Law of Correspondences
The law of correspondences is based on an holographic model of the universe where the part reflects the whole. Also known as "law of analogy", it postulates that the microcosm is the miniature copy of the macrocosm and therefore there exists a general correspondence of processes between what is found "above" and "below". It is also based on a model of cyclic evolution where larger cycles are repeated in smaller ones. In reference to this H. P. Blavatsky said that the law of correspondences is "an immutable one in the system of cycles".[1]
This law has been clearly stated in Commander Robert Bowen's notes of certain teachings given by Madame Blavatsky towards the end of her life. In them, HPB is reported to have put forward four basic ideas that the student should keep in mind while studying the Secret Doctrine. The fourth one deals with the Law of Correspondences:
Fourth and last basic idea to be held is that expressed in the Great Hermetic Axiom. It really sums up and synthesizes all the others:
As is the Inner, so is the Outer; as is the Great so, is the Small; as it is above, so it is below: there is but ONE LIFE AND LAW; and he that worketh it is ONE. Nothing is Inner, nothing is Outer; nothing is GREAT, nothing is Small; nothing is High, nothing is Low, in the Divine Economy.[2]
The Theosophical view postulates that what happens at a higher plane finds its reflection at a lower one. This allows the student to discover first principles and higher realities underlying various phenomena by finding the essential nature of that which can be known, and then move from particulars to universals. Thus, H. P. Blavatsky wrote:
The law of correspondences will lead you to the discovery of the greatest mysteries of macrocosmical life.[3]
Based on this law, the Theosophical literature postulates that the same general processes are equally applied to the development of an embryo, a planet, or the universe itself. Mahatma M. writes in a letter to Mr. Sinnett:
Nothing in nature springs into existence suddenly, all being subjected to the same law of gradual evolution. Realize but once the process of the maha cycle, of one sphere and you have realized them all. One man is born like another man, one race evolves, develops, and declines like another and all other races. Nature follows the same groove from the “creation” of a universe down to that of a mosquito. In studying esoteric cosmogony, keep a spiritual eye upon the physiological process of human birth; proceed from cause to effect establishing as you go along, analogies between the birth of a man and that of a world.[4]
The Stanzas of Dzyan published in the Secret Doctrine are said to follow this law:
The beauty and wisdom of the Stanzas consist in this, that they may be interpreted on seven different planes, the last reflecting, by the universal law of correspondences and analogy, in its most differentiated, gross and physical aspect, the process which takes place on the first or purely spiritual plane.[5]