Microcosm and macrocosm

Likewise, when a solution has presented itself in both a microcosmic and macrocosmic way, the patient and analyst may both believe that the fundamental conflict has been resolved and that the patient is now contained within an ongoing and well established individuation process. After all, the patient has already confronted neuroses or complexes, has had an experience of the deep unconscious, has confronted the shadow, and has now begun to integrate the anima or animus. 

FIGURE 76. Astrological unity of the microcosm and macrocosm in Athanasius Kircher s Mundus Subterra-neus (1665). The sun is the human heart and the moon the human hrain. (Courtesy J.F. Ptak Science Books.)... 

The goal of this brief review is to demonstrate the power of the spectropolarimetiy. We enter now a golden age of polarimetry. The combination of new a generation of giant telescopes, high sensitive detectors, powerful computers and fast communication open the possibility to investigate tiny structures of the spectra of cosmic objects from far ultraviolet to the radio domain for extremely faint objects, to discriminate between various physical mechanisms of radiation and to look into the early stages of the Universe. Spectropolarimetiy is now in the point of intersection of microcosm and macrocosm. 

The alchemists of this period who made useful contributions to the development of chemistry were not totally distracted by the attempt to make gold artificially. Most of these workers were iatrochemists, and Paracelsus has already been mentioned (Chapter 2). He too was influenced by the renewed interest in neoplatonism, and he applied the neo-Platonic doctrine of the microcosm and macrocosm to medicine. He saw the human body as a microcosm of all that existed in the universe (the macrocosm), and thus the organs of the body were the equivalents of the stars. Such mystical ideas resulted in Paracelsus concentrating... 

An approach that has gained attention recently is the use of model ecosystems microcosms, mesocosms, and macrocosms for testing chemicals (Chapter 4,... 

Microcosm, mesocosm, and macrocosm Small, medium, or large multispecies system in which effects of chemicals can be studied. 

Everywhere in the Universe the same patterns reappear atoms in the microcosm and stars in the macrocosm. Atoms and stars are related, for the star is the mother of atoms. This statement sums up one of the great discoveries of the twentieth century. The task of nuclear astrophysics is to draw in the details of the relationship. The creation of matter has become a subject of scientific research. The source of most atoms, or rather their nuclei, is the stars. 

See how wonderfully this all works out in Hermetic Philosophy. In the confection of the Stone, Saturn stands for the cold, moist principle, inhering in the Mercurial Water, whereas Jupiter is the warm, dry principle or the Sulphur. Throughout the work, we see first one of these principles triumphing, then the other, exactly as in human life for after all, man himself is but a more unfolded example of the Stone. He is the Macrocosm of which the Stone is the Microcosm, and the parallelism between the two is marvellous. That is why the Stone has so great an affinity for man and becomes the panacea for all his ills. Those who desire to unfold this treasure must voluntarily fulfill all conditions to the mastery thereof. 

Settling in Egypt from 640 onwards, the Arabs found manuscripts and inscribed tablets in the pyramids. The Arabic manuscripts mention the edifice Abou Hermes at Memphis, in which Hermes (the father of Thoth ) was reputedly buried it comprised two pyramids, one for him and one for his wife. ° In the tenth century, all the conditions were therefore present for the elaboration of tales of the discovery of a tablet of instruction in a tomb of Hermes, while at the same time alchemy had become fashionable among the Arabs. One of these revelations is called The Treasure of Alexander an Arabic treatise on astrology and alchemy, it also contains reflections on the microcosm and the macrocosm, talismans, and mentions Hermes as well as Apollonius of Tyana. ... 

Hartmann promised that his students would comprehend the intimate harmonies of the universe and understand the analogous relationship between man (the microcosm) and the macrocosm. The library, it seemed, was not going to be the only place where this new kind of medical student could be found. Hartmann proclaimed that the natural physician had to dwell in the whole world, fly over its seas, and burst through the ramparts of the heav-... 

Once the woman made this painting symbolizing her inner process, she had no need to paint again for many years she felt it represented the state in which she continued to live and, once expressed, the tension resolved and it felt like being at home. The Self, as it is represented in this painting, includes a center, the microcosm, and the macrocosm. Its wisdom is connected with Nature, even as the woman becomes more uniquely herself. 

Microcosms can be defined as controlled, reproducible laboratory systems that attempt to simulate the situation in a portion of the real world , while mesocosms are manmade, surrogate ecosystems that can be used to assess the fate and effects of chemicals at many different levels of biological organization . Mesocosms are bounded, and partially enclosed outdoor experimental systems that fall, in complexity, between laboratory microcosms and the real world macrocosm . The definition of a mesocosm has been refined further as a physically confined multitrophic... 

The idea that there is a correspondence between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic is most suggestively explored by Bmtus ... 

Eventually, the elucidation of the mechanisms of protein folding and assembly will lead to an understanding of the orders of organization which are reached in living organisms, since microcosm reflects macrocosm. 

In a manner comparable to Christian eschatology, alchemical literature insisted on its own purificatory rituals that involved the preliminary torture, death and dismemberment of the prima materia. The canonical Catholic depiction of Christ s sacrificed body was a primary source for sixteenth and seventeenth century illustrations of the tortured body in anatomical and alchemical publications. In eflfect, the practice of Paracelsian alchemical medicine and surgery had a sacramental connotation, since the physician acted on the human body in the same manner as God worked on the great universal Macrocosmic Body. In like manner, the Paracelsian physician introduced the universal panacea, a liquid form of the philosopher s stone, into the alchemical alembic that was the Microcosmic human body. This alchemical medicine was permeated with the starry virtues of the heavens and the grace of Christ s Spirit, redeeming the body and soul of the patient by granting him not only an extended life on earth, but even eternal salvation. 

Coming." At this time eschatological discourse was co-opted into the service of the esoteric sciences, most especially into alchemical theory in the twelfth century Latin translation of the Turba philosophorum (Arabic original ca. 900 AD). Christian interpolations were added to this text referring to the death and resurrection of the chemicals in apocalyptic terms." The process of distillation in Christian alchemy symbolised death and resurrection, as well as the union of Macrocosm and Microcosm. To the alchemists the death and resurrection of the stone in the manner of a human being was the clearest indication that alchemy was a divine, not a human science. 

Madathanus, Hinricus. Cosmology, or universal science. Cabala. Alchemy. Containing the mysteries of the universe, regarding God Nature Man, the macrocosm and microcosm, eternity and time explained according to the religion of Christ, by means of The secret symbols of the Rosicrucians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

Helmont, Franciscus Mercurius van. The paradoxal discourses... concerning the macrocosm and microcosm, or the greater and lesser world, and their union. Set down in writing by J.B. and now published. London Printed by J.C. and Freeman Collins, for Robert Kettlewel, at the Hand and Scepter near S. Dunstan s church in Fleetstreet, 1685. 127, 215p. 

Bai wen pian = [Bai wen pian], or, The hundred questions a dialogue between two Taoists on the macrocosmic and microcosmic system of correspondences / translated by RolfHomann. Translated by RolfHomann. Leiden Brill, 1976. x, 109 p... 

Titley, A.F. Report of discussion upon chemical and alchemical symbolism the macrocosm and microcosm in mediaeval alchemy. Ambix 1, no. 1 (May 1937) 67-69. 

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