As above so below. Could have I chosen a better shirt for this video? No, I couldn’t have? Want to know why? Continue to watch this video and you will find out.
I’m Angela and welcome back to my channel. Today we will talk about magic in the Italian Renaissance. There are so many things that I could talk about just addressing magic in the Italian Renaissance because it was a time where magic was so widespread and also the conceptualization of magic really flourished at that time. So there are so many orders, so many philosophers, so many things that I could say but I will just limit myself to the major ones and perhaps in future I will make individual videos on each and every philosopher.
So let’s start by addressing some of the main concepts of the Italian Renaissance. So the first one is that the time starts to be seen as linear, as moving towards a progression from the past to the future as if the time was, basically, a line rather than a circle or a spiral. We can particularly see this with Leibniz, Bruno and Pascal. And also, this sets the premises for science, for the development of Natural Science because not only time is seen as linear but it’s also perceived as, the more we advance into the future the more we advance in general. So it’s not just an advancement in time but it’s also a progression for humankind and this idea is very much embedded in the idea of natural science that has been in development from the Enlightenment onwards. Another key concept that we find in the Renaissance philosophy is the ‘radical immanence.’ So I should first premise that there’s a difference between transcendence and immanence. Transcendence means that the divine is seen as outside of the natural world whereas immanence is the view that the divine is inside, within, embedded, ingrained in the natural world.
So what happens in the Renaissance is that there is this radical immanent view of divine. So the divine basically is totally immersed in nature which is the reason why the answers are not to be found outside of it, so the answers are within nature. And this can also be seen, somehow, as one of the premises that led the development of natural science as we know it nowadays. Another key concept of the Renaissance is, what in Latin it is called Homo Faber Fortunae Suae which means that every man is the Artifex of his or her own destiny. So, of course, it applies to men and women alike. And since every person is the Artifex of their own destiny this means that there are certain practices such as Astrology, which are perceived as negative and other practices such as Magic, which are perceived as positive because, of course, with Astrology, you have the idea that your future is determined somehow, whereas with Magic you’ve got the power yourself to create your own thing, so it’s very much in alignment with this kind of concept. So Alchemy and Magic are useful instruments for humankind as they empower the agency that human beings have on their own lives. Of course, the latest stage of the Renaissance saw this view overthrown by the inductive method and the advent of natural science.
A key philosophical underpinning of the Italian Renaissance is Hermeticism. Hermeticism is based on the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of two books which are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus which means ‘Hermes the thrice greatest.’ This book appears in the Western world thanks to a translation by Marsilio Ficino in 1463. The Corpus Hermeticum is very difficult to date. We find some hints in Plato’s Republic and also in the 45 Nag Hammadi books which were found in 1945. So this evidence might suggest that the Corpus Hermeticum predates the Nag Hammadi books and it might, perhaps, be dated around the third century Before the Common Era.
The two books, of which the Corpus Hermeticum is comprised, are the Poemandres and the Asclepius and this is where we find the concept that my shirt is manifesting to you, which is the idea that ‘as above so below,’ ‘as within so without,’ ‘as the universe so the soul.’ So, some key ideas in Hermeticism are that God’s essence is concealed within the creation, therefore gnosis – the knowledge – is the essential part of the human path, which is not considered to be intellectual but actually the achievement of the unity. In fact, one idea in Hermeticism is that what happens to one level of reality happens to all of them. This is sometimes called as the Law of Correspondences, which means that there are correspondences between all the things. Because the idea is that everything is one and even to this oneness unfolds in the multiplicity. The multiplicity, every bit of the multiplicity maintains a relation to every single other part of it for they are ultimately all the same thing. They are all one thing which unfolds in the multiplicity.
Moving on to some of the philosophers in the Italian Renaissance who spoke about magic we have Marsilio Ficino. Marsilio Ficino interprets Plato and he clearly really likes Plato because he was a very influential interpreter of Plato’s works. He interprets Plato in a Christian way. So basically, the particular, the element of reality are the reflections of the Creator rather than the world of ideal forms. Also, the soul is immortal and transcendent and it’s not affected by the physical decay of the body. He also compares Hermes Trismegistus to Moses and translates Hermetic texts in a Christian way. However, he does believe that everything is connected and there are correspondences connecting everything that is. But, in this view, all correspondences relate to God. So it’s not really like all correspondences are basically the manifestation that we are all connected and through these correspondences, we can somehow dive into this unity but rather all these correspondences actually lead us to God, to the God-creator. Interestingly, Marsilio Ficino does believe in the existence of magic and he actually relates magic to faith, therefore the efficacy of magic is linked to the belief of the practitioner who needs to have faith.
It’s not, I believe because I get evidence but rather I get evidence because I believe. Giordano Bruno is possibly the most famous philosopher from the Renaissance who talked about magic. In his book “De Magia” he states that;
“Magic is the ability to grasp the mechanisms according to which the unity is articulated in multiplicity and the multiplicity is reassembled in the unity.”
Giordano Bruno
Thus it is basically the science of transformation. So to quote him from Latin,
“Magus significat hominem sapientum cum virtute agendi“ which means the Magician is the knowledgeable one who’s got the virtue of agency of transforming what surrounds him or her.
