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] (Possibly a reference to mercury produced by cinnabar.)
In Hellenistic[8] lore, there is the Emerald Tablet of Hermēs Tris-megistos (Hermēs 'Thrice-Greatest').
The Akashic records in the modern Western philosophies of Edgar Cayce are a similar concept.
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