The Emerald Tablet: Gift from the Gods

by Dennis William Hauck

The ancient art of alchemy is undergoing a rebirth as modern seekers of truth realize that its principles apply to psychological and spiritual transformation. We now understand that the alchemists sought universal laws that were as valid in their laboratory experiments as they were in their own hearts and minds. Their legacy to us is an amazing spiritual technology that works on all levels of reality at once, a powerful Science of Soul whose principles are as valid in the natural world as they are in the realms of mind and spirit.

The alchemical philosophers got their inspiration from a single document known as the Emerald Tablet, which is said to have originated not with mortal men but with mysterious godlike visitors who arrived in Egypt over 12,000 years ago. Ancient Egyptian scrolls referred to them as the "Group of Nine" and credit one of them named "Thoth" (the God of Thought) with teaching mankind writing, mathematics, and astronomy. Just before the Great Flood, Thoth preserved the visitors' teachings in a time capsule of wisdom sealed within a great pillar. Thoth's pillar survived the flood and when opened was found to contain many manuscripts, as well as a wondrous, green crystal tablet that was put on public display in Heliopolis, Egypt.

The tablet not only spelled out a succinct summary of the ancient wisdom, but it carried with it an amazing gift for the future evolution of mankind. Encoded within the tablet was a secret formula for transforming reality. That formula became the basis for the discipline of alchemy, but to hide the true nature of their work from power-hungry monarchs and jealous priests, the alchemists described each step of the formula in chemical terms. Although the alchemists spoke of furnaces, flasks, and beakers, they were really talking about changes taking place in their own bodies, minds, and souls.

"The Emerald Tablet," says Jungian analyst Dr. Edward Edinger, "is the cryptic epitome of the alchemical opus, a recipe for the second creation of the world." "Whatever one chooses to believe about it," notes esoteric scholar John Matthews, "there is no getting away from the fact that the Emerald Tablet is one of the most profound and important documents to have come down to us. It has been said more than once that it contains the sum of all knowledge ¾ for those able to understand it." Like many other contemporary explorers of consciousness, Terence McKenna believes that the Emerald Tablet contains "a formula for a holographic matrix" that is mirrored in the human mind and offers our species its only hope for future survival.

That "holographic matrix" is what the alchemists referred to as the Emerald Formula, which consists of seven consecutive operations that are performed to perfect the "matter" at hand ¾ whether it is of a physical, mental, or spiritual nature. By applying the Emerald Formula to our own lives, we can initiate alchemy within ourselves and change the lead of our everyday selves into the gold of perfected spirits living in accord with the higher laws of the universe.

Dennis William Hauck is the author of The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation (Penguin 1999).