Hermeticism
What does as above, so below mean?
A real old line, in a newer wording
“As above, so below” means that what happens in the heavens is mirrored on earth, and the other way round. It is a short form of the second line of the Emerald Tablet, a medieval alchemy text that says: “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.” The four-word version was made famous by The Kybalion in 1908. It is not in the Bible. And in one place, physics, it turned out to be literally true.
Launch speed
Falls
6.0 km/s
The actual wording
Four versions of one line
The oldest is Arabic. The Emerald Tablet first appears as an appendix to an Arabic book called The Secret of Creation, credited to “Balinas,” Apollonius of Tyana, and dated by scholars to the late 8th or early 9th century. Its second line reads, literally: “the uppermost is from the lowermost and the lowermost is from the uppermost.”
The Latin made it famous. Medieval alchemists read the Latin version: “Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.” What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like what is above. The 1541 printed edition flipped the order and put below first.
Isaac Newton translated it himself. His own English, in a manuscript now at King’s College, Cambridge, follows the printed order: “That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.”
The four words are modern. No version of the Tablet says “as above, so below.” The Kybalion, published in Chicago in 1908, calls it “the old Hermetic axiom” and gives it as “As above, so below; as below, so above,” its Principle of Correspondence. The full text is on the Emerald Tablet page.
Where it came true
The same law on earth and in the sky
For two thousand years, the heavens were thought to run on different rules. Things on earth fell and stopped. The planets went round forever. Newton’s 1687 Principia joined the two: the pull that makes a stone fall is the same pull that keeps the Moon in its orbit. Historians of science call it the first great unification.
The cannonball above is his own picture. In A Treatise of the System of the World, published in 1728, Newton drew a mountain on a round Earth and a cannon firing faster and faster. Slow shots land. At the right speed, about 7.9 km/s from a mountain top above the air, the ball falls as fast as the ground curves away, so it never lands. The Moon does the same thing, much further out.
The same man translated the Emerald Tablet. That is a coincidence of one life, not proof that the Tablet predicted gravity. The Tablet is an alchemy text, and alchemists read its “one thing” as the philosopher’s stone, not a force. But the line “what is below is like what is above” is a fair plain-English summary of what Newton showed.
The Bible and the film
Where the phrase is not
It is not a Bible verse. A full search of the King James Bible finds no “so below.” The closest line is the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:10: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” That is a prayer that God’s will be done on earth, not a claim that earth mirrors heaven.
It is not satanic either. The Tablet is an alchemy text about “the miracles of one thing” and how “the world was created.” Early Christian writers argued about Hermes, but the line itself is about how the world is made.
The film. As Above, So Below is a 2014 found-footage horror film by John Erick Dowdle, about a search for Nicolas Flamel’s philosopher’s stone. According to the Motion Picture Association, it was the first production allowed to film in the Paris catacombs.
Real vs legend
As above, so below, sorted
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| The idea comes from the Emerald Tablet. | Real · line two |
| The Tablet is an ancient Egyptian text by Hermes. | Legend · first seen in Arabic, c. 800 |
| The words “as above, so below” are in the Tablet. | Partly · a 1908 short form of the line |
| Isaac Newton translated the Emerald Tablet. | Real · Keynes MS 28 |
| The same laws govern the sky and the ground. | Real · Newton, 1687 |
| The phrase is in the Bible. | No · Matthew 6:10 is the closest |
| An actual emerald tablet exists. | No · only manuscripts survive |
Questions
As above, so below
What does the saying “as above so below” mean?
That the higher world and the lower world mirror each other: what is true of the heavens is true on earth, and of the whole is true of the part. It is a short form of line two of the Emerald Tablet.
Does the Bible say as above, so below?
No. The phrase is not in the Bible. The closest verse is Matthew 6:10, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” which is a prayer, not a statement that earth copies heaven.
Is “as above so below” a satanic phrase?
No. It comes from the Emerald Tablet, a medieval alchemy text that speaks of one creation and one work. It has been used by many occult groups, but its origin is alchemy, not devil worship.
Why do witches say as above so below?
Modern occult and pagan groups took the phrase from the Hermetic tradition, mostly through The Kybalion (1908), where it is the Principle of Correspondence: patterns on one level repeat on the others.
Who first said as above, so below?
The idea is first recorded in Arabic, around 800 CE, in the Emerald Tablet. The short English wording “as above, so below” was popularized by The Kybalion in 1908.
Is As Above, So Below based on a true story?
The 2014 film is fiction. It borrows real things: the Paris catacombs, where it was filmed, and the legend of Nicolas Flamel’s philosopher’s stone.
Sources
Where this comes from
- Emerald Tablet: Arabic source and dating, Latin versions, 1541 print, no surviving tablet: Wikipedia.
- Robert Steele and Dorothea Waley Singer, “The Emerald Table,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 21 (1928): PMC.
- Isaac Newton, Keynes MS 28, The Chymistry of Isaac Newton, Indiana University: dlib.indiana.edu.
- Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 1908: Project Gutenberg.
- Newton’s cannonball and A Treatise of the System of the World, 1728: Wikipedia.
- Principia 1687 and the unification of earthly and heavenly gravity: Wikipedia.
- King James Bible, full text: Project Gutenberg.
- “Filming in the Paris Catacombs for As Above, So Below,” Motion Picture Association, 2014: motionpictures.org.
- As Above, So Below (2014 film): Wikipedia.
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