Egg, Orphean
The cosmic doctrine of the legendary Greek hero Orpheus,
who claimed that God, the uncreated and incomprehensible
Being, created all things; the ether proceeded from him; from
this the unshapely chaos and the dark night arose, which at first
covered all things. The unshapen mass was formed into the
shape of an egg, from which all things have proceeded.
According to this belief, the whole universe has the form of
an egg, and everything in it strives to attain the same form. The
Orphean concept of a universal soul permeating all nature has
something in common with the doctrines of animal magnetism
and other pantheistic beliefs.
