THE WORLD AS A LIVING ENTITY: ESSENTIALS OF A COSMIC METAPHOR

Abstract

Among the archaic cosmologic and cosmogonic concepts of cultures worldwide and across time the

metaphor of the world as a giant living entity is significant. People cultures considered the universe to be

e.g. an animal, a giant human, or an egg. The anatomy of certain creatures, in particular of the human being,

served as an excellent model for the world‟s spatial construction, time–factored changes and cycles of

reproduction. The giant cosmic living being showed a form of metabolism, respiration, and reproduction,

appearing e.g. as wind currents, water cycle, seasons, tides, lifecycles of plants, animal, and humans, linked

to celestial phenomena. People especially considered heaven and earth to act like the human reproductive

organs and identified the cosmos with a giant womb. Moreover, the cosmogonic first and essential

dichotomy, which causes the world‟s diversities, was compared with a kind of primordial sacrifice of a giant

cosmic living entity. People regarded the landscape, a cave, a dwelling, a cultic building, or a settlement as

an embodiment of the cosmic living entity in miniature, reflecting the characteristics of the macrocosmic

being. This study gives an overview of ideas considering the world as a living entity, with respect to cultures

through the ages. Concepts of iatromancy are included. The methodology uses approaches of comparative

mythology, studies of religions, archaeology, anatomy, medicine, and social anthropology.