So this is the first of a number of topics that I think that a keeper should know which might help them along there path.

So lets start by talking about the seven hermetic principles and how they can relate to the topic of keeping spirits as they can help to understand many things including but not limited to meditation, astral projection, spirit communication, and most importantly the self.

The seven hermetic principles are as follows;
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

You may find that some of these explain themselves and to be honest for the most part they do. Lets go through them and see what they all mean though.

THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTALISM
"The all is mind; the universe is mental."
What does this mean exactly? Well it means that all things are subjected to mind. Not specifically your mind but the mind of the universe. Now through our mind we can have an effect on this mind and we all do this on a constant basis.
Everything is the result of some form of mental process and this is awsome because such things can be altered. Through understanding your mind you can alter your mind and your going to need to be able to do this on both the conscious and subconscious mind. It is critical that you understand how to alter both. If it helps think of though as the operating system.

THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE
"As above, so below; As below so above; as within, so without; as without, so within".

This principle embodies the truth that there is always a correspondence between the laws and
phenomena of various planes that manifest as being and life. A person who understands this principle will understand that in order to understand one plane of existence one must learn to understand the surrounding planes. For example for a person to understand the astral plane they need to understand the causal and material planes. Or another example is that you must understand the self and your environment.

THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates".

This principle embodies the truth that nothing rests, everything is in motion and everything vibrates. Mater, energy, thought, and even spirit are all just different rates of vibration. The only difference between them being the frequency at witch they vibrate. Being able to control our vibration is very important but were not going to talk about that how to do that yet.

THE PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY
"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has it's pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same opposites are identical in nature but different in agree; extremes meet; all truths, are but half-truths; a;; paradoxes may be reconciled".

everything that exists is subject to polarity. Everything has 2 poles. These poles are not different things but 2 sides of the same coin. An example would be light and dark. They are both the same thingx just light, or an absence of light. Where does light end and dark begin? The same is true about heat. Heat is just the rate at witch particles vibrate and we experience this as heat because that's how our brains evolved. This principal will be useful for those who wish to astral project. I will explain why soon but before I do talk about the subject of astral I need some more experience first so don't expect that one soon. This principle is a powerful one and a person who understand how to use it will have a great deal of power over themselves and others alike.(because polarity)

I have found the following to be easy using this knowledge;
getting people to like me
making my self more attractive to a group or person of my choice(which has landed me jobs)
it taught me to evoke when I banish and to banish when I evoke(not just talking about evoking entities but also things like money and love) If i want money I evoke money and banish poverty. If I want love I evoke love and banish hate. If i want to have better communication between myself and my entities I can do a spell for it while doing another one to banish the things that interfere with it. Same thing goes for seeing them, smelling them, and tasting them. I do this with sigils and It works quite well.

THE PRINCIPLE OF RHYTHM
"everything flows; out and in; everything has it's tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing manifests in everything;the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left;rhythm compensates".

The pendulum swings between the 2 poles of polarity. for example the sun will rise and then fall only to rise again and fall again. A persons life may be going great but it will soon decline. Popstars are another good example. There fame rises and then it falls back down. The tides of the ocean flow in and out. Do any of you have times where your spirits are really active for a time only to stop for a time then start again later. My energy seems to be in tune with the moon. As it waxes so do I and as it wanes so do I.
Through the use of the mind we can control these rhythms and while we can't bring the pendulum to a total stop we can bring it to about where we want to rest and slow it down quite a bit. For example I can make my self more of a happy person but I can't get rid of all of the sadness in my life. I can't get rid of both because polarity will not allow me to but I can control the flow.

THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT
"Every cause has it's effect; every effect has it's cause; everything happens according to law; chance is but a name for a law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law".

Everything happens for a reason as im sure your all aware. There is no such thing as chance. If a person understands this principle they can rise above it to an extent becoming there own cause and not the effect of others or your circumstances. you should always respond and never react. The key here is to just be aware.

