The Seven Hermetic Principles
The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece
1- The Principle of Mentalism (The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental)
2- The Principle of Correspondence. (As above, so below. As below, so above; As within, so without. As without, so within)
3- The Principle of Vibration (Nothing rests; Everything moves and vibrates; Everything is energy)
4- The Principle of Polarity (Everything is dual; everything has its poles, and everything has its pairs of opposites)
5- The Principle of Rhythm. (Everything flows out and in; Everything has its tides. All things rise and fall. The pendulum swing manifests in everything)
6- The Principle of Cause and Effect (Every cause has its effect, and every effect has its cause. Everything happens according to law; Chance is but a name for a law not recognized, aka karma)
7- The Principle of Gender (Gender is in everything. Everything has its masculine and feminine, yin and yang, inward and outward, active and passive forces. Gender manifests on all planes)
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The wisdom, after passing from lip to ear for several thousand years before fictitiously being originally written as "The Kybalion," then lost over the centuries, "The Kybalion" was essentially rewritten in 1908 by an American new-thought and occultist author named William Walker Atkinson, penned as Three Initiates. The principles described are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, venerated as three times greater than the Greek god Hermes, contemporary of Abraham, founder of astrology, and discoverer of alchemy (the psychological art of turning thoughts and emotions into spiritual gold).
Just as the word "occult" accurately means hidden, referring to esoteric spiritual knowledge, so to does the word "hermetic" mean hidden, referring to the protective containment of such higher wisdom from persecution, abuse, and dogma. "The lips of wisdom are closed except to the ears of understanding." Likewise, "When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with wisdom" The Kybalion. These principles are the master keys to unlocking the Universe's secrets and many occult teachings.
These principles were first written down by the scribes of Alexander when the Greeks conquered Egypt in 332 BCE. Over a thousand years later, those writings resurfaced in the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods throughout Europe and the Middle East. They became the source material of gnostic works called "The Corpus Hermeticum" and "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes, " which, though more poetically abstract, were said to have inspired the creation of "The Kybalion
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