Cosmo

is the main source of power in the Saint Seiya universe, but it's more than that. Cosmos is somehow described as a philosophical concept and seems to take inspiration from both western and eastern religion philosophies. Cosmos is the source of life for any living being but also the cause of existence of all the matter in the universe. It seems that Cosmos may be related also to the atomic movements of any material, so it's clear that with an enough powerful Cosmos it's possible to alter the nature of anything, from destroying atoms to stopping them.

The origin of Cosmos is the Big Bang itself that gave birth to the whole universe and anytime the Cosmos is burned inside a body, it's some kind of smaller scale reproduction of the real Big Bang. Any human being has a Cosmos deep inside himself/herself but a few are aware of it and even fewer are able to burn it and increase it, until making it explode. Being able to burn Cosmos gives a person superhuman abilities like breaking rocks or hitting faster than sound, shooting up to 100 blows per second, but the more the Cosmos is increased, the more the powers become extraordinary and far from the skills of a normal human. Saints are those who are typically trained with the purpose of awakening their hidden Cosmos and thus being able to accomplish extraordinary feats. It doesn't matter how strong a warrior is, without the use of Cosmos he/she will never be able to stand a chance against even the weakest Saint that already overcomes the human limits.

Among Saints, the Bronze Saints have a relatively superficial awareness of their Cosmos and while being out of reach for any normal humans, are just at the surface of Cosmos deepness. Silver Saints instead are significantly stronger and while they are not yet really aware of Cosmos, they have skills that greatly outclass a normal Bronze Saint. It's implied that not only Saints awake their Cosmos, but the same is for warriors of other Gods that are of the same rank as Bronze Saints and Silver Saints, although they often don't face the same harsh and deadly training a Saint does to awake his/her Cosmos. At any extent, Cosmos is heavily driven by emotions, so it happens that a great willpower or a desperate situation could allow a Saint to greatly surpass his usual limits, although without the right awareness, this happens to be a brief power up caused by the moment of particular involvement.

Seventh Sense
A Saint that is deeply aware of the nature of his/her Cosmos discovers that Cosmos is actually the seventh of human perceptive senses, after the five senses and the sixth that is considered intuition. With this awareness a Saint is able to draw out the true potential of his Cosmos and to achieve exceptionally extraordinary feats, overcoming theories, far beyond those of even a normal Saint, like wielding a power enough destructive to pulverize a star or to reach the speed of light, being able to shoot billions of hits per second. The Saints who are typically aware that Cosmos is actually Seventh Sense are the Gold Saints and this is the main factor that makes them the strongest among Saints. Although this, there are some talented Saints that even being of lower ranks, are able to awake the knowledge of Seventh Sense and this allow them to fight on the same league as Gold Saints and sometimes they are so skilled to overcome Gold Saints themselves. The most famous example are the 5 main protagonists Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga, Shun and Ikki, that during the battle at the 12 Zodiac Temples awakened Seventh Sense and defeated some of the Gold Saints.

Although never mentioned with the name of Seventh Sense, it's clear that also the high ranked warriors of other deities' armies have a Cosmos that is equivalent to that of Seventh Sense, for examples Poseidon's Marina Generals or most Hades' Celestial Star Specters, but also many other anime-only fighters like God Warriors of Asgard or movie characters.

Generally it's evidence that all the elite class warriors of any army have this kind of Cosmos. Being aware of Seventh Sense is not a definite level of power, because the rule: "the power of a Saint relies on how much he burns his Cosmos" still applies to those aware of Seventh Sense, so two Gold Saint level warriors may be stronger or weaker the more they burn their Cosmos, so there can be a particularly skilled fighter or a naturally gifted genius of battle that is able to burn his Cosmos a lot above the average. The 5 main protagonists are again a good example because they managed to overcome Gold Saints themselves many times. There seems to be a level called "Supreme Seventh Sense" or "Extreme Seventh Sense" that appears to be the maximum extension of the human Cosmos, a level so high to generate a smaller scale Big Bang, and also an extension far above even the capacity of many Gold Saints. Seiya and the others reached this ultimate extent many times not only against the Gold Saints, but especially during later battles against Marina Generals (and probably God Warriors in the anime-only Asgard saga) and in these occasions their Bronze Cloths reborn with the golden blood drawn out their true nature, shining of a golden light similar to Gold Cloths. By the fact that Cosmos is actually a human sense, it happens that with a loss of one or more of the other six senses, the seventh refines itself. This strategy is exploited deliberately by all the known Virgo Gold Saints: Shaka, Asmita and Shijima. This allow them to always have a superior than average Cosmos. It happened that other Saints exploited this effect but without having planned it. During the Myth Age any human being was aware of Seventh Sense and thus the distinction between humans and deities was less remarked. Being Seventh Sense the source of life, it's lost by the time a person dies, but Cosmos can go deeper than that.

