Hermetica
Most people spend their entire lives inside a world they never truly question. They are taught what is real, what is possible, and what is fantasy. They are taught that reality is physical, solid, external, and mostly accidental. Consciousness, they are told, is a side effect of the brain. Thought is chemistry. Meaning is subjective. Power belongs to those who control matter.
Hermetic philosophy begins with a completely different premise:
Reality is mental first. Matter comes second.
Before we explore the Hermetic principles themselves, we must first understand where they come from, who Hermes Trismegistus is, and why this knowledge remained hidden for so long.
Hermetic teachings are traditionally attributed to a figure known as Hermes Trismegistus. The name means “Hermes the Thrice-Great.” This is not a normal historical person in the modern sense. Hermes Trismegistus is a synthesis of multiple ancient archetypes:
The Greek god Hermes (messenger of the gods, god of knowledge, language, and thresholds)
The Egyptian god Thoth (god of writing, mathematics, magic, balance, and cosmic law)
To the ancient world, this figure represented the keeper of divine knowledge—the transmitter of the laws that govern both the heavens and the inner mind.
The writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus are known as the Hermetica. These texts began appearing in written form in the early centuries after Christ, but they are widely believed to be much older, drawn from oral traditions stretching back into ancient Egypt and possibly even earlier lost civilizations.
When the Hermetic texts resurfaced in Europe during the Renaissance, they ignited a revolution in human thought. Figures like Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, and many early scientists studied Hermetic ideas alongside mathematics and physics. Modern science did not emerge in opposition to mysticism—it emerged from it.
Yet over time, the mystical roots were stripped away. The mechanical parts were kept. The consciousness-based parts were discarded as superstition. The robotic universe replaced the living one.
Hermeticism survived underground.
Hermetic philosophy is not a religion. Instead, it claims to describe the operating system of reality itself. Hermeticism teaches that the universe is not random. It follows precise laws—just not only physical ones. It teaches that mind, energy, matter, emotion, causation, polarity, rhythm, and vibration are all expressions of a deeper unified structure.
These laws were summarized into what are known as the Seven Hermetic Principles.
1. The Principle of Mentalism
“The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.”
This is the foundation of Hermetic thought.
It states that everything that exists originates in consciousness. The universe itself is not a dead machine—it is a mental construct within a greater universal mind often called The All. Matter is not the source of mind. Mind is the source of matter.
This does not mean human beings can instantly imagine houses into existence. It means that all form begins as pattern, idea, vibration, and intelligence before it becomes physical.
Real-Life Example:
Think of money. A banknote is just printed paper. Its “value” exists entirely in the collective mind. If tomorrow everyone stopped believing in its value, the paper would instantly become worthless. The physical object did not change—only the mental agreement behind it.
2. The Principle of Correspondence
“As above, so below; as below, so above.”
This principle describes structural mirroring across levels of reality. Patterns repeat across different scales: human, planetary, cosmic, atomic, psychological, spiritual.
The same laws operate:
In the mind
In the body
In societies
In solar systems
Inner and outer worlds reflect each other.
This means:
Your inner state influences your outer life
Societies mirror collective psychology
The microcosm reflects the macrocosm
Real-Life Example:
If a person lives in constant inner chaos—fear, anger, confusion—sooner or later their external life begins to reflect that disorder through broken relationships, instability, and conflict. When inner order is cultivated, outer life begins reorganizing around it.
3. The Principle of Vibration
“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”
Nothing in existence is truly still. Even what appears solid is actually vibrating at different frequencies. Differences between forms of matter, thought, and emotion are differences in rate of vibration.
Low vibration appears dense, slow, heavy.
High vibration appears subtle, fast, energetic.
Emotions, thoughts, ideas—all have vibrational qualities.
This is why:
Fear feels heavy
Love feels expansive
Depression feels slow
Inspiration feels fast and bright
Real-Life Example:
Walk into a room after a violent argument. Even if no one tells you what happened, you “feel” it instantly. That feeling is vibrational information. The air itself seems heavy, even though physically nothing has changed.
