The 7 Hermetic Principles are universal laws said to govern the structure and function of reality itself. Rooted in the teachings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary sage of ancient Egypt and Greece, these principles describe how the universe operates on every level, from the movement of stars to the movement of your own thoughts.
The seven principles are:
- The Principle of Mentalism . The universe is mental in nature.
- The Principle of Correspondence . As above, so below; as below, so above.
- The Principle of Vibration . Everything moves; nothing is at rest.
- The Principle of Polarity . Everything has its opposite; opposites are identical in nature, differing only in degree.
- The Principle of Rhythm . Everything flows in cycles; the pendulum swings in both directions.
- The Principle of Cause and Effect . Nothing happens by chance; every cause has its effect.
- The Principle of Gender . Masculine and feminine principles exist in all things, on all planes.
These principles were most famously organized in The Kybalion, a 1908 text attributed to “Three Initiates.” But the ideas themselves reach far deeper, through the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, and centuries of living Hermetic practice. Understanding them intellectually is valuable. Applying them to your inner life through meditation, self-observation, and energetic practice is where real transformation begins.
This guide explores each principle in depth: what it means, what it looks like in practice, and how it connects to the broader framework of Hermetic self-mastery and the Law of Harmony and Balance.
What Is Hermetic Philosophy?
Hermetic philosophy is one of the oldest continuous streams of wisdom in the Western world. It draws its name from Hermes Trismegistus, or “Thrice-Great Hermes,” a syncretic figure combining the Egyptian god Thoth (deity of wisdom, writing, and magic) with the Greek god Hermes (messenger between worlds).
Whether Hermes Trismegistus was a real person, a mythological archetype, or both remains debated. What is certain is that the teachings attributed to him have shaped philosophy, science, religion, and esoteric practice for more than two thousand years.
Hermeticism is built on a core insight: the universe is a single living intelligence, and everything within it (matter, energy, thought, spirit) operates according to consistent, knowable laws. These laws are not arbitrary rules imposed from outside. They are the inherent patterns of existence itself. The person who understands them gains the ability to work with reality rather than against it.
The Core Hermetic Texts
Three foundational texts carry the essence of Hermetic wisdom:
The Corpus Hermeticum is the most widely known collection of Hermetic writings. Composed between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD in Greco-Roman Egypt, it consists of dialogues between Hermes Trismegistus and various students, most notably Poimandres, who reveals the nature of the divine mind and the structure of the cosmos.
The Emerald Tablet is a short, dense text attributed to Hermes himself. It contains the famous axiom “As above, so below” and is considered the foundation stone of alchemical and Hermetic thought.
The Kybalion, published in 1908 by anonymous authors calling themselves “Three Initiates,” systematized the Hermetic teachings into the seven principles explored in this article. William Walker Atkinson is most commonly identified as the primary author. While scholars debate the extent to which the Kybalion represents authentic ancient Hermeticism versus a modern synthesis influenced by New Thought philosophy, the principles it articulates have resonated deeply with practitioners and seekers across traditions.
Additional noteworthy Hermetic works include The Perfect Sermon (also called the Asclepius), the Definitions of Hermes to Asclepius, the Discourses of Isis to Horus, and writings discovered among the Nag Hammadi texts in 1945. Throughout history, secret societies and esoteric orders, from the Rosicrucians to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, have preserved and transmitted these teachings.
Why These Principles Still Matter
Many people encounter the Hermetic principles through self-help or manifestation culture, where they are often reduced to motivational affirmations. For the serious practitioner, though, these seven laws are operational. They describe the mechanics of consciousness, energy, and transformation, and they can be directly applied through practices like meditation, pore breathing, elemental work, and the disciplined observation of one’s own mind and emotions.
The principles are not separate ideas. They form an interlocking system. Mentalism sets the foundation. Correspondence reveals the structure. Vibration describes the medium. Polarity and Rhythm show how forces move within that medium. Cause and Effect governs the chain of consequences. Gender describes the creative dynamic that generates all things. Together, they compose a unified map of reality, one that aligns closely with what SOLANCHA calls the Law of Harmony and Balance.
Principle #1: The Principle of Mentalism
“THE ALL is Mind; The Universe is Mental.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Mentalism is the first and most foundational of the seven Hermetic principles. It states that the underlying nature of the universe is mental, that everything which exists is ultimately a manifestation of consciousness, thought, or mind.
