May 25, 2019 13:11
4 yrs ago
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English term

like begets like

Non-PRO English to French Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings Graphology
The essence of all magical thinking is sympathetic correspondence, i.e., "like begets like." This is also known in mystical lore as "The Law of Similarity." If two things can be associated mentally, they allegedly enjoy a certain "sympathy" or "resonance." Either can then be used to reveal or influence the other via their magical interconnectedness.

Proposed translations

+1
8 hrs
Selected

qui se ressemble s'assemble

Ce proverbe français ne traduit pas la notion d'hérédité, mais dans ce contexte justement il n'est pas non plus vraiment question d'hérédité...
Note from asker:
J'y avais pensé. C'est en effet le mieux dans ce contexte. Merci de confirmer. +-
Peer comment(s):

agree ormiston : suis d'accord, vu l'explication qui suit
1 day 3 mins
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
1 hr

la similarité s'engendre d'elle-même

Suggestion...
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1 hr

l'enfant ressemble à son parent /La parenté se voit /etc.

If you look in the works of 19th c. French magician Papus, you'll find this idea expressed in a lot of different ways. In addition to the proposed target terms, you could say:

La déscendance ressemble à sa source [à l'ascendance]
L'homme est analogue à l'univers
Ce qui est en Bas est comme ce qui est en Haut
Le microcosme ressemble au macrocosme
Le macrocosme engendre le microcosme

etc. etc. etc.

In English "to beget" = "engendrer," so you see "like begets like" used in the context of dog and cat breeding: if you want the next generation to have longer legs, then you need to breed two long-legged animals together, etc. The phrase works in a lot of contexts, but you're obviously in the magic/Papus/Western Hermeticism context, so that's where you should look to find a way to say it in French. A few links for that:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogies_et_correspondances

http://www.equi-nox.net/t2907-lois-d-analogie-et-corresponda...
Papus (1865-1916), Traité méthodique de science occulte (1891), t. I, p. 70 : Par l’analogie on détermine les rapports qui existent entre les phénomènes… La Nature est construite d’après un type primitif qu’on trouvera répété, sinon dans sa forme du moins dans son essence....


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7 hrs

nous engendrons ce que nous sommes

"L'essence de toute pensée magique est la correspondance sympathique, c'est-à-dire, que nous engendrons ce que nous sommes."

Cela semble correspondre comme transposition de l'idée rechercher. Cela reste une suggestion.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Eliza Hall : This is only part of the idea. It's not just about "nous," but primarily about everything in the universe.
2 days 17 hrs
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