top Tao is like down Tao

Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis

Verum sine mendacio, certum et verissimum.
Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius ad perpetranda miracola Rei Unius.

Et sicut omnes res fuerunt Uno, meditatione Unius: sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac Una re adaptatione.

Pater eius est Sol, mater eius Luna. Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo. Nutrix eius terra est.

Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic. Vis eius integra est, si versa fuerit in terram.

Separabis terram ab igne, subtile a spisso, suaviter cum magno ingenio.

Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum.

Sic habes gloriam totius mundi. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.

Hic est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem; omnemque solidam penetrabit: SIC MUNDUS CREATUS EST. Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus hic est.

Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi. Completum est quod dixi de operatione solis.

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1. [It is] true, without error, certain and most true,
2. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing.
3. And as all things were from the one, by means of the meditation of the one, thus all things were born from the one, by means of adaptation.
4. Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon, the Wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
5. The father of the whole world [or "of all of the initiates"?] is here.
6. Its power is whole if it has been turned into earth.
7. You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, sweetly, with great skill.
8. It ascends from earth into heaven and again it descends to the earth, and receives the power of higher and of lower things.
9. Thus you will have the Glory of the whole world.
10. Therefore will all obscurity flee from you.
11. Of all strength this is true strength, because it will conquer all that is subtle, and penetrate all that is solid.
12. Thus was the world created.
13. From this were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the means. Therefore am I named Thrice-Great Hermes, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
14. It is finished, what I have said about the working[s] of the Sun.

The Emerald Tablet, attributed to a legendary figure as Hermes Trismegistus, is a text of Hermeticism translated from Arabic into Latin around 1250. In many ways expresses in summary form some of the concepts of Tao Te Ching, and mainly the invariance and scalability of complexity from small to large, from macrocosm and microcosm.