The Kybalion: The Seven Hermetic Principles (The Hermetic Philosophy) Paperback – June 23, 2018

I liked how the teachings fit well with my spiritual beliefs. Interesting read.

The Kybalion isn't Hermetic nor was it written by "Three Initiates" nor is "Kybalion" even an, actual, word much less a real book. There is some speculation the author was trying to come up with a word that sounded ancient, and may have even been a play on "Kabbalah", to give the work more weight than it deserves.The sole author of the book is William Walker Atkinson, a late 19th century proponent of the New Though Movement that was begun in the early 19th century by Phineas Quimby. Atkinson was never an "initiate" of anything relative to Hermeticism and it's clear to any student of the Hermetica that he wasn't. As an aside, the New Thought Movement also gave us Christian Science and New Age works like "The Secret".Four of the seven so-called "Hermetic Principles" have a basis in historical Hermeticism, but Atkinson has mangled them so badly they no longer reflect the actual philosophy and so are useless to a student of the true Tradition. Again, this is because Atkinson himself didn't understand the basics of Hermetic Philosophy much less the meanings of the Greek terminology used throughout the Hermetica. The other three are derived directly from the New Thought Movement so these are hardly "ancient" despite the author's claim. For instance, the Principle of Vibration has no basis in historical Hermetic Philosophy; it comes directly from the New Thought Movement.What Atkinson did was egregious. He took the philosophy of a, then, very new tradition (New Thought) put it into a book with some elements from a very old tradition (Hermeticism) in a mangled form at that and, not only claimed an ancient basis for all of it, but claimed that something was Hermetic when it isn't. Likewise, if a historical text named the Kybalion ever, actually, existed it didn't survive into the modern era so it would be impossible for Atkinson to reference it for his so-called "axioms' that are found in each chapter of the book. Atkinson made them up, folks.The deeper, and more problematic, deception of the Kybalion is found in the heavy emphasis placed on the "mental transmutation" favored by the New Thought Movement while relegating the spirituality, theology, cosmology, ethos, etc. found all over historical Hermetica to the dust-bin; hence, my statement that this book isn't Hermetic. The emphasis in the Hermetic texts that have come down to us places a extremely high importance on reverence for the divine . So much so that divine reverence is the first step to the realization of our own inherent divinity and apotheosis.If you want a New Age mish-mash of self-help drivel, by all means, buy this waste of paper and ink. If you want historical Hermetic Philosophy forget the nonsensical Kybalion and start with the Corpus Hermeticum. The translation by Clement Salaman is a great translation for a new student to start with since it is written in plain English. Then move onto the, more challenging, translation made by Brian P. Copenhaver as it offers explanations and tons of foot-notes to help you understand the text. This work also includes a translation of the Latin Asclepius, another foundational Hermetic text. After that read David Litwa's Hermetica II. Think of the Corpus Hermeticum and Hermetica II as a two volume set by two different translators. Litwa includes better translations of the Kore Kosmou, as well as, the Strobean and Armenian fragments. Finish with the Nag Hammadi Codices and The Emerald Tablet. A study of Neoplatonism would also be helpful to the student of Hermetic Philosophy.