The Kybalion was my first glimpse at how our perspective of reality can be changed. Always a great reminder to help wake up from the material dream. I'm grateful that it's still out there, doing it's thing. Can't wait to check this out!
from Sam Block from Digital Ambler “Even putting aside the fact that so much of the Kybalion ignores or outright goes against the various philosophies taught in the actual classical Hermetic texts far more than the latter disagrees amongst themselves, I'll never understand those who say that the Kybalion is a "practical" text in ways that surpass the classical Hermetic texts when all the "practice" of the Kybalion amounts to Apple's slogan of "think different". Which, I mean, obviously, but come on. Do better. I mean, if anything, the Kybalion is an attempt at a self-help book dressed up in Egyptomaniacal and Eastern "secret master" drag. It doesn't come close to the actual approaches described in the actual Hermetic stuff, like devotion, piety, ethics, purification, prayer, and so on. And that's only if you just consider the philosophical/theoretical Hermetica, ignoring the technical/practical Hermetica out there, too, which actually does talk about specific practices, rituals, and the like. Of course, the technical/practical stuff gets a lot less scholarly/academic attention, and thus less dissemination/publicity, but that's not to say it's not out there. And more of it is being made public as we continue to shed academic preconceptions/pretenses to respectability. But, to be fair, that's not to say that we have a complete understanding of classical Hermetic beliefs, philosophies, or practices-we don't, and we know for a fact that there are a number of texts that have not survived into the modern era. There are gaps we need to fill in. But we also don't need to resort to cultural appropriation of Eastern, Jewish, or other practices to do so, when the technical/practical Hermetica gives us leads to related contemporary texts that inform us just as nicely. I mean, there's no such thing as a 3rd c. CE equivalent to DMK's "Modern Magick", no matter how nice that'd be to have. Trying to find one is futile, but not having it doesn't mean we throw our hands up in defeat and immediately go "time to tantricize Kabbalah Hermetically". TL;DR: there's way more practical stuff in the Hermetic texts than you might think (or want to admit). It's just that it's not as coherent or clean or pre-assembled as what we're used to having put before us, and we have work to do for it between research and reconstruction-and it's a lot more (and a lot more spelled-out) than "think different".”
Those "practices" as you called them are moral principles. The purpose of the kybalion is to add the view of intangible laws that allows you to create your own principles, as the universe and nature shows. I dont see any living or non living thing practicing devotion, piety nor even ethics as is understood in the modern world. And this is putting aside the actual problem of the modern world that only wants practices so nobody has to dig deeper in the roots of how reality's mechanics are.
Does it mention that William Walker Atkinson wrote the entire thing and there isn't a shred of evidence that such a book ever existed? And that it has nothing to do with classical Hermeticism, that he just threw that in as a buzzword to give his incredibly successful marketing campaign authenticity? Not saying this hasn't been done for over a millennia, but blatant deception in one's work as a marketing ploy really shatters my trust in anything else they have to say even if the content is, in itself, valuable on its own accord. And I do agree there is value to a lot of the contents of The Kybalion. It just irks me when people completely omit these facts is all, it just feels like another intentional marketing deception via lie of omission
This is dealt with in the film and in an article (among other writings, books) of mine at Medium. I cannot link it apparently but it's called: "The Kybalion and the Importance of Religious Novelty: The early 20th century occult classic is neither 'real' nor 'fake' Hermeticism. That framing misinterprets how ideas endure."
@@mitchhorowitz6054 That's great, I admire the fact you acknowledged the controversy in the film and I'll search for your article in just a moment. Another good article is "The Kybalion's New Clothes" and has tons of details and sources and accounts from people who knew him. Interesting read that does not discredit the value of what the book offers, only details its dubious claim of heritage
@@mitchhorowitz6054 oh wow I didn't notice that. I'm definitely going to have to check out your doc. I randomly saw it on my feed and assumed it was another shallow "live-laugh-love magick" doc like seem to be flooding the waves these days, guess I should pay more attention to who I'm speaking too lol Thanks for your replies, looking forward to seeing this for sure now. "All I know is I know nothing" - Socrates supposedly but probably just Plato (three initiates and WW Atkinson lol) So my viewpoints change often with new info, I'm sure I'll learn alot My family says I'm fickle. I say they're rusted shut =P
you can roll it around as much as you want and remake and remake and remake it to make my money out of it, talking about it. Which proves that everybody focused on that hasn’t understood a word of it… it isn't 'resonating' with anyone, except as a money attraction device for dumb buyers of the dvd 'the Secret'… I think Hollywood is made, but at least it doesn’t movies about Moses and probably 23 or 24 about Jesus. They don’t seem to have made many about Mohammed though I don’t know why. We’ve had Noah and the ark we’ve had Moses we’ve had Jesus, we’ve had little Buddha, but to be honest, I have to ask WTF is Mohammed? Nobody seems to have. made any history channel or 'Vilkings Saga' Netflix show yet called Mohammed,… as to Hermes or mercury or THOTH, all I can say is “Microcosm and Macrocosm, As above, so Below, as Within, so Without, seek and Ye shall find. But first man, know thy self“
The Kybalion was my first glimpse at how our perspective of reality can be changed. Always a great reminder to help wake up from the material dream. I'm grateful that it's still out there, doing it's thing. Can't wait to check this out!
This looks amazing. "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite." 💜
Where could I find these? Please help!
What happened to the full documentary..??
