TABULA SMARAGDINA HERMETIS ;Die Weisheit und Aufgabe der Rosenkreuzer

The ancient text of the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), after it had been translated into Latin, has taken a prominent position within the spirituality of the West. The few surviving lines have inspired a whole epoch, so that one may speak of a time before and a time after its discovery. As a graphic enhancement the text later received an emblem and the whole was included into the book Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.After this contribution initially outlines the history of the text and the emblems, it will concentrate, with the aid of selected images from Rosicrucian and alchemical literature of the late middle ages, on the interpretation of the individual symbols of the emblem. When these different images of the emblem in their symbolic meaning, as well as in their relationship to each other, are analyzed and become clear, they will open themselves up to modern consciousness. Thus it will become apparent that the emblem of the Emerald Tablet deserves to take a central place within the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, as it represents the essence of Rosicrucian wisdom.