Kepler and Fludd: Musical Harmony, Planetary Motion, and the Structure of the Soul

The text discusses musical harmony. By inscribing regular polygons in the zodiac, the points touched by the zodiac follow what is generally called harmonic succession. The construction thus has not only geometric but also musical value that the construction with Platonic solids does not have. So then he begins to research and investigate for 15 years in search of these musical relationships in the planetary revolution system. It's important to understand that Kepler didn't discover one law or another by chance; he himself writes of having spent 15 years of efforts and continuous attempts before breaking through and discovering that musical harmony which, when formulated differently, became his law of periods. After fifteen years of study, Kepler understands and breaks through the key point whereby musical relationships are not given by the distance of planets but by their velocity between aphelion and perihelion. So by making a ratio between the distance at perihelion and aphelion, we get for Saturn a major third, for Jupiter a minor third, for Mars a fifth, for Earth a semitone, for Venus a sharp, and for Mercury an octave plus a minor third. This Harmonices Mundi is a crucial book for the history of astronomy; from a certain point of view, it can also be considered the book with which modern astronomy itself begins. In fact, Kepler, while maintaining as his object of investigation a classical theme like the Harmony of the Cosmos, nevertheless treats this subject in a very distinct way from his contemporaries: first of all, for this need to externalize the subject by seeking something objective, mathematically demonstrable. Kepler seeks mathematical demonstration for his theological arguments. Astronomy thus separates from astrology and acquires another value that it has to this day: that of testing ground for conceptual theories. This is an immense conceptual revolution. Consider that until this period, astronomy is only functional to astrology: to calculate planetary tables. Kepler instead uses this quantitative astronomy to demonstrate his concept or metaphysical theory relative to cosmic order and the harmony of the spheres, and this is a totally unprecedented function of quantitative astronomy that radically frees astronomy from astrology, giving it a new meaning (which moreover is that for which it is studied to this day). Fludd and the Structure of the Soul - Anthropocosmic Resonance Francesco Giorgi's division of the world into three spheres, but in the relationship between celestial spheres and body members, his preferred source is Agrippa (Natacha Fabbri p. 201). A totally antithetical position to Kepler's, but equally important and which allows us to fully understand the distinct movement of separation between astronomy and astrology, is found in the study of Robert Fludd. Robert Fludd, unlike Kepler, is totally disinterested in external confirmations of his theories; his theories do not concern the external world but the internal world. His main domain of investigation is not the external sky but the human soul, and in the human soul he wants to find intimate correspondences, resonance, and harmonies. The position was so radically distinct that it also generated a polemic between the two. Kepler in fact does not understand Fludd, and Fludd then responds by clarifying his position: "But here lies hidden all the difficulty, because Kepler devises the external movements of created things [res naturata] where instead I contemplate the internal and essential impulses of nature itself; he holds the tail, I the head; I perceive the first cause, he the effects." - Robert Fludd Fludd is indeed not at all interested in physical cosmography, the position of planets, etc... Fludd is exclusively interested in the human soul and the metaphysical and interior structure of the universe, completely disregarding the physical and exterior structure of the Universe. In the figure reported here, for example, Fludd illustrates an interior world of the human soul divided into 3 fundamental octaves: the spiritual, the median, and the material: the material which corresponds analogically with the four elements, the median which corresponds with the planets, and the spiritual which corresponds with the angelic hierarchies. In this image, Fludd illustrates the correspondences between micro and macrocosm: to each heaven or star corresponds a precise angelic hierarchy, which in turn corresponds to a center or part of the individual's soul, whose body, here lying as in a kind of apparent death, is the receptacle of everything. The stars and astrological influences are nothing other than the soul expression of forces of spiritual character represented by the angelic hierarchies that express and diffuse divine virtues in the cosmos. On the side instead we see how these same forces are all found in resonance with points of the physical body, and we have for example that the Seraphim express God's Love, the Cherubim Intelligence, the Thrones Intellect, and so on. So for example, in Fludd's view, if I want to strengthen love of neighbor, I must establish contact and harmony with the Dominations, whose celestial expression is that of the planet Jupiter, and thus use everything that is in harmony with this planet, in order to enter the state of consciousness and fill myself with that virtue expressed by the planet thanks to the law of Analogies and correspondences. From all these reasonings comes the discovery of blood circulation that occurred in collaboration with his friend Harvey, which Fludd first hints at in the Anatomia Amphiteatrum and then later disseminates in his Medicina Catholica. This is the mystical argumentation presented by Fludd in his Medicina Catholica of 1629-1631. In 1623 he had published the Anatomiae Amphiteatrum, which contained a chapter on the mystical anatomy of blood. In this, the central reference point is represented by the sun, the tabernacle of the macrocosm, which has a parallel in that of the microcosm, the heart. The vital breath is conveyed from the macrocosm into the living organism through the four cardinal winds which in turn obey the dictates of the sun. The latter impresses upon the winds its own circular movement: aeris disposi-