Souls are from the stars (as claimed by Cicero’s fictional Scipio).

On 17^th September, I came across a reference to Cicero’s dream (‘Somnium Scipionis’), which reads as follows (the reference, that is): ‘In the dream of Scipio, which ends Book VI of his De Republica, Cicero explicitly states: “To men is imparted a soul emanated from those eternal fires you call stars and luminaries which, round and spherical, quickened by divine spirits, perform their revolutions and perambulate their orbits with an admirable celerity.”’ [‘The Seven Bodies of Man in Hermetic Astrology’ by Denis Labouré (translated from the[sic] French by Michael Edwards), p.38] This prompted me to look up the original text in Latin and to try to find the oldest surviving manuscript (as one of my most deeply engrained working assumptions is that texts get tinkered with).

Unfortunately, Book VI of Cicero’s De Republica does not survive as a stand-alone manuscript, even if some fragments do survive in Vat.Lat.5757 (https://digi.vatlib.it/mss/detail/Vat.lat.5757; folios 45 and 46 only have fragments of De Republica V. 6–7). The text came down to us thanks to the Roman scholar Macrobius, who wrote a lengthy commentary on Somnium Scipionis in circa 400 AD. His commentary proved extremely popular in the Middle Ages, with almost two hundred manuscripts prior to 1500 having survived (ctrl+f 190 in https://www.textmanuscripts.com/medieval/cicero-dream-scipio-60912), and it contributed to the topos of the dream vision in European medieval literature.

I quickly went through the Latin text to find the passage with ‘a soul emanated from those eternal fires’. To provide a little context, here are two paragraphs [my emphasis]:

(15) Atque ut ego primum fletu represso loqui posse coepi: ‘Quaeso’, inquam, ‘pater sanctissime atque optime, quoniam haec est vita, ut Africanum audio dicere, quid moror in terris? Quin huc ad vos venire propero?’ ‘Non est ita,’ inquit ille. ‘Nisi enim deus is, cuius hoc templum est omne, quod conspicis, istis te corporis custodiis liberaverit, huc tibi aditus patere non potest. Homines enim sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum, quem in hoc templo medium vides, quae terra dicitur, iisque animus datus est ex illis sempiternis ignibus, quae sidera et stellas vocatis, quae globosae et rotundae, divinis animatae mentibus, circulos suos orbesque conficiunt celeritate mirabili. Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus animus est in custodia corporis nec iniussu eius, a quo ille est vobis datus, ex hominum vita migrandum est, ne munus humanum assignatum a deo defugisse videamini.

(16) Sed sic, Scipio, ut avus hic tuus, ut ego, qui te genui, iustitiam cole et pietatem, quae cum magna in parentibus et propinquis tum in patria maxima est; ea vita via est in caelum et in hunc coetum eorum, qui iam vixerunt et corpore laxati illum incolunt locum, quem vides.‘ Erat autem is splendidissimo candore inter flammas circus elucens. ’Quem vos, ut a Graiis accepistis, orbem lacteum nuncupatis.‘ Ex quo omnia mihi contemplanti praeclara cetera et mirabilia videbantur. Erant autem eae stellae, quas numquam ex hoc loco vidimus, et eae magnitudines omnium, quas esse numquam suspicati sumus; ex quibus erat ea minima, quae ultima a caelo, citima a terris luce lucebat aliena. Stellarum autem globi terrae magnitudinem facile vincebant. Iam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est, ut me imperii nostri, quo quasi punctum eius attingimus, paeniteret.   https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/repub6.shtml; http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=0&query=Cic.%20Rep.%206.16

Read the text in this beautiful incunabulum published in 1489 by Richard Paffraet on pages 15 and 16 (first 2 lines plus the first word on the third line from the top] https://archive.org/details/ned-kbn-all-00001958-001/page/n14/mode/2up

[...]

 (29) Hanc tu exerce optimis in rebus! Sunt autem optimae curae de salute patriae; quibus agitatus et exercitatus animus velocius in hanc sedem et domum suam pervolabit; idque ocius faciet, si iam tum, cum erit inclusus in corpore, eminebit foras et ea, quae extra erunt, contemplans quam maxime se a corpore abstrahet. Namque eorum animi, qui se corporis voluptatibus dediderunt earumque se quasi ministros praebuerunt impulsuque libidinum voluptatibus oboedientium deorum et hominum iura violaverunt, corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur nec hunc in locum nisi multis exagitati saeculis revertuntur.

