Polarity

"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites. Opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree."

Historical interpretation

Hermetic and later esoteric texts treat hot and cold, light and dark, love and hate, as ends of a single continuum. The work of the practitioner is not to be trapped in one extreme but to understand how to move along the scale. Alchemically, this shows up in combining, reconciling, or transcending opposites rather than just choosing a side.

Current-day interpretation

Emotionally and mentally, our "opposites" are often just different intensities of the same energy. Love and hate are both strong interest; fear and excitement both accelerate the system. Recognizing this gives us leverage: instead of trying to kill one pole, we can shift and rebalance it.

Relatable example

Imagine temperature. There is no clear line where "cold" ends and "hot" begins; it is all degrees of the same thing. A 60°F day feels warm after a week of snow and chilly after a heatwave. The label changes based on where you stand on the spectrum. Our moods and opinions work the same way. What feels like "I absolutely hate this" can, over time and context, slide toward "I am oddly fascinated by this" without the underlying energy ever completely changing categories.