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. . . ] equally connected to everything [ . . . ] on the
one side she conforms to the divine [Intellect] and on the other side to
the transient, and even turns to each by desire, at the same time she is
wholly and simultaneously everywhere’.
115
Ficino then proceeds to the ontological dynamics through which mul-
tiplication occurs. God is perfectly Simple, One, and Good. In the divine
Intellect, the first emanation, the ideas are determined and therefore it is
the hypostasis where multiplication begins.
116
We have already encoun-
tered this notion in Avicenna’s Metaphysics. For species to be formed the
ideas need to be transferred into a dynamic and generating hypostasis.
117
The ideas are universal ‘divine forming powers’, but it is the seminal rea-
sons that determine the number of species in matter and shape living
beings.
118
These are the logoi spermatikoi of the Enneads which was trans-
lated by Ficino.
119
The Soul receives the ideas from the Intellect and from
her they proceed as seminal reasons.
120
She initiates further multiplica-
tion with the seminal reasons that she possesses by divine power; there
are ‘as many seminal reasons of things as there are Ideas in the Divine
Mind. By these seminal reasons she fashions the number of species in
matter.’
121
So the Soul has a double nature: one that gazes upwards to receive
the divine power and identify the ideas from which the seminal reasons
stem, and another that directs itself towards the world of generation;
‘it is partly a seminal reason so she can generate, and partly an exem-
plary reason so she can know’.
122
In the Platonic Theology, Ficino explains
that the Intellect’s function is ‘to order by means of forms’, but to
generate living things the vital motion of the Soul is required. In the
formless prime matter ‘certain seeds of forms lie hidden and ferment’.
123
Early Modern Astral Magic
111
As Hiro Hirai notes, in his concept of seeds, Ficino adopts the theory
of inchoate forms.
124
As seen in the previous chapter, Albertus Magnus
adopts this theory, so does Thomas Aquinas in Summa contra gentiles
which is one of the texts Ficino refers to in the Three Books.
125
According
to Ficino, the Soul, as intermediary between Intellect and Body, instils
these seminal reasons in matter. It has been noted that the concept of
the seminal seeds has no Latin predecessors after St Augustine,
126
but it is
reminiscent of Albertus Magnus’s notion of ‘productive power’. Accord-
ing to Albertus ‘most universal forms become increasingly determined
with regard to matter, according to their differing descent towards one
or another matter’.
127
In the case of minerals, this is called a ‘min-
eralising power’ defined as a seminal active force existing in nature,
though its origin is celestial.
128
It also corresponds with Hermann of
Carinthia’s concept of ‘individual signs’ as differentiating principles
between members of species, distributed by celestial causes.
129
In addition to being the vital principle of generation, the Soul also
constructs the heavens, the stars and all celestial figures. She impresses
certain qualities on all of these.
130
The ontological discourse now moves
from the supercelestial to the celestial. The process of multiplication
and generation is taken to a deeper level of specification; ‘in the stars,
moreover – in their figures, parts, and properties – are contained all the
species of things below and their properties’. The forms of all things are
now contained in the stars and by them seminal seeds are sown; more-
over, individual properties are endowed according to the location of the
individual stars in relation to the other celestial bodies and fixed stars.
131
In addition, the Soul establishes the celestial images – constellations –
which ‘have their own coherence from the rays of their stars directed
toward each other by their own special property’.
132
So the celestial bod-
ies take part in the process of generation by determining and assigning
species, properties and powers reflecting their qualities.
133
From Avicenna and Aquinas, Ficino adopts the notion of the spe-
cific form received from the stars in this process of individuation.
134
He
writes: ‘when, therefore, the Soul gives birth to the specific forms and
the powers [speciales formas vireque] pertaining to the species of things
below, she makes them through their respective reasons with the aid
of the stars and the celestial forms’.
135
As a result of the Soul’s asso-
ciation with the stars in the process of generation, the celestial world
becomes the administrator of the world below. Ficino asserts: ‘on these
well-ordered forms [celestial] the forms of lower things depend; they
are ordered by them’.
136
Here we have a clear adoption of the Ara-
bic notion of astral mediation, causation and generation formulated
112
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