Ille discessit; ego somno solutus sum.   https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/repub6.shtml; http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=0&query=Cic.%20Rep.%206.29 [both are based on M. Pohlenz, Leipzig (Teubner), 1918]

Read the text in this beautiful incunabulum published in 1489 by Richard Paffraet on page 20 (first half) https://ia802607.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/5/items/ned-kbn-all-00001958-001/ned-kbn-all-00001958-001_jp2.zip&file=ned-kbn-all-00001958-001_jp2/ned-kbn-all-00001958-001_0020.jp2&id=ned-kbn-all-00001958-001&scale=4&rotate=0

7. And, so soon as I began to be able to speak, having choked back my tears, “Pray, tell me,” said I, “most revered and best of fathers, since this is life, as I hear Africanus say, why do I linger on earth? Why do I not haste to come hither to you?” “It is not as you think,” said he, “for unless that God, to whom belongs all this region that thou beholdest, shall have discharged thee from the keeping of thy body, the entrance to this place cannot be open to thee. For men were created subject to this law, to keep that globe, which thou seest in the centre of this region and which is called the Earth; and to them a soul was given formed from those everlasting fires, which you mortals call constellations and stars, that round and spherical in form, quickened with divine intelligences complete their orbits and circles with marvellous swiftness. Wherefore, my Publius, thou and all good men must suffer the soul to remain in the keeping of the body, nor without his command, by whom it was given to you, must you leave your human life, lest you should appear to have deserted the post assigned to men by God.

8. But rather, my Scipio, as your grandfather here, as I your sire, follow justice and natural affection, which though great in the case of parents and kinsfolk, is greatest of all in relation to our fatherland. Such is the life that leads to heaven and to this company of those who have now lived their lives and released from their bodies dwell in that place which thou beholdest,” – now that place was a circle conspicuous among the fires of heaven by the surpassing whiteness of its glowing light –“which place you mortals, as you have learned from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” And as I surveyed them from this point, all the other heavenly bodies appeared to be glorious and wonderful, –now the stars were such as we have never seen from this earth; and such was the magnitude of all as we have never dreamed; and the least of them all was that planet, which farthest from the heavenly sphere and nearest to our earth, was shining with borrowed light, but the spheres of the stars easily surpassed the earth in magnitude already the earth itself appeared to me so small, that it grieved me to think of our empire, with which we cover but a point, as it were, of its surface.

[...]

20. Since therefore it is plain that what is self-motive is eternal, who can deny that this quality is an attribute of our souls ? For, whereas everything is soul less, which receives its impulse from without, that, on the contrary, which has a soul, moves by an inward motive of its own. For this is the natural property and essence of the soul ; and if this is the only thing in the world that is self-motive, assuredly it has had no beginning but is eternal.

21. This soul do thou exercise in the noblest functions; now the noblest are cares and exertions for our country’s weal; and the soul which hath been quickened and trained by these will speed more fleetly to this its resting-place and home. And this will it do the more readily, if even then while still imprisoned in the body, it shall strain beyond it, and surveying that which lies out side it, as much as possible, shall endeavour to withdraw itself from the body. For the souls of those who have given themselves over to the pleasures of the body, and have yielded themselves to be their servants, as it were and at the prompting of those lusts which wait upon pleasures, have broken the laws of God and man ; when they have glided from their bodies, go grovelling over the face of the earth ; nor do they return to this place, except after many ages of wandering.”

