ProfessorChaos
New member
I've read in several books about this interesting artifact which would have probably been just another legend with no grounds in historical fact, were it not for several odd accounts that crop up here and there about this relic:
Account 1. The Emerald Grail
Kyot the Provençal, claimed the Grail was a stone that fell from Heaven (called lapsit exillis), and had been the abode of the Neutral Angels who took neither side during Lucifer's rebellion. The stone was said to be green, but of no one specific material. In an obscure account by another author, Lucifer was said to have claimed the emerald and set it in a crown. The crown was destroyed when Lucifer fell to Earth from Heaven. Apparently, the stone had survived. It, being the source of Lucifer's power over Alchemy, was said to have split into two parts. At first, Lucifer pursued the two fragments of the emerald, but gave up. Then, human beings found them and made them into a tablet and another object which eventually became a cup. The material is assumed to have been emerald, but it could well have been ordinary glass!
The emerald chalice at Genoa was obtained during the Crusades at Caesarea Maritima, and thought to be the Holy Grail. But an accident on the road, while it was being returned from Paris after the fall of Napoleon, revealed that the emerald was green glass. The broken chalice was later found by Nazis during their occuption of Paris, but the chalice were said to have been destroyed during bombings and explosions. There is a museum, I forget where, that was shown on a documentary I saw on either Discovery or the History Channel which actually had the charred pieces of the Genoa chalice. They couldn't carbon date it though, because of some kind of deterioration.
A tiny bit of info about both of the above objects can be found on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail
Account 2. The Emerald Lens
The Roman emperor Nero was near-sighted, so he had an enormous emerald which he used as a glass to view gladiatorial fights. The Romans thought that emeralds were good for the sight, and Nero's emerald was hollowed out to act as a lens to help him see. Many of the Christians persecuted by him came to think that the emerald was of diabolical origin. It is less commonly believed that the emerald was actually a sacred object to the early Christians, and that Nero's misuse of it was a deliberate blasphemy, while to the Romans it was seen as just an expensive and inefficient waste. The emerald itself was described as being concave-shaped, and nothing is mentioned of it's fate. Here is a little of this object's story on a history page about emperor Nero:
http://www.bible-history.com/nero/NERONeros_Character.htm
Account 3. The Emerald Tablet
A mysterious plate made of some green material, which legend says is a half of a fragment of an emerald lost by Lucifer when he/she was cast out and fell to Earth (the remaining half is said to have been used to forge the Holy Grail). The Tablet was found, according to the legend, by one of the soldiers of Alexander the Great in a tomb at Ebron, in the hands of the mummy of Hermes Trismegistus, defined as ?all alchemists? father?. The Tablet, also known as Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, or The Secret of Hermes, is a text said to reveal the secret of primordial substances and transmutations. It claims to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus ("Hermes the Thrice-Great"), a legendary Egyptian sage or god, variously identified with the Egyptian god Thoth and/or the Greek god Hermes. No one knows what the fate of this object is, since no one has actually seen it since sometime prior to 400 AD, where it was last reported being found in a cave by a man who copied the writings engraved upon the surface of the tablet. The full history of this object is too much to fit here, so here is a link to a site that has the story:
http://www.alchemylab.com/hyper_history.htm#Apollonius: The Third Hermes
Thoughts and Speculation...
Now, here are my thoughts regarding the Emerald of Lucifer: (Speculation, for the most part, but educated speculation, so just bear with me here...)
Theory 1 - If the Legend is True:
If the legend is to be believed, this huge "emerald" belonged to some neutral angels until Lucifer stole it and put it into his/her crown. Lucifer got kicked out of Heaven, the emerald broke in two. Lucifer went looking for it, but gave up, and human beings found them. It was after this time that the two halves of the emerald were made into the Tablet and the Grail by who knows who.
