“As Above, So Below” and
Bloodborne
I realized something about the “Make Contact” gesture from
Bloodborne.
First, what is the “Make Contact” gesture? This is a gesture in
Bloodborne used to communicate with the Great Ones. The Great Ones are powerful, multidimensional, cosmic beings. The description of the Moon Rune, one of many runes that hunters can memorize, tells us that the Great Ones “are sympathetic in spirit, and often answer when called upon”. One way to call upon the Great Ones is to make the “Make Contact” gesture. This gesture consists of raising one arm straight up and holding one arm straight out, resembling a right triangle.
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Like so.
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What I realized that the “Make Contact” gesture resembles the “As Above, So Below” gesture. “As Above, So Below” is an occult maxim originating in the
Emerald Tablet, an esoteric text that was highly revered by European alchemists. The meaning of the phrase “As Above, So Below” is that the spiritual world and the material world are inextricably linked; that what happens in the spiritual world affects the material world and vice versa. This idea is often represented by the “As Above, So Below” gesture. There are several versions of this gesture, but they all feature one arm raised up, and one arm pointing down or out.
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| Some versions of the “As Above, So Below” gesture. |
It's appropriate that the “Make Contact” gesture resembles the “As Above, So Below” gesture, because the principle of “As Above, So Below” certainly applies to the world of
Bloodborne. The Choir, one of several factions that seeks to use the power of the Great Ones to elevate humanity, wear the Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge as a marker of their allegiance to the Choir.
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| Side note: I'd really like a Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge of my own. |
The Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge's description tells us about how the Choir learned of the connection between the material world that humans live in and the spiritual world of the cosmos. The badge's description says that "The Choir stumbled upon an epiphany, very suddenly and quite by accident. Here we stand, feet planted in the earth, but might the cosmos be very near us, only just above our heads?". This is the same sentiment expressed by "As Above, So Below", that the spiritual world of the cosmos is close to the material world of earth. Indeed, the Choir makes their belief in the closeness of the material and spiritual world extremely clear in a note they left: "The sky and the cosmos are one."
