The Principle of Cause & Effect ♻️

∴ Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.

Nothing happens by mere chance. Every effect has a cause, and every cause produces an effect. 'Luck' or 'coincidence' is simply a cause whose origin we haven't identified. There are many planes of causation: physical, mental, spiritual.

The wise person angles to become a Mover rather than just a Moved. At different times, we are all causes and effects; we are butterflying them out every time we act or speak. Mastery here means raising your consciousness to a higher plane of causation, where your effects can bloom across creation. The Hermetic philosopher understands that mental causes always land in material effect.

SCHOLARLY NOTE

The assertion 'Chance is but a name for Law not recognized' is a strong deterministic claim. This echoes Stoic heimarmenē (fate) but adds the Hermetic twist that mastery of higher planes of causation grants agency, reconciling determinism with free will.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Taking radical responsibility ⚓ for one's life circumstances. Recognizing that every situation has antecedent causes — many of them mental. Choose to become conscious of one's causative patterns rather than passively experiencing their effects 👁️.

Stoicism 🏛️

Stoic determinism (heimarmenē) held that Logos orders all events in an unbroken causal chain. Prohairesis — moral choice — emphasized choosing how to respond.

Buddhism 🪷

Karma is the Buddhist expression of Cause and Effect. Pratityasamutpada (dependent origination) maps how ignorance causes craving, which causes suffering.

Taoism ☯️

All actions have rippling consequences. Wu wei means acting in harmony with natural causality — understanding the causal web and acting minimally but effectively.

Jungian Psychology 🪞

Synchronicity — 'an acausal connecting principle' — reveals an underlying ordering principle that complements rather than negates linear causality.

For reference: https://hermetica.invisiblecollege.live/