Editing Emerald Tablet (section)

== Modernity and present ==
[[File:RWS Tarot 01 Magician.jpg|thumb|[[The Magician (Tarot)|The Magician]], from the 1909 [[Rider–Waite tarot deck]], often thought to represent the concept of "[[as above, so below]]".|260x260px]]

=== Esotericism and academia ===
The ''Emerald Tablet'' continued to interest [[Western esotericism|esotericists]]—and beginning in the 1850s and lasting up to the 1920s the newly emerging [[Occult|occultist current]]. In France the first occultist, [[Éliphas Lévi]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Faivre|1994|p=88}}.</ref> considered it the most important magical text.{{Efn|"Nothing surpasses, nor equals, as a synthesis of all the
doctrines of the ancient world, those few sentences engraved
on a precious stone by Hermes and known under
the name of the ''Emerald Tablet''; the unity of being and the unity
of harmonies—whether ascending or descending—
the progressive and proportional scale of the Word; the
immutable law of equilibrium and the proportional advancement of
universal analogies; the relation of the idea to the Word, estab
lishing the measure of the relationship between creator and created;
the mathematics of the infinite, demonstrated through
the measures of a single corner of the finite—all of this is ex
pressed in that single proposition of the great Egyptian
hierophant: […] The ''Emerald Tablet'' is all of magic in a single
page."<ref>{{harvnb|Lévi|1860|pp=77-78}}.</ref>}} Additionally, figures like [[Stanislas de Guaita|Stanislas de Guaïta]] and [[Gérard Encausse|Papus]] spent little time engaging with the broader Hermetic tradition but focused much of their efforts onto exegesis of the ''Tablet''. In Italy [[Giuliano Kremmerz]] authored a long commentary on it.<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|pp=|p=540}}</ref> English scholars such as [[John David Chambers|John Chambers]] initiated the academic study of the Hermetica. However, the most influential figure in this endeavor was [[G. R. S. Mead|George R.S. Mead]]. He began his examinations in the [[Theosophical Society|''Theosophical Society'']], but broke with it in 1879. From thereon he developed a scholarly objectivity when engaging with the material while not concealing his personal occultist beliefs.{{Efn|It is for this reason that his work can be seen as the first step towards the 20th-century scholarly approaches of [[Richard August Reitzenstein|Richard Reitzenstein]], [[Walter Scott (scholar)|Walter Scott]], [[Arthur Nock]], [[André-Jean Festugière]], [[Gilles Quispel]], [[Roelof van den Broek]],
[[Jean-Pierre Mahé]], and [[Brian Copenhaver]].<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|p=541}}</ref>}}<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|pp=|p=541}}.</ref>

The co-founder of the Theosophical Society, [[Helena Blavatsky]] produced exegetical interpretations of the ''Tablet''.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|2013|pp=287}}; {{harvnb|Prophet|2018|pp=87, 91}}; {{harvnb|Blavatsky|1891|pp=507-514}}.</ref> She also popularized a paraphrase of the second verse of the [[Emerald Tablet#Vulgate|''vulgate'']]: "[[as above, so below]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Prophet|2018|pp=87, 91}}.</ref> This use—along with that in the [[The Kybalion|''Kybalion'']]{{Efn|Which is often speculated to be the work of [[William Walker Atkinson|William W. Atkinson]], a [[New Thought]] pioneer.<ref>{{harvnb|Horowitz|2019|p=195}}</ref>}}<ref>{{harvnb|Horowitz|2019|p=195}}.</ref>—propelled it to become an oft-cited motto. Later in the twentieth century, it would rise to particular prominence in [[New Age]] circles.<ref>{{harvnb|Horowitz|2019|pp=193–194}}.</ref> This led to its adoption as a title for [[As above, so below (disambiguation)|various works of art]].<!-- intentional DAB link -->

A figure also influenced by [[Helena Blavatsky|Blavatsky]] was the Dutch founder of the [[Lectorium Rosicrucianum|''Lectorium Rosicrucianum'']], [[Jan van Rijckenborgh]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Nenzén|2020|p=66}}.</ref> He used the Tablet to derive the crux of his own worldview and ascribed much antiquity to it.<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|pp=|p=542}}.</ref> The world's most extensive collection of Hermetica is found in the [[Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica|''Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica'']],{{Efn|It is also notable for the scholars it has attracted to its editorial board such as {{ill|Frans A. Janssen|nl}} and {{ill|Carlos Gilly|de}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|p=542}}.</ref>}} which was founded by a memer of the [[Lectorium Rosicrucianum|''Lectorium'']], [[Joost Ritman]].<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|pp=|p=542}}.</ref> [[Perennial philosophy|Perennialist]]s as a whole have kept their distance from Hermeticism and its receptions in [[Western esotericism]] more generally. However, one of the best-known modern commentaries on the ''Tablet'' was produced by the [[Traditionalism (perennialism)|traditionalist]], [[Titus Burckhardt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|2005|pp=|p=542}}; ; {{harvnb|Burckhardt|1960|pp=219-225}}.</ref>

