The Hermetic Occult principle of vibration originates in Egyptian philosophy, and underpins most magical systems.
Hermes is the Greeks version of Egyptian God Thoth also known as Tehuti.
The idea stems from the cosmological model whereby the manifest world was created by a divine utterance of sound; it is this sound that both brings forth and sustains creation. The Hermetic Gnostics viewed this vibratory motion as polar; the higher the vibration, the closer to the divine, and vice-versa. However, the world of man and the world of the divine were inextricably intertwined via these vibrations, so influencing the vibration of one influenced the other.
This is expressed in the "Hermetic Axiom," "As above, so below," first expressed in the Emerald Tablet, which may date as early as the first millennium BCE.
Early Egyptian practices were based on the notion that this creative principle could be tapped through the power of the voice; an idea echoed in many other magical cultures, including Norse rune-singing; Hebrew Kabbalah is modeled on a similar principle.
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."-The Kybalion.
The Teachings are to the effect that Spirit is at one end of the Pole of Vibration, the other Pole being certain extremely gross forms of Matter. Between these two poles are millions upon millions of different rates and modes of vibration.
Modern Science has proven that all which we call Matter and Energy are but "modes of vibratory motion," and some of the more advanced scientists are rapidly moving toward the positions of the Occultists who hold that the phenomena of the Mind is likewise as modes of vibration or motion.
In the first place, science teaches that all matter manifests, in some degree, the vibrations arising from temperature or heat. Be an object cold or hot-both being degrees of the same things-it manifests certain heat vibrations, and in that sense is in motion and vibration.
All particles of Matter are in circular movement, from corpuscle to suns. The planets revolve around suns. The molecules of which the particular kinds of Matter are composed are in a state of constant vibration and movement around each other and against each other. The molecules are composed of Atoms, which, likewise, are in a state of constant movement and vibration.
The atoms are composed of electrons, protons, ions etc., which also are in a state of rapid motion, revolving around each other, and which manifest a very rapid state and mode of vibration.
The Universal Ether, which is postulated by science without its nature being understood clearly, is held by the Hermeticists to be but a higher manifestation of that which is erroneously called matter-that is to say, Matter at a higher degree of vibration.
The Hermeticists teach that this Ethereal Substance is of extreme tenacity and elasticity, and pervades universal space, serving as a medium of transmission of waves of vibratory energy, such as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc. The Teachings are that The Ethereal Substance is a connecting link between the forms of vibratory energy known as "Matter" on the one hand, and "Energy or Force" on the other; and also that it manifests a degree of vibration, in rate and mode, entirely its own.
