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:''Note documentation''
: * '''Primary source:''' ''The Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece, by Three Initiates'', Yogi Publication Society, Chicago, 1908. Modern attribution: '''[[William Walker Atkinson]]''' is generally considered the main author (along with Mabel Collins and Paul Foster Case according to some reconstructions).
: * '''Status:''' DOCUMENTED (public domain text, widely available)

''The Kybalion'' (1908) is a text declaredly '''hermetic''' attributed to three anonymous "initiates," published in Chicago by the Yogi Publication Society (the same publishing house as [[William Walker Atkinson]]). Later studies attribute the work mainly to Atkinson himself, possibly with collaborators.

For the ISI-CNV wiki cluster, ''The Kybalion'' is a '''milestone page''' of historical importance — it is the most widely read '''modern hermetic reference''' in the English-speaking world — but it is '''not considered foundational''' to the [[Paret Method]] for reasons that need to be explained (see below, section "The mentalistic limit").

== The seven principles ==

The book presents '''seven hermetic principles''' that are offered as the synthesis of the ''Tabula Smaragdina'' and the hermetic corpus:

# '''Principle of Mentalism''' — "The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental"
# '''Principle of Correspondence''' — "As above, so below; as below, so above"
# '''Principle of Vibration''' — "Nothing is at rest; everything moves; everything vibrates"
# '''Principle of Polarity''' — "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites"
# '''Principle of Rhythm''' — "Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides"
# '''Principle of Cause and Effect''' — "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause"
# '''Principle of Gender''' — "Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles"

The seven principles have become a '''lingua franca''' of modern English-language esotericism, taken up in a thousand variations by New Age literature, by Joel Goldsmith, by Ernest Holmes, up to ''The Secret'' by Rhonda Byrne (2006).

== Historical position ==

''The Kybalion'' was published '''contemporaneously''' with other books by Atkinson on mental fascination and vibratory induction — ''[[Mental Fascination di Atkinson (1907)|Mental Fascination]]'' (1907), ''Practical Mental Influence'' (1908), ''Mind-Power'' (1908). It should be read as the '''theoretical framework''' of that system:

* '''Mental Fascination''' = practical application (the technique)
* '''The Kybalion''' = theoretical framework (the 7 principles)

Together they constitute the '''Atkinsonian system''' of the [[New Thought]] of the years 1907-1910.

== The mentalistic limit ==

''Critical section of the Paret-ISI-CNV School.''

The first principle of the Kybalion — "'''The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental'''" — is '''the same limit''' that, in another form, [[Stephen Wolinsky — Trance Interpersonale e Trance per Osservazione|Wolinsky]] and the entire American mentalistic tradition encounter. It is an '''epistemological''' limit that has operational consequences:

# '''Reality is mentalized''' — the body, matter, fluid, physical energy are treated as '''epiphenomena of the mind'''. This is the '''opposite''' of the traditional magnetic-initiatic work (Mesmer, Du Potet, Donato, Kremmerz, Giudicelli) which '''always starts from the body''' and considers the mental plane as one plane among others, not as the foundational reality
# '''The dry path becomes the only path''' — if everything is mind, liberation is '''changing the way of thinking''' (affirmations, visualization, mental intention). '''The wet bodily path''' ([[Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola|kundalini, chakras, magnetic fluid, substances]]) '''disappears''' or becomes metaphor. This is exactly the limit of Wolinsky's Quantum Psychology (cf. [[Quantum Psychology e Fascinazione — Il Ponte Paret-Wolinsky|theoretical bridge page]])
# '''The goal is flattened''' — the Kybalion does not speak of '''Awakening''' in the precise sense documented by [[La Doctrine du Corps Immortel|Giudicelli]] and by [[Il Risveglio|Evola]]. It speaks of '''control''', '''influence''', '''success''', '''healing''' — these are all '''worldly''' goals (horizontality, in the lexicon of [[L'Energia Segreta della Mente|Marco Paret 2009]]) and not '''vertical''' ones (Awakening, deconditioning of being)
# '''The real initiatic framework is missing''' — the Kybalion asserts an Egyptian-Greek hermetic filiation without '''any philological or operational apparatus'''. The '''real''' hermetic tradition is that documented in the ISI-CNV wiki cluster ([[Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica]], [[Tradizione Ermetica nella Massoneria]], [[Borri]], [[Federico Gualdi]], [[Arcana Arcanorum]], [[Kremmerz e Ordine Osirideo Egizio]], [[La Doctrine du Corps Immortel]]). The Kybalion is '''a popularized version''' of it, useful for spreading the vocabulary but '''not a substitute''' for the operational tradition

