As above, so below. 

 

This saying is from the Hermetic tradition, originating in a Greek text from about the 2nd century B.C. in Egypt. The text was revered in the ancient world. It appeared in Arabic as the Emerald Tablets in the 9th century A.D. It was translated into Latin and used by medieval alchemists.

 

It is a simple yet profound statement. As above, so below. It implies that what we experience as human beings in the world, as it is, corresponds with a higher reality. We are not separate from that higher reality. We are not something totally different from it. We are simply a manifestation of the same reality, but at the physical level with which we are familiar.

 

There is a higher Love, however we want to name it. It seems to operate the universe quite successfully. And then there is human love. There is a higher intelligence manifest in galaxies, suns, planets, and space. And then there is human intelligence.

 

There is human personality and presence. And there is divine Being and Divine Presence.

 

As above, so below. Our human experience manifests realities that don’t relate solely to ourselves. However imperfectly, it reflects realities far more vast, powerful, and intricate than the scale of life we know on Earth.

 

There is another worldview. What we know as human beings is different from what is above. God loves. We are fearful and resentful. We are sinners. There is the truth of heaven. Human beings are liars. God is divine. Human beings are irretrievably corrupt.

 

If someone wants to argue about it, you might imagine evidence being presented on both sides of the argument. But think how differently a human life goes when it is based on the experience embodied in these words: As above, so below. They express our potential as human beings to embody transcendent reality and live in a seamless, multidimensional experience.

 

From this perspective, we become agents of a higher reality. A higher Love enters our hearts and expresses through us in the world. A higher intelligence enters our mind, and we bring uncommon insight and wisdom.

 

What is it like to receive a higher love? Love has a surrounding, encompassing quality. When we open to Love, we are enfolded by it. It buoys us up. It supports us.

 

Sometimes it is said: Love is in the air. It can feel like that in romance. But it can also be true of a community of people. In the vibrational atmosphere, Love is in the air.

 

But there is more to Love. Whether it is from another person or directly from the Divine, Love not only surrounds us. It enters us. Wouldn’t it be ultimately frustrating if the Love from another person only surrounded you but didn’t come into you? We might want to feel the loving embrace of someone’s Love and their arms around us. But we also want to feel their Love in us—in our heart, in our thoughts, and joining our spirit.

 

So it is when we receive Love from above. It not only surrounds us. It enters us. And when it enters us, we are changed.

 

Love is like that. When you receive Love, it transforms and transmutes. Alchemy is at work, changing lower-level experiences into higher ones.

 

Love from above changes our sense of who we are. It changes our openness to act out of that Love. It changes our relationship with the people around us.

 

This is a process of transformation and transmutation. We are changed, and when we are changed, we become agents of change.

 

Last week, Keahi Ewa and I conducted a one-day course, Primal Spirituality 4: Fulfilling Mission. This process of transformation and transmutation was at work. The power of Love moved through the spiritual nature of the participants, entering their physical bodies and reverberating throughout their experience. They were changed.

 

Keahi and I had the honor of witnessing the participants in this process. Cultural anthropologist and author Angeles Arrien said this about what it is like to witness and be witnessed by another:

 

That which we witness, we are forever changed by, and once witnessed, we can never go back.

 

Love is a power that defies containment. Its transformational power is contagious and enters us just by witnessing another person having that experience. This is the basis for a great gift we have to give to each other as human beings. Simply by virtue of our own experience of being entered by Love, we open the possibility that another person could experience the same.

 

Does that mean that the Love in us radiated from us to them? Possibly. But Love isn’t exactly like that. Because that other person is not relying on you to know Love, they can receive it from within. And when they witness you receiving it from within, they are inspired to do the same.

 

Love is a carrier wave, meaning that it is more than a feeling. When I receive a download of Love from above, there is more that enters me. It brings the Presence of who I am at a higher level of my Being. It brings the God Presence of who I am.

 

There is my personality and my presence as a human being. And then there is the reality of me at a higher level than my personality. And I know the same is true for you. There is you as a personality, as a member of society and a citizen of the world; and there is you, the Creator, a Being of infinite Love.

 

With that God Presence come a higher will and intention. We are filled with a higher purpose—to let Love live in the world in which we live and to let Love be embodied in the forms of our world.

 

On the wings of a higher Love come the inspiration and the higher intelligence that it takes to express Love in the world. The shape of Love enters our mind, and we become aware of the seasons of a higher Love. The melodies of a higher Love sing in our heart. We inherit the wisdom of Love.

 

As above, so below. 

 

How may we let the truth of these words become more deeply known? Let us open to what is above for us and let it in. It is there to surround and uplift us. But more than that, it changes us.

 

Let’s welcome in what is above so that it may do its perfect work.