Anima mundi - Wikipedia

Anima mundi - Wikipedia

Anima mundi

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hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article is missing information about the anima mundi in Stoicism, Platonism, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. (August 2021) This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2021) This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (September 2021)

For other uses, see Anima Mundi (disambiguation).

Illustration of the correspondences between all parts of the created cosmos, with the anima mundi depicted as a woman, from the Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia by Robert Fludd

The anima mundi (Greek: ψυχὴ κόσμου psychè kósmou; English: world soul) is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which relates to the world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body.

Although the concept of the anima mundi originated in classical antiquity, similar ideas can be found in the thoughts of later European philosophers such as those of Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schelling, and Georg W.F. Hegel (particularly in his concept of Weltgeist).

Contents

• 1Stoicism
• 2Platonism
• 3Gnosticism
  • 3.1Manichaeism
• 4Hermeticism
• 5Judaism
• 6Parallels in eastern philosophy
• 7See also
• 8References
• 9Bibliography
• 10External links

Stoicism[edit]

Further information: Stoic physics § Soul, and Pneuma (Stoic)

The Stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe.

Platonism[edit]

Further information: Neoplatonism § The world-soul, and Timaeus (dialogue)

Plato adhered to this idea,^[1] identifying the universe as a living being:

Thus, then, in accordance with the likely account, we must declare that this Cosmos has verily come into existence as a Living Creature endowed with soul and reason [...] a Living Creature, one and visible, containing within itself all the living creatures which are by nature akin to itself.

— Plato, Timaeus 30b–d, translated by W.R.M. Lamb^[2]

Plato's Timaeus describes this living cosmos as being built by the demiurge^[3] constructed as to be self-identical and intelligible to reason,^[4] according to a rational pattern expressed in mathematical principles and Pythagorean ratios describing the structure of the cosmos, and particularly the motions of the seven classical planets.^[5]

Following Plato, the anima mundi became an important component in Neoplatonic cosmology, often including its close relationship to the demiurge and the seven planets.

Gnosticism[edit]

Further information: Sophia (Gnosticism) § As world-soul

The anima mundi was borrowed from Platonist philosophy into several Gnostic sects.

Manichaeism[edit]

In Manichaeism, the anima mundi was also called the "Light Soul" and the "Living Soul" (Middle Persian: grīw zīndag), contrasting it with matter, which was associated with lifelessness and death and within which the anima mundi was imprisoned.^[6] The anima mundi was personified as the Suffering Jesus (Jesus patibilis) who, like the historical Jesus, was depicted as being crucified in the world.^[7][8] This mystica cruxificio was present all material things, including the skies, soil, and trees of the world, as expressed in the Coptic Manichaean psalms.^[9]

Hermeticism[edit]

The concept of the anima mundi is present in the works of hermetic philosophers like Paracelsus and Robert Fludd.

Judaism[edit]

See also: Adam Kadmon

In Jewish mysticism, a parallel concept is that of "Chokhmah Ila'ah", which is the all-encompassing "Supernal Wisdom" that transcends, orders, and vitalises all of creation. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov states that this sublime wisdom may be apprehended by a perfect tzaddik (holy man).^[10] Thus, the tzaddik attains "cosmic consciousness" and thus is empowered to mitigate all division and conflict within creation.

Parallels in eastern philosophy[edit]

Similar concepts in eastern philosophy include the brahman, purusha, and paramatman of Hinduism, and qi in the Chinese School of Naturalists, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism.

See also[edit]

• Gaia hypothesis
• Panpsychism
• Plastic Principle
• Pneuma (in Hellenistic philosophy)
• Microcosm–macrocosm analogy
• Spiritual ecology
• The Over-Soul
• Unus mundus (in Jungian psychology)

References[edit]

1. ^ Plato (1925), Timaeus 30b–d, 33b.
2. ^ Plato (1925), Timaeus 30b–d.
3. ^ Plato (1925), Timaeus 30a.
4. ^ Plato (1925), Timaeus 29a.
5. ^ Plato (1925), Timaeus 34c-36e.
6. ^ Sundermann (2011).
7. ^ Sundermann (2009).
8. ^ Lieu (1992), p. 20.
9. ^ Lieu (1992), p. 127.
10. ^ Ben Simcha (1808), Likutei Moharan I, 61.