A prominent academic reception of the ''Tablet'' occurred in [[Carl Jung]]'s [[Alchemy#Psychology|psychology of alchemy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2016||pages=|p=73}}.</ref> He saw it as the paramount text of alchemy. Jung had read {{Harvnb|Ruska|1926}} and was familiar with the Arabic text of the ''[[Sirr al-khaliqa|Book of the Secret of Creation]]'' and the debates surrounding the text's age and original language. He focused his textual analysis mainly, however, on the Latin ''vulgate'' text.{{Efn|Exhibiting a particular textual preference for the 1541 Nuremberg edition.}}<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2016||pages=73, 76, 79-80.|p=}}</ref> The ''Tablet''’s alchemical operations—most notably the “operation of the sun”—became, for Jung, powerful metaphors: the sun’s “art” of [[Chrysopoeia|creating gold]] is none other than consciousness splitting from a “primeval” [[Jungian archetypes|archetypal]] source, working through the “prima materia” of the psyche, and reuniting to generate a transformed, [[Analytical psychology#Individuation|individuated]] [[Self in Jungian psychology|self]].<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2016||pages=79-80.|p=}}</ref>

=== Arts and popular culture ===
At the beginning of the twentieth century, alchemy fascinated the [[surrealist]] [[André Breton]]. He saw in Hermetic practice a model for “transubstantiating the world” and resisting the modern reign of ''miserablism''.<ref>{{harvnb|Marvell|2013||pages=519-520}}; {{harvnb|Mandosio|2003||p=|pp=22-25}}.</ref> In the 1924 [[Surrealist Manifesto]] he said: "[[Heraclitus]] is surrealist in dialectic. [[Ramon Llull#Pseudo-Llull and alchemy|Lully]] is surrealist in definition. [[Nicolas Flamel#Posthumous reputation as an alchemist|Flamel]] is surrealist in the night of gold."<ref>{{harvnb|Marvell|2013||pages=|p=520}}.</ref> He believed the aim of surrealism should be to ascertain the point within the mind where life and death, real and imaginary, past and future etc no longer seem contradictory.{{Efn|"Everything suggests that there exists a certain point in the mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low cease to be perceived as contradictory. It is in vain, moreover, that one would seek any other motive for surrealist activity than the hope of determining this point."<ref>{{harvnb|Breton|1988| p=781}} quoted in {{harvnb|Kahn|1994|p=XXII}}.</ref>}}<ref>{{harvnb|Kahn|1994|p=XXII}}.</ref> This approach could be seen as merely [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegelian]], but Breton's circle was steeped in living Hermeticism: the Surrealists devoured [[Fulcanelli]], tried to enlist [[Eugène Canseliet]] and [[René Guénon]] for ''[[La Révolution surréaliste]]'', and flocked to [[Maria de Naglowska]]'s occult soirées in early‑1930s Paris.{{Efn|Opposition to this view is voiced by {{harvnb|Béhar|1990}}: 
"Lacking humor, this is what Breton would accomplish for surrealist morality in his Second Manifesto. He prepared it during the summer in the solitude of the Île de Sein, rereading Hegel in Vera’s French translation, deepening his understanding of Marx and Engels. [...]It is understood that Surrealism cannot be confined to the sole social structures analyzed by Marxists: its elucidative effort focuses on the superstructures, on human expression in all its forms. Its quest is therefore akin—mutatis mutandis—to that of the alchemist: both involve a similar state of fervor, requiring a certain secrecy, a withdrawal from the public eye, in order to preserve their integrity and to uncover that point of the mind “from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low cease to be perceived in contradiction.”"<ref>{{harvnb|Béhar|1990|pages=219-220}}</ref>}}<ref>{{harvnb|Polizzotti|1999|pages=368-369}}; {{harvnb|Breton|1988|pages=1594-1595}}.</ref> Additionally, Hegel's philosophy itself was influenced by esoteric thinkers, like [[Jakob Böhme]] and [[Emanuel Swedenborg|Emanual Swedenborg]]—a fact Breton was acutely aware of.<ref>{{harvnb|Marvell|2013||pages=|p=528}}, {{harvnb|Mandosio|2003||pages=103-104}}.</ref> In the introduction of a 1942 essay, Breton overturned the ''Emerald Tablet''’s dictum “[[as above, so below]]” by invoking the image of a soaring bird and a lift descending into a mine-shaft clashing.{{Efn|"The bird’s vertical flight and the lift sinking ever deeper down the mine-shaft, then rising to the surface again, determined between them a hitherto unsuspected meeting-place where there clashed and blended together the shapes of the sidereal bestiary, of germination, of mechanical traction, of blossoming crystals, as well as, devil take it, some designs from the wallpaper from my room and the bundle of shadows that falls from my hat. ''First Commandment'': Everything should be freed from its shell (from its distance, its comparative size, its physical and chemical properties, its outward appearance). Never believe in the interior of a cave, always in the surface of an egg."<ref>{{harvnb|Marvell|2013|p=531}}.</ref>}} The metaphor led up to his new commandment: “Never believe in the interior of a [[Allegory of the cave|cave]], always in the surface of an egg”. Breton thereby employed alchemy to collapse depth and surface. He used it as a means to bind dichotomous forces into a seamless whole. He saw [[Max Ernst]], who claimed to have been born from an egg, as that very “alchemical egg”—his birth myth and his art as having fused celestial and chthonic forces into that single whole.<ref>{{harvnb|Marvell|2013||pages=530-533|p=}}.</ref>

