Exploring The Planets Within

"Ficino refers to spirit as the food of the soul; through spirit, soul is continuously being created and nourished. As he says, this all may happen naturally (unconsciously), or by art, that is, by conscious intention. This is not to say that we can simply fashion our psychological life at will; the process is more indirect than that, but we can develop an awareness of soul, a psychological attitude, by which we can cooperate and indirectly influence the character of our psychological life. We can nourish the soul and live psychotherapeutically by having our psychological life reflect the heavens. That is what Ficino means by becoming as celestial as possible. We can have depth and variety, movement and form, in our inner world. We can have planets within, with all of their benefits of spirit, like the planets of the outer cosmos."
– Thomas Moore

THE PLANETS WITHIN
The Planets Within is Thomas Moore's interpretation of "the astrological psychology of Marsilio Ficino," a central figure during the Italian Renaissance. Spirituality & Practice offered a review with an excerpt on Imagination ― one of "Ficino’s own fundamental tool[s]."

Roberta C. Allen wrote a supportive a four-page review of The Planets Within in which she characterized Moore’s interpretation as "subversive” and “ambivalent." The same review appeared as Sort out Your Daimon on 22 January 2003, only this time penned by "zebra."

Alexandra Hartman refers to Moore’s book, Care of the Soul, in her discussion of Marsilio Ficino and twentieth century concerns, however, we've included the link here because of the focus on Ficino which is central to The Planets Within.

In 2001, Anthony Judge focused on Thomas Moore’s presentation of Ficino, in a paper called "Composing the Present Moment." Following his introduction Judge considers Moore’s approach under the headings:
― Towards a healthy life in the moment,
― Reimagining the world,
― Well-tempered life.

Karen Drye, a student of astrology for over 20 years has written a 13-page biography of Ficino, "Marsilio Ficino, Astrologer And Physician Of The Soul" which references Thomas Moore’s The Planets Within.

The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino