that there was no such person as Hermes
Trismegistus, and no Emerald_Tablet found in the great master's tomb.
Interestingly echoing the legend, the earliest recorded copy, in the Leyden 
Papyrus, dating from about 300 A.D., was discovered in the tomb of an 
anonymous magician in Egyptian Thebes in 1828.

In the allegories of the Emerald_Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, the
Alchemists recognized the various stages of gold-making and the way in
which gold, linked metaphorically with the sun, mediated between man
and God.  There are also many parallels between The_Hermetica in general
and the Gospels, which were not lost on the Alchemists.

The true meaning of the Tablet is, as always was, is to be discovered in the
heart and soul of the seeker.
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References :

	_Anatomy_of_the_Psyche_, Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy,
	Edward F. Edinger, Open Court Press, 1985.

	_The_History_of_Magic_and_the_Occult_, Kurt Seligmann,
	Pantheon Books, 1948.

								todd