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⚖ī¸ MODULE 7 — THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES
Lesson 7.6

The Principle of Cause & Effect: "Every Cause Has Its Effect"

The sixth Hermetic principle states that nothing happens by chance. Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause — from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to Indian Karma.

⏱ 12 min reading timeđŸŽ¯ Advanced beginner⚖ī¸ The Seven Principles

The sixth principle is perhaps the most confronting: there is no chance. Everything that happens to you has a cause. And everything you do has an effect. This is not punishment — it is a law, as impersonal as gravity.

⚖ī¸ Universal Causality

"Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to Law; chance is but a name for a law not recognized."

— The Kybalion

Egypt: Ma'at and the Book of the Dead

The Weighing of the Heart — the famous scene from the Egyptian Book of the Dead — is causality in its most dramatic form. After death, your heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. Every deed, every thought, every intention has a consequence — and that consequence is inevitable. Not as punishment, but as law.

India: Karma

Karma is the most elaborated system of causality in world history. Every action (karma) creates an impression (samskara) that forms a tendency (vasana) that influences future actions. The law of karma is not moralistic — it is cause and effect, pure and impersonal.

Persia: Asha

Asha — cosmic truth and order — also encompasses the principle of causality. Those who live according to Asha (truth, righteousness) reap the fruits thereof. Those who live against Asha (druj — falsehood) undergo the consequences. This is not divine caprice — it is cosmic law.

Greece: The Stoic Logos

The Stoics taught that the Logos — the universal reason — permeates everything and orders everything according to causal laws. There is no chance in the cosmos. Everything follows logically from what preceded it. Marcus Aurelius: "The cosmos is change; life is opinion."

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If chance does not exist — if everything has a cause — what causes are you setting in motion today? And what effects are you now reaping from previously sown seeds?

🌙 Contemplation / Exercise

Karma Inventory — Short Version (10 minutes)

Take a sheet of paper and make two columns: "What I sow" and "What I reap".

Write down three things you are now reaping in your life — positive or negative. For each, trace back: what was the cause? When did I sow this?

Then write down three things you are sowing now. What will the effects be? In a week? In a year? In ten years?

This is the sixth principle in action: becoming aware of the chain of cause and effect in your own life.

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Module 7 — The Seven Principles
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