The Teaching
This Principle embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran: "As above, so below; as below, so above."
The grasping of this Principle gives one the means of solving many dark paradoxes and hidden secrets of Nature. There are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of Correspondence to them, we are able to understand much that would otherwise be unknowable.
The Three Great Planes
The Hermetic Philosophy considers that the Universe may be divided into three great classes of phenomena:
• The Great Physical Plane - all that relates to matter, forces, and material manifestations • The Great Mental Plane - forms of living things and mental states • The Great Spiritual Plane - beings of transcendent life, mind, and form
These divisions shade into each other, and all are but ascending degrees of the great scale of Life.
Practical Application
The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside obstacles which hid the Unknown from view. Its use even tore aside the Veil of Isis.
Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure distant suns while seated in his observatory, so knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the monad, he understands the archangel.