Marsilio Ficino was a philosopher. In a time when philosophy was an important position, he accepted an important duty. In anticipation of his own ideas of the rebirth of a Platonic Academy, Cosimo de Medici, whose banking and wealth was a controlling factor of Florentine politics and culture, purchased Greek manuscripts of Plato and gave them to Marsilio Ficino to translate. Perfecting his Greek at age 19-20 in 1452, Marsilio then proceeded to translate not only Plato, but Plotinus and the Corpus Hermeticum, and by 1489 had developed what would become De Vita Triplici. In his 3 books of Liber De Vita Marsilio Ficino had elaborated on Hellenistic aspects of astrology, and incorporated Hermetic and Platonic notions of the soul's development within the Christian context of the times.

As soon as Ficino had translated Plato, his friend Pico Della Mirandola arrived in Florence in 1484, and immediately suggested he translate Plotinus as well, in line with the wishes of Cosimo. The third book of what he would call Liber De Vita was initiated with a commentary on a section of Plotinus' Enneads. (1) Throughout his writings Marsilio expresses the thoughts of Plato and Plotinus with the concepts of the soul's perfection, entrance into the material world, and the maintenance of the spirit for its highest expression.(2) Writing extensively about colors, stones, plants and talismans in his revisitation of Plotinus, Ficino awakens the concepts of natural magic. But what about the tremendous developments in Christianity in the intervening centuries between Plato's views on astrology and the soul, and Ficino's translation of them? This is a profound test of Ficino's ability to ignore the socially accepted mind-set of the period (1470s) and incorporate this new knowledge into the renaissance collective perspective. Only the dry Aristotelian views had been trusted until this time. Now, the more metaphysical views of Plato, empowered views of Plotinus, as well as Hermeticism were about to intrude into this well ordered world. Knowing he would be attacked for these views, he still proceeded (albeit with obvious caution) to integrate many ideas about the soul, spirit, and psychology, into a physiological treatise delineating health through balance, and identification with archetypal energies rooted in astrology of the Hellenistic period. And attacked he was, reported to the Pope and chastised in 1489 he requested his friends help to argue that his magic was not demonic but natural.

In modern terms, Ficino was the first advocate for self-empowerment since Plotinus. Focusing on the understanding of the energies, and inciting the subject under consideration to take an active part in their own redefinition, Ficino forsakes pointless and dis-empowering stagnant delineations and prediction, and instead allows the world of the Gods to move through man and become of a part of his worldly experience. Knowing that the person makes his own destiny and health-- like Plotinus -- he exerts great effort to discourage the readers from giving power to the tools he uses and discovers, and instead focuses on attitudes and energies related to the cosmos in a universal way. The conflict Marsilio experienced between the Christian ethic (3) and the knowledge he was uncovering and presenting is evident. He begins the books with Exhortations to the reader, and woven into his writing is this conflict between the Christian perspective and the knowledge of the Hellenistic perspective. In his third book "Making Your Life Agree with The Heavens" his caution in recommending astrological or other health resolutions, as the only answer, is clear:

The laboratory of your Marsilio is somewhat larger than just the space you see bounded here. For not only is it enclosed in the following book, but in the two preceding books, too. All of it is offered as a kind of medicine for the powers of life, so that your life will be healthy and long. It is based here and there on the work of doctors who are helpful on planetary matters. Our laboratory here, our antidotes, drugs, poultices, ointments and remedies, offer different things to different types of people. If you do not like some of these, just put them aside, lest you reject the rest because of a few. If you do not approve of astronomical images, even those that have been found to be good for the health of mortals, remember that I, myself, do not so much approve of them as describe them. You can, with my permission, or even, if you prefer, with my recommendation, put such things aside. At least you should not neglect the medicines that have been strengthened with a little planetary help---or you will have neglected life itself. For I have found, through frequent and long experience, that these medicines, as well as other things made correctly by astrologers, are as different as wine is from water.(4)

More important to Ficino was the alignment of the physical with the spiritual. He asserts that acting in congruence with the stars and movements in the heavens is what brings about not only health, but love, inspiration and other life experiences. His translations of Plotinus alters his commentary to include the animus mundi or the soul of the world, and how we can draw the favor of the heavenly bodies, stars and deamons. Above and below are one. He outlines the divisions of the heavens according to Hellenistic traditions explaining that altogether it has "forty-eight figures, as it were the twelve in the Zodiac plus 36 more.(5) The thirty-six must be added to the number of the images in the Zodiac." (Boer, 88) He defines the number of "grades or stages" as being divided into 360 degrees. These grades or stages each contain their own figures, and these figures have their continuity from the rays of their stars (6) each with their own property.

