Table of Contents
The Emerald Tablet, also called the Smaragdine Table or Tabula Smaragdina, is a short and cryptic text traditionally attributed to the legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus.
The earliest known versions are four Arabic recensions found in mystical and alchemical works between the 8th and 10th centuries CE, especially the Secret of Creation (Sirr al-Khalīqa) and the Secret of Secrets (Sirr al-Asrār).
These versions often included a story about the discovery of an emerald tablet in Hermes’ tomb.
From the 12th century onward, Latin translations, most notably the widespread vulgate version, introduced the text to Europe, where it drew great scholarly interest. Medieval commentators such as Hortulanus treated it as a foundational manual of alchemy, describing it as instructions for creating the philosopher’s stone and for making gold.
During the Renaissance, the text was reinterpreted through Neoplatonic, allegorical, and Christian perspectives, and printers often included an emblem that became recognized as a visual symbol of the Tablet itself.
The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean
The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean is a pseudohistorical esoteric text presented as ancient wisdom from Thoth, an Atlantean priest-king.
It claims to date back 36,000 years BC but was actually written or “translated” by Maurice Doreal in the 20th century, likely in the 1930s or 1940s, and first published around that time.
Doreal, born Claude Doggins (1898–1963), was an American occultist who founded the Brotherhood of the White Temple in 1930. He claimed to have discovered the tablets during a 1925 visit to the Great Pyramid of Giza or channeled them, translating from an alleged Atlantean language.
Influenced by Theosophy, H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, and ancient occult works, the text blends mysticism, alchemy, and pseudohistory.
The work consists of 15 chapters or “tablets,” written as cryptic poems covering themes like spiritual enlightenment, cosmic laws, the soul’s journey, magic, time, space, and the cycles of civilizations. Key elements include the Halls of Amenti (an underworld realm), the struggle between light and darkness, and prophecies. It narrates Thoth’s role in Atlantis’s fall and his migration to ancient Egypt, where he ruled for millennia and built the Great Pyramid to preserve knowledge.
In the chapter ‘Tablet I: The History of Thoth the Atlantean’, Thoth describes Atlantis’s decline into darkness, prompting divine intervention that triggers a global flood.
Over the world then broke the great waters, drowning and sinking, changing Earth’s balance until only the Temple of Light was left standing on the great mountain on Undal still rising out of the water; some there were who were living, saved from the rush of the fountains.
Emerald Tablet I: The History of Thoth, The Atlantean
The Dweller (a higher being) alters cosmic forces, causing waters to overwhelm the world. Thoth and survivors escape to Egypt (Khem), leaving behind the submerged Temple of Light on the island of Undal as the last remnant.
This text differs from the singular Emerald Tablet, an ancient Hermetic work on alchemy attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which lacks narratives of Atlantis or floods.
The Emerald Tablets remain popular in modern esoteric circles but lack historical verification and are viewed as 20th-century fiction.
| Tablet Number | Title |
|---|---|
| I | The History of Thoth, The Atlantean |
| II | The Halls of Amenti |
| III | The Key of Wisdom |
| IV | The Space Born |
| V | The Dweller of Unal |
| VI | The Key of Magic |
| VII | The Seven Lords |
| VIII | The Key of Mysteries |
| IX | The Key of Freedom of Space |
| X | The Key of Time |
| XI | The Key to Above and Below |
| XII | The Law of Cause and Effect & The Key of Prophecy |
| XIII | The Keys of Life and Death |
| XIV | Atlantean Secrets (Supplementary) |
| XV | Secret of Secrets (Supplementary) |