In Hermetic philosophy, “The ALL” refers to the infinite, transcendent source from which everything arises. It is not a personal deity in the conventional religious sense, but rather the absolute reality, the living intelligence within which the entire cosmos exists as a mental creation. Just as a person can hold an entire world within their imagination, the Hermetic view holds that the universe itself exists within the mind of The ALL.
This is not simply metaphor. The principle teaches that thought is the primary creative force. Everything that exists in the physical world began as an idea, an intention, a vibration within consciousness. Matter follows mind. Form follows thought. Reality is, at its deepest level, shaped by awareness.
What This Means for You
If you accept even the possibility that mind precedes matter, your relationship to your own thoughts changes fundamentally. Your thoughts are not passive reflections of reality. They are active participants in creating it. The quality of your thinking, the clarity of your intention, and the discipline of your attention all become tools of creation.
As the renowned mystic Edgar Cayce stated, “thoughts are things.” This is not wishful thinking. It is the recognition that mental states generate real consequences in the emotional, energetic, and physical dimensions of your life.
The Kybalion puts it plainly: “He who grasps the truth of the Mental Nature of the Universe is well advanced on The Path to Mastery.”
Putting This Principle Into Practice
Understanding Mentalism intellectually is the first step. Applying it requires training. This is where practices like concentration meditation, thought observation, and pore breathing become essential. When you learn to hold a single thought with sustained attention, without distraction, without wavering, you begin to experience directly what the Hermetic tradition teaches: that mind is not just a commentary on reality, but the substance from which reality is woven.
For a deeper exploration of this principle, read our full article on the Law of Mentalism and how it can improve your life.
Principle #2: The Principle of Correspondence
“As above, so below; as below, so above.” The Kybalion
This is perhaps the most widely quoted axiom in all of Hermetic philosophy, and for good reason. The Principle of Correspondence states that there is a consistent, knowable relationship between the different planes of existence: the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. The same patterns, laws, and dynamics that operate on one level operate on every other.
The atom mirrors the solar system. The human body mirrors the cosmos. The inner world of thought and emotion mirrors the outer world of circumstance and event. When you understand how something works on one plane, you gain insight into how it works on all others.
The Three Great Planes
The Kybalion describes the universe as consisting of three great planes:
- The Great Physical Plane . The world of matter, form, energy, and sensation.
- The Great Mental Plane . The world of thought, will, intellect, and imagination.
- The Great Spiritual Plane . The world of pure consciousness, divine intelligence, and the Akashic principle.
This three-plane model is a useful starting framework, but it leaves a critical dimension unnamed: the Astral Plane. Some Hermetic authors fold the astral and mental together into a single plane. Mouni Sadhu, for instance, in his book The Tarot, treats them as one unified non-physical realm. However, in the living Hermetic tradition and in direct practice, the astral and the mental are two separate planes with distinct qualities, functions, and laws.
The astral plane is the realm of emotion, feeling, desire, and the soul. It sits between the physical and the mental, and it is the energetic medium through which thoughts crystallize into felt experience before manifesting in the material world.
In Hermetic practice, the human being is understood as having three distinct bodies that correspond to these planes. The physical body operates in the material world. The astral body, sometimes called the soul or the emotional energy body, carries the life force, the desires, and the full spectrum of emotional experience. The mental body is the seat of thought, will, and spiritual intelligence. Each body vibrates at a different frequency, and each is governed by the same elemental laws.
This distinction matters because real transformation requires working on all three levels, not just the mental. You can think positive thoughts all day, but if the astral body is saturated with unresolved fear, grief, or anger, the physical reality will reflect that deeper emotional charge. True Hermetic practice, including pore breathing and elemental work, trains the practitioner to sense, purify, and balance all three bodies consciously.
These planes are not separate realities stacked on top of one another. They interpenetrate. They correspond. What happens on one level resonates through the others. A change in your mental state produces a change in your emotional and physical state. A shift in your physical environment can alter your mental clarity. A disturbance in your astral body, such as an unprocessed emotion or a persistent fear, will cloud your thinking and drain your physical vitality. This correspondence is not accidental. It is structural, built into the fabric of existence.
What This Means for You
The practical power of this principle lies in problem-solving and self-knowledge. When you encounter something you cannot understand directly, whether it is a pattern in your relationships, a block in your creative work, or a mystery in the natural world, you can study the corresponding patterns on the plane above or below to infer the answer.
This is also the basis of all analogical thinking in the Hermetic tradition: the four elements (fire, water, air, earth) correspond to four qualities of consciousness, four types of personality, four dimensions of practice. By understanding the pattern on one level, you illuminate all the others.