In this alignment explanation, Ficino cautions against being too negative with the planets and he sees that the Pythagorean Maguses had devised methods to break up the rigidity of Saturn.(7) Ficino discusses his melancholia often and perhaps this is why he identifies these Saturnine remedies often. Always on guard about seeming to impart dicta, Ficino leaves room for blending and exceptions:

If someone were to accuse Saturn and Mars of being harmful by nature, I would not believe it, for they, too, are to be used sometimes, the way doctors must sometimes use poisons, as Ptolemy in his Centiloquio says. When the power of Saturn is cautiously taken, it is useful, just as the things doctors use are useful for binding up and holding together. After all, they even use things to stupefy, like opium and mandrake. The same goes for Mars, with euphorbia and hellebore. The Pythagorean maguses seem to have been extremely cautious in this matter, when they would become frightened that their constant philosophizing was the tyranny of Saturn, so they would dress up in white garments, and each day sing songs and make music with Jovial and Apollonian things, and in this way they lived a long time under Saturn (Boer, 93).

Ficino had bouts with melancholia (depression) and looked for cures to the natural tendency for the philosopher to suffer this "cry for the escape" of his soul.(8) Much of the Neo-Platonist ideas of the soul being uncomfortable in the body is reflected in Renaissance art studies such as "Saturn and Melancholy" by Panofsky and Saxl that lead to Goya's "Saturn Devouring his Children" in the 1800s, and were the direct result of Ficino and his commentary on this idea. But was this an attempt to reconcile Christian suffering and astrology? Those who suffered from this dry and depressing influence from Saturn must turn to Jove for help, and like the alchemist, Ficino sought to balance these energies by using the "Joviality" they now let into their lives to act as the remedy.

Ficino tells us in his dedication letters to Lorenzo De Medici, Fillipi Valtori, and the King of Hungary that his hopes are that they will study his books and lead long and healthy lives. More than anything Ficino was a psychologist, the first of the archetypal astrologers who recognized the power of these images long forgotten and abandoned in the Hellenistic past. Using sources such as Galen, Ficino's great contribution is as the first astrologer/psychologist/metaphysician who incorporates, marries and blends a Neo-Platonist, Greek Roman, Arab, medical and dietary treatise with the importance of symbology and archetypal reference for the soul's health. No doubt the Christian cult leaders of the times had trouble not seeing this as a return to paganism and magic:

There are three universal and singular colors of the world: green, gold, and sapphire, and they are dedicated to the three Graces of heaven. Green, of course, is for Venus and the Moon, moist, as it were, for the moist ones, and appropriate to things of birth, especially mothers. There is no question that gold is the color of the Sun, and no stranger to Jove and Venus either. But we dedicate the sapphire color especially to Jove, to whom the sapphire itself is said to be consecrated. This is why lapis lazuli was given its color (sapphire), because of its Jovial power against Saturn's black bile. It has a special place among doctors, and it is born with gold, distinct with gold marks, so it is a companion of gold just as Jupiter is the companion of the Sun.(9)

Here we see the evidence that Marsilio completely and fully understands and uses ancient knowledge he has translated with ease and clarity. Not only is he well versed in the symbols and energies reflected in the various stones and colors and other materials in the natural world, but his identifications are expressed like a master. As in Babylon, depicted in the Standard of Ur (10), he understands the power of Lapis Lazuli and gold (11-see image below). Now in 1484, by the philosopher Marsilio Ficino the highest and most Godlike status man can ascend to, this understanding is redefined, re-delineated and reborn. Despite the rigidity of religious repression of a thousand years, it comes to life again to instruct, inspire and break up the tyranny of Saturnine dogma.

In Hermes' revelation his teacher Poimandres tells a creation myth of the Fall of Man as he unites with the powers of Nature. Using the metaphor of a symbolic cosmos, we learn how Man is created by the supreme Mind or nous, and receives the qualities of the seven planets, which govern his destiny on earth. But Man, who shares the essence of Mind, also partakes of its absolute freedom, and he wills to 'break through the circumference of the spheres' and come to know his Maker.(12 ) In other words, as soon as he desires to overcome fate, he can, by realising and acting from the immortal part of his soul. All men are governed by Destiny, says Poimandres, but those who are led by Nous (the divine Mind), do not suffer as others do.(13) Man is a god, he only has to recognise it, and this very recognition can change his relationship with fate. This dangerous but exhilarating message was to be the key to Ficino's transformation of astrology.(14)

Now this integrated scientist and diviner in one arises again to instruct a new generation of astrologers in the renaissance, which leads to a resurgence of astrological practice and development. Marsilio's translations lead to the re-emergence of Plotinus, Plato, and Hermetic texts now in a new light--as powerful as before when magic was a science-- it is clear to this empowered astrologer, that the Renaissance (meaning REBIRTH) is reflected in the archetype of Uranus now being discovered though his work (the unconscious awakening) and the re-membering (15) of the natural state through natural magic. Despite the fact that Uranus has yet to be discovered, Marsilio taps into this state of discovering and remembering, as a state of being available to all, not a "time period in history". A state that is free of the tyranny of Saturnine Orthodox dogma, so clearly reflected in Marsilio's own natal Sun opposition Uranus.(16) Although he speaks of his melancholic state as a reflection of Saturn rising in his own chart, he clearly responds to the awakening and enlightenment of Uranus, the true planet of the renaissance. Led by Nous (divine mind), knowing we are God, we do not suffer as others do.