The triad of celestial Gods immediately above the sun consists of
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, of which the first who is the source of
division and motion, perpetually separates, nourishes and excites the
contrarieties of the universe, that the world may exist perfect and
entire from all its parts. He requires, however, the assistance of
Venus, that he may insert order and harmony into things contrary and
discordant. But Jupiter is the cause of a royal and political life,
and is the supplier of a ruling prudence and a practical and adorning
intellect. And Saturn is the source of intellect, in consequence of
being an intellectual deity, and ascending as far as to the first
cause. Hence, as there is nothing disordered and novel in intellect,
Saturn is represented as an old man, and as slow in his motion: and on
this account, astrologers say, that such as have Saturn well situated
in their nativity are endued with intellect.
Plato in the Timæus delivers to us the manner in which each of these
seven divinities becomes an animal, and is suspended from a more
divine soul, and what kind of perfection it affords to the universe.
For he says, “When therefore, each of the natures necessary to a
joint fabrication of time had arrived at a local motion adapted to
its condition, and their bodies became animals through the connecting
power of vital bonds, they then learned their prescribed order.” For
each of them, says Proclus, is allotted an appropriate life and motion.
For since the demiurgic sacred law distributes to every mortal nature
that which is adapted to it, and co-arranges every thing with a view
to the blessedness of the universe, what ought we to say concerning
the governors of the world? Ought we not to assert that they have
received from their father, every thing appropriate and every good;
and that shining with the splendors of beauty, they not only fabricate
the generation of time in conjunction with the father, but also lead
and govern the whole world? For by thus speaking of them we shall
speak rightly. In addition to these things likewise, we ought to
assert, that they not only receive the beautiful and the good from the
demiurgic monad, but also that being self-motive, they impart these to
themselves; and that from themselves the giving of good originates.
Plato indeed, indicating this says, “that each of them _arrives_
(αφικεσθαι) at a local motion, adapted to its condition,” as defining
from itself the measure of the life, the order, and the motion which it
is allotted in the universe.
Since, however, each of the seven bodies has a twofold life, the one
inseparable, but the other separable; and the one indeed intellectual,
and in a ruling manner established in itself, but the other divided
about body, which it connects and moves; according to the latter
indeed, it is an animal, but according to the former a God. Plato,
therefore, distinguishing both these, and rightly conceiving that
a divine and intellectual soul, and which does not depart from
intelligibles, is one thing, but another, the animal which is suspended
from it, possesses life from, and is the image of it says, “that their
bodies became animals through the connecting power of vital bonds,
and that they then learned their prescribed order.” For a divine
soul learns indeed the demiurgic will, understands the works of the
father, and fabricates in conjunction with him mundane natures; and
this, through intellectually perceiving him, and being filled from
him with divine powers. For it is not possible for either intellect
or soul to provide for wholes in an exempt manner, in any other way
than by the participation of deity, and through a deific life. The
words, therefore, “a joint fabrication of time,” manifest that they
are allotted a secondary power in the generation of it; in consequence
of their father possessing a primary power. For he, indeed, generated
the wholeness of time; but these divinities co-operate with him in
the production of the parts of which time consists. For the periods
of these are the parts of the whole of time; just as they also were
generated parts of the world.
But the animated body is an animal bound with vital bonds, possessing
life from the soul which it receives according to the demiurgic
allotments. For if with us also, the animal is different from the man,
and the visible Socrates is one thing, but the true another, much more
are the true sun and the true Jupiter different from the visible orbs
of these divinities, and not composites of body and soul. Conformably
to this Socrates in the Phædrus says, “that we do not sufficiently
understand that a God is an immortal animal, possessing indeed a
soul and a body, connascent through the whole of time.” Indeed the
unity in each of these divinities, and the ineffable participation
of the fountain of all the numbers characterized by unity, form that
which is primarily a God. But the intellect which connects each of
these deities stably, uniformly, and invariably, is secondarily a
God. And the soul which is filled from intellect, and evolves the
one comprehension of it, is a God in the third place. And the first
indeed of these is truly a God; the second is most divine; and the
third is itself also divine, but illuminates the animal with which it
is connected with the peculiarity of deity; according to which this
likewise is divine, being bound with animated bonds, which may be said
to be vivific, demiurgic and indissoluble bonds, as Plato himself
afterwards asserts. For the whole of the divine bodies, are bound
in souls, are comprehended by and established in them; the _being
bound_ indeed indicating the stable and immutable comprehension
of bodies in souls, and their undisjoined communion with them. Such
therefore being the nature of divine bodies, they fabricate time in
conjunction with the demiurgus, call forth its one and unapparent
power, and impart a progression to it into the world, which unfolds
many temporal measures.