May 5, 2025 • 29 mins
Ancient alchemists believed one text held the secret to immortality, endless wealth, and cosmic wisdom. What if they were right? The truth about the Emerald Tablet, its mysterious origins and the modern fraud who claimed to possess it. **
1 - The Devil’s Bible (Codex Gigas) - https://youtu.be/1IGSLva9TZg
2 - Voynich Manuscript - https://youtu.be/cyUDgAaJO2I
3 - Our video on the Khafre Project discovery at the pyramids of Giza: https://youtu.be/pzGbYPaLtJ4
Other links from the video: The Emerald Tablets: https://www.crystalinks.com/emerald.html
The Book of Aquarius: https://thebookofaquarius.com/ -----------
Find our videos on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheInBetweenTales
Send your stories to: InBetweenTales@gmail.com
Business Inquiries: TheInBetween@ekhoinc.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:32):
Wealth beyond measure.
Life without end.
Wisdom of the Cosmos.
Throughout history,
the most brilliant mindshave pursued these impossible dreams.
Scouring vast amounts of ancient knowledgefor the key to unlocking them all.
Well... They found it.
I'm Carol Ann.
And Welcome to The InBetween.
(00:58):
Human nature a subject
that's been hotly debated by scholarssince scholars have been a thing.
Is it some immutable
characteristic that we're born with thatwe can never transcend?
Or are there signposts within our history
that can guide usto the ultimate enlightenment?
If we only stopped to read them?
To understandthese metaphorical signposts,
(01:21):
we have to take a few steps back.
Brief history.
Let's go all the way back to 332 B.C.,when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt.
What do you do when you want to assimilatea different culture into your own?
It's called syncretism,a process where elements
from different cultures or religions mergeto form a new tradition.
(01:41):
Like Easter season in Guatemala.
Catholic traditionsblend with Mayan practices
through alfombras,colorful carpets of sawdust
and flowers made for Holy Weekprocessions, a Christian ritual,
but inspired by Mayan sacred designsused to honor deities, with a little bit
of Spanish colonial influencethrown in for good measure.
(02:04):
So the Greeks merged their god Hermes,
the messenger of the gods,as well as the god of wisdom, travel,
trade and trickery, with the Egyptiangod Thothe, who is the scribe for the gods
as well as the God of wisdom,knowledge, writing, magic and the moon,
creating a blended figure named HermesTrismegistus.
(02:27):
Around 500 years later,this new god on the block
had a book written about himcalled The Corpus Hermeticum.
Not like a biography,but a collection of philosophical dialogs
he supposedly had with other people,both living and not,
which laid the foundationfor the philosophy of Hermeticism,
(02:47):
blending Greek philosophy,Egyptian mysticism, and later on,
Islamic and Renaissance ideas,trying to understand
the secrets of the universe,achieve spiritual enlightenment,
and on the more practical earthly side,transform matter like lead into gold.
Great! Not so great.
(03:08):
Here's the problem.
Way back then,if you were not a noteworthy figure
in the philosophy world,but you had something important to say,
you just put somebody else's name on itwho had more street cred than you.
Which turns out to be a huge problem.
Because everyone did that,we have no idea who actually
wrote anything or exactly when.
(03:29):
So Hermeticism kind of percolatesalong for a couple hundred
more yearsuntil we get to the 600 to 800 A.D.
time frame.
That time frame,which is also known as the Islamic Golden
Age, sees two different Arabic books.
Hang with me here. We're going deep.
The Secret Book of Secrets
and The Book of the Secret of Creationand the Art of Nature.
(03:52):
Also known as the Book of Balinasthe Wise on the Causes.
They both talk about a guy named Balinas.
The story goes that Balinas discoveredan entrance under a statue of Hermes.
He goes in to find eitheran old man or a corpse,
depending on which version you read,holding an emerald tablet.
(04:13):
That's right.
The Emerald Tablet of Legend.
Now I'm going to pause herefor just a minute to point out
that there is the EmeraldTablet, singular.
And there is the Emerald Tablets, plural.
What's the difference? Huge.
But we will get back to thatin just a bit.
Till then, back to the Emerald Tablet.
(04:35):
So these books, The Secret Book of Secretsand The Book of the Secret of Creation
and the Art of Nature,also known as The Book of Balinas
the Wise on the Causes, arethe first actual mention of the tablet.
Now, Balinas was not a real guy.
He's made up.
The most popular belief
is that he's a fictionalized versionof the first century Greek philosopher
(04:58):
Apollonius of Tyana,which is interesting because Apollonius
didn't seem to have anythingto do with any of this.
And those first two booksthat mention Balinas
are both attributedto Hermes Trismegistus.
So again, we have no idea who wrote them.
So now we have an origin storyfor the Emerald Tablet,
(05:20):
also known as the Tabula Smaragdina.
And those first two books also contain
what they reportedas the actual text of the tablet,
which they may have gotten froma Christian monk named Sagiyus of Nablus,
who translated it from Syriac into Arabic.
But neither of them happened to mentionwhat happened to the tablet.
(05:43):
They only talk about what's written on it.
Still with me?
Don't worry, it gets way easier from here.
So what's written on it?
Actually, not that much.
He's true without lying.
Certain and most true.
That which is below.
Is like that which is above.
(06:03):
And that which is above is like thatwhich is below.
To do the miracles of one only thing.
And as all things have been, and arosefrom one by the mediation of one.
So all things have their birthfrom this one thing by adaptation.
When the sun is its father,the moon its mother,
(06:23):
the wind hath carried it in its belly.
The earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfectionin the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire.
