Western Cosmology and the Becoming of Possibility: 1 The Celestial Order: Early Greek Cosmology and Mythic Mapping

Before the abstraction of reason and the formalisation of mathematics, the cosmos was construed through narrative, pattern, and relational imagination. Early Greek cosmology, emerging from a synthesis of mythos and observation, mapped the heavens as a structured, intelligible domain in which possibility was inseparable from order. The stars, planets, and natural cycles were not merely objects of perception; they were relational agents shaping the horizon of what could occur in the human and cosmic spheres.

In this period, the distinction between what exists and what is possible was fluid. The gods, celestial bodies, and elemental forces were entwined in networks of causality, influence, and meaning. Construal was thus relational: humans understood potentiality through stories, rituals, and observation, integrating the cosmos into a coherent, if mythically mediated, field of becoming. Possibility was bounded and structured, yet intimately tied to lived experience and collective imagination.

The early Greeks began to move from purely mythic explanation toward rational patterning. Figures such as Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus introduced notions of underlying principles—arche, logos—that governed cosmic change. These abstractions did not yet constitute formal scientific law, but they represented a first cut of possibility: construal through principle rather than caprice. Potentiality was no longer entirely determined by narrative, but began to be understood as emerging from relational patterns that could be observed, inferred, and anticipated.

This period also foregrounded relational temporality. Cosmic cycles—solstices, equinoxes, lunar phases—provided rhythm to human activity and temporally bounded possibility. The unfolding of events was understood as nested within cosmic regularities, offering a horizon in which action, expectation, and transformation could be intelligibly situated.

In sum, early Greek cosmology represents the first historically traceable field in which possibility was actively construed through relational, narrative, and observational frameworks. The heavens were at once object and agent: they constrained, enabled, and shaped potentialities in ways that were both intelligible and existentially meaningful. This foundational moment sets the stage for the abstractions of mathematics, the hierarchy of Aristotelian spheres, and the eventual decentring of humanity in modern cosmology.

Possibility, in this celestial order, was at once structured, relational, and open to the interpretive imagination—a primordial horizon in which humans first began to recognise that the cosmos itself is not merely given, but must be construed.