Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

52Therefore the first One and Good rules immediately over the one mind. The one mind, as first among many minds, rules perhaps over twelve ruling minds, the twelve groups of twelve beneath them, and the many more that follow; finally, it rules also over the one soul of the world. The one world-soul rules over the twelve souls of the twelve spheres. The twelve souls rule over twelve groups of twelve souls; that is, the soul of each sphere rules over twelve more excellent souls within its sphere. Finally, the twelve groups of twelve rule over innumerable souls, for in each sphere those twelve principal souls guide the other souls of that sphere. This chorus of the Muses, as Orpheus says, sings and dances forever in musical measures at Apollo's own command: Σὺ δὲ πάντα πόλον κιθάρῃ πολυκρέκτῳ ἁρμόζεις—that is, ‘You tune the whole heaven with your melodious lyre.’ But we have conversed enough with the Pythagoreans. Let us now pass to the established Platonic order.

53By one argument we have proved that the spheres of the world are alive; let us proceed to another. We see the spheres of the world in motion and conceive certain movers for them. We also know that there cannot be sphere above sphere, or mover above mover, without end. We are therefore compelled to admit some sphere that is moved first. If it is moved first, it is surely moved by an intrinsic principle. For, as we touched upon above, whatever is first hot or cold is hot or cold through an intrinsic heat or cold. We have always said that whatever is of a certain kind through another must be brought back to something that is of that kind through itself.

54And if even the smallest bodies of the world possess within themselves, in some fashion, the powers of their own motions and works—as appears in the parts of the elements, in plants, and in living creatures—how much more do the immense spheres of the world possess within themselves the principles of their revolutions. These principles, I say, are most intimately joined to them: the spheres are more closely united to their movers than our bodies are to our souls. For motion is the more natural and efficacious the more closely the moving thing is joined to its mover; and the motion of heaven, more than any other, is free from violence, natural, and efficacious.