If it be converted into Earth, separate
thou the earth from the fire,the subtle from the gross.
Gently with great industry.
(06:45):
It ascends from the earth to the heaven.
And againit descends to the earth and receives
the force of things superior and inferior.
By this means you shall havethe glory of the whole world,
and therebyall obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force, for itvanquishes
(07:06):
every subtle thing and penetratesevery solid thing.
So was the world created from this?
Are and do come admirable adaptations,whereof the means
or process is here in this.
Hence I am called Hermes Trismegistus.
Having the three partsof the philosophy of the whole world.
(07:28):
That which I have saidof the operation of the sun
is accomplished and ended.
By around 1140A.D., the Emerald tablet text
made its way to Europe when Hugo Santallatranslated it from Arabic into Latin,
allowing European alchemistslike Roger Bacon to read it.
These alchemists,who were trying to make the Philosopher's
(07:51):
Stone - a magical item or concoctionthat would turn metals
into gold and grant eternal life -they thought, “This is it!
These are the instructionswe've been waiting for!”
Just so everyone's up to speed,an alchemist
is someone who studiesthe science of transmutation,
or trying to change thingsinto something better, be
(08:12):
that turning lead into goldor turning mortal man immortal.
We will talk more about the Philosopher'sStone a little later.
But for now, just know that it was,and some say still is, the Holy Grail
of Alchemy.
In the 14th century,an alchemist named Ortolanus
(08:33):
wrote a big explanation of the tablet,saying it explained how to make the stone,
which influenced other alchemistsfor centuries.
People like JohnDee and Edward Kelley in the 1580s,
and even Isaac Newton in the 1680s.
If you've been watching us for a while,you may remember hearing about John Dee
(08:56):
and Edward Kelley, and their friend,Emperor and King Rudolf the Second.
Rudolf was highly interested in the occultand owned
both the Voynich Manuscript and the CodexGigas, two very intriguing books
which we've already talked aboutin previous episodes.
If you'd like to hear more
about those, the links tothose episodes are in the description.
(09:18):
It is rumoredthat Rudolf actually acquired the Voynich
Manuscript from John Dee.
But regardless,the partnership between Rudolf
and the dynamic duo of Deeand Kelley is well established.
Both Dee and Kelley were interested
in alchemy and the Emerald Tablet.
Dee was more interested in the spiritualside of things and talking to angels.
(09:43):
Kelley, who was the guy who was supposedto be able to put Dee in touch
with saidangels, also said to Rudolf, “Hey,
I know how to make the Philosopher'sStone.” Rudolf said, “Great.
Here's a lab and a stipend.
Make one for me.” Tangent learning.
But it's a juicy one.
(10:04):
So there these guys are,hanging out in the King's court.
Dee wants to talk to the angels,and Kelley is his connection.
So one day in 1587,Kelley tells Dee, “Hey,
the angels told mewe should swap wives for a night.”
Dee wasn't really all thatkeen on the idea at first,
but he trusted Kelley and wanted to dowhatever the angel said to do.
(10:28):
So they swap for a night.
However, the fallout isn't pretty,
with Dee's wife,Jane Dee, becoming “distressed”.
You think?
And those two head back to Englandby 1589.
Moral of the story?
Human nature never changes.
And obviously,Edward Kelley didn't get the whole
(10:50):
spiritual transformation part of alchemy.
Okay, back to the Emerald Tablet.
So Dee leaves, and Kelley stays.
But Rudolph is getting pissed.
All this time and money and no stone.
So in 1591, he throws Kelley in prisonfor nonperformance.
By around 1597or 1598, Kelley has had enough of prison
(11:13):
life and tries to escape, apparentlyby trying to climb down from a high tower.
He falls and his injurieslead to his death, soon after.
But again back to the tablet.
In 1669, a German alchemistby the name of Hennig Brand,
who also studied the tabletand was trying his hand at creating
(11:34):
the elusive Philosopher's Stone,was lucky enough to find two sugar mamas
to fund his experiments,based on the work of those before him.
He manages to distill1,500 gallons of urine down
to a white, waxy substancethat glowed in the dark.
Was it the legendary Philosopher's Stone?
(11:56):
No, but he accidentally madethe first discovery of a chemical element,
phosphorus.
And even Isaac Newton in the late 1600sgot hooked on the Emerald Tablet craze.
So much so that he even went backto Hugo of Santalla's
Latin translationand made his own English translation.
Fast forward to the 20th century.
(12:18):
As far as we know, no one has been ableto crack the Emerald Tablet code
eitherfor never ending wealth or immortality.
As far as we know.
So how exactly does an Emerald Tabletwith writing that no one could make heads
or tails of what it actually means,get connected
to the idea of a magical stonethat can turn lead to gold
(12:42):
and or grant immortality?
Well, actually,the search for the transformational
panacea predates the Emerald Tablet.
By the third century AD, alchemistslike Zosimos of Panopolis
(At least he was smart enoughto sign his own book) are already talking
about a universal substancefor transmutation and healing.
(13:06):
Roll on to the eighth century,and we get another Arabic alchemist
by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan,who writes The Book
of the Elements of Foundation,which, while talking about the tablet,
explicitly links its ideasto the concept of al-iksir,
a universal transformative substancewhich,
(13:26):
if you missed that one,is where we get the word elixir.
And that was all she wrote.
The idea of the tabletbeing the instruction to create the rock
or liquid, or whateverit turned out to be, became just accepted
alchemists canon, with the nameThe Philosopher's Stone becoming
attached to it in about the 12th century,and popular in the 13th.
(13:49):
The rest, as they say, is history.
