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By   Paul E Jones [GraceWatcher]     GraceWatcher Outreach      ©   Copyright  1995       Revisions  ©   Copyright  2003

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Contents:

Page One   (of three Pages)

*   The Pillars of Stability

*   The Seven Principles of Hermes

       **  Polarity 

       **  Correspondence

       **  Gender

       **  Rhythm

       **  Vibration

       **  Cause and Effect

       **  Mentalism

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Page Two    (of three Pages)

*   The Three Universal Laws of Creation

**   The Law of Allowing

**   The Law of Thought

**   The Law of Intentional Creation

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Page Three   (of three Pages)

*   What is a Context, Why Are They Important and  
       How do I Create One?

*   Symbolic Versus Literal

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The Pillars of Stability

You've probably heard the saying, "Change is the only thing that stays the same."   Well, perhaps that's not completely correct.   There are certain physical laws that seem the same today as they were thousands of years ago.   One example of this is the law of gravity.   

If laws, such as the law of gravity, do change, they change so slowly that, for our lives here on Earth at the present time, we can, for all practical purposes, consider them constant and without change.   Understanding the law of gravity and understanding how to apply it your life gives you two things:  a powerful tool to use in making your life easier,  and a warning regarding the consequences of ignoring/violating the law.  

The Seven Principles of Hermes and The Three Universal Laws also fall into the category of the immutable and the unchangable.   They, too,  are powerful tools you can use to make your life easier,  and like the law of gravity, they have serious consequences for those who ignore them.   

The following discussion is for those who use knowledge to create wisdom.

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The Seven Principles of Hermes --

Wisdom of the ancient philosopher, Hermes Trismegistus.

Understanding these seven laws offers you opportunities to see, hear, and to experience aspects of reality that would otherwise remain in the unnoticed shadows of your life.   

1)  Mentalism -- "Everything is mental;  the Universe is
     a mental creation of the All."

2)  Correspondence -- "As above so below;  
      as below so above;  as within so without;
      as without so within."

3)  Vibration -- "Nothing rests; everything moves; 
      everything vibrates."

4)  Polarity -- "Everything is dual; everything has poles;
      everything has its pair of opposites;  opposites are 
      identical in nature, but different in degree;  extremes
      meet; all truths are but half truths."

5)  Rhythm -- "Everything flows out and in; 
      everything has  its tides;  all things rise and fall;  
      the pendulum-swing manifests in everything;  
      the measure of the swing to the right is the measure
       of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

6)  Cause and Effect -- "Every Cause has its Effect;   
       every Effect has its Cause;  everything happens
        according to the law;  chance is but the name for
        a law not recognized;  there are many planes of
        causation, but nothing escapes the law."

7)  Gender --  "Gender is in everything;  everything has its
      Masculine and Feminine Principles;  Gender manifests 
      on all planes."

The above principles are quoted from a book describing the ancient wisdom taught by Hermes Trismegistus.    The modern-day book is titled,  "The Kybalion: Hermetic Philosophy."    To access the complete text of this book on the web, see  The Suggested Readings page on this web site.

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Let's look for a moment at the fourth principle, polarity, to see some examples of what it might tell us.   

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4)   Polarity --  "Everything is dual; everything has poles;       everything has its pair of opposites;  opposites are  identical in nature, but different in degree;  extremes  meet; all truths are but half truths."

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How many opposites can we think off?  Here's a partial list: 

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Is there anything in life that has only one side?   Can you know know left without right; hard without soft; or beauty without ugliness?

Think of all those things that, at first glance,  seem to us to be so different.   Are they actually different, or do they,  like wet and dry, meet and blend somewhere in the middle?   Where does night end end and day begin?   Is there a dividing line hiding somewhere between high and low?   When hot meets cold, how does one become the other?   Are these things really different or  are they merely opposites poles of the same thing? 

Are all truths actually only partial truths?  Is anything ever complete, or is there always more to every story?  What about all those things you are so sure about?  Are you certain that you know the whole truth?

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Multiple Points of View:   

Let's look at the concept of perspective (one's point of view) for a moment and see if truth could have poles -- to see if there could be more than one version of something that already appears to be the complete truth.   For example, from how many points of view can can you see something as simple as a dot of light?  You look at the dot and say, "One!  I see it plainly right here in front of me.   It's a dot of light and only a dot of light."   

