What were the main features of Marsilio Ficino’s hermetic astrology,
and what did this owe to Hellenistic astrology?

Marsilio Ficino’s use of astrology is subordinated to philosophy as a means to "capture the gifts of the celestials." Ficino’s De Vita Coelitus Comparanda represents the practical application of Platonic, Neoplatonic, and Hermetic philosophy via sympathetic magic. The definitive English translation by Carol Kaske and John Clark translates De Vita Coelitus Comparanda as "On Obtaining Life From the Heavens." (1) This work was published in 1489 as the third of Three Books on Life. The first two books, De vita sana and De vita longa, are medical treatises, while the third book is ostensibly subtitled a commentary on Plotinus, the third century CE commentator on Plato whose works were collected and made known as the Enneads by his student Porphyry. (2)

When Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) published his Three Books on Life, he had been translating and commenting on philosophical texts for nearly thirty years as head of the Medici-sponsored Platonic Academy in Florence. (3) Ficino’s publication of Plato’s dialogues in 1469, marked the first complete translation of Plato’s corpus into any Western language. (4) Ficino’s translations were rendered widely available by the recent invention of the printing press. Paul Kristeller, an authority on Ficino, observes: "The Florentine Academy constitutes a new phase in the long and complex history of the Platonic tradition, and Ficino was quite conscious of being an heir and standard-bearer of that tradition." (5) Prior to publishing Plato, Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum (1463)at the request of his patron, Cosimo de’Medici, the patriarch of the ruling family of Florence, which would support Ficino over three generations. (6) Cosimo chose Marsilio to tutor his grandson Lorenzo, who would assume leadership of the family in 1469. Ficino was ordained a priest in 1473, and in 1487 Lorenzo had him made a canon of the Cathedral of Florence. (7)

Kaske and Clark observe that, "Ficino had been tending toward magic and what we would now call occult science as early as 1488 in his translations of the Platonici (Neoplatonists)." (8) Prior to the publication of De Vita, Ficino had translated the more occult Neoplatonists Iamblichus (De mysteriis Aegyptiorum), Proclus (De sacrificio et magia), Synesius (De somniis), and Psellus (De daemonibus). (9) As sources for the magic described in De Vita 3, Ficino acknowledges these Neoplatonists, Hermes, The Chaldaean Oracles, a litany of Arabic authors including Al-Kindi and Thabit ibn Qurrah, Pietro d’Abano, Albertus Magnus, and Ptolemy, the reputed author of the Centiloquium. (10) Forming the metaphysical and philosophical backdrop to all this is the prisca theologia (pristine theology), described by Robert Zoller in "Marsilio Ficino and Platonic Astrology:"

The Florentine Platonists under Ficino nourished a tradition which held that the Judeo-Christian religion and Greek philosophy had a singe source. This source, called by the Florentine Platonists… the prisca theologia, was handed down through a long chain of teachers which led from Zoroaster, Hermes Trismigestus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, and finally to Plato and his followers. (11)

Zoller considers Ficino as "embodying the flowering of the esoteric tradition in the Renaissance." (12) Shortly after becoming a Catholic priest, Ficino wrote to the Archbishop of Florence:

People will laugh at a priest who heeds astronomy. But I, relying on the authority of the Persians, Egyptians, and Chaldaeans, considered that while earthly matters were indeed the concern of others, heavenly matters in truth were the sole concern of the priest; so that while human affairs might be left to human counsel, matters for supreme authority should be referred to the ruler of heaven. (13)

Although the first two books of De Vita contain some astrology, it isn’t until the third book that Ficino describes his application of astrology in detail. While the astrology is typical of that of the Hellenistic era (as recorded in Greek, Latin, and later Arabic), his use of the art in a highly developed philosophical context gives rise to some innovations peculiar to Ficino. Since Marsilio was not primarily an astrologer, it would be fair to say that these innovations occurred as the result of his philosophical approach and not because of any intent to be clever. The main purposes for his astrology in De Vita 3 are: to ascertain the proper time to make compound medicines, for talismanic image making, and in general, to align one’s soul with the heavens by way of contemplative meditation.

All this is made possible by the spirit of the world, which may be called both "the heavens" and "quintessence." (14) The quintessence is active everywhere within an animate cosmos, and "this power is instilled into those things which have absorbed the most of this kind of spirit." (15) Most importantly, "we are permitted to absorb the spirit of the world." (16) Ficino repeatedly advocates the superiority of medicine-making over the construction of images to capture the quintessence. The mention of image-making, with its overt daemonic magic, clearly treads on heretical ground, yet Ficino believes in the efficacy of images while at the same time disclaiming their actual use. An oft repeated passage in De Vita 3 is one such as, "…for me, I use medicines tempered in accordance with the heavens, not images, and I daily counsel others to do so." (17) Had he truly disapproved of image-making, he would have omitted references to images altogether. It was exactly this transparent disavowal which would necessitate a formal apology, something he clearly anticipates.

