The Meaning of “As Above, So Below”

The ancient phrase that not just describes reality, but suggests a way of life

Scholars of times ancient to us studied things that were doubly ancient. One of these things was The Emerald Tablet, a very short text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary figure associated with the very beginning of alchemy, the birth of material and spiritual science.

The tablet itself is very poetic, vague, and it’s hard to say what translations really count. But the essence of what it communicates reaches us through one of its most popular lines:

“That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.”
— Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablet

Or, the modern, simplified version: “As above, so below.”

It refers to the layered structure of the universe, that immaterial laws rule matter from above. But it also represents things like the idea that we are made in the image of God.

Further still, it suggests that the purpose of man is to align with what is “above,” by transforming himself to be more like it, and more able to channel it into his life. Doing so is to participate in the eternal drama of manifesting heaven on Earth.