1. The Tablet's history, unlike the Grail's, is actually better documented even though the object itself has never been found by archeologists. It is possible that the Tablet is the Philosopher's Stone of Alchemy, the "Stone which is not a Stone". Since the legend tells that Lucifer had power over Alchemy through the Emerald, this would be exceedingly likely. It is also possible that it may have been destroyed or reworked into something else in the years since 400 AD, but something of it's fate can be guessed at in this theory:
2. The Grail's history can be pieced together, and may tie into the Lens's as well. Clearly, it was an object of sacred value to early Christians, and it likely was a green glass cup mistaken for the cup of Christ. I say mistaken because Jesus would not have been able to *afford* such a rich cup to drink from. Carpenters back then did not exactly earn a king's wage, and glasswork like that was rare and costly. But because Jesus was, to his faithful, the King of Kings, to them he would have had only the best. Maybe Nero heard about this object... and in an effort to make Christians even more miserable, had it made into his famous lens. Now let's say this object was given to Nero and he was told that it was emerald. Since emeralds were both "expensive and inefficient" to treat poor vision Nero's physicians could have used glass and just told Nero it was emerald, to satisfy the emperor's extravagent taste. No one knows the fate of this lens, but then we have that green glass chalice appearing at Genoa, so it's possible that Christians simply reworked Nero's lens back into a cup again... but this time a more expensive kind of cup: a chalice. This chalice found it's way into the hands of Napoleon and Hitler before it met destruction in World War II, as documented by some sources. So, this could be a reason why we'll never find the Holy Grail of the legends. And, since this Grail is more Lucifer's holy object than Christ's, that is most likely for the best, and could be the reason so many conquerors and tyrants were drawn to it. This theory makes the fate of the Tablet rather obvious...
3. If the Grail was just green glass and not really emerald, and let us say for agument's sake the legend of Lucifer was true and the Grail was just one half of a larger object, the other half being the Tablet... then the Tablet would also be made from green glass. It is likely, therefore, the Tablet was broken and that is the reason why the last man to actually see it made a copy of what it said upon it's surface: to preserve what was lost. Moses had made a new set of Ten Commandments for a similar purpose... because the originals broke. If the Emerald Tablet is Lucifer's own "Commandments", you can bet it suffered a similar fate to Moses' Tablets. It is likely that this is one excuse why the Church had put so many Alchemists to death during the Inquisition and accused them of doing "the Devil's work". If they knew the history of the "Philosopher's Stone", a.k.a. the Emerald Tablet, it would have, to them, confirmed their worst fears about Alchemy being a "Magic of the Devil", even though we know Alchemy is just chemistry combined with esoteric philosophy.
Theory 2 - If the Legend is False:
If the whole legend isn't true, then someone made both the Grail and the Tablet, and tried to get people to believe that these objects were of divine origin. From this viewpoint, the Grail of Genoa, the Lens of Nero, and the Tablet not only have nothing to do with one another but are by themselves rather common objects compared to more important relics. Since the ruined remnants of the Genoa cup apparently cannot be dated in any kind of truly satisfactory manner, we can *never* know if this old legend is true or false.
In Closing - So, What Do I Believe?
Being a romantic, I would rather belive the legend is true, than false, given that there is no evidence to either prove or disprove it. At the very least, like with many legends, there must have been something which happened to give rise to the story to begin with. While none can say what that something was, it is certain to have been exaggerated over the years. Could Lucifer's most prized possession have been little more than an alien's glass object d'art? That all depends on if you think angels are aliens. Since that is another thing we cannot be certain of, I really couldn't say one way or the other what I do belive about it. Only that I believe there was something more to the story than just people adding to their belief systems. I thnk it is safe to close the history books on Lucifer's "Emerald" as a relic... since every recorded fact about it points towards it having been destroyed. Even so, I find it one of the most interesting ancient relics associated with the religion of Christianity, since it ties together no less than three ancient relics and their associated legends with a neat package of myth and mysticism.
It is very convenient that some of the relics which for all of time could confirm the existence of beings like God and the Devil have... for all of time... been lost or destroyed. Perhaps it is a sign that human beings are not meant for easy answers to the big questions. And so, the quest goes on and we seek to learn what we can!
