Marsilio Ficino was born in Val d’Arno, Italy in 1433. Due to his forming of the Platonic Academy, where he resurrected the concepts of the ancient Greeks, the Renaissance drew its most potent intellectual and spiritual inspiration. Ficino was the first individual that made Plato and the Hermetic writings available to the Western world. Due to his patrons, the Medici family and their purchase of ancient texts, he translated ancient works from Greek to Latin. Ficino believed that the writings of Plato contained the key to the most important knowledge of himself, that is, knowledge of the divine and immortal principle within him.
Through the Greek writings, Ficino recognized that the Divine essence was sleeping behind the physical form, and that love, beauty and the arts could awake the slumbering divinity to its rightful place of awareness within the individual.
Through the Greek writings, Ficino recognized that the Divine essence was sleeping behind the physical form, and that love, beauty and the arts could awake the slumbering divinity to its rightful place of awareness within the individual.
The men who surrounded Ficino and his academy were the most conspicuously brilliant group of people ever to have assembled in modern Europe. Ficino influenced Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Durer, Pico della Mirandola and many others.
Due to his 'Letters,' pictured above, he corresponded with the leading statesmen, scholars, and churchmen from all over Europe. Ficino would correspond with the elite in Europe through his letters, incorporating the greatest wisdom from the writings of Plato and the Hermetic teachings, to assist his reader with some challenge that they faced. What made him truly unique was the love that he shared with all individuals who crossed his path, no matter what their status or what activity was causing them pain.
In each contact that he made through his letters (The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, seven translated and published volumes) he included the following points; his letters contained a deep love; his writings demonstrated his clear understanding of what the reader was experiencing, and his comments were made to bring out the best use of the readers talents; each of his written points was related to the divine principle within that individual, and his comments are timeless and just as applicable today.
His contemplative nature allowed him to understand the principles of every art and he was noted as a great musician, scholar, medical doctor and priest. He utilized his lyre and played music to bring back the confidence of a group of people who needed to be bolstered up to undertake the defense of their country. His medical skills were so great that many people, including the Medici family preferred to call upon him before any other medical specialists. In the tradition of Hippocrates he never took a fee.
He took up his lyre singing Orphic Hymns, which he used to cure maladies of the body and soul, much the same as the ancient Greek physicians. He read ancient Greek poetry because he learned that the ancient Greeks used some poetic lines to help with psychological problems. Ficino believed in the special importance of the visual arts as a reminder to the soul of its origin in the Divine World. He incorporated how the ancient Greeks believed that music, art, poetry and well-proportioned figures represented the Divine within our world. It was largely through Ficino’s insistence of the importance of the use of art that the painter’s position in Florentine society was raised nearer to that of poet, than that of the carpenter, where it had previously been
.
The writings in his Letters and books touched people due to the fact that he consistently, talked to the divine essence within people and their desire to return to the Divine Source. He wrote his ‘Letters’ to the Pope, urging him to fulfill his responsibilities at a time when corruption in the church was rampant. He wrote letters to politicians, lawyers, and others, reminding them to act from a higher awareness when contemplating some action.
Ficino’s philosophy brought about one of the most soul-centered, psychological movements of the pre-scientific age. “His exploration of the inner world brought all around him to inner islands, land masses, and channels which would give us, even today, a better sense of where we are, where we have come from, and the right routes to take toward fertile places and unexplored territories.”
In everything, from philosophy to medicine, he taught those around him to see all things in the light of soul. He taught that a psychological attitude ought to pervade all our researches and ideas. He not only influenced artists, poets, and philosophers with his ideas, but he developed what we call today, the practice of psychotherapy and the “Planets Within.”
“Ficino’s vision of the loving unity of Creation contributed to the development of modern science and prepared the way for observation, hypothesis, experiment and discovery of physical and chemical laws. His theories had an effect upon Copernicus Brahe, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.”
His use of music, rhythm, color, nature, linking the planets to the human passions, linking the macrocosm and the microcosm, and his understanding of the deeper meaning of ancient mythology, makes Ficino a true Physician to the Soul. Through the arts we bring ourselves closer to the essence of the Divine Source that resides within. That source that is the ultimate and immediate healer of our physical and psychological ills. Ficino had a beautiful heart, an open mind and a humble spirit. To inspire and empower.
Due to his 'Letters,' pictured above, he corresponded with the leading statesmen, scholars, and churchmen from all over Europe. Ficino would correspond with the elite in Europe through his letters, incorporating the greatest wisdom from the writings of Plato and the Hermetic teachings, to assist his reader with some challenge that they faced. What made him truly unique was the love that he shared with all individuals who crossed his path, no matter what their status or what activity was causing them pain.
In each contact that he made through his letters (The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, seven translated and published volumes) he included the following points; his letters contained a deep love; his writings demonstrated his clear understanding of what the reader was experiencing, and his comments were made to bring out the best use of the readers talents; each of his written points was related to the divine principle within that individual, and his comments are timeless and just as applicable today.
His contemplative nature allowed him to understand the principles of every art and he was noted as a great musician, scholar, medical doctor and priest. He utilized his lyre and played music to bring back the confidence of a group of people who needed to be bolstered up to undertake the defense of their country. His medical skills were so great that many people, including the Medici family preferred to call upon him before any other medical specialists. In the tradition of Hippocrates he never took a fee.
He took up his lyre singing Orphic Hymns, which he used to cure maladies of the body and soul, much the same as the ancient Greek physicians. He read ancient Greek poetry because he learned that the ancient Greeks used some poetic lines to help with psychological problems. Ficino believed in the special importance of the visual arts as a reminder to the soul of its origin in the Divine World. He incorporated how the ancient Greeks believed that music, art, poetry and well-proportioned figures represented the Divine within our world. It was largely through Ficino’s insistence of the importance of the use of art that the painter’s position in Florentine society was raised nearer to that of poet, than that of the carpenter, where it had previously been
.
The writings in his Letters and books touched people due to the fact that he consistently, talked to the divine essence within people and their desire to return to the Divine Source. He wrote his ‘Letters’ to the Pope, urging him to fulfill his responsibilities at a time when corruption in the church was rampant. He wrote letters to politicians, lawyers, and others, reminding them to act from a higher awareness when contemplating some action.
Ficino’s philosophy brought about one of the most soul-centered, psychological movements of the pre-scientific age. “His exploration of the inner world brought all around him to inner islands, land masses, and channels which would give us, even today, a better sense of where we are, where we have come from, and the right routes to take toward fertile places and unexplored territories.”
In everything, from philosophy to medicine, he taught those around him to see all things in the light of soul. He taught that a psychological attitude ought to pervade all our researches and ideas. He not only influenced artists, poets, and philosophers with his ideas, but he developed what we call today, the practice of psychotherapy and the “Planets Within.”
“Ficino’s vision of the loving unity of Creation contributed to the development of modern science and prepared the way for observation, hypothesis, experiment and discovery of physical and chemical laws. His theories had an effect upon Copernicus Brahe, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.”
His use of music, rhythm, color, nature, linking the planets to the human passions, linking the macrocosm and the microcosm, and his understanding of the deeper meaning of ancient mythology, makes Ficino a true Physician to the Soul. Through the arts we bring ourselves closer to the essence of the Divine Source that resides within. That source that is the ultimate and immediate healer of our physical and psychological ills. Ficino had a beautiful heart, an open mind and a humble spirit. To inspire and empower.
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