So now that we know what the EmeraldTablet, singular, is all about,
where do the Emerald Tablets, plural,fit into all of this?
They don't.
I know.
That's a pretty strong statement.
So let's unpack this.
In a nutshell, the Emerald Tabletsare a series of 12 separate tablets
(14:13):
that record the wisdom of the ancientgod Thoth as to how the universe works.
This information was relayedto Maurice Doreal, founder
of the Brotherhood of the White Temple,to be shared with all of humanity.
According to Doreal,Thoth is an Atlantean king/god
who survives the destructionof Atlantis and settles in Egypt.
(14:36):
I'm not going to gointo the full history of Thoth.
The full text of all the Emerald Tabletsis linked
in the description,so you can read that part for yourself.
But once in Egypt, Thoth recordsall of his wisdom and keeps that knowledge
in his own little man cave calledthe Halls of Amenti, pops
the Great Pyramid on top of the entranceto hide it, and posts priests to guard it.
(15:00):
But then he reincarnateas Hermes and writes
the Reader's Digest version on 12 tablets
made of an indestructible green material.
Around 1300 BC,the political climate of the area
gets a bit dicey, so the pyramid prieststake the tablets to South America
and hang out with other Atlanteandisaster survivors
(15:23):
who have settled with the Mayans,where they hang for about 2300 years
before burying the tabletsunder a temple around 1000 A.D..
A few hundred years later,the Spanish come,
clear the place outand the tablets are forgotten to history.
Fast forward another 900 yearswhen Maurice Doreal is tasked
(15:44):
with recovering them and bringing themback to Egypt, which he does in 1925.
In that return process,he is granted permission
to translate and copythe text of the tablets.
However, he's only granted permissionfrom the Great White Lodge,
which is a group of guideswho have ascended beyond physical form,
(16:05):
also known as the Ascended Masters,to share that information
around 1940ish,when he self publishes the book
The Emerald Tablets of Thoththe Atlantean.
That is a condensed version of the accountMaurice Doreal
gives in the preface of his bookas to how this whole thing went down.
And everything we know aboutthis whole affair comes from him.
(16:30):
So who is he?
Well, let's start with the fact thatMaurice Doreal is not even his real name.
He's born in 1898 as ClaudeDuggins in Sulfur Springs, Oklahoma,
the youngest of six childrenin a farming family
with a deep, early interestin fantasy and science fiction.
(16:50):
He does not attend school pastelementary school and enlists
in the service to fight in World War One,which is over in November of 1918.
After that, his employment recordsshow him as a department store clerk,
a cab driver, and a brokerage salesman.
He discovers the Emerald tablets in 1925,
gets married )the first time) in 1927,
(17:14):
has two kids and founds the Brotherhoodof the White Temple in 1930.
He’s divorced by 1932,
marries his second wife in 1933, (Thisguy's busy.)
and heads off to LA for a while,where he has a very public divorce
from his second wife.
She calls him a cheater, and he is pissed
(17:36):
that she called hima fraud in front of his followers.
Is that actually grounds for divorce?
In 1939,he publishes the Emerald Tablets of Thoth
the Atlantean under the nameMaurice Doreal, marries his third wife
a year after that, adds the title doctorto his name, and officially incorporates
the Brotherhood as a real legal entityin Denver, in 1942.
(18:00):
In the 1950s with a sci fi fantasy
book collection of over 30,000 books,Doreal relocates
the Brotherhood to a compoundin Sedalia, Colorado, for protection
based on his predictionof a nuclear war in 1953,
calling their new digs Shamballa Ashrama.
(18:21):
He continues on as the “Supreme Voice”for the Ascended Masters
and as the leader of the Brotherhoodof the White Temple, while still writing
books on everything from Ascended Mastersto UFOs to a reptilian race
living under the Gobi Desert,until his death in 1963.
(18:41):
Now, there's nothing all that weirdabout this guy's life, right?
I mean, whose lifeisn't just a little out of the ordinary?
I make a living telling strange stories.
Who am I to talk?
But that is only the regularpart of the story.
Let's get to the crazy part of the story.
(19:01):
The elementary school education, Mauriceclaims,
didn't really matter because he was bornwith all of the memories
and education of all of his former selves.
So the moment he was born, he already knewhow to read and write, with his memories
of math, physics and chemistryall resurfacing before he is one year old.
(19:23):
Question.
If you are that smart, why are youvolunteering to fight in World War One?
Maybe he was just that patriotic,but it seems like the knowledge
he had would convince him thatmaybe he was here for a higher purpose.
let's just pass on that for a minute.
He also claims that he traveled to Egypt,(I assume to bring the tablets back
(19:43):
home.), India and Tibet, where he studiedunder the Ascended Masters
for eight years from 1921 to 1929.
But when people pointed outthat there was no such travel
listed on his passport,those travels became “astral” travels.
Okay, so while he's drivinga cab in Wichita, his mind is in Tibet.
(20:06):
Or maybe he goes there every dayafter work, like night school.
Got it.
But then what about his tripto South America in 1925
to recover the tabletsand bring them back to the Great Pyramid?
Remember, he's already told us earlierin the preface to the book
about the tablets, “The particulargroup of priests bearing the tablets
(20:27):
emigrated to South America...”I guess that was astral travel too.
Except,he says pretty clearly in the preface,
that he wrote himself,that he, “...was instructed to recover
and return to the Great Pyramidthe ancient tablets.
This, after adventures which neednot be detailed here, was accomplished.
(20:48):
So how exactly do you recoverand return physical objects astrally?
And don't forget,
while he's returning the tabletsto Egypt, either physically or astrally,
he's still studyingwith those masters in Tibet.
