The Sarabite: Towards an Aesthetic Christianity

There is a continuous attraction, beginning with God, going to the world, and ending at last with God, an attraction which returns to the same place where it began as though in a kind of circle. -Marsilio Ficino

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Instead of the Mandatory Motu Proprio Post...


For just as the sun illuminates any star directly and also one through another indirectly, so God illuminates any intelligence directly and also one through another indirectly.

Certainly you can learn from Plato's
Timeaus that the divine intelligence itself, which the Hebrews call the Seraphim, has some three offices. For first, it lifts its head towards the good from which it emanates... Next, it keeps its breast to itself in the process of contemplating the beauty of itself. In the Timeaus, Plato refers to this as "remaining in its own seat and sight." Finally, in providing and creating it extends its thigh towards the lower things. On this account, Plato calls it "father" and "creator"...

So the ray of the good itself, although one in itself, becomes triple as well in the triple intelligence. When it strives towards the good, which some call the Sky, it is Saturn. When it turns back into itself, it is Jupiter. When it turns towards lower things, it is Prometheus, that is, providence. And when it descends, the same ray produces in matter every species of forms. It pours into the soul a similar number of principles. These are for judging the things which are produced and for fabricating the products of human skill.


-Marsilio Ficino. The Philebus Commentary. Translated by Michael J.B. Allen

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home