As Above, So Below: Meaning, Origin and Symbol

“As above, so below” means that the same patterns repeat on every level of existence — what happens in the heavens is mirrored on earth, and what happens in the universe is mirrored in the individual. It's the core idea of Hermeticism, often summed up as the relationship between the macrocosm (the cosmos) and the microcosm (you).

Where does “as above, so below” come from?

It's a popular paraphrase of a line from the Emerald Tablet, a short, cryptic text attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus. The earliest known versions are in Arabic; it was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages and became a foundational text for European alchemists. The Latin line says, roughly: that which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below.

What does it mean?

Read simply, it says the universe is consistent: the laws that shape stars also shape cells, and the order of the whole can be found in its smallest parts. Alchemists took it as a method — understand the small and you understand the large. Spiritually it's often read as a reminder that your inner life and your outer life reflect each other: change one, and the other follows.

The 1908 book The Kybalion later listed it as the Principle of Correspondence, one of seven Hermetic principles. The first of those seven is “The All is Mind.”

Why is it shown with the Flower of Life?

The Flower of Life is a sacred-geometry pattern of overlapping circles that can repeat endlessly without changing its structure — the pattern at one scale is the pattern at every scale. That's the same idea drawn instead of written, which is why the two are so often paired.

Our As Above So Below design sets the Flower of Life inside a circle in thin gold line, with a radiant star at the top and AS ABOVE SO BELOW in spaced serif capitals at its center. It reads as art first and philosophy second.

Is “as above, so below” religious?

It isn't tied to one religion. It appears in Hermetic, alchemical and esoteric traditions, and many people simply hold it as a philosophy of connection: we're part of the pattern we're looking at.