Mystical systems
Principle of Polarity
Direct answer
Principle of Polarity: The Principle of Polarity is the fourth of The Kybalion's seven principles, teaching that opposites are identical in nature and differ only in degree.
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At a glance
- Also called
- law of polarity, everything is dual, kybalion polarity
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- The Kybalion, Seven Hermetic Principles, Principle of Rhythm, Yin Yang
The Principle of Polarity is the fourth of The Kybalion's seven principles, teaching that opposites are identical in nature and differ only in degree.
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What is the Principle of Polarity?
The Principle of Polarity says that every quality has two poles and that the poles are one thing at different degrees. The book's standing example is temperature: hot and cold are not two substances but positions on one scale, and no one can say where the first ends and the second begins. It extends the point to light and dark, large and small, courage and fear, love and hate.
The practical teaching built on it is called polarisation. Because two opposite feelings lie on one line, the book holds that a person can move from the unwanted end towards the other by deliberately attending to its opposite. It adds that one can only shift along a single scale: fear can become courage, but not, say, warmth.
On the tree of the hidden arts: The Hermetic principles.
What sets Principle of Polarity apart
Polarity is the principle with a technique attached. Its claim that opposites are one quality at two intensities is what permits the book's method of transmuting a mental state, because movement along a single scale needs no change of kind. The restriction is as important as the licence: the book allows shifting between the poles of one pair only. It is argued almost entirely from the example of the thermometer.
- Number: fourth of the seven principles
- Axiom opens: Everything is Dual; everything has poles
- Standing example: heat and cold as degrees on one scale
- Attached practice: polarisation, shifting a mood towards its opposite pole
- Older parallel: the unity of opposites in Heraclitus, about 500 BCE
Often mistaken for something else: Yin and yang are complementary forces that contain and produce each other; the Kybalion's poles are two ends of one measured scale.
The story behind Principle of Polarity
The principle is stated in The Kybalion (1908) in a long sentence that begins 'Everything is Dual; everything has poles' and ends 'all paradoxes may be reconciled'. The thought that opposites form a unity is far older: it is associated with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus around 500 BCE and has parallels in Chinese thought. The book's own contribution is the technique of mental polarisation.
Why Principle of Polarity matters
Principle of Polarity turns a general idea about opposites into a usable method, which is why it is among the most quoted of the seven.
How to read Principle of Polarity
Readers apply it to moods and disputes, placing two positions on one line and asking how far apart they really are.
Principle of Polarity in practice: an example
Someone dreading a difficult conversation might use it by asking what the courageous end of the same scale would look like, and taking one step that way.
Where readings of Principle of Polarity go wrong
Saying that opposites differ in degree does not make harm and care the same; the principle describes scales and offers no excuse.
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.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- hermetic principle of polarity, law of polarity, everything is dual, kybalion polarity
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is the Principle of Polarity?
It is the fourth Hermetic principle in The Kybalion: everything has a pair of opposites, and the opposites are the same in kind, differing only in degree, like hot and cold on a thermometer.
How is the Principle of Polarity used in practice?
The book teaches polarisation: concentrating on the opposite pole of an unwanted mental state in order to move along the scale, for example from fear towards courage.
Is the Principle of Polarity the same as yin and yang?
They are comparable ideas from different sources. Yin and yang belong to classical Chinese thought; the Principle of Polarity was formulated in an American book of 1908.
