The World Soul and Harmony of the Spheres in Cardano and Pythagorean Tradition

The World Soul as a unifying and vivifying principle is present in all things, indeed it is one of the three principles of the universe as Cardano himself states in his famous autobiography. In the universe we must distinguish three principles: space, matter, and the world soul. For Cardano, the world soul plays the same function in nature that the particular soul plays in man. Just as man's soul organizes, vivifies and maintains the unity of the various parts of the body, in the same way all things are supported, vivified and united by the world soul.

Similar doctrines were already widespread in the Renaissance, as in Pico della Mirandola and Francesco Giorgi, probably in reference to certain Hebrew doctrines that had spread in that period, as testified by a letter from Trevignano to Giorgi himself: "You interpret according to the most secret doctrine of the Hebrews, that God would first have created a universal soul from which he would later have drawn particular souls as from a mass of molten glass one draws glasses."

However, in Cardano the World Soul is not only relative to men but to all created beings. Everything that exists participates in this universal soul and everything in a certain way has its own soul; the universe in synthesis forms a Pan Psychia, to use the words of Francesco Patrizi who would develop the concept reintroduced by Cardano. The idea of panpsychism shifts attention in a certain way from what is external to man to what instead happens within some remote region of his consciousness. In particular, this also happens in the case of Astrology. After the advent of the Counter-Reformation, the interest and scope of astrology shifts from an external and material dimension to a predominantly psychological and spiritual dimension.

World Soul and Harmony of the Spheres

Of this doctrine various testimonies have reached us from various fragments, of which perhaps the most famous is the one reported by Porphyry in Vita Pythagorica: "Pythagoras heard the harmony of the universe, that is, he perceived the universal harmony of the spheres and the stars moving with them; which we do not hear, due to the limitedness of our nature."

The theme is however developed in Plato's Timaeus, a treatise that would be extremely important for medieval speculation, particularly in its version commented by Calcidius, plausibly a Spanish bishop of the 3rd century AD who translated Plato's Greek work into Latin, adding a long and important commentary.

Plato's Timaeus

To understand the discourses we will make later, it is necessary to deepen our knowledge of this Platonic dialogue which is crucial for all medieval speculation. The Timaeus is perhaps the most Pythagorean of Plato's writings. Plato is said to have managed to acquire the 4 books of Pythagorean wisdom from Philolaus and is said to have died precisely as a Pythagorean. Some of the Pythagorean doctrines from the four books he would have synthesized precisely in the Timaeus, which constitutes in a certain way the summa of Pythagorean-Platonic knowledge.

The treatise of the Timaeus is a cosmogonic treatise, that is, one that describes the creation of the Universe and its structure. The treatise is divided thus: first there is a prologue by Critias in which he speaks of Atlantis, speaks of the civilization of Atlantis and how it was defeated by the Athenians, then begins Timaeus's discourse which is divided into three interconnected parts:

The first deals with the constitution of cosmic intelligence, the archetypal structure of the cosmos, the World Soul, its formation, the beginning of time and the creation of planets
The second deals with the formation of the world, and therefore with its material principle, the structuring of forms through the four elements and the cosmic solids later called Platonic: All material bodies are formed from the four elements which are geometrically represented by the 4 Platonic solids: earth = cube; air = icosahedron, water = octahedron, fire = tetrahedron and finally the fifth element represented by the dodecahedron.
The third speaks of the nature and constitution of man: from the world soul various souls are divided and these in turn constitute the various bodies.

The entire discourse, as mentioned, is not made by Socrates but by Timaeus of Locri, who is precisely an exponent of Pythagorean doctrines and who speaks of the world soul reproposing Pythagorean doctrines. At the base of the entire Timaeus lies the awareness that the Universe is a living whole, inseparable, where no part exists independent of another: "So according to this reasoning one must say that this world is a living being, endowed with soul and intellect, generated by the providence of God." (Timaeus 30C)

The World Soul in its functions and parts is constituted according to precise musical proportions.

The Tetraktys and Musical Harmony

The fundamental and basic idea of the Timaeus is that of the World Soul which is constituted according to musical principles. These become fundamental for us to understand the meaning of everything that comes after, which otherwise remains absolutely obscure to us. In the Pythagorean tradition, the mysteries of all creation were enclosed by a single number: the number 4. This is affirmed by Iamblichus in Theologiae Arithmeticae, who calls this number the guardian of nature's secrets.

This most likely refers to the mystery of the number 4, to the mystery of the creation of the Tetragrammaton, the divine name of four letters, etc... In particular, the Pythagoreans developed this number four by making it derive from unity with a symbol that later became very famous: The divine Tetraktys.

$$\begin{matrix} \bullet \\ \bullet \quad \bullet \\ \bullet \quad \bullet \quad \bullet \\ \bullet \quad \bullet \quad \bullet \quad \bullet \end{matrix}$$

The idea of the Tetraktys corresponds to the idea of the development of the One Absolute and transcendent God who develops according to various aspects and various personalities, the last of which is the most corporeal and the source of eternal nature. The 4 is as if it were the body of God, the corporeal manifestation of divinity; indeed in subsequent Christian qabbalistic speculation it is placed in relation to Jesus Christ (In the name of God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and of Jesus Christ).

Thus this symbol, on one hand represented divine interiority, but which was mirrored in natural interiority, so it represented the mirror of eternal nature, the interiority of all mysteries and the structure of the universe.