Mantova

A little visit to Mantova – Virgil’s birth town!

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What we really are

The opening of Paradiso raises a couple of fundamental questions that might be quite “shocking”, seen with the new eyes developed after the Garden of Eden.

In many ways the biggest shift is this: We are primarily souls and spirit. This is not something “above” or “in addition” to the material world and our bodies, but it is the deeper reality of who we actually “are”.

And after the purgation of Purgatory – the alignment and removal of blockages – the Pilgrim (and we as readers) can see both reality and consciousness in a very different way. To some extent this is not a flight “upwards” to an imaginative Heavens, but a deeper and clearer perception of the normal life right here in front of us. One can increasingly learn to see the spiritual and Divine penetrating, “shining through”, being there, in our normal experience of the earthly life.

The Pilgrim is confused about two things:

First – his visions of light and the sounds of harmonies. Which Beatrice explains: you are in the spiritual perception now. Your soul is starting to see things the natural way. This comes automatically when your distortions are removed.

and second – how he can “transcend” the light bodies/elements (air and fire), to which Beatrice start an even bigger explanation about the patterns and structures of reality and God. But the bigger point is also this: she is resetting his basic assumptions about reality. That his soul “goes beyond” the material world is actually not a transcending at all. Almost the opposite. It is returning to the normal state of things, the bigger and deeper picture of reality, that has been blocked by a narrow and diminished outlook – created by the internal distortions and earlier reduced apprehension of the world.

So rather than explaining “why he transcends”, we learn that the question is revealing an inverted thinking.

Which also points to a new dynamic in Paradiso. The internal structure has changed and been repaired in Purgatorio. This means that perception and experience will be much more clear, but also new. And we might not have any categories or structures to comprehend these new experiences yet. Thus we will constantly be “behind” many of the new insights, and then needing to discern afterwards. Which will further raise the capacity for insights, and so on.

The new nature of the journey is thus shown to us in the opening few pages, with the image of suddenly “flying” upwards faster than lightning, or simply expanding internally and seeing Reality in whole new ways, right there in front of us.

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Paradiso

We’ve now started a new reading of Paradiso in Italian, and we are building on the foundations from a new understanding of Eden. How we interpret the scenes, and what emerges out of the passages, will largely rely on an inner development of the capacity of the Chariot, the Tree of Relationship, and Beatrice as one’s inner spiritual life. Without these basic elements – much of our posts in the coming year or two, will likely not give a fuller resonance internally.

And the wealth that comes out of the poetry with these keys are very different from earlier readings. Rather then evocative, celestial poetry, it touches on far deeper spiritual depths in the soul.

An example is this (Par.i.58-60):

Io nol soffersi molto, né sì poco, 
ch’io nol vedessi sfavillar dintorno, 
com’ferro che bogliente esce del foco; 

This is when Dante suddenly emulates Beatrice and stares at the Sun in Canto I. He says: “I did not endure it much, nor yes so little, that I did not see glowing sparks all around it, like boiling iron that emerges out of the furnace“.

And then it is like a new day is added to the day, and his perception is bright like “another sun” is illuminating his perception and experience.

And a key here is this: with a basis in the Relationship to God that was established in the Garden of Eden, this almost becomes more of a form “charging” of the relationship with intense energy, that does not strike “directly” at oneself and blinds or overwhelms. It becomes a charging mechanism into the relationship, that further enhances the Pilgrim’s spiritual and fuller perception of Reality. The “Tree” becomes a form of vessel that can be loaded and charged again and again, which then grows the soul, as we will see in how Beatrice grows more and more beautiful and radiant for every new sphere in Paradiso.

So in short;

we’re now starting a new journey into Paradiso with a whole new approach, and a much deeper anagogical layer. More internally expanding, vs. an external flight out into the Universe. The Kingdom of God is within you, and can flood your perception right here and now, once the dynamics of Eden have come to fruition. Into the Heavens is also an infusion, right here into the Earthly too.

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Join us!

Building the Renaissance Mind!

