The natural world is a mystery which science can only ever catch glimpses of. An early philosopher of the natural world was Thales, circa 585 BC, of Miletus in what is now Greece.
Thales of Miletus’ philosophy included the following:
- The Earth rests on water.
- Water is the archê (source) of all things.
- The magnet has a soul.
- All things are full of gods.
These views would be considered unscientific now, and were mostly overruled by philosophers that came shortly after him, such as Anaximenes who’s premise was that everything came from air, and Pythagoras of Samos who brought a radically different cosmology based on mathematics.
However, Thales did accurately predict a full solar eclipse that occurred in his lifetime. And his axioms are very interesting to reflect on.
The Earth Rests on Water and Everything Comes from Water
Water is the primordial elements from which life springs. Water is the womb, the ever-giving source of the flow of life. Nothing can live without water, and all living things are composed in part of water.
Water adapts to its container, as well as to its environment including sounds, emotions, and intentions. Water is healing, cleansing, and purifying. Water can exist as solid, liquid, or vapor, embodying the notion of adaptability.
The Magnet Has a Soul
Magnetism, the attraction of opposites is the sexual source of life and the soul. Magnetism in all of nature, from the atom to the solar system, is what attracts, moves, and creates.
All Things Are Full of Gods
The gods are the sentience and intelligence within all things. God and gods are both immanent and transcendent. Here and now within us, a mystery of void and nothingness.
Gods are in rocks, plants, animals, humans, in the sky, the Earth, the Sun and Moon, and also beyond all comprehension and conceptualization.