Okay.
Now let's take a look at the tabletsthemselves, as translated by Doreal.
(21:11):
And despite having gotten an A in collegecalculus, (It's true,
I did.) evidently, Maurice'smath skills from birth
are superior to mine,because the math ain't mathin’.
He starts by saying there are ten tablets
that were divided into 13 sections,for convenience.
Which is kind of odd.
(21:32):
If Thoth really is this super powerfulgodlike
entity, wouldn't he just make 13 tablets?
But then laterit says there are 12 tablets,
but only ten can be released to the world.
The last two are far too earth shattering.
Then he goes on to write out the contentsof those ten tablets,
but lists them out as 13 tablets,
(21:54):
plus another two supplementary tablets,for a total of 15 tablets.
Are those supplementary tabletsthe ones that he said
couldn't be released,or are there really ten tablets
which are actually 13 tabletsplus two supplemental tablets,
plus the two that can't be releasedfor a total of 17 tablets.
(22:16):
And just because I feel the need, It'sa moral imperative.
I have to point out that Maurice startsthe preface writing in the third person.
Like when he says, “the writer.”
But by the end, he'sabandoned all pretense and goes straight
to first person, saying,“I will give an interpretation.”
(22:36):
And since when is it his interpretation?
I thought it was his translation.
Interesting.
If you want to read the 10 or 12 or 15or 17 tablets yourself,
you can get your genuine copy straightfrom the Brotherhood for a mere $60.
Or you can get it online for free.
(22:59):
Go ahead and check out some ofhis other books while you're at it,
because there are lots of goodiesI don't have time to cover here.
Like in his book Mysteries of MountShasta, published in 1943,
Doctor Doreal writes that in 1931,while he was hanging out in L.A.
giving a lecture, he's approachedby two Atlanteans who teleport him
(23:21):
to an underground citybeneath Mount Shasta. Ooo!
Now we’re gettin’ spicy.
But as you're reading, be aware of that,at least when we're talking
about the Emerald Tablets, some parts ofit have already been identified as ideas
lifted directly from other sources(Plagiarism), namely H.P.
(23:42):
Lovecraft, but others as well.
Not to mention that other than talkingabout the Emerald Tablet,
which has been writtenabout for centuries,
and Thoth, who's also been writtenabout for centuries,
nothing else in the EmeraldTablets has ever been mentioned
anywhere until Dorealpublished his book in the 1940s.
(24:03):
Okay,I know I'm being really hard on the guy.
Cut me some slack. Just.
Don't blame the messenger.
I get it.
But forgive me if I place a slightly
higher standard on the guywho's supposedly delivering
one of the greatest messagesever given to mankind,
than I put on my tax accountant,who tells me I owe $8,000 to the IRS.
(24:27):
His writings have influencedlots of people and still do today.
Remember the episodewe did a few weeks ago
on the alleged structureunder the Khufu Pyramid at Giza?
Link in the description.
Well, those guys even talk aboutthe Emerald Tablets
and the Halls of Amentiin their four hour press conference
they held to talk abouttheir scientific findings.
(24:49):
And now that the press conferencehas been transcribed into English,
be looking for another episode about that.
I have some things to say.
So do I think the tablets exist?
No, I think in both casesthey're just figments of imagination.
But what about their message?
Well, that's a different story.
(25:10):
In the case of the Emerald Tablet,keep in mind
I haven't studied this text for decades,like some of the Alchemist masters, but
it seems like someone's trying to relaya message about how the universe works.
Sounds to me like a giant cosmic fractal
that's identical to itself on every level.
Could that information,
(25:30):
even without being on a questfor the Philosopher's Stone, be helpful?
Sure.
What about the informationpresented in the Emerald Tablets?
Well, if you set asidewho the information is coming from
and just concentrate on the messageitself, it absolutely can be useful.
Let's not throw the baby outwith the bathwater.
Anything that can lead us mere mortalsto better understand ourselves
(25:54):
and the world around usis a good thing in my book.
And for you more adventurous soulsamong us who would like to take a crack
at crafting your own Philosopher's Stone,but don't have the time to study
centuries of alchemy to figure outhow to do it, you’re in luck.
Somebody has done all of that for you.
In 2011, a document hitthe internet called The Book of Aquarius.
(26:18):
The author is anonymous but talks openlyabout their purpose for publishing it.
“The purpose of this bookis to release one particular secret,
which has been kept hiddenfor the last 12,000 years.
The Philosopher's Stone. Elixir of life.
Fountain of Youth.
Ambrosia.
Soma. Amrita.
(26:39):
Nectar of Immortality.
These are different namesfor the same thing.” Inside this 165 page
document are the complete instructionsfor creating the Philosopher's Stone.
And whoever this person is,they did their homework,
with quotes from various sourcesshowered throughout
(26:59):
and a full bibliography of sourcesat the end.
Everything you need to put you on the path
to unlimited wealth and immortality.
A link to the website and the free PDFdownload is in the description.
But a word of warning.
Don't open it up until you have at leasta good hour of free time in your schedule.
(27:21):
It is quite the rabbit hole.
So there it is.
My attempt at bringing clarityto what was, at least for me,
a very muddy subject.
Two ideas with almost the same name,but two very different paths.
One path leads to spiritual enlightenmentand maybe even communion
(27:42):
with the Transcendent Mastersof the Great White Lodge.
Just a small heads up on this path.
To truly follow it, you'll have to jointhe Brotherhood of the White Temple.
And that's going to cost you.
Certainly not as much as that otherso-called “religion” that shall not be
named.
It's actually pretty affordable,but it certainly ain’t free.
