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Principles of Magic
Posted by : nitahickok on Monday, October 30, 2006 - 07:40 PM
An interpretation of what I read in the Kybalion. Principles of Magic
I have learned many of these laws and principles from all the different disciplines of magic I have studied. I always wondered how they were so similar for every type of magic. I speculated upon travelling magicians and people bringing their teachings to distant places around the world. Mysterious books or manuscripts written about these principles never mentioned the root cause of who had thought of all these principles.
I then found Hermetic magic. I had studied different parts of Hermetic magic for years never realizing that it would answer my questions with one manuscript. It is called the Kybalion by the Three Initiates and is worthwhile reading for anyone trying to understand what makes magic work. It has new layers of meaning every time it is reread. I will borrow heavily from the Kybalion and the Three Initiates wisdom. You can find free electronic books on the web if you care to read it. Including upon this website. It made me realize that Hermetic magic encompasses all magic of every type. The Principles apply to everything that could be called magic that is in existence.
The Seven Hermetic Principles are
1. The Principle of Mentalism
2. The Principle of Correspondence
3. The Principle of Vibration
4. The Principle of Polarity
5. The Principle of Rhythm
6. The Principle of Cause and Effect
7. The Principle of Gender
The different principles section and analyze the workings of the world and how things happen. I will try to use a quote from the Kybalion for each principle and put it into my own phrasing. Anyone who is interested in these Principles should read the Kybalion as it explains them more fully. I have been truly grateful to discover this book.
The Principle of Mentalism
The All is mind and the universe is mental-Kybalion
The All is the reality that underlies the physical universe. It is the unexplainable forces that we label as God or divine providence. It has as many different names and parts as the people who believe and worship higher forces. It includes the nothingness of Buddha and all the concepts that we have used to form our religions. We are all parts of the mind of God or the All. I have even heard of the All referred to as the mind of God while he is dreaming. Magic can work because we are mental and formed in the image of our creator. We are all present in the dreams and mind of God and so is everything of life.
Man is mental so he is a spiritual being. The universe and all of its forces and works can be influenced by us in many myriad ways. The main reason for this is we can shape our own future by our mental capacities. We are in charge of ourselves and yet bound by necessity and interaction to the All.
Matter, power, and energy are all changeable by our mental powers. I think everyone can see that in just the inventions we have made to affect our lives in the past century. If not for the mental thoughts none of the inventions would have happened and matter would have remained unchanged. It applies in the physical universe and mental universe in the same way.
We formulate what we want, we plan and visualize how it would work or exist in our lives. We then implement the mental plan. It works for inventions, magic and everything in our daily lives. The mental capacities are what cause us to be able to master existence. The world existing and the lives we live is all possible by understanding a part of the mind of God. You can test this principle the next time you misplace something. State out loud with great belief-Nothing is lost in the mind of God. Concentrate on what is lost and see how quickly it can be found. I was amazed how well this worked in my life for many different problems.
The Principle of Correspondence
As above so below, As below so above-The Kybalion
This is one of the most important tools to realization of how much we can do with our minds and ourselves. It allows us to delve into the secrets of all of the planes and help to create what we want to have in our lives. This principle shows that what we create here affects what energies correspond to our efforts. It helps us to draw down the good things from other planes of existence and manifest them in this plane of existence.
A good example of this is if your mind is in chaos so is your life. Your life being in chaos will also draw chaos into your mind. You can turn this around by creating order in your life. You can do this by physically resolving the problems or create the solutions and bring them into existence in your life. It is done without even consciously thinking of the steps. People create things they want in the other planes all of the time. Everyone has done this without realizing it.
You can also create positive effects within your life. You can visualize yourself with a river of prosperity flowing around you. It is overflowing with good luck, wealth and joy. You draw these things into your life from all of the planes. You will then see how quickly it can manifest in your life. Yet you can not over ride what Divine Providence knows is necessary to keep you upon your path.
This principle explains that the difference between matter, energy, mind and spirit are mainly that they vibrate at different rates. Modern science has proven this principle because it has shown that everything is made up of moving particles. Molecules, atoms, and such all rotate and move endlessly and this movement creates a vibration. Physics has helped to prove a Principle that is centuries old.
It can be used to reshape a person’s mental world as happiness, sadness and upset all have different vibrations and can be duplicated or removed. It is a way to help ourselves and what we unconsciously do when we become inspired or moved by something that causes an emotional response.
We can transmute the things in our lives by changing the vibrations to what we want to exist. A person who is prosperous and happy has different vibrations than one that is depressed and sad. We can implement these vibrations in our lives by raising or lowering the vibration rate until they match what a successful person manifests as their vibration.
To transmute a thing we do not want in our lives we should analyze what it is about. We then think of its opposite that we do want in our life. You then raise the vibration to the state you want to exist. An example is a depressed person thinking of happiness. He analyzes everything about happiness. He then creates all the energy of happiness on another plane and brings it into existence in his life by moving it to this plane. The vibrations change the state of the energies around him and he is no longer depressed.
The Principle of Polarity
Everything is dual, everything has poles, everything has its set of opposites, like and unlike are the same, opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree, extremes meet, all truths are but half-truths, all paradoxes may be reconciled-The Kybalion
The principle points out the dual nature of everything. We have heard proverbs about this our whole life. One example I have heard used is that there is a fine line between love and hate. If you place hate at one end of a scale and love at another end. You would then find in the middle a zone where there was neither hate nor love. The more you move towards hate then the more turbulent and chaotic the emotions. You would find joy, peace, fulfilment, and happiness moving towards the complete emotion of love.
