The phrase, “As Above, So Below,” has been around in the world for thousands of years. It originates from a pre-modern text called the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. Some sources call the document The Kybalion, but it was the basis of an ancient religion called Hermeticism.
The actual text quote from the document is as follows:
“That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to do ye miracles of the one only thing.”
(Issac Newton translation c. 1680)
That is but one translation of the text, but each and every version is a similar allegory. Modern academics and scientists completely ignore the text as woo-woo bullshit, because that is what modern atheistic science does - ignore anything that is esoteric or mystical.
Due to the philosophical tenets of Hermeticism involving alchemy, astrology, and theurgy – three things that any good scientist will get driven into obscurity and poverty for trying to research – this profound statement is chalked up as religious psychobabble.
But yet, its ramifications for the world of science is only now being realized (even if the entirety of academia wishes to ignore the brief text).
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Alchemy is classified as occult theology in the world of academia, but I fear that is a gross misrepresentation of the intent behind the practice. Religious fanatics and greedy hoarders (ancient versions of Jeff Bezos) bastardized a simple explanation for the greater workings of the universe and tainted its application in the real world.
No, alchemy is not about turning lead into gold. An analogy would be to say physics is all about trying to develop a time travel machine. Scammers and greedy mercantilists misinterpreted a transformational spiritual practice into a material application. Shocker, it didn’t work and will never work.
But even Wikapedia doesn’t short-change this text, it just seems that nobody who is relevant in the scientific fields thinks that it has any application. Math is all that matters, philosophy has long been scuttled to the fringes of society by rigorous scholars.
What I will attempt to do with this post is to deconstruct this into a modern retranslation and expand upon the depth and infinite applications of this simple truth. As with all famous quotes, most people only look to the first half of the first sentence, as above so below, and ignore that it reciprocates and then references the cosmos.
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History of The Emerald Tablet
Who wrote the Emerald Tablet is still a mystery. Some equate the writings to Thoth, an Atlantean who survived the destruction of his kingdom and passed the information along to the priests in Egypt. The common refrain is that it was written by Hermes Trismegistus, but there is a lot of speculation about whether that was a pen name or a real name.
Some scholars claim that the origination of this knowledge, not the tablet but where the teachings came from, comes from China. Others claim that it is from India and the Hindu texts. Others claim that it came from the Middle East and was taken to Egypt. We don’t have a definitive answer on the true origins of the writings in The Emerald Tablet. No scholar would dare subscribe to the origin being from Atlantis (despite that being the author’s claim).
The first book translation of the Emerald Tablet was in Arabic, but the author translated it from Egyptian. Most of the English translations come from Latin translations from the Arabic. Some of them were done from Phoenician, some from Chaldean, but which one was the true original translation of the source material is unknown.
Herein lies the problem: At best, we are three translations down the chain (assuming that the Arabic translation was from the original text and not a translation of a translation itself).
Anyone who has done the telephone activity in a group, typically in grade school to teach children about how information gets twisted over time, understands that a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation is not going to be 100% accurate.
(The game of telephone is when someone whispers a phrase in the ear of another person, they then whisper it into the ear of the person next to them, and on and on through a large group. When it gets to the last person, they repeat the phrase back to the originator.)
Yes, it provides a great laugh about how distorted the phrase gets over the chain of custody, but it is an example of how everyone tends to put their own interpretation, flare, and semantics into a simple exercise of hearing/reading and then duplicating that material.
The point being, what someone might interpret in one way, another would read differently. Look no further than the way that the Bible did not forbid homosexuality until 1946 when an Evangelical minister retranslated the Greek phrase condemning pedophilia to homosexuality.
With that digression aside, let us look at a few more translations of the phrase and then try and formulate a more modern version.
A Simple Translation Thought Experiment
The original Latin translation:
“Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.
Literal translation: “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.”
As you can see, we have settled on a literal translation to an esoteric, mystical text that talks about divinities and magic. I doubt the original text was meant to be taken literally.
I linked the entirety of the Emerald Tablet text at the beginning of this post, so go read it yourself if you are interested. You can also find it on YouTube if you prefer a reading of it.
Now I have buried the lede enough, so let’s divulge the entire opening lines of the Emerald Tablets. Below are twelve of the fourteen lines, as the last two are basically signatures and not translated by everyone. We will give multiple translations that I found HERE.