Well is it?   There are usually several different mental points of view (beliefs about something) that give the same thing (or event) several different meanings, and there are countless  different physical perspectives (different places from which to look at a physical object)  Lets take a physical ride and see what differences one's viewing position can have upon the perception of something that seems to be a simple dot of light.   

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A Not-So-Simple Train Ride:   

Imagine yourself riding in the caboose (the last car) of a train with two friends.  You are lying on the floor looking up when you notice a dot of light above you.   You point to the dot and say to your friend who is sitting with his (her) back against the side of the train car,  "What's that?"  He looks to where you are pointing and says it's a vertical line with a dot moving up and down from one end to the other.   

At first you think he's crazy because you see only a dot, but he sounds so sure of himself that you roll over to him,  sit up beside him,  and look at the dot from his perspective.   Sure enough, you see the line and the dot just as he just described it to you.  

Now let's add a second line and dot to our imaginary journey.  Pretend that you and your friend are now sitting at the side of the railcar looking at two vertical lines, each line with a dot in it that is moving up and down along the line from one end to the other.  

Your curiosity inspires you to move back to the place on the floor where you were lying when you saw the first dot of light.   You look again at the two lines.   The one you first noticed, looks like the dot you saw before, but the other one looks like a horizontal line with a dot in it.   The dot appears to be moving along the line, first toward one side of the rail car and then toward the other in a rhythmic pattern.   You wonder, how a vertical line could became a horizontal line?  You move back the the side of the car and look again.   From there, you see the image as two vertical lines and the two dots.  

Meanwhile, your other friend, has been standing looking out  back of the train watching the scenery.   You call to him, and as he turns, you  point to the two lines you ask,  "What do you see?"  He says, "I see a circle  with a dot moving around the circle.   Beneath the circle there's a  straight, virtical line with a dot moving up and down along the line.

"How can that be?" you say.  "We see only two vertical lines."  After a moment, you both get up and go the the back of the car and from there you see exactly what you friend described.   

At this point, you hear the sound of the engineer's whistle and feel the train slowing down.   All three of you look out the window wondering what caused the change of speed.    The circle, the line and the two moving dots are temporarily out of mind, as you focus on what's outside the train.    

Although you don't see anything out there worth blowing a whistle for, you  soon begin to notice that, as the railcar moves, what you see inside the car stays pretty much the same, but the view outside is a dynamic, ever-changing picture.   You also notice that the rate at which the exterior scene changes is directly proportional to the speed of the train.   Try as you may to grab and hold onto a pleasing scene, it's unreachable, intangible, un-grabable, and almost unreal as it fades into the distance only to be replaced by still another scene.   The scene outside appears to you as an ever flowing cycle which  seems to have neither a beginning nor an end.   At least, there's no beginning or end anywhere in  sight.   The scenery you've past is gone and no longer visible.  You wonder if it's still there.  That which lies ahead is equally as un-seeable.  

The saying of a famous philosopher pops into your mind.   You don't remember her name, but you do remember her words:   "When I finally got there, I realized there was no there there."   You know that she was talking about a state of being and not something physical, but just for a moment, you wonder if what lies ahead of you will be there when you get there.   And since it, too, is continually moving and changing, you know that when you do get there it will be different from what it is right now.  

At the moment, the only outside-the-train-scene that is visible to you  is the scene that's right-here right-now, and that too, is continually changing.   

As the train rolls along the tracks, you look out and see a field in which a boy, sitting on a haystack, is waving at the train.   You wave back and then wonder what the circle, the line, and two moving dots might look like from the perspective of someone watching the train go by.  To the boy, the outside-scene is not moving past him.  It's more static, like the scene you are seeing inside the train.  From the boy's perspective,  the train, the dot, the line and the circle would all appear to be  moving.

To an observer watching the train go by, the vertical line is not a line at all.  It's as if the dot were riding a wave.  Those who know mathematics would say it's making a perfect sine curve as it moves along above the tracks.   And the circle is not a circle either.  It appears to be a spiral, like the coils of a stretched  spring.  One could even take the analogy further by viewing the two dots from off the Earth, but we won't go there, because I'm sure you've already gotten the message.  

After you've gotten off the train and are walking away, you notice that your perspective of the scene around you  is still changing.  The change is occurring much more slowly, but nonetheless, it's still changing.    Then it occurs to you that it's always been like that, it's that way now, and in all likelihood, it will always continue to be that way.   You realize that everything in the entire physical world can be seen from dozens, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of different points of view.   

