‘As above, so below’ is from the Emerald Tablet, an original alchemical text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It echoes that phrase from The Lord's Prayer as taught by Jesus of Nazareth: ‘On earth, as it is in heaven’. It also relates to Plato's theory that everything manifest in existence is mirrored by ‘a world of ideas’. Which is also where the notion of archetypes derives from.
This correspondence flowing through several religious and philosophical traditions suggests the hermetic Prisca Theologia. Which states that if we look carefully with an open mind, we will perceive a thread running through all religions. Which thread forms ‘the true theology’.
‘As above, so below’ is not so much a wish or a prayer, as a statement of the nature of reality. It suggests a ‘co-incidence’, that is, ‘a co-occurrence’ of events on earth with conditions in the spiritual realms. Applied more deeply, this inter-connectedness applies also to the deepest nature of human beings with the nature of existence as a whole.
‘As above, so below’ states that there is an inherent connection of synchronicity between what unfolds on earth and inside us, with conditions in ‘the heavenly realms.’ It renders absurd ‘the functional perspective’ that merely views life through chains of physical cause-and-effect. In this thinking, ‘heaven’ is not a place; certainly not ‘a paradise where we'll go after death.’ But rather a dimension of experience potentially available to us that fills our earthly unfolding dance with tremendous meaning.