The Anima Mundi can be traced to an ancient Greek idea which they termed, psychḕ kósmou, or soul of the world. It is a philosophy that posits an intrinsic connection between all living beings. It suggest that the world or cosmos is animated by a soul much like the human body is. It is this World Soul that infuses the cosmos with life and intelligence.

This notion has influenced many of the ancient philosophers including Plato's dialogue "Timaeus". In this the universe is introduced as a living creature, a soul that animates the universe, ensuring its structure and function according to a divine plan, including the regular motions of the seven planets. The stoic Zeno called this World Soul 'The Logos', the Gnostics called her Sophia: ‘she who embodies divine wisdom’. She represents matter, meta, matron, matrix and mother and the descent of the soul into the material world.

Hermetic texts also describe the Cosmos as a living being imbued with a divine Spirit, emphasising the unity and interconnection of all things. They believe that by aligning oneself with the World Soul, one walks a path to spiritual enlightenment and ultimately Union with the Divine. We might also see her as the fifth element, the quintessence, symbolised by the dodecahedron and known simply as The Cosmos. These understandings are not entirely out of touch with modern times.

The physicist Max Planck made this explicit when he said:

Jake Baddeley