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The Kybalion

Seven principles, five held here

The teaching
The Kybalion appeared in 1908, credited to "Three Initiates" and widely attributed by scholars to American New Thought writer William Walker Atkinson. It claims descent from the ancient Hermes Trismegistus, but scholars distinguish it from the actual ancient Hermetica.
Before the rules
The book sets out seven Hermetic principles said to govern all of reality: mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender. Five are held here; two are left for the book itself. Each is offered as the Kybalion's own claim about how the universe works, not as an established fact — a line the text itself blurs by writing as if it were ancient.
1 of 5
The All is Mind.
Because the Kybalion holds the universe itself is mental in nature, not material at its root.
Before reacting to a thought today, notice that it's a thought — not yet a fact.
2 of 5
As above, so below.
Because the Kybalion holds the same pattern repeats at every scale, from the vast to the small.
Look for one shape in your day that repeats at a bigger or smaller size.
3 of 5
Nothing rests; everything vibrates.
Because the Kybalion holds that even solid, still things are motion, just too fine to see.
Sit still for a minute and notice what in you is moving anyway.
4 of 5
Everything has its opposite.
Because the Kybalion holds that opposites are really one thing, spread across a single scale.
Take a mood you're calling bad and find where it shades into its opposite.
5 of 5
Everything rises and falls in turn.
Because the Kybalion holds that every swing outward is answered, sooner or later, by a swing back.
Notice a high or low today, and remember the other end of its swing.
The practice
Pick one principle above and watch for it today — a swing of mood, a repeating pattern, the mind behind a thing — without deciding whether it's true.
The Kybalion calls these laws of the universe. Whether they are is yours to test.
The Kybalion (1908), published as by Three Initiates, widely attributed to William Walker Atkinson
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