It is true in everything and we can find many opposites existing in our lives. Good and Evil. Ying and Yang is the oriental way of explaining this principle. It is amazing but we would not have any words for the different states or realize what they are without something to compare them too.
You can change things to the polar opposite by moving them up and down the scale. Poverty can be changed to wealth. Hate to Love. The examples are endless. It is a powerful aid used with the other principles especially the principle of Vibration and Rhythm. Combined all three of these principles can help a person to turn their life around. The miracles of this principle can be brought into your life by belief and faith. It will help fuel your results of the use of this principle.
The Principle of Rhythm
Everything flows out and in, everything has its tides, all things rise and fall, the pendulum swing manifests in everything, the measure of the swing to the left is the measure of the swing to the right, Rhythm compensates-The Kybalion
This principle explains the truth that in everything there is a measured motion. An example of this is the moment we are born we start to age. The pendulum then swings all the way over to old age and death. We have bad things happen and then all of a sudden we have a burst of good that equals out the bad. It never happens that obviously but it does happen.
The using of the other principles can help to modify the pendulum swing. I know that I have had times in my life where years passed before the pendulum swung to good. You can replace the swing of the pendulum in the down direction with these moments that were never compensated for in your life.
The change of the pendulum swing is by bringing the energetic conditions into existence that exists higher up the scale. You can give an example of this by going from miserable to sad. You would go from sad to neutral, and then neutral to happy and so on up the scale.
The principle of rhythm also includes chants and rhyming of the spells, prayers, and rituals that we use. Everything is more powerful if it has a rhythm or pattern when it is used in magic.
The Principle of Cause and Effect
Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause, everything happens according to law. Chance is but a name for law not recognized there are many planes of causation but nothing escapes the law-The Kybalion
I have also heard this principle talked about many times. You read about it in the Bible and almost every Holy book written in this world. Every cause has an effect. Every action has opposite but equal reactions and so on. The cause and effect principle is used to bring about introspection about decisions made by yourself and others. Right choices bring right effects and causes.
Every action you take in your life is a cause or effect. Chance does not exist as it is just a part of the principle that is not yet understood. Your choices impact your life even though you have free will. You pick your destiny but your actions along the way will make it so you go through many causes and effects.
It is what the lessons of life use to bring us to the Path of choices and actions that are correct for us. We are here upon this earth to learn to be better people. We experience life by the right and wrong decisions and actions that we do. The fact is that by making choices whether they are good or bad and accepting responsibility for our actions makes cause and effect work. It is what we need to make our lives work so we move along in our experiencing the challenges or our existence.
The Principle of Gender
Gender is everything; everything has its feminine and masculine principles. Gender manifests upon all planes.-The Kybalion
The principle of Gender is widely known also. You see it in the oriental ying and yang. You see it in the eternal struggle between good and evil. It is everywhere in our existence to the point where we do not really think about it. Everything has it feminine side which is normally considered to have a negative pole and male energy which normally has a positive nature. It does not mean good or bad. It does mean that without these opposites life and mankind would not exist.
Everything has its opposites mentioned in different ways in this world. There are always male and female and most people associate this with sex. Sex does show the principle of gender but only upon the physical plane. The principle of gender is shown in many other ways upon the alternate planes. Demons and angels are a religious example. Everything and nothing is a philosophical example. It is endless.
It is also a principle that compares and incorporates a lot of the other principles every time it is used in this world. The female energies are good for creation and the male energies are good for control. They are used as portions of our thoughts every day.
We use this principle when we create something which is feminine and then build it or implement it which is masculine. Both forces are necessary in life and in anything that we do in this world. It is why people say they have a feminine and masculine side. Everyone has both of the forces with in them. Everyone also uses this principle without knowing it every day of their lives.
I do know that this is what makes mankind capable of doing magic. It is the stuff of miracles because it all exists in the Mind of God or the Divine Presence. The next mention I have of magic is the fact that we create these principles in the physical plane by our rituals, and spells. They are just ways to get our mind to implement these principles and use them in creative ways to create miracles in our lives.
They are also what we use to strive to use to connect to God by our Magic and our choices. The choices we make move us along our personal path. The choices we make also decide what forces we use to create our path.
Negative Magic is when a person puts themselves first before God, and others. It is the path of personal power where the individual is glorified. Everything is done to aid the person to improve things for himself whether it causes harm to others or not. The Negative magician creates only for himself and others are included only for peripheral usage by him or the energies that he wields. Ego is the prime motivation of a person who is willing to do evil and harm others.
Many people try to make examples of negative magic as using force or controlling others. I believe that negative magic is when the person believes that they are all important to the point where they are willing to destroy anyone or anything to create what they want. They do not care or show compassion for others unless it is to create their own image of their world. They convince themselves and others that they are striving to join with God but the way to tell what a magician really is about is by their actions and motivations for the things that they do in their lives. Watch what they do and not what they say or try to portray.
Positive magic is powered by energies that happen from a conduit to God or Divine providence. The Positive magician is put to strict tests showing him or her the way to make correct choices. The positive magician has to decide that the group cause is what is important. He has to be willing to have faith that Divine Providence will take care of him. He has to have belief that good will come to him from his correct choices. He should practice harmlessness and right actions.
The larger the conduit to divine providence the closer the White magician is to joining the unity of life. All his works are powered by the mind of God and not personal power. It makes for a completely different feel to the energies.
I hope this has explained how magic works and the differences between positive and negative magic. A lot of our actions end up a shade of grey but everyone who always strives for the good of the most people and tries not to harm is on the right path of life.
Development of the Human Spirit
