According to Hermetic philosophy, which is summed up nicely in the Kybalion, a 1908 work written by “the Three Initiates” (speculated by some to be William Walker Atkinson), one of the seven principles of nature, otherwise known as the Seven Hermetic Principles, is the principle of polarity. Everything can be seen from two perspectives and has two sides, which are equal in some way. It’s the same as the saying about whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. Both situations are true; and in life it’s much the same, multiple facts can be true at the same time, even when they might be seemingly contradictory. Too often we think we fully understand something, when in reality there is much more to it than we could ever imagine. We have made huge advances in science, but we would be naïve to say we’ve come anywhere close to actually figuring out all about how the planet works, and just how we are meant to interact with it. All that we know might actually be true, but that doesn’t mean something else isn’t true as well, something that could completely change our understanding of what we think we know. We can see the law of polarity in nature, one clear example being that of temperature. Whether we are burning or freezing to death, these are two extremes of the same thing, which is temperature. If we try to get to the center of temperature, it might be hard to find exactly where heat becomes cold, or vice versa. We live in a world of bad and good, and whether we are ecstatically happy or so enraged that we feel like killing, these are both extreme opposite sides of the exact same thing, which is emotion. Too much emotion, or trusting and relying solely on our emotions while ignoring our logical judgment, can be detrimental, no matter which emotion is at hand. We live in a complicated world, full of different and very unique individuals. Beyond all those individual complexities though, men and women come together to create life, and beyond the difference between male and female, we are ultimately all equal as human beings, and at an even higher level as one consciousness. The Hermetic law of polarity is much the same as the black and white sides which are represented in the symbol for Taoist philosophy. In the black side there is a little white dot, and in the white side there is a little black dot. There is some bad in all good, and there is some good in all bad, like when we fuck up and then learn a lesson which immensely improves our life from then on. How is there bad in all good? Well, there is no great marriage or relationship of any kind that doesn’t have its fights or misunderstanding. Humans are complicated, and we seldom see eye to eye, even between people who love and respect each other. How these differences are worked out and integrated is what will determine the success of any relationship. If it can all be integrated and applied towards the overall good, then the relationship becomes even stronger, and it can last forever. Another principle in Hermetic philosophy is the Principle of Gender. Much life everything has two extremes, a positive and negative polarity, everything in nature has a masculine and a feminine aspect, so although we are born physically male or female, our spirit is in a higher dimension which is free of all physical characteristics such as physical sex. These are only two of the seven Hermetic principles. Although this wisdom comes from the Hermetic tradition that seems to have originated most likely in Egypt, to me it seems like wisdom that can be observed by all who are mindful of life and are open to seeing the way things work, and to the fact that there are energies beyond our power to perceive, the most known examples being electricity or radio waves or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Similar ideas can be found in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Similarly in the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, everything is endlessly emanating energy, and according to Hermetic philosophy this is exactly the case, as is described in the Principle of Vibration, which I’ll get into more detail about tomorrow.
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rebel eye 