The Kybalion in under 5 minutes

After some brief research, it seems that the originals of this book are still unknown and it is believed not to actually represent the official Hermetic teachings. Rather the authors, “The Three Initiates”, which remained anonymous, go into the teachings of the Hermetic Philosophy that they claim was passed down from teacher to student and this is the first time these teachings were revealed to the general public. I am not a big history buff, so I will not go any deeper into the history of the book or the Hermetic Philosophy, rather I will share with you the key points that I got from the book, which I thought was fascinating to say the least.

The book is very mystical and written in a style that we are not used to in the 21 century, so reading it once wasn’t enough. The book is comprised of the 7 Principles that claim to explain the universe that we live in. What I found extremely satisfying is that the principles build upon each other and you get a better understanding of the previous principles after reading the next one.

The Universe is created in the Mind

The first principle is that the world is simply a thought, a dream like state that is both real and not real at the same time, like a video game. Our creator, which the book calls “THE ALL”, created all of the laws that govern our universe in its mind. The laws are real to us, but not real to the creator. Therefore, real, but also not real at the same time.

Everything is correlated

“As above, so below; as below, so above.” — The Kybalion.

What this quote means is that everything in the universe is correlated and interconnected. I will comeback to this principle since the later principles will help in understanding this one. But the short summary is that our physical world and our mind are governed by the same laws.

Everything is vibrating and moving

“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.” — The Kybalion.

Everything has its own vibration. Physical objects, as well as our mind emotions. Changing something is as simple as changing its vibration. When we boil water, we are changing its vibration. Following the law of correlation, we can deduct that our mind works in the same way. Therefore, in order to change our mood or mental state, we need to change the vibration. How you ask? Keep reading.

Everything has duality

I found this to be the most applicable law. Our world is made up of opposite poles, south and north, positive and negative, light and dark, hot and cold, love and hate.

Opposites are identical in nature and only differ in degree. A dark room is a dark only because there is little light in it. Cold water is only cold because there is little warmth to it. When does a dark room stop being dark and start being light? What is the critical point of water where it is no longer cold and starts being warm? There is no difference between cold and warm water, only its degree of warmth is the difference. When does love turn into hate? Do you love somethings with a higher degree than others? Love and hate are the extremes, with like and dislike located somewhere near the middle.

Another important aspect of this principle is that you cannot take out darkness from a room, you need to introduce light. You cannot make water stop being cold, you need to introduce heat. You cannot stop hate, you need to introduce love. You cannot stop yourself from being lazy, you need to introduce action. Just like increasing volume on your radio, move the dial from one pole to the other.

Everything has cycles

Notice the ebb and flow of the world to be able to predict the future. We have cycles all around us. Our planet has night and day, seasons, we have cycles in our economies, civilizations rise and fall. Your mental state is no different, if you feel extremely happy one day, you might have a down day the next. Consuming too much sugar or coffee will give you a boost of energy, only to cause a crash after. The bigger the swing in one direction, expect a similar magnitude of swing in the other.

How can we deal with this in our lives? We cannot stop the swing in the other direction but the book suggests that increasing one’s awareness will give you the ability to rise above the ebb and flow on the down swing.

Everything has a cause and effect

There are no accidents and nothing is truly random. This is similar to the butterfly effect theory, where a very small change in one place might cause an unimaginable effect on the other side of the planet. Every little action has a reaction. This law brings to attention our own lives and how we are either at the effect of other people or at the cause. The masters of the Hermetic teachings try to be at the cause of their own lives as well as others.

Everything has gender

The masculine and the feminine genders are found in many things such as living beings, plants, even electricity has the cathode and anode. In the principle of gender, the masculine starts the process of creation whereas the feminine completes it and where the actual creation takes place. This is seen well in humans as well as electricity where the cathode of the battery is really the pole in and by which the generation or production of new forms is created.

The genders are also seen inside of our minds. The masculine is the conscious mind where as the feminine is the subconscious. Our masculine feeds ideas into the subconscious where the actual creative process happens. Since our subconscious mind takes whatever is given to it by the conscious mind, we must be careful and aware of what we watch, listen to, and read.

So we how do we change our emotions? Well we can do that by what we focus on and give attention to. If you are feeling hate, then try focusing on the polar opposite of that emotion, love. If you are feeling fear, try focusing on courage. The simple practice of changing what you focus on, when practiced often, can bring profound changes into your life.

I hope you enjoyed my summary of the Kybalion. This is meant to be a quick overview and I only included concepts that stood out to me. If you want to read the full book then head over to Amazon!