From the world soul proceeds individual human souls, and finally, matter, at the lowest level of being and thus the least perfected level of the cosmos. From nous proceeds the world soul, which Plotinus subdivides into upper and lower, identifying the lower aspect of Soul with nature. The first emanation is nous (thought), identified metaphorically with the demiurge in Plato's Timaeus. Plotinus uses the analogy of the Sun which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby diminishing itself, or the reflection in a mirror that does not diminish or otherwise alter the object being reflected. Emanation ex deo (out of God), confirms the absolute transcendence of the One, making the unfolding of the cosmos purely a consequence of its existence even though the emanations themselves diminish the farther they are from the source, the One is in no way affected or diminished. Plotinus, in a sense, offered an alternative to the orthodox Christian notion of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), which attributes to God the deliberation of mind and action of a will, although Plotinus never mentions Christianity in any of his works. Plonitus's view of the creation of the universe is more naturalistic than Christian concept of Creation. In the context of the emanation, Plotinus explained the soul of the cosmos. Plotinus conceived this process of the creation of the cosmos as an 'emanation from the one.' He argued that 'nouse' (Greek: νοῦς or νόος mind or intellect) and 'world-soul' were emanated from the divine origin, which he called the One. Plato presented the concept of 'demiurge' (from the Greek δημιουργός dēmiourgós, Latinized demiurgus, meaning 'artisan' or 'craftsman,' literally 'worker in the service of the people,' from δήμιος 'of the people' + ἔργον 'work'), a creative deity, who designed and structured the order of the cosmos, but not the creator of the cosmos itself. Within the context of his mystical metaphysics, Plotinus developed a clearer concept of 'world-soul' (Latin: Anima mundi) than Plato's idea in Timaeus. In Plotinus' metaphysics, every being is both spiritual and material, and each being manifests these natures in varying degrees. The soul and body or the spirituality and the materiality were conceived as one fused existence, and the fusion of spirituality/materiality was applied to all beings. He conceived the cosmos and human being not as totally separated beings but as a continuous existence. The Neo-Platonist Plotinus fused the concept of microcosm/macrocosm into his unique mystical metaphysics. Plato, Timaeus, 29/30 fourth century B.C.E. Therefore, we may consequently state that: this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence.a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. He wrote on the idea of the soul of cosmos in its anthropomorphic representation: Pythagoras and his religious sect offered mathematical solutions for questions concerning the divine and conceived mathematical exercises as religious practices for the purpose of purifying the soul.Īlthough Plato did not use the terminology, a clearer concept of macrocosm/microcosm is found in his Timaeus. His understanding of the correspondence between the cosmos and man gave a framework of thought within which religious rituals, studies of mathematics and astronomy, and artistic activities are closely tied. Pythagoras conceived the number or numerical ratio as the universal principle of harmony and understood that human aesthetic experience in music and art is closed tied to the orderly movement of stars. Cosmos, thus, means not only the totality of the universe but it implies that the universe is ordered by the principle of harmony and balance. The term so used is parallel to the Zoroastrian term aša, the concept of a divine order, or divinely ordered creation.

Pythagoras is said to have been the first philosopher to apply the term 'cosmos' to the Universe, perhaps from application to the starry firmament. He, however, did not use the terminology of microcosm/macrocosm and did not have a clear anthropomorphic view of the cosmos. The idea of the correspondence or some continuity between the cosmos and human being is found in Pythagoras in an incipient form. The word cosmetics originates from the same root. Today the word is generally used as synonym of the word 'universe' (considered in its orderly aspect). It originates from the Greek term κόσμος meaning 'order, orderly arrangement, ornaments,' and is the antithetical concept of chaos.

In its most general sense, cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apian's Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539).

Microcosm renaissance