I'd love this to be available in the UK
Still we are not able to watch this in The Netherlands... Please fix this.
Thank yoy
Where in the UK can I watch this?
from Sam Block from Digital Ambler
“Even putting aside the fact that so much of the Kybalion ignores or outright goes against the various philosophies taught in the actual classical Hermetic texts far more than the latter disagrees amongst themselves, I'll never understand those who say that the Kybalion is a "practical" text in ways that surpass the classical Hermetic texts when all the "practice" of the Kybalion amounts to Apple's slogan of "think different".
Which, I mean, obviously, but come on. Do better.
I mean, if anything, the Kybalion is an attempt at a self-help book dressed up in Egyptomaniacal and Eastern "secret master" drag. It doesn't come close to the actual approaches described in the actual Hermetic stuff, like devotion, piety, ethics, purification, prayer, and so on. And that's only if you just consider the philosophical/theoretical Hermetica, ignoring the technical/practical Hermetica out there, too, which actually does talk about specific practices, rituals, and the like.
Of course, the technical/practical stuff gets a lot less scholarly/academic attention, and thus less dissemination/publicity, but that's not to say it's not out there. And more of it is being made public as we continue to shed academic preconceptions/pretenses to respectability. But, to be fair, that's not to say that we have a complete understanding of classical Hermetic beliefs, philosophies, or practices-we don't, and we know for a fact that there are a number of texts that have not survived into the modern era. There are gaps we need to fill in. But we also don't need to resort to cultural appropriation of Eastern, Jewish, or other practices to do so, when the technical/practical Hermetica gives us leads to related contemporary texts that inform us just as nicely.
I mean, there's no such thing as a 3rd c. CE equivalent to DMK's "Modern Magick", no matter how nice that'd be to have. Trying to find one is futile, but not having it doesn't mean we throw our hands up in defeat and immediately go "time to tantricize Kabbalah Hermetically".
TL;DR: there's way more practical stuff in the Hermetic texts than you might think (or want to admit). It's just that it's not as coherent or clean or pre-assembled as what we're used to having put before us, and we have work to do for it between research and reconstruction-and it's a lot more (and a lot more spelled-out) than "think different".”
You can find a more fully rounded critique in the article noted below.
Those "practices" as you called them are moral principles. The purpose of the kybalion is to add the view of intangible laws that allows you to create your own principles, as the universe and nature shows. I dont see any living or non living thing practicing devotion, piety nor even ethics as is understood in the modern world.
And this is putting aside the actual problem of the modern world that only wants practices so nobody has to dig deeper in the roots of how reality's mechanics are.
Does it mention that William Walker Atkinson wrote the entire thing and there isn't a shred of evidence that such a book ever existed? And that it has nothing to do with classical Hermeticism, that he just threw that in as a buzzword to give his incredibly successful marketing campaign authenticity?
Not saying this hasn't been done for over a millennia, but blatant deception in one's work as a marketing ploy really shatters my trust in anything else they have to say even if the content is, in itself, valuable on its own accord. And I do agree there is value to a lot of the contents of The Kybalion.
It just irks me when people completely omit these facts is all, it just feels like another intentional marketing deception via lie of omission
mitch-horowitz-nyc.medium.com/the-kybalion-and-the-importance-of-religious-novelty-6ae073c274bd
This is dealt with in the film and in an article (among other writings, books) of mine at Medium. I cannot link it apparently but it's called: "The Kybalion and the Importance of Religious Novelty:
The early 20th century occult classic is neither 'real' nor 'fake' Hermeticism. That framing misinterprets how ideas endure."
@@mitchhorowitz6054 That's great, I admire the fact you acknowledged the controversy in the film and I'll search for your article in just a moment. Another good article is "The Kybalion's New Clothes" and has tons of details and sources and accounts from people who knew him. Interesting read that does not discredit the value of what the book offers, only details its dubious claim of heritage
@@SabineTheHutt That article quotes from several sources I published }:-) (though it gets The Kybalion's publication date wrong).
@@mitchhorowitz6054 oh wow I didn't notice that. I'm definitely going to have to check out your doc. I randomly saw it on my feed and assumed it was another shallow "live-laugh-love magick" doc like seem to be flooding the waves these days, guess I should pay more attention to who I'm speaking too lol Thanks for your replies, looking forward to seeing this for sure now. "All I know is I know nothing" - Socrates supposedly but probably just Plato (three initiates and WW Atkinson lol) So my viewpoints change often with new info, I'm sure I'll learn alot My family says I'm fickle. I say they're rusted shut =P
Kybalion is ok but not really ancient principles, surely that's commonly known by this point.
you can roll it around as much as you want and remake and remake and remake it to make my money out of it, talking about it. Which proves that everybody focused on that hasn’t understood a word of it… it isn't 'resonating' with anyone, except as a money attraction device for dumb buyers of the dvd 'the Secret'… I think Hollywood is made, but at least it doesn’t movies about Moses and probably 23 or 24 about Jesus. They don’t seem to have made many about Mohammed though I don’t know why. We’ve had Noah and the ark we’ve had Moses we’ve had Jesus, we’ve had little Buddha, but to be honest, I have to ask WTF is Mohammed? Nobody seems to have. made any history channel or 'Vilkings Saga' Netflix show yet called Mohammed,… as to Hermes or mercury or THOTH, all I can say is “Microcosm and Macrocosm, As above, so Below, as Within, so Without, seek and Ye shall find. But first man, know thy self“