To my knowledge (as of June 21, 1998) there has been no web site dedicated solely to Marsilio Ficino. Coelitus aims to fill that gap. The web site is open to all that admire or are intrigued by Ficino, from the finest historians and philosophers (Michael Allen, where are you?), to artists in all media, to old hands at soul work, to the newly-initiated--perhaps via Thomas Moore's or James Hillman's popular "Soul" books (Tom, Jim--you're cordially invited). We particularly hope that people from all disciplines, orientations, points of view will join for conversation at the Coelitus Online Community, where messages may be left for all to enjoy.

The Scene: We are gathered at a popular cafe--perhaps just off the Piazza della Signoria. As dusk gathers, a cool breeze just balances the heat still rising from the sun-lit pavement. One of Tuscany's deep red wines fills every glass. Words are exchanged, tentatively at first, because most don't yet know one another, though we begin to sense that this assembly, from all over the globe, has a point of commonality that transcends our differences--images that reach from the soul within toward the Soul of the World. We soon warm to our project--even reveal differences that may become heated at a point of friction. But civility reigns. There is a Spirit about that transcends any matter at hand. Perhaps some will catch, from the corner of an eye, in the shadows at the edge of the circle, a slender, stooped, and curiously-robed figure, insubstantial, but for a clarity of eye that speaks to the depths of Soul!

The "Friends of Marsilio Ficino" was born 5/24/98, 7:00 PM EDT, at UAC, in Atlanta, GA, USA, as a dozen attendees who know and admire the work and life of this 15th Century Florentine philosopher, astrologer, theologian, and founder of the Platonic Academy, (etcetera, ad infinitum), gathered in his honor. These pages serve as a gateway to the Coelitus Online Community (where Friends get together to converse about all Ficino-related matters), and as a point of departure for various bits of information about Ficino, as well as posted images and a bibliography on Ficino and his work.

Invited by Barbara Schermer, and asked to bring "something Ficino would love," thirteen people met to enjoy the wine--the Ficino-appropriate gifts of Akihiro (Hattori, Japan) and Jeff McLeod, California) and convivial company. Before glasses were even filled Rick Levine and Darby Costello (the words "ricochet" and "constellation" come to mind) were tete-a-tete over dates, events,and astrological configurations that characterized Ficino in his time and that underscored the timeliness of his current re-emergence.

The Things Ficino Would Love next took the stage. Adrienne Prince (Florence) read Lorenzo de'Medici's poem "The Seven Planets." Rick (Washington State) shared pictures of his recent visit to the Villa Careggi, Darby (London) added scent to the sensual atmosphere, passing around a Jonquil essence formulated by her husband; Jolinda Marshall enhanced the aromatic ambiance, lighting a citrus-scented candle and calling up the image of the 280 orange trees that surround her California home (remember those trees in "La Primavera"?). And speaking of the Graces, Italians Rosanna Zerilli (she brought her favorite music), and Grazia Mirti and Elisa (Last Name?) presented Barbara Schermer with a hand-crafted talisman in the Renaissance style--she responded with chocolate "truffles" for all (Bob Craft believes that Ficino must have tasted such chocolate, then was content to die--more later). Bob displayed the framed image of Ficino on a gold medallion and spoke of how Ficino might have felt ambivalent that even his own acknowledgedly ill-favored visage might be made into a beautiful object (via Photoshop, a computer tool he might spend many an hour fiddling with, were he still among us). Kelley Hunter (St. Johns, US Virgin Islands) showed images of tropical flowers and let us sample the (astrologically-formulated, a la Ficino) healing essences made from them. Astrid Frogner (Norway) showed the gift she had received (a black but luminescent obsidian ball) just that morning from Kitty Dahl, also Norwegian, who also joined us for the occasion.

We might have continued all night in the tradition of the Plato and the Academy, with wine, revelry and revelation more or less philosophically profound, but the Conference Comedy Show beckoned, and most of us spent the next hour laughing at ourselves with the aid of Phil Sedgewick--something I feel, too, that Ficino would have loved!--Bob Craft.

AFTERWORD. Thus the idea for "Coelitus," an online bulletin board, as a possible way of continuing and expanding the warmth and wisdom shared at the gathering of the "Friends of Ficino." High Tech is not High Touch, but still may serve to connect us (and expand our numbers) until we meet again for hugs and the myriad ways we communicate when bodies are in the same space together.

Share anything here that is vaguely Ficinian: ideas, discourse, imaginings as well as actual images (I'll put them up where they can be seen), scholarly minutiae, frivolous meandering, astrological speculation, announcements, personal accounts of the encounter with Beauty and Truth--whatever you will. And ask like-minded people to join us here. I will be inviting a dozen more who showed interest or who seem likely candidates.

ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE. Just add this URL to your Web browser bookmarks/favorites: <http://www.astrologyalive.com/Coelitus.html> and drop in often. To get started quickly, I've signed up with a free web board provider, which means we must endure the advertising thrown up at us on the pages (even a particularly egregious plea for "smokers rights"--flames to them, expressions of dismay to my personal email, please: <bobcraft@enteract.com>).

If our traffic justifies, I'll investigate a more capable (but complex and more costly) Web Board with threaded messages, searches, etc. Any help with this would be much appreciated.

In the spirit of Love--both sacred, and profane,

Bob Craft