CHAPTER XIII

GENDER

    “Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine
    and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all
    planes.”—­The Kybalion.

The great Seventh Hermetic Principle—­the Principle of Gender-embodies the truth that there is Gender manifested in everything-that the Masculine and Feminine principles are ever present and active in all phases of phenomena, on each and every plane of life.  At this point we think it well to call your attention to the fact that Gender, in its Hermetic sense, and Sex in the ordinarily accepted use of the term, are not the same.

The word “Gender” is derived from the Latin root meaning “to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.”  A moment’s consideration will show you that the word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term “Sex,” the latter referring to the physical distinctions between male and female living things.  Sex is merely a manifestation of Gender on a certain plane of the Great Physical Plane—­the plane of organic life.  We wish to impress this distinction upon your minds, for the reason that certain writers, who have acquired a smattering of the Hermetic Philosophy, have sought to identify this Seventh Hermetic Principle with wild and fanciful, and often reprehensible, theories and teachings regarding Sex.

The office of Gender is solely that of creating, producing, generating, etc., and its manifestations are visible on every plane of phenomena.  It is somewhat difficult to produce proofs of this along scientific lines, for the reason that science has not as yet recognized this Principle as of universal application.  But still some proofs are forthcoming from scientific sources.  In the first place, we find a distinct manifestation of the Principle of Gender among the corpuscles, ions, or electrons, which constitute the basis of Matter as science now knows the latter, and which by forming certain combinations form the Atom, which until lately was regarded as final and indivisible.

The latest word of science is that the atom is composed of a multitude of corpuscles, electrons, or ions (the various names being applied by different authorities) revolving around each other and vibrating at a high degree and intensity.  But the accompanying statement is made that the formation of the atom is really due to the clustering of negative corpuscles around a positive one—–­the positive corpuscles seeming to exert a certain influence upon the negative corpuscles, causing the latter to assume certain combinations and thus “create” or “generate” an atom.  This is in line with the most ancient Hermetic Teachings, which have always identified the Masculine principle of Gender with the “Positive,” and the Feminine with the “Negative” Poles of Electricity (so called).