Account 1. The Emerald Grail
Kyot the Provençal, claimed the Grail was a stone that fell from Heaven (called lapsit exillis), and had been the abode of the Neutral Angels who took neither side during Lucifer's rebellion. The stone was said to be green, but of no one specific material. In an obscure account by another author, Lucifer was said to have claimed the emerald and set it in a crown. The crown was destroyed when Lucifer fell to Earth from Heaven. Apparently, the stone had survived. It, being the source of Lucifer's power over Alchemy, was said to have split into two parts. At first, Lucifer pursued the two fragments of the emerald, but gave up. Then, human beings found them and made them into a tablet and another object which eventually became a cup. The material is assumed to have been emerald, but it could well have been ordinary glass!
The emerald chalice at Genoa was obtained during the Crusades at Caesarea Maritima, and thought to be the Holy Grail. But an accident on the road, while it was being returned from Paris after the fall of Napoleon, revealed that the emerald was green glass. The broken chalice was later found by Nazis during their occuption of Paris, but the chalice were said to have been destroyed during bombings and explosions. There is a museum, I forget where, that was shown on a documentary I saw on either Discovery or the History Channel which actually had the charred pieces of the Genoa chalice. They couldn't carbon date it though, because of some kind of deterioration.
A tiny bit of info about both of the above objects can be found on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail
Account 2. The Emerald Lens
The Roman emperor Nero was near-sighted, so he had an enormous emerald which he used as a glass to view gladiatorial fights. The Romans thought that emeralds were good for the sight, and Nero's emerald was hollowed out to act as a lens to help him see. Many of the Christians persecuted by him came to think that the emerald was of diabolical origin. It is less commonly believed that the emerald was actually a sacred object to the early Christians, and that Nero's misuse of it was a deliberate blasphemy, while to the Romans it was seen as just an expensive and inefficient waste. The emerald itself was described as being concave-shaped, and nothing is mentioned of it's fate. Here is a little of this object's story on a history page about emperor Nero:
http://www.bible-history.com/nero/NERONeros_Character.htm
Account 3. The Emerald Tablet
A mysterious plate made of some green material, which legend says is a half of a fragment of an emerald lost by Lucifer when he/she was cast out and fell to Earth (the remaining half is said to have been used to forge the Holy Grail). The Tablet was found, according to the legend, by one of the soldiers of Alexander the Great in a tomb at Ebron, in the hands of the mummy of Hermes Trismegistus, defined as ?all alchemists? father?. The Tablet, also known as Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, or The Secret of Hermes, is a text said to reveal the secret of primordial substances and transmutations. It claims to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus ("Hermes the Thrice-Great"), a legendary Egyptian sage or god, variously identified with the Egyptian god Thoth and/or the Greek god Hermes. No one knows what the fate of this object is, since no one has actually seen it since sometime prior to 400 AD, where it was last reported being found in a cave by a man who copied the writings engraved upon the surface of the tablet. The full history of this object is too much to fit here, so here is a link to a site that has the story:
http://www.alchemylab.com/hyper_history.htm#Apollonius: The Third Hermes
Thoughts and Speculation...
Now, here are my thoughts regarding the Emerald of Lucifer: (Speculation, for the most part, but educated speculation, so just bear with me here...)
Theory 1 - If the Legend is True:
If the legend is to be believed, this huge "emerald" belonged to some neutral angels until Lucifer stole it and put it into his/her crown. Lucifer got kicked out of Heaven, the emerald broke in two. Lucifer went looking for it, but gave up, and human beings found them. It was after this time that the two halves of the emerald were made into the Tablet and the Grail by who knows who.
