Egypt & Near East
Solar Barque of Ra
Solar Barque of Ra
Crossing the sky by day and the underworld by night, it makes the sun rise again.
MountFirst recorded c. 2400 BCE
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Photograph: An Egyptian steatite magical stela (cippus of Horus) of about 300 BCE from the Ptolemaic period. The young Horus standing on crocodiles is carved in relief in the upper part of the dark slab, and spells are densely inscribed below.
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1,333 × 2,000 PX1333×2000
ArchiveEgypt & Near East · Book
Emerald Tablet
Tabula Smaragdina
Holds the secret of all things and the foundation of alchemy in fourteen lines: “As above, so below.”
- Owner
- Hermes Trismegistus
- Maker
- Hermes Trismegistus (by tradition)
- First record
- Arabic Book of the Secret of Creation800
- Gallery
- Egypt & Near East
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
Hermes Trismegistus, "thrice-great Hermes," is a legendary sage in whom the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god of wisdom Thoth are merged. Many esoteric writings in his name were composed in Hellenistic Egypt.
The Emerald Tablet is a short text he is said to have engraved on a green stone. The Arabic Book of the Secret of Creation, of the eighth or ninth century, relates that a sage found the tablet in an underground chamber in Tyana, held by an old man seated beneath a statue of Hermes. It opens: "That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above."
After its translation into Latin in the twelfth century, the text became a scripture for European alchemists. Isaac Newton himself wrote out a translation in English. There is no credible record of anyone having seen the tablet itself.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows Cippus (magical stela)(Ptolemaic Period, ca. 300 BCE), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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