The principle of bringing forth

A seed falls into the earth. Something is given, something receives, and something new grows. The Kybalion says that every act of creation, from a plant to a thought to a universe, follows this pattern.

The seventh principle

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

☿︎The Kybalion, 1912 edition, Chapter II

Of all seven principles, this is the one most easily misunderstood. So the first thing to know is what the word means here.

An old word with a wide meaning

"The word 'Gender' is derived from the Latin root meaning 'to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.'"

☿︎The Kybalion, 1912 edition, Chapter XIII

The Kybalion says that gender in this sense is much wider than sex. Sex is only one expression of it on the physical plane, the plane of organic life. On the higher planes, the principle "takes higher forms, but the Principle is ever the same". Its only office is "creating, producing, generating". Without it, the book says, no creation is possible, whether physical, mental or spiritual.

The book is also firm on a second point. It warns against "lustful theories, teachings and practices" that misuse this principle, and says plainly that Hermeticism contains nothing of this kind. At the same time, it does not look down on sexuality itself: "To the pure, all things are pure".

The older Hermetic writings even speak of it with reverence. In the Asclepius, a Hermetic dialogue from late antiquity, God is described as full of the fruitfulness of both sexes, and the union of man and woman is called a mystery beyond understanding, a gift in which affection, joy and divine love arise. The first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Poimandres, describes the divine mind as both male and female, and at the same time reminds its readers not to love the body above all else.

We understand this as an invitation to see love and desire, too, as part of the creative power of life: sacred where they are lived with care and respect, and never the whole of it.

Two qualities in everything

The Kybalion names the two creative qualities "masculine" and "feminine". One gives, directs and sets in motion. The other receives, nourishes and brings forth. And it says clearly that both are present in everything and in every person: "Every Male thing has the Female Element also; every Female contains also the Male Principle."

These are the words of 1908. We understand them as names for two qualities, not as descriptions of men and women. Every human being carries both. Every creation needs both.

The book also draws on the physics of its time to show the principle in the building blocks of matter. We read these passages, as before, as a teaching in the language of its time.

What this means for you

We understand the seventh principle as the key to how something new comes into being, in the world and in you. The first six principles describe how reality is. The seventh describes how it is created. It asks you to see yourself not only as someone who understands life, but as someone through whom life creates.

Every idea you bring into the world, every relationship you nurture, every change you make in yourself, needs both qualities: a clear impulse and a receptive ground. Too much impulse without ground, and nothing takes root. Too much ground without impulse, and nothing begins.

Gender on every plane

The Kybalion teaches that the principle takes a different form on each plane. On the physical plane it shows itself in the reproduction of living beings. On the mental plane it shows itself in how ideas are conceived and brought forth, which the next lesson explores. And on the spiritual plane, the book says, it is at work in creation itself. The form changes. The principle, giving and receiving that bring forth something new, remains the same.

Two qualities in daily life

You can see both qualities in ordinary things. A piece of writing needs a first impulse and then patient drafting. A house needs a plan and the patient work of building. A good conversation needs speaking and listening. A friendship needs both initiative and receptiveness. When one of the two is missing, things either never begin or never take root.

What this means for your path

We understand the seventh principle as the completion of the path. The first six principles taught you to see: mind, correspondence, movement, poles, rhythm, causes. The seventh invites you to create. Not grand works necessarily, but a life that is shaped consciously, one small beginning at a time.

The same thought, elsewhere

In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells of seed falling on many kinds of ground. Some fell on stony places, some among thorns:

"But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold."

Matthew 13:8, King James Version (1611)

Laozi speaks of the valley spirit that never dies, which he calls the mysterious feminine: the open, receptive emptiness from which all things come forth.