(28:04):
Or the other paththat leads to immortality.
Which path will you choose?
All righty then.
Yet another firehose of information.
And this one on a cosmic scale.
There's so much informationfor you to check out on your own.
So be sure to check the descriptionfor all of those links.
(28:27):
And really, if you have some time,check out the Book of Aquarius.
It is truly a trippy read.
Want to keep the strange train a rollin’?
Then click right here.
I promise it'll be a good one.
Be careful out there, and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
Wealth beyond measure.
Life without end.
Wisdom of the Cosmos.
Throughout history,
the most brilliant mindshave pursued these impossible dreams.
Scouring vast amounts of ancient knowledgefor the key to unlocking them all.
Well... They found it.
I'm Carol Ann.
And Welcome to The InBetween.
(00:58):
Human nature a subject
that's been hotly debated by scholarssince scholars have been a thing.
Is it some immutable
characteristic that we're born with thatwe can never transcend?
Or are there signposts within our history
that can guide usto the ultimate enlightenment?
If we only stopped to read them?
To understandthese metaphorical signposts,
(01:21):
we have to take a few steps back.
Brief history.
Let's go all the way back to 332 B.C.,when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt.
What do you do when you want to assimilatea different culture into your own?
It's called syncretism,a process where elements
from different cultures or religions mergeto form a new tradition.
(01:41):
Like Easter season in Guatemala.
Catholic traditionsblend with Mayan practices
through alfombras,colorful carpets of sawdust
and flowers made for Holy Weekprocessions, a Christian ritual,
but inspired by Mayan sacred designsused to honor deities, with a little bit
of Spanish colonial influencethrown in for good measure.
(02:04):
So the Greeks merged their god Hermes,
the messenger of the gods,as well as the god of wisdom, travel,
trade and trickery, with the Egyptiangod Thothe, who is the scribe for the gods
as well as the God of wisdom,knowledge, writing, magic and the moon,
creating a blended figure named HermesTrismegistus.
(02:27):
Around 500 years later,this new god on the block
had a book written about himcalled The Corpus Hermeticum.
Not like a biography,but a collection of philosophical dialogs
he supposedly had with other people,both living and not,
which laid the foundationfor the philosophy of Hermeticism,
(02:47):
blending Greek philosophy,Egyptian mysticism, and later on,
Islamic and Renaissance ideas,trying to understand
the secrets of the universe,achieve spiritual enlightenment,
and on the more practical earthly side,transform matter like lead into gold.
Great! Not so great.
(03:08):
Here's the problem.
Way back then,if you were not a noteworthy figure
in the philosophy world,but you had something important to say,
you just put somebody else's name on itwho had more street cred than you.
Which turns out to be a huge problem.
Because everyone did that,we have no idea who actually
wrote anything or exactly when.
(03:29):
So Hermeticism kind of percolatesalong for a couple hundred
more yearsuntil we get to the 600 to 800 A.D.
time frame.
That time frame,which is also known as the Islamic Golden
Age, sees two different Arabic books.
Hang with me here. We're going deep.
The Secret Book of Secrets
and The Book of the Secret of Creationand the Art of Nature.
(03:52):
Also known as the Book of Balinasthe Wise on the Causes.
They both talk about a guy named Balinas.
The story goes that Balinas discoveredan entrance under a statue of Hermes.
He goes in to find eitheran old man or a corpse,
depending on which version you read,holding an emerald tablet.
(04:13):
That's right.
The Emerald Tablet of Legend.
Now I'm going to pause herefor just a minute to point out
that there is the EmeraldTablet, singular.
And there is the Emerald Tablets, plural.
What's the difference? Huge.
But we will get back to thatin just a bit.
Till then, back to the Emerald Tablet.
(04:35):
So these books, The Secret Book of Secretsand The Book of the Secret of Creation
and the Art of Nature,also known as The Book of Balinas
the Wise on the Causes, arethe first actual mention of the tablet.
Now, Balinas was not a real guy.
He's made up.
The most popular belief
is that he's a fictionalized versionof the first century Greek philosopher
(04:58):
Apollonius of Tyana,which is interesting because Apollonius
didn't seem to have anythingto do with any of this.
And those first two booksthat mention Balinas
are both attributedto Hermes Trismegistus.
So again, we have no idea who wrote them.
So now we have an origin storyfor the Emerald Tablet,
(05:20):
also known as the Tabula Smaragdina.
And those first two books also contain
what they reportedas the actual text of the tablet,
which they may have gotten froma Christian monk named Sagiyus of Nablus,
who translated it from Syriac into Arabic.
But neither of them happened to mentionwhat happened to the tablet.
(05:43):
They only talk about what's written on it.
Still with me?
Don't worry, it gets way easier from here.
So what's written on it?
Actually, not that much.
He's true without lying.
Certain and most true.
That which is below.
Is like that which is above.
(06:03):
And that which is above is like thatwhich is below.
To do the miracles of one only thing.
And as all things have been, and arosefrom one by the mediation of one.
So all things have their birthfrom this one thing by adaptation.
When the sun is its father,the moon its mother,
(06:23):
the wind hath carried it in its belly.
The earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfectionin the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire.
If it be converted into Earth, separate
thou the earth from the fire,the subtle from the gross.
Gently with great industry.
(06:45):
It ascends from the earth to the heaven.
And againit descends to the earth and receives
the force of things superior and inferior.
By this means you shall havethe glory of the whole world,
and therebyall obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force, for itvanquishes
(07:06):
every subtle thing and penetratesevery solid thing.
So was the world created from this?
Are and do come admirable adaptations,whereof the means
or process is here in this.
