Kybalion

The Kybalion: the hermetic philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece ) is a book published in English by the Yogi Publication Society of Chicago (United States) in December 1908.

Presents and develops the "seven principles of hermeticism."

It is based on the Arabic text Lawḥ al-zumurrudh ('the emerald table', from the 7th century, although attributed to the mythical Egyptian alchemist Hermes Trismegistus), a very brief hermetic text consisting of a dozen dark allegorical formulas.

In the text of Kybalión itself, its authorship is attributed to Three Initiates ('three initiates') although, due to its style, it is considered that the author who signed this way was the American lawyer and merchant William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932), who included modern concepts of New Thought, a doctrine created in the United States between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

It is currently in the public domain and can be found on the internet.

The seven principles

The seven principles or axioms, as described in the Kybalión, are:

1. Mentalism. The All is mind; the universe is mental. The All is the totalizing set. Nothing is out of the whole.
2. Correspondence. As it is above, it is below; as it is inside, it is outside. He states that this principle is manifested in the three Great Planes: the Physical, the Mental and the Spiritual.
3. Vibration. Nothing is moving; everything moves; everything vibrates.
4. Polarity. Everything is double, everything has two poles; everything, its pair of opposites: the likes and the antagonists are the same; the opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; the ends are touched; all truths are half truths, all paradoxes can be reconciled.
5. Ritmo. Everything flows and refines; everything has its periods of advance and backwardness, everything ascends and descends; everything moves like a pendulum; the measure of its movement to the right is the same as that of its movement to the left; the rhythm is the compensation.
6. Cause and effect. Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to the law; luck or chance is only the name given to the unrecognized law; there are many planes of causality, but nothing escapes the Law.
7. Gender / Generation. Generation manifests in all planes, everything has its masculine and feminine principle, active and passive. The two genres exist everywhere. In the physical plane is the sexuality and the union of the two polarities arises the creation, the generation. But in the very core of what we call matter, this principle is manifested in the form of attraction and repulsion of subatomic particles, creating the material universe we know.

Mentalism

This principle expresses that the universe comes from the mind of the whole, the whole being the creator of the universe. When we talk about the whole, we mean that everything that is around us, everything that we can and cannot see, exists thanks to the imagination of the whole, which is indefinable and can be considered as a universal, infinite and living mind.. This means that we are real within the universe, but we are manifestations of its mind. It can also be understood that the universe that we observe cannot escape our own mind and that everything observable and experienced is its mind. This principle is based on the concept of Brahman, the impersonal divinity in Hinduism.

Correspondence

This principle raises the idea that there is always a correspondence between the laws of the phenomena of the different planes of being and life.

It establishes that there is harmony between the physical plane, the mental plane and the spiritual plane, it means that all planes of existence are connected and in correspondence. The macrocosm is found in the microcosm and vice versa: solar systems, societies and life on Earth reflect the same.

That is, whatever we do at the micro level, we will do it at the macro level. Even the smallest habits influence our behavior. By doing anything, we will also do everything. If we neglect one area of our life, chances are that the rest of the areas will also be affected. This principle would be equivalent to the concept of yin and yang in Taoism.

Vibration

This principle states that everything is in motion, that nothing remains motionless. It explains the differences between the various manifestations of matter, force, mind and even spirit itself, which are nothing more than the result of the various vibratory states. From the whole, which is pure spirit, to the smallest form of matter, everything is in vibration: the higher it is, the higher its position on the scale. The vibration of the spirit is of infinite intensity; so much so that it can practically be considered as if it were at rest, in the same way that a wheel that rotates very quickly seems to be without movement. And at the other end of the scale there are forms of very dense matter, whose vibration is so weak that it also appears to be at rest.

This principle would be equivalent to the concept of the flow of qì (in Taoism) or prana (in Hinduism).

Polarity

This principle embodies the truth that all manifest things have "two sides," "two aspects," "two poles," "a pair of opposites," equal in nature but with multiple degrees between the two extremes, distinct in polarity, identical in nature, both attract and harmonize in the balance of the cosmos.

Polarity maintains the rhythm of life. We know the existence of something by the contrast of its opposite. Thus we find:

• light-offering
• love-odium
• spirit-matter
• life-death
• well-
• Vigya-sueño
• value-assed
• joy-thristy.

Opposites always occur in the same element. The principle of polarity works along a vibratory scale of degrees that goes from positive to negative, with the positive being superior in nature to the negative.

This principle would be equivalent to the concept of yin and yang (in Taoism).

Rhythm

This principle is linked to the principle of polarity. Whenever there is an action there will be a reaction, an advance and a retreat, an ascension and a descent. And this law applies to everything; suns, worlds, animals, mind, energy, matter. It manifests itself in the creation and destruction of worlds, in the progress and decline of nations, in life and, finally, in the mental states of man. It tells us that no matter how bad your life is, it can get better. Everything ebbs and flows. We cannot always win or lose, because there must be a balance, since not everything lasts, on the contrary, everything changes, everything vibrates, flows and ebbs.