While Ficino’s descriptions of image making in De Vita 3 were to land him in trouble with the Church, the astral-medicine he recommends had been sanctioned by none other than the authority of Augustine (early fifth century CE), and had thus been in continuous practice throughout the Middle Ages. D.C. Allen, in The Star-Crossed Renaissance comments, "When he composed De Vita, Ficino without doubt thought of himself as a physician writing a handbook for other physicians." (18) Marsilio’s father, Diotifeci, had served as Cosimo’s private physician, and Marsilio was the physician of choice for the Medicis. (19) Ficino the physician and Ficino the priest merge in De Vita 3 to offer medicine for soul and body. Astrology for Ficino serves as vehicle to receive the spiritus which links microcosm with macrocosm. As Frances Yates remarks in her influential book Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, "It was absolutely inevitable that a medical treatise of the Middle Ages or Renaissance should make use of astrological presuppositions universally taken for granted." (20) In the opening address to the reader of De Vita 3, Marsilio announces: "At least do not neglect medicines which have been strengthened by some sort of heavenly aid, unless you would perhaps neglect life itself." (21)

Ficino’s medical astrology has its roots in the four primary qualities hot, cold, wet, and dry, as put forward by Empedocles (490-430 BCE), elaborated on by Aristotle (384-322 BCE), and reported in an astrological context by Ptolemy (mid-second century CE) in the Tetrabiblos. Yates’ presuppositions refer to the building blocks of Hellenistic medicine and astrology, since the elements (fire, air, earth, water) and the humors (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic) are derived from the qualities. The meaning of the primary qualities have become obscured over time. J. Lee Lehman brings back the original context of the qualities in Classical Astrology for Modern Living:

The qualities hot and cold do not represent extremes of a temperature continuum…hot represents high energy or physical heat, while cold represents low energy or physical cold…In thought, dryness is the position that this moment is unique, that reality can be "objectively" known. Wet thinking takes the position that separate concepts are interconnected….Dry thinking is object oriented, algebraic, and rigid. Wet thinking is spatially oriented, geometric, fluid and formless. (22)

Ficino confers with Ptolemy that hot and moist dominate cold and dry, and that heat dominates moisture. (23) This forms the scientific basis for what becomes Ficino’s trinity of beneficial planetary influences: the Three Graces.

Ficino relies heavily on the virtues of the Sun, Jupiter, and Venus in his constant endorsement of the "Three Graces." In so doing, he puts his own twist on the benefic/malefic distinction so fundamental to Hellenistic astrology. The Three Graces are antidotes to the malefics Mars and Saturn; and while the Sun reigns supreme, his influence is better tempered by Jupiter and Venus. So far, this conforms to the Ptolemaic scientific schemata: the Sun is hot and dry, thus "not always safe to receive," Venus is hot and wet, according to Ptolemy, (24) yet is "weak on her own," and Jupiter, also hot and wet, is "always beneficial." (25) The twist on Ptolemy is this: in Tetrabiblos, the Moon is classified as benefic with Jupiter and Venus, while the Sun, like Mercury, is considered neutral on his own, deriving beneficial or malefic qualities depending on his configuration with other planets. (26) Ficino is in complete unison with Ptolemy on Mars (hot and dry) and Saturn (cold and dry) as malefic: Mars, "from his excess dryness," and Saturn, "from his excess cold." (27)

In Ficino’s system, the Sun displaces the Moon as benefic. Marsilio states that a healthy spirit is compounded of Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun (or more precisely those things "Jovial," "Venereal," and "Solarian"). (28) This healthy spirit should avoid things Saturnian, Martian, and Lunar, as the spirit is rendered foolish by Saturn, mad by Mars, or insensitive by the Moon. (29) The Moon remains the primary timing mechanism and is the key to mediating all celestial influence to the sub-lunar realm. Here Ficino is perfectly in line with the well-established function of the moon in Hellenistic astrology. Ficino is in keeping with the traditional idea that Mercury is slightly dry, and notes that he is tempered at his elongation from the sun when he is "thought to moisten." (30) Marsilio often equates "solarian gifts" as attainable through Mercury, such as in this passage: "Finally it is probable that Mercury, the constant Achates of the Sun, has many of the Sun’s forces, and hence that you can hope to get Solar things from Mercury." (31)

