Rhythm

Use in the book

II groups tides, pendulums, the rise and fall of nations, and mental states under the same principle. VII treats cosmic outpouring and return as its manifestation. XI then gives the mental application priority: the practical aim is to become less governed by alternating moods.

Two further ideas are introduced. Neutralization shifts or counterbalances the experienced effect, while compensation asserts a balance between opposite swings. The latter is extended to capacities for pleasure and pain and, through reincarnation, to successive lives.

Places to read

1. II The Seven Hermetic Principles · Block 18“"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” …
2. II The Seven Hermetic Principles · Block 19… “to and fro; a flow and inflow; a swing backward and forward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and low-tide; between the two poles which exist in” …
3. VII THE ALL in All · Block 10… “is regarded as the beginning of the return swing of the pendulum of Rhythm—a "coming home" idea being held in all of the Hermetic Teachings.”
4. XI Rhythm · Block 1“"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” …
5. XI Rhythm · Block 7… “long since discovered that while the Principle of Rhythm was invariable, and ever in evidence in mental phenomena, still there were two planes of its manifestation so far as mental phenomena” …
6. XI Rhythm · Block 10“The Law of Compensation is that the swing in one direction determines the swing in the opposite direction, or to the opposite pole-the one balances, or counterbalances, the other. On the” …

In this edition

Rhythm remains distinct from polarity and compensation. The source's tide and pendulum vocabulary is retained as imagery, not converted into a measured law of mood.

Reading the argument

Periodicity, alternation, and historical rise and fall are not automatically the same kind of regularity. A pendulum can be described through specific conditions; an institution's decline need not repeat at a fixed interval. The author uses one image for a much wider family of claims.

Related texts

Spencer's First Principles, Part II, XI, The Rhythm of Motion, is a direct contextual comparison. VI.13 names Spencer, but The Kybalion adds its own mentalist interpretation to the relation.⁴

Rhythm

“Rhythm” — 29 occurrences in 22 text blocks: II.3, 17–18; IV.3; VI.13; VII.10; VIII.30–31; XI.1–2, 5–10, 15; XIV.5; XV.10–12, 14.

rhythmic

“rhythmic” — 6 occurrences in 6 text blocks: II.19; XI.5, 7–8, 12–13.

swing

“swing” — 40 occurrences in 17 text blocks: II.18–19; VII.10–11; VIII.30; XI.1–2, 4–5, 7, 9–10, 12–15; XV.11.

tides

“tides” — 5 occurrences in 5 text blocks: II.18; XI.1, 5, 8, 10.