Hence I am called Hermes Trismegistus.
Having the three partsof the philosophy of the whole world.
(07:28):
That which I have saidof the operation of the sun
is accomplished and ended.
By around 1140A.D., the Emerald tablet text
made its way to Europe when Hugo Santallatranslated it from Arabic into Latin,
allowing European alchemistslike Roger Bacon to read it.
These alchemists,who were trying to make the Philosopher's
(07:51):
Stone - a magical item or concoctionthat would turn metals
into gold and grant eternal life -they thought, “This is it!
These are the instructionswe've been waiting for!”
Just so everyone's up to speed,an alchemist
is someone who studiesthe science of transmutation,
or trying to change thingsinto something better, be
(08:12):
that turning lead into goldor turning mortal man immortal.
We will talk more about the Philosopher'sStone a little later.
But for now, just know that it was,and some say still is, the Holy Grail
of Alchemy.
In the 14th century,an alchemist named Ortolanus
(08:33):
wrote a big explanation of the tablet,saying it explained how to make the stone,
which influenced other alchemistsfor centuries.
People like JohnDee and Edward Kelley in the 1580s,
and even Isaac Newton in the 1680s.
If you've been watching us for a while,you may remember hearing about John Dee
(08:56):
and Edward Kelley, and their friend,Emperor and King Rudolf the Second.
Rudolf was highly interested in the occultand owned
both the Voynich Manuscript and the CodexGigas, two very intriguing books
which we've already talked aboutin previous episodes.
If you'd like to hear more
about those, the links tothose episodes are in the description.
(09:18):
It is rumoredthat Rudolf actually acquired the Voynich
Manuscript from John Dee.
But regardless,the partnership between Rudolf
and the dynamic duo of Deeand Kelley is well established.
Both Dee and Kelley were interested
in alchemy and the Emerald Tablet.
Dee was more interested in the spiritualside of things and talking to angels.
(09:43):
Kelley, who was the guy who was supposedto be able to put Dee in touch
with saidangels, also said to Rudolf, “Hey,
I know how to make the Philosopher'sStone.” Rudolf said, “Great.
Here's a lab and a stipend.
Make one for me.” Tangent learning.
But it's a juicy one.
(10:04):
So there these guys are,hanging out in the King's court.
Dee wants to talk to the angels,and Kelley is his connection.
So one day in 1587,Kelley tells Dee, “Hey,
the angels told mewe should swap wives for a night.”
Dee wasn't really all thatkeen on the idea at first,
but he trusted Kelley and wanted to dowhatever the angel said to do.
(10:28):
So they swap for a night.
However, the fallout isn't pretty,
with Dee's wife,Jane Dee, becoming “distressed”.
You think?
And those two head back to Englandby 1589.
Moral of the story?
Human nature never changes.
And obviously,Edward Kelley didn't get the whole
(10:50):
spiritual transformation part of alchemy.
Okay, back to the Emerald Tablet.
So Dee leaves, and Kelley stays.
But Rudolph is getting pissed.
All this time and money and no stone.
So in 1591, he throws Kelley in prisonfor nonperformance.
By around 1597or 1598, Kelley has had enough of prison
(11:13):
life and tries to escape, apparentlyby trying to climb down from a high tower.
He falls and his injurieslead to his death, soon after.
But again back to the tablet.
In 1669, a German alchemistby the name of Hennig Brand,
who also studied the tabletand was trying his hand at creating
(11:34):
the elusive Philosopher's Stone,was lucky enough to find two sugar mamas
to fund his experiments,based on the work of those before him.
He manages to distill1,500 gallons of urine down
to a white, waxy substancethat glowed in the dark.
Was it the legendary Philosopher's Stone?
(11:56):
No, but he accidentally madethe first discovery of a chemical element,
phosphorus.
And even Isaac Newton in the late 1600sgot hooked on the Emerald Tablet craze.
So much so that he even went backto Hugo of Santalla's
Latin translationand made his own English translation.
Fast forward to the 20th century.
(12:18):
As far as we know, no one has been ableto crack the Emerald Tablet code
eitherfor never ending wealth or immortality.
As far as we know.
So how exactly does an Emerald Tabletwith writing that no one could make heads
or tails of what it actually means,get connected
to the idea of a magical stonethat can turn lead to gold
(12:42):
and or grant immortality?
Well, actually,the search for the transformational
panacea predates the Emerald Tablet.
By the third century AD, alchemistslike Zosimos of Panopolis
(At least he was smart enoughto sign his own book) are already talking
about a universal substancefor transmutation and healing.
(13:06):
Roll on to the eighth century,and we get another Arabic alchemist
by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan,who writes The Book
of the Elements of Foundation,which, while talking about the tablet,
explicitly links its ideasto the concept of al-iksir,
a universal transformative substancewhich,
(13:26):
if you missed that one,is where we get the word elixir.
And that was all she wrote.
The idea of the tabletbeing the instruction to create the rock
or liquid, or whateverit turned out to be, became just accepted
alchemists canon, with the nameThe Philosopher's Stone becoming
attached to it in about the 12th century,and popular in the 13th.
(13:49):
The rest, as they say, is history.
So now that we know what the EmeraldTablet, singular, is all about,
where do the Emerald Tablets, plural,fit into all of this?
They don't.
I know.
That's a pretty strong statement.
So let's unpack this.
In a nutshell, the Emerald Tabletsare a series of 12 separate tablets
(14:13):
that record the wisdom of the ancientgod Thoth as to how the universe works.
This information was relayedto Maurice Doreal, founder
of the Brotherhood of the White Temple,to be shared with all of humanity.
