Author Description

The phrase “as above, so below” has become a central axiom of much Western mystical and occult philosophy. It seems to convey, in a compact and powerful collection of four words, the so-called “Law of Correspondence” whereby the macrocosm (the “above”) exists in a state of mutual influence and interaction with the microcosm (the “below”). However, this reexamination of the oldest known source texts, including the “Emerald Tablet”, seeks to challenge these claims. In fact, it challenges the very title of “Emerald Tablet”, given to the brief Hermetic text venerated by students of Western esotericism as the source of those ideas. While not arguing for or against the validity of Correspondence in principle, Not as Above, Not as Below is a call to set the record straight on where these ideas came from, and what the "Emerald Tablet" may actually be talking about.