As Above, So Below

There is a neighborhood I have the privilege of walking through from time to time called The Seekers.

It's not a real neighborhood, of course. You won't find it on a map. There are no gates, no HOA meetings, and no property lines. But if you linger around curious people long enough—those who are less interested in certainty and more interested in wonder—you'll eventually find yourself there.

The Seekers tend to share a few things in common. They have a suspicion that everything is connected. They see less separation than most. They believe that love is not merely an emotion but the very thread that holds the universe together. In their view, love is both the source of life and the substance of it—the thing in which we live, move, and have our being.

And if you stroll through this neighborhood long enough, you'll inevitably hear a phrase repeated from porch to porch:

As above, so below.

It's an ancient idea. A simple one, really.

The patterns that exist in one realm often reveal themselves in another. The outer world mirrors the inner world. The visible reflects the invisible.

I first encountered the truth of this phrase around the age of twenty-nine.

At the time, my calendar was chaotic. My business was chaotic. My relationships felt strained. I was constantly moving, striving, pushing, chasing.

And wouldn't you know it?

My body was chaotic too.

My mind felt crowded. My spirit felt exhausted. Anxiety showed up where peace once lived. What I was experiencing externally was somehow finding expression internally.

As above, so below.

I've noticed the opposite is true as well.

When I create space in my schedule, space begins appearing in my mind.

When gratitude takes root in my heart, abundance seems to show up in unexpected places.

When I tend to the interior garden, the exterior landscape often begins to change.

Not always immediately. Not perfectly. But consistently enough that I've stopped calling it coincidence.

So I don't have much to offer this weekend other than the phrase itself:

As above, so below.

Perhaps it's an invitation to pause and ask:

What is my outer life trying to tell me about my inner life?

Or maybe the better question is:

What might begin to change around me if I first tended to what is within me?

Whatever your answer, may this week bring a little more order, a little more spaciousness, and a little more awareness of the mysterious ways everything seems to belong to everything else.

Namaste.

Ashton