(Hermetic union of three and four, from Viatorium spagyricum, 1625)

"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." (KYBALION)

"In the early days, there was a compilation of certain Basic Hermetic Doctrines, passed on from teacher to student, which was known as 'THE KYBALION,' the exact significance and meaning of the term having been lost for several centuries. This teaching, however, is known to many to whom it has descended, from mouth to ear, on and on throughout the centuries. Its precepts have never been written down, or printed, so far as we know. It was merely a collection of maxims, axioms, and precepts, which were non-understandable to outsiders, but which were readily understood by students, after the axioms, maxims and precepts had been explained and exemplified by the Hermetic Initiates to their Neophytes. 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." (Three Initiates. THE KYBALION, 1912)

"The All is Mind. The universe is mental -- held in the Mind of the All."

"The All creates in its Infinite Mind countless Universes, which exist for Aeons of Time -- and yet, to the All, the creation, development, decline and death of a million Universes is as the time of the twinkling of an eye."

"The infinite Mind of the All is the womb of Universes."

"Within the Father-Mother Mind, mortal children are at home."

"Mind (as well as metals and elements) may be transmuted, from state to state; degree to degree; condition to condition; pole to pole; vibration to vibration. True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art."

"As above, so below; as below, so above."

"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

"To change your mood or mental state -- change your vibration."

"To destroy an undesirable rate of mental vibration, put into operation the Principle of Polarity and concentrate upon the opposite pole to that which you desire to suppress."

"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."

"Kill out the undesirable by changing its polarity."

"Everything flows in and out; 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."

"Rhythm may be neutralized by an application of the Art of Polarization."

"Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law."

"Nothing escapes the Principle of Cause and Effect, but there are many planes of Causation, and one may use the laws of the higher to overcome the laws of the lower."

"The wise ones serve on the higher, but rule on the lower. They obey the laws coming from above them, but on their own plane and those below them, they rule and give orders."

"The wise man falls in with the Law, and by understanding its movements, he operates it instead of being its blind slave."

"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes."

The Kybalion is a little book published anonymously by "Three Initiates" in 1912 through the Yogi Publication Society. It is obvious from its content that it was written by students of Western Hermetic magic and philosophy under the influence of the ideas of Theosophy. In a listing of the works of Paul Foster Case that I downloaded from the Internet, I found the information that the Three Initiates were Case, William A. Atkinson, and Michael Whitty. If true, this makes the Kybalion interesting from another perspective, as one of Case's writings.

The statements in italics are from the Kybalion proper, which the writers claim to be an unwritten collection of Hermetic wisdom teachings preserved and conveyed by verbal tradition. I am not familiar with any use of the title "Kybalion" prior to this book, and it may be the invention of the Three Initiates. It is unlikely that these aphorisms existed anywhere in a collected form prior to this work. They were gathered from various sources by the Three Initiates.

For example, Principle Two, that of Correspondence, is a simplified version of a line in the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, quoted elsewhere on this site.

I find the book curiously evocative. Serious contemplation of the seven principles will lead to an awareness of their functioning in the world at large, which is the first step toward actively responding to the principles and manipulating them for personal goals.