ABSTRACT
The images of the mirror and the ladder characterize the symbolic reality of happiness, and serve to distinguish it from the primordial givenness of fun. The cosmic body contains all possibilities within itself; cosmos and psyche are one and the same process of metamorphosis. The world of happiness, however, is divided between macrocosm and microcosm. And, once divided, it can be endlessly subdivided into an order of qualities. The world of inner experience (psyche) and the order of the universe (cosmos) are no longer identical. Neither are they ‘empirical’ categories describing different segments of the world as it can be directly experienced. In their simultaneous dependence upon God’s unconditional and unlimited beneficence they are the separate ‘mirrors’ of divine being. As such they are related analogically, so that man’s unique privilege is, by virtue of qualities inherent in his soul, to have the potential for knowledge both of the world and of divine things.
