Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

32But grasp the whole matter through this example. The sun possesses light from itself and pours it in a moment into Mercury. Mercury too receives all its light in a moment and thereafter remains always completely full. The sun pours the same light in a moment into the moon. The moon receives it not in a moment, but over time: as it turns toward the sun now in one way, now in another, it receives the light now in one way, now in another, and by its nature varies with the changing light. The sun signifies God, Mercury angel, and the moon soul. What I say of Mercury, understand as said likewise of all the stars above the moon. As those stars are related to the sun, so angels are related to God. Soul alone, however, is related to God as the moon is to the sun. Nothing therefore prevents soul from descending from divine things and receiving divine things, while nevertheless being moved through its own nature and remaining always capable of motion and life.