Organic cosmology restricted power to small-scale individual and group needs

Evidence

In the organic world view, the concept of nature as a living entity had limited the scale of power to individual needs and group benefits such as spiritual fulfillment, healing, the growing of crops, and the manufacture of tools. For the Neoplatonic magician, the upward gnostic ascent aimed at greater intellectual insight and spiritual regeneration. Knowledge and power could be obtained through a union with the understanding and intellect of God: “No one has such powers but he who has cohabited with the elements, vanquished nature, mounted higher than the heavens, elevating himself above the angels to the archetype itself, with whom he then becomes cooperator and can do all things.” But power obtained by such methods was restricted to each individual. It was an experience which could not be shared or transferred except through initiation. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 473

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Planning for humanity in the mass differs fundamentally from planning for specific communities — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2058

Broader Connections

• Planning for humanity in the mass differs fundamentally from planning for specific communities #expands (0.78) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 2058