Eighth Sense
If Seventh Sense is the Cosmos of natural life, there is a Cosmos of the soul and of supernatural life. At the same rate as any living being has Seventh Sense hidden deep inside, while not being aware of it (besides a few people), the soul of a deceased person has not Seventh Sense anymore, because he/she has not any life left, but he/she has Eighth Sense instead. The Eighth Sense is called "Arayashiki", a word from Buddhism that means "source, storehouse", and it's the eighth level of human consciousness, not only overcoming theories but also overcoming axioms. Most people, also counting Saints and even Gold Saints, by the time of their death lose the Seventh Sense and become souls with only the Eighth Sense, but they are not aware of it, so they become like ghosts or zombies (superego, the false power up) and are subjugated by the rules of the Underworld, being condemned to the pain of Hell.

Those few enlightened that in the moment of death burn their Cosmos to the extreme limit overcoming the power of Seventh Sense, wake up at the Eighth Sense, a Cosmos superior to Seventh Sense and burning it they exceed death, being able to reach the Underworld remaining alive and transcending the concepts of life and death. Since 'life and death' is bigger than the derivative 'meaning of life and death', and the 'dignity' of a Saint is bigger than 'life and death'. It is even transcending one's dignity which has been being insulted, stopping this way the reincarnations circle and becoming close to the nature of the Gods. Shaka has been called "The closest man to the Gods" because he was one of the few aware of the Eighth Sense. He went Nirvana at the Sala Trees after the Athena Exclamation assault and it was not just a common 'feign death'.

Being the Eighth Sense a transcendental concept, it's not easy to guess all its features and it's power stays definitely beyond the human limits. It is abstruse, esoteric, unfathomable... What all 1-7 senses constantly maintaining, all solved problems, all volitions, all quirks, all nuances, are still far from the Eighth Sense. For too long, most people are still unable to access to it. The path of awaking the Eighth Sense is to awake the causality. A good example when Kanon is being punished by Milo, Milo feels great. Later, in Virgo Temple, Saga is unconsciously driven by the 'emotion between twins', attacks Milo offensively and is considered a revenge. Milo then feels lost. Saga even finally decides to use Athena Exclamation again. Reminding this but not a common 'backfire' and some other entire chain of events can awake the causality and Eighth Sense. Putting it into personal skills but not an ordinary 'conclusion' will wield this great power. Facing ones own demons that once feared. The strongest Saints appeared in the series, while in the need to, have shown to be able to wield Eighth Sense, Seiya and the others that many times have shown to be able to achieve even miracles, or Kanon, equal to his brother Saga and thus among the strongest for Cosmos and abilities, or the legendary Dohko, considered an invincible master even by the other Gold Saints. Eighth Sense power hasn't being used only to overcome death, but also during the battles against the most powerful Specters like the 3 Judges, for example Seiya against Rhadamanthys or Sisyphus to gain the upper hand against Aiacos. Eighth Sense has been also exploited by Virgo Asmita to create the rosary with 108 beads to trap the souls of Specters. He had to reach the same Cosmos as the Mokurenji tree that grows in the 7th Prison of Hell, the sole form of life in the whole Hell. And of course, during the time 12 Gold Saints breaking the Wailing Wall.

Once completely awakened, the Eighth Consciousness will be transformed into the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, the Seventh Consciousness into the Equality (alt. Universal Nature) Wisdom, the Sixth Consciousness into the Profound Observing Wisdom and First to Fifth Consciousnesses into the All Performing (alt. Perfection of Action) Wisdom.

