The Principle of Cause and Effect: The Alchemist’s Law of Responsibility
- Josh Goheen
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
In this seventh article of our series on the Seven Hermetic Principles and their relationship to the alchemical path and the internal martial arts, we now turn to the sixth principle: the Principle of Cause and Effect.
At first glance, this principle appears simple—perhaps even obvious. Every effect must have a cause. Nothing happens randomly. Every event is the consequence of something prior.
In physics we learn this early. Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In classical mechanics, events unfold through predictable chains. Even in complex systems, where outcomes appear chaotic, the chaos is still governed by lawful interactions.
And yet, despite how “obvious” cause and effect seems, the deeper meaning of this law is almost entirely missed by the majority of people.
For the alchemist, however, understanding this principle is not optional. It is the foundation of inner transformation.
Cause and Effect as a Universal Law
Hermeticism teaches that nothing occurs by chance. What we call “luck” is often simply a name we give to causes we cannot yet perceive. What we call “misfortune” is frequently the delayed result of unseen choices and patterns.
This does not mean the universe is cruel. It means the universe is lawful.
The cosmos is not arbitrary. It is ordered. And that order is expressed through causality.
From the alchemical perspective, to deny cause and effect is to deny reality. And to deny reality is to remain trapped in it.
The Great Blindness of Modern Life
Modern society has developed an increasingly common habit: the habit of blaming external circumstances for internal outcomes.
When people suffer, they instinctively seek an external culprit:
the economy
the government
their parents
their partner
their upbringing
society
fate
bad luck
Certainly, external forces exist. Circumstances are real. Other people do affect us. The world contains injustice and tragedy. The alchemist is not naïve to this.
But the alchemist refuses to make circumstances the final explanation.
Because even when circumstances are harsh, the question remains:
What am I doing with what has been given? What am I choosing? What am I cultivating? What am I reinforcing in myself every day?
The average person wants comfort through blame. The alchemist wants freedom through responsibility.
The Alchemist’s Perspective: You Are the Cause
For the alchemist, the Principle of Cause and Effect becomes intensely personal.
It is not merely about physics or history or the chain of events in the world. It is about the realization that:
Your life is an effect. You are the cause.
Your actions create consequences. But so do your beliefs. So do your habits. So do the thoughts you repeatedly entertain. So do the emotional states you indulge and rehearse.
Every repeated internal pattern becomes a seed. Every seed becomes a harvest.
This is why true alchemy begins not in the laboratory, but in the mind.
Thought as Causality: The Inner Chain Reaction
If we recall the Principle of Mentalism, we understand that mind is not a passive byproduct of matter. Mind is a formative force. And if we recall the Principle of Vibration, we understand that every thought and emotional state carries a frequency that organizes our perception and behavior.
From this perspective, thoughts are not harmless.
A thought is a cause. An emotion is a cause. A belief is a cause. A repeated identity is a cause.
The outer world you experience is not merely “what happened to you.” It is shaped by what you habitually generate within yourself, and what you repeatedly reinforce through action.
This is why two people can live in the same environment and produce completely different lives. The causes they embody are different.
Taijiquan as a Living Lesson in Cause and Effect
Taijiquan is one of the most direct training grounds for this principle.
Every imbalance has a cause. Every loss of root has a cause. Every stiffness has a cause. Every collapse has a cause.
If you are uprooted in push hands, it is not because your partner is “too strong.” It is because something in you was structurally incorrect, mentally absent, or emotionally reactive. Your opponent simply revealed the cause already present.
Taiji does not allow self-deception. It is a mirror.
When your shoulders rise, the effect is tension and disconnection. When your mind scatters, the effect is loss of Ting. When you lean, the effect is instability. When you resist, the effect is being led into emptiness.
The art relentlessly teaches: the effect is always lawful.
And if you change the cause, the effect must change.
This is one of Taiji’s greatest gifts—it trains personal accountability into the nervous system.
Qigong and Neigong: Planting Causes in the Subtle Body
In Qigong, the Principle of Cause and Effect becomes even more refined.
If you practice breathing calmly, the effect is regulation of the heart and nervous system. If you cultivate Song, the effect is smooth Qi circulation. If you stand consistently, the effect is root and internal strength. If you train intention, the effect is coherence of energy and mind.
Internal arts are not magical. They are lawful. They work because they plant causes at deep levels of the human system.
But they also reveal the opposite truth: careless living plants causes as well.
Poor posture becomes chronic pain. Emotional repression becomes illness. Constant stimulation becomes anxiety. Undisciplined indulgence becomes weakness.
Whether we practice consciously or unconsciously, we are always creating causes.
The only question is whether we are creating them deliberately.
Victimhood vs. Power
Here we must be careful, because this principle can easily be misunderstood.
The Principle of Cause and Effect does not mean that every hardship is “deserved” in a moral sense. It does not mean compassion is unnecessary. And it does not justify cruelty or dismissal of those who suffer.
What it does mean is that victimhood is a dead end.
Victimhood removes the practitioner from the driver’s seat. It claims that life is something that happens to you, rather than something you participate in creating.
The alchemist does not deny hardship, but he refuses to surrender his agency.
Even if you did not choose the starting conditions, you still choose the response.
And response is cause.
The Cause of Societies Is the Condition of Individuals
This principle expands beyond the personal level.
Communities, nations, and civilizations are not abstract machines. They are the collective effect of countless individual causes—individual choices, virtues, weaknesses, fears, and desires.
When societies decay, people argue endlessly about who to blame. But the Hermetic view is far more direct: a corrupt society is an effect. Its cause is the unrefined state of the individuals within it.
This is why the alchemist does not waste his life in endless complaint.
He understands that to change the world, we must refine the self.
A disciplined man produces disciplined actions. Disciplined actions create stable families. Stable families create healthy communities. Healthy communities create strong nations.
The outer world is the reflection of inner cultivation—or inner neglect.
This is Correspondence applied to ethics.
The True Work: Burning Away Weakness
For the alchemist, the Principle of Cause and Effect is humbling because it removes all excuses.
It reveals that much of what we call “life” is actually the momentum of our own unresolved patterns. The untrained mind is like a drunken horse: it pulls us into habits, reactions, indulgences, and distractions. Then we blame the road for where we ended up.
The alchemist stops blaming the road.
He turns inward and asks:
What weakness in me created this? What fear did I obey? What desire ruled me? What comfort did I choose over discipline? What truth did I avoid?
And then begins the real work: burning away what is unworthy.
Not through hatred of the self, but through purification.
This is the furnace of alchemy. The lead is not outside us. The lead is within us.
Freedom Through Responsibility
Ultimately, the Principle of Cause and Effect is not a burden—it is liberation.
Because if your life is an effect, and you are the cause, then your life is not doomed to repetition. It is not fated to remain trapped in old patterns.
It can be changed.
Not through wishing. Not through blaming. Not through ideology.
But through disciplined inner transformation.
Change the cause, and the effect must change.
This is why internal cultivation is the highest form of responsibility. It is the decision to stop striking at the easy target of the outer world and instead confront the real source of disorder: the unrefined self.
And when the self is refined, the world around it inevitably begins to shift.
In the next article, we will explore the final Hermetic law: the Principle of Gender, examining the creative polarity that exists within all levels of nature, the interplay of generative and receptive forces, and how internal cultivation depends upon balancing these inner powers to complete the alchemical work.
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