 These words of wisdom, although written by my decaying hand, shall remain imperishable through time. May they be imbued with the medicine of immortality. A few miles west of the Nile, and just below the tip of its delta, lies Sakara, the necropolis of ancient Memphis, center of lower Egypt from the days of the pharaohs through to the time of Egypt's Roman conquerors. The ibis, the graceful black-and-white bird in which the god Thoth showed himself, no longer visits the Nile at Memphis, but when the Ptolemies and their Roman successors drank from the holy river, the god's bird still came to its banks in great plenty. Wisdom is eternal, even if people are not. The cabalion, while only published in 1908, is a manuscript that claims to be the essence of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, who, as we've discussed before, is believed to be our old pal Thoth. We should be clear that there are several different texts here worth exploring. There's the older Corpus Hermeticum, which is a huge ancient body of work in itself, along with the emerald tablets of Thoth the Atlantean and the emerald tablet of Hermes. But these writings do not actually make any specific references to the laws and principles that we're exploring today. And so we have the cabalion, which is supposedly based upon ancient Hermeticism and is argued to be an elaboration of an ancient unpublished Hermetic text of the same name, one which humanity has not yet actually found. While it's healthy to approach it with some skepticism, the profound wisdom of this text needs to be taught and explained. The Hermetica speaks very highly of cosmic laws, critical to be understood in order for our own liberation and transcendence. And that's why we've created the 2021 Almanac of the New Age. If you're interested in connecting with the celestial and personal cycles in order to start the New Year off with an exceptionally high vibration, check out this book. You'll find links in the description. And with that, let's now dive into the Hermetic Principles. The cabalion was written by unknown authors, known simply as the Three Initiates. But the most common theory is that it was authored by a man named William Walker Atkinson and some others, who was a famous American occultist and pioneer of the New Thought movement. In the first couple of pages, it says that it will only appear to you when the time is appropriate and you're ready for its wisdom. So I guess that means we're ready for it in mass, huh? Because there's more than a few videos and articles talking about it now. For the most part, it discusses the structure of the spiritual world and outlines the three great planes of existence, the physical plane, the mental plane, and the spiritual plane, all of which are broken down into several lesser planes, which are kind of like astral black keys like the ones on a piano, each having their own vibration and frequency and are inhabited by different kinds of spirits and entities. Another aspect of the wisdom is found in its teachings of alchemy. It discusses aspects of spiritual and mental transmutation and how you can alter your vibration or frequency to move into these higher realms, interact with spiritual entities, and attain the wisdom of Hermes himself. The subject that has made The Caballion a legendary book is its discussion of the Seven Hermetic Principles, which are like the laws that govern the universe according to the Western mystery tradition, the foundation of many schools of esoteric thought today. Much like how physicists observe the universe, to the Hermetic mystics, they believed that the universe runs on natural laws. Apples fall, birds fly, things live and die. But when we take time to understand these laws, we can use them and in some cases even leverage them to transform life as we know it. Perhaps one day we can push against gravity to fly or simply use the knowledge that one day we might die to live better lives. As it's described, whenever this wisdom resurfaces in culture, it acts as a catalyst for a creative renaissance, revolutions and cultural regeneration. These seven laws were some of the most influential systems of thought to the renaissance and medieval philosophers, which even today can expand horizons, broaden possibilities and aid one in the pursuit of a fuller, happier, more meaningful and longer life. And so as we go through these principles, remember that they were potentially first thought of thousands of years ago, despite only being codified recently in history, before any modern science verified their unusually accurate and esoteric claims. The Kabalyan even devotes a chapter to each principle and goes into what it's really all about. And we especially recommend going deeper by reading this book if you haven't already. It's a favorite of ours. Principle one, mentalism. Much like in the corpus Hermeticum, this axiom embodies the idea that all is mind, something today we know as idealism. Basically, everything that happens is a result of a mental state which precedes it. For anything to exist, thoughts had to form first, which then form physical reality or manifestation. But it goes even deeper than manifestation though, for the principle of mind is rooted in the idea of the God mind, that the universe itself is the mind of God or going even bigger, that the universe is a thought in the mind of God. That all phenomena of life, matter and energy of the material universe are thoughts of an infinite and universal living mind, which means all things share a connection to the fact that they exist within the mind of God or the all. Perhaps this could take the form of a field as its thought of consciousness. In other words, when you view everything you think and therefore do as an interaction of a thought with another thought, you develop an understanding of the first principle of mentalism, which allows you to grasp the laws of the mental universe. This law ultimately says that it is our consciousness that allows us to interact with reality. Principle two, correspondence. This truth discusses the idea that there is always a correspondence and link between the events in the various planes of existence. In fact, this law is where we explore the legendary phrase, as above, so below, to much greater depths. In a nutshell, if something is happening on a physical level, chances are there is a relationship to a like energy on a higher frequency too. And if something occurs solely in the physical, if that's even possible, it will have an effect on the other planes of existence. By observing the principle of correspondence, we can come to know the whole of the universe by exploring the relationship between the higher and lower nature of things and learn that harmony exists only when we have a good balance between