In Giordano Bruno there’s also a pantheistic view which means the deity God, basically, is perceived in every single thing that lives, not only human beings but also animals and even inanimate objects which are, of course, not inanimate because they still contain the spark of deity. Despite this pantheistic view of the deity, which resides in every single thing that exists, he does have a transcendental view of God and God is perceived as above everything and not knowable. He also makes a difference between Natural Magic and Witchcraft and this is a difference, a discrepancy that has been stated by other authors in Renaissance and it was, in some cases, used in trials held by the Inquisition. So the difference between natural magic and Witchcraft is that Natural Magic, basically, is the art of working with nature, with the plants and herbs so it will be like, for example, making a concoction to heal a wound or to heal your insomnia. Whereas Witchcraft would be communing with demons and communing with spirits considered to be evil spirits at the time.
I will now proceed with Tommaso Campanella and I translated one of his books which, to my knowledge, is not translated in English and this book is “De Sensu Rerum et Magia” which means ‘the meaning of things and magic.’ So this passage states;
“To deny that things feel because they have no eyes, no mouth or ears is nonsense similar to that of those who deny the motion to the wind because it has no legs and the ability of eating to fire because it has no teeth, or even denied the sight to someone whose home has no windows or to the Eagle that has not glasses.
Tommaso Campanella – Translated by A Puca
It is foolish to think that the world does not feel because it has no legs, eyes and hands.
These tools are only necessary to animal spirits contained within a gross matter.”
It was a sentiment, a widespread sentiment in the Italian Renaissance, the idea that the world is like a living animal and every single part of it is living and sentient and somehow concealing the spark of God which is still contained in every single thing. So this passage is meant to knock humankind off the pedestal of the idea that only if things resemble us, they possess life and meaning and the essence of God.
I always felt that a Tarot card from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, which is the Magician, encompasses pretty well the main ideas and the main concepts in the Italian Renaissance in relation to magic. So, as you can see, the man is at the centre and humankind is perceived as someone at the centre of the universe, connecting what is above and what is below – able to find correspondences that link the two and able to find those correspondences that will lead humankind and will lead the multiplicity, the differences, the multiple elements, in reality, to be rejoined and recombined with the unity from which they all come from. The magician has the symbol of the infinite on his head. So, it’s the gnosis we were talking about before, the knowledge, which is not intellect knowledge, but experiential knowledge. One hand is pointed upwards one hand downwards because both directions are sources of power as well as connection because power comes from connection in the Renaissance. By reading the symbols, the signs, the allegories that are be found everywhere around him the Magician is able to connect all the dots and bring everything together as it once was. This re-conjunction is where magic happens. This ability to see and understand the hidden laws of nature is where the power of the Magician resides. The Magician has the symbols of the four elements on his table; the earth through the pentacle, the water through the cup, the fire through the wand, and the air through the sword. Therefore the metamorphosis, the change, the magic happens when the above and below are combined because the Magician is able to read the hidden book of nature, the hidden laws of nature. There is a correspondence between the macrocosm, which is the universe, the one that unfolds in the different elements of reality and the microcosm, which is humankind as the reflection and the manifestation of the universe – the macrocosm. When the Magician is able to read the correspondence between the two and act upon this knowledge then it’s when the change happens, when the wheel triggers the metamorphosis through which the agency of the Magician is manifested and fulfilled.
So, although this was just a brief overview of some of the concepts expressed by the philosophers in the Italian Renaissance, I hope you like this video. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments down below and I will gladly reply to any of your questions and doubts. If you like this video, SMASH the like button, share it with your friends, subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for all the academic fun.
Bye for now.
CITED WORKS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, M. J. B., Rees, V. and Davies, M. (2002) Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, BRILL.
Broek, R. van den and Hanegraaff, W. J. (1998) Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times, SUNY Press.
Bruno, R. (2010) Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic, Cambridge, UK ; New York, Cambridge University Press.
Campanella, T. (2019) Del senso delle cose e della magia, Ernst, G. (ed), Bari; Roma, Laterza.
Copenhaver, B. P. (1984) ‘Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De vita of Marsilio Ficino’, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 523–554.
Dall’Igna, A. (2017) ‘Characters of Giordano Bruno’s Mysticism’, in Vassányi, M., Sepsi, E., and Daróczi, A. (eds), The Immediacy of Mystical Experience in the European Tradition, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, Cham, Springer International Publishing, pp. 143–155.
Headley, J. M. (2019) Tommaso Campanella and the Transformation of the World, Princeton University Press.
Mead, G. R. S. (2012) The Corpus Hermeticum (Annotated Edition), Jazzybee Verlag.
Rubini, R. (2014) The Other Renaissance: Italian Humanism between Hegel and Heidegger, University of Chicago Press.
Ruggiero, G. (2015) The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento, Cambridge University Press.
Yates, F. A. (1999) Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Taylor & Francis.
Zambelli, P. (2007) White Magic, Black Magic in the European Renaissance, BRILL.