Bibliography[edit]

• Ben Simcha, Nachman (1808). "Torah 61". Likutei Moharan. Vol. 1. Ostrog – via Sefaria.
• Fideler, David (2014). Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond With Nature's Intelligence. Inner Traditions. ISBN 978-162055359-6.
• Jung, C. G. (1968). Psychology and Alchemy. Vol. 12. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-691-01831-6.
• Lieu, Samuel N.C. (1992). Manichaeism in the later Roman Empire and medieval China (2 ed.). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161458200.
• Plato (1925). Plato in Twelve Volumes. Vol. 9. Translated by Lamb, W.R.M. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press; London:William Heinemann Ltd. – via Perseus Project.
• Roszak, Theodore (2001) [1992]. The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. Phanes Press. ISBN 1-890482-80-3.
• Southern, R. W. (2001). Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, Volume II: The Heroic Age. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-22079-4.
• Sundermann, Werner (2009). Manichaeism: General Survey (online ed.). Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Sundermann, Werner (2011). Cosmogony and Cosmology: In Manichaeism (online ed.). Encyclopaedia Iranica.

External links[edit]

•  The dictionary definition of anima mundi at Wiktionary

Qi, Prana and Pneuma : Richard G. Petty, MD

Qi, Prana and Pneuma : Richard G. Petty, MD

Qi, Prana and Pneuma

Posted by Richard G. Petty, MD on February 28, 2008 · Leave a Comment 

I often hear people expressing concern over words like qi (chi), believing that it has something to do with primitive or pagan cultures. In actual fact qi is based upon observations by a culture that looked at the world very differently from that developed in the Western world. It is often mistranslated as “energy” which is not quite accurate.

Some experts now refer to the “subtle systems” of the body, and they appear to be of many types. In China these systems were thought to be the highways of the animating force of the body. 

In Japan it s known as ki, in India it is prana, the Greeks called it “Pneuma” or in the West were called the etheric or the fifth element, after earth, fire, air and water. There are at least 97 cultures around the world that have claimed the existence of some form of “energy.” We use the term subtle “systems”, to be a little more precise than saying “energies”, for these subtle systems are composed of the inseparable twins:
1. Subtle energies and
2. The subtle fields that carry them.

Without energy, the fields could not actualize, and without the fields, there would be nothing to carry the energy.

Let’s look at something else.

I have been interested to see whether these different concepts map onto each other. I just found an interesting discussion here, that adds some interesting material, all of which I have been able to confirm.

According to my dictionary the word prana does indeed come from the root “Ãpraa” that expresses the idea of “breathing” or “blowing of the wind.” Prana means “breath” and also “life” and “living being”. In Genesis God formed us out of dust from the soil, He blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being.

Jung is one of the people who said that the Indian prana corresponds to the Greek pneuma. Pneuma means “air in motion” as in breath and wind, and it is connected with the idea of life. There is a further correlation: prana is related to the mind and rendered as “spirit,” and pneuma has the same meaning.

The trouble with qi has arisen because the Chinese have never had any interest in discussing the meaning of a concept. So they do not speculate on the nature of qi, but instead perceive it functionally: by what it does. Qi, chi, ki has a similar meaning to prana and pneuma: it is translated as breath, vapor, and energy.

This is different from the New Age idea that everything “has” prana or qi. Only living beings do.

“Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man born be born again,
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born again when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered: Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man born of water and the Spirit,
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit,
Marvel not that I said unto thee: Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
But cannot tell whence it comes and where it goeth:
So is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

The Bible John 3:3-8

“The term “Spirit” translates the Hebrew word ruah (Rûach), which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God’s breath, the divine Spirit.”

