The Magician of Villa d´Este,

«on the Horizon of Time and Eternity»

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and from
Internet

Cardinale
Ippolito d´Este

I.·.P.·.H.·. Guillermo Calvo Soriano, 33rd

 Everything in the Garden
of Villa d'Este
sings Harmony, Sympathy.
Correspondences
between the Cosmic Levels
that run from the Soul
to the Spirit and
the Body of the World,
communicating
in an infinite refraction around
this Middle Plane that is the Soul.
In this Diaphanous World
of the Spirit,
the Magician incorporates
“the most incorporeal
of the Bodies” the Spiritus,
and to animate it
he manipulates the images.
Acting with the help of the Spirit on the Soul and the Body,
the Magician Commands Nature :
the Magician is a Connective Being, he is in the Confines
of the Worlds, he is a Bridal Being Uniting the Whole
to Himself, artificially substituting the Soul of the world.
 The Magician is a Being on the Horizon of Time and Eternity,
the very definition of the Soul proposed in the "Book of Causes",
by Gathering the Separated Elements,
by giving rise to the Latency of the Germs of Nature
and the Seminal Reason of Things.
 By replacing the Soul of the World, the Magician acquires
the Power of the Demiurge. He seizes the Secrets of Nature
to Guide it by manipulating certain images, reflections,
in the Median Plane of the Soul,
of the Ideas of the Intelligible World.
 Marsilio Ficino

In doing so, he acts on the Correspondences that unite Heaven

with Earth, the Soul to the Body. Like the Love that Marsilio Ficino
describes as a Magician, the Magician is a Powerful Intermediary
that supports the Circuit that connects the Divine World
with the World of the Senses through the Soul of the World.
 The Magician knows how
to Guide the Flow of Spirits towards
Objects and Matter,
with the Manufacture
of Talismans, so that,
thanks to them,
he can influence
the Innumerable Powers
that populate the Divine World.
 By uniting the things of Above with those of Below
and vice versa, mixing the images in a Middle Plane,
the Magician Controls the Influence of the Celestial World
on the Sublunar World,
according to the Principles of Spiritual Magic.
Marsilio Ficino develops in his book
“De Vita”, the Beneficial Influences
of the Sun of Jupiter and Venus,
diverting those evil ones
of Saturn and Mars.
Mercury, symbol of intellectual
activity and intelligence,
is a Medium Power rich
in Solar Influences,
it protects the Hermeneuts
and the Magi.
 An Image of the Universe.
In chapter XIX
of Book III of De Vita,
Marsilio Ficino,
after defending in the previous chapter
the Creation of Planetary Images
used in a “natural” way,
suddenly proposes the question:
why is a Universal Image
not allowed, that is to say ,
an image of the Universe
in itself ?.
Thanks to which
it would be possible to hope
to obtain a Great Benefit
from the Universe.
Marsilio Ficino
 It is this “Image of the Universe Itself”
with its Stepped Worlds,
its Streams that flow capturing the Light of the World,
at the same time “procession”, “conversion” and “return” of Life
to its Origin, the Sun, the that allows
the Creator of this Villa d´Este Garden
to turn it into a Magic Work of Art, conceived as a Talisman.
 Thus, as the Demiurge
of the “Timaeus”,
it is applied
to the Manufacture
of an Image
of the Universe to occupy
the Central Place,
in the same way
the Magician,
by means of the Manipulation
of the Images of the Universe,
replaces
the Soul of the World
that directs it.
 This Garden aspires to capture
the Soul of the World,
the Spirit that drives it,
placing in its Heart the Magician
who manipulates the Powers
practicing the Natural
and Spiritual Magic
that Marsilio Ficino
recommends in “De Vita”.
A Magic inhabited
by a constant flow of Purification
that the Allegories
related to Love, Knowledge
and Initiation testify.
 A Magic whose purpose is to Transform the Soul and Spirit
of the one who Practices it, into an Angel,
into a Pure Spirit that will know how to appropriate
the Virtues of the Celestial Influences that cross the Garden
and dialogue with the Divine Powers that govern Heaven and Earth.
 Hermetic Ideal of the Sage who waits,
capturing the Spirit in the manner of the Ancient Magi,
naturally concentrating the Spirit, with the help of the Water Artifices,
commanded by the Stars and the Sky.
Thus converting the Garden into an Immense Talisman
as described by Iamblichus in “The Mysteries of Egypt”.
 Sometimes,
to Bring the Light,
We Use Water,
which by Nature
arranges its Transparency
to receive the Light.
For the Hermetic Ideal,
which includes
the entire Neoplatonic Culture
of the Renaissance,
the Sages of Antiquity,
as well as the Modern Users
of Talismans,
do not practice
demonic Magic.
 On the contrary,
they manifest
a deep understanding
of the Nature of the Whole,
and of the steps followed
by the Divine Ideas
to Descend here.
They use
an essentially Natural Magic,
in accordance
with the Principles of Nature
and the Ideas
that govern them,
without appealing
to the demons of matter.

