The Hermetic Principles are seven laws, Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender, set out in The Kybalion (1908) as the foundation of modern Hermetic philosophy.
The Kybalion was published in 1908 under the pseudonym "Three Initiates" and is widely attributed to William Walker Atkinson, a pioneer of the New Thought movement. The book presents its teachings as the philosophy of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary author behind 📝Hermeticism, though historians generally read it as a modern New Thought synthesis rather than a translation of any ancient text.
Each principle is stated as an axiom. Mentalism holds that "The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental." Correspondence is the maxim 📝As above, so below., meaning that patterns repeat across every plane of reality. Vibration, also known as the 📝Law of Vibration, states that "nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates." Polarity holds that opposites are identical in nature and differ only in degree. Rhythm describes the pendulum swing of every tide and cycle. Cause and Effect holds that every effect has a cause and that chance is only a name for a law not yet recognized. Gender holds that masculine and feminine principles operate in everything.
The seven principles spread well beyond the book through twentieth-century occultism, modern witchcraft, and self-help teachings, where they are often reframed as the seven 📝Universal Laws. Popular summaries such as Siim Land's overview of the 7 Hermetic Principles present them as a practical lens for mindset and personal change.