The Emerald Tablet

The Emerald Tablet or emerald tablet as it is also known, is a short and enigmatic text attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, whose purpose is to reveal the secret of primordial importance and its transmutations.

Hermes Trismegistus is the Greek name for a mythical character associated with a syncretism of the Egyptian god. Hermes Trismegistus was a pagan prophet who heralded the advent of Christianity. Studies in alchemy have been attributed to him as the Emerald Talba, which was translated from Latin into English by Isaac Newton.

In the Emerald Table the whole art of the Great Work is condensed or summarized, the main goal of alchemy, alchemy is the art of perfection and the Great Work implies its fulfillment, perfection.

Legends of the Emerald Tablet

The tablet is said to have been found around the 1350s in a secret burial chamber that lay beneath the pyramid of Cheops, the origin of this was as mysterious as its interpretation and is considered by scholars to be the "cornerstone of Western alchemical thought".

The creator of the Emerald Tablet was provided in myth as the Egyptian god Thoth, who Armando Mei writes divided his knowledge into 42 emerald tablets, codifying the great scientific principles governing the universe.

Legend has it that after the fall of the gods, the hermetic tablets were cleverly hidden so that no human being could find them. Only Thoth, on his return to this dimension, was able to retrieve the mysterious book. Another legend suggests that it was the third son of Adam and Eve, Seth, who originally wrote it.

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Jorge Ben's eleventh album, also called Tábua de Esmeralda, was released in 1974, at the height of the military dictatorship, led by Medici. At that time censorship was established and songs and poems were forbidden when the subject was to talk about politics.

In the period of the middle ages, there was a lot of demand for mystical subjects such as astrology. In this way Jorge Bem's album itself portrayed the history of dictatorship and self-help. His album was a success at that time and he stood out for his work and made a mark in his artistic career.

Spreading Emerald Tablet Stories

Although various claims have been made about the origins of the Emerald tablet, so far no verifiable evidence has been found to support them. The oldest documentable source of the tablet's text is the Kitab sirr al-haliqi (Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature), which was a composite of earlier works.

This was an Arabic work written in the 8th century and attributed to 'Balinas' or Pseudo-Apolonius of Tiana. It is Balinas who tells us the story of how he discovered the Emerald Plaque in the dug up tomb.

Based on this Arabic work, some believe that the Emerald tablet was also an Arabic text and written between the 6th and 8th centuries, rather than a work from antiquity, as many have claimed.

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Although Balinas claimed that the Emerald Tablet was originally written in Greek, the original document he supposedly possessed no longer exists, if indeed it existed at all. Some say that the text burned in the Library of Alexandria, however, Balinas' version of the text itself became quickly known and was translated by various people over the centuries.

For example, an earlier version of the Emerald Tablet also appeared in a work called Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani (Second Book of the Elements of the Foundation), which is attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan. However, it would take several centuries for the text to be accessible to Europeans. In the 12th century b.c., it was translated into Latin by Hugo von Santalla.

What is written on the emerald tablet

The Emerald Tablet would become one of the pillars of Western alchemy. It was a highly influential text in medieval and Renaissance alchemy, and probably still is today. Besides translations, several commentaries were also written about its contents.

The interpretation of the Emerald Text is not a straightforward matter, since, after all, it is an esoteric text. One interpretation, for example, suggests that the text describes seven stages of alchemical transformation, calcination, dissolution, separation, conjunction, fermentation, distillation, and coagulation.

However, despite the various interpretations available, it seems that none of its authors claim to possess knowledge of the whole truth. Moreover, readers are encouraged to read the text and try to interpret and find within themselves the hidden truths.

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The Emerald Tablet translated into Portuguese

It's true, it's very true

And just as all things came from the One, so all things are unique, by adaptation

The Sun is the father, the Moon is the mother [...]

This is how the world was created

For this reason I have been called Hermes Trismegistus, for I possess the three parts of universal philosophy [...]

Another version in Arabic (from Ruska's German, translated by 'Anonymous').

Here (is) a true explanation, about which there can be no doubt.

It attests: the above from below, and the below from above - the miracle work of the One.

And things came into being from this primordial substance by a single act. How wonderful is this work! It is the main (principle) of the world and is its maintainer.

His father is the sun and his mother is the moon; The wind carried him in its body and the earth nourished him.

the father of talismen and the protector of miracles whose powers are perfect, and whose lights are confirmed (?), a fire that becomes earth.

Separate the earth from the fire, so that you reach for the subtle as more inherent than the dense, with care and sagacity.

He ascends from earth to heaven, to draw to himself the lights from on high, and descends to earth; thus within him are the forces from above and below;

Because the light of the lights within him, the darkness flees before him.

The force of forces, which surpasses all subtle things and penetrates all that is gross.

The structure of the microcosm is in accordance with the structure of the macrocosm.

And proceed according to the knower.

Final considerations

It is worth noting that the Emerald Tablet is based on Hermeticism, a religious and philosophical tradition whose fundamental principles are: the correspondence between levels, that is, that what happens in reality, also happens at the mental and emotional level, and the way opposites complement each other.

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