Recently I’ve stumbled across the book again I’ve been dying to read ever since my interest in classic astrology literature was sparked. It’s a book titled “Three books on life” (De Triplici Vita) by 15th century healer/ philosopher/ priest/ astrologer Marsilio Ficino. If you want to read the actual text, or at least the Kaske edition, there are only bits and pieces to be found on the internet. If you want to read the entire thing and you don’t know any Latin, it will be quite costly.
Ficino seems to be at odds with astrology at times, I’ve found an in depth article on this site. I myself found my answer to his rejection and acceptance of astrology in the following quote from “Three books on life”:
Someone… will say: Marsilio is a priest, isn’t he? Indeed he is. What business then do priests have with medicine or, again, with astrology? Another will say: What does a Christian have to do with magic or images? And someone else, unworthy of life, will begrudge life to the heavens. …Christ, the giver of life, who commanded his disciples to cure the sick in the whole world, will also enjoin priests to heal at least with herbs and stones, if they are unable to cure with words as those men did before. But if those things are not sufficient, he will command them to compound them with a seasonable breath of heaven and apply them to sick people. For with the same breath of heaven by which he incites animals everywhere, each to his own medicine, even so does he provide most abundantly for the life of all…. …Marsilio is not approving magic and images but recounting them in the course of an interpretation of Plotinus. And my writings make this quite clear, if they are read impartially. Nor do I affirm here a single word about profane magic which depends upon the worship of daemons, but I mention natural magic, which, by natural things, seeks to obtain the services of the celestials for the prosperous health of our bodies. This power, it seems, must be granted to minds which use it legitimately, as medicine and agriculture are justly granted, and all the more so as that activity which joins heavenly things to earthly is more perfect. From this workshop, the Magi, the first of all, adored the new-born Christ. Why then are you so dreadfully afraid of the name of Magus, a name pleasing to the Gospel, which signifies not an enchanter and a sorcerer, but a wise priest? For what does that Magus, the first adorer of Christ, profess? If you wish to hear: on the analogy of a farmer, he is a cultivator of the world. Nor does he on that account worship the world, just as a farmer does not worship the earth; but just as a farmer for the sake of human sustenance tempers his field to the air, so that wise man, that priest, for the sake of human welfare tempers the lower parts of the world to the upper parts… Lastly, there are two kinds of magic. The first is practiced by those who unite themselves to daemons by a specific religious rite, and, relying on their help, often contrive portents. This, however, was thoroughly rejected when the Prince of this World was cast out. But the other kind of magic is practiced by those who seasonably subject natural materials to natural causes to be formed in a wondrous way. Of this profession there are also two types: the first in inquisitive, the second, necessary. The former does indeed feign useless portents for ostentation… This type, however, must be avoided as vain and harmful to health. Nevertheless the necessary type which joins medicine with astrology must be kept.
Ficino argues that there is a place and use for astrology in medicine (the healing profession), which can peacefully coexist with the Christian religion in his opinion as a priest. He does this by explaining there are two types of practitioners of “magic” (as astrology is seen by the church) and only one has a right to exist.
It’s astoundingly beautiful material to read, though not something you attempt to plough through on a busy weeknight.
