In theosophy, anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism, involution and evolution are part of a complex sequence of cosmic cycles, called Round.
Involution thus refers to the incarnation of spirit in an already established matter, the necessary prerequisite of evolution: As an example, the so-called descent of the Monad into matter means an involution or involving or infolding of spiritual potencies into material vehicles which coincidentally and contemporaneously, through the compelling urge of the infolding energies, unfold their own latent capacities, unwrap them, roll them forth; and this is the evolution of matter.That period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, is called involution.
This succeeding period of existence, during which the individual human being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "spiritual evolution".
In the cosmology of Surat Shabda Yoga, involution and evolution apply to both the macrocosm, the whole of creation, and the microcosm, the constitution of an individual soul.
For Sri Aurobindo, involution is the process by which the Omnipresent Reality, i.e. the Absolute, Brahman extends Itself to create a universe of separate forms from out of Its own Force/Energy.
Spirit or consciousness manifests as these three, and then as the intermediate link of Supermind, which is transitional between the higher and lower (matter, life, and mind) nature.
Being throws itself forward into a multiplicity of forms, becoming lost in the inconscience of matter,[3] and then through evolution it partakes in the Delight of rediscovering the Spirit which had been hidden in the interim.
In a sense it is a beginnining but because it is pregnant with possibility it is inexorably tied to Ananda or the recognition of Being and then the subsequent realization of bliss which is divine inner knowing.
It could be said that Sat only exists through Ananda or Consciousness however, these levels of differentiation cannot grasp the true nature of either of these three qualities since they are interdependent.
Delight is Sri Aurobindo's term for ananda, and plays a large part in his cosmology and spiritual teaching.
For Baba Hari Dass (a Maunisadhu monk who practices continual silence), evolution and involution are key concepts on universal level that have also individualized expressions in mental processes.
The integral philosopher Ken Wilber refers to involution in his online chapter of Kosmic Karma, employing concepts from Plotinus, Advaita Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sri Aurobindo.
[11] Like Aurobindo and others, Gurdjieff uses the word involution in reference to a top-down flow in the universe contributing to the creation and maintenance of cosmoses.