The Ideas
The seven Hermetic principles
The seven Hermetic principles are mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender. They come from the Kybalion (Chicago, 1908), usually attributed to William Walker Atkinson. Two have real older roots (divine Mind in the Corpus Hermeticum; “as above, so below” in the Emerald Tablet), one loosely echoes Poimandres (gender), and four have no Hermetic source. No classical Hermetic text lists seven principles.
The seven Hermetic principles are among the most quoted Hermetic ideas online. They come from one book, the Kybalion, published in Chicago in 1908. Here they are one by one, each with the nearest older source we can find, or the plain statement that there is none.
The seven, with their sources
1. Mentalism
Kybalion: “The All is Mind.” Nearest older theme: Nous, divine Mind, is central to the Corpus Hermeticum (CH I, XI). The Kybalion turns it into a law you can use; the treatises describe a mind you come to know. Read: Nous.
2. Correspondence
Kybalion: “As above, so below.” Nearest older source: the Emerald Tablet, first attested in Arabic (8th to 9th century). The famous English wording is a later paraphrase. Read: As above, so below.
3. Vibration
Kybalion: “Nothing rests; everything moves.” No Hermetic source. This is the vocabulary of 1900s New Thought, the same milieu as the law of attraction.
4. Polarity
Kybalion: “Everything is dual.” No list of opposites as a law in the classical Hermetica. The idea that opposites turn into each other is common Greek philosophy, not specifically Hermetic.
5. Rhythm
Kybalion: “Everything flows, out and in.” No Hermetic source as a principle. Like vibration, it comes from New Thought.
6. Cause and effect
Kybalion: “Every cause has its effect.” No Hermetic source as a numbered law. A general philosophical commonplace, restated.
7. Gender
Kybalion: “Gender is in everything.” Nearest older theme: in Poimandres (CH I.9) the divine Mind is described as both male and female. The Kybalion makes this a universal principle; the treatise does not. Read: Poimandres.
What this means for you
Two of the seven (correspondence, and a mind at the centre of things) have real roots in older texts, and a third (gender) loosely echoes one passage of Poimandres. The other four have no Hermetic source; two of them restate commonplaces of Greek philosophy. That does not make them useless as advice. It means the list is not ancient, and no classical Hermetic text numbers its teachings this way. Where the list itself may come from is traced, with its Victorian antecedent, on the Kybalion page.
Fair questions
What are the 7 Hermetic principles?
Mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender, as listed in the Kybalion (1908).
Which Hermetic texts mention these principles?
None lists them as seven. The nearest older sources are the Corpus Hermeticum on divine Mind (CH I, XI), the Emerald Tablet for 'as above, so below', and Poimandres (CH I.9) on a male-female Mind.
Sources & further reading
- Three Initiates, The Kybalion (Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, 1908).
- Deslippe (ed.), The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition (2011).
- Copenhaver, Hermetica (1992): CH I.9, CH XI.