Literary notes about macrocosm (AI summary)
In literature, the term macrocosm is often employed as a metaphor for the totality of existence, contrasting with the microcosm, which represents individual or smaller systems. Authors use it to illustrate the grand order of the universe—Plato, for instance, describes the world’s soul extended in the form of a cross [1]—and to draw parallels between human nature and the universe at large [2, 3]. It conveys the idea that the structures and patterns found in ordinary life are reflections of a much broader, cosmic order, as seen when individual experiences are set against the backdrop of the vast universe [4, 5]. From allegorical comparisons where man is seen as a microcosm of the greater world [6, 7] to philosophical musings on cosmic interconnectedness [8, 9], the macrocosm remains a powerful symbol of wholeness and unity in literary discourse.
- Plato says of the macrocosm: "God has extended the body of the world on the soul of the world in the form of a cross."
— from Christianity as Mystical Fact, and the Mysteries of Antiquity by Rudolf Steiner - As Ain Suph is “One, notwithstanding the innumerable forms which are in him ,” 655 so is man, on Earth the microcosm of the macrocosm.
— from The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 of 4 by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky - And all the imagining of man passes from the small sun of the microcosm into the sun of the great Universe, into the heart of the macrocosm.
— from On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition) by Arthur Schopenhauer - Man is the microcosm; and the infinite universe, the macrocosm.
— from The Promulgation of Universal Peace by `Abdu'l-Bahá - The Macrocosm, the heavens that "declare the glory of God," reflect, as in a mirror, the Microcosm, the daily life of man on earth.
— from The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 by William Osler - That strange allegory of man, the microcosm, and earth, the macrocosm, became a sudden blazing reality.
— from The Centaur by Algernon Blackwood - Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two.
— from The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4 by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky - Does it stand to reason that the knowledge of ourselves should interest us less than that of the macrocosm, the [Pg viii] external world?
— from Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Camille Flammarion - (6) This implies the doctrine of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, of the Universe and of the individual soul as a perfect compendium thereof.
— from The Gnôsis of the Light by F. Lamplugh
