Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Cause and Effect, that every cause has its effect and every effect its cause, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Correspondence, that what is below corresponds to what is above, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Gender, that gender exists in everything and every plane has its masculine and feminine, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Mentalism, that the cosmos is mental, held within a universal mind, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Polarity, that everything is dual and opposites are really only differing degrees of the same thing, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Rhythm, that everything flows out and in and has its measured swing, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates by its own Yogi Publication Society, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship rather than a modern composition. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind that same press, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, now the leading scholarly position. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the book itself as anonymous or of ancient origin rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century synthesis.
Why this is disputed. The Kybalion was published anonymously in 1908 under the byline Three Initiates, presenting itself as a distillation of ancient Hermetic wisdom transmitted outside ordinary authorship. Philip Deslippe's critical edition identifies William Walker Atkinson, the New Thought writer and publisher behind the book's own Yogi Publication Society, as its actual author on stylistic and documentary grounds, the leading scholarly position today. Parts of the New Thought and Hermetic tradition continue to present the principle of Vibration, that nothing rests and everything moves and vibrates, as anonymous or timeless rather than as Atkinson's own early twentieth century formulation.