#emerald tablet

The legend goes that someone, be it Apollonius of Tyanna, or Alexander the Great, or occasionally even the biblical figure Sarah, discovered a tomb. Sometimes the tomb is near the Palestinian city of Hebron, sometimes its not. Inside the tomb was the skeleton of legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus, and clutched in his arms was a mysterious tablet made of pure emerald. Inscribed in an ancient language, sometimes Aramaic, sometimes Phoenician, was a poem that contained all of his earthly and divine wisdom. 

Before we can discuss what we know about the Emerald Tablet, we must discuss its mangled and mysterious textual history. There is no emerald tablet. Or, more accurately, there is no singular emerald tablet. The likely earliest edition comes from the Kitab Sirr Al-Khaliqa, The Book of the Secrets of Creation, a 9th century text ascribed to Apolonius of Tyanna. The Arabic form of the tablet claims to be a translation from Syriac, which itself was a translation from classical Greek. This claim is considerably debated. Partially, because there are two more Arabic translations from the same period, which differ significantly. One from the Secretum Secretorum, and another from the Jabirian corpus, which is notably shorter and corrupt. 

Generally, when you translate an alchemical text from Greek to Arabic, your translation will have words associated with the Greek terminology. What all these Arabic emerald tablets have in common, is a lack of Greek alchemical terms. So while they are likely based on an earlier text, their origins are firmly in the Arabic world, most likely the Isma’ili esoteric circles. This goes even further. Europe knows the tablet via the Latin translation of the Secretum Secretorum, the most corrupt Arabic original. This formed the basis for centuries of dead-end attempts at decoding by western esotericists. 

So! We have no idea what the tablet means! Why are we talking about it?

Melchizedek and Amália Rodrigues: Bread, Wine, and the Eternal Table

In the Genesis a figure emerges who belongs to no line of fathers and no order of blood. His name is Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High. He comes without genealogy, without beginning or end, without the bonds of tribe or descent. He reigns in a city that is less a place than a symbol, since Salem is peace, wholeness, the meeting of heaven and earth. When he enters the story of Abraham it is through blessing, bearing in his hands bread and wine.

In that simple gesture lies the first sacrament, the union of body and Spirit in a ritual that precedes the Law and exceeds history. Centuries later this gesture will echo in the Last Supper, and still later in Amália Rodrigues’s Uma Casa Portuguesa: the same bread and wine upon the table of everyday life. The mystery of Salem is renewed in the ordinary.

More at The Mirror of Sienna.

Magic = science

Alchemy = magic = science = It was, in its deepest sense, the transmutation and transformation of substances.

The mystical ideas of alchemy compared the material transmutation to that of the human spirit and the knowledge of god.

Because you were attempting (chemistry) finding out elements and mixing them together to create something else.

Magick - alchemy - chemistry - other sciences

Alchemy and magick are related in a number of ways, including:

1. Medieval scrolls - Some medieval scrolls combine alchemy, medicine, and magic, including spells, recipes, and alchemical processes

2. The philosopher's stone - This mythic substance was believed to be able to turn base metals into gold or silver, and to create an elixir of life.

3. The relationship between the physical and the unseen - Alchemy and astrology are both concerned with relating the physical world to the greater universe. In alchemy, transmutations of elements were believed to correspond to transmutations of the spirit

4. Alchemy was considered a science in the medieval period, and was a precursor to chemistry. Pope John XXII banned alchemy in 1317, making it illegal in Christian and Western countries.

The Emerald Tablet 

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.

Hermes Trismegistus is a legendary alchemist and ancient Egyptian sage who is associated with the Philosopher's Stone: 

Philosophers stone - An elusive substance that alchemists sought to create as the ultimate goal of their work. The stone symbolized immortality and spiritual enlightenment

The emerald tablet - work of alchemy and is often attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. However, German scholar Julius Ruska traced the text back to the 7th–9th century Arab treatise Kitab Balaniyus al-Hakim fi'l-`Ilal

The Seal of Hermes - An alchemical procedure for creating the Philosopher's Stone that involved sealing a glass vessel containing a mixture of materials. The vessel was then heated for 30–40 days. The term "hermetically sealed" comes from this procedure. 

Distillation - A process used by alchemists to change matter from one form to another. The method was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which is why it's described as "hermetically sealed"

“As above, so below

As within, so without