VMs: Plato's Timaeus and the cosmic soul...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

In the chapter on demonology in Ioan Couliano's "Eros and Magic in the 
Renaissance" (page 145), there's a short passage on magic symbols:

	In any case, the theurgists' disk was studded with magic symbols -
	the same ones reappear on Chaldean talismans - representing,
	probably in graphic form, the same symbols which, having been
	"scattered" in the world by the supreme intellect, could also be
	expressed in solemn formulas (synthema). In certain cases, these
	forms were supposed to reproduce the symbol inscribed "in the
	heart", that is, in the human soul, consisting of a combination of
	semicircles and the Greek letter X.

Naturally, I started thinking of gallows characters at this point. 
:-)  Couliano continues:

	(...) The idea that the human soul is made of semicircles and of the
	letter X derives from Plato's Timaeus (34b, 36b), where the cosmic
	soul is described as composed of two axes in the form of X, bent
	into a semicircle and joined at the ends. The Christians, according
	to Justin the Martyr, maintained that this figure imitated the cross
	of Moses' serpent of brass (Numbers, 21:9).

Has anyone seen further discussion on this shape? It is quite possible that 
the gallows characters are an indication of a 15th Century Neo-Platonic 
hand behind the cipherbet design. :-)

The closest discussion I could find on this (but which is actually a fun 
piece of Dante-inspired numerological riffing on the number 55) is a 
Stanford student's essay on Dante & Plato:-

	http://www.wisdomportal.com/Dante/Dante55Plato.html

Enjoy! :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....