As Above So Below
“As Above So Below, As Within So Without, As The Universe So the Soul” …This Saying originates from the old Hermetic Axiom,” As above, So below, As below, So above” and is credited to the Thrice Great Hermes Trimegistus, and is a quote from the Emerald Tablets & Kybalion.
As Above So Below relates to the Principle of Correspondence which embodies the truth that which is above is the same as that which is below. The Macrocosm is the same as the Microcosm. The idea that God/ Divinity is the Same as Man, Man is the same as the Cell, and the Cell is the same as the atom, ad infinitum, and vice versa.
All systems of Magick are said to revolve around this formula, and it is said to be the key to all mysteries. “Magick is defined as the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity to will.” The Magician uses the concept of dynamic unity/ interconnectedness that all matter and motion are derived from one substance and there is no isolation, as nothing exists independent of other life.
So how does this really cause magick to work? The magician knows with certainty that for change to occur he must believe it, never doubt it, and use his will to make it so. This transformation occurs without physical contact, in a place where unseen forces effect and change form; where will through an imaginative act, a thought, a magickal act becomes real, takes form, and accomplishes change.
So everything at once is both independent and interrelated, Autonomous and dependent and that all things come from one thing and that one thing comes from all things. God is to Man As Man is to God.
Therefore we find in Magick, as in Ritual when we invoke God/ Gods we are uniting macrocosm and microcosm. In this supreme union we become one with the All and Vice Versa. We are interconnected with the Universe and in so we are able to understand that which otherwise would be unknown or secret to us. Here in lies the most important part of the Principle of Correspondence, that which enables human consciousness to intelligently know the unknown/ the divine.
When this confluence happens with the universe we have reached out to the universe and our higher/ true self has become one with the universe, ascending from earth to heaven and then back again. Here in lies the beauty of magick where now miracles are surely possible, and even altered states of consciousness are possible where union with God can be achieved.