The Kybalion Principles and Meaning

John Rogers — Mar 15, 2018

This article is the second in a three-part series on The Kybalion. The previous blog explains what the book is. This blog explains The Kybalion principles and details core concepts, and the next blog will provide actionable tips to help you apply The Kybalion principles to change your life. We’ve also written multiple blogs on two similar books, Think and Grow Rich and The Science of Getting Rich.
 

The Kybalion Explained

The Kybalion is a summary of hermetic philosophy (a philosophy named for Hermes Trismegistus; you can learn more about Trismegistus, who lived in Ancient Egypt and influenced the greatest men of his time, here). It was published by the Yogi Publication Society in 1908.. There are seven seed truths contained in The Kybalion, and these principles explain what Hermetists describe as the art of Mental Transmutation. This may sound like magic, but the hermetic teachings in The Kybalion are actually scientific. Most people don’t realize that a set of Universal Laws that apply to all created things even exists. That is what hermetic philosophy is: an explanation of the universal, fundamental principles that determine how reality works. By adopting and mastering these Kybalion principles, you can tap into the divine power of the universe.

The Kybalion is one of the more “out there” books you’ll ever come across. In fact, it’s so arcane that the authors aren’t even identified by name. They’re just called the “Three Initiates”. This is all intentional. One of the first concepts you’ll be introduced to when you begin to read it is the idea that the book has actually come to your attention by design. Only those who are ready for the wisdom conveyed in the book ever discover it. As such, the book is full of arcane teachings in the strict sense, in that they are mysterious and known by few.

The authors lay out seven principles in The Kybalion. In this The Kybalion summary, we’ll lay out these principles, as well as the true meaning of The Kybalion.

Are you interested in joining a community dedicated to using the principles laid out in The Kybalion to achieve their financial goals? Join the Wealth Creation Mastermind for FREE today.

The Law of Attraction: Primer For The Kybalion

If you’re interested in hermetic philosophy, then you’re probably already familiar with the creative method of thought. You might think of it as ‘The Law of Attraction‘. Business Insider wrote an excellent blog titled – 12 Ways The ‘Law of Attraction’ Can Improve Your Life. Hermetic philosophy is indeed all about mental alchemy. This is the intentional process of transforming thought and consciousness from a lower vibrational level to a higher vibrational level. The purpose is to develop the power to cause the things you think about to be created. Hermetic writings and hermetic teachings like The Kybalion can help you achieve mastery of the Law of Attraction.

By mastering our thoughts, which exist on higher planes, we can affect matter on the physical plane.

That may sound like a pretty strange concept, but it’s one that has become increasingly accepted. One of the major proponents of hermetic philosophy is Bob Proctor. (See him give an overview of the movie, The Secret here) The list of popular celebrities who embrace these concepts includes Oprah Winfrey, Wayne Dyer, Will Smith, Jim Carey, Tony Robbins, and Denzel Washington. The list goes on and on; the Hermetic tradition is seeing a revival.
 

Key Principles of The Kybalion

There are axioms that the Three Initiates spread throughout The Kybalion. Each one provides you with a nugget of wisdom that illuminates one of the Hermetic principles. Every one of the proverbs of Hermetic Philosophy sheds more light on the topic. They help the student of The Kybalion to understand and apply the meaning of the Hermetic laws they relate to. Here’s a sample of some of them:

• THE ALLL IS MIND;
  • the Universe is Mental
• As above, so below,
  • as below, so above
• Nothing rests;
  • everything moves;
  • everything vibrates
• 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 can be reconciled
• Everything flows, out and in;
  • 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
• 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
• Gender is in everything;
  • everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles;
  • gender manifests on all planes

The Seven Hermetic Principles in The Kybalion

Remember the movie The Matrix? It presented the idea of a code that controls the appearance of everything. What we perceive as reality is instead a fabric of the digital domain. Furthermore, in the movie, the protagonist ‘Neo” was presented with the opportunity to swallow either a red pill or a blue pill. Hermetic philosophy is sort of like taking the red pill. With The Kybalion, the Three Initiates are shedding light on the way the universe functions “behind the curtain”.

The Kybalion is one of the deepest and most powerful books you’ll ever read. We’ll give you more key takeaways below, but if you want to really get to the heart of the book, and use it to transform your life, we highly recommend that you join the Wealth Creation Mastermind for FREE today. 

The Principle of Mentalism

This is the big one, and getting this is key to understanding The Kybalion’s meaning. Before you can employ any of the principles of The Kybalion, the starting point is to take it on faith that the underlying reality of the universe is mental. In other words, we are all literally living in a mental construct similar to the fabric of The Matrix. Here is the premise. If the Universe is Mental in its nature, then learning the art of Mental Transmutation gives you the ability to influence your reality.

Quantum physics teaches that our entire universe is a product of both our conscious and our subconscious mind, our thoughts and emotions. Mental manifestation is a real and powerful way to change our life.
 

The Principle of Correspondence

Almost everyone is familiar with the belief that the life we create is a reflection of the image we hold in our mind. Within and without relate. Consequently, what may be invisible can be deduced by observing the visible. Or to put it another way, you can get a sense of what will happen in your life (the invisible, because it hasn’t happened yet) by paying attention to your thoughts (the visible). Your dominating thoughts, the ones you give energy to, are the ones that will manifest in your life. Your thoughts mirror your reality. This is the essential takeaway of the law of correspondence.
 

