Microcosm, or microcosmos (from the Greek μικρός, small, and κόσμος, order, world, universe), is the concept in ancient natural philosophy that understands humans as a miniature universe (macrocosm). This concept is known in various advanced mystical teachings and serves as the foundation for numerous metaphysical theories, asserting that the processes occurring within a person are analogous to cosmic processes and are subject to the same laws. The concept of the analogy between microcosm and macrocosm is also recognized by mythologists in cosmogonic myths about the creation of the world from the body of the First Human.
In the modern world, molecules, atoms, and smaller particles are considered the microcosm, representing the structure of the universe (the macrocosm) in miniature.
Origin of the Word
Etymologically, the word “microcosm” comes from the Greek words: “micros” (μικρός, meaning “small”) and “cosmos” (κόσμoς, meaning “world”). Therefore, “microcosm” translates to “small world,” representing the human being in relation to the “grand world,” or the “macrocosm,” which is the universe.
The term first appears in the writings of Democritus (around 430 BCE):
“Just as in the universe, we see, on the one hand, beings that only govern, on the other hand, beings that both govern and are governed […], and beings that are only governed […], in the same way, we observe in man, who, according to Democritus, is a microcosm, the same distribution.”
Galen confirms:
“The Ancients well-versed in the study of nature say that the living being is like a microcosm.”
History of Microcosm
Two philosophical lines of reasoning are distinguished within the microcosm concept: argumentation from the macrocosm to the microcosm and argumentation from the microcosm to the macrocosm. In the former case (for example, the Democritean variant), there is nothing in humans except cosmic elements, leading to a naturalistic anthropology. In the latter case, the existence of a cosmic soul or mind is often postulated, as observed in the philosophies of Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Plato, and Stoicism. This cosmic soul is often identified with the immanent pan-cosmic god.
“The place that God occupies in the world is the same as the spirit in humans, the same as matter in the world, and the same as the body in us.” — Seneca, Letters, 65, 24
In this case, the knowledge of the world or divinity often appears as self-knowledge. For instance, Heraclitus, discussing his pursuits in natural philosophy, asserted: “I sought myself.” In early Christianity, this line continues with Origen: “Know that you are another universe in miniature, and in you, there are the sun, moon, and all the stars.” However, due to the fact that the concept of the likeness of microcosm and macrocosm is fraught with heretical pantheism, this teaching remains outside the main orthodox medieval systems.
Hildegard of Bingen’s visions (12th century) also align with the concept of the likeness of humans to the universe. In these works, detailed correspondences are established between the movements of celestial bodies, winds, elements, liquids, and the physical and mental states of humans. In medieval Jewish philosophy (Kabbalah, Ibn Gabirol, “Microcosm” by Joseph ibn Zadikah – approx. 1140), the parallelism of the macrocosm and microcosm takes on a mystical character.
However, the idea of the resemblance between the universe and humans experienced a particular flourishing during the Renaissance. It serves as the foundation for new anthropology in Pico della Mirandola’s “On the Dignity of Man,” influences Cardano, Campanella, and Bruno in their notions of the universal animation of nature in natural philosophy, and is present in the medical-magical-alchemical occultism of Agrippa Nettesheim (“Occult Philosophy”) and Paracelsus (“Macrocosm and Man are One” – Paragran C 2).
In the era of mechanization in the 17th and 18th centuries, the teachings about the macrocosm and microcosm were rejected by scientific knowledge. Simultaneously, Leibniz assigns an ontological status to the concept of microcosm in his Monadology (each monad is a reflection of the universe). A revival of the doctrine can be observed in the German neo-humanism of Herder and Goethe, as well as in Romanticism, especially in Schopenhauer’s teachings on the world will. Later, this concept was embraced by the Theosophists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and further interest in the teachings about the macrocosm and microcosm was sustained by the fascination with occultism.
