The Seven Principles
The seven principles as the Kybalion states them, set beside the older Hermetic sources, how each is usually misread, and one practice for each.
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.
For each principle, this page asks two questions in order: what does the text actually say, and only then, how might it be used. Beside each Kybalion statement is the older Hermetic source it draws on, quoted from public-domain translations, or a plain note where there is none. This is the method we follow across the site.
| Principle | Older source |
|---|---|
| Mentalism | Corpus Hermeticum I and XI |
| Correspondence | The Emerald Tablet (Arabic, later than the Corpus) |
| Vibration | Closest parallel only: Corpus Hermeticum XII |
| Polarity | None |
| Rhythm | None |
| Cause and Effect | Corpus Hermeticum XII |
| Gender | Corpus Hermeticum I |
Tap a principle to open it.
IMentalismThe All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.
What the Kybalion 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.
The older source · Corpus Hermeticum
“That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness.”Corpus Hermeticum I (Poimandres) 6, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
“Then, in this way know God; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself. If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable to like [alone].”Corpus Hermeticum XI (“The Mind to Hermes”) 20, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
What the source actually says. Here Mind is God, and the cosmos is held in God as thought. The point of the passage is knowledge: you come to know God by becoming like God. Nothing in it says that a human mind shapes events. The Kybalion keeps the first idea and quietly drops the second.
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 the Kybalion 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."
The older source · The Emerald Tablet
“Tis true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracle of one only thing.”The Emerald Tablet, trans. Isaac Newton (Keynes MS. 28)
What the source actually says. The Tablet is not part of the Corpus Hermeticum. It is first attested in Arabic, centuries later, and it is an alchemical text. The correspondence it states serves a purpose: “to do the miracle of one only thing,” the work of the stone. It is a claim about an operation, not a general law that every event on one plane is a message about another.
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 the Kybalion 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.
The older source · closest parallel only
“For not a single thing that’s dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos.”Corpus Hermeticum XII (“About the Common Mind”) 15, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
What the source actually says. The Hermetic texts describe a cosmos that is alive and in movement throughout. They do not describe matter, mind and spirit as rates of vibration. That formulation belongs to 1908 and to the popular science of its day. The Kybalion principle has no ancient counterpart.
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 the Kybalion 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.
The older source · none
There is no passage in the Corpus Hermeticum or the Emerald Tablet that states this principle. The language of poles, degrees and “half-truths” is the Kybalion’s own. The older idea it resembles most is Heraclitus on the unity of opposites, which is where Jung took the word enantiodromia.
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 the Kybalion 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.
The older source · none
There is no Hermetic source for this principle either. The pendulum, “compensation” and the idea of rising above the swing are the Kybalion’s formulation. Read it as a modern teaching and judge it on what it helps you notice.
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 the Kybalion 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.
The older source · Corpus Hermeticum
“Necessity and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter’s ordering.”Corpus Hermeticum XII (“About the Common Mind”) 14, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
“Behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming.”Corpus Hermeticum XII 21, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
“But all men are subject to Fate, and genesis and change… And though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said the Mind doth guide) do not endure like suffering with the rest.”Corpus Hermeticum XII 7, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
What the source actually says. The cosmos is ordered by Necessity, Providence and Fate, and everyone is subject to Fate. What changes is not whether a thing befalls you but how you undergo it: those guided by Mind do not suffer it in the same way. That is a different claim from “Chance is but a name for Law not recognized,” and it gives no support to the idea that whatever happens to you, you caused.
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 the Kybalion 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.
The older source · Corpus Hermeticum
“Though male-female, as from a Father male-female, and though he’s sleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].”Corpus Hermeticum I (Poimandres) 15, trans. G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (1906)
What the source actually says. In the Poimandres, the divine Mind and the first human are both male-female: undivided. Division into two comes later, as part of the descent into the body. The source treats the undivided state as original and the split as part of the fall. The Kybalion turns this into a law that two principles are needed for every act of creation.
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); Corpus Hermeticum I, XI and XII in G.R.S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (London, 1906); the Emerald Tablet in Isaac Newton’s translation, Keynes MS. 28 (King’s College, Cambridge); C.G. Jung, Psychological Types (CW 6). All quotations are from public-domain translations. For a modern scholarly translation, see Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica (Cambridge University Press, 1992). This page is educational and historical.