The Microcosmic Razor

Below is an essay which I have been working on over the last weeks months, any criticism would be appreciated.

Microcosmic Razor.

            Everything is a microcosm.

            A some what bold statement, but consider the following examples and theories.

            The patterns of ‘veins’ on leaves look very much like the shape of the trunk and branches of the tree itself (or the roots). This pattern is repeated on a larger scale in rivers. If we could look at it from far enough away, there might be something on a cosmic scale which also looked like that.

            Each individual cell which makes up an egg, looks very much like the egg itself. Which also resembles a planet or a star (what with its core and outer layers)

Scientists believe that an ‘atom’ looks very much like how they consider the solar system to look, and our solar system exists on a similar model to a galaxy, and the universe is likely to look like lots of galaxies spinning around a central point- a bit like an ‘atom’

A human body correlates to the five elements (head for spirit, right hand for earth, right foot for air, left foot for fire, left hand for water). This is symbolised by the pentagram. (Remember the Leonardo da Vinci drawing with the man inside the circle and the square?)

If you swirl a bowl of cereal or a half full pint of ale, you get a pattern that looks very much like a mini galaxy.

None of these examples are conclusive- at all- but they hint at greater things.

The human mind is constantly looking for patterns and correspondences. This is a way of thinking that we need to survive; if our ancestors had not noticed that certain animals ate certain things (such as us), or that certain things grew at certain times of the year, we would not be here now. Without noticing the patterns of seasons, they would have starved or frozen. Without noticing that night and day worked in a circular pattern, they would have gone mad.

Not only were early people aware of patterns in the world, it seems that they were also aware of the microcosmic nature of these patterns. This can be seen their monuments (see Mounds and Microcosms) and myths. (Creation and post death myths tend to have a circular nature, like the changing of seasons, or night and day).

  The most obvious and perhaps most important pattern is that of circular motion. The moon moves around the earth in a circle, which effects its phases, the tides and the menstrual cycle. The earth moves around the sun (or the sun around the earth) in a circle which effects day and night and the seasons. Hence most early beliefs regarding life and the cosmos being circular, for example reincarnation, or the continued creation and destruction of the earth, as in the Ragnarok. If most important things going round in endless circles, it is not unreasonable to assume other things- like life- do the same (in fact this can be observed in plants).

Another important pattern is that of pendulum motion, which can be observed in many physical objects, and in the tides. It is the idea that ‘what come up must come down’ and that any deviation from a central point (or state of balance, neutrality or harmony) must correct itself to an equal and opposite extent. This is an important part of both Hermetic philosophy and Jungian psychology.

The principal of pendulum motion is linked with the tendency for balance in nature. Things which the human mind often thinks of as polar opposites exist in a state of balance in the world. For example, the world moves between light and darkness (day and night) with a vast spectrum between the darkness of midnight and the light of midday. In the darkest night there are stars and the brightest light casts shadows. Over the course of a year, there will be equal quantities of light and darkness. The same applies, on both an abstract and a physical level, with masculinity and femininity. An equal balance between the two is necessary for the continuation of life, and there is a balance of masculinity and femininity in all things- as Jung said ‘no one is so masculine that he has no feminine in him’.    

Another, which has been observed from the Ancient Greeks onwards, but ignored by Christian cosmology and some scientific theories, is that something cannot be made from nothing. This can be seen everywhere in nature, and when applied to a cosmic scale logically necessitates the immortality of the soul, the endless recreation and destruction of the world, and an infinite universe.

The scientific idea of ‘cause and effect’ may appear to be observable in nature, but as Hume states, we do not observe one thing causing another, we observe several things happening one after the other. This supports Jung’s idea of Synchronicity.

Hermetic philosophy is based on the observation of pendulum motion, circular movement, gender balance and the microcosmic theory which these lead to. In Hermetic philosophy all things are a microcosm of The All- the Mind or Will of The Universe. The true nature of universe is said to be mental- the All is mind/spirit. All material things are representations of fractions of the All: That is the meaning of the maxim ‘as above, so below’.

Astrology is an excellent example of the application of ‘as above so below’. The stars and planets are said to correlate with the lives of people because all things are connected. All things are one. All things are microcosms.

Certain patterns repeat themselves in nature, on both a huge and a tiny scale, because all things are microcosms of the universe.

It could be said that those things which do not show patterns which are repeated on a cosmic scale are not been observed correctly.

Which exhausts my arguments for the statement that all things are microcosms.

It is not entirely conclusive, but nothing in philosophy is. As Plato wrote, ‘wisest is he who does not know’.

However, if the world is observed and considered logically, it seems likely that certain patterns will always repeat themselves in a manner of correspondence which suggests the microcosmic nature of material things.

The point is, that this observation could be used as a test for theories and beliefs. Like Occam’s Razor, there could be a Microcosmic Razor as a simple test. Those beliefs or theories which do not conform to the principals observed in nature, and therefore the universe, are impossible and therefore not valid. That which cannot be seen to be a microcosm is not logically valid.

For example, the human soul must be immortal, and run through a cycle of death and rebirth, because the same pattern is seen in the seasons and in day and night, indeed the entire universe is in a constant state of creation and destruction. Or the linear Christian cosmology could be said to be unjustifiable because nothing in the world runs in a finite, linear manner.