Through the Principle of Correspondence, we gain knowledge of the whole by exploring the higher and lower nature of things. Moreover, we learn about ourselves by encountering and analyzing the world of which we are an integral part.
Principle #3: The Principle of Vibration
“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Vibration states that everything in existence, from the densest physical matter to the most rarefied spiritual light, is in a state of constant motion. Nothing is truly still. The apparent solidity of the physical world is an effect of vibration at a particular frequency, just as the apparent emptiness of mental space is vibration at a much higher one.
Modern physics confirms what the Hermetic tradition has taught for millennia: matter is energy vibrating at a specific rate. The difference between a stone, a sound, a thought, and a prayer is not a difference in kind but a difference in frequency.
The Spectrum of Vibration
At the lowest frequencies, vibration manifests as dense physical matter. As the frequency rises, it passes through sound, heat, light, and into the subtler realms of emotion, thought, and spirit. The Hermetic tradition teaches that by learning to consciously raise or lower your vibrational frequency, you gain the ability to influence your state of being and, by extension, the reality you experience.
This is not metaphorical language borrowed for motivational purposes. It describes something the practitioner can learn to feel directly. When you practice pore breathing, consciously drawing vital energy through the body, you learn to sense vibration as a tangible, physical experience. The difference between agitation and calm, between scattered attention and focused presence, between emotional reactivity and equanimity, can all be understood as differences in vibrational frequency.
Every atom within your body is a micro-universe. Your thoughts, attitudes, and emotions create your health, your energy, and the experiences you draw into your life. Energy follows thought. Our own thoughts shape our reality, not as wishful thinking, but as a natural consequence of the Principle of Vibration.
Our ultimate aim should be to consciously choose our vibrational state, determined by the intelligence of our Higher Self rather than the automatic reactions of the ego.
For a deeper dive into this principle, explore the Law of Vibration explained and our collection of inspirational quotes on vibration.
Principle #4: The Principle of Polarity
“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 may be reconciled.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Polarity teaches that all apparent opposites are really two expressions of the same underlying reality, differing only in degree. Heat and cold are not separate forces. They are two points on a single spectrum of temperature. Light and darkness are degrees of the same phenomenon. Love and hate, courage and fear, joy and sorrow: each pair is a continuum, not a duality.
This is one of the most practically powerful of all the Hermetic laws, because it reveals that transformation does not require the destruction of one state and the creation of another. It requires a shift in degree along a spectrum that already exists.
The Art of Mental Transmutation
The Kybalion calls this process mental transmutation, the art of deliberately shifting your position along the polar spectrum. If you are experiencing fear, you do not need to manufacture courage from nothing. Fear and courage exist on the same line. You need only to move your consciousness along that line, shifting the degree of your inner state.
This is what the Hermetic tradition calls spiritual alchemy: the transformation of “base metal” (lower emotional states) into “gold” (higher, more refined states of being). Medieval alchemists who sought to turn lead into gold were, in the Hermetic reading, encoding a psychological and spiritual practice in chemical language.
Usually, these transitions between positive and negative emotional states happen unconsciously. A person’s mood swings from one pole to the other without awareness or intention. But by applying the Principle of Polarity consciously, by recognizing that the difference between despair and hope is not a wall but a gradient, you reclaim the ability to choose where on the spectrum you stand.
What This Means for You
Whenever you feel stuck in a negative state, pause and ask: What is the opposite pole of this experience? If you are in anxiety, the other pole is peace. If you are in resentment, the other pole is forgiveness. The shift does not happen by denying what you feel. It happens by recognizing that what you feel is one degree on a scale that extends in both directions, and that your will can move you along that scale.
This process is the practical essence of Mental Alchemy, and it is deeply connected to what SOLANCHA teaches as the Law of Harmony and Balance: the principle that true power arises not from choosing one pole over another, but from integrating both through conscious equilibrium.
For more on how polarity operates in relationships and creative energy, read our article on sexual polarity.
Principle #5: The Principle of Rhythm
“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.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Rhythm states that everything in existence moves in measured cycles. What flows in must flow out. What rises must fall. What swings to one extreme will inevitably swing to the other. This is not punishment or fatalism. It is the natural pulse of the universe.
Science expresses this principle mathematically: F = -F. For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. But the Hermetic tradition extends this far beyond physics. Rhythm governs the emotional life, the seasons of personal growth, the rise and fall of civilizations, the cycles of day and night, birth and death, karma and reincarnation.
