There are certain subjects and topics that are not related to Masonry but reading Masons are expected to know. It would be very embarrassing if a Mason doesn’t even know who Arturo DeHoyos is, or if a Mason was to join a conversation about the Rosicrucians, for example, and he wouldn’t even have any idea who or what they were, much less confuse them as wannabe Masons. There are other key topics that reading Masons would definitely come across such as the Carbonari, Golden Dawn, Strict Observance, Rex Deus, Bohemian Grove, Larmenius Charter, and Rectified Scottish Rite, just to name a few. A Mason who is ignorant of these is one who does not read even about Masonry itself, for if he does, he would definitely run into them one way or another through his further digging, even if such are not at all related to his craft.

The Emerald Tablet is one such topic that many Masons, no doubt, are already familiar with. In fact it was even mentioned in last Issue’s article about Hermes Trismegistus. As such, this article would not bore you or waste your time telling you things you probably already know. Instead, this article would try to shed light on some of the confusions and misconceptions surrounding the subject. It is highly recommended, however, that you first do your own research about the Emerald Tablet before attempting to read this article, for we shall proceed to assume you already know enough, and would refer to things you are expected to already know, hence would no longer be expounded upon.

Tablet or Tablets?

First of all, when people talk about the Emerald Tablet today, they actually mean one of two things. The first is called the Emerald Tablet (singular) of Hermes, while the other is called the Emerald Tablets (plural) of Thoth. These are two totally different things. One is based on historical records, the other most likely a deliberate disinformation that managed to confuse a lot of modern researchers.

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes, or Tabula Smaragdina, is an actual stone tablet whose source, though still unknown, could be approximately dated between and 6th and 8th centuries. Inscribed on the tablet are coded texts of supposed alchemical secrets which have been translated through the centuries by the likes of Isaac Newton, Madame Blavatsky, and Fulcanelli. Other prominent translations were also made, all of which concur with each other and are virtually telling the same thing – that of the balance of opposites in the universe (eg. above and below, sun and moon, earth and wind, etc.) and how they are harnessed as a work that both creates and strengthens

The fact that the Emerald Tablet of Hermes has attracted the attention of prominent personalities throughout history, ranging from esoteric writers to respectable men of science, it only goes to show that its validity had already gone through their own meticulous scrutiny. The same cannot be said, however, of the modern-day invention called the Emerald Tablets of Thoth which, though filled with credible esoteric ideas, are nonetheless tainted with bogus injections.

If you ever do an Internet search on the Emerald Tablet, chances are you would be redirected to a few websites on the so-called twelve Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean. In fact, on YouTube alone, there are more search results leading to it than to the actual Emerald Tablet of Hermes. Though Hermes Trismegistus was believed to be the Greek counterpart of the Egyptian god Thoth, due to the Hellenistic mentality of the time, it should be strongly stressed that the Emerald Tablet of Hermes is not the same as the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. The latter is apparently intended to ride on the popularity of the former in order to push a single author’s ideas about the tablets being the “most secret of ancient wisdom.” He allegedly translated them but the original tablets themselves were, as he claimed, “returned to their source,” thus conveniently eliminating any and all evidences of their actual existence.

This author of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, who calls himself Dr. M. Doreal (real name Claude Doggins), has written many other fringe publications, mostly about Ancient Aliens (extraterrestrials and flying saucers), the Reptilian Race conspiracies, and wild unfounded claims about Atlantis, some of which made it to his Emerald Tablets of Thoth. It should be noted and stressed that none of these works or interpretations, in their intended contexts, can be corroborated elsewhere to be authentic and correct. In fact, after careful examination of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, scholars believed that Doreal might have based his ideas on the fictional works of H.P. Lovecraft. Also, Doreal claimed to belong to various esoteric groups, yet none checked out to be legitimate or actually exist. Most were orders he himself invented. Based on these facts alone, it seems that the Emerald Tablets of Thoth is equally spurious and based on conspiracy theories and fringe sciences which the author merely laced with esoteric flavor.

The danger created by this fabrication is that it misleads a lot of first-time researchers into treating the Emerald Tablets of Thoth as real or, worse, to mistake them for the original Emerald Tablet of Hermes. If you yourself are a budding scholar, please use discernment. When studying or speaking about the Emerald Tablet, make sure to make the distinction between the genuine Emerald Tablet of Hermes as against the highly questionable Emerald Tablets of Thoth. That said, from this point onwards, when we say “Emerald Tablet” throughout the remainder of this article, we actually mean the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.

The Real Emerald Tablet

The oldest source documentation of the texts of the Emerald Tablet was from the Kitab Sirr al-haliqa (Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature), probably dated c.800, and which was itself a composite of earlier works. Its Arabic texts were translated into Latin in c.1140, followed by numerous other translations through different time periods. Note also that another earlier source was found in the Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani (Second Book of the Elements of Foundation). To find out more, and to read the many English translations of the texts of the Emerald Tablet, please take the time and effort to do your own research. We guarantee that you won’t be disappointed and that your studies would yield fruitful.

However, because of the scarcity of actual academic materials on the subject, it is likely that, during the course of your own personal research, a boggling question would persist in your mind – the most important question of all: where exactly is the Emerald Tablet now? Although the texts of the Emerald Tablet had been discovered from old records, it is unclear where the actual tablet is. As a historical artifact, the Emerald Tablet itself seems to be missing. This makes for legitimate speculation on its authenticity.

History may have recorded its texts as translated from various sources, and all even affirmatively corroborating each other, yet it seems we are still short of an actual and concrete evidence of the existence of the original tablet. All we have is an etching appearing in many olden works. Because of this, whenever people would ask if the Emerald Tablet truly did exist, a yes answer might refer to the existence of its texts or copies of its etching, but not the actual stone tablet upon which the said texts were said to have been originally written. Much like the tablets of the Ten Commandments, we rely merely on the validity of its existence on the records of the texts they contained, as written in ancient manuscripts, but not on real evidences whether the said tablets ever existed. To simply say they were lost seems to prompt all of us to merely rely and refer to the next best things – records of their existence, not their actual existence.

The Emerald Tablet, therefore, as of this moment, remains nothing but a series of texts. Whether the said texts contain any truth or not is irrelevant, unless there is first a proof that the actual tablet truly does exist or, at least, once existed. Then again, there is no stopping us from studying the texts for the meantime. Who knows? Maybe there is something within the texts that do reveal a far more important truth. And truth, though requiring proof for us to believe it as true, does not necessarily become untrue in the absence of proof. Truth is true, whether we believe it or not. So always keep in mind, whenever embarking on research, that the search for the truth is different from the search for evidences of the truth. Evidence, like a footnote or endnote, may be needed to prove a truth but not in discovering the actual truth.