Music comes from Apollo (the Sun), and while Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter claim music by proximity, the Moon, Mars, and Saturn "have voices, but not songs." (32) Zoller remarks: "Ficino had an Orphic understanding of music and we have several reports of his inspired use of music to remind his listeners of their divine origin and to provide strength and clarity of purpose." (33) Ficino translated the Orphic Hymns in 1462, and as his student, Pico della Mirandola tells us: "Whoever understands deeply and with intellect the division of the unity of Venus into a trinity of Graces will find the proper way of advancing into Orphic theology." (34)

Jupiter, the "helping father," mediates between Venus and the Sun, being "more honorable than Venus," and "more temperate than the Sun." (35) While one should always seek out solar influences, it is "safest for health to mix with Solar things Jupiter and Venus." (36) In all of this, Ficino is seeking harmony which is "weighted towards heat and moisture." (37) Apart from the scientific basis for the beneficial role of his Three Graces, where does Ficino derive his inspiration for such a pronounced emphasis on the Sun?

The Neoplatonists of the third and fourth centuries CE (most notably Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Porphyry), wrote within the context of the solar cult of the Empire of this era. Tamsyn Barton’s Ancient Astrology gives an account of the Mithraic origins of the cult and incorporation into the Empire, while Michael Grant’s The Roman Emperors details the imperial history. (38) Septimus Severus (r. 193-211) was the first emperor to claim the title Invictus. He constructed the Septizodium, which featured the seven planets with his statue in the middle in the guise of the Sun-god. (39) Elagablus (r. 218-222) claimed the title of the Unconquered Sun, but it wasn’t until Aurelian (r. 270-5) that the Sun cult, now known as Deus Sol Invictus, became firmly established as the imperial cult; for the next half-century coins, images, and texts bear witness to the emperors’ efforts to present themselves in association with Sol Invictus as his divine representatives on Earth. (40) Just as the Sun displaced Jupiter as the head of the Imperial Roman pantheon, Christianity would soon subsume the solar cult as the cult of the Empire. The borrowings are abundant, from "Sun" to "Son," to the usurping of the officially celebrated birthday of Sol Invictus (Mithra) on December 25^th. Ficino’s veneration of the Sun comes not from Plato, Plotinus, or Iamblichus, but from the emperor Julian.

Julian (r. 361-3), was the half-brother of Constantine, and is posthumously referred to as "Julian the Apostate." He sought a return to a pagan Rome still only superficially Christian. Well versed in the Greek classics and philosophy, he considered himself a Neoplatonist and held Iamblichus in especially high regard. His Hymn to King Helios had enormous impact on Ficino. Central to the functioning of magic of De Vita 3 is the role of spiritus, the "quintessence," or "aether" which mediates between the World Soul and the body of the world (the Anima Mundi), ultimately passing through to the embodied individual soul. In Julian’s Hymn to King Helios we hear:

The divine and wholly beautiful universe, from the highest vault of heaven to the lowest limit of the earth, is held together by the continuous providence of the god, has existed from eternity ungenerated, is imperishable for all time to come, and is guarded immediately by nothing else than the Fifth Substance whose culmination is in the beams of the sun. (41)

Much of Ficino’s philosophy is encapsulated in this passage. Marsilio was deeply committed to promoting the immortality of the soul, he opposed the established Church doctrine of creation ex nihlio, and in his application of astrology for care of the soul and body, placed particular emphasis on imbibing the virtue of the Sun ("solarian gifts"). Julian reveres the purity of the light of the Sun and the unifying power of his light. (42) Unity is a central concept in the doctrine of Plotinus: "The One" represents the absolute principle which is the cause of all other unity that is. (43) The particular emphasis Ficino places on the Sun in De Vita 3 is his way of achieving purification through contemplation of "The One." The World Soul and the individual soul are analogous to the Sun and heart. (44) The power source of the animate cosmos is concentrated in the Sun, "as not only Iamblichus and Julian affirm but all men affirm." (45)

It must be recognized that Ficino’s emphasis on all things "solarian" is his way of bringing the individual in contact with the Plotinian unity of Platonic forms. In other words, he articulates the archetype of the Sun. In his horoscopic astrology, he still places primary importance on the ascendant. (46) As Kaske and Clark point out, "What is essentially Plotinian in Book Three is not the actual details of the astrology and magic, but the underlying presuppositions and…the aim of realigning ourselves with the stars." (47)

Ficino reverses the ancient practice of entreating the planetary gods. The purpose of his astrology is to enable one to best know how to receive gifts particular to each planet through knowledge of those things in the natural world which correspond to each planet. To "capture," "drink in," or otherwise partake of celestial gifts, Marsilio employs the doctrine of elections. Ficino describes Hellenistic-style electional astrology throughout

