Commentary on Plato's Symposium

the world, as Plato wishes; in the end, the body of the world. We do not call this supreme God a world, because "world" means nothing other than an ornament of many composed things, and He must be entirely simple. But we affirm that He is the beginning and end of all worlds. The first world made by God is the angelic mind; the second is the soul of the world; the third is this entire machine that we see. In these three worlds, therefore, three chaos-states are considered. God in the beginning creates the substance of this mind, which we also call essentia essence. It is dark and without form in its first creation, but because it is born from God, it is moved by an innate desire and turns itself toward Him. Turning toward God, it is illuminated by His splendor. By the brilliance of those rays, its desire is kindled; with the desire kindled, it unites itself entirely to God. Once united, it is formed and made beautiful. For God, who paints all things united within the angelic mind, paints the qualities of all created things. Thus, in it are spiritually, so to speak, painted all the things that we perceive in these bodies: there the roundness of the heavens and of the elements, there the qualities of the planets, of vapors, of stones, of metals, of plants; there the forms of animals are created. The figures and likenesses of these things, conceived with a certain help from God, we do not doubt are iddee ideas in that supernal mind. Hence it happens that we often call the form and idea of the heavens God. The form of the first planet is God Saturn; of the second, Jupiter; and of the other planets that follow in the same way. Similarly, we say the idea of fire is God Vulcan, of air Jupiter and Juno, of water Neptune, of earth Pluto. Whence all the gods are assigned to certain parts of this lower world; the i-