Adhesion to the Light

 “There is no Force
that Knowledge cannot Dominate,
there is no Fate
that does not conquer,
Star that does not understand
our Language,
nor Energy that does not serve us”.
In the Living Complexity
of the Great Whole,
are there limits
that cannot be violated?
 The Magician, according to the Nature
of which He is the Minister, that is,
The Servant Transforms the World and Transforms Himself,
Living in Unison with the Harmony of the Cosmos in which his Soul,
Dweller in his last reflections, as the Whole Whole inhabits it.
 From Heart to Heart,
from the Heliac Heart
of the Universe
to the Solar Heart
of the Man Converted
into a Magician,
according
to the Teaching of Thot,
united to the same heartbeat,
born of the same Fire
carried by the Rays of Light
of the Divine Astro.

Thot
Spirit of the World that comes to the Encounter of the Human Spirit
and makes it Communicate with its Source, the Sun.
The Human World and the Celestial World
then live in the same impulse that makes them Conjugate
the Plan of the Soul, Human Soul or Soul of the World.
 This Gifted and Natural Magic
does not attract demons
and their charms,
it strives to put into Work
the fabric of Sympathies
and Antipathies
that regulate the Universe,
which commands Eros, Love,
the Magician par excellence,
who in a Complex Harmony, makes
communicate
and communicate
All Parts of the World.

Eros and Psique

 The Magician,
in the Tradition of Thoth,
unites the Macrocosm
and the Microcosm
by forging Alliances
between Man and Nature,
Nature and God,
in a Universe Unified
by Homer's
“Great Golden Chain”,
which makes
the Worlds Supraceleste
and Sublunar
Communicate.
This is how Gian Battista Della Porta alludes to a String stretched
from the First Cause to the Lowest and Minimal Things,
by a Reciprocal and Continuous Connection,
so that the Superior Virtue that Expands its Rays
will come to this point, that if we touch an Extreme of she,
she will tremble and make the Rest move.
 The only True Philosophy of Nature during the 16th Century
was that of Marsilio Ficino in his Book of Life, published in 1489,
(“May your Celestial Spirit, be Angel again among the Angels”)
and Natural Magic of Gian Battista Della Porta,
from 1589, a Wisdom Magic.
 Giovanni
Pico de La Mirándola