The Principle of Vibration

A common example of vibration and frequency is the tuning fork. When you hit it with a hammer and get it vibrating, it will cause other tuning forks in the vicinity to begin to vibrate at the same time, at the same frequency. In hermetic philosophy, the same thing happens with the vibrations that are caused by ideas. Our thoughts determine what we attract into our lives. By resonating positive emotions like joy, love, gratitude and happiness, you will naturally attract corresponding vibrations from others. Most of us grasp this on an intuitive level: we’ve all had days where we’re upset or frustrated, and everyone we meet just seems to make it worse. Hermetic philosophy says that this isn’t just a coincidence. Instead, when we resonate (for instance) joy, we will actually attract people into our lives who bring us more joy.
 

The Principle of Polarity

The Kybalion states that what we think of as opposites are really just differences in degree. Hot and cold aren’t categorically different; they’re just changes in degree. The more heat a room has, the less likely we are to say that it’s cold; and vice versa. Up and down also aren’t categorically different; the more up you are, the less down you are. The same is true of wealth and poverty. Wealth and poverty aren’t different categories of being. Instead, it can be helpful to think of a sliding scale with poverty at the low end and wealth at the top. That’s really empowering, because it means that when you’re trying to move from poverty to wealth, you don’t have to escape one category of being and jump ship to a totally different one. Instead, you can just focus on moving up the sliding scale towards wealth, and appreciate even small gains along the way. Even extreme opposites are categorically the same.
 

The Principle of Rhythm

Some days you feel like nothing can stop you. But the next day you might not even want to get out of bed. What happened? The principle of rhythm. The pendulum swing. Life isn’t constant; it’s always changing and moving, up and down. Understanding this is very powerful, because it gives you a key insight into the future: no matter where you are, whether it’s good or bad, things will change. You can even take it one step further: if you’re the same person you’ve always been, then you can expect change roughly in line with what’s happened in your past. If you’ve become someone new or different, then you can look at yourself and make some rough predictions about how the principle of rhythm will change your life based on who you are now. This principle applies to everyone, and like all the other hermetic principles, once you know what to look for you can start to see it everywhere. In all of life there is the yin and yang, the ebb and flow. A key The Kybalion principle is that it’s possible to use the laws together in order to come into control of your life. You only need to know how.

The Principle of Cause and Effect

According to the Three Initiates, a very large part of getting what you want in life is knowing that nothing ever happens by accident. Everything is influenced by these laws laid out in The Kybalion. By understanding them and learning how to apply them, you can cause the effects you desire, via an act of mental creation that can cause your desired manifestations. Instead of feeling like a pawn in the game of life, the key meaning of The Kybalion is that you can become a player and influence the outcome of the contest.
 

The Principle of Gender

This universal principle is another facet of duality. Every one of us has both masculine energy as well as feminine energy; there is a masculine principle and a feminine principle to all things. It applies to everything, on all planes of existence, regardless of how large or small. At the subatomic level protons have a positive charge and electrons a negative charge. The charge on the proton and electron are exactly the same size, but opposite. The negative polarity represents the feminine and the positive charge corresponds to the masculine.

What does the law of gender mean for your life? “Masculine” energy (which is not exclusive to men) is goal-oriented and action-focused. It’s about moving towards your goal every day. “Feminine” energy (which is, again, not exclusive to women; every one of us has both) is about taking a step back, reflecting and re-evaluating. Feminine energy pushes you to look at the big picture and course-correct so you can take more effective action, instead of just keeping your head down and continuing on the same course. The key to success is to make these two energies work together, by knowing when to use each one. When is the right time to charge towards your goal, and when is the best time to step back and course-correct?
 

Taking The Kybalion’s Principles Further

At first, the seven hermetic principles in The Kybalion may seem individual and separate from each other. However they are all building blocks that when taken together develop into a formula. By learning to apply these principles to how you think, you can use your mind to control your reality.
 

The following is a streamlined statement of how to do this:

• Mind 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

The Kybalion’s Meaning

Hermetic philosophy is deep and complex, but if you’re looking for a quick analysis of The Kybalion’s meaning or of The Kybalion’s principles, here it is.

Reality is a mental construct, and by changing your thought patterns, you can literally change your reality and manifest what you desire. It is essentially alchemy of the mental kind; you are turning ideas into physical manifestations. And it is a universal law. It is always working, whether you want it to or not.

If you’re intrigued by this explanation of The Kybalion principles and are looking for a deeper analysis, then we recommend that you join our Mastermind where we discuss The Kybalion’s meaning and similar books in-depth.

Is The Kybalion Occult?

Lots of people worry that The Kybalion is occult, or religious. But it’s not. Instead, the book is a handbook for navigating both the spiritual planes and the physical ones. It’s a practical guide to the laws of the universe, increasingly backed by modern science. It is compatible with any religion, because it’s not religious. Some people consider it a “magic key” and you can call it that if you want—but emphasis on key, not on magic.

Applying The Kybalion’s Principles to Your Life

These principles provide you with a frame that you can use to understand and effect all matter, energy, and life on the physical plane. As human beings, our thoughts and emotions are more powerful than we realize. Another way to say that is… Master the Law of Attraction to be, do and have whatever you desire.

At the Wealth Creation Mastermind, we specialize in learning these principles and using them to create concrete, powerful change in our own lives. If you would like help implementing these principles to dramatically improve your life, then we highly recommend that you fill out the form to join the WCM.

John Rogers

John Rogers has been in the network marketing industry for over 20 years. He has earned the prestigious Blue Diamond rank with Univera, the highest rank that the health- and wellness-focused network marketing company offers. His team represents 60% of Univera’s annual sales in North America.  John was recognized as the Univera Associate of the Year in 2015.

John has also been associated with 2 other network marketing companies and achieved a Platinum rank with Nikken, a Japanese health and wellness company.

John is the former CEO of Premium Enterprises. He has a Masters degree in education (M.Ed.) from the University of Northern Colorado (graduated 1973) and is passionate about teaching fellow network marketers to replicate his success.