DiotimosReading Desk

Mental life and practical action

Fear and courage

Fear; Courage; Fearlessness; Fearful

Fear and courage supply a leading pair for the proposed transformation of mental states.

From the book

The Kybalion

Three Initiates · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordFear and courage supply a leading pair for the proposed transformation of mental states.
  • In The KybalionX says that courage and fear can be transmuted into one another, while neither can be changed into an unrelated state such as love or hate.
  • In this editionFear, courage, fearlessness, and fearful retain their different forms.
  • A place to readX.7: … “that it is difficult to distinguish between them. Courage and Fear come under the same rule.” …

Meaning

Fear and courage supply a leading pair for the proposed transformation of mental states. The book treats courage as the positive direction on a shared scale and fearlessness as a further desired condition.

Use in the book

X says that courage and fear can be transmuted into one another, while neither can be changed into an unrelated state such as love or hate. The fearful person is instructed to move along the relevant line of quality. XI then makes courage and fear an example of alternating moods.

XV advises cultivating courage rather than trying directly to kill fear. The dark-room image is used to support the method: admitting light displaces darkness without having to shovel darkness away.

Places to read

  1. X Polarity · Block 7… “that it is difficult to distinguish between them. Courage and Fear come under the same rule. The Pairs of Opposites exist everywhere. Where you find one thing you find its opposite-the” …
  2. X Polarity · Block 8… “be transformed into Love, by changing its polarity. Courage may be transmuted into Fear, and the reverse. Hard things may be rendered Soft. Dull things become Sharp. Hot things become Cold.” …
  3. X Polarity · Block 9… “Hate and Love are mutually transmutable; so are Fear and Courage. But Fear cannot be transformed into Love, nor can Courage be transmuted into Hate. The mental states belong to innumerable” …
  4. XI Rhythm · Block 8… “of Depression. Likewise, your moods and periods of Courage have been succeeded by equal moods of Fear. And so it has ever been with the majority of persons—tides of feeling have” …
  5. XV Hermetic Axioms · Block 7… “the opposite quality. If you are possessed of Fear, do not waste time trying to "kill out" Fear, but instead cultivate the quality of Courage, and the Fear will disappear. Some” …

In this edition

Fear, courage, fearlessness, and fearful retain their different forms. The practical contrast belongs to the source rather than to a new therapeutic prescription.

Reading the argument

Courage can also mean acting despite fear, a possibility that complicates a single scale on which one simply replaces the other. The entry explains the author's model without promising that a thought will remove every fear or treating unsuccessful control as a moral fault.

Fear

“Fear” — 13 occurrences in 8 text blocks: VI.10; X.7–11; XI.8; XV.7.

Courage

“Courage” — 10 occurrences in 7 text blocks: X.7–11; XI.8; XV.7.

Fearlessness

“Fearlessness” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: X.8.

Fearful

“Fearful” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: X.8.