The seven principles come from The Kybalion, published in Chicago in 1908 by "Three Initiates," a book generally attributed to William Walker Atkinson. It presents itself as ancient Hermetic teaching. It is not: it is an early twentieth-century synthesis of New Thought, Victorian occultism and genuinely older material, the most important being the Emerald Tablet. That does not make it worthless. It makes it a modern text, and it should be read as one. Throughout this site we try to keep apart what a text says and what later readers have made of it.

Tap a principle to open it.

IMentalismThe All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.

What it says. That the ultimate reality, which the Kybalion calls THE ALL, is mind, and that the universe exists as a mental creation within it. This is a metaphysical claim, a form of idealism, and the book treats it as the foundation of the other six.

How it is misread. As "your thoughts create your reality," the law-of-attraction reading. Carried through, that reading makes every illness, loss and injustice the fault of whoever suffers it. The Kybalion itself does not say this, and it is the single most harmful misreading of the book.

What it can mean psychologically. That you never meet the world unmediated. Everything arrives through the psyche, coloured by expectation, memory and mood. Jung used the phrase esse in anima, being in the soul, for this: experience is always psychic experience. That is a claim about perception, not about controlling events.

Practice. Once today, when something upsets you, write two sentences: what happened, and what you made of what happened. Keep them apart.

IICorrespondenceAs above, so below; as below, so above.

What it says. That the same laws and patterns hold on every plane, from the cosmic to the personal, so that knowing one level helps you understand another. The Kybalion takes this directly from the Emerald Tablet: "That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below."

How it is misread. As "everything is a sign." A number on a clock, a song on the radio, a stranger's remark: each read as a message. That turns a principle of structure into a habit of superstition, and it tends to grow louder in periods of crisis, when a person most needs solid ground.

What it can mean psychologically. That inner and outer patterns tend to mirror each other. The conflict you keep meeting in other people is often a conflict you carry. Jung called the mechanism projection: what is unrecognised inside is met outside.

Practice. Name a pattern you keep encountering in other people. Ask where the same pattern runs in you, on a smaller scale.

IIIVibrationNothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

What it says. That everything is in motion, and that the differences between matter, energy, mind and spirit are differences in rate of vibration. In 1908 this borrowed the language of the physics of the day.

How it is misread. As physics. It is not, and dressing it in scientific vocabulary ("frequency," "quantum") adds nothing but confusion. Its other misreading is moral: "raise your vibration," which ranks people and feelings as high or low and treats grief or anger as failures.

What it can mean psychologically. That no state is fixed. A mood that feels permanent is already moving. That is why the alchemists could treat the blackening as an operation rather than a verdict.

Practice. Three times today, stop and name your state in one word. In the evening, look at how different the three words are.

IVPolarityEverything is dual; everything has poles.

What it says. In full: "Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." Hot and cold are one thing, temperature, in different degrees.

How it is misread. As a technique for switching instantly from a bad feeling to a good one. The Kybalion does speak of "transmuting" one pole into the other, but a feeling forced into its opposite usually returns intact.

What it can mean psychologically. That any one-sided attitude carries its opposite with it. Jung used the old Greek word enantiodromia for the tendency of an extreme to turn into its opposite over time: the rigidly controlled person who suddenly breaks, the idealist who turns cynic.

Practice. Take a trait you are proud of. Where does its opposite already show up in your life, perhaps in a place you would rather not look?

VRhythmEverything flows, out and in; everything has its tides.

What it says. In full: "Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates." The Kybalion adds that one can learn to stand less at the mercy of the swing.

How it is misread. As a promise that every low will be followed by a high of equal size. It is a description of movement, not a guarantee of reward.

What it can mean psychologically. That the low after a high is not proof of failure. After a period of intensity, a flat period is expected, and reading it as collapse is what turns it into one. The stages of the Great Work have this shape: the silence of the albedo after the storm of the nigredo.

Practice. Think of the last time you were very high. What followed? Write down what you told yourself about the low, and whether it was true.

VICause and EffectEvery cause has its effect; every effect has its cause.

What it says. In full: "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized." The Kybalion urges the reader to become a cause rather than a mere effect of outside forces.

How it is misread. As karma in the punitive sense: whatever happens to you, you caused. Like the misreading of Mentalism, it ends in blaming people for their suffering.

What it can mean psychologically. That much of what we do runs automatically. Jung described complexes as emotionally charged clusters that act on their own, so that we find ourselves reacting before we have decided anything. Becoming a cause, in this reading, means noticing the reaction early enough to choose.

Practice. Pick one reaction you have again and again. Trace it back once: what happened just before, and just before that?

VIIGenderGender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles.

What it says. That creation on every plane requires two principles, which the Kybalion names masculine and feminine: roughly, the projective and the receptive. The book insists it is not speaking of sex in the physical sense.

How it is misread. As a rule about men and women and the roles they should play. The terms are 1908's, and they carry that period's assumptions. The useful content is the pair of functions, not the labels.

What it can mean psychologically. That generating and receiving are both needed, and most people overuse one. Jung's anima and animus are a related idea, and they share the same dated framing.

Practice. Which do you default to: starting things or receiving them? Spend one day deliberately using the other.

Where to Go From Here

The principles are a vocabulary. The work is in the practice. The practice page has a timer, writing prompts for each stage, and a principle and practice for every day. For a full study of the book, see The Kybalion guide, and for the alchemical side of the tradition, start with where you are in the Great Work.

Sources: Three Initiates, The Kybalion (Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, 1908), quoted from the public-domain text; the Emerald Tablet; C.G. Jung, Psychological Types (CW 6). This page is educational and historical.