Inspired by the concept of the alchemical wedding, this drawing I made as a gift was an old attempt of mine to practice etching by "remixing" alchemical engravings (by hand, of course) which has been inspiring my work since I first read the mysterious Tabula Smaragdina, the sercet formula of Hermes Trismegistos, and discovered a whole universe of hermetic illustrations when i was 13. Beside the 13th century Sufi Ibn al-Arabi, it was Arabic alchemical texts like the TS that made me want to study Arabic. I love doing murals because it gets one's whole body moving while painting, but I must admit, I take a lot of pleasure in sitting tightly & working on fine details. Here is the poem.
- TABULA SMARAGDINA
- 1. It contains an accurate commentary that can't be doubted.
- 2. It states: What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.
- 3. And all things sprang from this essence through a single projection. How marvelous is its work! It is the principle part of the world and its custodian.
- 4. Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it.
- 5. Father of talismans and keeper of wonders.
- 6. Perfect in power that reveals the lights.
- 7. It is a fire that became our earth. Separate the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that which is coarse, through care and wisdom.
- 8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it.
- 9. The greatest power overcomes everything that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse.
- 10. The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.
- 11. The scholars made this their path.
- 12. This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with wisdom.
- 13. This is his last book that he hid in the catacomb.
- (published by Nineveh Shadrach from the original Arabic of Book of Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana.[1])
Inspired by the concept of the alchemical wedding, this drawing I made as a gift was an old attempt of mine to practice etching by "remixing" alchemical engravings (by hand, of course) which has been inspiring my work since I first read the mysterious Tabula Smaragdina, the sercet formula of Hermes Trismegistos, and discovered a whole universe of hermetic illustrations when i was 13. Beside the 13th century Sufi Ibn al-Arabi, it was Arabic alchemical texts like the TS that made me want to study Arabic. I love doing murals because it gets one's whole body moving while painting, but I must admit, I take a lot of pleasure in sitting tightly & working on fine details. Here is the poem.
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