Alchemical Texts

Tradition:: Hermetic-alchemical
Form:: alchemical-hermetic
Approx. date:: c. 300 CE
Written down in:: Greco-Latin epoch

Two short alchemical-hermetic texts paired here. The Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina) is the foundational text of Western alchemy in twelve aphorisms; the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra is a 1st–3rd c. CE Greek diagram with terse inscriptions on the transformation of metals.

Source context· Egyptian-Hebrew stream · Egypto-Chaldean cultural impulse

Stream: Egyptian-Hebrew
Cultural impulse: Egypto-Chaldean (3rd post-Atlantean cultural age)
Composed: c. 300 CE
Written down: Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age) manuscript epoch

Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina)

Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus · c. 800 CE · trans. In the Kybalion volume (Three Initiates, 1908)

Twelve aphorisms attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and accorded scriptural status by the alchemical tradition — including the axiom quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius ("as above, so below").

16 sections · 59,999 words

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Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra — Diagram Inscriptions

Anonymous (associated with Cleopatra the alchemist) · c. 200 CE · trans. Project translation from Greek with Berthelot 1887 French as bridge

Diagram inscriptions on the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra the Alchemist — a 1st–3rd c.

1 sections · 1,186 words

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