For his followers, Magic Action was the best way to unite
“the Earth to Heaven”, that is,
to unite the Lower Elements to the Qualities and Virtues
of the Higher Elements
as Giovanni Pico de La Mirándola says in his Oratio ...
 For Pico, “Magician” means in the Persian language,
“an Interpreter and a Worshiper of the Divine”,
and “Natural and Spiritual Magic”,
“Good Magic”, is this Magic full of Sublime Mysteries,
which attracts the Deeper Contemplation of the Most Secret Things
and, ultimately, the Knowledge of the Entire Nature.
 Magic draws, so to speak, from its retreats, to bring to the Light,
the Virtues scattered and scattered in the World by Divine Favor,
which operate less than Miracles, what nests in the Nature that
performs them, after testing in depth the Harmony of the Universe,
which the Greeks expressively call Sympathetic, after having meditated
on the mutual Knowledge of Natures, conferring on each thing its Natural
Charms, as well as on their own, which become Magic, or Spells.
 She brings to light, as if she were the author, the Wonders hidden
in the recesses of the World, in the bosom of Nature,
in the confines and hiding places of God, and just as the farmer marries
the vineyards to abalone, the Magician Unites the Earth with the Sky,
that is to say, the Elements inferior to the Qualities and Virtues
of the Superior Elements. So the First Magic turns out to be monstrous
and harmful, as long as the Second is divine and healthy.
 The Magician who practices Good Magic, Natural Magic,
has the Power to extract the Secret Virtue of each Thing
and integrate it into the Totality of the Other Planes of the Universe
according to analog series that make the Signs communicate
between them from one end of the Cosmos to the other in a set
of permanent forwarding, which allows you to act from a distance.
The Creation of Allegories and Symbols that the Magician Scenes
in the Garden of Villa d'Este is Invisible, covered with a thin veil.
He creates that Mirror of the Soul in its singular complexity,
invisible to the Profane but Luminous to the Initiate,
who knows how to listen,
as he strives to reveal, while hiding.
 This Extreme Power
needs Great Prudence,
Wisdom recommends
burying these Signs
under the veil of
the Enigma and Symbols.
A persevering Work
of Imagination
will be necessary
to apprehend them
of the Invisibility where
they are relegated,
that the Magic Activity
manipulates mysteriously,
in order to put Its Powers
into play to acquire
the Benefits that
they are supposed to lavish.
 The Universal Sympathy commands the Organization
of the Enigmatic Signs that invade the Frescoes of the Villa
and the Artifices of the Garden, with their load of Mystery.
This Sympathy makes them communicate in a circulation that suppresses
the Partitions between the Supracelestial, Celestial and Sublunar Worlds,
to restore them in their Living Unity, of “the Totality of Life”,
of the Living God, according
to the Teachings of Hermes Trismegistus:
 “Climb higher
than any height,
descend lower
than any depth,
collect within yourself
the sensations
of Everything Created,
of Fire, of Water,
of Dry and Wet”.

