The Macrocosm and the Microcosm

The macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic Gnostic view of the secret patterns of our universe in which nature, man and all life are alchemically reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosmor sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level).

These facts are related to us by the great Hermes Trismegistus who had written, “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.”

The term Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- “Macro-” and μικρο- “Micro-,” for “large” and “small,” and the word κόσμος kósmos which means “order” as well as “world” or “ordered world.”

The Swiss German Renaissance physician, alchemist, and occultist, Paracelsus had said, “Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence.”

33rd Degree Freemason, Manly P. Hall had called man’s relationship to the macrocosm and microcosm as, “Man the Grand Symbol of the Mysteries.”

This image below represents the macrocosm and the microcosm in relation to man, from J.D. Mylius Opus Medico-Chymicum.