all of the dimensions of our being. Principle three, vibration. In short, nothing rests. Everything in existence is in a constant state of motion and vibration. Even things that appear motionless and still, like a rock on the ground, is still moving at a molecular and atomic level and beyond. To quote Walter Russell, in the wave lies the secrets of creation, asian, asian. It explains that the distinction between manifestations of matter, energy, mind and spirit are all just the result of different vibrational frequencies. The higher a person or thing is on the scale, the higher the rate of vibration. In fact, spiritual alchemy in the caballion is described simply as the practical application of this principle. To change one's mental state is to change vibration. You can sometimes do this by an effort of will by deliberately fixing the attention upon a more desirable state. Ultimately, even thoughts have their own rate of vibration and can be controlled like tuning an instrument to produce various results of self and environmental mastery. As your understanding of vibration, frequency, harmony and resonance gets better, so too shall your power over yourself grow. Principle four, polarity. Following in our last principle, this one says that everything has an opposite. While this might seem out of the ordinary for a spiritual text that talks about unity and one mind, this one refers to how the unity manifests through creation. The whole thing is like Newton's first law of motion, that everything has an equal and opposite action and reaction. All manifested things have two sides, two aspects or two poles. Opposites are identical in nature, yet different in degree, extremes meet and all paradoxes can be reconciled. An obvious example is a hot and cold tap, both waters being aspects of temperature varying only in degree. There's no clear crossover moment when hot stops being hot and starts being cold and vice versa with no absolutes on either end too, especially since the quality of hot and cold are relative to your own perception. If it's cold outside, jump in a freezing lake for a few minutes and get colder than the average temperature outside, suddenly that cold air is actually kind of feeling pretty warm to you. This one is quite important since it suggests that we can change the polarity of a degree of emotion by recognizing it as a spectrum and choosing the degree which best suits our needs. Principle five, rhythm. This one builds upon both the principles of vibration and polarity, as it states that everything is manifested as a measured motion, to and from, outflow and inflow, a swing backwards and a swing forwards, just like a pendulum. This law also reminds us that there is a rhythm between every pair of opposites or poles. Learning from this principle allows us to transition from one pole to the other and not necessarily need to go to poles of extreme opposites. It also arguably controls the cycle of life and death, creation and destruction, rise and fall, and of course, manifests in our mental states. Know that things you lose will come back and that things you own now will also one day disappear. Principle six, causation. Again, we find ourselves overlapping with previous laws and it makes sense that they'd fit together. This principle states that there is a cause for every effect and an effect for every cause. It also argues that there's no such thing as chance or coincidence, that it's merely a term indicating already existing causes that we can't recognize or perceive. The empowering use of this principle is to make the conscious choice to rise above the plane of thought you're currently on and become your own cause and not just an effect of others and the situations you find yourself in. In other words, strive to act rather than react or be mindfully responsive at best. If you wanna be good at something, you need to practice it every day as opposed to resigning yourself to merely reacting to the consequences of not having done any self-work and then experiencing the problems that inevitably arise when you're not pursuing your highest calling. Principle seven, gender. This principle explains how gender is manifested in everything but this doesn't necessarily relate to sexual gender or how you identify yourself. It's more about the masculine and feminine energies that lead to creation and procreation in the universe. And if you haven't seen our episode on masculine and feminine energies in general, you can always check that video out right after this one. It doesn't refer to someone's physical sex nor does it suggest that someone of a certain sex necessarily has a matching mental gender. In actuality, ideally, you would want to have a balanced mental gender embodying both the sacred masculine and divine feminine. Gender and these two polarities of energy exist on all planes of existence and represents different aspects on different planes. Everything and everyone contains these two elements or principles. The Kabbalian explains that the divine feminine is more receptive, facilitating new thoughts, concepts and ideas, including the work of the imagination. The sacred masculine, on the other hand, works more by giving out or expressing and rules over the will of an individual and helps put things into action. It is said that there must be a balance in these two forces. Without the feminine, the masculine will act without restraint, order or reason, resulting in chaos. The feminine alone, on the other hand, will constantly reflect and fail to actually do anything, resulting in stagnation. With both the masculine and feminine working in conjunction, there's thoughtful action that breeds success, which tells us that both the feminine and the masculine fulfill each other. Ultimately, choosing the middle path between these extremes is the key to using all seven hermetic principles to full effect and achieving lasting self-mastery without straying too far from the path. At the same time, though, we must remember that these are only principles. By themselves, they're kind of useless, but when you creatively apply them in your life, you can achieve any endeavor you dedicate yourself to and have your own personal renaissance. The best way to understand them is by experiencing them for yourself. And so with that, thank you so much for joining us today. Remember to try and apply the wisdom of these teachings in your life, mostly by asking questions like, have I ever experienced mind over matter? Have I ever attracted something into my life repeatedly by obsessing over it? Or have I ever dipped my fingers in water so hot that it shocked my nerves and felt cold at first? All of these kinds of questions can be answered with the hermetic principles. So have fun trying them out. Until next time, toodles.