The Pendulum and the Master
Most people live at the mercy of the pendulum. Their emotions swing from elation to depression, confidence to doubt, love to frustration, and they have no understanding of why. They are “swung” by forces they cannot see or control.
The Hermetic adept learns something different. The Kybalion teaches that while the movement of the pendulum cannot be stopped, its effects on the individual can be neutralized. The technique is called the Law of Neutralization: by rising to a higher plane of awareness, the practitioner establishes a resting point above the swing, allowing the pendulum to pass beneath without carrying them with it.
This is not emotional suppression. It is the cultivation of a conscious observer, a part of yourself that can witness the rise and fall of emotional states without being identified with them. It is what the Buddhist tradition calls equanimity: remaining even-minded whether you experience praise or criticism, pleasure or pain, success or failure.
“Nothing stands still. Everything is being born, growing, dying. The very instant a thing reaches its height, it begins to decline. The law of rhythm is in constant operation.” The Kybalion
What This Means for You
If you want to experience the highest highs, you must accept that the pendulum carries the potential for the lowest lows. But by correctly understanding the Hermetic Principles, particularly Polarity and Rhythm working together, you can learn to enjoy “the rise” while neutralizing “the fall.”
The aspiration of the Hermeticist is to reach a state of inner peace and divine detachment: not indifference, but clarity. Not numbness, but presence. The state in which you stand at the still point of the pendulum’s arc, fully alive, fully aware, and fully free.
Practicing emotional hygiene, the conscious observation and regulation of emotional states, is one of the most practical ways to begin applying this principle in daily life.
For a complete exploration, read our dedicated article on the Law of Rhythm in Hermetic philosophy.
Principle #6: The Principle of Cause and Effect
“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.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Cause and Effect states that nothing happens randomly. Every event, every condition, every experience is the result of a preceding cause. There is no such thing as chance, only laws that have not yet been recognized.
This is not cold, mechanical determinism. The Hermetic teaching goes further: it asserts that while ordinary people are effects, pushed and pulled by forces outside their awareness, the adept learns to become a cause. By mastering the preceding principles (Mentalism, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm), you gain the ability to consciously initiate chains of causation rather than merely reacting to them.
The Difference Between a Master and a Victim
The distinction is stark. The average person is an effect of their own unconscious thoughts, unexamined emotions, past conditioning, other people’s opinions, biorhythms, and circumstances. They can always find something or someone to blame. This victim mentality leads to suffering and the experience of life as something that happens to them.
The master takes full responsibility. Not as guilt or self-blame, but as sovereign clarity: I am the primary cause of my inner experience. My thoughts, my attention, my intention, my actions: these are the roots from which my reality grows.
This does not mean the master controls everything that happens externally. It means the master controls their response to everything that happens, and, over time, shapes the conditions of their life from the inside out.
What This Means for You
Become a cause, not an effect. Make deliberate decisions about the thoughts you allow to occupy your mind. Choose how you respond to events rather than reacting from habit. Subordinate the ego’s automatic patterns to the intelligence of your spirit.
The basic cause of your life is the stream of thoughts and images held in your conscious and subconscious mind. By training yourself to be highly attentive, only embracing the ideas and emotional states that genuinely serve your growth, you can generate the inner and outer reality you want.
This is perhaps the essential step for anyone seeking genuine spiritual maturity: dropping the victim mask and recognizing yourself as the author of your experience.
Principle #7: The Principle of Gender
“Gender is in everything; Everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.” The Kybalion
The Principle of Gender states that masculine and feminine energies exist in all things, not only in biological sex, but in the creative dynamics that operate on every plane of existence: physical, mental, and spiritual.
This is not about men and women. It is about two complementary modes of energy that together make creation possible:
The masculine principle is active, penetrative, projective, expansive, and exploratory. It drives forward motion, assertion, willpower, and the impulse to grow, build, and achieve.
The feminine principle is receptive, nurturing, protective, contracting, and preserving. It holds space, sustains what is essential, deepens what exists, and grounds the creative impulse in form.
Neither principle is superior. Neither can function without the other. Creation, on any plane, requires the dynamic interplay of both.
The Universal Pattern
This principle manifests everywhere. In physics, it appears in the positive and negative charges of the atom. In psychology, it appears in the interplay between the conscious mind (active, directive) and the subconscious mind (receptive, generative). In SOLANCHA, it corresponds to what is called CHA (the electric, expanding force) and SO (the magnetic, contracting force), with LAN as the point of equilibrium between them. This triadic dynamic is explored in depth in SOLANCHA: The Law of Harmony and Balance.
