I had a moment of “Oh my Gods, what was I thinking” the other day when I realized I needed to post a magickal law post for the week (well, OK, technically two weeks).  I should have started off with the Hermetic Principles but I didn’t.  So I’m going to go back a little bit and we’ll start with those and then jump into the Universal Laws and all that fun stuff.  Again, I’m doing these posts because I was surprised to find after talking to a few people through emails and on Facebook that it seems a lot of people who are new or new-ish to magick and the Craft are completely unaware of these Laws and Principles.  These are really the cornerstones of successful magick so when you want to know how to cast effective spells you’ll find those answers in these posts.

So what are the Hermetic Principles?  These are esoteric teachings that can be found in The Kybalion, a book first published in 1908, which presents what is believed to be ancient teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, or Thrice-Great Hermes.  Who this is or was is not clearly known or understood and how the works of Hermes Trismegistus has been presented and accepted has varied over the years.  Hermes refers to the the Greek God Hermes who is associated with the Egyptian God Thoth and the God Mercury to the Romans.  One suggestion has been that Hermes Trismegistus actually refers to the God Hermes in his three different associations seen here or that this name was used by the Egyptians to try and differentiate from the Greek God Hermes.

It’s hard to say if Hermes Trismegistus was actually a human or a myth, but the teachings that developed as a result of this persona are considered to be some of the most important esoteric and magickal writings.  The Hermetic writings that were the basis for The Kybalion are said to have been  inscribed on green stones, referred to as “emerald tablets”.  The Emerald Tablet opens with the following:

That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, to achieve the wonders of the one thing.

Hermes Trismegistus is considered by many to be the master alchemist; the Hermetic teachings are based in the concept of alchemy.  Not the idea of alchemy where one works to turn metal to gold, but the idea of transforming the self, the practitioner, from being rooted in the day to day, materialistic pursuits of life to someone that is connected to the higher consciousness and enlightened.  So it could be said that even here alchemy is turning base material (the base human consciousness) to gold (the golden light of connection to the Divine that is sometimes associated with the crown chakra).

The Kybalion says:

The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the magic key before whose touch all the doors of the Temple fly open.

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

As we talk more about these individually and look at examples of how they are used in magick and how they work, you’ll begin to see more of the keys to making magick work for you.  These are the seven keys of all magick and by working with these seven keys in harmony you can not only learn and understand how magick works but you’ll be able to make your magick in your own practice work more for you.

Next week we’ll start with the Principle of Mentalism and we’ll be working through one a week over the next seven weeks and then we’ll delve into the Universal Laws, of which there are many, but many of them work together and can be explained in little groups.  The Kybalion is now in public domain and available all over the internet.  If you’d like to check out  a web based version you can find one here or you can find it in PDF format here.  It’s not an easy read but I can’t stress enough how important it is.