4. The Principle of Polarity
“Everything is dual; everything has poles; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree.”
This principle explains that all opposites are two extremes of the same thing. Hot and cold are not separate—they are degrees of temperature. Light and darkness are degrees of illumination. Love and hate are emotional opposites on the same spectrum.
This means transformation does not happen by destroying one pole, but by shifting along the same scale.
This is the key: Hatred is not removed by attacking it. It is neutralized by increasing love.
Real-Life Example:
A person experiencing intense anxiety can, through breath control and mental focus, gradually shift into calmness. The emotion itself didn’t vanish—it moved along the same emotional scale.
5. The Principle of Rhythm
“Everything flows, in and out; all things rise and fall.”
Everything moves in cycles. Day and night. Inhale and exhale. Growth and decay. Civilizations rise and collapse. Psychological states fluctuate. Nothing remains permanently at one extreme.
This principle teaches that suffering often comes from resisting natural cycles rather than understanding them.
Those who understand rhythm learn to:
Prepare for downturns
Moderate emotional extremes
Step outside reactive swings
Real-Life Example:
A person who becomes depressed every winter may think something is “wrong” with them. From a rhythm perspective, this is a cycle. When understood, they can prepare with light exposure, routine changes, and conscious activity rather than being consumed by it each year.
6. The Principle of Cause and Effect
“Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause.”
Nothing happens by accident.
What we call “luck,” “chance,” or “coincidence” is simply cause and effect operating on levels we do not consciously observe.
This principle also teaches that most people live as effects, not causes. They react. They blame. They respond. Very few learn to operate as conscious causes.
Those who understand this law stop asking:
“Why does this keep happening to me?”
And start asking:
“What am I doing that keeps generating this result?”
Real-Life Example:
A person trapped in repeated toxic relationships may believe they are unlucky. Hermetically, the repeated outcome is the effect of unconscious patterns of attraction, boundaries, fear, and self-worth that act as hidden causes.
7. The Principle of Gender
“Gender is in everything; everything has masculine and feminine principles.”
This has nothing to do with biological sex. It refers to creative polarity present in all levels of reality:
Masculine: direction, logic, projection, structure
Feminine: receptivity, intuition, incubation, formation
Creation happens when these two forces interact.
Too much masculine without feminine becomes rigid and destructive.
Too much feminine without masculine becomes chaotic and stagnant.
Balance creates manifestation.
Real-Life Example:
An idea (masculine projection) without emotional investment and nurturing (feminine gestation) never becomes reality. Likewise, emotion without structure leads nowhere. Successful creation requires both.
Hermetic knowledge does not offer comfort. It offers responsibility. Once you understand that your inner world affects your outer world, that your unconscious patterns generate outcomes, that reality itself is vibrational and mental, you can no longer fully blame:
Society
God
Fate
Other people
This is why Hermeticism was always an initiatory system. Not everyone wants that level of accountability. It is easier to believe you are a powerless victim in a mechanical universe than a creative force in a responsive one.
From a Hermetic perspective, what you call “physical reality” is:
A condensed layer of vibration
A slowed-down expression of mind
A projection shaped by both individual and collective consciousness
You exist simultaneously on multiple levels:
Physical
Emotional
Mental
Astral
Causal
Most people are only taught to recognize one.
Hermeticism teaches that mastery of reality does not come from dominating matter—but from understanding the laws that generate matter in the first place.
Why This Knowledge Was Suppressed
A population that understands:
Mental causation
Vibrational influence
Psychological programming
Reality as layered illusion
…is extremely difficult to control.
Such people no longer need external saviors.
They stop obeying fear-based authority.
They stop outsourcing meaning.
They stop confusing symbols with truth.
Instead, modern civilization teaches:
That thoughts are harmless
That emotions are chemical accidents
That history is complete
That reality is fixed
That you are small inside a large machine
Hermeticism says the opposite.
