Creed of the Church of the Emerald Tablet
Below is Sir Isaac Newton's translation of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus; the version which our church uses as our creed. Historically, there are many versions and translations of the Emerald Tablet, some longer and some shorter. Although it was likely to have originated in similar Greek traditions as the rest of the Hermetica, the earliest known versions come to us from Arabic manuscripts dating as early as the 9th century CE. These Arabic versions are much shorter than the later Latin and English manifestations. But as they were adopted and rewritten over time, they eventually lengthened to what we are familiar with today.
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One of the core tenets of the Church of the Emerald Tablet is tolerance, therefore we do not require members to believe in or subscribe to any one particular religion, church, or set of dogma. Similarly to Freemasonry, we make use of various elements on the basis of their spiritual and occult efficacy. Being so, we syncretically draw from a number of traditions but can most succinctly be described as Christo-Hermetic in nature with a heavy reliance on alchemical allegory.
The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
[Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis Trismegisti]
Tis true without lying, certain and most true.
That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below
to do the miracle of one only thing
And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfection in 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
sweetly with great industry.
It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth
and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force,
for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.
From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the means is here in this.
Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.
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-Isaac Newton translation, "Keynes MS. 28," f. 2r-v.