The phrase, “As Above, so Below” comes from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. The picture shown above is not the actual tablet.
According to Wikipedia:
“Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the Hellenistic Egyptian pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus who is the representation of the congruence of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes.” … “The Emerald Tablet, also known as Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, or The Secret of Hermes, is a text purporting to reveal the secret of the primordial substance and its transmutations. It claims to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus (“Hermes the Thrice-Great”), a legendary Egyptian sage or god, variously identified with the Egyptian god Thoth and/or the Greek god Hermes. This short and cryptic text was highly regarded by European alchemists as the foundation of their art, in particular of its Hermetic tradition.”
Newton’s translation
A 17th century depiction of the Tablet by Heinrich Khunrath, 1606
One translation, by Isaac Newton, found among his alchemical papers as reported by B. J. Dobbs:
1. Tis true without lying, certain most true.
2. That wch is below is like that wch is above that wch is above is like yt wch is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.
3. And as all things have been arose from one by ye meditation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
5. the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nourse.
6. The father of all perfection in ye whole world is here.
7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
7a. Separate thou ye earth from ye fire, ye subtile from the gross sweetly wth great indoustry.
8. It ascends from ye earth to ye heaven again it desends to ye earth and receives ye force of things superior inferior.
9. By this means ye shall have ye glory of ye whole world thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
10. Its force is above all force. ffor it vanquishes every subtile thing penetrates every solid thing.
11a. So was ye world created.
12. From this are do come admirable adaptations whereof ye means (Or process) is here in this.
13. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of ye philosophy of ye whole world.
14. That wch I have said of ye operation of ye Sun is accomplished ended.
This concept, is symbolized by one arm up and one arm down. The primary idea behind this is that the “above” refers to what is visible in the sky. The below, refers to Earth. This creates an equality as it explains how the Earth is a microcosm of the configuration of the planets in the solar system. It draws the connection that the Earth is affected by planetary orbits.