So he departed, and I woke from my dream!

pp.6-7, 14 of Somnium Scipionis, the dream of Scipio Africanus Minor, being the epilogue of Cicero’s treatise on polity, translated by W. D. Pearman, M.A. , Cambridge, 1883 https://archive.org/details/somniumscipionis00ciceuoft

Other translations at   https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/cicero-republic6.asp; https://web.archive.org/web/20200123194205/http://www.cultus.hk/latin_lessons/somnium/somnium_eng.html

Yesterday, as I was trying to find the source of the translation used in the rendering of the Labouré quote, I came across a further quote of Cicero’s in relation to the origin of the soul, which comes from his Tuscan Disputations (‘Tusculanae Disputationes’), in book 1, XXVII. 66, XXVIII, 1

Animorum nulla in terris origo inveniri potest; nihil enim est in animis mixtum atque concretum aut quod ex terra natum atque fictum esse videatur, nihil ne aut umidum quidem aut flabile aut igneum. his enim in naturis nihil inest, quod vim memoriae, mentis, cogitationis habeat, quod et praeterita teneat et futura provideat et complecti possit praesentia. quae sola divina sunt, nec invenietur umquam, unde ad hominem venire possint nisi a deo. singularis est igitur quaedam natura atque vis animi seiuncta ab his usitatis notisque naturis. ita, quicquid est illud, quod sentit, quod sapit, quod vivit, quod viget, caeleste et divinum ob eamque rem aeternum sit necesse est. nec vero deus ipse, qui intellegitur a nobis, alio modo intellegi potest nisi mens soluta quaedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione mortali, omnia sentiens et movens ipsaque praedita motu sempiterno. hoc e genere atque eadem e natura est humana mens. [...]

In eighteenth century English:

The Origin of Souls cannot possibly be found upon Earth: For the Soul is not compounded of dissimilar Parts, or any thing which may rise from, or be made of Earth : Nothing that is of an airy, fiery, or earthly Substance; for in none of these, is there any thing which is indued with the Power of Remembring, Understanding, Thinking; any thing which is able to recollect the Past, foresee the Future, and comprehend the Present: Which Acts are only Divine ; nor is it ever to be comprehended whence they should be deriv’d to Man, but from God. The Soul then is endued with a more peculiar Nature, perfectly distinct from the more general and known ones. Whatever therefore Understands, Thinks, Wills, Lives, is Heavenly and Divine, and, for the same Reason, Eternal. Even God himself, as conceiv’d by us, can no otherwise be conceiv’d than as a Mind free, separate, and distinct from all mortal Concretion, knowing and moving all Things, and endued with eterternal Motion.

Of this Kind, and of the same Nature is the Soul of Man. [...]

M. Tully Cicero's five books of Tusculan disputations, done into English by a gentleman of Christ Church College, Oxford; London, 1715 https://archive.org/details/mtullycicerosfi00cicegoog/page/n60/mode/2up

In nineteenth century English:

[p.39] XXVII. As this is my opinion, I have explained it in these very words, in my book of Consolation. The origin of the soul of man is not to be found in any thing earthy, for there is nothing in the soul mixt or concrete, or that has any appearance of being formed or made out of the earth ; nothing even humid, airy, fiery ; for what is there in such like natures, that has the power of memory, understanding, or thought ? that can recollect the past ; foresee future things ; and comprehend the present ? which are divine properties alone ; nor can we discover whence men could have these, but from God. There is therefore a peculiar nature and [p.40] power in the soul, distinct from those natures, more known and familiar to us. Whatever then that is, which thinks, which has understanding, volition, and a principle of life, is heavenly and divine, and on that account must necessarily be eternal : nor can God himself, who is known to us, be conceived otherwise, than a soul free and unembarrassed, distinct from all mortal concretion, acquainted with every thing, and giving motion to it, itself endued with perpetual motion.

XXVIII. Of this kind and nature is the soul of man. [...]

Tusculan disputations, tranlated by W.H. Main, London, 1824  https://archive.org/details/tusuclandisputat00ciceuoft/page/38/mode/2up; https://archive.org/details/tusuclandisputat00ciceuoft/page/40/mode/2up

Now, why did I bother to provide these quotes in both Latin and English? Simply because, and although he was probably not at the origin of such thinking about the soul, the ascribing of a stellar origin to the soul has with Cicero both antiquity and authority. For instance, it is an idea that gained currency in nineteenth century France with authors like Théodore Flournoy and, unless I am mistaken, Camille Flammarion (the astronomer and paranormal researcher). Finally, this idea became even more popular in the twentieth century, especially among the new age adepts or those seeking alternative spiritualities.

One caveat: I have not read Cicero’s Consolatio, which Cicero refers to just before the extract I have quoted from his Tuscan Disputations. So maybe more on this subject in a future entry.    ;-)