With “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” coming out in theaters this week, we will explore the origins of the concept of “the Force”. One of the first people (maybe even the first) to mention “the Force” in English was the noted alchemist and physicist Issac Newton, when he translated the “Emerald Tablets of Thoth” in 1680. Thoth is known as the father of Alchemy and of the Egyptian Mystery Schools, and was later known as Hermes in ancient Greece. Instead of the term “the Force”, other translations use the word “strength”, “fortitude”, and “power”, but sometimes it is called the “zero point field”, “the Source field”, and/or “life force energy”. Only conscious individuals are able to knowingly wield this “Force”, regardless of their possible light, dark, or neutral (gray) dispositions; Force users are the game’s players, while those unaware of the Force are the game’s pieces.
Compare lines ten and eleven of Newton’s translation which reads, “Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtile thing & penetrates every solid thing. So was ye world created.” to the speech given by Obi Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie back in 1977:
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” ~Obi Wan Kenobi, “Star Wars 4: A New Hope”
The full text of Sir Isaac Newton’s translation of the “Emerald Tablets of Thoth”:
1) Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
2) That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like yet which is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.
3) And as all things have been & arose from one by ye mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
4) The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
5) the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.
6) The father of all perfection in ye whole world is here.
7) Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
7a) Seperate thou ye earth from ye fire, ye subtile from the gross sweetly wth great industry.
8) It ascends from ye earth to ye heaven & again it desends to ye earth and receives ye force of things superior & inferior.
9) By this means you shall have ye glory of ye whole world & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
10) Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtile thing & penetrates every solid thing.
11a) So was ye world created.
12) From this are & do come admirable adaptaions whereof ye means (Or process) is here in this.
13) Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist [Thoth], having the three parts of ye philosophy of ye whole world.
14) That which I have said of ye operation of ye Sun is accomplished & ended.