== What the Kybalion brings (positive) ==

It must be acknowledged, without reducing it to the opposite effect, that the Kybalion has brought '''real contributions''':

* '''Accessible modern hermetic vocabulary''' in English (and subsequent translations) for an audience that '''did not read''' Reghini, Evola, Kremmerz, Giudicelli
* '''The Principle of Polarity''' (4th) and '''Rhythm''' (5th) — usable as an '''operational grid''' in magnetic practice to recognize the pairs of forces at play
* '''The Principle of Correspondence''' (2nd) — Atkinson's formulation of the ancient axiom "as above, so below" has become firmly established in contemporary vocabulary
* '''The Principle of Vibration''' (3rd) — anticipates the vocabulary of quantum physics used by Marco Paret in ''[[L'Energia Segreta della Mente]]'' (2009)
* '''Mental concentration exercises''' derivable from the 7 principles — useful as '''propadeutics''' to the true path, comparable to the Atkinsonian exercises of ''[[Mental Fascination di Atkinson (1907)|Mental Fascination]]''

== Position of the Kybalion in the Paret Method ==

''Section specific to the Paret-ISI-CNV School.''

The student of the Paret Method reads ''The Kybalion'':

* As an '''introductory text''' to acquire the modern hermetic vocabulary
* As '''conceptual propadeutics''' to the real work (the wet path + Awakening)
* '''Not as an ultimate reference''' — the reference is [[La Doctrine du Corps Immortel|Giudicelli's Doctrine du Corps Immortel]] and the [[Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola|Evolian wet path]]
* Without assuming its first principle ("all is mind") as dogma — matter, the body, magnetic fluid '''are not''' mental epiphenomena but '''autonomous planes''' of work

The [[Paret Method]] uses the Kybalion '''as a dictionary''': a useful tool for naming certain things, '''but not for grounding them'''.

== Contemporary references in the wiki cluster ==

The Kybalion should be '''replaced''' (not just supplemented) by the following cluster references, which answer the same questions with an '''authentic''' apparatus:

* '''For the authentic hermetic framework''' → [[Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica]], [[Tradizione Ermetica nella Massoneria]]
* '''For the work in red and Awakening''' → [[Il Risveglio]], [[La Doctrine du Corps Immortel]]
* '''For the macro-micro correspondence''' → [[The Alchemical Body — Siddha, Hatha Yoga e Alchimia Interna (White 1996)|White 1996]] (academic apparatus)
* '''For the seven planes / seven chakras''' → [[Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola]]
* '''For the Siva-Shakti polarity''' → [[Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola]], [[I Fedeli dAmore]] (on the Italian mystical-amorous side)
* '''For the quantum-mental vocabulary''' → [[L'Energia Segreta della Mente]] (Paret 2009), [[Quantum Psychology e Fascinazione — Il Ponte Paret-Wolinsky]]

== Documentation status ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Claim !! Source !! Verification
|-
| Published 1908 Yogi Publication Society Chicago || original title page || DOCUMENTED
|-
| Attribution to Atkinson as main author || biographical research + stylistic correspondences || DOCUMENTED (consolidated modern attribution)
|-
| Seven principles enunciated || full text of the book || DOCUMENTED
|-
| Cited as reference in the Atkinson cluster || [[William Walker Atkinson]] works section || DOCUMENTED
|-
| Mentalistic limit (first principle "all is mind") || own analysis of the Paret-ISI-CNV School (present page) || RECONSTRUCTED (School critique, based on comparison with the Awakening + Giudicelli cluster)
|}

== Primary sources ==

* Three Initiates [W. W. Atkinson], ''The Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece'', Yogi Publication Society, Chicago, 1908
* Public domain text available online (Project Gutenberg, Sacred Texts, Internet Archive)

== See also ==

* [[William Walker Atkinson]]
* [[Mental Fascination di Atkinson (1907)]]
* [[Hypnotic Techniques of Fascination (Paret, Atkinson, Story 2011)]]
* [[New Thought]]
* [[L'Energia Segreta della Mente]] — the Paret book that takes up the hermetic vocabulary in an authentic operational key
* [[La Doctrine du Corps Immortel]] — the ultimate reference of the School
* [[Il Risveglio]] — axis page
* [[Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica]] — the authentic Italian hermetic tradition
* [[Tradizione Ermetica nella Massoneria]]
* [[Stephen Wolinsky — Trance Interpersonale e Trance per Osservazione]] — same mentalistic limit
* [[Quantum Psychology e Fascinazione — Il Ponte Paret-Wolinsky]]
* [[Paret Method]]
* [[:Categoria:Quantum]]
* [[:Categoria:Fonti primarie]]

[[Categoria:Quantum]]
[[Categoria:Fonti primarie]]