How to Harmonise Your Life With the Heavens with Dr Angela Voss

An 8-week reading group, studying Marsilio Ficino’s text on astral and natural magic

Friday mornings: 21st January – 11th March 2022. 11:00am – 12:30pm (UK time) via Zoom

£80 for 8 weeks

This little treatise by Ficino, published in 1489, is a ‘hands on’ manual for aligning your soul to the planetary spirits for spiritual, psychological and physical health. In some ways it is very ‘new age’ – advising the reader on herbal remedies, musical invocations, astrological talismans and image-making – but it is also deeply theurgic, in that all these activities are part of an intention to raise the soul to the highest divine realm. We will take 2 or 3 chapters each week and discuss Ficino’s ideas and his metaphysical and philosophical framing, but also think about the implications of his teaching for our own lives. No prior knowledge of astrology is necessary, we will learn as we move through the text.  It is very readable, very engaging, and also demonstrates Ficino’s attempt to practice neoplatonic magic without offending the Church.

The sessions will be in seminar format, not a formal lecture, so we can explore the text as a group and discuss passages as we go along.  If you have to miss a session or two, recordings will be available with permission of the whole group, but you are encouraged to attend the whole series if possible to keep engaged with the thread of the conversation.  

Booking information – see below: