As above, so below

Some hundreds of alchemical illustrations. Many of the headings below are subdivided (e g. Emerald Tablet consistes of sub-headings for The Emerald Tablet Original Emerald Tablet as a Monument to Mankind Materia Prima Lapidis cover of The Emerald Tablet First Matter of Heaven and Earth The Green Lion As Above, So Below The Ouroboros Powers of the Sun and Moon)... 

Contents The Myth of the Child Alchemy Its History, Revival, and Symbolism Initiation The Occultation of Surrealism Collage as Alchemy The Alchemical Androgyne Ernst and the Women in His Life As Above, So Below The Alchemical Landscapes Conclusion Notes An Alchemical Glossary Selected Bibliography Index... 

As Above, So Below Five Basic Principles Underlying Physics and Psychology... 

The basis of astrology can be summed up in the phrase so often quoted in occult literature, and in particular in alchemy "as above, so below." This meant that everything in the Universe, or Macrocosm, had its parallel in the earthly world, or Microcosm. Everything worked in an ordered harmonious system, and everything was permeated by a Universal Spirit. It was this Spirit, which held the secret of the Universe, that the alchemists were trying to capture and compress into the Philosopher s Stone. 

Alchemy s motto is As Above, So Below, meaning that things of the earth are intrinsically interwoven with the heavens. Alchemists and shamans seek the balance between the two and from that balance, they effect transformations and healings. The symbol of the World Tree, found in many mystical traditions such as the Kabbalah, demonstrates that to be whole, we must have our branches in the heavens, but our roots in the earth, with the trunk as a highway flowing between the two states. 

The first phrase of this chapter s title, As Above, So Below, expresses my hypothesis that there is a uniform set of basic laws running the universe. I speculate that whatever fundamental principles or laws run the universe manifest themselves similarly in one area we call psychology and in another we call physics. 

The appearance of the lilac Philosophers Stone in the compost fulfills the twofold axes of the cross of Light and Life. The great hermetic maxim as above, so below applies in the reaction vessel and time cyclically returns us to where we started. Alchemists think of this as an ouroborus, the symbol of Saturn, which is a snake curled in a complete circle holding its tail in its mouth. " To the hermetic alchemists, the two axes of the cross represent the All in One. 

In another surprising coincidence, the pyramids of Giza form the map of Orion over an area twenty kilometers by ten kilometers. However, the French Virgo is on a very much grander scale of two hundred and ten kilometers by one hundred and sixty kilometers. Nevertheless, both seem to express in tangible form the much cliched dictum from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes as above, so below. The Virgo plan in France may either exist by chance or have been constmcted to such a scale because Louis VII shared the expectancy that the next Messiah would be French and of royal blood." His adoption of the Fleur-de-Lys seems to confirm this and we shall see how poignant this was to be. 

That alchemy is purely a psychic and spiritual science has no basis in fact. A science to be a science must be capable of manifestation on every plane of consciousness in other words it must be capable of demonstrating the axiom as above, so below. Alchemy can withstand... 

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