1. The Tablet's history, unlike the Grail's, is actually better documented even though the object itself has never been found by archeologists. It is possible that the Tablet is the Philosopher's Stone of Alchemy, the "Stone which is not a Stone". Since the legend tells that Lucifer had power over Alchemy through the Emerald, this would be exceedingly likely. It is also possible that it may have been destroyed or reworked into something else in the years since 400 AD, but something of it's fate can be guessed at in this theory:
2. The Grail's history can be pieced together, and may tie into the Lens's as well. Clearly, it was an object of sacred value to early Christians, and it likely was a green glass cup mistaken for the cup of Christ. I say mistaken because Jesus would not have been able to *afford* such a rich cup to drink from. Carpenters back then did not exactly earn a king's wage, and glasswork like that was rare and costly. But because Jesus was, to his faithful, the King of Kings, to them he would have had only the best. Maybe Nero heard about this object... and in an effort to make Christians even more miserable, had it made into his famous lens. Now let's say this object was given to Nero and he was told that it was emerald. Since emeralds were both "expensive and inefficient" to treat poor vision Nero's physicians could have used glass and just told Nero it was emerald, to satisfy the emperor's extravagent taste. No one knows the fate of this lens, but then we have that green glass chalice appearing at Genoa, so it's possible that Christians simply reworked Nero's lens back into a cup again... but this time a more expensive kind of cup: a chalice. This chalice found it's way into the hands of Napoleon and Hitler before it met destruction in World War II, as documented by some sources. So, this could be a reason why we'll never find the Holy Grail of the legends. And, since this Grail is more Lucifer's holy object than Christ's, that is most likely for the best, and could be the reason so many conquerors and tyrants were drawn to it. This theory makes the fate of the Tablet rather obvious...
3. If the Grail was just green glass and not really emerald, and let us say for agument's sake the legend of Lucifer was true and the Grail was just one half of a larger object, the other half being the Tablet... then the Tablet would also be made from green glass. It is likely, therefore, the Tablet was broken and that is the reason why the last man to actually see it made a copy of what it said upon it's surface: to preserve what was lost. Moses had made a new set of Ten Commandments for a similar purpose... because the originals broke. If the Emerald Tablet is Lucifer's own "Commandments", you can bet it suffered a similar fate to Moses' Tablets. It is likely that this is one excuse why the Church had put so many Alchemists to death during the Inquisition and accused them of doing "the Devil's work". If they knew the history of the "Philosopher's Stone", a.k.a. the Emerald Tablet, it would have, to them, confirmed their worst fears about Alchemy being a "Magic of the Devil", even though we know Alchemy is just chemistry combined with esoteric philosophy.
Theory 2 - If the Legend is False:
If the whole legend isn't true, then someone made both the Grail and the Tablet, and tried to get people to believe that these objects were of divine origin. From this viewpoint, the Grail of Genoa, the Lens of Nero, and the Tablet not only have nothing to do with one another but are by themselves rather common objects compared to more important relics. Since the ruined remnants of the Genoa cup apparently cannot be dated in any kind of truly satisfactory manner, we can *never* know if this old legend is true or false.
In Closing - So, What Do I Believe?
Being a romantic, I would rather belive the legend is true, than false, given that there is no evidence to either prove or disprove it. At the very least, like with many legends, there must have been something which happened to give rise to the story to begin with. While none can say what that something was, it is certain to have been exaggerated over the years. Could Lucifer's most prized possession have been little more than an alien's glass object d'art? That all depends on if you think angels are aliens. Since that is another thing we cannot be certain of, I really couldn't say one way or the other what I do belive about it. Only that I believe there was something more to the story than just people adding to their belief systems. I thnk it is safe to close the history books on Lucifer's "Emerald" as a relic... since every recorded fact about it points towards it having been destroyed. Even so, I find it one of the most interesting ancient relics associated with the religion of Christianity, since it ties together no less than three ancient relics and their associated legends with a neat package of myth and mysticism.
It is very convenient that some of the relics which for all of time could confirm the existence of beings like God and the Devil have... for all of time... been lost or destroyed. Perhaps it is a sign that human beings are not meant for easy answers to the big questions. And so, the quest goes on and we seek to learn what we can!
