Episode 10: As Above, So Below. A leadership principle that either saves your company, or becomes spiritual wallpaper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDKAgkLrQ6o

In this second dialectics episode of The Executive and The Mystic, Fred LeFranc and Kristina Wiltsee take on a classic Hermetic principle: as above, so below.

It sounds mystical. It is also brutally practical.

They run it through the dialectics structure they introduced in the prior episode:

• Thesis: argue for the principle

• Antithesis: argue against it

• Synthesis: integrate both into something usable for real leadership

This is not debate-for-entertainment. It’s perspective training. The point is to hold paradox without getting rigid, defensive, or dogmatic.

The thesis. As above, so below is real, and leaders prove it daily

Fred starts with examples to make the concept feel less abstract.

In simple terms, “as above, so below” says patterns in the macro mirror patterns in the micro. He points to physical symmetry, like the orbit-like structure of solar systems and atoms, and symbolic representations like the Star of David, which visually encodes the idea through two opposing triangles.

But his real argument is not about physics. It’s about organizations.

Fred’s core claim is this: company culture is the thumbprint of the CEO.

The inner state of a leader, calm or chaos, coherence or panic, becomes contagious. Under pressure, everyone looks up. If the leader spirals, the culture spirals. If the leader holds steady, the culture steadies.

He frames leadership during crisis like a lighthouse. It doesn’t stop the storm. It prevents everyone from losing their minds inside the storm.

The antithesis. Humans see patterns everywhere, especially when they are scared

Kristina takes the counter-position, while openly naming the irony. The phrase comes from Hermeticism and alchemy, and she literally calls herself an alchemist. So if she is arguing against it, she’s doing it properly.

Her critique is clean: people are pattern-making machines, and we routinely mistake correlation for truth because it helps us feel less helpless inside chaos.

Yes, there are mathematical echoes across scales. Yes, there’s biomimicry. Yes, there are repeating structures in nature.

But when you move into complex systems, the confidence collapses.

You cannot reliably map a small system onto a larger one and pretend it’s predictive. Weather is a perfect example. We struggle to model it precisely because the system is chaotic and massively interconnected.

So, in business, the same warning applies.

A leader can be internally coherent and still get hit by market realities. Great leaders can run into real friction that has nothing to do with their inner life. The market does not care if you are organized, enlightened, or emotionally balanced. It cares about demand, timing, competition, and conditions.

Kristina’s antithesis is basically this: as above, so below becomes dangerous when it turns into a blanket explanation for everything.

The synthesis. Conditional correspondence, not spiritual determinism

This is where the episode sharpens.

Fred clarifies the boundary. He is not claiming the universe is a tidy mirror. He is claiming something more specific:

• The market is an external constraint you cannot control.

• The culture is an internal environment you absolutely influence.

• The leader’s coherence does not erase external reality. It changes the organization’s ability to respond to it.

This is a synthesis move. Neither side is “right.” Both are conditionally true.

Kristina adds a critical integration point: maybe patterns are real, but our brains cannot compute all patterns yet. Some people are predisposed to detect patterns better than others, which is basically the job description of a chaos strategist. If patterns didn’t exist, strategy would be impossible.

So the middle ground becomes: patterns are useful when they help you navigate. They become toxic when they become dogma.

Fred names it plainly: use correspondence as a diagnostic, not as a religion.

The whitewater rafting story. The cleanest business metaphor in the episode

Fred drops a story that turns the whole principle into muscle memory.

He describes a whitewater rafting trip where the group is told they’re about to go over a 25-foot waterfall. The guide trains them on the internal discipline required:

• paddle secured

• grip the rope

• get low

• lower your center of gravity

That internal posture, the preparation, the coherence, changes the outcome.

Then they watch another raft go over. The passengers throw their arms and paddles into the air like they’re on a roller coaster. Celebration instead of coherence. The result is ugly. Injuries, bleeding, broken arm.

Same river. Same waterfall. Different internal alignment.

That’s Fred’s synthesis argument in one image: you cannot control the river, but you can control whether your team is prepared to survive it.

A deeper application. How you treat people scales, too

Kristina takes the synthesis further, beyond calmness and culture.

“As above, so below” can also be applied ethically. Not as metaphysics, as behavior.

How you treat yourself becomes how you treat your family. How you treat your family becomes how you treat your employees. How you treat your employees becomes how you treat your customers and vendors.

If you run internal dominance, you’ll export dominance. If you run internal shame, you’ll export fear. If you are incoherent internally, you’ll create incoherent power dynamics externally.

She connects this to a stakeholder mindset, where everyone has to win, including the leader. Fred expands it with a missing stakeholder most businesses ignore until it bites them: the environment.

If you win financially while poisoning the community, you did not win. You just delayed the invoice.

Authenticity, performance, and the real paradox of modern leadership

The episode ends with a quieter, more personal synthesis.

Kristina names the tension between being authentic and using modern media tactics like hooks and attention structure. Leaders, creators, and public-facing people often fear that “packaging” makes them fake.

Fred’s take is blunt. People can smell performative nonsense. But using a platform to share something real is not the same thing as manipulation.

Kristina lands it with a useful distinction: sometimes taking on an uncomfortable role is still authentic if it is in service of something true. Introverted leaders still have to lead outwardly. Private people sometimes share personal stories for the greater good.

Authenticity is not “never adapting.” Authenticity is adapting without abandoning your center.

The takeaway

This episode doesn’t treat “as above, so below” like a magic spell. It treats it like a leadership tool with guardrails.

• External conditions are real. They constrain you.

• Internal coherence is also real. It shapes how you respond.

• Culture is a multiplier.

• Patterns are helpful until you start worshiping them.

Or, in the simplest version.

You cannot control the river. You can build a raft that survives it.