Seven principles, the ancient teachers said, govern the universe. He who understands these principles holds the key to all doors. The Kybalion, published anonymously in 1908, gathered these principles from scattered sources into a single teaching.
The first principle is Mentalism: "THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental." Everything that exists is a thought in the mind of the Infinite. You, too, are a thought — and you, too, are a thinker. Your mind participates in the Universal Mind. What you think matters because thought is the substance of reality.
"The Universe is Mental — held in the Mind of THE ALL.
Your mind is part of that Mind.
To change your thinking is to change your world.
As above, so below — as within, so without.
This is the first key."
The second principle is Correspondence: what is above is like what is below. The third is Vibration: nothing rests; everything moves and vibrates. The fourth is Polarity: everything is dual, has poles, has its pair of opposites. Hot and cold, light and dark, love and hate — these are the same thing in different degrees.
The fifth principle is Rhythm: everything flows, rises and falls, swings back and forth. The sixth is Cause and Effect: nothing happens by chance; every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause. The seventh is Gender: gender is in everything, manifesting as the masculine and feminine principles.
"The wise ones do not escape these laws.
They learn to use them.
They rise above the lower plane
By applying the laws of the higher.
They transmute the undesirable into the desirable.
This is the art of Mental Alchemy."
The practical application is Mental Transmutation. "Mind may be transmuted from state to state, degree to degree, pole to pole, vibration to vibration." When you find yourself in a negative state, you do not fight it directly — you raise your vibration to the opposite pole. Fear transmutes to courage, hate to love, darkness to light.
This is not positive thinking in the shallow sense. It is understanding the structure of reality and working with it rather than against it. "The masses are carried along, obedient to environment, the wills of others, and internal states of mood and emotion. The Masters, rising to the plane above, dominate their moods, characters, qualities, and powers, as well as the environment surrounding them."
Teaching 26
Seven principles govern existence: Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender. The wise do not escape these laws but learn to use them. By raising your vibration, you transmute darkness into light. This is mental alchemy.