The Original 1908 Edition — Complete and UnabridgedThe Kybalion (full title: The Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece) was first published in 1908 under the pseudonym “The Three Initiates,” a name commonly associated with New Thought author William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932), several of whose works are available from Alchemist Editions. The book presents itself as a concise exposition of the teachings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.Although it echoes themes found in classical and medieval Hermetic writings — such as philosophical mentalism, the maxim “as above, so below,” and the principle of polarity — the work reflects above all the intellectual climate of early twentieth-century occultism. In particular, it bears the imprint of the New Thought movement, to which Atkinson belonged. As a modern Hermetic treatise, The Kybalion exerted a significant influence on twentieth-century esoteric and New Age spirituality.