Finding Balance
Too much masculine energy creates imbalance: relentless drive without sensitivity, progress without roots, ambition disconnected from intuition.
Too much feminine energy also creates disharmony: deep receptivity without direction, presence without purpose, groundedness that becomes stagnation.
The path of balancing these two principles within oneself, harmonizing the active and the receptive, the will and the surrender, the electric and the magnetic, is what the Buddha called “the Middle Way.” It is the path of conscious integration.
True self-mastery is not achieved by choosing one pole over the other. It is achieved by learning to hold both in dynamic equilibrium, allowing each to function at the right time, in the right degree, for the right purpose. This is the living heart of the Hermetic tradition, and it is the foundation of all seven principles working together.
For more on how polarity and gender dynamics operate in relationships, explore our article on sexual polarity and bringing passion back into your relationship.
Mental Transmutation: The Practical Key to All Seven Principles
The Kybalion speaks of mental transmutation as the master practice of Hermetic philosophy: the art of changing one’s mental state, and therefore one’s reality, through conscious application of these seven laws.
Mental transmutation is often called spiritual alchemy. It is the conversion of spiritual vibrations from one type into another. Fear into courage (Polarity). Scattered attention into focused will (Mentalism). Unconscious reaction into conscious response (Cause and Effect). Emotional turbulence into equanimity (Rhythm).
This is not theory. It is a practice, one that the Hermetic tradition teaches through progressive, step-by-step training of the mind, the emotions, and the body’s energy system.
The SOLANCHA system offers one such pathway. Through practices like pore breathing, the conscious absorption and circulation of life force energy through the body, the practitioner learns to directly influence their vibrational state, balance the elemental forces within, and cultivate the mental stillness from which true transmutation becomes possible.
Who Was Hermes Trismegistus?
“Master of all arts and sciences, perfect in all crafts, Ruler of the Three Worlds, Scribe of the Gods, and Keeper of the Books of Life, Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, the Three Times Greatest, the ‘First Intelligencer,’ was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the embodiment of the Universal Mind.” Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Hermes Trismegistus is a syncretic figure combining two ancient deities: the Egyptian god Thoth (god of wisdom, writing, and the measurement of time) and the Greek god Hermes (messenger of the gods, guide between worlds). The name “Trismegistus” means “Thrice-Great,” often interpreted as mastery over the three planes of existence: physical, mental, and spiritual.
Tens of thousands of works were attributed to Hermes across Egyptian and Greek cultures. During the Italian Renaissance, when Marsilio Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin in 1461 at the request of Cosimo de’ Medici, Hermes was regarded as an ancient Egyptian priest who had received divine revelation.
Later scholarship, particularly the work of Isaac Casaubon in 1614, dated the Hermetic texts to the early Christian era rather than deep antiquity. The discovery of Hermetic texts among the Nag Hammadi writings in 1945 confirmed the tradition’s deep roots in Greco-Egyptian spiritual culture.
Whether Hermes Trismegistus was a historical figure, a mythological embodiment of universal wisdom, or a tradition of anonymous sages writing under a shared name, the principles attributed to him have endured because they describe something true about the way reality works.
The Kybalion: Origins and Context
The Kybalion was published in 1908 by the Yogi Publication Society in Chicago, credited to “Three Initiates.” The identity of the authors has been debated for over a century, but William Walker Atkinson, a prolific writer associated with the New Thought movement who published under numerous pseudonyms, is most widely accepted as the primary author. Paul Foster Case and Michael Whitty have been proposed as co-authors, though this remains unconfirmed.
The book presents itself as a transmission of ancient Hermetic wisdom adapted for the modern reader. Its seven principles are drawn from the broader Hermetic tradition but organized into a clear, systematic framework that did not exist in this form in the ancient texts.
Scholars have noted that the Kybalion’s emphasis on “mental transmutation” and the primacy of mind aligns more closely with New Thought philosophy than with the theology-rich Corpus Hermeticum. The ancient Hermetic texts are centered on reverence for and union with the divine; the Kybalion is centered on the practitioner’s ability to transform their own mental states.
For the serious student, both perspectives have value. The Kybalion provides a practical, accessible entry point. The Corpus Hermeticum and the living Hermetic traditions, including the elemental and energetic practices preserved within the SOLANCHA system, offer the depth, rigor, and experiential dimension that the Kybalion points toward but does not fully provide.
