“As Above, So Below; As Within, So Without” is a phrase that calls to my mind the 1 Magician. We already have all the tools to guide and direct us in our lives. We have the ability to allow the Universe to work in partnership with us, in creating our reality. I read from the Witches Tarot Deck that this phrase is the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence! Did not even know it had a name!
We do exist on all planes – on the astral / spiritual, the energetic, and the physical. The Magician urges you to choose the most harmonious tools and natural accessories for your magic. Use the laws of correspondence and all of the resources that you have at your disposal wisely.
My favourite Shadowscapes Deck reads,
Originality, creativity, skill, willpower, self-confidence, dexterity and sleight of hand. It is about grasping the unseen around you and harnessing it to become reality, drawing forth the ineffable into the material real of existence. This Magician draws upon relics representative of the elements: fire in his lantern, the voice of the sea in the shell, a breath of wind in the raven’s feather, and earth from the leaves. He knows what he wants, and he knows he can make it happen with conscious exertion of his will and his knowledge of how to manipulate the world.
I have always loved the Magician card. It is usually an affirmation that I am ready to take on whatever event / challenge / endeavour that is in front of me. It is also usually a reminder to establish clear intent and put in conscious effort, so that the unseen that is in and around me can be brought down to the physical earth plane. We are Co-Creators with the Universe, one can’t do without the other for Creation.
Thanks to the daily prompt, I started reading more about the origin of the phrase. Always saw words like Hermes Trismegistus, hermeticism, but these words always breezed through my head without a pause. Suddenly I realise much of what I understand about the world works actually has a name!
Bookmarks for thyself:
https://www.hermetik-akademie.org/what-is-hermeticism/?lang=en
http://www.hermeticfellowship.org/HFHermeticism.html
http://gnosis.org/hermes.htm
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/magee.htm
https://hermetic.com
Oh, border! 
I used this prompt to write about the same phrase myself and also researched it for the first time myself. I am just in the beginning stages of my Wiccan journey. I would consider myself an ecclectic where I am drawing from many different spiritual and religious sources to create something that works for me. I researched many religions a few years ago, but then just started doing rituals a couple of months ago. It was good to get a deeper understanding of this phrase! I was wondering how many others would use this phrase as the material for their post today! 😁 It was nice to read yours in how it differed from my spin on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was going to write about how people can take this phrase and concept and the spinoff will be somewhat different from mine, but it will take too long to write. heh.
My approach is more from the understanding of the world (existentialism, phenomenology type of viewpoint) rather than from any rituals. Ritualistic aspects of spirituality or religion is currently very far out of my radar, in fact.
Do you have a blog that I can read about too? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My post did get a bit off topic actually. I diverted a little more than I wanted to. But I guess it is because I am still in the infantile stages of developing my ritual.
It is funny that you mention that ritual is far from your radar in terms of spirituality and religion. I felt that way for quite some time. I was raised Catholic and actually very much despise the church rituals. So I really revolted from the ritualistic sides of any religion for quite some time. The only reason that I began exploring ritual was because my life has become so unstructured that a friend mentioned to me something about having even one structured thing to do per day, even if it is just having a tea at 10 pm each night to ground myself. And that ended up turning in to a time that I spend exploring all things spiritual.
I do often ponder many existential issues as well, so I very much enjoyed your post. I look forward to delving into the links you provided as well. I do have a blog as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, as you explore and contemplate life, you will realise at some point that there is no point revolting against anything – you either accept and stay, or just move on to something else.
Words are used for communication, so don’t cling on to hard to their meanings. There are so many different “definitions” to rituals and each interpretation of that word is dependent on the context.
Thanks for dropping by! I blog whatever thoughts that come to mind at the moment, so there’s really not much “structure” either, yet being in the moment is also a “structure” by its own merit.
Leave your blog link here or via email (contact page), I am interested in reading your blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had actually come to that conclusion as well, about acceptance. There are many things in my life that I have cycled through the 5 stages of grief with (I believe that doesn’t just apply to grieving death, but anything that can be traumatic in one’s life and that deals with the loss of something physical or psychological/spiritual). There are some larger things I am still working on the acceptance part of. That seems to be the hardest stage for me to accept (pun intended). While I understand it logically, my emotions aren’t always at the same stage as my intellect. The idea of clinging is definitely also another concept I know I need to work on. I recently realized that I should probably revisit some of the Buddhist concepts which Is also felt a strong kinship to when I first researched all of the religions. I know that is a large principle of Buddhism, and definitely something I can benefit from. I have been trying to be more in the moment and latch on to the buzz phrase of.our time “being mindful”. So some of my posts can be very raw and in the moment and others can seem much more thought out and formulated as if ready to hand in as a dissertation. Thank you for being interested in my blog. Here is the link.
https://onedayatatime365web.wordpress.com
I look forward to reading more of your posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cools! I have actually been following your blog! We all go through journeys to find ourselves, and we are all at different points of that “finding”. I went through the tough part a few years back, and emerged with a deeper (and brighter) understanding of life. It is great that we share a path of healing, moves smoother with moral support.
My blog is a little random, but if you dig through it, you will probably find many similarities in our journey. I skipped the darker part though, because I had no access to the world wide web for years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have been been following everyone who follows or likes my posts. I wasn’t sure whether I started seeing your posts because you were already following me or because I just happened to catch your posts on today’s Daily Prompt since we had the same topic. It sounds like I was destined to find you for a reason and that I can learn much from you 😁. It sounds like you were raised around and with many of the religious and spiritual notions that I am trying to grasp and embody after trying to shed alot of the man made portions of my religious upbringing.
