The Seven Hermetic Principles: Part III

As Above, So Below: The Second Hermetic Principle

Perhaps, the most striking examples of alignment between this, the second of the hermetic principles and A Course in Miracles teachings, has to do with how we praise God, and how we relate to our power.

Garret Thierry, in The Kybalion: Unveiling the Seven Hermetic Principles, explains the principle of correspondence more precisely. “This principle states,” he writes, “that there is a correspondence between the different planes of existence, from the physical to the mental and spiritual planes.” You’ve probably heard the old saying “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop” from the Sufi poet, Rumi. Mother Theresa added that “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” In fact, the ocean would be incomplete without that drop. For it to be the ocean we conceive of, it must contain every drop to be “the ocean.”

And just like with holographic images, each little fractal image within a holograph contains the entirety of the holograph. In A Course in Miracles, it’s said this way:

But think not that He does not need your part to help Him with the rest. For in your part lies all of it, without which is no part complete, nor is the whole completed without your part. [CE T-20.IV.7:1-2]

Let’s take the question of how we are to praise God, according to A Course in Miracles. God would not be upset if you never praised Him directly. God doesn’t have an ego that could receive any affirmations, so your praise would be lost on Him. What God wants is for us to see the Christ in all our brothers and sisters, without exceptions.

God is praised whenever any mind learns to be wholly helpful. This is impossible without being wholly harmless, because the two beliefs must coexist. The truly helpful are invulnerable, because they are not protecting their egos, so that nothing can hurt them. Their helpfulness is their praise of God, and He will return their praise of Him, because they are like Him and can rejoice together. God goes out to them and through them, and there is great joy throughout the Kingdom. Every mind that is changed adds to this joy with its own individual willingness to share in it. [CE T-4.X.10]

“Seeing the Christ” means seeing the invulnerable innocence of your brother or sister. Which one? Whichever one you’re looking at in this moment, either with your thoughts or your eyes. But you will only see them this way with your eyes if you have already changed your mind about them because perception projects what you are holding in your mind. “As Above, So Below” implies that we are like God who is perfect. That’s our one True identity. If we can see divine perfection in others we can see it in ourselves. The principle of correspondence transcends all the levels of existence, so it must apply to ourselves as well as to “others”.

We can also apply the principle of correspondence to how we relate to our power. In A Course in Miracles, Jesus explains that God bestowed all his powers onto us when he created us in His image.

How beautiful indeed are the thoughts of God, who live in His light. Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. [CE T-3.VII.17:1-2]

The significant question is not whether we are creating with God, but whether we are creating in alignment with God’s will. We can’t help but create with our thoughts, that’s just how it works. But thoughts which are out of alignment with God’s will leave us with fearful images. Jesus defines “projection” and “extension” as the same basic process, but discerns between projection, implemented by the ego, and extension, implemented by the Holy Spirit. Similarly, here, he discerns between “create” which is what we do with God, and “make” which is what we do when left to our own devices, namely the ego.

To you, the miracle cannot seem natural, because what you have done to hurt your mind has made it so unnatural that it does not remember what is natural to it. And when you are told about it, you cannot understand it. The recognition of the part as whole, and of the whole in every part, is perfectly natural, for it is the way God thinks, and what is natural to Him is natural to you. [CE T-16.II.3:1-3]

If we recognize the principle of correspondence applies to the outcome of this decision, it’s far more likely we will harness it for healing’s sake. Our minds are so powerful they can project images of fear about them, or images of Love about them, the choice is obvious.

“Correspondence” applies to three levels here: God’s thoughts, our thoughts, and our perceptions. We break the correspondence from God’s thoughts to ours by deciding with the ego, and by doing so, make images of death and destruction. But only in the dream, as we can’t overrule God’s will, so Heaven remains unaffected by our poor choices. But the images we make do appear very real to us, and the corresponding suffering that ensues feels very real to us too.

Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, for the mind is the mechanism of decision. If you will recognize that all attack which you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it began it must end. For in this place also lies salvation. The altar of God, where Christ abideth, is there. [CE T-12.VI.6]

Our basic task in life is to keep the corresponding levels in alignment; to keep the parallel lines, parallel. “As above, So below” is a basic law of nature. We can appear to break this law, but because it is unnatural to do so, the action has no effect on Reality. But through our power of projection we can make it seem real to us.

There is a second interpretation of “As Above, So Below” apparent in the projected world, the world which most of us consider “reality.” In this reality, duality is a consideration. Down here, we think we need to comprehend darkness to comprehend light, that we need to comprehend evil to comprehend good, that we need the feminine to understand the masculine, etc. The projected world includes duality so that when we rinse the guilt from us, we have someone to smear it onto. We falsely believe we need someone to be guilty to comprehend our own innocence. The confusion arises because we constantly forget that we are projecting the world we see, so the delusion of duality seems very real.

For example, we can’t be a victim without projecting a complementary aggressor, and the same holds in reverse. Waves have high points and low points and it wouldn’t be a wave without both. The “As Above, So Below” concept suggests, within the context of a wave, that both the above part of the wave, and the below part of the wave are needed to make the wave and so are all the other points on the wave. The potential for good and the potential for evil exist in all of us as waves, which represent the totality of who we are, above and below.

Remember that the science clearly indicates light can behave as a wave before an observer comes along to fix it in time and space as a particle. Waves have high points and low points and it wouldn’t be a wave without both. The “As Above, So Below” concept suggests, within the context of a wave, that both the above part of the wave, and the below part of the wave are needed to make the wave. We can’t be a victim without a complementary aggressor, and the same is true in reverse.

If we go back to Rumi’s drop in the ocean metaphor, the entire ocean being contained within the drop means that each of us has this duality within ourselves: the potential for good and the potential for evil exist in all of us as waves, and we experience the waves in time as we wrestle with our guilt by playing the hot potato game.