As Above - So Below

From Dictionary of Symbolism

Above/Below

"A pair of polar opposites, perhaps the most important and most widespread of all symbolically significant dualities. It may have already taken root in the human psyche when our distant ancestors began to walk upright. Homo erectus: feet "planted in the dust, head raised to the stars," and the dirt below, from which there seems to be no escaping, is "an earthly remnant, painfully borne."

"The upper regions - the heavens, the stars, the source of light and fertilizing rain - are readily associated with the "higher powers": God or the gods, angels. The earth remains the realm of mortals, and under it, through an extrapolation from the vertical duality already in place, there comes to be a lower region: Sheol, Hades, Hell.

In many cultures this vertical organization of the human cosmos calls for a central axis mundi or a world tree to link these different levels; the skilled shaman will then be able to communicate (and interact) with the extra human powers and creatures in all of these realms.

"Since all good things come from above (compare such expressions as "to gain the upper hand," "to be on top of the heap"), male-dominated societies think of the heavens as masculine and the earth and underworld as feminine. (The reverse was the case, for example, in ancient Egypt: the heavens are personified by the goddess Nut; the earth, by the make god Geb.)

The upper realm is usually that of the spirit, and the lower that of matter; humans see themselves as "creatures of two worlds," between which they must find their way. Our way of thinking about heaven or the heavens is linked to our religious and ethical views, and even agnostic ideology does not dispense with vertical polarities: they recur, for example, in astrological versions, or quests fro contact with extraterrestrials who might, on the basis of their "higher" intelligence or degree of development, come to the aid of beleaguered humanity.