The first year · Lesson 12
Under Seven Stars
How Agrippa sorts the world under the Sun, the Moon and the five planets
Here is where we are on the map. You have the four elements. You have the hidden virtues, the powers inside things. Today we add the sky. Agrippa takes the seven planets of the old sky and hangs the whole world on them: metals, stones, plants, animals, even parts of the body. Nine short chapters, and most of them are lists. Lists are my favorite kind of reading, so let’s begin.
The reading
- Book I, Chap. XXII. How inferiour things are subjected to superiour bodies, and how the bodies, the actions, and dispositions of men are ascribed to Stars, and Signes. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 48 · about 964 words, 5 min
- Book I, Chap. XXIII. How we shall know what Stars naturall things are under, and what things are under the Sun, which are called Solary. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 50 · about 1,211 words, 6 min
- Book I, Chap. XXIV. What things are Lunary, or under the power of the Moon. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 54 · about 606 words, 3 min
- Book I, Chap. XXV. What things are Saturnine, or under the power of Saturne. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 55 · about 390 words, 2 min
- Book I, Chap. XXVI. What things are under the power of Jupiter, and are called Jovial. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 57 · about 303 words, 2 min
- Book I, Chap. XXVII. What things are under the power of Mars, and are called Martial. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 58 · about 277 words, 1 min
- Book I, Chap. XXVIII. What things are under the power of Venus, and are called Venereall. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 59 · about 332 words, 2 min
- Book I, Chap. XXIX. What things are under the power of Mercury, and are called Mercuriall. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 60 · about 235 words, 1 min
- Book I, Chap. XXX. That the Whole sublunary World, and those things which are in it, are distributed to Planets. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, p. 61 · about 294 words, 1 min
About 23 minutes in all. Each link opens the book at the first paragraph.
Before you read
- We skip Chapters XVI to XXI in the first year. They are about the virtues of things and how people used them, such as binding and charms. Chapter XXII is the bridge. It says lower things are ruled by the stars above them. Chapters XXIII to XXIX then take one planet each. Chapter XXX sums it all up.
- Slow reading is normal here. Each chapter is one long paragraph in the spelling of 1651. “Vertue” means a power. “Solary” means of the Sun and “Lunary” of the Moon. Read a little aloud if it helps. The old words get easier after a page.
- Each planet chapter runs in the same order: elements, humours, tastes, metals, stones, plants and trees, animals, birds, and fish. Don’t try to remember every item. Look for the pattern, and for the reason Agrippa gives. Watch for the words “by reason of.” The quiz asks about some of those reasons.
- Agrippa repeats many wonders from older writers, like stones that guard against poison. Read them as what he says, not as things to try. You will meet these lists again in the site’s table of correspondences, where they sit side by side.
In a nutshell
Chapter XXII: How lower things are ruled by higher bodies
Agrippa starts with a rule. Lower things are subject to higher ones. What is in the sky is also on earth, but in an earthly way. So some things here are of the Sun, and some are of the Moon. Next he gives each planet its parts of the body, and then each sign of the zodiac, from the head (Aries) down to the feet (Pisces). For the planets he follows the Arabians, then adds a view he credits to Hermes: the seven openings of the head, one for each planet. Then he gives each planet a mood. Last, he gives each one its kinds of people and work.
Chapter XXIII: How to know a thing's star, and the things of the Sun
First Agrippa admits it is hard to know which star a thing is under. He gives some clues. A thing may copy a star’s rays, motion or shape. Its colour and smell can tell you too, and so can what it does. Then comes the first and longest list, the things of the Sun. It covers bright flame, gold, shining stones, plants that follow the Sun, and proud, brave animals. Many of the stones come with a wonder from older books.
Chapters XXIV to XXIX: the Moon and the five planets
Each of these chapters is a list for one heavenly body. Agrippa does not always give a reason, but when he does, it is a likeness. A heavy thing goes under heavy Saturn. A fierce thing goes under Mars, the planet of war. Some items turn up under two planets, so the lists overlap. Here is each one in plain words.
- The Sun (Chapter XXIII)
- Gold, bright flame, shining stones, plants that turn to the Sun, and proud, brave animals like the lion.
