THE EMERALD TABLE

Interpretation by Stanislas de Guaita

(Text taken from the Serpent of Genesis , volume II - 1897)


It is true (in principle), it is certain (in theory), it is real (in fact, in application): that what is below (the physical and material world) is like what is above (analogous and proportional to the spiritual and intelligible world) and what is above like what is below (complementary reciprocity): for the accomplishment of the wonders of the one thing (supreme law by virtue of which the harmonies of Creation are perfected, omniversal in its unity).

And just as all things were made (accomplished, realized) from one (by virtue of one principle), by the mediation of one (by the ministry of one agent): so all things were born from this same one thing, by adaptation (or by a kind of copulation).

The sun (condenser of positive irradiation or Light to red אוד , aôd, Od) is his father (active producing element of this agent, [which is only true from our earthly point of view]); the moon (mirror of negative reverberation or Light to blue אוב , aôb, Ob) is its mother (passive producing element [same remark]); the wind (ambulatory etheric atmosphere) carried it in its belly (served it—or serves it—as a vehicle). The earth (considered as a type of centers of material condensation) is its nurse (the athanor of its elaboration).

This is the father (producing element) of the universal telesme [1] (perfection, final goal to be reached) of the entire world (of the living universe).

Its power (force of creative exteriorization, the river פישון Phishôn of Moses) is whole (perfect, accomplished; integrally deployed, until total blossoming) when it is metamorphosed (word by word: when it has turned) into earth (ארץ Aretz of Moses, condensed and specified substance ; ultimate form of creative exteriorization, sensible matter).

You will separate earth (here, in a more general sense, earth means what belongs to the material and tangible world, to the world of effigies) from fire (Principle of action; what belongs to the moral and intelligible worlds); — The subtle of the thick (analogous sense) with delicacy and extreme caution.

It (the pure, universal, mediating fluid, and - according to some Gnostics - Body of the Holy Spirit) rises from the earth to heaven (returning hemicyclic current, ascending; reflux of Synthesis) and again (by a movement that is both alternating and simultaneous), it descends from heaven to earth (hemicyclic current of emission, descending; influx of analysis), and it receives (it takes charge, it is imbued in turn with) the force (the virtues, the properties, the influences) of the things above and below (physical or material and hyperphysical or astral worlds; and still, from another point of view, sensible and intelligible spheres).

Thus (it is by these principles that) you will have (you will acquire, you will appropriate) the glory (the sovereignty, the empire) of the whole universe; thereby, all darkness (all helplessness, all indecision, all error. The mosaic hierogram חשך Hoshek esoterically expresses all negative ideas, symbolized by the cone of shadow of the earth) will flee from you.

Therein resides the strong force of all force (the mutual principle of activity; the potential of all manifestation, the support of all action, the immanent basis of all phenomenal order) which will overcome (take hold of, coagulate, fix) all subtle (volatile, fleeting, elusive, — fluidic) things and penetrate (intrude into, decompose, — dissolve) all solid (cohesive, dense and permanent, — concrete) things.

Thus (by this agent, or again — by this way) the universe was created (reduced from principle to essence, from essence to seminal potency, from potency to act; in a word, — realized).

From there will come (there will find their origin, their principle) marvelous adaptations (applications, or productions), whose mode (the way of being, the type of formation) is here (indicated, revealed, exposed).

This is why I was called Hermes (Mercury, complex myth; in the present case, emblem of Mathesis, living integral science, whose caduceus of Mercury symbolizes the double current: intuitive-synthetic and analytical-experimental) The Trismegistus (three times very great or the greatest), possessing (for having acquired) the three parts of philosophy (the total knowledge of the three worlds, divine or intelligible, psychic or passional, natural or sensitive) of the entire universe .

What I said (my teaching, my verb) is complete (consummated, integrally uttered) on the Magisterium (or the operation, the Great Work) of the sun (a thousand meanings: the Magisterium of the Sun can designate any work led to its perfection; one can see there the intellectual Genesis; the source and the role of the universal fluidic currents; the evolution of the androgynous aôr or engendering Light; finally the Magisterium of the alchemists, strictly speaking , the secret of which, they say, lies uncovered in this text of the smaragdine table).


NOTES

[1] Another version Thelema, θελήμα, will. This version admitted, would have to restrict the symbolic meaning of the word father to the sense of element of manifestation.