Full Translation:
1) This is true and remote from all cover of falsehood
2) Whatever is below is similar to that which is above. Through this the marvels of the work of one thing are procured and perfected.
3) Also, as all things are made from one, by the consideration of one, so all things were made from this one, by conjunction.
4) The father of it is the sun, the mother the moon.
5) The wind bore it in the womb. Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection.
6a) Its power is perfected.
7) If it is turned into earth,
7a) separate the earth from the fire, the subtle and thin from the crude and course, prudently, with modesty and wisdom.
8) This ascends from the earth into the sky and again descends from the sky to the earth, and receives the power and efficacy of things above and of things below.
9) By this means you will acquire the glory of the whole world, and so you will drive away all shadows and blindness.
10) For this by its fortitude snatches the palm from all other fortitude and power. For it is able to penetrate and subdue everything subtle and everything crude and hard.
11a) By this means the world was founded
12) and hence the marvelous conjunctions of it and admirable effects, since this is the way by which these marvels may be brought about.
13) And because of this they have called me Hermes Trismegistus since I have the three parts of the wisdom and Philosophy of the whole universe.
14) My speech is finished which I have spoken concerning the solar work
Translation Context
This rendering comes from the Renaissance compendium Aurelium Occultae Philosophorum, attributed to Georgio Beato. Emerging in the 16th century, it reflects the humanist and Neoplatonic revival that permeated Renaissance esotericism. The translation blends scholastic clarity with a tone of sacred awe.
Key terms like “conjunction,” “prudently,” and “glory of the world” suggest a moralized and structured alchemical framework that aligns Hermetic wisdom with Christian philosophical ideals. The phrasing carries a sense of sacred procedure—particularly in its treatment of separation, refinement, and re-conjunction of opposites.
Georgio’s rendering is notable for its restraint and balance: power is to be used wisely; transformation demands both grace and discernment. The mystical tone is framed within the emerging Renaissance confidence in individual enlightenment through symbolic mastery.
Axiom-by-Axiom Interpretive Notes
Axiom 2: “Procured and perfected” speaks to a distinctly Renaissance belief in perfectibility—a fusion of esoteric knowledge with the humanist project of moral and spiritual refinement.
Axiom 3: “By conjunction” elevates the alchemical act of unification. Unlike “adaptation” or “emanation” in earlier versions, this connotes sacred marriage—a favored motif in Rosicrucian circles.
Axiom 5: “Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection” highlights the Earth’s role not as a crude material base, but as a vessel of realized divinity—a subtle but powerful reinterpretation in light of Neoplatonic metaphysics.
Axiom 7a: The detailed phrasing (“prudently, with modesty and wisdom”) presents refinement as a virtuous act. This moral charge adds a theurgical layer to what might otherwise be chemical protocol.
Axiom 10: “Snatches the palm from all other fortitude” borrows from the Latin poetic tradition—merging classical victory motifs with metaphysical conquest. Power here is both inward and absolute.