The 7 Hermetic Principles of Birth
A remembrance of the universal laws that govern creation and the sacred art of Midwifing life.
I was walking through the halls of a Waldorf school on a quiet weekday morning, touring the campus with curiosity and wonder. There’s something different about the Waldorf pedagogy something ancient, tender, and intentional. It’s in the wooden toys, the warm hues on the walls, the reverence for rhythm, beauty and the altered states of conciouesness. And then I saw them—textbooks that weren’t mass-produced or standardized. Each one hand-created by high school students, as part of Rudolf Steiner’s vision for education that integrates art, spirit and intellect.
Waldorf education believes that we are not just here to download information—we are here to remember. To integrate. To create. That each child, like each mother in labor, is unfolding at their own sacred pace. This is quantum education.
Among these treasures, I came across one small book that stopped me in my tracks. Inside were the 7 Hermetic Principles, rendered in radiant colored pencil and sacred geometry. I could feel the vibration of the drawings—they pulsed with wisdom, with beauty, with truth.
And instantly, I was brought back to Birth. In the world of Birth, there are laws greater than any protocol or policy—laws of nature, of spirit and of creation itself.
The 7 Hermetic Principles are a core part of Hermeticism and a set of philosophical and esoteric tenets that describe the universal laws which govern our reality. They are Ancient truths that guide the unfolding of life.
When I look at Birth through this lens, everything softens and makes sense.
Let’s explore what it means to Midwife life in harmony with these sacred truths:
1. The Principle of Mentalism — All is Mind. The Universe is Mental.
Birth begins long before the first contraction. It begins in consciousness. In the dreaming, the imagining, the intentional shaping of our inner landscape. Before the waters open, before the cervix ripens, there is a thought. A vision. A frequency. The Quantum womb is seeded by this vision. And the way we think and live creates the way we give birth.
2. The Principle of Correspondence — As above, so below. As within, so without.
Birth mirrors our inner world. The emotions we carry, the beliefs we hold, the energies we embody—they ripple into our physiology. When our inner field is aligned, birth flows. It’s not just the mother birthing the baby, it’s the baby being birthed with her, in complete energetic attunement. Our inner coherence becomes the blueprint of birth.
3. The Principle of Vibration — Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.
Labor is not linear. It is not a series of clinical stages. It is vibrational. Hormones, sound, movement, energy—all dancing together in a sacred wave. Birth is a frequency. When we stop managing it and start witnessing it, we allow the sacred pulse of life to express itself fully. Let the wave move through you, not against you.
4. The Principle of Polarity — Everything is dual; everything has poles.
In Birth, we meet the full spectrum of sensation: pleasure and pain, expansion and intensity, joy and surrender. These are not opposites—they are complements. Each one helps us open. Each one teaches us about our own power. We were never meant to avoid it all—we were meant to feel it all. This is the alchemy of feminine embodiment.
5. The Principle of Rhythm — Everything flows, out and in.
Birth moves in waves and spirals, not straight lines. It reflects the rhythm of tides, of moon cycles, of breath. It cannot be forced, scheduled or controlled. It has its own sacred tempo. When we honor that rhythm, we return to the timing of nature—and of soul. In Birth, there is wisdom in the waiting.
6. The Principle of Cause and Effect — Every cause has its effect.
Everything we do in the Birth field matters. Every word, every intervention, every presence—it all ripples. Birth is sensitive to energy. Midwifery is not passive, it is intentional. Your presence is a cause. Let your effect be one of Love, reverence and integrity. What we imprint in Birth is carried through our lineage.
7. The Principle of Gender — Gender is in everything; it manifests as the masculine and feminine.
Birth is the dance of divine polarities. There is the masculine: holding, protecting, containing. And there is the feminine: flowing, expanding, opening. Both are needed. When we honor both energies in the Birth space, we create safety. And in that safety, Birth becomes more than just the passage of a baby—it becomes the sacred union of cosmic forces, rebirthing the World.
May we remember that Birth is a spiritual science, a ceremony of the soul and a sacred initiation.
In this way, we are returning to the knowing that Birth is not something to be managed, but a force to be reverently witnessed. Birth a cosmic unfolding where life remembers how to begin again through us.