Funny. I often say that the universe is made of hydrocarbons.
But, as you say, animated and illuminated by will, intelligence and light.
I think that's true, dear brother, as far as it goes. I guess I'm just looking for an even "deeper" level of understanding. After all, hydrogen and carbon are just two of many species populating the periodic table.... Where do all these many elements "come from?" Do they have a common basis? If so, what is it? And how does that basis work?
If it is true, as it has been observed over the millennia, that the Universe is "One" — the Latin root of the word universe is "one turn" — then it seems to me its basis must finally be "one" — a "one" I imagine likely to be of elegant "simplicity."
And I do confess, I, like TXnMA, am taking my "clues" from the Holy Scriptures. And that being the case, many thinkers today might say that my "clues" are "factually" baseless.
But I'm not a scientist, so am not thinking as a scientist would. I'm thinking more like Plato, who declared that the Kosmos (i.e., universe) is One single living Being that possesses "nous," or intelligence. Of course, that is a philosophical statement, not a scientific one.
Sigh.... We do the best we can do with what little we know about the great scheme of things.... There may be things about our world which the human mind is incapable of understanding in principle.
We are, after all, not God, but only images of Him....
Thank you so very much for sharing your observations!