As Above, So Below: What It Means and Where It Comes From

“As above, so below” turns up in spiritual books, song titles, museum exhibitions, and even an artwork inside Grand Central Terminal. Six words, a surprisingly long itinerary. But what is actually above, what is below, and why are they supposed to resemble each other?

In a common interpretation, the phrase means that the larger universe and the smaller world of human life reflect a shared order. Understanding one might help explain the other. This idea is called correspondence, and its history connects medieval Arabic texts, European alchemy, religious philosophy, and modern popular culture.

What “as above, so below” means in plain English

The phrase proposes a relationship between different parts or levels of existence. “Above” can refer to the heavens or the larger cosmos. “Below” can refer to Earth, the human being, or a smaller setting in which that larger order appears.

Two useful terms are macrocosm, the larger world or universe, and microcosm, a smaller world understood as reflecting it. A person described as a miniature cosmos is a microcosm. The comparison concerns an underlying organization, rather than a claim that a human body contains a tiny solar system. These are among the historical interpretations of the saying.

A tree offers an accessible illustration. Its branches spread above the ground while its roots spread below. Both belong to one living structure. Their visual relationship can help explain the idea of correspondence, even though branches and roots have different functions. Here, the tree is an explanatory metaphor; it is not the historical source of the phrase.

Where the phrase comes from: the Emerald Tablet

The familiar wording is a shortened paraphrase of a passage in the Emerald Tablet, also known by its Latin title, Tabula Smaragdina. This brief, enigmatic text became an influential reference in the history of alchemy.

Its earliest known versions survive in medieval Arabic writings, including the Book of the Secret of Creation, generally dated to the late eighth or early ninth century. Latin translations circulated from the twelfth century onward. The Emerald Tablet’s textual history follows its movement between languages and preserves references to specialist scholarship.

The word “tablet” can suggest an archaeological object in a museum. The historical evidence discussed here consists of manuscripts and translations. A story about discovering hidden wisdom belongs to the text’s own narrative; it does not establish that an emerald artifact has been recovered.

Hermes, Thoth, and the Hermetic tradition

The text is traditionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, or Hermes the Thrice-Greatest. This legendary wisdom figure combines associations with the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Writings attributed to Hermes range across philosophy, religion, astrology, and alchemy.

Hermeticism is a broad term for traditions drawing on this body of writing. Its texts were produced over many centuries, rather than by one securely identified ancient author.

The Corpus Hermeticum, for instance, contains Greek philosophical and religious treatises composed approximately between 100 and 300 CE. They address mind, divinity, the cosmos, and spiritual rebirth. The collection and the Emerald Tablet are distinct works within the wider Hermetic tradition.

One translation detail makes a difference

The Internet Sacred Text Archive’s collection of Emerald Tablet translations shows that the relationship between above and below changes slightly across versions. An early Arabic rendering describes them as coming from one another; a familiar Latin version describes them as being like one another.

“From” emphasizes origin or derivation. “Like” emphasizes resemblance. Both connect different levels of existence, but they do not make precisely the same claim. The surrounding text also discusses unity and transformation, giving the famous phrase a larger setting than its modern use as a motto usually conveys.

How alchemists used the idea

Traditional alchemical symbolism provides a concrete example: gold corresponded to the Sun, silver to the Moon, and lead to Saturn. A heavenly body and an earthly substance occupied related positions in a symbolic system.

Alchemy also involved practical work with minerals, medicines, furnaces, and laboratory equipment. Some practitioners sought the philosopher’s stone, a substance believed capable of transforming base metals into gold. Historian Lawrence M. Principe’s “The Secrets of Alchemy” explains how material experimentation and philosophical ambition belonged to the same field.

Within that setting, a laboratory vessel could be understood as a small environment in which larger natural processes unfolded. Some readers interpreted the Emerald Tablet’s language about rising and descending through operations such as distillation, where vapor rises and later condenses. Its translations and commentaries record multiple attempts to explain its compressed instructions.

Isaac Newton and John Dee: studying a connected universe

Isaac Newton translated the Emerald Tablet into English. His rendering appears in the translation collection, while his commentary is included in Stanton J. Linden’s anthology, The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. His engagement demonstrates the text’s place in the intellectual life of a major scientific figure; it does not establish every interpretation of the tablet as a scientific result.

John Dee approached cosmic relationships through an elaborate symbol in Monas Hieroglyphica, first published in 1564. An English mathematician who also studied astrology and alchemy, Dee combined celestial signs in an emblem intended to express connections within creation.

The Getty Research Institute’s digitized 1591 edition of Dee’s work offers a direct look at its pages. It is a related attempt to represent a connected cosmos, with its own argument and symbolism.

The Kybalion and the modern meaning

In 1908, The Kybalion appeared under the author name “Three Initiates.” Its Principle of Correspondence states: “As above, so below; as below, so above.” The complete book is available through Project Gutenberg.

The book applies correspondence to material, mental, and spiritual levels of existence. It also teaches mentalism, the idea that mind is fundamental to reality. These teachings help explain the phrase’s association with modern discussions of consciousness and mental transformation.

Although the book presents itself as transmitting ancient wisdom, it is a modern publication. Its connections to the New Thought movement and its emphasis on the power of mind are important to understanding its background. Its familiar seven-principle system belongs to this modern text.

Does it mean thoughts create reality?

Some later spiritual interpretations connect the phrase with manifestation. Correspondence alone, however, does not specify how a thought would cause an external event. The claim that two levels of existence share an order and the claim that thinking produces a particular outcome require different explanations.

