There may be a reason for the alchemy, for there was a division at one time:

“A transcendent divinity was the source of all creation, and humanity lived in exile from heaven in a state of sin. This doctrine created a split between matter and spirit, causing the world to be seen as separate from its creator.”

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 1.

But for them:

“The world is a living spiritual being. This was understood by the ancient philosophers and the alchemists who referred to the spiritual essence of the world as the anima mundi, the “Soul of the World.””

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 1.

“The alchemists also understood that there is a connection between the anima mundi and the soul or innermost secret of man. The source of the wisdom and knowledge of the all-pervading essence of the anima mundi was “the innermost and most secret numinosum of man.”

Vaughan-Lee, page Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn 2.

“If we are not to remain in the paradigm of duality, living our inherited split between masculine and feminine, spirit and matter, we need to acknowledge both of these aspects. We cannot afford to follow the footsteps of the patriarchal Church fathers and seek only a transcendent light, look only towards heaven. We also need to know the light hidden in matter and understand the magic of creation that it reveals.”

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 3.

“What is the difference between the light discovered in the depths of the psyche and the light of our transcendent divine Self glimpsed in meditation or other experiences? It is the same light experienced in different ways. The Sufis know that the Beloved, the source of all light, has both an immanent and a transcendent quality.”

Vaughan-Lee, page Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn 2.

So, there was also a time when I was also looking to heal this separation, though I was only thinking in cognitive terms. This religious approach moves me along in other directions. I’m getting glimpses in understanding the relationship between matter and alchemy, for instance. The living magic of creation.

The Soul of the World . . . carried on by the Gnostics and later by the Alchemists . . .

Its good to see the historical roots of this in our culture . . . the Gothic revival of the 12th century, and later in the Renaissance . . .

“In their cathedrals the Gothic architects reflected their vision of a sacred order within creation that belongs to this feminine divine principle. The World Soul animated and formed nature according to divine proportions, which the architects, masons, sculptors, and stained glass artists imaged in their creations. (3)”

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 1.

“In the Renaissance the World Soul was understood as a spiritual essence within creation, guiding the unfolding of life and the cosmos. In the words of the Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno, the World Soul “illumines the universe and directs nature in producing her species in the right way.” (5) The World Soul was also the creative principle that the Renaissance artists sought to channel in their work. Their art was based upon the same sacred proportions they saw in nature, and they understood the imagination as a magical power that can “lure and channel the energies of the anima mundi.””

Anima Mundi: Awakening the Soul of the World Published in Sufi Journal, Issue 67, Autumn 2005 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, page 1.

From this side, in my way, I was thinking of the Life World, within the Greater World . . . could think of the more intrinsic here, the essential, the seen.

The research, published today in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, shows that these structures arise when a group of neurons forms a clique: each neuron connects to every other neuron in the group in a very specific way that generates a precise geometric object. The more neurons there are in a clique, the higher the dimension of the geometric object.

When the researchers presented the virtual brain tissue with a stimulus, cliques of progressively higher dimensions assembled momentarily to enclose high-dimensional holes, that the researchers refer to as cavities. “The appearance of high-dimensional cavities when the brain is processing information means that the neurons in the network react to stimuli in an extremely organized manner,” says Levi. “It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materializes out of the sand and then disintegrates.”