And what about one's mental perspective?  Could that too, have multiple points of view?   Perhaps the Law of Correspondence could assist us in looking onto our minds, both personally and collectively.   

There are multitudes of colors, shapes, and directions.   Perhaps in our mental universe, too, there are multiple perceptions and  countless planes of being, for it has been said:

"In my fathers house, there are many mansions" (Jesus)

"Everything is mental;  the Universe is  a mental creation of the All."  (Hermes)

If these quotations  are true, then each perception, each plane, each mansion may very well have its own unique interpretation and application of The Seven Principles of Hermes.   

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Applying the Law:  

From this broader view of life, the inevitable question arises:   Who can say with anything but ignorance or arrogance,  "I'm right.   You're wrong.   My way is the one and only way."   

The next time someone tells you the he/she know better than you what's right for you, or that he/she know what God wants  you to do, you can smile and say, "No thank you.  I walk my own path.  I walk in the light of the truth which bows to no authority other than itself."

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2)   Correspondence --  "As above so below;  as below so above;  as within so without;  as without so within."

This law tells us that things which appear to be very different have attributes that are actually quite similar.   It also tells us that by studying one thing we can learn about something else.  That,  for example, is exactly what statistical samples are all about.   By examining a small portion of a population, a  determination can be made as to what those same attributes are for the entire population.

How many times have you heard these lines?  ---   "By their fruits, you shall know them."  ---  "As you sew, so shall you reap."   ---  "Birds of a feather flock together."  ---  "He lied about this, so he's probably lying about that."

APPLYING THE LAW:  Here's a way you can intentionally use the Law of Correspondence to understand other people.   Carefully watch those people with whom you are planning to create a relationship.   Regardless of the nature of the relationship, be it business, friend, or lover:  Whatever you see them doing elsewhere, whatever you see them doing to someone else, sooner or later, given the means, the motive, the opportunity, and sufficient incentive, they'll be doing the same thing to you.

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7)   Gender --  "Gender is in everything;  everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles;  Gender manifests  on all planes."

As you are about to see, The Seven Principles of Hermes are infinitely intertwined.  Gender is one place where that interaction is obvious.    The constant  masculine/feminine interplay, which we take so much for granted, can easily be seen as both polarity and gender.   

What is gender?   The most obvious answer is sexual attraction.   Sex is gender in action, but is there more to gender than the hunger for sexual union?

Perhaps we could look at gender as the inevitable attraction that everything has to everything else.   In that light, gravity could be viewed as an aspect of gender.   And what about love?   Love is  far more than sexual attraction.   And then, there's the desire to feel good that pulls at us in every waking moment? 

What about our constant striving for balance --  the pull to center that we feel whenever we are near either end of one of the polarities  such as hot/cold, or tense/relaxed?

Gender can be thought of as  the draw of union, the urge to merge, the striving for balance.   In that sense, electricity and magnetism are gender in motion -- motion seeking a point of union -- a point of stillness.   

Masculine is drawn toward feminine.   Feminine is drawn toward masculine.   Heat is compelled to move toward cold.   When wet and dry meet, there is an inevitable struggle to balance -- the wet moves toward dry and the dry moves toward wet.   It's another universal  law in motion.   And all things function according to these laws. 

Perhaps gender is the core of all creation.   Gender certainly is a central player in the act of creation, for when opposite poles meet, a creation occurs which transforms both poles and produces something that neither could ever become by itself.

APPLYING THE LAW:   How can you apply this principle to your life?  First, by remembering that gender is present within you and is present in everything you come in contact with.   Second by conducting a self examination to determine where when and how the compulsion called gender controls your life.    Third, by remembering that everyone you meet has a motivation, an incentive, something within them that is pushing or pulling them into action.   You may not know what that motivation is, but you can be certain that it's there.   By seeking and finding their motivation, you can short-circuit those whose intentions are malevolent, and you can move into harmony with others and co-create genuine win-win interactions.

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5)  Rhythm -- "Everything flows out and in;  everything has  its tides;  all things rise and fall;  the pendulum-swing manifests in everything;  the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

Night bows out, and day takes over only to relinquish its position to night again.   The rhythmic change goes on in seemingly never-ending cycles?   Winter and summer follow the same pattern as does everything else in physical reality.   As the song says,  "For everything there is a season; a time to laugh; a time to cry; a time to be born; a time to die.   There is a time for every purpose under heaven."

