Opening The Emerald Tablet — Hermes Trismegistus in Plato Scroll…
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Hermes Trismegistus · After Evelyn-White (Loeb)
A compact and cryptic Hermetic text, traditionally attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus — "thrice-greatest Hermes" — and reputed to contain, in a few sentences, the secret of the prima materia and the doctrine of correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm: as above, so below. The earliest known versions are Arabic recensions from the 8th–10th centuries CE, which entered Europe by Latin translation in the twelfth century and became foundational to Western alchemy, Hermetic philosophy, and the Neoplatonic revival. Six historic renderings are gathered here. Verum sine mendacio, certum, et verissimum: quod est inferius, est sicut quod est superius; et quod est superius, est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius. Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater eius est Sol, mater eius …
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