“I speak truly, not falsely, certainly and most truly
These things below with those above and those with these join forces again so that they produce a single thing the most wonderful of all.
And as the whole universe was brought forth from one by the word of one GOD, so also all things are regenerated perpetually from this one according to the disposition of Nature.
It has the Sun for father and the Moon for mother: it is carried by the air as if in a womb, it is nursed by the earth.
It is the cause, this, of all perfection of all things throughout the universe.
This will attain the highest perfection of powers if it shall be reduced into earth.
Distribute here the earth and there the fire, thin out the density of this the suavest (suavissima) thing of all.
Ascend with the greatest sagacity of genius from the earth into the sky, and thence descend again to the earth, and recognize that the forces of things above and of things below are one, so as to posses the glory of the whole world- and beyond this man of abject fate may have nothing further.
This thing itself presently comes forth stronger by reasons of this fortitude: it subdues all bodies surely, whether tenuous or solid, by penetrating them.
And so everything whatsoever that the world contains was created.
Hence admirable works are accomplished which are instituted (carried out- instituuntur) according to the same mode.”Translation from Kriegsmann, allegedly from the Phoenician
One of the most verbose translations is followed by a pithy one that cut the first and twelfth through fourteenth lines:
“What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is similar to that which is below to accomplish the wonders of the one thing.
As all things were produced by the mediation of one being, so all things were produced from this one by adaption.
Its father is the sun, its mother the moon.
It is the cause of all perfection throughout the whole earth.
Its power is perfect if it is changed into earth.
Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross, acting prudently and with judgement.
Ascend with the greatest sagacity from earth to heaven, and unite together the power of things inferior and superior; thus you will possess the light of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly away from you.
This thing has more fortitude than fortitude itself, because it will overcome every subtile thing and penetrate every solid thing.
By it the world was formed.”Translation by Madame Blavatsky
And here is the alleged original Chinese version:
“True, true, with no room for doubt, certain, worthy of all trust.
See, the highest comes from the lowest, and the lowest from the highest; indeed a marvelous work of the Tao.
See how all things originated from It by a single process.
The father of it (the elixir) is the sun (Yang), its mother the moon (Yin).
The wind bore it in its belly, and the earth nourished it.
This is the father of wondrous works (changes and transformations), the guardian of mysteries, perfect in its powers, the animator of lights.
This fire will be poured upon the earth...so separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting prudently and with art.
It ascends from the earth to the heavens (and orders the lights above), then descends again to the earth; and in it is the power of the highest and the lowest.
Thus when you have the light of lights darkness will flee away from you.
With this power of powers (the elixir) you shall be able to get the mastery of every subtle thing, and be able to penetrate everything that is gross.
In this way was the great world itself formed.
Hence thus and thus marvelous operations will be achieved.”
Good things come in threes. I have shared these disparate translations to try and parse them and synergize a greater truth hidden within.
One thing is certain, this is similar to many religion’s views about the cosmos and the genesis of our universe. That is not by accident. Every religion seems to be a crib or a hybrid synthesis of the ones that came before it. In Hollywood movie terms, a reboot or sequel.
My modernization of this translation, intentionally removing God from a godless society, would be as follows:
As is in the breadth of the macrocosm, so it is within the microcosm. As is within the microcosm, so it is in the breadth of the macrocosm. This is the immutable law of our universe.
Deconstruct the Revisionist View of Alchemy
Alchemy gets a bad rap simply because it was the predominant view of the world prior to the modern Judeo-Christian era. In 1404, King Henry IV outlawed alchemy. It would be akin to the US outlawing all cryptocurrency today out of fear of competition when it is not a true threat.
As I mentioned above, alchemy is written in the history books as solitarily a pursuit of making gold out of inferior substances and is believed to be the pre-cursor to chemistry. Some of that is true, but it is more a reflection of the modern way of thinking.
Money is the solitary focus of modern society, so of course that is all people have ever wanted to do throughout the entirety of history. Economists today pretend that prior to money the world operated on a barter system (taking the capitalist form of exchanging money for goods and just doing that transaction without money, despite the fact that historians have proved that to be false).
We, as a species, have a hard time looking into the past and not putting our modern tinted glasses into the translations on the why, what, and how of what we find. It skews our perception of the past, because just as it is tough for you to imagine what a billionaire’s life is like, it is tough to imagine what life would be like for someone who lived thousands of years ago (without electricity, countries, automobiles, or the many other amenities of modernity).
