The Principle of Mentalism

What this is

Mentalism is the first of the seven Hermetic principles, the foundation on which the others stand. It holds that the All is Mind and the universe is mental: that everything which exists is held within a living consciousness, the way a thought is held in yours. Reality, in this teaching, is not dead stuff but living thought.

What it governs

In this Oracle, Mentalism answers to the Sun, the radiant centre and source from which all light proceeds, as mind is the source from which all experience proceeds. It rules the realm of consciousness itself, the central holding-place where every experience appears. Through the Sun it touches Tiphareth, the heart of the Tree, the seat of the self that holds your world.

Its properties

Its axiom is plain: the All is Mind, the Universe is Mental. Its teaching is that reality is held in consciousness, so to change the holding is to change what is held. Like the Sun to which it answers here, it is the source-light at the centre, gold in colour and metal, its stone the topaz that catches and gives back light. Its strength is the power to remake experience from within; its shadow is the inflated mind that, mistaking its own thought for the whole, swells into hubris and sets itself up as a false sun.

Where else it appears

This is the same note as the teaching that the world is mind-made: the doctrine that all things are preceded by and made of mind, the contemplative claim that consciousness is the ground of being, the seer's lived knowledge that the inner image alters the outer day. The solar heart of the Tree, the maxim that the All is Mind, and the mystic's one-consciousness cosmos are facets of one fact, that what holds reality can reshape it.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

On the Oracle, Mentalism rises with the solar currents of the day and the Sunday surfaces, and behind any reading concerned with the self and the quality of your awareness. When its note is strong, read it as a call to mind your mind: the day will answer the consciousness you bring to it. Change the holding before you try to change the held.

Why it matters

Mentalism matters because if reality is mental, then the first and truest work is always inner, and you are never as powerless as circumstance makes you feel. It asks you to take responsibility for the consciousness you hold, since that holding is the seed of everything that follows.

Correspondences

planet

Sun

sephirah

tiphareth

day

Sunday

colour

Gold, Solar Yellow

metal

Gold

stone

Topaz, Amber, Diamond