"As above, so below" is a modern paraphrase of the second line of the Emerald Tablet, a short Hermetic text first known in Arabic from around the late 8th or early 9th century. It expresses the idea that the heavens and the earth, the universe and the human being, mirror one another, a principle central to alchemy, astrology and Western esotericism.
As Above, So Below at a glance
| Source text | The Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina) |
|---|---|
| Earliest versions | Arabic, late 8th or early 9th century CE |
| Attributed to | Hermes Trismegistus (legendary) |
| Latin versions | From the 12th century onward |
| Core idea | Correspondence of macrocosm and microcosm |
| Popularized by | Theosophy and The Kybalion (1908) |
Origins in the Emerald Tablet
The Emerald Tablet is a brief, cryptic text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Its earliest known versions are Arabic, preserved in works such as the Book of the Secret of Creation (Sirr al-khaliqa), usually dated to the late 8th or early 9th century, and the later pseudo-Aristotelian Secret of Secrets. Legends framed it as an inscription found in the tomb of Hermes, but no ancient Greek or Egyptian original has been found.
The second line in the Arabic reads roughly: that which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above. The widely copied Latin "vulgate" version, circulating from the 12th century, says instead that what is below is like what is above. That shift, from derivation to likeness, underlies the modern slogan. Isaac Newton made his own English translation of the Latin text, beginning "Tis true without lying, certain and most true." The first printed edition appeared in Nuremberg in 1541.
Meaning: Macrocosm and Microcosm
The maxim is usually read as a statement of correspondence: patterns in the greater world (the macrocosm) are reflected in the smaller world of the human being (the microcosm). The idea is older than the Tablet. Plato described the cosmos as a living being with a world soul, and Stoic philosophers taught that a single rational order runs through heaven and earth. Hermetic and Neoplatonic writings carried these ideas into late antiquity.
In practice the principle justified reading earthly events in the stars, treating the body as a small cosmos, and assuming that planets, metals, plants and organs share hidden sympathies. Scholars stress that it is a philosophical and symbolic claim, not an empirical law, and that its meaning has varied from author to author.
In Alchemy and Astrology
For medieval and Renaissance alchemists the Emerald Tablet was a foundational document, often read as a coded recipe for the philosopher's stone. The correspondence between above and below linked the seven planets with the seven metals (Sun with gold, Moon with silver, Saturn with lead), and alchemists worked with the prima materia in the belief that transforming matter paralleled transforming the soul (see alchemy).
Paracelsus and his followers made the human microcosm central to medicine, arguing that the physician must understand the heavens to understand the body. Astrology rests on a similar assumption, which modern science does not support: controlled studies have not found that planetary positions predict personality or events.
Modern Occultism and Popular Culture
The short form "as above, so below" spread widely through 19th and early 20th century occultism. Helena Blavatsky used it in Theosophical writings (see Helena Petrovna Blavatsky), and The Kybalion (1908), published anonymously by "Three Initiates" and often attributed to William Walker Atkinson, turned it into the "Principle of Correspondence," one of seven so-called Hermetic principles. Historians note that The Kybalion reflects New Thought ideas of its own era more than ancient Hermetic texts.
In ceremonial magic, the gesture of one hand raised and the other pointing down, familiar from the Magician card of the tarot, is often read as a visual image of the maxim. The phrase is now common in New Age writing, art, music and film, where it usually signals interconnection between the spiritual and the material.
Reading the Maxim Critically
Because the phrase is so short, it has been made to support very different ideas. Medieval commentators read the Tablet as describing the making of the philosopher's stone, with "above" and "below" referring to volatile and fixed substances in the flask. Renaissance Neoplatonists read it cosmologically, and modern writers often read it psychologically, as a statement that inner states mirror outer circumstances. Historians of esotericism point out that the original Arabic describes a process of mutual derivation, not a simple mirror, and that the Tablet goes on to speak of a single thing from which all things come by adaptation. Recognizing these layers helps explain why the maxim can appear in texts as different as a medieval alchemical treatise, a Theosophical manual and a modern self-help book.
Related Ideas
- Sympathy and antipathy: the ancient belief that like influences like across distance, used in natural magic.
- The Great Chain of Being: a hierarchical cosmos in which each level reflects the one above.
- The primal human: Gnostic and Hermetic images of a cosmic man whose body is the universe; see Anthropos.
- Kabbalah: Jewish mystical teaching that human action affects the upper worlds; see Kabbalah.
Related entries
On The Mystica today: The Magician tarot card
Frequently asked questions
Where does "as above, so below" come from?
It paraphrases the second line of the Emerald Tablet, a Hermetic text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The earliest surviving versions are Arabic, from around the late 8th or early 9th century. The familiar wording follows the medieval Latin translation, which says that what is below is like what is above.
What does "as above, so below" mean?
It expresses the idea of correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm: the structure of the heavens or the universe is mirrored in the earth and in the human being. Alchemists, astrologers and occultists used it to justify linking planets, metals, organs and inner spiritual states.
Is "as above, so below" in the Bible?
No. The phrase does not appear in the Bible. It comes from the Hermetic tradition. Some readers compare it with the line of the Lord's Prayer, "on earth as it is in heaven," but the two have different sources and meanings, the prayer being a petition rather than a cosmological principle.
Sources and further reading
This entry replaces an article from the original Mystica encyclopedia (online since 2001). It was rewritten from the sources above by The Mystica Editorial Team under our editorial standards. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026.