Big Will
This is the name as the divine Cosmos it is often referred. It's mentioned in the Hypermyth as the true essence of Cosmos, a source of power and existence without boundaries. Gods possess this full awareness of Cosmos, as they would be Cosmos itself. Powers granted by this knowledge are absolutely infinite, but only higher Gods are fully aware of this power, while minor Gods, although being hundred times stronger than even the strongest human warriors, are far from the absolute and unlimited power. With this infinite Cosmos, there is nothing impossible to achieve up to deeply alter the core rules of nature and universe. The real powers of this Cosmos are not yet fully explained in the series, but it is so far beyond human comprehension that may be not easy to fully understand it. Poseidon and Hades used this divine Cosmos to empower Mariners and Specters since they were normal people originally. Being the absolute power, things like blasting 5 Gold Cloths to pieces with a single blow like Thanatos did, or surpass the power of Absolute Zero like Hyoga probably did, can be still seen as insignificant feats. The only way a human could oppose this absolute Cosmos is called a miracle, the sole force that the supreme God granted to mankind and that still worries the Gods, a force that Seiya and the others or Tenma have shown to possess, as the destruction of the Poseidon's Pillar. Like some other mangas. Saint Seiya story also encourages heroic deeds. In some great moments of Hades arc, the Eighth Sense Cosmos can challenge the Big Will Cosmos, disrupting Hades' deployment and Hades himself.

Elements
In Saint Seiya Omega it is discovered that Cosmos can possess an Elemental Attribute (属性 , Zokusei lit Attribute) that can strengthen the power of the Cosmos when used. There are seven Elements with their respective Strengths and Weaknesses. The Elements are Water, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Earth, Light and Darkness. Much on a similar sense to the Naruto manga and anime series, the elemental strength chain is the following:

Water -> Fire -> Wind -> Thunder -> Earth. Light and Darkness are special cases, not affecting (and not being affected by) the other Elements, though they do directly counter each other.

Regardless of the elemental advantage, if one's Cosmos is superior to the opponent then that element will still be superior even if it would be naturally impossible, when Water faces against Earth, the water is easily absorbed by the Earth element, but a strong use of Water can potentially break through Earth.

Element is of great importance in the era of Omega and as noted and evidenced by old veteran Saint Hydra Ichi those who are not aware of their Element or cannot control it, can simply not succeed as Saints or overall users of Cosmos anymore as those who can control their element have noticeable advantage in combat by being capable of using the elements to not only fuel their own sheer power, but also because it can create several new techniques based on the element itself.

For this particular reason the Palestra a school for Saints puts special attention to Elemental Training, with a strict training regime that not only forces its students to learn Elemental control but also to strengthen it.

The Element of Cosmos seems to also be related to not only Cosmos but also Physical abilities as well. According to Volans Argo Fire users are terrible swimmers. Moreover as seen in Palestra's training camp known as Cosmo Delta, which is a massive geographical location with several different kinds of nature such as forests, mountains, rivers, etc. The very nature itself can be advantageous or disastrous to Element users. For example Volans Argo could use the water of the river to easily use his attacks, while in the same sense a deep forest with several flowers is detrimental to Water users as the flowers seem to be "draining" the Cosmos of the traveling Saints in the shape of a dark vapor. This same vapor is seen when Aquila Yuna and Dragon Ryuho enter a cave filled with lava, and Yuna eventually falls while walking.

The Gold Saints seem to contain all the Cloth elements, however none of the twelve out of Thirteen Gold Cloths has yet to be assigned the element of Darkness, making Fans assume that if there is a Ophiuchus Gold Saint that its element would be Darkness in contrast to its Evil history.

Omega (type)
In the Saint Seiya Omega setting, instead of the Eighth Sense, what comes beyond the Seventh Sense is something which apparently no Gold Saint has ever achieved - Omega. Virgo Fudō spectulates unless the current generation of Saints, regardless of rank, are able to reach Omega, then they would stand capable of defeating Pallas' primary Pallasites. Due to comments dropped by Genbu and Ikki, Omega is the ultimate Cosmo. Aegaeon notes that it can match a god. In episode 83, Omega is first seen when Ryuho pushes his Cosmo beyond the maximum which made infinite power to well up in ryuho's body. Even though it could defeat Rhea's army, the power was too sudden for the Saint and he collapsed soon after.

Ω Omega power  of friendship and feelings Combine as one and they power

Omega is nine sense power of friendship They need combine they power and feelings as one to unlock Omega equal  power of God that is infinite cosmo power