Similarly, a resemblance between two shapes can illustrate a possible connection without establishing its cause. A branching tree is useful for introducing correspondence; studying a specific relationship requires more than noticing that its parts look alike.

Does “above and below” mean heaven and hell?

The words do not automatically refer to heaven and hell, good and evil, or competing moral forces. In the interpretations explored here, they concern the celestial and terrestrial, the larger and smaller, or different levels of existence.

A novel, film, religious teaching, or ritual may give the phrase a more specific meaning. Context determines which comparison is being made. The most useful question is simply: what does this particular work mean by “above” and “below”?

The Emerald Tablet and the Emerald Tablets are different works

The medieval Emerald Tablet is distinct from The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, a twentieth-century work associated with the occult writer Maurice Doreal.

Doreal’s book discusses Atlantis and cosmic teachings and presents itself as a translation of ancient tablets. Those claims have a different history from the medieval manuscript tradition. The publication background of Doreal’s work helps separate the two. That final “s” in the title carries quite a lot of baggage.

🔎 Where “as above, so below” appears in culture

The phrase has become a book title, an album title, a film title, and a name for public art. The examples below provide routes into the works themselves through full texts, artist pages, museum photographs, and release information. Together they show its range of uses; a shared title alone does not establish a shared philosophy.

Books, historical writing, and popular fiction

Isaac Newton’s Emerald Tablet translation, approximately 1680. Newton translated the longer statement behind the familiar motto. His English rendering can be read alongside other translations, making it possible to compare their wording directly.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1877. Blavatsky used the phrase in discussions of correspondence. The historical overview of “as above, so below” reproduces passages and identifies their sources, showing its place in nineteenth-century esoteric writing before The Kybalion.

The Kybalion, 1908. Its Principle of Correspondence is one of the clearest explicit uses. Readers can read the complete text or choose a downloadable edition from Project Gutenberg.

Rudy Rucker, As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel, 2002. Rucker used the phrase for a historical novel about the painter. It appears in the author’s bibliography, where it can be distinguished from his science-fiction novels and other writing.

Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol, 2009. Robert Langdon recalls the Hermetic saying in Chapter 9. A study-guide excerpt reproduces the passage and discusses its context, documenting its appearance in mainstream popular fiction.

Inside Grand Central Terminal

Ellen Driscoll, As Above, So Below, 1998. This artwork at New York’s Grand Central Terminal uses glass, metal, and mosaic to explore celestial stories across five continents and relationships between the heavens and earthly life. The MTA’s official artwork page includes photographs and an explanation of the installation.

The phrase is the installation’s title. It is distinct from Grand Central’s famous main concourse ceiling and should not be described as a verified inscription on the building’s façade.

Museum exhibitions and visual art

Teresita Fernández, As Above So Below, MASS MoCA, 2014–2015. This exhibition explored landscape, perception, and scale through immersive installations. The museum’s exhibition page provides images and descriptions, including work whose appearance changed according to the viewer’s position above or below it.

As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2017. The Dublin exhibition explored spirituality and mysticism in modern and contemporary art, including works by Hilma af Klint and Wassily Kandinsky. The official exhibition page identifies participating artists and explains its themes. Their inclusion connects their work to the exhibition’s subject; it does not establish that each artist personally used the phrase.

On film

As Above, So Below, 2014. John Erick Dowdle’s horror film, starring Perdita Weeks and Ben Feldman, brings an alchemical quest into the Paris catacombs. The official film page provides the synopsis and release information. Its genre gives the words a particular dramatic setting rather than supplying a definition for every historical use.

In songs and album titles

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, 1975. “As Above So Below” appears on Nightingales & Bombers. The album reference includes its track listing and the background to the birdsong and aircraft recording incorporated into the piece.

Tom Tom Club, 1981. “As Above, So Below” appears on the group’s self-titled debut album, placing the phrase within an early-1980s pop and dance-music setting.

Yngwie Malmsteen, 1984. “As Above, So Below” is a track on Rising Force. The album page supplies the track listing and recording credits.

Barry Adamson, 1998. As Above, So Below is an album title. The artist’s Bandcamp release page offers audio and album information, allowing readers to explore the music directly.

Klaxons, 2007. “As Above, So Below” appears on Myths of the Near Future. It also received a documented public mention from another musician: in a 2007 Pitchfork interview, Xavier de Rosnay of Justice named it among his favourite recent songs. His comment concerns the track, rather than an endorsement of Hermetic philosophy.

Azure Ray, 2012. The duo released an EP titled As Above So Below. The Saddle Creek release page includes the track listing and the artists’ account of the project, with themes of nature, beginnings, endings, and rebirth.

Angel Witch, 2012. The heavy-metal band used As Above, So Below as an album title. Metal Blade’s official release page provides artwork, tracks, and background on the recording.

Sampa the Great, 2022. As Above So Below is also the title of Sampa the Great’s album. The artist’s Bandcamp page provides audio, artwork, and release credits, bringing the phrase’s cultural trail into contemporary music.

📚 Sources and further reading

For the original textual puzzle, start with the Emerald Tablet translations and commentaries. For manuscript history and scholarly references, consult the Emerald Tablet overview. Read The Kybalion separately to see how a twentieth-century work develops the idea.

For the wider historical setting, Lawrence M. Principe’s “The Secrets of Alchemy” introduces the field, while Stanton J. Linden’s The Alchemy Reader collects historical writings. The digitized Monas Hieroglyphica offers a visual companion through John Dee’s attempt to express cosmic relationships in a single symbol.