Yesterday's tomorrow has cycled into today, and, oh so quickly, will  move on to become today's yesterday, only to move again, day by day, slowly but surely becoming an indistinguishable nothing among countless used-to-be's, all of which become totally forgotten, even those days temporarily referenced by a single line in a dusty history book somewhere.    Ashes to ashes.   Dust to dust.   Like it or not, this is the nature of physical reality.   This is the nature of life on Earth.   

A master teacher said something similar to this: Gather up your treasures in heaven where rust cannot rot, where thieves cannot steal, and where con men cannot manipulate.    What does this say about all those things here on earth that we think are so very very important?   

Whatever is of great importance in your life, be it agony or ecstasy, joy or sadness, remember: "This too will pass."  And after its passing, then what?  The answer is simple - another cycle begins.  If we've learned/remembered nothing,  the same cycle repeats itself.   The external trappings may be different, but the cycle will be the same.

A Visual Imagry:  

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and relax.  Take several deep breaths and become imagine yourself sitting in the middle of a very unusual pathway.   This pathway is unique because, in addition to the normal front/back left/right directions, it also has a pathway going up over your head into the sky and another going down into the Earth below your feet.

Imagine the front/back direction as a sliding time scale between the future in front of you and the past behind you.   Imagine the left/right direction as a sliding gender scale between feminine on your left and masculine on your right.   Imagine the up/down direction as a sliding dimension scale between the physical world below and the non physical reality above.  

You are now sitting in a very special position.  You are consciously and intentionally sitting at the intersection where past and future meet, at the intersection where where masculine and feminine meet, and at the intersection where spirit and matter meet,  (Although you are usually not aware of it, you are at this triple intersection, all day long, every day, no matter where you are, what you are doing, or what you are thinking about.)   

How many other poles can you think of where you are at a point somewhere in the middle?    For example, where are you on the scale of  hot & cold,  or on the scale of desire & satisfaction?   Please also be aware that where you are right now on these scales is not a fixed position.  There is  constant rhythmic movement, first in one direction and then in the other

APPLYING THE LAW:  To apply any of these laws, 

Think of yourself as a ship with 

         a captain ( a goal/purpose)   

        a rudder  (a guidance system)  

        a sail or engine  (a means of getting there)   

Where do you want to go?

What is my purpose for my present cycle here on Earth?   Since there seems to be no single, irrefutable answer to that question, I shall take my power and position as a fellow divine being and simply declare what my purpose shall be:  

   1)   To experience joy and ecstasy to the maximum degree;  

  2)   To answer freedom's call to be, do, have, and experience
         anything I choose; 

  3)   To step into the next grander vision of who I choose to be;

  4)   To be positive or neutral if my affect upon my fellow earth
         dwellers (be they plant, animal, or human) and upon Sacred
         Mother Earth, Herself.  

  5)   To be a role model for others;  to pause and assist those
         requesting assistance; to school the unschooled; and to give
         vision to those who are just learning how to see beyond
         surface appearances.

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1)  Mentalism -- "Everything is mental;  the Universe is
     a mental creation of the All."

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One might get the impression that these seven principles are separate pieces of a grander whole.    They are and at the same time they are not.

All things are interconnected and interpenetrate each other on many levels.  Think of your two hands.    They are separate, and, at the same time, intimately tied to and dependent upon each other.    Imagine them declaring war on each other.  Sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn't it.  

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Examine, for a moment, the relationship between guilt and innocence.   

Perceived problem:  My life is miserable.

Question:   Am I responsible of making my life
                        miserable?

Answer:    The typical answer is,  I'm innocent, of course.

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Let's look at this another way.

Perceived problem:  My life is miserable.

Question:   Are you responsible for making my life
                        miserable?

Answer:    I would never intentionally do this to myself; therefore I didn't cause this, so it must be your fault   You have caused me to be miserable.    I'm the helpless victim.

Those who look outside themselves for solutions to problem have this attitude:   My intention is to force you to change you so that I can feel good.   In the mean time, I want everyone else to either help me change you,  feel sorry for me while I force my changes on you, or both of the above.

Since you are the evil one that the devil sent to torment me, I'm simple going to destroy you in any way I can.   Not only will that solve my problems, it will also be doing God's work for which I'll be rewarded in heaven. 

 revenge  

Catholics Jews Guit     

surpassed by Palistinians  

reversed guilt  --  you're  guilty

you're guilty  raised guilt to an art form and it doesn't even look like guilt is involves at all.  

Victim / responsible  define