Hermes Trismegistus
 Hermes Trismegistus

“Imagine at the same time that you are everywhere,

on earth, in the sea, in the sky,
that you have not yet been born,
that you are in your mother's womb,
that you are a teenager, an old man, that you are dead,
that you are beyond death.
If you think about all these things at the same time, times, places,
substances, qualities, quantities, you can understand God”.
 In the effusion of his Spirit
and his Soul in the World,
the Man Converted
into a Magician circulates
“in the Horizon of Time and Eternity”
in the Middle Plane of the images.
From there,
he can perceive
the Totality of the World,
communicating
with The Divine.
 He can apprehend it by becoming Himself
the Image of this Multiple Whole
which He awakens Contemplating the World,
a Divine Image in the likeness of his Celestial Angel
whom he aspires to join Embracing the World in its complexity
in a paradoxical way: pouring himself into the Whole,
he concentrates on the Plane of the Soul in an Image of Mediation.
Ascent of the Pure Soul of the Initiate
 It is at this point, both Spiritual and Magical,
that the Allegories and Symbols of the Garden carry their meanings
with each other throughout analogical series
that want to commit themselves, in the Middle Plane of the Soul,
to the Divine Working in the World.
 Circular Knowledge,
in which Everything
reflects Everything,
reveals the World
as a “System of References”,
a System in Phase,
used by the Neoplatonists
of the XVI Century
in the Art of Memory,
Supreme Machine capable
of reflecting the Hidden Reality
to through
complex representations
that mix images, signs,
emblems, hieroglyphs,
stamps and symbols
in a Vertiginous Circularity.
 The Sponsor of the place
intends to Conquer the Divine
with this Work where Art and Artifice
serve a Spiritual and Angelic Magic,
with the Objective of Divinizing
the Spirit of the Magician
who practices it
to make it Celestial,
a New Angel
among the Angels,
as taught Marsilio Ficino
in his book III of De Vita.
 A Talisman of Immortality.
To conquer the Divine
with the help of Art and Magic
Capturing the Spirit of the World,
collecting it in this Talisman
that wants to be
a Harmonic Image of the Universe
is to try to free yourself
from Doom
and the Need for Cosmic Order,
to Access a Higher Order,
That of Love.
He is a powerful Intermediary who will know how to accompany the Spirit
towards the Higher Regions of Intelligence, practicing this Hieratic Art
that the Egyptians and Greeks knew, of the Ascension of the Spirit
throughout the Degrees of Being, in order to Redirect it
towards its Divine Origin , in order to Free him from the Becoming
Escaping from the Fatum that governs the Body
in which he is imprisoned.
 Manipulating Images,
Signs, Symbols
that Dialogue
with the Enchanting
Celestial Powers,
enchanting the World,
an enchantment
that the Wonders
of the Water Artifices
testify by performing
divine operations that witness
the “Transmutation”
of Man into God,
Magic becomes Theurgy.
He will free Man
from the Laws
of the Material World
and turn him
into a Spiritual Being
who will escape Destiny.
 Like the Theurgos of Antiquity who Dominated the Stars
and played with their Power, the Magician at Work in this Garden,
returns his Celestial Spirit using the Artifices
deployed in this Figure of the World,
Rises towards the Angelic Intelligences,
becoming Himself into an Angel who Dominates the Totality of Reality.
 Refined form of Magic,
Theurgy, by its cathartic,
must favor
the Celestial Ascension
of the Soul.
The Theurgist,
by the Knowledge
of the Hidden Symbols,
Orders the Things of this World,
not with the limited Power
of a Human Will,
but as if He belonged
to the Society of the Gods.
 Manipulating Hidden Symbols that only
the Higher Powers understand,
the Theurgist has the Power to Arouse Divine Apparitions
within the Radiation of a Supernatural Light.
He is able to evoke Gods, Angels, Heroes, who come to dialogue
with Virtuous Men and, assuring himself of his help,
He sets out on the Path of Salvation from him and rises,
in a Flash of Luminous Rays, towards him. Intelligible God.
Of all the Symbols that operate in the Villa and the Garden, the most
Powerful, in all respects, is the Liquid Crystal of the Water Artifices,
which, at the same time, Translucent Pearl and Mirror, Symbolizes
the Spirit, Pure Luminous Ray and perfectly Refined Soul.
A whole Poetic, Luminous and Solar Theology, inspired by Ficino,
who sees in the Sun, the Tabernacle of God,
which radiates in the Garden and the Villa d´Este.
 God is, so to speak,
a Spiritual Circle
whose Center is around
and its Circumference
is nowhere.
But if this Divine Center
has somewhere in
the Universe an imaginary
or invisible site
of operation,
preferably it reigns
in the midst of the Beings,