THE PRINCIPAL OF GENDER
"Gender is in everything; everything has it's masculine and feminine principles; gender manifests on all planes".

Nothing can come into being without these energies as these are the energies of creation and regeneration. Not just on the material plane but also on the mental and astral planes as well.

Traits of masculine energy are;
penetrative
assertive
progressive
conquesting
explorative
this energy drive progress

traits of feminine energy are;
receptive
sacred
treasured
protective
it maintains tradition and honors the priority of what which is most important while nourishing that which is most essential to life

Our goal should be balance of these energies. we don't want to much of one or the other as this can result in an balanced life.

This is just an overview of them. I would think it a good idea to check out some other sources on the subject. Please don't just take my work for it. All knowledge comes from many sources. Now I can't link my sources because they are products and the rules of this forum prohibit me from linking products. I also can't link you to my teacher on this subject as my teaches as I can't link to services.

with that said look up the following;
Mindandmagick on Youtube
look up a video on youtube called "The Kybalion of Hermes Trismegist"(it's an audiobook and it's free)
The Mystical Qabalah byDion Fortune

So I think that next im going to talk about meditation and how we can use these principles to give it a good boost.

For those of you who can already meditate you should on these. It might help you to understand them. I know for me it took quite some time before I grasped the full concept of some of these.

OK I forgot to mention something in regards to the principle of mentalism that is really important.

For me the realms work like this
At the top is the mental realm(the realm of thought) this realm is above all others
Below that we have the causal realm which houses all the rules of reality
Below that is the astral plane which is the plane of formation. It’s where spirits reside as well as all imagined Things. It’s where you go when you die.
And at the bottom we have the material plane which is the plane of physical matter.

In order for something to manifest in the material plane it must have been in this order
The mental plane
The causal plane
The astral plane
The material plane

So I’m bumping this so it shows up in the new posts section.

thats nice.

Yah. U already looked into this right?

yep, it's a good way to think and live, if you can wrap your head around it.

Well I plan on making posts about how to apply them for that exact reason.

So, my thoughts on the seven principles mostly boil down to this: They can be good insofar as they are useful on a journey of distilling a personal theory of Truth, navigating both the seen and unseen worlds and determining how to live and learn. I do not think they are appropriately viewed as absolutes, laws or comprehensive statements on objective Truth.

I think this article is a really good evaluation of the principles demonstrating their usefulness and limitations: http://www.nickfarrell.it/kybalion/ The whole thing is interesting, but I have included the most interesting parts below.

"Principle of Mentalism: While I can accept that the Universe is all mind, I can’t accept that is all there is. A mind, or consciousness, is definable. It has rules which can define it. Yet there must equally be an infinite part of god which can only be defined by what it is not – and it would NOT be mind. If Thoth is an expression of the Divine Mind, he emerged from the UNKNOWABLE darkness....

Principle of Vibration: All things are in motion and vibrate. This is somewhat true again and that stability appears to be an illusion. But it depends on relativity. An atom is stable relative to itself, while the solar system might be moving it is held stable by gravity. If you put a stone on a table in front of you it does not move. It is not arguable to say “it moves very slowly and you can’t detect it” in actual fact it stays still relative to everything else.

Principle of Polarity:...
Anyway, I am not sure that this is literally true and if it were then it would counter the first law, which says the universe is one thing and Mind. Certainly, the Physicist David Bohm did see evidence that the world was dualistic. He thought that information (mind) is just as important as substance/intensity (matter/energy). And one cannot be reduced to the other. That means our world is not One Thing.

Like I said I do not believe in the duality of extremes, I don’t believe there is pure good or evil in our world, but abstractly about 40 shades of grey. I have a feeling that it simply appears dualistic but this is not actually the case.

Principle of Rhythm: This does not always happen at all. Light for example behaves as a wave (rhythm) and a particle. It is possible to create objects which do not operate in a rhythmic way. Evolution is not rhythmic.