What the history books don’t like to tell you is that the basis of all modern science was derived from alchemy. Sure, it redefined itself as chemistry to avoid the stigma of a voodoo artform, but that is what alchemy was the entire time: manipulating the elements to cause change, transformation, and synthesize new ones.
Isaac Newton, the father of gravity, was an alchemist. Paracelcus, the father of modern medicine, was an alchemist. Roger Bacon, one of the forefathers of the scientific method was an alchemist.
There were plenty of other’s, for back in their times anyone who was interested in science was an alchemist.
Times change, and with new discoveries some theories get tossed into the trash-bin of history. What was cutting edge study back then is now dismissed as hocus pocus, magic, or pseudoscience.
So why would a profession, alchemist, have such a bad reputation in the modern world? Well, it mostly comes down to those who were opposed to the Christian church’s teachings being ostracized. Alchemists were devil worshipers, just like the witches in the church’s eyes.
People like John Dee, who is incorrectly called a Satanist or magician, didn’t follow the dictates of the church. You have probably heard John Dee mentioned in the same breath as someone like Alister Crowley, but they were nothing alike. John Dee was an advisor for Queen Elizabeth I, an astrologer, an alchemist, and a studious man. He pursued knowledge, regardless of whether it was taboo or not.
Alister Crowley was a rich fail-son who was devoted to magic (he spelled it magick). While I think Crowley did wonders by exposing the world to the darker elements of the occult, he was not an alchemist. It’s much easier to dismiss him due to his peculiarities and debaucherous lifestyle.
But I digress, this is not about Alister Crowley, but rather a discussion of revisionism onto the Hermetic art of alchemy.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that most of the revisionism to Hermeticism and alchemy is due to the Christian religion. Every sect of Christianity forbade it, murdered anyone who practiced alchemy, outlawed it, and of course they rewrote the books of history to denigrate it so that people would not pursue it.
While the church claims that it was an affront to God, they really don’t want people to find out that they have power inside themselves. The biggest challenge to a cult of supremacy that makes money off of people submitting to their dictates is empowerment.
The Catholic Church never banned alchemy outright, but they sure did burn a lot of people at the stake for being witches and Satanists for practicing the art of alchemy. It was practiced in secret for a reason. The Roman Emperor Diocletian burned all the books on alchemy and banned it in 292 A.D.
Alchemy flourished in China, India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, and later on in Medieval Europe. It was always a threat to organized religion, and it was stamped out throughout the world over the last 2,000 years.
But that doesn’t mean that it can’t still have some tangible meaning in modern times, or better yet, help us to look at things in a new light.
Summary
In conclusion, I think that by looking to the past we can find our way out of the morass we find ourselves in societally. We all feel the sickness of mindless consumption for the rapacious capture of more property and possessions brought to us by global capitalism.
It would be silly to think that this rot at the core of our world is solely based on an economic model that dominates the world. There is a much deeper rot in the spiritual core of us as a species. If you haven’t noticed by now, I ascribe that spiritual rot to the Judeo-Christian and Muslim religions’ domination of the planet.
One of things I like to point out to people all of the time is this: If Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were the true religions that honored the one true God, why is everything on the planet, and specifically in society, falling apart before our very eyes? Religious adherents like to claim that it is because there aren’t enough true believers. Bullshit. It is because the true believers have all of the power, and their religions are built on a pack of lies.
I do not hate someone for being a follower of any popular religion. As I mentioned in a prior post, most people who are religious are doing it for the social aspect. In many places, you have to follow the dominant religion or you will face consequences.
Not all consequences are death, like in Saudi Arabia or Iran, but in the United States of America you can not be elected to public office if you are an atheist. Some of the unspoken rules are societal and cultural in nature. Go ahead and try and win a popularity contest by calling yourself a Satanist. It won’t go well.
Now how can this, as above so below, be applicable to scientists? For one, I think that there should be more cross-collaboration between disparate fields of science. A molecular biologist should compare notes with a cosmologist more often (as below, so above).
One of the coolest experiments done over recent years was a slime mold that duplicated the web of the universe in a lab. This is the kind of out of the box thinking, deriving from the alchemic principle, “as above, so below,” that should be pursued more.
I am not a scientist, but rather a nobody who writes his rants on the internet in the hope that I can inspire someone. Are you that someone? Do you know that someone who needs a spark of inspiration? Share this with them, please.