Anima mundi is the soul of the world, a pure ethereal spirit, which was proclaimed by some ancient philosophers to be diffused throughout all nature.

...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. Plato, Timaeus, 29/30; 4th century B.C.

The idea is said to have originated with Plato but the concept has been discovered to be of more ancient origin, and prevailed in systems of certain eastern philosophers. The Stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe. For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Stoicism is a school of philosophy commonly associated with such Greek philosophers as Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, or Chrysippus and with such later Romans as Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. ...

Similar concepts were held by hermetic philosophers like Paracelsus, and by Baruch Spinoza, Leibnitz and later by Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854). Paracelsus Paracelsus (born 11 November or 17 December 1493 in Einsiedeln, Switzerland - 24 September 1541) was an alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist. ... Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza (Hebrew: ברוך שפינוזה) by his synagogue elders, and known as Bento de Espinosa or Bento dEspiñoza in his native Amsterdam, was a Jewish-Dutch philosopher. ... Leibnitz is a town in the Austrian province of Styria and has about 6,892 inhabitants (census of population 2001). ... Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (January 27, 1775 - August 20, 1854) was a German philosopher. ...

External link

• Themystica