De Vita 3. Once the specific aim is known and its "patron" identified, the astrologer chooses the day and hour of the corresponding planet, and ideally wants to see that planet dignified, harmoniously aspected by the Three Graces, and then finally, "do nothing without favor of the Moon, since she conveys all things generally, frequently, and easily to things below." (48) He describes the various ways in which the Moon may be debilitated, employing all the traditional levels of affliction, then returns to his favorite assistants, the Three Graces, which are capable of mitigating a debilitated Moon if either Venus or Jupiter is rising or culminating. Angularity is the primary method to indicate quantitative planetary strength in the Hellenistic and Arabic astrology Ficino typifies, a feature which he compares with the symbology of the cross:

The figure of the cross is primary; of all the figures, it is rectilinear in the highest degree, and it has four right angles…The cross therefore, said the ancients, is a figure which is made by the strength of the stars and serves as a receptacle of their strength; it therefore possesses the greatest power among images and receives the forces and spirits of the planets. (49)

In the next-to-last chapter of De Vita 3, Ficino addresses the "severe ecclesiastical prelate" he rightly anticipates. In essence, Ficino proclaims that to ignore astrology is tantamount to the acceptance of a life of perpetual servitude. (50) This bold stance is given support from Albertus Magnus in Speculum astronomiae, which Ficino quotes earlier:

Freedom of will is not repressed by the election of an excellent hour; rather, to scorn to elect an hour for the beginning of great enterprises is not freedom but reckless choice. (51)

In fact, Kaske and Clark remark that Ficino employs the word electio for any act of will. (52)

Ficino’s astrology is thoroughly grounded in the Hellenistic tradition. However, Robert Zoller surmises that "to call Ficino an astrologer would be to limit him." (53) It is Ficino’s attitude towards astrology as a tool of the philosopher which results in his unconscious innovations to the art. Besides the innovations mentioned, other minor innovations dot the landscape of De Vita 3; here the focus has been to highlight Ficino’s overall philosophical interpretation of astrology as representing a fresh approach to the ancient art. Among philosophers, Ficino is unique in that he embraces the practical; he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

The emphasis so far has been an attempt to isolate and define the type of astrology presented in De Vita 3. Much has been passed over, and Ficino’s personal use of astrology as evidenced from his letters would be a fascinating study in itself. Brian Copenhaver, in his essay "Astrology and Magic," characterizes De Vita 3 as "the fullest expression of a theory of magic and the most influential such statement written in post-classical times." (54) Only passing reference so far has been made to the "sympathetic magic" which, beyond the contemplative value of the study of astrology, is Ficino’s goal in De Vita 3.

The issues surrounding Ficino’s magic open a Pandora’s Box of intrigue: Are the planets causes or signs? Is his magic "natural" or "daemonic" (and what distinguishes natural magic from daemonic magic)? What exactly are the sources for his magic (a matter hotly debated among scholars)? And finally, why is a Catholic priest mixed up with pagan magic in the first place? These questions will be pursued in a forthcoming paper.

Ficino, Marsilio. The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. trans. members of the Language Dept. of the School of Economic Science, London. 5 vols. London and New York: Fellowship of the School of Economic Science, London. 1975-85.

Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. trans. Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Binghampton, New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaisance Studies, State University of New York at Binghampton. 1989.

Julian, "Hymn to King Helios," trans. Wilmer Cave Wright. The Works of the Emperor Julian. 3 vols. London: William Heinemann and New York: Macmillan. 1913.

Ptolemy, Claudius. Tetrabiblos. trans. J. M. Ashmand. North Hollywood, California: Symbols and Signs. 1976.

Secondary Sources

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Barton, Tamsyn. Ancient Astrology. London and New York: Routledge. 1994.

Copenhaver, Brian. "Astrology and Magic." The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. ed. Charles B. Schmitt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1988.

Emilsson, Eyjolfur Kjalar. "Plotinus." Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ed. Edward Craig. 9 vols. London and New York: Routledge. 1998.

Grant, Michael. The Roman Emperors. New York: Scribner. 1985.

Hankins, James. "Marsilio Ficino." Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 9 vols. ed. Edward Craig. London and New York. 1998.

Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1964.

Lehman, J. Lee. Classical Astrology for Modern Living. Atglen Pennsylvania: Whitford Press. 1996.

Seznec, Jean. The Survival of the Pagan Gods. London: Studies of the Warburg Institute, Vol. XI. 1940; reprint New York: Harper Torchbooks. 1953.

Yates, Frances. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1964.

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