- The Moon (Chapter XXIV)
- Silver, water and all moist things, white stones and pearls, dogs, and many water creatures.
- Saturn (Chapter XXV)
- Lead, earth, and dark, heavy things. Plants that numb the senses. Slow, lonely, gloomy animals.
- Jupiter (Chapter XXVI)
- Tin, the air, sweet tastes, lucky trees like the oak, and gentle, stately animals.
- Mars (Chapter XXVII)
- Iron, fire, bitter tastes, and fierce, hungry animals and birds of prey.
- Venus (Chapter XXVIII)
- Brass, sweet perfumes and fruits, and loving animals, like the dove and the swan.
- Mercury (Chapter XXIX)
- Quicksilver, mixed and many-coloured things, and quick, clever, changeable animals.
Chapter XXX: The whole world shared out among the planets
The last chapter sums up. Everything in the world below the Moon gets its virtue from the planets. Agrippa now splits single things into parts. Fire’s light is of the Sun, but its heat is of Mars. In a plant, the fruit, flowers, seeds, roots, wood and leaves each have their own planet. A stone’s weight, hardness and beauty come from three different planets. The rule under it all is simple: each planet rules what is like it.
Highlights
so in the Heaven are things Terrestiall, but as in their cause, and in a Celestiall manner; and in the Earth are things Celestiall, but after a Terrestiall manner, as in an effect.
The sky holds earthly things as their cause. The earth holds heavenly things as their effect. If that sounds like “as above, so below” from the Kybalion, it should. It is the same old idea, here in 1651 English.
Also all the actions, and dispositions of men are distributed according to the Planets.
Not just things, but people and their moods. English still keeps this idea in a few words. A gloomy person is “saturnine.” A cheerful one is “jovial,” from Jove, another name for Jupiter. A changeable one is “mercurial.”
NOw it is very hard to know, what Star, or Signe every thing is under
A rare moment of doubt. Agrippa admits the sorting is hard, then gives his clues. The odd “NOw” is just how the printer set the first word of a chapter.
whatsoever is found in the whole world is made according to the governments of the Planets, and accordingly receives its vertue.
This joins today’s piece of the map to the last one. The hidden virtues you met before, Agrippa says, come down from the planets.
every Planet rules, and disposeth that which is like to it.
The key to every list in this lesson. Like goes with like. Keep this rule in mind. Next time a modern scholar will give it a name.
Words to know
- Vertue
- The old spelling of virtue. Here it means a power or property inside a thing, not goodness.
- Inferiour and superiour
- Lower and higher. Things on earth are lower. The stars and planets are higher.
- Solary, Lunary, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, Venereall, Mercuriall
- Of the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury.
- Celestiall and Terrestiall
- Of the sky, and of the earth.
- Humour
- One of the four fluids that old medicine said filled the body: blood, phlegm (flegme), choler (yellow bile) and black choler. Too much of one was thought to change your mood and health.
- Signe
- One of the twelve signs of the zodiac, the band of sky the Sun seems to pass through in a year.
- House and exaltation
- Astrology words for the signs where a planet was thought to be strongest. Leo is the Sun’s house.
- Marcasite
- A shiny mineral, gold or silver in colour.
The real story
Our notes, not the book's.
The old sky had seven planets, from the Greek word for “wanderer”: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the seven lights that move against the fixed stars. The week still carries them: Sunday, Monday and Saturday in English, and the other four in French, from mardi (Mars) to vendredi (Venus). Linking metals, plants and moods to the planets is far older than Agrippa, handed down from ancient astrology through the Arabic and Latin writers of the Middle Ages, and he names some of them as he goes. He gathered these lists into his book, printed in full in Latin in 1533, and later occult books copied his tables; Francis Barrett’s The Magus (1801), takes much of them word for word. Here the book and the facts part. The Sun is a star, the Moon circles the Earth, and no one has shown that a plant or stone draws power from a planet. But for centuries this was a shared language, and once you know it, many old books, poems and even everyday words start to make sense.
Quiz
Answer from the notes or the reading, in any order; you can change an answer at any time. Each answer says why, with a link to the page.