Anima Mundi
The soul of the world; a pure ethereal spirit which was said by some ancient philosophers to be diffused throughout all nature. Plato is considered by some to be the originator of this idea; but it is of more ancient origin, and prevailed in the systems of certain eastern philosophers. By the Stoics it was believed to be the only vital force in the universe; it has been entertained by many philosophical sects in a variety of forms, and in more modern times by Paracelsus and others. It is also incorporated in the philosophy of Schelling. Rich says: "The anima mundi, or heaven of this world, in which the Anonymous stars are fixed, is understood to be a receptivity of the empyrean or heaven in which God dwells, so that the forms or seminal conceptions of the one correspond to the divine ideas of the other."