The Kybalion Lexicon

About these entries

This lexicon gathers the key words, distinctions, images, named authorities, and scientific terms of The Kybalion. It follows the original introduction and all fifteen chapters, selecting 92 substantial entries from the whole work. It is a companion for close reading, with definitions, the development of a term in the argument, passages to read, editorial observations, attested English forms, and cross-references.

The entries are arranged in eight subject groups and alphabetically within each group. Each article begins with At a Glance, followed by Meaning, Use in the book, Places to read, Reading the argument, wording, attested forms, and See also. Related texts appear where a specific comparison has been checked. Since The Kybalion was written in English, the wording sections discuss its original English expressions rather than choices made by a translator.

The lexicon explains the book on its own terms while distinguishing the author’s claims from historical or scientific evidence and from the present interpretation. It does not treat a metaphor as an experiment or an attribution as a proved authorship. Interpretive headwords such as Immanence, Unity, and Motion and frequency sometimes gather a concept under a familiar label that is not itself attested in that exact form.

The alphabetical index includes alternative terms and names, while the passage key gives the opening words of every numbered source block. The entries vary in length with their role in the book. The selection is comprehensive as a reading companion, rather than an exhaustive dictionary of every English word or a census of every possible theme.

How to use the references

References such as VI.13 identify chapter VI, text block 13, in the electronic copy text used here. Intro.1 identifies block 1 of the original introduction. These are new lexicon reference numbers, not historical paragraph numbers or page numbers in the earlier annotated edition. Use the passage key to find a block by its opening words in that edition or another copy.

A text block is a paragraph, a separately set maxim, a list, or one of the numbered principle subheadings in chapter II. Chapter headings, the closing signature, FINIS, front matter, and Gutenberg’s licence are excluded from the numbered reading corpus. The signature is quoted as bibliographical evidence in the Kybalion entry, where its locator Intro.11 is marked as a signature. No later chapter numbers are shifted by these exclusions.

Places to read gives selected exact excerpts, not an entire passage or a substitute for its context. Ellipses outside the quotation show omitted words at its beginning or end. An excerpt may include a statement disputed by the editorial discussion. The surrounding entry explains the importance of the passage.

Words and forms in the text is a computed lexical concordance of the original introduction and chapters, excluding the signature and FINIS. Counts use whole-word or whole-phrase boundaries and ignore case except for THE ALL, ONE, SPIRIT, and capitalized Will. Quotation marks form part of the search for the I and Me. Forms may overlap, so their counts should not be added. A count reports occurrences of spelling, not occurrences of a single philosophical sense. All matching block locations are supplied; a range such as IV.15–18 includes each intervening block.

Related-text notes identify the particular comparison used. They do not assert a direct influence unless the book itself names the source. The brief source list records what was actually consulted. Cross-references lead to the relevant full entry. The alphabetical index includes alternative terms and names.

Editorial note

The copy text is Project Gutenberg ebook 14209, the same transcription used for the accompanying annotated reading edition. This separate lexicon does not reproduce the full book. Source excerpts retain its wording and apparent errors, including Imminent in VII.4 and Sanoni in VIII.25. The entries explain immanent and Zanoni openly instead of concealing those differences inside quotations.

The essays are editorial interpretations. The work has not received independent specialist review or a line-by-line collation against a first-edition scan; those remain appropriate steps before publication as a critical or scholarly edition.

The underlying 1908 English work is public domain in the United States. That statement concerns the historical text, not the new commentary or material in later editions. No modern introduction, translation, or annotation has been reproduced here. The bibliography distinguishes primary texts, institutional definitions, and a publisher description used for attribution.

Three Initiates The Kybalion

Project Gutenberg ebook 14209. Electronic English copy text used for the entire lexicon. Its preliminary matter bears a 1912 notice; the work first appeared in 1908. This lexicon does not claim a collation against a first-edition scan.

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Early edition record

Open Library record for the 1908 Yogi Publication Society edition, used for the original publication year.

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William Walker Atkinson Dynamic Thought

Chapters I–II and XI–XVI are contextual comparisons for universal life, mind, force, and practical thought. The signed primary text was consulted through Project Gutenberg.

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Isaac Newton translation of the Emerald Tablet

Keynes MS 28. Normalized transcription of Newton’s English translation, consulted for the above and below formula. This is a particular textual parallel, not a witness to the complete seven-principle list.

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Herbert Spencer First Principles

Project Gutenberg transcription of the 1863 printing. Part I on the Unknowable and Part II chapter XI on the rhythm of motion provide the comparisons used here.

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Thomson Jay Hudson The Law of Psychic Phenomena

First published 1893; Gutenberg transcribes a 1904 printing. Chapter II, Duality and Suggestion, is the primary context for the quotation and labels in Kybalion XIV.

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Edward Bulwer Lytton Zanoni

Primary text consulted to identify the title alluded to as Sanoni in the Kybalion copy text at VIII.25.

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Metropolitan Museum Head of Hermes Thoth

Collection record 700048. The object and curatorial account were consulted for the ancient association of Hermes with Thoth, rather than for the legendary biography narrated in The Kybalion.

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Philip Deslippe edition publisher description

The Kybalion, 2011 edition. The Penguin Random House publisher description was consulted for the modern attribution to Atkinson. The full modern introduction was not consulted.

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IUPAC Gold Book Cathode

Terminological reference consulted for the definition of a cathode as an electrode at which reduction occurs.

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IUPAC Gold Book Ion

Terminological reference consulted for an ion as an atomic or molecular particle with a net electric charge.

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Nobel Prize J J Thomson facts

Institutional account consulted for the 1897 cathode-ray work and its relation to electrons as atomic constituents.

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