Book Review: The Kybalion by Three Initiates

I will open with a video discussing the book followed by remarks based on reading the book.

Introductory Video

The following video by Daniel Moreno about the book The Kybalion by Hermes Trismegistus, summarizes a number of points (15:49 minutes).

Moreno extracts three principles key to Hermetic philosophy. These are:

1. Everything is a product of the Mind, the fundamental substrate of all existence.
2. Everything moves or vibrates (5.44). To raise your frequency, shift from taking to giving. Make every situation a win-win.
3. Everything flows out and in (10:39). Become what is necessary to go with the flow. Don’t fight the rhythm.

Consciousness moves from awareness, to consciousness, to mind, to body. As an exercise, throughout the day, stop and ask “who is observing what is going on in my mind and body”.

Extracting from the Book¹

The Seven Hermetic Principles, upon which the entire Hermetic Philosophy is based, are as follows:

1. The Principle of Mentalism
2. The Principle of Correspondence.
3. The Principle of Vibration.
4. The Principle of Polarity.
5. The Principle of Rhythm.
6. The Principle of Cause and Effect
7. The Principle of Gender.

3. Mental Transmutation

To begin, all is mind. Therefore mental transmutation is the art of changing all aspects of the universe from a lower to a higher state..

4. The All

Hermetic followers use the term “the All” to identify the underlying mental nature or mind from what they call a substantial reality based on it. The All has no limitations and cannot be changed. It is absolute, infinite and eternal.

5. The Mental Universe

The ALL is Spirit or infinite living mind. As mind, the ALL creates from mind because that is all that it is and there is. By the principle of Correspondence, we create with our mind from Mind. The principle of Gender enters in as we consider the nature of creation in the universe. So we are bound by the laws of the real; universe.

6. The Divine Paradox

From the absolute viewpoint, the world is an illusion. From the relative point of view the universe has a reality that must be considered from the inside. We rise from plane to plane within it as determined by our senses. The universe and its laws are consistent with Hermetic principles 2 through 7 and cannot be transgressed.

7. “The All” In All

This harkens to Saying 3 in the gospel of Thomas. The idea of a Klein bottle came to mind.

8. Planes Of Correspondence

Hermetic philosophy divides things into 3 arbitrary classes of existence:

1. The Great Physical Plane
2. The Great Mental Plane
3. The Great Spiritual Plane

This division of reality is made for discussion purposes only. There are seven Minor Physical Planes as follows:

1. The Plane of Matter (A)
2. The Plane of Matter (B)
3. The Plane of Matter (C)
4. The Plane of Ethereal Substance
5. The Plane of Energy (A)
6. The Plane of Energy (B)
7. The Plane of Energy (C)

The Great Mental Plane has its own classification of the Seven Minor Mental Planes. They are as follows:

1. The Plane of Mineral Mind
2. The Plane of Elemental Mind (A
3. The Plane of Plant Mind
4. The Plane of Elemental Mind (B)
5. The Plane of Animal Mind
6. The Plane of Elemental Mind (C)
7. The Plane of Human Mind

The book presents a vast spiritual hierarchy. Each level or plane has its own citizenry of spiritual beings greater than the level beneath. The book talks briefly of these, all much above us in spiritual evolution.

9. Vibration

“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”. Spirit is at one end of the Pole of Vibration, the other Pole being certain extremely gross forms of Matter.

10. Polarity

All manifested things have “two sides”; “two aspects”; “two poles”. Polarity exists on the mental as well as physical planes. Polarities can be changed by transmutation. poles can be designated positive or negative. States are a matter of degree.

11. Rhythm

All things are always in motion moving rhythmically between two polar opposite states. This is true for mental states as well as physical.

Consciousness has two polar states. The master can move to a desired polar state and refuse to be part of the rhythmic changes of mood. There is a Law of Compensation that governs the swing of the pendulum of states. It is balance and counterbalance.

12. Causation

Cause does not create an event but determines the outcome. The cause is simply the most recent in an infinite chain of causes, one leading into the next.

13. Gender

The feminine principle is the creative one. Gender can be found represented in many planes.

14. Mental Genderability.

The authors begin by identifying the”me” of the body and then go on to identify a mental “me” or a “me” of the mind. They discus its properties and operation. The “I” of the I AM is independent of this mental Me and can influence it.

15. Hermetic Axioms

Here is a list of key principles from the Kabalion:

1. “To change your mood or mental state–change your vibration.”–
2. “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. Kill out the undesirable by changing its polarity.”
3. “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.”
4. “Rhythm may be neutralized by an application of the Art of Polarization.”
5. “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.”
6. “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. And, yet, in so doing, they form a part of the Principle, instead of opposing it. The wise man falls in with the Law, and by understanding its movements he operates it instead of being its blind slave. Just as does the skilled swimmer turn this way and that way, going and coming as he will, instead of being as the log which is carried here and there–so is the wise man as compared to the ordinary man–and yet both swimmer and log; wise man and fool, are subject to Law. He who understands this is well on the road to Mastery.”
7. “True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art.”

Comments

Actual quotes in this book from the Kabalion would scarcely fill a page leading to the conclusion that this book is not the actual Kabalion if such exists. The Three Initiates obviously have access to a much larger source of Hermetic knowledge but do not disclose it. Since they are Freemasons one might expect the latter to have a much deeper tradition in these teachings whether written or oral.

The book, while giving a broad but shallow overview of Hermetic philosophy, offers no usefully direct instruction or exercises. I would advise not to waste your time on it.

Resources

There is one text but multiple sources and formats and accessibilities.

1. The Kybalion. Global Grey 2025 (PDF).
2. The Kybalion. Yogi Publication Society (1912/1940) (PDF).
3. The Kybalion. Tlisanta Publishing (2008) (PDF).
4. The Kybalion. Yogi Publication Society (1912/1940) (PDF).

Articles in This Series

Refer to the series index in Gnostic Wisdom.

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