You’ve seen it on Pinterest boards. Maybe you've seen it tattooed on someone’s forearm in a gothic font or heard it whispered in a movie about some dusty tomb. As above, so below sounds like one of those cryptic things people say when they want to seem deep at a party. But honestly? It’s not just spooky mysticism. It is a fundamental observation about how patterns repeat from the smallest atom to the biggest galaxy.
It’s old. Really old.
We are talking about the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, a text that dates back to the early centuries. If you look at the Latin version, it’s Quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius. Translation: That which is above is like that which is below. People think it’s about magic, and sure, the alchemists loved it. But if you strip away the velvet robes and the incense, it’s basically the first recorded theory of fractals.
Patterns repeat. That’s the core of it.
The Alchemical Roots Most People Ignore
Alchemy wasn't just dudes in basements trying to turn lead into gold. I mean, they were doing that, but it was a metaphor. They believed that the purification of metal mirrored the purification of the human soul. When they spoke about as above, so below, they were saying that the universe (the macrocosm) and the individual human (the microcosm) are mirrors.
Isaac Newton—yes, the gravity guy—actually spent more time studying alchemy than he did physics. He translated the Emerald Tablet himself. He wasn't looking for a magic wand; he was looking for the universal laws that governed everything from a falling apple to the orbit of the moon. He saw the connection. He lived the philosophy.
The Microcosm and the Macrocosm
Think about your veins. They look like river deltas. Think about the way a lung branches out. It looks like a tree. This isn't a coincidence or "vibes." It’s efficiency. Nature finds a design that works—like a branching structure for fluid transport—and it uses it everywhere.
The "above" is the celestial, the big, the divine. The "below" is the earthly, the physical, the you. If the universe is expanding, maybe your mind is too? It’s a way of saying that if you understand the small stuff, you can start to guess how the big stuff works.
Why As Above, So Below is Showing Up in Modern Science
Fractal geometry is the modern equivalent of this ancient maxim. Benoît Mandelbrot discovered that you can use the same mathematical formula to describe the jagged edge of a coastline and the shape of a cloud. It’s the same pattern at different scales.
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It’s everywhere.
NASA images of dark matter filaments in the universe look eerily similar to the neuronal networks in a human brain. Is the universe a giant brain? Probably not in the way we think, but the structural "rules" are the same. As above, so below is basically just saying that the laws of physics don't change just because you zoomed out.
Quantum mechanics complicates this, obviously. Things get weird at the subatomic level. But even there, the concept of entanglement—where two particles stay connected across vast distances—hints at a unified "oneness" that the ancients were obsessed with. They didn't have the math, but they had the intuition.
Practical Ways This Concept Actually Changes Your Life
If you accept that your internal world reflects your external world, everything shifts. It’s kind of scary. It means if your house is a disaster, your head probably is too.
Most people try to fix their lives from the outside in. They want more money or a better job to feel "at peace." The as above, so below philosophy flips the script. It suggests that if you cultivate the "below" (your inner state), the "above" (your external reality) will eventually mirror it.
- Your Environment: Look at your desk right now. Is it cluttered? That’s the "below" reflecting your "above" (stress level). Cleaning the desk isn't just about tidying; it's a ritual to tidy your mind.
- Habits: Small actions (the micro) dictate the trajectory of your entire year (the macro).
- Relationships: How you treat the barista is usually how you treat your partner when things get tense. The small patterns are the big patterns.
The Misunderstandings and the "Woo" Trap
I have to be real here: some people take this way too far. They use as above, so below to justify "manifesting" a Ferrari by just thinking about it. That’s not what the alchemists meant. They meant work. They meant that to change the gold, you had to change the fire.
The phrase is also heavily used in occult circles, which gives it a dark reputation. You’ll see it in Tarot (The Magician card usually has one hand pointing up and one hand pointing down). You see it in Baphomet imagery. But the symbol itself is neutral. It’s a map. A map doesn't care if you use it to find a bakery or a cliffside.
Some critics argue that this philosophy leads to "magical thinking," where people ignore systemic issues because they’re too busy "fixing their internal vibration." That’s a fair critique. You can’t "above/below" your way out of a broken economy. But you can use it to maintain your sanity while you navigate one.
How to Apply the Pattern Right Now
Stop looking for the big breakthrough.
Instead, look at the smallest unit of your day. If you want a "big" life, look at your "small" morning. If you want to be a person who is respected (the above), look at how you respect your own time (the below).
- Identify a repeating pattern. Where do you keep hitting the same wall? In your career? In dating?
- Zoom in. What is the "micro" version of that wall? If you feel ignored at work, do you ignore your own needs at home?
- Change the small thing. Don't try to fix the whole career. Fix the one small boundary.
- Watch the ripple. See if the "above" starts to shift.
The beauty of as above, so below is that it makes the universe feel less like a chaotic mess and more like a structured song. It suggests that you aren't an accident. You are a small version of a very big, very old pattern.
Start noticing the branches. In the trees, in your lungs, in the lightning. Once you see the symmetry, you can't unsee it. You realize that you aren't just in the universe—you are a scale-model of it. Treat the model well, and the rest starts to make a lot more sense.