“Seven cosmoses, taken together in their relation to one another, alone represent a complete picture of the universe. The idea of two analogous cosmoses, accidentally preserved from a great and complete teaching, is so incomplete that it can give no idea whatever of the analogy between man and the world. “The teaching on cosmoses examines seven cosmoses: “The first cosmos is the Protocosmos — the first cosmos. “The second cosmos is the Ayocosmos, the holy cosmos, or the Megalocosmos, the ‘great cosmos.’ “The third cosmos is the Macrocosmos — the ‘large cosmos.’ “The fourth cosmos is the Deuterocosmos — the ‘second cosmos.’ “The fifth cosmos is the Mesocosmos — the ‘middle cosmos.’ “The sixth cosmos is the TRITOCOSMOS — the ‘third cosmos.’ “The seventh cosmos is the Microcosmos — the ‘small cosmos.’ “The Protocosmos is the Absolute in the ray of creation, or world 1. The Ayocosmos is world 3 (‘all worlds’ in the ray of creation). The Macro-cosmos is our starry world or the Milky Way (world 6 in the ray of creation). The Deuterocosmos is the sun, the solar system (world 12). The Mesocosmos is ‘all planets’ (world 24), or the earth as the representative of the planetary world. The TRITOCOSMOS is man. The Microcosmos is the ‘atom.’ Fragments: Ten

“The conditions of the action of laws on each plane, that is, in each cosmos, are determined by the two adjoining cosmoses, the one above and the one below. Three cosmoses standing next to one another give a complete picture of the manifestation of the laws of the universe. One cosmos cannot give a complete picture. Thus in order to know one cosmos, it is necessary to know the two adjoining cosmoses, the one above and the one below the first, that is, one larger and one smaller. Taken together, these two cosmoses determine the one that lies between them. Thus the Mesocosmos and the Microcosmos, taken together, determine the TRITOCOSMOS. The Deuterocosmos and the TRITOCOSMOS determine the Mesocosmos, and so on. Fragments: Ten

“The relation of one cosmos to another is different from the relation of one world to another in the astronomical ray of creation. In the ray of creation worlds are taken in the actual relation in which they exist in the universe for us, from our point of view: the moon, the earth, the planets, the sun, the Milky Way, and so on. Therefore the quantitative interrelation of the worlds one to another in the ray of creation is not permanent. In one case or on one level it is greater, for instance, the relation of ‘all suns’ to our sun; in another case, on another level, it is less, for instance, the relation of the earth to the moon. But the interrelation of the cosmoses is permanent and always the same. That is to say, one cosmos is related to another as zero to infinity. This means that the relation of the Microcosmos to the TRITOCOSMOS is the same as that of zero to infinity; the relation of the TRITOCOSMOS to the Mesocosmos is that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Mesocosmos to the Deuterocosmos is that of zero to infinity; and so on. Fragments: Ten

“All that you have said,” I said, “refers without doubt to the problems of dimensions. But before I pass to them, I should like to elucidate one point, which is not quite clear to me. It is what you said about the Microcosmos. We are accustomed to connect the idea of the Microcosmos with man. This means that man represents a world in himself. A world analogous to the large world, the Macrocosmos. But you give man the name of TRITOCOSMOS, that is, the third cosmos. Why third? The first is Protocosmos; the second, the sun or Deuterocosmos. Why is man the third cosmos?” Fragments: Ten

“Yes, yes,” said G. “Man is the TRITOCOSMOS. The Microcosmos is the atom or rather” — he paused as though looking for a word — “the microbe. Fragments: Ten

“Thus, if we take the Microcosmos, that is, the ‘atom’ or ‘microbe,’ as G. has defined it, then the TRITOCOSMOS for it will be four-dimensional space, the Mesocosmos will be five-dimensional space, and the Deuterocosmos six-dimensional space. Fragments: Ten

“If we take man as the TRITOCOSMOS, then, for him, the Mesocosmos will be four-dimensional space, the Deuterocosmos five-dimensional space, and the Macrocosmos six-dimensional space. This means that all the possibilities of the TRITOCOSMOS are realized in the Macrocosmos. Fragments: Ten

“If it were possible to take man as the Microcosmos and the TRITOCOSMOS as the human race, or rather as organic life, it would be much easier to establish the relation of man to other cosmoses,” one of us, Z., said in this connection, who with me had attempted to understand and to develop further the idea of the cosmoses. Fragments: Ten

It was certainly conditional, but nevertheless it was in complete accord with the whole system which studied the world and man. Every individual living being — a dog, a cat, a tree — could be taken as a Microcosmos; the combination of all living beings constituted the TRITOCOSMOS or organic life on earth. These definitions seemed to me the only ones that were logically possible. And I could not understand why G. objected to them. Fragments: Ten

At any rate, some time later when I returned again to the problem of cosmoses I decided to take man as the Microcosmos, and to take the TRITOCOSMOS as organic life on earth. Fragments: Ten

“If we want to represent graphically the interrelation of the cosmoses,” I said, “we must take the Microcosmos, that is, man, as a point, that is to say, we must take him on a very small scale and, as it were, at a very great distance from ourselves. Then his life in the TRITOCOSMOS, that is, among other people and in the midst of nature, will be the line which he traces on the surface of the earthly globe in moving from place to place. In the Mesocosmos, that is, taken in connection with the twenty-four hours’ motion of the earth around its axis, this line will become a plane, whereas taken in relation to the sun, that is, taking into consideration the motion of the earth around the sun, it will become a threedimensional body, or, in other words, it will be something really existing, something realized. But as the fundamental point, that is, the man or the Microcosmos, was also a three-dimensional body, we have consequently two three-dimensionalities. Fragments: Ten

“Beyond the sun, that is, beyond the solar system, he has not and cannot have any existence, or in other words, from the point of view of the next cosmos he does not exist at all. A man does not exist at all in the Macrocosmos. The Macrocosmos is the cosmos in which the possibilities of the TRITOCOSMOS are realized and man can exist in the Macrocosmos only as an atom of the TRITOCOSMOS. The possibilities of the earth are actualized in the Megalocosmos and the possibilities of the sun are actualized in the Protocosmos. Fragments: Ten

“If the Microcosmos, or man, is a three-dimensional body, then the TRITOCOSMOS — organic life on earth — is a four-dimensional body. The earth has five dimensions and the sun — six. Fragments: Ten

Finally having decided to try to put together everything I thought on the subject, I took man as the Microcosmos. The next cosmos in relation to man I took as “organic life on earth,” which I called “TRITOCOSMOS” although I did not understand this name, because I would have been unable to answer the question why organic life on earth was the “third” cosmos. But the name is immaterial. After that everything was in ac-cordance with G.’s system. Below man, that is, as the next smaller cosmos, was the “cell.” Not any cell and not a cell under any conditions, but a fairly large cell, such as for instance the embryo-cell of the human organism. As the next cosmos one could take a small, ultramicroscopic cell. The idea of two cosmoses in the microscopic world, that is, the idea of two microscopic individuals differing one from the other as much as does “man” from a “large cell,” is perfectly clear in bacteriology. Fragments: Ten