What the fr*ck are the Emerald Tablets???

by oti_dioti

I see a lot of people drooling on them, but I cannot seem to find any relevant information about them, nor information not backed by spiritual websites: i.e. the wikipedia page about it seems to be making very vague arguments(cant even understand if they mean 650 BC or AD) and only few are backed by sources, of which most are crystal/spiritual websites.

BezBezson

They're an Arabic probably text from somewhere around 600-800 CE, though many of those crystal/spiritual sites will probably claim much older.
[Katharine Park, Lorraine Daston. The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 3, Early Modern Science. Cambridge University Press, 2006. p.502]

There is no evidence of it from before that time, though the earliest version we have claims the text was found on an ancient emerald tablet on a golden throne. So while the Arabic author probably invented it, in theory it could be older.

Supposedly the author is Hermes Trismegistus, who is literally an ancient god of magic, and the text was considered the foundation of alchemy. Supposedly, it contains the secret of prima materia, the essential matter needed for creating a philosopher's stone, and also how to perform transmutation of substances. However, these arcane secrets are hidden in it's text as metaphor, so there's no actual instructions you can follow.

You should be able to find the entire text online, on some of those spiritual/crystal/alchemy websites, it's not very long.