Egypt as the Origin
The origin of the concept of microcosm may be traced back to Egypt, where parallels were drawn between the birth, death, and metamorphoses of humans and the world:
“Here is the philosophy of the Egyptians… According to them, the world has a beginning, it is corruptible and spherical… The soul endures and reincarnates [an error from Herodotus; in fact, Egypt acknowledges metamorphoses, not reincarnations].” (Diogenes Laertius, I, 10-11, p. 71).
Pythagoras (around 530 BCE) developed the concept of the microcosm. A later text attributes the following statement to him:
“It is said of man that he is a microcosm [a term coined later by Democritus], not because he is composed of the four Elements – for this is also true of every living being, even the most rudimentary – but because he possesses all the values of the cosmos. In the cosmos, indeed, there are gods and also the four Elements [discovered later by Empedocles], irrational animals, and plants. Man possesses all these values. He has, indeed, a divine virtue, reason; he has the natural capacities of the Elements: to nourish, develop, and procreate. However, he is imperfect in each of these values, and, just as the complete athlete who lacks the necessary form for all the events is inferior in each to the one who practices only one sport, so man, who holds all the values, suffers from insufficiency in each of them.”
Plato, in the Timaeus, implicitly introduces the idea of the microcosm. Similar to the Soul of the World, the soul of man performs both motor and cognitive functions: it possesses life and intellect (Timaeus, 43-47). The human body also participates in this analogy. For instance, “the particles of blood, finely divided within us and circularly enveloped like a sky due to the cohesion that characterizes every living being, are compelled to imitate the movement of the universe” (Timaeus, 81a). Above all, the human body is structured like the world: the demiurge selects regular triangles to generate Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and, after mixing them, produces the marrow that forms the brain, spinal cord, bone marrow, and semen (Timaeus, 73).
Bernard Silvester, in his De mundi universitate, sive Megacosmus et Microcosmus (1145), echoes Platonic philosophy. The book first considers the grand world, then the small world, namely, man.
Hildegard of Bingen follows the philosophy associated with the idea of the microcosm in her works, which are beautifully illustrated. In the Book of Divine Works (1174), the macrocosm is depicted by an outer circle, held by a figure representing Christ: his arms surround the macrocosm; at the center of the miniature, a figure, with feet together and arms outstretched, represents the microcosm, a man according to Vitruvius, equal in all his parts. Since the creation of man occurred in the same way as that of the world, there exists a close resemblance between the functions performed by the elements and the role of the body’s parts: the head corresponds to fire, the chest to air, the abdomen to soft and fertile earth, and the feet to water, namely, the various rivers that divide across the earth.
Honorius of Autun, in his Elucidarium, asserts that “man has earth (flesh), water (blood), air (breath), and fire (heat). His head is round like a celestial sphere, and his eyes shine like the two luminaries of the sky.”
Alain de Lille, in turn, revisits the idea that man is a microcosm in the image of nature, with its parts corresponding through hidden correspondences.
The Renaissance enthusiastically embraces the notion of the microcosm.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola:
“The nature of man, as the link and knot of the world, is situated at the middle level of the universe. And just as every medium participates in the extremes, so man, through each of his parts, communes and corresponds to all parts of the world. For this reason, it is customary to call him the Microcosm, that is, a little world.”
The theorist Paracelsus in 1571 believed that the microcosm is the natural, mortal aspect of man, not his totality:
“The microcosm is man according to nature. Because nature is dual, God has placed two magnets in him. One attracts the substance of the elements to pass into flesh and blood. The other draws in the sidereal influences with which our sensitivity and reflection are nourished. Thus, man has two natures, one mortal and the other immortal. The world has two bodies, one visible, the other invisible… True wisdom is the true image of God. The animal man is only the beginning of evolution; the divine man, freed from impurities, is the quintessence, the realized microcosm. He was formed from the matter and spirit of the world. What is in him is the world… However, to obey the divine Law, man must satisfy everything that his double condition as an image of God and an image of the macrocosm demands of him. He must live in two abodes: in nature and in conformity with it, above nature and in union with the divine will, with the Spirit of God.”
