Hermetic Principles

Definition

The seven principles — Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender — as set out in The Kybalion (1908), a New Thought reading of the material attributed to Hermes Trismegistus rather than a text from it, forming the operating system of reality.

Deep Understanding

The Hermetic Principles represent the non-Christian lineage of Gnosis. While Gnostic Christianity focused on the drama of divine sparks trapped in matter, the Hermetic stream asked a pragmatic question: what are the rules of this reality, and how does one master them from within?

These seven are not moral commandments, and they are not demonstrated laws either. They are a framework, published in 1908, for looking at a life from seven angles. Three of them — Mentalism, Correspondence and Gender — do have genuine footing in the ancient corpus preserved in the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, and later synthesized in The Kybalion (1908).

Jung studied these texts extensively and found in them precursors to his concepts of synchronicity, the collective unconscious, and individuation. The Hermetic principles are the theoretical framework that underlies all practical Gnostic work — transmutation, shadow integration, frequency calibration, and conscious creation.

Primary sources

• Three Initiates, The Kybalion (Yogi Publication Society, 1908), ch. II: lists the seven principles, from Mentalism to Gender, as the book's own Hermetic teaching. Open-access copy
• Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum I) §9 and Mind unto Hermes (Corpus Hermeticum XI) §20, trans. G. R. S. Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, vol. II (Theosophical Publishing Society, 1906): God-the-Mind is male and female; God holds the whole Cosmos within Himself as thoughts. Open-access copy
• Emerald Tablet, trans. Isaac Newton (Keynes MS 28, c. 1680; The Chymistry of Isaac Newton, Indiana University): the lower mirrors the higher and the higher the lower; all things are born from one thing by adaptation. Open-access copy

In Practice

Apply the seven-minute morning protocol: one minute per principle — check your thoughts (Mentalism), scan your mirrors (Correspondence), tune your vibration, acknowledge your polarities, observe your rhythm, set a conscious cause, and balance your creative forces. This daily calibration transforms intellectual knowledge into embodied Gnosis.

Stefan's Alkimia. (2026, October 4). Hermetic Principles. Pleroma Guide. https://pleroma.guide/en/lexicon/hermetic-principles

Stefan's Alkimia. “Hermetic Principles.” Pleroma Guide, 4 Oct. 2026, pleroma.guide/en/lexicon/hermetic-principles.

Stefan's Alkimia. “Hermetic Principles.” Pleroma Guide. April 2, 2026. Last modified October 4, 2026. https://pleroma.guide/en/lexicon/hermetic-principles.

@online{alkimia2026hermeticprinciples,
  author = {{Stefan's Alkimia}},
  title = {{Hermetic Principles}},
  organization = {{Pleroma Guide}},
  date = {2026-04-02},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Last modified 2026-10-04},
  url = {https://pleroma.guide/en/lexicon/hermetic-principles},
  langid = {english}
}