The Emerald Tablet of Hermes

True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true.

That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above, to accomplish the miracles of (the) one thing.

And as all things were by contemplation (meditation) of (the) One, so all things arose from this one thing by a single act of adaptation.

The father thereof is the sun, the mother the moon; the wind carried it in its womb; the earth is the nurse thereof.

It is the father of all works of wonder (thelema) throughout the whole world.

The power thereof is perfect, if it be cast on to earth.

It will separate the element of earth from that of fire, the subtle from the gross, gently and with great sagacity.

It doth ascend from earth to heaven; again it doth descend to earth, and uniteth in itself the force from things superior and things inferior.  Thus thou wilt possess the glory of the brightness of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly far from thee.

This thing is the strongest of all powers, the force of all forces, for it overcometh every subtle thing and doth penetrate every solid substance.

Thus was this world created.

Hence there will be marvellous adaptations achieved, of which the manner is this.

For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus, because I hold three parts of the wisdom of the world.

That which I had to say about the operation of sol is completed.

[ English translation from the Latin text Tabula Smaragdina based on that by Robert Steele and Dorothy Singer, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine xxi (1928), p. 42 ]