J. Cardinal Ratzinger, Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994

FILED UNDER SUBTLE ENERGY OR THE BIOFIELD · TAGGED WITH

About Richard G. Petty, MD
Dr. Richard G. Petty, MD is a world-renowned authority on the brain, and his revolutionary work on human energy systems has been acclaimed around the globe. He is also an accredited specialist in internal and metabolic medicine, endocrinology, psychiatry, acupuncture and homeopathy. He has been an innovator and leader of the human potential movement for over thirty years and is also an active researcher, teacher, writer, professional speaker and broadcaster. He is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking and best selling CD series Healing, Meaning and Purpose. He has taught in over 45 countries and 48 states in the last ten years, but spends as much time as possible on his horse farm in Georgia.

Concepts in other cultures that correlate with Qi - 'pneuma.'

Concepts in other cultures that correlate with <Qi>

Concepts in other cultures that correlate with Qi

Yu Huan Zhang & Ken Rose, A brief history of Qi

"The ancient Hindus wrote of prana, the invisible 'breath of life' that they cultivated through Yoga. Ancient Greeks described a concept which in several important aspects parallels the Chinese notion of qi with the word 'pneuma.' Like the Chinese qi, this Greek word is often translated into English as 'breath'— with similar misleading results. The Greek pneuma, like the Chinese concept of qi, was a complex idea that blended spiritual and material aspects of the vital essence of life into a comprehensive description of that without which life itself could not exist...

Also like qi in ancient China, pneuma was an important concept in ancient Greek medicine. It too was the substance with which people filled their lungs ('pneumon' in Greek). But like its Chinese counterpart, the Greek pneuma represented an even more vital substance. It took on the meaning of the breath of life, breathed into mortals by the gods.”

Yu Huan Zhang & Ken Rose, A Brief History of Qi

Trade Paperback Book, 2001, pp. 15-16

"There must be some primal force, but it is impossible to locate. I believe it exists, but cannot see it. I see its results, I can even feel it, but it has no form.” (Zhuang Zi, Inner Chapters, Fourth Century B.C.E.)

"Qi means air, breath, or vapour—originally the vapour arising from cooking cereals. It also came to mean a cosmic energy. The Primordial Breath is a name of the chaos (state of Unity) in which the original life force is not yet diversified into the phases that concepts of yin and yang describe.” (Kathleen Kuiper, The Culture of China, 2011, p. 103)

"Qi likewise is difficult to translate. The dictionary gives many meanings, including 'air', 'gas' and 'vapour'. To the early Chinese naturalists, this term seemed to bear some resemblance to what we now call 'matter-energy', corresponding in a way to the pneuma of the ancient Greeks and the prana of the ancient Hindus.” (Peng Yoke Ho, Li, Qi and Shu, 2002, p. 3)

"In every part of the world, already thousands of years ago, humans have speculated about some kind of life force. In China it is called qi (also spelled chi), in India prana, in ancient Greece pneuma, in Latin spiritus, and in Hebrew ruach. There are hundreds of life energy beliefs, which have many similarities. This encyclopedia presents and explains them all, showing their similarities, but also their differences.” (Book Description: Life Energy Encyclopedia: Qi, Prana, Spirit, and Other Life Forces around the World, Stefan Stenudd, 2009)

"In Eastern philosophy qi is also called prana and it is known that the body's natural production of prana increases through the raising of the kundalini energy via meditation and a yogic lifestyle. Because qi or prana runs on the neutrino level, it is very difficult to detect as qi is what fills the 99% of space in each atom.” Prof. Lu Zuyin, Scientific Qigong Exploration: The Wonders and Mysteries of Qi, 1997

"The scientific experiments introduced in this book (Scientific Qigong Exploration) opens up new doors for great scientific breakthroughs in the 21st century... Dr. Yan Xin's experiments indicate that our consciousness carry tremendous energy and information, and that qi energy can change DNA and RNA—an implication that human beings can completely redesign their life toward better health, longevity and even immortality. This is a book any visionary scientists and social scientists must read. Great minds will eventually be able to see the implications and set to work on unearthing the treasure of qigong for the common good.” Jing Lin, Associate Professor, University of Maryland

"The experiments themselves are kind of dry reading but the implications they have on the potential for human growth are staggering. And the scientists who conducted these experiments are not people who are easily swayed by whimsical tales and flights of fancy, they are hard core scientists and physicists who are among the top the Chinese have to offer.” Anthony D. Statler