The Kybalion

a reply to: BuddhaCession

Loved it, a necessary addition to one's personal library of books. The book helped me understand the many varying existence of things within and without myself. It helped me acknowledge the dual nature of my emotions, to recognize them, and keep the pendulum from swinging wherever it wishes. Of course, I haven't perfected the practice. The book though, seems incomplete as if missing information. For example, I find it odd that the book quotes itself? It almost seems as if the book itself wasn't "The Kybalion," but instead a reference to it.

Interesting synchronicity here.

I have this in audiobook format, and I've been meaning to get back to it...

I'd actually like to dig deeper than this book, as what it contains is from earlier sources. The Kybalion is no doubt what influenced all these "The Secret" and "Law of Attraction" people popping up recently, trying to make a quick buck.

From what I gather, the Kybalion was "The Secret" type of new-age thinking when it was first published. As I said, I'd like to dig deeper and see where the source material for its creation came from itself.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

a reply to: ChristinaLM

The Kyballion translations around are often crude and uninformed. If you're into Hermeticism, Thoth and the wisdom in it, take a look at this book instead. It's called «The Hermetica -- The lost wisdom of the Pharaohs» by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.

==> www.amazon.com...

I've read through quite a few of the facsimiles and reprints that have come out since copyrights only last a 100 years and people went crazy around the turn of the 20th century. There's a bunch of turkeys out there, be sure of that. The book above is a gem however, and what should I say, a sort of educated compendium of the philosophy and cosmology contained within the old Hermetic library.

It's a small book, 145 pages, I read through it in an afternoon, and the world hasn't quite been the same since. Many of the concepts reflect deep alchemical principles and it leaves you with the echo inside that modern science can not truly be understood without at least awareness of this mindset.

Unknown to most, when the Nag Hammadi library was unearthed in Egypt just after the War had ended, while expanding our knowledge on the Gnostics with tons of hitherto unknown «heretical» Christian literature— most of the books they found there belonged to the traditions of the Hermetic sciences. Wonder where they all ended up. Most of the available material seems to be the kind of re-issued material I mentioned above. Nag Hammadi was 1947 I think. Haven't seen the same interest in the Hermetic stuff as the Christian stuff, which is a shame really. Wonder where all those books went—