ON THE MYSTERIES

[The in]tellect is made boniformHaving the form or nature of the Good, the ultimate principle in Neoplatonic philosophy.. Celestial living beingsoriginal: "animalia." In ancient and Neoplatonic thought, the stars and planets were considered living, ensouled beings. can be called incorporeal. All the celestials are good and beneficial, looking only toward the Good itself and acting with this eternal gaze. Inestimable virtues are found, both in those celestial living beings and inherent in their bodies, and through influencesoriginal: "influxus." These are the spiritual or astrological radiations or "outflows" from the stars that affect the earth. descending without hindrance into all things down to the lowest parts, communicated both to individuals and to species. They are immutable everywhere, even though they govern generation in mutable matter through a perpetual order, and they are always beneficial.

Through that same flow of heaven into matter full of discords, something dissonant to us results. Eternal things are received by temporal things in a temporal way. Incorporeal things are received by bodies in a bodily way. These material things receive the immaterial powers of the heavens in a mutable and disordered way. Things that are not shaped [figurated] in the divine worldThe realm of pure, immaterial forms. are received as if they were shaped in the heavens; likewise, celestial things are not evil, even if they are received here as evil. All powers of the celestial beings descend from that place as good; however, in this mixture of contraries, they are changed. Therefore, the quality that causes harm on earth is now something other than that which had reached this point from heaven.

First, what is given is one thing in the giver, but another thing outside the giver, even if it remains the same within itself; moreover, it is also diminished. Second, while it is received in a baser subject, it also becomes baser. Third, because of the diverse nature of the receiver, it is received in a diverse manner. Fourth, it is altered by the qualities differing among themselves, which are captured equally by the same subject. Fifth, it suffers according to the suffering of the subject. Sixth, from all the things contained within the subject, some other final result emerges.

Celestial influences extend into material things. The power of Saturn is indeed bindingoriginal: "contentiva," meaning a force that holds together or restricts., while that of Mars is a moveroriginal: "motrix," a driving or motivating force.. The former [Saturn] frequently hinders by accident when the matter it is received into is colder; the latter [Mars] hinders when the matter is hotter. Likewise, the former harms when it is received by way of freezing; the latter when by scorched heat, which happens because of the disposition of the matter—that is, when that matter is not warm enough and is also denser; while the latter [Mars] is by itself hotter and more subtle.

The light and color of the sun, although they seem to offend a weak eye, are nevertheless necessary for life. Similarly, all celestial influences arrive as healthful, even if the perversity of the subject receives them perversely, or weakness cannot easily endure the efficacy of the higher powers. All motions contribute both to the whole and to the necessary parts of the universe; although meanwhile, among the smallest particles under this motion, either one is harmed by another, or such particles do not easily sustain the motion of the whole. Just as in a danceoriginal: "chorea." A common Neoplatonic metaphor for the harmonious movement of the cosmos., while individuals dance harmoniously and agree in their gestures with each other and the whole choir, a finger or foot is sometimes extended and struck. And if anything weak should walk [into the dance], it is trodden down.

Concerning the proximity of celestial bodies to incorporeal species.

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These celestial beings, having their beginning in the intelligible worldThe realm of pure thought and divine "Forms" or "Ideas," existing above the physical world., while they contemplate their own Ideas within it, they move the heavens by this very act...