For the theme "as Above, so below" our goal was to create a homage to the twin stick shooter Stardust incorporating roguelike elements, unfortunately due to time constraints this as far as we got. The concept is that you fight enemies on various planets and on their corresponding human organs in order to save/heal them, collecting points and power ups as you progress.

The phrase “as above so below” comes from a Hermetic text known as the Emerald Tablet. The Hermetic texts are almost 2000 years old and have been incredibly influential in occult, philosophical and religious views of the world throughout that period. In Western Europe, they gained prominence in the Renaissance, when large numbers of intellectual works were introduced and reintroduced to the area after the Middle Ages.

The oldest copy we have of the Emerald Tablet is in Arabic, and that copy claims to be a translation of Greek. As such, different translations phrase the line differently. One such read, “That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing.”

The phrase expresses the Ancient Greek concept of microcosm and macrocosm: that smaller systems – particularly the human body – are miniature versions of the larger universe. By understanding these smaller systems, you can understand the larger, and vice versa. In Hinduism specifically it is believed that the planets in our solar system affect part of the human body.