Papus, the master of neo-occultism:
“A single law governs the constitution of the universe. There is a Small Universe having in itself all the laws of the grand universe, and by analogy, one can rediscover all general laws. This small universe is the microcosm or Microcosm: it is man. Alongside this summary made in the image of the grand universe, there is this Grand Universe, the Omniverse of Michel de Figanières, or the macrocosm, Macrocosm, or grand universe of the initiatic tradition. The Macrocosm forms the body of God. This body of God, whose suns are the central organs, and the planets, the cells, is no more God himself than our body is our self. It is the support of the divine or astral forces in circulation.”
In Islam and Judaism
The analogy of the microcosm and macrocosm is also found in Muslim and Jewish literature. It was introduced into Jewish tradition by Philo of Alexandria, who borrowed it from the Stoics. It has become commonplace in Jewish philosophy and theology. It is found in Avot of Rabbi Natan, Ibn Gabirol’s Source of Life, and is the central theme of Joseph ibn Tzaddik’s “The Microcosm.” Maimonides mentions the analogy at the beginning of Chapter LXXII of the Guide for the Perplexed.
In the Muslim world, the analogy of the microcosm and macrocosm is a theme present in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, which may have inspired Joseph ibn-Çaddik. It also holds a significant place among certain Sufis, such as Ibn Arabi: “The human being occupies the end of the hierarchy of Creation, as a microcosm containing within itself the entirety of the cosmos.”
Multilayered Constitution of the Microcosm
What is a human? Is one composed only of skin, flesh, bones, and veins? Oh no! The real human consists of the Soul, and all that is called skin, flesh, bones, and veins is merely a covering, an external shell, not the human itself. When a person dies, they shed all the garments in which they are clothed. <…> But these are only external garments because within hides the deep mystery of the Heavenly Human. — “Zohar”
Three-part Constitution
In the conception of the occult doctrines of Hermeticism, the constitution of a human is divided into three main planes: physical (bodily, material), psychic, and spiritual.
- The physical plane includes not only the body itself but also a special, most “dense” part of the soul, the so-called vital body (or etheric body), which Kabbalists refer to as nefesh. The vital body is often described as a ghostly, exact copy of the physical body. It is attributed to the responsibility for the organism’s functions that consciousness rarely notices or cannot control at all, such as circulation, heartbeat, breathing, regeneration, growth, etc. When a person falls ill, their vital body “becomes more transparent and exhausted to the extent that the visible body shows its emaciation,” as stated by M. Handel.
- The soul (ruah in Kabbalah) — (sometimes this principle is subdivided into the body of desires and the mind, with the latter being highlighted) — is the place where the mutable and restless self is located, which the person knows and in which they become self-aware. It is the body of desires that prompts a person to seek a sense of satisfaction.
The body of desires is perceived through spiritual vision as an egg-shaped cloud, extending from sixteen to twenty inches beyond the physical body. It is above the head and below the soles, so the dense body sits in the center of this egg-shaped cloud like the yolk in the center of an egg. <…> When we look with spiritual vision, we see that in the body of desires, there are numerous swirling vortices. We have already explained that the characteristic of the substance of desire is constant movement, and from the main vortex in the area of the liver to the periphery of this egg-shaped body, a beating stream pours out, returning to the center through many other vortices. The body of desires is colored with various colors and shades known to us, as well as numerous others that defy description in our earthly language. These colors change in each person according to their characteristic traits and temperament; they also change from time to time, as their mood, inclinations, and emotions change. — Max Gendel, “Mysteries of the Rosicrucians”
- The spirit — the true self of a person, the most sublime, immortal principle. In Kabbalah, the spirit is divided into Yehidah, meaning the Only, Unique, the Real Self (also Habs or Star), Chiah, which is Will or the Creative Principle, and Neshamah, which is intuition and the ability to understand the Will of Habs.
The three-part constitution of a person is also presented in Christian mysticism.
Microcosm in Kabbalah
In Kabbalah, the structure of the micro- and macrocosm is revealed in the system of five worlds. The multilayered constitution of a person is also described in Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Theosophy. (See the article on Subtle Bodies).
