The Kybalion: Centenary Edition

by Three Initiates

also in The Kybalion: “The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.”

Following the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that THE ALL creates the Universe MENTALLY, in a manner akin to the process whereby Man creates Mental Images.

The Principle of Gender (see Lesson I. and other lessons to follow) is manifested on all planes of life, material, mental and spiritual. But, as we have said before, “Gender” does not mean “Sex”—sex is merely a material manifestation of gender. “Gender” means “relating to generation or creation.”

If you prefer the old figures of thought, you may think of the Masculine Principle as GOD, the Father, and of the Feminine Principle as NATURE, the Universal Mother, from whose womb all things have been born. This is more than a mere poetic figure of speech—it is an idea of the actual process of the creation of the Universe. But always remember, that THE ALL is but One, and that in its Infinite Mind the Universe is generated, created and exists.

Keep your mind ever on the Star, but let your eyes watch over your footsteps, lest you fall into the mire by reason of your upward gaze.

But the Absolute point of view shows merely one side of the picture—the other side is the Relative one. Absolute Truth has been defined as “Things as the mind of God knows them,” while Relative Truth is “Things as the highest reason of Man understands them.”

in the degree that Man realizes the existence of the Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what spiritual development means—the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us.

The ancient Hermetists use the word “Meditation,” in describing the process of the mental creation of the Universe in the Mind of THE ALL, the word “Contemplation” also being frequently employed. But the idea intended seems to be that of the employment of the Divine Attention. “Attention” is a word derived from the Latin root, meaning “to reach out; to stretch out,” and so the act of Attention is really a mental “reaching out; extension” of mental energy,

The Hermetic Teachings regarding the process of Evolution are that, THE ALL, having meditated upon the beginning of the Creation—having thus established the material foundations of the Universe—having thought it into existence—then gradually awakens or rouses from its Meditation and in so doing starts into manifestation the process of Evolution, on the material, mental and spiritual planes, successively and in order. Thus the upward movement begins—and all begins to move Spiritward.

“there is no great; there is no small; in the mind that causeth all.”

The word “Gender” is derived from the Latin root meaning “to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.” A moment’s consideration will show you that the word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term “Sex,” the latter referring to the physical distinctions between male and female living things. Sex is merely a manifestation of Gender on a certain plane of the Great Physical Plane—the plane of organic life.