Astrology
As Above, So Below
Direct answer
As Above, So Below: As above, so below is the Hermetic principle that the heavens and the earth correspond, so that what happens in one is mirrored in the other; the phrase comes from the Emerald Tablet.
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At a glance
- Also called
- hermetic law of correspondence, that which is above is as that which is below, emerald tablet quote, law of correspondence
- In astrology
- Astrology rests on the correspondence of the sky and the earth.
- Found in
- Astrology
- Related
- Hermeticism, Microcosm and Macrocosm, Melothesia, Planets and the Body
As above, so below is the Hermetic principle that the heavens and the earth correspond, so that what happens in one is mirrored in the other; the phrase comes from the Emerald Tablet.
A structural orientation; exact placements depend on the chart or technique being discussed.
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What does as above, so below mean?
"As above, so below" is the short form of the Hermetic law of correspondence: the small world mirrors the great. It is the idea behind astrology, which reads the sky as a pattern for events on earth, and behind the body map, which sets the twelve signs along the human body.
The wording comes from the Emerald Tablet, a short text of Arabic origin that reached Latin Europe in the Middle Ages and is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The Latin runs quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius. The phrase is not found in the Corpus Hermeticum.
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The Book of the Sky
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Burgoyne's two forms of the law
Thomas Burgoyne, in Celestial Dynamics (1896), quotes the law in two forms. The longer one says that which is on the earth is as that which is above, and the shorter one reads "as it is above, so it is below". He calls it the law of correspondences and "the one grand key", and he opens the book by calling man a universe in miniature, a perfect epitome of the heavens.
He also quotes a Hermetic mantram, "My soul is one with the universe and my spirit an emanation from God", and cites Pythagoras and the music of the spheres as the source of the idea that the harmonies of the heavens are a language.
From the law he draws a practical rule: the twelve signs correspond to twelve divisions of the human organism, though the pages we have do not tabulate them.
The Emerald Tablet
The phrase belongs to the Emerald Tablet, the Tabula Smaragdina, a short text first known in Arabic and translated into Latin in the Middle Ages. It was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The Latin line is quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, that which is below is like that which is above.
The phrase is not found in the Corpus Hermeticum, the older Greek collection that Mead translated as the Divine Pymander and Freke and Gandy as the Hermetica. Writers such as Burgoyne treat the law as the core of Hermetic thought, and the textual history is more complicated than that.
Correspondence in practice
The correspondence is applied at three levels in the sources.
- The sky and the body: each sign has a region of the body (see Melothesia), and each planet has organs and temperaments (see Planets and the Body).
- The sky and the day: Tara Mata sets the 24,000-year cycle against a day of twelve two-hour zodiac periods, and a human life against the same four ages of infancy, youth, maturity and old age.
- The sky and the number: she links the 72 years a degree of precession with a pulse of 72 beats a minute.
The third is her own argument and is not accepted by astronomers or physiologists. The first is the historical tradition and the others as claims by their authors.
The story behind As Above, So Below
In 1896 Thomas Burgoyne quoted the law in two forms and called it the one grand key, the law of correspondences. Tara Mata, in 1932 and 1933, wrote that each man is a miniature zodiac.
As Above, So Below in astrology
The melothesia assigns each sign to a body part, and the seven planets are tied to organs, days and metals.
As Above, So Below in practice: an example
Burgoyne's shorter form reads "as it is above, so it is below", which he uses to argue that the twelve signs correspond to twelve divisions of the human body.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Astrology
- Aliases
- as above so below meaning, hermetic law of correspondence, that which is above is as that which is below, emerald tablet quote, law of correspondence
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Related terms
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Common questions
What does as above, so below mean?
That the heavens and the earth, or the great world and the small, correspond, so that a pattern in one is found in the other.
Where does as above, so below come from?
From the Emerald Tablet, a short Hermetic text of Arabic origin that reached Europe in the Middle Ages. It is not in the Corpus Hermeticum.
Is as above, so below in the Bible?
No. It is a Hermetic phrase. People sometimes compare it with "on earth as it is in heaven" in the Lord's Prayer, but the two come from different traditions.
How does astrology use as above, so below?
It assumes the sky and the earth correspond, so the position of the planets is read as a pattern for events and character below.