This principle would be equivalent to the concept of the flow of qì (in Taoism) or prana (in Hinduism).

Cause and effect

This principle states that every effect has its cause, and every cause has its effect. Nothing happens by chance. Luck is a vain word. This principle contains the truth that chance is only a term that indicates the existence of an unrecognized or perceived cause; that the phenomenon is continuous, without continuity solutions.

Cause and effect reside merely in the events. An event or event is what comes, arrives or occurs as a consequence or result of a previous event or event. No event creates another, but is nothing more than the preceding link in the great coordinated chain of events that flow from the creative energy of THE ALL.

This principle would be equivalent to the concept of the flow of qì (in Taoism) or prana (in Hinduism).

This principle would be equivalent to the concept of karma (in Hinduism and Buddhism) or the concept of pratītya-samutpāda (in Buddhism).

Genre

The principle of gender is completely hermetic in its sense, and sex is the accepted earthly meaning of the term, although they are not the same.^{[citation required]}

The principle establishes that not all beings are equal, they are distinguished in their gender, and genders are sought to continue existing. That the various genders are required to maintain life, and that the genders reflect each other and are correspondingly equal. The Spanish word "gender" derives from the Latin root meaning 'to conceive, procreate, generate, create, produce'.

A moment of consideration on the matter will demonstrate that this word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term sex, since it refers to the physical distinctions between male and female beings. This principle would be equivalent to one of the concepts present within yin and yang (in Taoism), or the Hindu doctrines of shakti and prakriti (the feminine) and the < i>púrusha (the masculine).

It is necessary that this distinction between the masculine and feminine nature be impressed on the mind, because certain writers who have acquired some notions of hermetic doctrine have tried to identify this seventh principle with erroneous and sometimes reprehensible theories and teachings concerning sex. ^{[citation required]}

The Three Initiates

The author who wrote the Kybalión ―self-styled Three Initiates― decided to remain anonymous. This led to much speculation about who actually wrote the book.

The most popular hypothesis is that its author was the American lawyer and merchant William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932), who throughout his life wrote many books using pseudonyms such as Yogi Ramacharaka, Swami Panchedasi, Magus Incognito and Theodore Sheldon.

One of Atkinson's first publications was a series titled The Arcane Teachings, which shares some similarities with Kybalion: Kybalion explores seven "hermetic principles", while The Arcane Teachings explores seven "arcane laws"; Kybalion claims to be an elucidation of an ancient unpublished Hermetic text of the same name, while The Arcane Teachings claim to explore the wisdom of an ancient unpublished scroll of occult aphorisms; Both books describe three "great planes" of reality, each of which is subdivided into seven lower planes. Both books describe three of the lower planes as “astral black keys,” similar to the black keys of a piano and inhabited by elemental spirits; Both books describe in great detail the process of 'mental alchemy', one almost in total harmony with the other. There are many other similarities, which lead naturally to the question of whether The Arcane Teachings might have been Atkinson's "first draft" for the material that would later become the Kybalion i>.^{[citation required]}

Another hypothesis was that it was written by members of the Theosophical Society, since its translator from English to Spanish, as proven in all Spanish editions since the first, was Federico Climent Terrer (1860-1949), founder of the branch of the Theosophical Society in the city of Barcelona (Spain), who would carry out this translation by exclusive order of the Theosophical Society.

Another hypothesis states that the Kybalion was written by the American occultist Paul Foster Case (1884-1954) and the Irish journalist Michael James Whitty (1795-1873). This belief is held by the Masonic association BOTA (Builders of the Adytum), the "school of mysteries" founded by Paul Foster Case, according to a legend originated by a splinter group of BOTA, the Brotherhood of the Hidden Light. They claim to support this belief by saying that Paul Foster Case was a Freemason, and that Kybalion's publisher, the Yogi Publication Society, printed his address on the frontispiece of the book as "Masonic Temple in Chicago (Illinois)." However, this evidence of Case's authorship is worthless, as the Chicago Masonic Temple was actually the city's first skyscraper, housing dozens of stores and small businesses without any Masonic affiliation. The building was named so because the Masonic lodge that financed much of its construction, and this was actually located on the upper floors.

Other names that are frequently considered in relation to the authorship of Kybalion are:

• Mabel Collins (1851-1927), theosophical and
• Claude Brogdon (1882-1964), occultist and magician who worked in theatres.
• Ann Davies (1912-1975), who succeeded Paul Foster Case at the head of the BOTA Masonic sect;
• Harriet Case, who at that time was the wife of Paul Foster Case