like a King in the middle of the City, like the Heart

almost in the middle of the Body, like the Sun in the middle of the Planets.
Therefore, God is in the Sun,
God has fixed his Tabernacle in the Middle Essence of the Beings.
The Sun reigns in the Heart of the Universe, Intelligence of the World
that occupies a mediating position between the Original Oneness
and the Soul of the World. The Sun, Motor of the Celestial Spheres,
is also the Creator of the Souls that at Birth sent down here
in matter and that makes, after death, rise within it.
The Pure Rays of the Resplendent Astro served as their Vehicle
“Ochima”, both in their Descent through the Earth
and in their Ascent towards the Superior Regions.
 In the 5th century d. C., Macrobio endeavored to demonstrate
the Solar Character of many Deities. He made the Cult of the Sun
a Universal Cult, the Object of an elaborate Syncretism
to which the Platonists of the Renaissance proved to be sensitive.
 The Villa is transformed
into an immense Luminous Mirror
stretched out towards
the Celestial Powers,
and in particular the Sun,
to collect the beneficial influences
and the “seminal reasons” that,
carried by the Light
and the Spirit, radiate,
reflected by the Liquid Crystal
of the Fountains
in the Garden Corps
rejoicing to collect them.
 Numerous Allegories and Divine Figures represented in the Villa
and the Garden are associated with this Solar Poetic Theology.
She radiates her Luminous Presence through the Artifices of Water
that transform the vaporous Corporality of the Garden
into a Mirror traversed not only by Light,
but also by a Multitude of Images destined to capture
the different Facets of the Soul of the World and of the Spirit.
 Spirit that descends
down the slope of the garden,
from the dazzling Sun
of the Fountain of Leda
to the dark convolutions
of the Labyrinths,
image of the lower degrees
of the Depths of the Body,
Fontana di Leda to Ascend towards
its Heliac Origin.
 All these images,
in their Diaphanous Aura,
run over the Arc
of the Luminous Rays that,
extending between
the Sun and
the Opacity of the Bodies,
are the Vehicle of the Spiritus,
on which in turn
runs the Spirit
of the Magician
or Theurgist
of this Garden,
your Sponsor.
 In an effort of sustained Purification, He rises up by these rays,
finding in a dazzling scenery many Divine Apparitions
that come to dialogue with his Soul and assure him of their help
in the Realization of his Salvation, that is, of his Return to the Sun,
Return Heliacal of his Soul finally Redeemed and Transmuted into Gold, in
the Golden Apples carried by the White Eagle towards the Solar Astro.
 Vigorous Effort that leads him to Become an Angel,
to join the Society of Gods, transforming the vegetative part
of his Soul buried in Matter, in Pure Spirit.
Man, having become Wise, not only ensures his salvation,
but also that of the World ...
 According to Marsilio Ficino, as this Celestial Ray had descended
to the lowest degree, It flows back towards the Heights,
thus also the Soul of Man here below,
Restores the Universe that had fallen, because by its Action it benefits
the Universe, previously Spiritual and become Corporal,
which is constantly Purified and becomes Spiritual every day.
 Orpheus,
the Wizard of the First Ages.
During the first half
of the 16th century,
the followers
of the “Philosophy of Love”
have become the singers
of a new Wisdom Culture,
deepening the meaning
of this “Transmutation” of Man
and the World
condemned to Return to the Spirit.

Orpheus
 They have developed a Representation of the World,
both Philosophical and Religious,
that aims to reconcile Platonism and Hermeticism with Christian Truth,
enriching them with the Wonders of Fable
and considering Mythology as a First Poetic Theology
revealed to the Men of the First Ages.
Many authors in the line of Ficino,
Pico, Francesca Giorgia Veneto,
Giulio Camilla Delminio
have considered this Mutation
as the True Destiny of Man :
by Metamorphosing himself,
he will separate
from the World of Necessity
to Unite with that of Love
commanded by Beauty .
 Thus he will access
the World of the Spirit
and the Intelligible,
a Mandate similar to that
of the Primordial Times when
the Spirit Dominated the Universe,
the Golden Age in which
Man communicated
with the Powers of Nature,
like Orpheus, who, with his Voice,
enchanted Wild Animals
and moved the stones
by the only Power of the Word.

Orpheus
 Nostalgia for a Mythical Age
during which the Word was a “Miracle”
and where the Song
of the Poets-Theologians
illuminated and dominated Things,
subjecting them
to the Divine Nature of the Soul.
Nostalgia for the Omnipotence
of the Spirit and the Soul,
of a Religious Wisdom founded
on a Perennis Philosophia
taught by the Prisci Theologi,
a Knowledge of the Origins
that did not distinguish between
Theology and Natural Philosophy,
with which the greatest Greek Sages
have been committed since Orpheus.
Orpheus
 This Wisdom could only operate in a perspective of Harmony
between Doctrines, a Harmony founded on the Belief in the Myth
of an Original Wisdom that encompasses all,
in a very ancient truth of “Origins”.
Hermeticism and Platonism are the Paths of Return
towards a first “Revelation” that anticipated and announced,
through the figures of Hermes and the Sibyls,
the Saving Word of the Christian Word.
 At the heart of this search
for Original Harmony
is the wisdom experience of iconic
figures like Orpheus, Zoroaster,
and Hermes. Original revelation
that includes the Myth of Orpheus,
with deep Magical-Religious value.
By the long tradition
that has sung it,
Orpheus Orpheus is the Son of the Sun,
the First Initiate.

