At one of the following meetings, after a fairly long talk on knowledge and being, G. said: “Strictly speaking, you cannot as yet speak of knowledge because you do not know with what knowledge begins. “Knowledge begins with the teaching of the cosmoses. “You know the expressions ‘MACROCOSM’ and ‘microcosm.’ This means ‘large cosmos’ and ‘small cosmos,’ ‘large world’ and ‘small world.’ The universe is regarded as a ‘large cosmos’ and man as a ‘small cosmos,’ analogous to the large one. This establishes, as it were, the idea of the unity and the similarity of the world and man. Fragments: Ten

“Among the formulas giving a summary of the content of many symbols there was one which had a particular significance, namely the formula ‘As above, so below,’ from the ‘Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus.’ This formula stated that all the laws of the cosmos could be found in the atom or in any other phenomenon which exists as something completed according to certain laws. This same meaning was contained in the analogy drawn between the microcosm — man, and the MACROCOSM — the universe. The fundamental laws of triads and octaves penetrate everything and should be studied simultaneously both in the world and in man. But in relation to himself man is a nearer and a more accessible object of study and knowledge than the world of phenomena outside him. Therefore, in striving towards a knowledge of the universe, man should begin with the study of himself and with the realization of the fundamental laws within him. Fragments: Fourteen

“You see that in the general order of the seven cosmoses the Microcosm and the Macrocosm stand so far apart from each other that it is impossible to see or establish any direct analogy between them. Fragments: Ten