Mystical systems
The Kybalion
Direct answer
The Kybalion is a book published in Chicago in 1908 under the name Three Initiates, which sets out seven principles and presents them as the ancient philosophy of Hermes.
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At a glance
- Also called
- seven hermetic principles, three initiates, kybalion seven principles
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Hermeticism, As Above, So Below, Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum
The Kybalion is a book published in Chicago in 1908 under the name Three Initiates, which sets out seven principles and presents them as the ancient philosophy of Hermes.
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Who wrote The Kybalion?
The Kybalion is a short book of 1908 that offers to explain an old and secret Hermetic teaching. It names seven principles: mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender. In plain terms they say that reality is mental at root, that the same patterns repeat at every level, that everything is in motion, that opposites are the two ends of one scale, that all things swing back and forth, that every event has its causes, and that a giving side and a receiving side are found in everything.
The book speaks as a commentary on an older work of the same name. No such work has been found, and the seven principles appear in no ancient Hermetic text. Its thought belongs to American New Thought of about 1900.
On the tree of the hidden arts: The Hermetic principles.
What sets The Kybalion apart
The book is best placed by its vocabulary. Mental transmutation, vibration and the mastery of moods by the will are stock themes of American New Thought, the movement its probable author wrote for under a string of pen names. It gives its supposed ancient source only in brief maxims and expands each with commentary, a form that lets a modern author speak as an old one. It draws little or nothing from the Greek treatises of Roman Egypt, whose concerns are God, the soul and the way home.
- Published: 1908, Yogi Publication Society, Masonic Temple, Chicago
- Signed: Three Initiates, with no author named
- Probable author: William Walker Atkinson, 1862 to 1932, New Thought writer and publisher
- Seven principles: mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, gender
- Claimed source: an older Kybalion handed down by word of mouth, of which no trace exists
- Case for Atkinson: argued in Philip Deslippe's edition of the book, 2011
Often mistaken for something else: The Corpus Hermeticum is a set of Greek treatises from Roman Egypt; The Kybalion is an American book of 1908 that borrows the name of Hermes for a teaching of its own.
The story behind The Kybalion
The Kybalion was issued by the Yogi Publication Society of Chicago, signed only Three Initiates. Most researchers credit it to William Walker Atkinson (1862 to 1932), a lawyer turned New Thought author who ran that press and published under several pen names; Philip Deslippe set out the case in an edition of 2011. Other names have been proposed as co-authors without firm evidence. The book has stayed in print and is among the most widely read works that call themselves Hermetic.
Why The Kybalion matters
Most people who speak of Hermetic laws today mean this book, so knowing its date keeps a modern teaching from being mistaken for an ancient one.
How to read The Kybalion
Readers take its seven principles as seven questions to put to a situation, one at a time, and write down what each brings to light.
The Kybalion in practice: an example
A reader weighing a quarrel might try the principle of polarity as a question: are these two positions opposites, or two points on one scale?
Where readings of The Kybalion go wrong
The Kybalion’s principles are a philosophy of life and not physics: nothing in it shows that thought by itself changes events.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
The seven principles come from The Kybalion (1908), a modern book; the ancient Hermetic writings do not list them.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- kybalion, the kybalion meaning, seven hermetic principles, three initiates, kybalion seven principles
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
Who wrote The Kybalion?
It is signed Three Initiates. Most researchers attribute it to William Walker Atkinson, a New Thought writer who ran its Chicago publisher, though no signed record settles the matter.
Is The Kybalion an ancient text?
No. It was first published in 1908. It presents itself as a commentary on an ancient work, but no earlier Kybalion is known and its ideas match American New Thought of its day.
What are the seven principles of The Kybalion?
Mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender. The book treats them as seven keys for understanding mind and nature.
