On the Sun and Light

Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars rise before the Sun. Venus, however, as well as Mercury and the Moon, rise after the Sun; they act as if they are escorting a king on a journey through the middle. When they travel otherwise, they emerge weaker. Among them, those are considered more excellent whom the Sun himself, as lord, has commanded to go before him. But let us return to the ancients. The old natural philosophers original: "Physici ueteres" named the Sun the heart of heaven. Heraclitus called it the fountain of celestial light. Most of the Platonists placed the Soul of the World original: "mundi animam"; the concept that the universe is a living being with its own soul in the Sun. This soul, filling the sphere of the Sun's wheel, pours out rays through that globe—which is like a fire—as if through a heart; from there, it spreads like a spirit through all things. By these rays, it distributes life, sense, and motion to the universe. For these reasons, perhaps, most astrologers believe that just as God alone grants us an intellectual soul, so he sends it only under the influence of the Sun: that is, specifically in the fourth month after conception. But let them see to that. Certainly Mercury, signifying the motion of our mind, departs the least of all from the Sun in its movement. Finally, Saturn, signifying the state of the secluded mind, deserts the ecliptic the path of the Sun the least. Furthermore, Jupiter and Mars—since the former through his sign Sagittarius, and the latter through Aries, agree with Leo—have obtained such a gift from the Apollonian referring to Apollo, the god of the Sun that Jupiter signifies religion, justice, civil laws, and prosperity; while Mars signifies magnanimity, fortitude, and victory. The Moon, Venus, and Mercury are called the companions of the Sun. The Moon, indeed, because of her frequent union with the Sun