Principle Six
The Hermetic Principle of Cause and Effect tells us that "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause." Nothing escapes this law. It's a rhythm that weaves through all existence, a chain stretching endlessly through time, linking every moment to those that came before. But what if what we call "choice"—our belief in free will—is merely an illusion riding that current?
The Kybalion offers a cryptic clue: "The further the creation is from the center, the more it is bound; the nearer the center it reaches, the nearer Free is it." In other words, the closer we are to Source—The All, God, the Tao, the Universe, or whatever name you give the unnamable—the more we operate with true freedom. And the more we descend into density, into form, into incarnation, the more determined we become.
This is not to say life is meaningless or mechanical. Quite the opposite. It's precisely because we are bound by cause and effect that life takes on meaning. Within this framework, we experience the richness of emotion, growth, pain, beauty, and perspective. But to understand the nature of our existence, we must acknowledge the structure that holds it all together.
Cause and Effect: The Hidden Web
Most of us go through life reacting to what’s in front of us. A rock falls through a roof—we call it bad luck. But in the story found within The Kybalion, the authors point out that the rock’s fall was not random. It was the result of countless prior conditions: the gradual weakening of a cliff, weather patterns, erosion, shifts in weight, and time. That final moment, when the rock breaks through the ceiling, is simply the last link in a chain of causes that stretches back further than we can perceive.
And so it is with our lives. Every action we take, every thought we have, is shaped by causes we may not see—our upbringing, the culture we're born into, even the position of stars at birth if you go far enough. It doesn’t mean we’re puppets. It means the stage is already set before we even begin to act.
The Illusion of Choice
From our perspective, we feel like we're choosing: what to eat, who to love, where to live. But beneath those decisions are tides we rarely notice. Preferences shaped by childhood, fears rooted in ancestry, unseen beliefs, and even the timing of a conversation.
The Kybalion doesn’t say free will doesn’t exist—it says that the majority are moved by forces they don't recognize. The wise, however, begin to rise above cause and effect—not by breaking the chain, but by understanding it. The illusion of choice isn’t a failure. It’s a feature of the dream.
This brings us to a radical possibility: what if our true free will was exercised before we were even born? Before incarnation, before identity, perhaps we chose the parameters of this life—the game board, the lessons, the constraints. And once immersed in the experience, we forget.
From Source to Simulation
Imagine consciousness as descending levels of experience. At the highest level—close to Source—we are formless, free, unbound. There, we understand the interconnectedness of all things. We are the All, choosing to split off for the sake of experience.
As we descend, we take on more structure. Spirit becomes mind. Mind becomes body. The world becomes denser. With each step away from the Center, we inherit more limitation—more rules, more cause and effect. Eventually, we enter the realm of biology, time, language, identity.
By the time we're fully incarnate, we're navigating a reality not unlike a video game: rich, immersive, and deeply constrained. Sure, you can turn left or right, but the boundaries are coded. The story unfolds based on where you look, but it’s still within the rules of the simulation.
Go even deeper, and you arrive at the most foundational expressions of consciousness—like plants. They don’t choose. They are. Their role may not involve will at all, but presence. To exist. To feel light, gravity, energy, vibration. Pure experience.
Rising Above the Law
So where does that leave us? Stuck in a loop? Not quite.
The Hermetic teachings say that while you can’t escape the Law, you can rise above it. Like a surfer mastering the rhythm of the waves, the initiate learns to observe the forces at play, anticipate them, and move in harmony. They stop reacting blindly and begin creating consciously.
This is the deeper meaning of spiritual awakening—not control over life, but clarity about its motion. Meditation, mindfulness, and deep contemplation are the tools that bring us back toward the center. They reconnect us with the part of us that never left Source in the first place.
Back to the Center
What you call it—God, Source, the All, the Tao—doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is, and that we are fragments of it exploring itself. The closer we move to that remembrance, the freer we become. Not because we gain more choices, but because we see the illusion for what it is.
Maybe freedom isn’t in having more options, but in realizing we’re the one who wrote the script.
Maybe it’s not about breaking the rules, but remembering why we made them in the first place.
And maybe the real path to freedom… is returning to the Center.