Magician of the First Times, the Priscus Theologus par excellence,

enchants the World and Men
to Awaken them by revealing to themselves,
preparing the Path to a Life in the Spirit, Promise of Immortality.
 Poetry, according to Orpheus, is Revelation and Prophecy,
in the image of this head that sings and predicts
that appears in the Vaults of the Villa Hall,
it reveals to us the Mysteries of the dispersed and later reunited Unity.
It is Divination, hidden under the forms of the Enigma and the Secret,
buried in the Wonderfulness of the Origins,
that governs the One Power of the Spirit.
 The Sponsor
of the Artifices of the Village
intends to Restore
this Prodigious World
in this Garden,
an amazing machine
to produce Meaning,
a Magical and Theurgical World,
inhabited by the Voice of Orpheus
that pacifies instincts and passions,
and establishes
a Universal and Harmonious Order.

The Voice of Orpheus

 Archetype of the Man-Poet
whose voice and song
performed Wonders,
Orpheus Restores
the Harmony of the World.
A Wonderful World
that should be restored
with the instruments
of Human Art.
According to the supporters
of the “Philosophy of Love”,
it is about Reanimating
a Vision of the World
that restores the Spirit
and the Soul
to their Central Place.

Orpheus
 Through
his Magic Songs,
Orpheus
is the Symbol
of a Total Communion
with Nature,
of an abandonment
trusting in God,
which places him
at the Heart
of a Mystique
of Contemplation
and Awakening.
 The Myth of Orpheus is the Myth of the Man-Poet
in the Highest Degree of His Powers,
it shows the Soul full of admiration and tenderness
for the Created Universe
from which it is discovered, in a certain way,
as the Living Force.
 All the Allegories of the Garden
put on stage this “Living Force”
of the Soul and the Spirit
communicated with the Universe,
the most powerful,
it is without a doubt,
it is this Mirror that Transforms :
Mirror of the Soul,
Mediating Power that reflects
Intelligence and Ardor of the Sun,
Mirror analogous to Heaven,
collects all the Gifts
in order to Transfigure the Soul
of who, from now on,
Lives in the Heart of the Allegories
of the Garden and of the Villa,
its Sponsor,
Cardinal Hippolytus d'Este.
 Prosperous,
favorable,
beneficial,
is the Radiant
Spirit of Hippolytus,
who, unhappy
in his sick body
and deprived
by the blind Fortune
of the Tiara
so coveted,
the clairvoyant
Providence

it gives him a Purifying and Savior Knowledge,

witnessed by the Images of the Villa,
collected in the Seal of the Emblematic Ovoid of the Life of the Spirit,
present in many Allegories of the Garden,
which fills us with a Power that is not of this World
and open the Gates of the Celestial World and the Hereafter...
 By entrusting his Soul to this fabric of Symbols,
in which the most Powerful Orphic Number is that of Love,
he conquers Chaos and Necessity. Hippolytus, the Magician
and Theurgist of this Garden, asks for the Diligence of the White Eagle,
the Solar Eagle, who knows the Heavenly Paths
of the Return to Happiness, who will know
how to Raise him to the Tabernacle of God in this World, the Sun.
 Viale delle Cento Fontane

Bella Fontana of the 99

and one Fountains
Beautiful Celestial Avenue
Water springs from you
Purifying and crystalline
Giving happiness and charm.
You lull with your solemn murmur
Heartwarming our anguished Heart
Wonder of Wonders ...!
Your stillness,
your peace and your greenery
for Four Centuries
It seems to invite us
to follow you
as a True Path to Paradise ...!

Dr. Guillermo Calvo Soriano Poem by Dr. Guillermo Calvo Soriano

 Bibliography :
- Gérard Desnoyers “La Villa d´Este a Tivoli”
ou “Le Songe d´Hippolyte”, Paris 2002