Jade Books in Heaven

Jade Books are described (in several scriptures of the Daoist canon) as existent primordially in the various divine Heavens -- these Jade Books are variously said to be instrumental in creating and maintaining the divine structure of the universe, or as regulating national or personal destiny.

In the Vacuous Cavern primordium, before the separation of heaven-and-earth, there existed, in the primaeval darkness, the "5-Ancients Jade Chapters".^[1] The titles of these are :

Spirit-generating perfection-treasuring stanzas of the Cavern of Profundity
Heaven-penetrating Southern Clouds Treasure Numinous Writ
Numinous book of the Nine Heavens of Cavernous Moisture of the Treasure Kalpa
Subtle chapter of the Bright Cavern of Golden Perfection
Treasured Bright writ of the perfection-generating Primordial Spirit

In Highest Clarity heaven are the "Jade Tablets of the Wisdom Manuscript" : parts of these reveal the inner names of the 10,000 spirits.^[2] (Compare the esoteric Shin-gon list of 10,000 Buddha-s.)
In the Azure palace in Highest Clarity heaven are jade tablets registering the names and the nomenclatures of those adepts who are destined to ascend to the asterisms in broad daylight.^[3]

Heavenly books composed of other semi-precious stones

In Sumerian lore, "(Nisaba) continually gets advice from a tablet of lapis lazuli. ... Nisaba consults a lapis tablet for advice about the 'star-chart' (mul-an) ... . The subject in our text is also consulting the star chart from a tablet made of a precious stone (giš-nu11-gal)".^[4] This subject is Pú-ta ('Foundling'), the demonic scribe.^[5]

In Muslim mystical lore, the archangel ʼIsrafʼil is owner of a "jewelled tablet of fate".^[6] "The Tablet of Destiny was made out of an immense white pearl, and it has two leaves like those of a door. There are learned men who assert that these leaves are formed out of two red rubies".^[7]

In Hellenistic^[8] lore, there is the Emerald Tablet of Hermēs Tris-megistos (Hermēs 'Thrice-Greatest').

Notes

^ Raz 2004, p. 393
^ Eichman 1999, p. 269
^ Eichman 1999, p. 323
^ Dijk & Geller, p. 62
^ Dijk & Geller, p. 61
^ R. O. Winstedt: Shaman Saiva and Sufi. Constable & Co. Ltd., London, 1925. p. 30 -- http://www.sacred-texts.com/sha/sss/sss04.htm (e)
^ J. E. Hanauer : Folk-lore of the Holy Land : Moslem, Christian and Jewish. 1907. p. 3 http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/flhl/flhl04.htm
^ http://www.sofiatopia.org/equiaeon/emerald.htm#1.4a

Bibliography

Gil Raz : Creation of Tradition : the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure. PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 2004. http://texts.00.gs/Daoism_PhD_diss,_2004.htm
Shawn Eichman : Converging Paths : Daoism during the Six Dynasties. PhD dissertation, University of Hawai'i, 1999. http://texts.00.gs/Daoism_PhD_diss,_1999.htm
TEXTE UND MATERIALIEN DER FRAU PROFESSOR HILPRECHT COLLECTION OF BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES IM EIGENTUM DER FRIEDRICH SCHILLER-UNIVERSITÄT JENA, Band 6 = Johannes J. A. van Dijk & Markham J. Geller : Ur III Incantations. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2003. http://texts.00.gs/Ur_III_Incantations.htm