Trismegistos, Hermes: Tabula Smaragdina

Translation and commentary © fra Nefastos 2006

Verum est sine mendacio, certum, et verissimum.
Quod est inferius, est sicut id quod est superius.
Et quod est superius, est sicut id quod est inferius,
ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius,
sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione.
Pater eius est Sol, mater eius est Luna.
Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo.
Nutrix eius Terra est.
Pater omnis Thelesmi totius mundi est hic.
Virtus eius integra est, si versa fuerit in terram.
Separabis terram ab igne, supbtilo a spisso,
suaviter, magno cum ingenio.
Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram,
et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum.
Sic habebis gloriam totius mundi.
Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.
Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis.
Quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit.
Sic mundus creatus est.
Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic.
Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistos,
habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi.
Completum est quod dixi de operatione Solis.

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THE EMERALD TABLET

True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true: 1
That which is below is like to that which is above,
And that which is above is like to that which is below,
to accomplish the miracles of the One. 2
And as all things are made of One, by the contemplation of One,
so all things are derived from it by adaptation. 3
Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon. 4
The Wind carried it in its belly. 5
The Earth is its nurse. 6
It is the father of all the Perfections of the world. 7
Its power is complete, when it has been cast on to earth. 8
Separate earth from fire, the subtle from the coarse,
gently and with great care. 9
It ascends from earth to heaven, and descends to earth again,
receiving the powers of higher and lower.
Thus you will have the Glory of all world.
All obscurity will depart from you. 10
This is the true strength in all strength.
For it overcomes all that is subtle, and penetrates everything solid.
In this way the world is created.
From this, and like this, are made all miracles of adaptation. 11
And because of this I am called Hermes Trismegistos,
for mine are the three perfections of universal philosophy.
Completed it is, what I told about the operation of the Sun. 12

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COMMENTARY

  1. This knowledge is not a part of the conventional and changing world, but of the true and unchanging. Because its truth is archetypal, metaphysical, it can be applied to everything. ↩

  2. For everything happens by the same basic laws whether it would be in a small or a larger scale, as with an atom, as with a solar system, and in everything smaller or larger than these; and with their inner worlds. ↩

  3. There is nothing but one absolute, which prepares all existence, and in it embodies itself to itself. This is done by the power of its thought, the contemplation, the introspection. All seemingly separate and diverse creatures are just manifestations of the aspects of this same unity, of the existence of that one core. ↩

  4. This one consciousness is inseminated by the One Light, and the Reflecting Matter gives birth to it. For it creates mirrors of its consciousness, the sons of its perfectness in the cosmos which is its embodiment, and they must have their external births from the seeming polarity of the world. ↩

  5. Through the workings of the mind has this mirror of unity reached for self-consciousness. ↩

  6.  It has been nourished by experiences of the bodily life. ↩

  7. All truly right action in the world depends on the reaching of this one consciousness. ↩

  8. It is most powerful when it has been focused into perfected body. ↩

  9. Although all is one, composed elements must be disposed to their natural places; spirit cleaned from the stains of materiality, matter from the mirages projected unto it by spirit. With this will be acchieved the distinctive conditions of both of these, which are ultimately the same. This must be done very seriously; with comprehensive, durable, unyielding, constant effort. ↩

  10. By this work consciousness will see the deep mysteries of both spirit and matter, by rising from matter to spirit and then, when it has found itself, stepping again to the field of material action with a new basis. Thus will be reached the miraculous power of unity. After that no error is possible, when the core of things can be seen as well as the method after which that core acts in all exterior things. ↩

  11. That which is real, beautiful and interesting in the world, is the essence of this mystery. It is the guiding power of all matter, the very own and only content of the meaning. There is no other active agent than this mystery’s own power in all spirit and in all matter. Spirit recognizes it and serves it consciously and gladly, and matter serves it unknowingly, following impulses of that one secret power in all exterior forms and with its inner ways of movement, which ways are of the power of that one essence. Everything that exists has been made like this, with no other reasons. As the same way is done all humane as well as natural or spiritual actions, as appliances of this law of unity, be it either knowingly or without self-conscious participation. ↩

  12. And he who knows and have applied this, and who therefore has created himself as the image of that unity, he is the Thrice-Great Sage, for every part of the primal triad he have rightly understood and to others fixed. Herein is told the whole formula of cosmic manifestation. ↩