That’s so great that you have emerged from the dark part of life. I am finally on the upside (I think, and hope). It’s definitely a different world with the internet. Do you think it was a good or bad thing that you went through the harder part of life without internet access? I have been slowly backing further and further away from Facebook due to the fakeness of it all. I would much rather converse with strangers right now than my so called friends, family and acquaintances. I am tired of all the pretenses that go along with it. I think I saw somewhere on one of your posts, or descriptions, or messages here that you are writing under a pseudonym. And I am doing the same. There are only 2 of my.actual friends who have access to this blog. It is very liberating. I feel as though Facebook may have been one of the smaller components to keeping me in the dark place. Certainly there are much larger reasons, but the daily jabs can add up. I am very happy to have had the insight and few days ago to start focusing on this blog seriously. I think this will be a component of my healing. Thank you for the support and conversation! 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤ I think it was a matter of timeliness. I was not ready to share there and then, and probably at the stage of learning and formulating my position about life.
FB is a good training ground to exercise discernment. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
That, it is. I have always worn my heart on my sleeve, and many people do not admire that quality. Here I can express freely, there I can learn how to stifle appropriately. I will positively spin that as a career building, professionalism necessity. Lol!
LikeLiked by 1 person
One modality you may want to try is http://www.thetahealing.com. This one really helped me understand emotions and examine beliefs. Conditioned beliefs from the environment we were brought up in. What we understand from Kinship (for example) is really much what our circle (our little collective) believes, but once we take a higher perspective of what it means to other little collectives, we get to pick and choose what serves our highest good. Then we get to determine whether to stay and resolve or to walk away to something that is more appropriate for our journey.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for this link. I already saved the link and will check it out. It definitely sounds like something that I could benefit from. Alot of what you say are things that I already know, and like I had said in one of my previous comments, I have a very hard time resolving my intellect with my emotions and being able to find the courage and strength to emotionally bring myself to what I know in my head is right for myself. So anything that can help me strengthen my emotional resolve to catch up to my knowledge base is always a win-win. Thank you for all of the resources!
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤ I know of someone who goes for the same Reiki Class a few times – one for mental understanding, one for spiritual understanding, one for emotional understanding, because there are many aspects of us! Each aspect requires its own time. ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is true. Does she set specific days where she listens specifically for the mental understanding, and then the next time specifically tries to tune in for the emotional understanding etc…? I think I have felt if I understand things at the intellectual level that it will eventually translate and absorb to my emotions. But perhaps I need to approach things a bit differently.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For Reiki, there are Levels 1, 2 and 3 which we get certification after each level. She attended each Level a couple of times, and realised it could be because different aspects of her were integrating those lessons each time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh ok. So even though she passed the level, she felt she needed a deeper understanding of the level for her own benefit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reading this post was delightful! Opened my eyes to new ways of interpreting the mysterious infinite human spirit and Holy Spirit. Ty .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you~ glad you enjoyed it!
LikeLike
What a great post again, and I believe that I can be enlightened with your sharing knowledge like this 😀 Please check out the list of nominees at https://daodat22121996.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/the-sunshine-blogger-award/ and I truly hope to know your answers 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! But I truly would like to keep my blog award-free. I’ll post my answers here instead, k? ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, as long as you find that comfortable to you ^^ I truly look forward to your answers 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
1. I have been a closet blogger since 2 decades ago. My last blog site (Storehouse) closed down, and while setting up this new one, I thought I might as well try going public for once.
2. My first two blogs were very personal and angsty, basically an electronic version of diaries, since those were as early as when internet first started. My third was documenting my daily life in developmental / humanitarian work, which was meant to carry over to this one. Somehow, it evolved from dissolving physical boundaries to dissolving boundaries of at a spiritual level (separateness versus oneness).
3. Painting, and reading.
4. Heh, I listen to mantras… :s
5. I have a pet nephew who attracts wild hummingbirds like they are his pets.
6. I am very practical yet dreamy. Maybe more like visionary who takes action? The world is as we imagined, so how real or how fantasy it is really depends on how we live our lives.
7. Yup, definitely over-thinking too many things. It takes less effort to over-think than to over-do.
8. By the ocean, or maybe in the ocean.
9. I have the sweetest beacon of light warming my life.
10. Peace is being in our own power and understanding that this moment matters to the potential of what is in our power.
11. Move to the ocean and live with whales. Maybe sharks too. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is great to read your quick answers like this 😀 Thank you very much, hehe, it’s a pleasure to know a bit more about you ^^
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
“As above, so below” always sets me to considering the fractal nature of our universe. The way patterns repeat at different scales. It is meaningful to be aware of in both the human and natural world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cool insight. I never saw the correlation between the fractal nature and repeated patterns, and at different scales. Thanks for pointing it out, you have just clicked some puzzles in my brain into a new (and more coherent) understanding!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Glad to be able to share. I always try to remember myself and other people as part of the greater fractal. It helps when I read tarot or i ching; they provide me another perspective on the movement of the fractal I contemplate, from another ‘scale’ or level, helping to better triangulate what is happening around me beyond the apparent causal events I perceive directly.
LikeLiked by 3 people
You read I-Ching too? I am still slowly trying to figure what it is about (not getting anywhere yet). And it’s just the book, not the divination aspect!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I do. More than tarot these days possibly. It’s complexed, nuanced, and the way the hexagrams progress makes it very dynamic. It took a lot longer to be comfortable with, but the fundamentally binary nature of makes it sort of like… a computer interface.
I recommend the comprehensive book by Master Huang. It took me forever to read… and occasionally fried my brain, but helped me to understand the hexagrams much more than the other books I’ve studied on i ching oracle.
Anyway – glad to see you’ve discovered Hermetic Philosophy. There are some powerful keys within that line of study that can unlock vast swaths of very deliberate symbolism and meaning in everything from tarot to film and literature. I feel that studying Jung is a good compliment to any research on hermeticism.
LikeLiked by 3 people