According to Doreal,Thoth is an Atlantean king/god
who survives the destructionof Atlantis and settles in Egypt.
(14:36):
I'm not going to gointo the full history of Thoth.
The full text of all the Emerald Tabletsis linked
in the description,so you can read that part for yourself.
But once in Egypt, Thoth recordsall of his wisdom and keeps that knowledge
in his own little man cave calledthe Halls of Amenti, pops
the Great Pyramid on top of the entranceto hide it, and posts priests to guard it.
(15:00):
But then he reincarnateas Hermes and writes
the Reader's Digest version on 12 tablets
made of an indestructible green material.
Around 1300 BC,the political climate of the area
gets a bit dicey, so the pyramid prieststake the tablets to South America
and hang out with other Atlanteandisaster survivors
(15:23):
who have settled with the Mayans,where they hang for about 2300 years
before burying the tabletsunder a temple around 1000 A.D..
A few hundred years later,the Spanish come,
clear the place outand the tablets are forgotten to history.
Fast forward another 900 yearswhen Maurice Doreal is tasked
(15:44):
with recovering them and bringing themback to Egypt, which he does in 1925.
In that return process,he is granted permission
to translate and copythe text of the tablets.
However, he's only granted permissionfrom the Great White Lodge,
which is a group of guideswho have ascended beyond physical form,
(16:05):
also known as the Ascended Masters,to share that information
around 1940ish,when he self publishes the book
The Emerald Tablets of Thoththe Atlantean.
That is a condensed version of the accountMaurice Doreal
gives in the preface of his bookas to how this whole thing went down.
And everything we know aboutthis whole affair comes from him.
(16:30):
So who is he?
Well, let's start with the fact thatMaurice Doreal is not even his real name.
He's born in 1898 as ClaudeDuggins in Sulfur Springs, Oklahoma,
the youngest of six childrenin a farming family
with a deep, early interestin fantasy and science fiction.
(16:50):
He does not attend school pastelementary school and enlists
in the service to fight in World War One,which is over in November of 1918.
After that, his employment recordsshow him as a department store clerk,
a cab driver, and a brokerage salesman.
He discovers the Emerald tablets in 1925,
gets married )the first time) in 1927,
(17:14):
has two kids and founds the Brotherhoodof the White Temple in 1930.
He’s divorced by 1932,
marries his second wife in 1933, (Thisguy's busy.)
and heads off to LA for a while,where he has a very public divorce
from his second wife.
She calls him a cheater, and he is pissed
(17:36):
that she called hima fraud in front of his followers.
Is that actually grounds for divorce?
In 1939,he publishes the Emerald Tablets of Thoth
the Atlantean under the nameMaurice Doreal, marries his third wife
a year after that, adds the title doctorto his name, and officially incorporates
the Brotherhood as a real legal entityin Denver, in 1942.
(18:00):
In the 1950s with a sci fi fantasy
book collection of over 30,000 books,Doreal relocates
the Brotherhood to a compoundin Sedalia, Colorado, for protection
based on his predictionof a nuclear war in 1953,
calling their new digs Shamballa Ashrama.
(18:21):
He continues on as the “Supreme Voice”for the Ascended Masters
and as the leader of the Brotherhoodof the White Temple, while still writing
books on everything from Ascended Mastersto UFOs to a reptilian race
living under the Gobi Desert,until his death in 1963.
(18:41):
Now, there's nothing all that weirdabout this guy's life, right?
I mean, whose lifeisn't just a little out of the ordinary?
I make a living telling strange stories.
Who am I to talk?
But that is only the regularpart of the story.
Let's get to the crazy part of the story.
(19:01):
The elementary school education, Mauriceclaims,
didn't really matter because he was bornwith all of the memories
and education of all of his former selves.
So the moment he was born, he already knewhow to read and write, with his memories
of math, physics and chemistryall resurfacing before he is one year old.
(19:23):
Question.
If you are that smart, why are youvolunteering to fight in World War One?
Maybe he was just that patriotic,but it seems like the knowledge
he had would convince him thatmaybe he was here for a higher purpose.
let's just pass on that for a minute.
He also claims that he traveled to Egypt,(I assume to bring the tablets back
(19:43):
home.), India and Tibet, where he studiedunder the Ascended Masters
for eight years from 1921 to 1929.
But when people pointed outthat there was no such travel
listed on his passport,those travels became “astral” travels.
Okay, so while he's drivinga cab in Wichita, his mind is in Tibet.
(20:06):
Or maybe he goes there every dayafter work, like night school.
Got it.
But then what about his tripto South America in 1925
to recover the tabletsand bring them back to the Great Pyramid?
Remember, he's already told us earlierin the preface to the book
about the tablets, “The particulargroup of priests bearing the tablets
(20:27):
emigrated to South America...”I guess that was astral travel too.
Except,he says pretty clearly in the preface,
that he wrote himself,that he, “...was instructed to recover
and return to the Great Pyramidthe ancient tablets.
This, after adventures which neednot be detailed here, was accomplished.
(20:48):
So how exactly do you recoverand return physical objects astrally?
And don't forget,
while he's returning the tabletsto Egypt, either physically or astrally,
he's still studyingwith those masters in Tibet.
Okay.
Now let's take a look at the tabletsthemselves, as translated by Doreal.
(21:11):
And despite having gotten an A in collegecalculus, (It's true,
I did.) evidently, Maurice'smath skills from birth
are superior to mine,because the math ain't mathin’.
He starts by saying there are ten tablets
that were divided into 13 sections,for convenience.
Which is kind of odd.
(21:32):
If Thoth really is this super powerfulgodlike
entity, wouldn't he just make 13 tablets?
