The Kybalion: Centenary Edition

by Three Initiates

Mentalism. “THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is mental.” Correspondence. “As above, so below; as below, so above.” Vibration. “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.” Polarity. “Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites.” Rhythm. “Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall.” Cause and Effect. “Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law.” Gender. “Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.”

resemblances between these works and The Kybalion. The first text in the Corpus Hermeticum, the Poimandres (probably a Greek adaptation of the Egyptian p-eime-n-re or “mind of authority”), tells us that the source of the universe was noûs—consciousness or mind—much as The Kybalion asserts the principle of “Mentalism.” Moreover, this divine mind is described as “being androgyne and existing as light and life”—which parallels the concept of “Gender” as set out in The Kybalion.

“What is above is like what is below,

and what is below is like what is above, to enact the wonders of the one thing.”

Rama Prasada’s 1890 title The Science of Breath and Philosophy of the Tatwas,

The Hermetic Teachings are

that not only is everything in constant movement and vibration, but that the “differences” between the various manifestations of the universal power are due entirely to the varying rate and mode of vibrations. . . . Modern Science has proven that all that we call Matter and Energy are but “modes of vibratory motion.”

Physical science teaches that underlying all forms, degrees and apparent differences, there is to be found a manifestation of some elementary energy which manifests in what is known as “Vibrations.” Everything in the material world is in vibration—ever manifesting a higher degree of motion. Without vibrations there would be no such thing as a material universe. . . . In fact physical science itself teaches that not only is Vibration the basic force underlying other forces and the various forms of matter, but also that the apparent differences between the various forms of matter, and also the various forms of energy, are caused simply and solely by the varying degrees of Vibration manifested.

All the phenomenal world or universe is simply a Mental Creation of THE ALL, subject to the Laws of Created Things, and that the universe, as a whole, and in its parts and units, has its existence in the Mind of THE ALL, in which Mind we “live and move and have our being”

The Kybalion’s ideas of vibration, frequency, mental alchemy, and the law of attraction were incorporated into Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 best seller, The Secret.

To be taken seriously, thinkers felt the need to frame their ideas in quasi-scientific terms and invoke the hard physical sciences in support of them. We have already seen examples in the passages quoted above on vibration, which cite “modern science” and “physical science” as authorities. (Our own time has its updated version of this: metaphysical writers invoke quantum physics and relativity—often in garbled and almost unrecognizable forms—in much the same way.)

of Miletus, the first thinker to explore the universe in a way that might be called scientific, insisted that “all things are full of gods.” No scientist would dare make such a statement today, even if he believed it.

The Kybalion, then, is part of a long-range trend in Western esoteric thought to move from a world of the personal—from spirits, angels, demons, fairies—into the impersonal: vibration, polarity, causation.

There are many testimonials to the effects of thought power on events in the physical world, but then there are also countless cases, many of which we never hear about, in which these ideas simply did not work or did not work as expected. To

You can force your way through these barricades with certain techniques and certain drugs: this may be what the traditional occult literature calls the confrontation with the Dweller on the Threshold.

refers essentially to this psychic barrier between the conscious and unconscious minds.

Certainly it is better to be saying

kind and cheering things to yourself than harmful and destructive ones. But I also believe there are limits to this practice: the subconscious knows when it is being lied to.

We can understand it more clearly if we take the following viewpoint: there is that which experiences and that which is experienced. The former has many names in the world’s traditions: the Self, Atman, purusha, the true I, Buddha nature, Spirit. It is pure cognition. It has no contents of its own.

Then there is that which is experienced. This includes the sum total of all experience, both physical and mental. It is variously known as prakrti, “the world” (as in the Gospels), and even “matter.”

In this sense a rock is matter, but so is the image of a rock in your mind.

Prakrti is constantly changing, constantly moving, constantly altering. Hence The Kybalion can tell us, “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”

In ordinary human consciousness, that which experiences is entangled with that which is experienced. We believe we are what we experience; we believe we are the thoughts and emotions th...

The student of Comparative Religions will be able to perceive the influence of the Hermetic Teachings in every religion worthy of the name, now known to man, whether it be a dead religion or one in full vigor in our own times.

“The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.”

This man, if “man” indeed he was, dwelt in Egypt in the earliest days. He was known as Hermes Trismegistus. He was the father of the Occult Wisdom; the founder of Astrology; the discoverer of Alchemy.

“milk for babes; meat for strong men,”

The Hermetic Teachings are to be found in all lands, among all religions, but never identified with any particular country, nor with any particular religious sect. This because of the warning of the ancient teachers against allowing the Secret

Doctrine to become crystallized into a creed.

When it was written down at all, its meaning was veiled in terms of alchemy and astrology, so that only those possessing the key could read it aright.

Hermetic Philosophy is the only Master Key which will open all the doors of the Occult Teachings!

These teachings really constituted the basic principles of “The Art of Hermetic Alchemy,” which, contrary to the general belief, dealt in the mastery of Mental Forces, rather than Material Elements—the Transmutation of one kind of Mental Vibrations into others, instead of the changing of one kind of metal into another. The legends of the “Philosopher’s Stone” which would turn base metal into Gold, was an allegory relating to Hermetic Philosophy, readily understood by all students of true Hermeticism.

“The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before whose touch all the Doors of the Temple fly open.” —THE KYBALION.

THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTALISM. THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE. THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION. THE PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY. THE PRINCIPLE OF RHYTHM. THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER.

I. THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTALISM. “THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental.” —THE KYBALION.

This Principle embodies the truth that “All is Mind.” It explains that THE ALL (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”; the “Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; “Energy”; and, in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is SPIRIT, which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE, but which may be considered and thought of as AN UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND.

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE. “As above, so below; as below, so above.” —THE KYBALION.

This Principle embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life.

The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the obstacles which hid from view the Unknown.

III. THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION. “Nothing rests; everything moves;

everything vibrates.” —THE KYBALION.

This Principle explains that the differences between different manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, result largely from varying rates of Vibration.

From THE ALL, which is Pure Spirit, down to the grossest form of Matter, all is in vibration—the higher the vibration, the higher the position in the scale.

The vibration of Spirit is at such an infinite rate of intensity and rapidity that it is practically at rest—just as a rapidly ...

An understanding of this Principle, with the appropriate formulas, enables Hermetic students to control their own mental vibrations as well as those of others.

IV. THE PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY. “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.” —THE KYBALION.

in everything there are two poles, or opposite aspects, and that “opposites” are really only the two extremes of the same thing, with many varying degrees between them.

Look at your thermometer and see if you can discover where “heat” terminates and “cold” begins! There is no such thing as “absolute heat” or “absolute cold”—the two terms “heat” and “cold” simply indicate varying degrees of the same thing, and that “same thing” which manifests as “heat” and “cold” is merely a form, variety, and rate of Vibration. So “heat” and “cold” are simply the “two poles” of that which we call “Heat”—and the phenomena attendant thereupon are manifestations of the Principle of Polarity. The same Principle manifests in the case of “Light and Darkness,” which are the same thing, the difference consisting of varying

degrees between the two poles of the phenomena.

Where does “darkness” leave off, and ...