The Kybalion: what it is, and what it isn’t
The Kybalion is the book behind every BYJECS principle. It is also a book that is often described as something it is not. This entry sets out what the record shows, where the book sits among the ideas of its time, and why we keep it close anyway.
What The Kybalion is
The Kybalion was first published in 1908, in Chicago, by the Yogi Publication Society. No author is named. The book is signed “Three Initiates,” a pseudonym.
It is widely attributed to William Walker Atkinson, and scholars place it in the New Thought movement of the early 1900s.
Its voice is older than its date. The book credits its teachings to the Hermetic tradition and to Hermes, and it presents its maxims as older than the Christian era. Scholars read that framing differently. The encyclopedia entry on the book, drawing on their work, notes that the title seems meant “to convey a false sense of antiquity.” It speaks like an old tradition. It is a twentieth-century book, and we read it as one.
The text is in the public domain in the United States, so anyone can read it in full, free of charge, through Project Gutenberg.
The seven principles, in brief
At the center of the book are seven principles. Each one below carries its axiom in the wording we use across The Codex, followed by a line on how we read it. These are summaries, not a substitute for the book.
I. Mentalism
The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental. Everything begins as thought. How you see a thing shapes what you build from it.
II. Correspondence
As above, so below; as below, so above. The same patterns repeat at every scale, so understanding one level helps you read the others. The line is a Hermetic axiom, a modern paraphrase of the Emerald Tablet, popularized by The Kybalion (1908). The book itself never mentions the Tablet.
III. Vibration
Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates. Nothing is fixed for good. A state is something in motion, which means it can change.
IV. Polarity
Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites. Hot and cold are one scale read at different points. Seeing the scale leaves room to understand both ends.
V. Rhythm
Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides. Things rise and fall. A bad week is a phase, not a verdict.
VI. Cause & Effect
Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause. What looks like chance is often a cause not yet seen. The question is which causes you choose to set in motion.
VII. Gender
Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles. We read it as two modes, one that projects and one that receives. Creation needs both, on every plane.
What it is not
Not an Egyptian scripture
Whatever the book says about its own lineage, the record dates it to 1908 and places it in New Thought. So we cite the book and its year, not Hermes and not Egypt. We say it the same way everywhere: inspired by The Kybalion (1908).
Many people who study the older Hermetic writings go further. A pinned post in the r/Hermeticism community puts it in one line: “The Kybalion is not a Hermetic text.” Others, like the author Mitch Horowitz, defend the book as a valuable work while agreeing that it is not old. Both positions are honest. Ours is closer to the second, and we keep the first in view.
Not a religion, and not satanic
We read The Kybalion as philosophy: a set of ideas about mind, pattern and change, to be questioned like any other. BYJECS is not a faith and does not teach one. We make no promises of powers, protection or healing, and nothing we make is meant to replace anyone’s beliefs.
Hermetic is not satanic. Our symbols come from Hermetic philosophy and from our own artwork, and there is no satanic imagery in our work. The book itself borrows openly from the Christian tradition: when it speaks of milk and meat, it notes that both maxims are “familiar to readers of the Christian scriptures.” We write for readers of every faith, and of none.
Why BYJECS keeps the flame
Two passages from the introduction of The Kybalion became the starting point of the first BYJECS artwork. The first is a set of lines the book credits only to “the poet,” without a name:
O, let not the flame die out! Cherished age after age in its dark cavern—in its holy temples cherished. Fed by pure ministers of love—let not the flame die out!
The second describes how different teachers meet different readers:
They reserve the “strong meat for men,” while others furnish the “milk for babes.”
The picture of milk and solid food echoes 1 Corinthians 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12–14, though the exact phrases are the Kybalion’s own. We use it the way the book does, as an image of levels of understanding. It is context, not a religious message.
From those two passages came KEEP THE FLAME, the concept behind our first drop. It rests on three elements:
- The flame: wisdom that stays alive across generations. Curiosity, awareness, and the commitment to keep the search for knowledge burning.
- The milk: the first levels of learning. The foundations, and the start of intellectual growth.
- The strong meat: deep knowledge and intellectual maturity. The ability to analyze complex ideas from different perspectives.
Together they say one thing: wisdom is not only acquiring knowledge, but questioning it, understanding it and transforming it through reflection.
The conversation that shaped the artwork ended in a conviction we hold to. True wisdom does not ask us to give up our convictions. It asks for the ability to question them, to understand opposing perspectives, and to recognize that our reading of reality is not necessarily the only one possible.
KEEP THE FLAME does not claim to hold the absolute truth. It is a lasting commitment to looking for it. The flame stays lit not because every belief must survive intact, but because we should never give up our ability to think, question and learn.
Keep the flame. Question. Understand. Evolve.
KEEP THE FLAME is the original artwork of BYJECS — Drop 001: UNFADED, inspired by The Kybalion (1908). See the collection.
Sources
- The Kybalion, Project Gutenberg eBook #14209, transcribed from a copy dated 1912 (Yogi Publication Society, Chicago). Marked “Public domain in the USA.” gutenberg.org/ebooks/14209
- Princeton Theological Seminary, Theological Commons, catalog record for The Kybalion (1908; Chicago, Ill.: The Yogi Publication Society). commons.ptsem.edu
- “The Kybalion,” Wikipedia, with references to academic sources, accessed November 2, 2026. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kybalion
- “As above, so below” and “Emerald Tablet,” Wikipedia, accessed November 2, 2026. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_above,_so_below
- Mitch Horowitz, “The Kybalion Without Tears,” July 12, 2025. mitchhorowitz.substack.com
- u/polyphanes, “META PSA: The Kybalion is not a Hermetic text,” r/Hermeticism, May 29, 2023.
- King James Version, 1 Corinthians 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12–14.