How to Apply the 7 Hermetic Principles in Your Life
Knowing the principles is the first step. Living them is the work. Here are practical starting points:
Practice self-observation. Before you can apply Mentalism, Polarity, or Cause and Effect, you need to see your own patterns clearly. Begin keeping a journal of your thoughts, emotional reactions, and the results they produce. This is the foundation of all Hermetic work: the “soul mirror” practice of honest self-assessment.
Work with your breath. Breath is the bridge between the physical and the subtle. Through conscious breathwork, especially practices like pore breathing, you learn to sense, influence, and regulate your vibrational state directly. This is the Principle of Vibration made tangible in your own body.
Transmute consciously. When you notice a negative emotional state arising, do not suppress it. Recognize it as one pole on a spectrum. Ask yourself: Where is the opposite pole? Can I move toward it, not by denying what I feel, but by choosing a different degree of the same energy? This is mental transmutation in action.
Observe the rhythms. Notice the cycles in your energy, creativity, mood, and productivity. Stop fighting the downswings. Instead, use them: rest during contraction, act during expansion. Align your life with the natural rhythms rather than demanding constant peak performance.
Become a cause. In every situation, ask: Am I acting from my own conscious intention, or am I reacting to someone else’s energy, expectation, or agenda? The shift from effect to cause is the shift from victim to master, and it begins with awareness.
Balance the masculine and feminine. Notice where you are over-driving (too much masculine) or over-yielding (too much feminine). Neither extreme serves you. Seek the dynamic center, what SOLANCHA calls LAN, the equilibrium point where both forces serve your highest expression.
The Bottom Line
The seven Hermetic principles are not abstract philosophy. They are a practical map of how reality operates, from the movement of planets to the movement of your own attention. When these principles are understood and applied, they give you something rare: a coherent framework for conscious living that has been tested across centuries and traditions.
No matter what spiritual path you walk, no matter what religious or philosophical tradition you call home, these principles can be applied. They do not compete with other systems of wisdom. They underlie them. The Principle of Vibration is taught in yogic science. The Principle of Polarity appears in Taoist philosophy. The Principle of Correspondence is embedded in Kabbalistic practice. The Principle of Mentalism is the foundation of every meditative tradition that takes consciousness seriously.
Take the time to study them. Contemplate them. But above all, practice them. When you begin to work with these laws, not just read about them, you will start seeing the world from a different angle entirely. And you will discover what the Hermetic tradition has always promised: that the creative, divine potential lives within you, waiting to be awakened.
“The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before whose touch all the Doors of the Temple fly open.” The Kybalion
Frequently Asked Questions
The 7 Hermetic Principles are Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender. They are universal laws described in the Hermetic philosophical tradition that explain how reality operates on every plane: physical, mental, and spiritual. They were most famously systematized in The Kybalion (1908).
The principles are rooted in the Hermetic tradition, attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus. The foundational texts include the Corpus Hermeticum (1st to 3rd century AD), the Emerald Tablet, and The Kybalion (1908). While The Kybalion organized the seven principles into their modern form, the underlying ideas draw from millennia of Hermetic, alchemical, and esoteric philosophy.
The Principle of Mentalism states that “The ALL is Mind; The Universe is Mental.” It teaches that consciousness is the fundamental nature of reality, that everything which exists is ultimately a creation or expression of mind. This is the foundational principle upon which all the other six rest.
“As above, so below” is the core expression of the Principle of Correspondence. It means that the same patterns, laws, and dynamics that operate on one plane of existence (such as the physical) also operate on every other plane (mental, spiritual). By understanding patterns at one level, you can infer truths about all levels.
The Kybalion (1908) is a modern synthesis of Hermetic ideas, most likely authored by William Walker Atkinson. While it shares genuine connections with ancient Hermetic philosophy, particularly the concepts of mentalism, correspondence, and polarity, scholars note that it was also influenced by the New Thought movement. The ancient Corpus Hermeticum has a different emphasis, focused more on theology and divine union. Both texts offer valuable perspectives for the serious student.
You can apply the Hermetic Principles through practices like self-observation (Mentalism), conscious breathwork such as pore breathing (Vibration), emotional transmutation (Polarity), rhythmic awareness (Rhythm), intentional action (Cause and Effect), and balancing active and receptive energies (Gender). The SOLANCHA system offers structured pathways for this work.
Mental transmutation is the Hermetic art of consciously changing your mental and emotional state by applying the seven principles, particularly Polarity and Vibration. Rather than being controlled by unconscious emotional swings, the practitioner learns to shift along the spectrum of any given quality (fear to courage, hate to love, agitation to calm) through directed will and awareness. It is sometimes called spiritual alchemy.