Transformation Tarot
Transformation Tarot

No matter how many scholars disagree and attribute the tablet to a different person or country or period in time, the overall consensus in our western tradition is that Hermes (another mythic figure) was the author and that the Tablet contains one of the earliest texts in alchemy.

The Emerald Tablet

True, without falsehood, certain and most true

That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above, for the performance of the miracles of the One Thing.

And as all things are from One, by the mediation of One, so all things have their birth from this One Thing by adaptation.

The Sun is its father, the Moon its mother,

The Wind carries it in its belly, its nurse is the Earth.

This is the father of all perfection, or consummation of the whole world.

Its power is integrating, if it be turned into earth.

Thou shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, suavely, and with great ingenuity.

It ascends from earth to heaven and descends again to earth, and receives the power of the superiors and of the inferiors.

So thou hast the glory of the whole world; therefore let all obscurity flee before thee.

This is the strong force of all forces, overcoming every subtle and penetrating every solid thing.

So the world was created. Hence were all wonderful adaptations, of which this is the manner.

Therefore, I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.

What I have to tell is completed concerning the Operation of the Sun.

Transformation Tarot

ALCHEMY IMAGES FROM THE MANLY HALL COLLECTION, PRS