Hermetic Influence on Renaissance Science and Astrology

Hermes Trismegistus calls it the visible God, and Sophocles' Electra calls it That which sees all. Thus, ultimately, the Sun sits on its royal throne and commands its vassals, the planets, which revolve around it. Book I, Chapter X

The heliocentric theory is indeed very similar to the system of doctrines expressed in the Corpus Hermeticum:

"But a vision of the sun is not a matter of hypothesis, for it is itself the ray of light that is seen, the sun illuminates all around the cosmos with its blinding luminosity on the upper part as well as on the lower one. For the Sun is placed at the center of the cosmos, which clothes it like a crown." Corpus Hermeticum, Discourse XVI

If Copernicus relied precisely on the authority of Hermes Trismegistus to present his own heliocentric revolution, to Hermes Trismegistus would also resort Paracelsus, Gilbert, Bacon, Bruno, Harvey, Fludd, Newton, entire generations of scientists who saw in Hermetic doctrines the basis, inspiration or confirmation of their theories. The very idea of secular knowledge independent of ecclesiastical canons is largely due to the diffusion of the Hermetic conception of a prisca theologia preceding the Christian era although equivalent to it.

Similarly, attention to experimental practice or constant attention to natural processes according to the famous Hermetic saying that the artist imitates nature are all concepts that find their founding basis in Hermeticism. In the astrological field, Hermeticism contributed to increasingly shifting the attention of astrologers from the divinatory aspect to the more properly philosophical one. The intensification of the debate on free will in sharp opposition to the fatalistic divinatory aspect of astrology, conversely went perfectly in accordance with the philosophical and magical aspect of astrology that found its fertile and natural environment in Hermetic philosophy.

In philosophical astrology planted in Hermeticism therefore, intellectuals and scientists, who saw in astrology an indispensable mechanism to explain the intimate connections and correspondences of nature, found themselves in perfect agreement with the most fervent and fierce opponents of astrology as a negator of freedom and centrality of the individual. This common ground of exchange, united with the Church's decisive position to condemn any hint of astrological fatalism with the deliberation of the Council of Trent, did nothing but favor the shifting of astrology's attention from the more properly divinatory aspect to a more philosophical and spiritual aspect.

17.2 Ficino, Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola

A very important role in the shift from Astrology to astrosophy is covered by three figures of the era, closely linked to each other like Ficino, Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola. Their firm negation of divinatory astrology constituted a clear turning point in the interpretation of this discipline, giving at the same time a strong impulse to a type of magical astrology detached from the divinatory one. Pico in particular is interested in using the Kabbalah to expand Christian interpretation and unite these two currents.

Despite being all three very distinct from each other, these 3 figures have many traits in common, having lived in the same period. Among the three, the one who has the clearest position is Savonarola who denies with a writing the divinatory part of astrology precisely because it is contrary to free will:

"Speculative astrology is true science, because it seeks to know the effects through true causes [...] but divinatory astrology, which entirely consists in effects that indifferently proceed from their causes, especially in human things that proceed from free will, and in those rare times that proceed from their causes, is entirely vain and cannot be called either art or science."

Ficino and Pico della Mirandola instead have been misunderstood for a long time by historians who did not understand their ambiguous behavior. The two, in fact, while making extensive use of philosophical astrology in their writings, nevertheless both, at the end of their lives published writings against Astrology:

"The celestial bodies are not to be sought in any place external to us: heaven, in fact, is all within us, who have in ourselves the vigor of fire and celestial origin. First of all the Moon: what else does it signify in us, if not the continuous movement of body and soul? Mars, then, indicates promptness; Saturn, instead, slowness. The Sun signifies God, Jupiter the law, Mercury reason, Venus humanity."

For Pico della Mirandola in particular, a book entirely dedicated to the demolition of Astrology called "Disputations against Divinatory Astrology" was published posthumously. This made historians think that there had been a radical about-face by Pico towards Astrology and Ficino's teachings. However, Ficino himself, to those who question him about the book, declares to agree with what his friend and disciple affirmed and to have never been opposed to it.

Pico's theses exposed in his 12 books are important for the role they would have had later. First of all, he makes a clear difference between "mathematical or speculative astrology," that is astronomy, and "judicial or divinatory astrology"; the first allows us to know the harmonic reality of the universe, and therefore is right, while the second believes it can predict the future of men based on astral conjunctions. According to Pico, such science erroneously attributes to celestial bodies the power to influence human affairs (physical and spiritual), subtracting such power from Divine Providence and taking away from men the freedom to choose. In essence, astrology subordinates the superior (that is, man) to the inferior (that is, astral force). The events of human existence are so intertwined and complex that their reason cannot be explained except through man's full freedom of will.

• The first book is a collection of corrections to old ideas and other texts aimed at separating the image of numerous past philosophers from astrology. Pico questions the attribution of the speculum astronomiae to Albertus Magnus, proposes for the first time the fact that educated men of his time make horoscopes to carry forward research that would otherwise not be financed in any way, criticizes some errors of old texts like those of Abu...