Principle of Cause and Effect: Again this is sort of. It was a standard scientific belief in the past which works but is getting a kicking by modern science. This is an area for research could mean that rather than this being an occult absolute it is actually just old science.

There are also philosophical problems with the Law of Cause and Effect. If A causes B then A always has to come first. Therefore, war causes death. However, since war does not always cause death and death is not always caused by war, it is more likely you can say that A is more likely to cause B. This kills off the part of the law. If you can only generate a probability of the same effect from the same cause then it means you must have some doubt about your cause or there is an inherent randomness about the universe which can nullify cause and effect.

The Principle of Gender: Now I know that this is supposed to be a figurative thing, but the laws are supposed to be applied to all of creation. There are there numerous situations within Nature where polarity does not exist, ranging from amoebas, to yeast, to snakes. The fact that parthenogenesis is possible means that polarity does not always apply to the physical world. This means that it probably does not always apply to the mental or spiritual worlds either."

This one points out the practical implications for doing magick in using these as laws rather than tools: http://www.nickfarrell.it/cognitive-dis ... ult-world/

"Cognitive dissonance prevents the evolution of magic. In older systems of magic, you can see an evolution of tradition thanks mostly because isolated magicians trained their students based on their own research. Printing affected that somewhat and enabled more unified ideas, but in many ways those systems have become unchangeable dogmas.

But ironically occult tradition is not about theology or dogmas but research. Because a grimoire has written down a spell, it does not mean it is going to work in the 21st century.It might have to be adapted. That adaptation needs to be tested to make sure it works.

That process is getting suppressed now as people try and drag systems down to something they are more comfortable and familiar. The internet makes this cognitive dissonance even worse because it echoes."

Lots of missing details. quite a few of them. He needs to reread the book. You need to read my quotes and compare them to his.

For example when talking about polarity he forgot to mention that like and dislike are the same. That they are identical in nature but different in degree. quite an important detail. Yes the universe is one thing but it is also many things. its a paradox. it's polarity.

My keyboard might not be moving relative to my desk room or house. But the plates of the earth are. So this keyboard Moves relative to China sometimes and it moves relative to the sun, moon, ISS, in fact everything in orbit, the other planets, stars galaxies. The components of the solar system move relative to each other and so do the components of the adam. Also the law of vibration has nothing to do with balance.

While it is true that not all war will cause death it is also true that there is a cause for war and war has an effect. Same is true about death. Death does not need to be caused by war but death does need a cause.
What modern science kicks this in the but? Quantum mechanics perhaps? A subject we don't even fully understand.

"sometimes light is a wave(rhythm) and sometimes it's a particle." because of this thing called polarity.
What can be created that rhythm does not apply to? I might put some thought into this one. It sounds fun.

Gender and polarity are not the same thing. They are alike. If he took tie time to apply the knowledge from that book he would know that.
Gender is LIKE polarity. it is not the same thing.
amoebas eat food. Taking it inside themselves which is receptive(feminine) and it uses the energy it gains from that food to grow and reproduce by dividing itself(masculine).
Yeast consumes sugar(feminine) and produc"I do not think they are appropriately viewed as absolutes, laws or comprehensive statements on objective Truth." So what do you see as objective truth? Please pm me or just post here. If you have something better in mind please share it. es carbon dioxide and alcohol(masculine)

He does not seem to understand that these don't work as separate things but as parts of a whole. I'm guessing you have read the book? Have you read any other books on the subject? Why did you feel the need to point this out exactly?

I would like to say with just one thing about the second article. In my opinion all magic is supposed to be adapted to the individual. At the end of the day if it works for you it works and if it doesn’t then it doesn’t.
There is quite a bit of truth there though in regards to the lack of progress but to be honest I don’t personally care because I have a system that works. It gets results and that’s what counts at the end of the day right?