“Man is the lesser world, formed in the image of the greater. Whatever is in the cosmos is also in him. He contains the stars in his spirit, the elements in his body, and the angels in his soul.” - Robert Fludd, (Utriusque Cosmi, Vol. II)
Cosmologia (The Macrocosm) – the “Greater World,” dealing with the divine, the cosmos, the elements, angelic hierarchies, and metaphysical structure of reality.
Anthropologia (The Microcosm) – the “Lesser World,” concerned with the human being as a mirror of the universe, including the soul, spirit, body, medicine, and arts.
"The spirit of man has not merely come from the stars and the elements, but there is hidden within him a spark of the light and the power of God. It is not empty talk if Moses (Genesis i.) says God created man in His own image. To be His own image created He him." — Jacob Boehme. Aurora, Preface, 96.
Created in his image
“Pythagoras said that the universal Creator had formed two things in His own image: The first was the cosmic system with its myriads of suns, moons, and planets; the second was man, in whose nature the entire universe existed in miniature. Long before the introduction of idolatry into religion, the early priests to facilitate their study of the natural sciences tamed the statue of man to be placed in the sanctuary of their temples, using the human figure to symbolize the Divine Power in all its intricate manifestations, Thus the priests of antiquity accepted man as their text-books, and through the study of him learned to understand the greater and more abstruse mysteries of the celestial scheme of which they were a part.”
― Manly P. Hall - Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire
Anthropologia - The Microcosm (The Lesser World)
- Humanity is created as the image of the cosmos, a little world—microcosm.
- All the divine and elemental forces are reflected within man:
- The soul corresponds to the angelic/intellectual realm
- The spirit (pneuma) mediates between soul and body
- The body mirrors the elemental and planetary energies
Man is the image of the entire universe.
“Man is the “center and miracle of the world”, containing in himself the properties of all creatures, both heavenly and terrestrial. Truly, God could not have chosen a better abode than in him. Therefore, in our reflection and in our investigations related to such a great Mystery, we must conduct ourselves with the most just discretion and the greatest discernment, starting from the visible to go towards the invisible, or starting from the exterior man to penetrate his being internal, secret and mystical.” — Robert Fludd (1574-1637)