Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XII — How It Is That Particular Virtues Are Infused into Particular Individuals, even of the Same Species · 1 of 1 · tr. Henry Morley; L. W. de Laurence ed.
Chapter XII, Section 1
CHAPTER XII. How It Is That Particular Virtues Are Infused into Particular Individuals, even of the Same Species . There are also in many individuals, or particular things, peculiar gifts, as wonderful as in the species and these also are from the figure and situation of Celestial Stars. For every Individual, when it begins to be under a determined Horoscope, and Celestial Constellation, contracts together with its essence a certain wonderful virtue both of doing and suffering something that is remarkable, even besides that which it receives from its species; and this it doth partly by the influence of the Heaven and partly through that obedientialness, of the matter of things to be generated, to the Soul of the World, which obedientialness indeed is such as that of our bodies to our souls. For we perceive that there is this in us, that according to our conceptions of things our bodies are moved, and that cheerfully, as when we are afraid of or fly from any thing. So, many times when the celestial souls conceive several things, then the matter is moved obediently to it. Also in Nature there appear divers prodigies, by reason of the imagination of superior motions. So also they conceive and imagine divers virtues, not only things natural but also sometimes things artificial, and this especially if the Soul of the operator be inclined towards the same. Whence Avicen saith, that whatsoever things are done here, must have been before in the motions and conceptions of the Stars and Orbs. So in things various effects, inclinations and dispositions are occasioned not only from the matter variously disposed, as many suppose, but from a various influence and diverse form; not truly with a specifical difference, but peculiar and proper. [paragraph continues] And the degrees of these are variously distributed by the first cause of all things. God himself, who being unchangeable, distributes to every one as he pleaseth, with whom, notwithstanding, second causes, Angelical and Celestial, co-operate, disposing of the corporeal matter and other things that are committed to them. All virtues, therefore, are infused by God, through the Soul of the World, yet by a particular power of resemblances and intelligences over-ruling them, and concourse of the rays, and aspects of the Stars in a certain peculiar harmonious consent.
Themes
◆Cosmic Sympathycosmology
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The text explicitly states that celestial souls conceive things and matter is moved obediently to them in Nature, reflecting a resonant connection between cosmic parts.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
God distributes virtues to individuals as He pleases through the Soul of the World, indicating active ordering of existence.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The text mentions a 'first cause' and 'second causes' (Angelical and Celestial) co-operating with God to distribute virtues.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage links individual human bodies to celestial constellations and stars, mirroring the cosmic structure in personal existence.