The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 m www.rosecroixjournal.org

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes: The Wisdom and Responsibility of the

Rosicrucians

Zoran Perowanowitsch

Herrgasse 2b

D – 79294 Sölden

Abstract

The ancient text of the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), after it had been translated

into Latin, has taken a prominent position within the spirituality of the West. The few

the late middle ages, on the interpretation of the individual symbols of the emblem. When

these different images of the emblem in their symbolic meaning, as well as in their

relationship to each other, are analyzed and become clear, they will open themselves up

to modern consciousness. Thus it will become apparent that the emblem of the Emerald

Tablet deserves to take a central place within the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, as it

represents the essence of Rosicrucian wisdom.

Introduction

If there are only a few references to other contributions in this paper, then this is due to

the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, there is little pertinent literature on the subject

in existence. Since “outer science” can be of little help in the analysis of the enigma of

With that, we will turn to the text of the Emerald Tablet and especially the emblem that is

part of it, to interpret step by step the meaning that is contained in them.

The text of the Tabula Smaragdina (Latin for Emerald Tablet), was first cited in only a

few lines at the end of the book “Sirr”, an Arabic work of the 7

th

Century and early Islam.

The term “Sirr” is derived from the Arabic and translated means “On the secret of

Creation.”

2

The author was Balinus, and the text was supposedly first translated by a

Christian priest. Through research and comparison with literature of the time, the name

supposedly lived to be a hundred years. He influenced the political fate of Rome and thus

that of Christianity, and for the last part of his life he lived with John the Evangelist, who

was of approximately the same age, on the Isle of Patmos. Whether there had been

Smaragdine was translated into Latin, which introduced it to the West. The several

and the statements therein evoke the impression that they do not represent the entire text.

As all things are created by the One and His plan, so are all things originating from the

One, by adaptation.

Its father is the sun, its mother is the moon.

The wind has born it in its belly.

Its nurturer is the earth.

It rises to heaven from the earth and down again to the earth and thereby receives the

power of the upper and the lower.

Thus you gain the glory of all the world. Above, all ignorance will leave you. The unique

f

This is why I am called the trice-great Hermes because I possess the three parts of the

wisdom of all the world.

In 1604 in a different book, the Aureum Vellus

, an emblem was printed along with the

by strongly alchemical methods of expression. The emblem originally appears without

Hermetis and into the book of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians (figure 1).

human consciousness to,

responsibly, participate in the

metamorphoses of the elements to

tabula: “That which is below is equal to that which is above. And that which is above is

Tablet, let us think of it as four equal quarters, divided by a cross. Thus, the upper left

On the left sun-side, the qualities of Saturn and Mars, and on the right, moon-side the

Mars and Jupiter qualities are concentrated.

Saturn (because of the constriction) and Mars (of the ego) stand for the heightened

In the symbolism of the imagination, this state of the soul is expressed as a “dragon.”

Viewed in this way, the masculine and feminine qualities face each other in their one-

are not denied but, through the respective inclusion of the

corresponding to the following lines of the

Tabula.

common point of reference in the head, whereby we

Mercury (Hermes), showing that the planet sign, Mercury,

androgynous messenger of heaven, who acts on the

vertical plane of up and down, of heaven and earth, as the

mediator.

Such a being we see depicted in figure 4. The picture also points to the next phase of

other. However, the heads of the man and woman still show a duality, which points to the

new being, is where the eagle carries it. It “blooms” into a “blue flower,” becomes

“space” and thus experiences its macrocosmic equivalence.

the soul, shines in its purified, wisdom-filled state in a star-spangled pure blue.

of the equivalence of micro- and macrocosm is represented by a circle in the center of the

through the birth of the “new person,” to the “heavenly ascension,” the intuitive

eagle.

heaven and into the sphere of the cosmic Sophia.

consciousness for which it stands, though it is to be found beyond the sensual polarity,

remains polar but corresponding to itself and not, as on the sensual plane, in a self

exclusive way. The qualities of male and female remain intact.

The empty circle symbolizes the still undeveloped nature of consciousness, which in its

“emptiness” by the spiritual principle as we have encountered with the double eagle,

corresponds to the level of the intuitive experience of the Sophia. The Rosicrucian

understands this level of consciousness to be the secondary work, since it “only”

sun is depicted by itself in its spiritual aspect, it represents the Christ., which is expressed

in figure 5, an image from the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians. From Jesse, the father

of King David of Israel, grows the root of the family tree of Christ, the spiritual sun.

earth, the “major work,” which comes to expression in the following sentences of the

indicate that together with the qualities of the seven planets in the flow of time, it goes

seven-pointed star in the emblem. Wisdom and

sphere, now turn to the seven-count of time

understanding, Rosicrucians attached a special

star.

detail the different planes of inner evolution, as

beyond Saturn to experience its pure, cosmic, original state, shall now turn to the center

Emil Emil Bock, “Das neue Testament” (The New Testament), 1987