But then laterit says there are 12 tablets,
but only ten can be released to the world.
The last two are far too earth shattering.
Then he goes on to write out the contentsof those ten tablets,
but lists them out as 13 tablets,
(21:54):
plus another two supplementary tablets,for a total of 15 tablets.
Are those supplementary tabletsthe ones that he said
couldn't be released,or are there really ten tablets
which are actually 13 tabletsplus two supplemental tablets,
plus the two that can't be releasedfor a total of 17 tablets.
(22:16):
And just because I feel the need, It'sa moral imperative.
I have to point out that Maurice startsthe preface writing in the third person.
Like when he says, “the writer.”
But by the end, he'sabandoned all pretense and goes straight
to first person, saying,“I will give an interpretation.”
(22:36):
And since when is it his interpretation?
I thought it was his translation.
Interesting.
If you want to read the 10 or 12 or 15or 17 tablets yourself,
you can get your genuine copy straightfrom the Brotherhood for a mere $60.
Or you can get it online for free.
(22:59):
Go ahead and check out some ofhis other books while you're at it,
because there are lots of goodiesI don't have time to cover here.
Like in his book Mysteries of MountShasta, published in 1943,
Doctor Doreal writes that in 1931,while he was hanging out in L.A.
giving a lecture, he's approachedby two Atlanteans who teleport him
(23:21):
to an underground citybeneath Mount Shasta. Ooo!
Now we’re gettin’ spicy.
But as you're reading, be aware of that,at least when we're talking
about the Emerald Tablets, some parts ofit have already been identified as ideas
lifted directly from other sources(Plagiarism), namely H.P.
(23:42):
Lovecraft, but others as well.
Not to mention that other than talkingabout the Emerald Tablet,
which has been writtenabout for centuries,
and Thoth, who's also been writtenabout for centuries,
nothing else in the EmeraldTablets has ever been mentioned
anywhere until Dorealpublished his book in the 1940s.
(24:03):
Okay,I know I'm being really hard on the guy.
Cut me some slack. Just.
Don't blame the messenger.
I get it.
But forgive me if I place a slightly
higher standard on the guywho's supposedly delivering
one of the greatest messagesever given to mankind,
than I put on my tax accountant,who tells me I owe $8,000 to the IRS.
(24:27):
His writings have influencedlots of people and still do today.
Remember the episodewe did a few weeks ago
on the alleged structureunder the Khufu Pyramid at Giza?
Link in the description.
Well, those guys even talk aboutthe Emerald Tablets
and the Halls of Amentiin their four hour press conference
they held to talk abouttheir scientific findings.
(24:49):
And now that the press conferencehas been transcribed into English,
be looking for another episode about that.
I have some things to say.
So do I think the tablets exist?
No, I think in both casesthey're just figments of imagination.
But what about their message?
Well, that's a different story.
(25:10):
In the case of the Emerald Tablet,keep in mind
I haven't studied this text for decades,like some of the Alchemist masters, but
it seems like someone's trying to relaya message about how the universe works.
Sounds to me like a giant cosmic fractal
that's identical to itself on every level.
Could that information,
(25:30):
even without being on a questfor the Philosopher's Stone, be helpful?
Sure.
What about the informationpresented in the Emerald Tablets?
Well, if you set asidewho the information is coming from
and just concentrate on the messageitself, it absolutely can be useful.
Let's not throw the baby outwith the bathwater.
Anything that can lead us mere mortalsto better understand ourselves
(25:54):
and the world around usis a good thing in my book.
And for you more adventurous soulsamong us who would like to take a crack
at crafting your own Philosopher's Stone,but don't have the time to study
centuries of alchemy to figure outhow to do it, you’re in luck.
Somebody has done all of that for you.
In 2011, a document hitthe internet called The Book of Aquarius.
(26:18):
The author is anonymous but talks openlyabout their purpose for publishing it.
“The purpose of this bookis to release one particular secret,
which has been kept hiddenfor the last 12,000 years.
The Philosopher's Stone. Elixir of life.
Fountain of Youth.
Ambrosia.
Soma. Amrita.
(26:39):
Nectar of Immortality.
These are different namesfor the same thing.” Inside this 165 page
document are the complete instructionsfor creating the Philosopher's Stone.
And whoever this person is,they did their homework,
with quotes from various sourcesshowered throughout
(26:59):
and a full bibliography of sourcesat the end.
Everything you need to put you on the path
to unlimited wealth and immortality.
A link to the website and the free PDFdownload is in the description.
But a word of warning.
Don't open it up until you have at leasta good hour of free time in your schedule.
(27:21):
It is quite the rabbit hole.
So there it is.
My attempt at bringing clarityto what was, at least for me,
a very muddy subject.
Two ideas with almost the same name,but two very different paths.
One path leads to spiritual enlightenmentand maybe even communion
(27:42):
with the Transcendent Mastersof the Great White Lodge.
Just a small heads up on this path.
To truly follow it, you'll have to jointhe Brotherhood of the White Temple.
And that's going to cost you.
Certainly not as much as that otherso-called “religion” that shall not be
named.
It's actually pretty affordable,but it certainly ain’t free.
(28:04):
Or the other paththat leads to immortality.
Which path will you choose?
All righty then.
Yet another firehose of information.
And this one on a cosmic scale.
There's so much informationfor you to check out on your own.
So be sure to check the descriptionfor all of those links.
(28:27):
And really, if you have some time,check out the Book of Aquarius.
It is truly a trippy read.
Want to keep the strange train a rollin’?
Then click right here.
I promise it'll be a good one.
Be careful out there, and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
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