Macrocosm and Microcosm: Difference between revisions
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<blockquote>Man is a little world--a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a foetus, he is suspended, by all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocosmos; and while his terrestrial body is in constant sympathy with its parent earth, his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal anima mundi. He is in it, as it is in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space, and is space itself, only shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it but an infinitesimal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the Highest Cause -- the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and inorganic nature -- the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of which Proclus says that "The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eternity; the third, the paradigm, or pattern of the universe"; the three constituting the Intelligible Triad. Everything in this visible universe is the outflow of this Triad, and a microcosmic triad itself.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Isis Unveiled'' vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 212.</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>Man is a little world--a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a foetus, he is suspended, by all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocosmos; and while his terrestrial body is in constant sympathy with its parent earth, his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal anima mundi. He is in it, as it is in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space, and is space itself, only shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it but an infinitesimal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the Highest Cause -- the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and inorganic nature -- the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of which Proclus says that "The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eternity; the third, the paradigm, or pattern of the universe"; the three constituting the Intelligible Triad. Everything in this visible universe is the outflow of this Triad, and a microcosmic triad itself.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Isis Unveiled'' vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 212.</ref></blockquote> | ||
This concept also points out the fact that man and cosmos do not only share a similar structure, but also the same source and destination: | This concept also points out the fact that man and cosmos do not only share a similar structure, but also the same source and destination. As [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote in a letter to [[Allan Octavian Hume|A. O. Hume]]: | ||
<blockquote>As man is a seven-fold being so is the universe — the septenary microcosm being to the septenary macrocosm but as the drop of rainwater is to the cloud from whence it dropped and whither in the course of time it will return.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 67 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 182.</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>As man is a seven-fold being so is the universe — the septenary microcosm being to the septenary macrocosm but as the drop of rainwater is to the cloud from whence it dropped and whither in the course of time it will return.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 67 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 182.</ref></blockquote> | ||
Revision as of 16:57, 18 September 2014
Macrocosm and Microcosm are Greek compound words of μακρο ("macro", large) and μικρο ("micro", small), and the word κόσμος (cosmos), which means "order" as well as "world" or "ordered world." In the Theosophical literature the macrocosm generally represents the “Great Universe” or Kosmos[1] while the microcosm refers to the human being: "Man is the microcosm of the macrocosm; the god on earth is built on the pattern of the god in nature".[2] However, the terms Macrocosm and Microcosm may also be applied in other contexts, as referring to the higher and lower planes,[3] to human beings and animals, etc.
This idea is related to the law of correspondences asserting that man is a reflection of the universe, containing all the essential elements present in the latter. As Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
Man is a little world--a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a foetus, he is suspended, by all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocosmos; and while his terrestrial body is in constant sympathy with its parent earth, his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal anima mundi. He is in it, as it is in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space, and is space itself, only shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it but an infinitesimal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the Highest Cause -- the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and inorganic nature -- the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of which Proclus says that "The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eternity; the third, the paradigm, or pattern of the universe"; the three constituting the Intelligible Triad. Everything in this visible universe is the outflow of this Triad, and a microcosmic triad itself.[4]
This concept also points out the fact that man and cosmos do not only share a similar structure, but also the same source and destination. As Master K.H. wrote in a letter to A. O. Hume:
As man is a seven-fold being so is the universe — the septenary microcosm being to the septenary macrocosm but as the drop of rainwater is to the cloud from whence it dropped and whither in the course of time it will return.[5]
Online resources
Articles
- Macrocosm at Theosopedia
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 195.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 260.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 44 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 118.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 212.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 67 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 182.