[[Jorge Ben]] released the studio album ''[[A Tábua de Esmeralda]]'' ("The Emerald Tablet") in 1974. In it, he explored the theme of alchemy through tracks like “Os Alquimistas estão chegando Os Alquimistas,” “Errare Humanum Est,” and “Hermes Trismegisto e Sua Celeste Tábua de Esmeralda,” using reiterated modal phrases that evoked a liturgical resonance. The album exemplified Ben’s distinctive fusion of [[samba]] with elements of [[jazz]] and [[Rock music|rock]], shaped by his percussive, self-taught guitar technique and supported by musicians from across the spectrum of [[Música popular brasileira]]. Some Música popular brasileira-traditionalists saw this as a concession to the [[Garage rock|US garage rock]]-inspired style known as [[Jovem Guarda]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Treece|2021|pp=420-421}}.</ref>

[[Manfred Kelkel]] composed ''Tabula Smaragdina'' (Op. 24) between 1975 and 1977. Conceived as a ''[[ballet]] hermétique'', the work aimed to unite his passions for esotericism, alchemy, and music. Kelkel sought to render sound and thought visible through graphic [[Mandala|mandalas]], which mapped [[Astrological sign|zodiac signs]], planets, and the [[Classical element|four elements]] onto instruments, scales, and rhythms. During performance, twelve symbolic images were projected alongside a simplified conventional score—transforming each page of the work into both stage scenery and musical instructions. To structure the piece, Kelkel drew on sources such as [[Bagua|Chinese trigrams]], [[Fractal|fractal geometry]], medieval [[Magic square|magic squares]], and the [[Musica universalis|harmony of the spheres]]. He created twelve successive movements, each named after a phase in the alchemical process—such as ''Nuptiae chymicae'' and ''Coagulatio''—and each possessing its own emblem and formal rules. The result was a codified "metamusic", designed to awaken hidden cosmic and psychological resonances through structured, alchemical transformations.<ref name="JJV7">{{Harvnb|Velly|2001|p=|pp=6-7, 321-347}}.</ref>

[[File:Houghton Typ 620.09.482 Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrvm sapientiae aeternae.jpg|thumb|left|[[Heinrich Khunrath|Khunrath]]'s illustration used in ''[[Dark (TV series)|Dark]].'']]
In the 2010s German [[time travel]] television series ''[[Dark (TV series)|Dark]]'', the mysterious priest Noah has a large image of a graphic depiction of an emerald tablet, featuring the text of the ''Emerald Tablet'', tattooed on his back. The image, which stems from [[Heinrich Khunrath]]'s ''Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom'' (1609), also appears on a metal door in the caves that are central to the plot. Several characters are shown looking at copies of the text.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nguyen|2017}}.</ref> A verse from the 1541 Nuremberg version {{Langx|la|Sic mundus creatus est|4=So was the world created}} plays a prominent thematic role in the series and is the title of the sixth episode of the first season.<ref>{{Harvnb|Newell|2017}}.</ref>{{clear}}