The Latin root of genius indicates that the Romans were aware of a generative power within humans, as were the ancient Greeks, who used daimon with a similar meaning, denoting an ‘inner guide’ or ‘guardian spirit’.
In Panosophy, this creative spirit is simply called Life, generating the entire world of form from the Datum of the Universe, as a gift of the Divine. What the Romans called genius has thus led Panosophers to develop a synthesis of all knowledge, which has been one meaning of genius, attributed to highly intelligent individuals, since the 1640s.
Tragically, the prevailing culture has stultified our ‘inborn nature’, inhibiting most from understanding what is causing scientists and technologists to drive the pace of evolutionary change in society at unprecedented exponential rates of acceleration.
So, to what extent the genius that is within us all could awaken our Genuine Nature is still very much uncertain.
1393, ‘protective guiding spirit within each person at birth, guardian spirit’, from Latin genius ‘guardian spirit; taste, inclination; wit, talent; prophetic skill; genius’, originally ‘generative power; inborn nature’, from suffixed form of PIE base *genə- ‘give birth, beget’.
The 1580s’ sense of ‘a person’s inclination or characteristic disposition’ developed in the 1640s into ‘a person endowed with natural intelligence or talent; exalted natural mental ability, skill in the synthesis of knowledge derived from perception’.