We are currently doing a pilot project for weekly group and individual sessions going through Purgatorio, both as personal transformation and for balancing the brain hemispheres better.

Contact us in the comments below, or by DM on x.com/danteschariot for more information. The sessions are free during the pilot! Continue reading

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Benvenuto da Imola – and Anagogical Readings

After several years of searching for anagogical interpretations of specific passages in Dante’s Divine Comedy in all of the Anglo-American scholarship, and in the more recent Italian scholarship (the last few centuries), we have finally found an illuminating source: Benvenuto da Imola, from around 1385 AD.

This might indicate a certain problem with the perception of reality in the contemporary scholarship, stemming all the way back to humanism and increasing impoverishment in “modernity”, that has detached itself from the fuller picture and largely retreated into artificial internal constructs instead. In effect, it has made the readings often blind to reality, in the bigger picture.

One example is from the opening of Paradiso I, with this passage: Continue reading

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Main Keys to reading the Garden of Eden

As a brief summary: to approach the Garden of Eden in Dante’s Purgatorio as an anagogical/spiritual reading, the following images are essential:

The Tree: The relationship between Human-Divine, or your Soul and God. It is discovered withered, but blossoms with leaves and flowers (manifestations).

The Carro: Perception of Reality, and Nature of Reality. The source principle of dual perception and churning unity of two asymmetrical dimensions (e.g. spirit/matter, soul/God, earthly/heavenly, Love/Wisdom, etc.)

Beatrice: Your inner spiritual life and soul. As well as reflection or portal to Divine Light and Wisdom. She functions as both growing inner capacity, and sometimes pure reflection.

These three elements are crucial for understanding the Vision of Beatrice in Canto 32, and for reading Paradiso. As well as for grasping the overall theme of Eden: to rebirth the soul, and restoring the relationship with God. Without this, Paradiso becomes external allegory – rather than internal reality and growing experience.

For more in-depth studies, we have 20 essays/posts here:
Anagogical Study of Garden of Eden

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Ready for the Stars

The ending of the Garden of Eden in Purgatorio is pure bliss and beauty, as we are now ready to finally rise to the stars.

We are there with the seven handmaids, Beatrice, Stazio, Matelda and the Pilgrim, all standing peacefully by the river of the “Good Mind”, the “Eu-noe”.

“I returned from the sacred wave
remade, yes as new plants
renewed of new foilage,
pure and disposed, to rise towards the stars”

So the relationship and its manifestations (as Tree and leaves) are now strenghtened again after drinking from the river, through the remembrance of the soul’s origins and from whence it emerged at its beginnings.

The full process is thus completed, and the Pilgrim is remade and ready for Paradiso, restored internally and with an aligned view of reality and the bigger picture. And we as readers have been given new keys to discern and approach the third canticle as well, with a new understanding of a growing Beatrice, and the flourishing relationship with God.

And with this we are ready, accompanying the Pilgrim, for the final ascent into the Heavens.

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Eunoe – and Remembering

After the full restoration of soul and relationship – and understanding God’s Grace in the process – there is one last stop in Eden, with the River of Eunoe.

The Greek Tradition had five rivers, and Dante here invents a sixth river from the words “well” (eu-) and “nous”, a “well/good mind”, as the purpose of the river.

While often thought of as the river to “restore the memories of the Good” or of “the Good deeds”, there is also likely a much deeper function, drawing on St. Aquinas and older Catholic theology: the soul deep inside has memories of its own origins, and roots, in God. So in a way, this final scene could also imply that the final “touch” of preparation for the ascent to Heaven, is to connect your soul with its deepest roots in existence, reality, the breath and image of God, within its very origins.

This might also be why Matelda provides this function here, as the transformed earthly life that is transparent for Divine realities. She has the capacity to lead or assist in this process or threshold for the soul, to have its first experience of again sensing or “remembering” its origins. Which would in a larger way complete Eden with not only the soul and the relationship, but also its memory of connection.

When Matelda gently tells Stazio to go with the Pilgrim, this likely suggests that this new remembrance of origins, is a step that every soul will go through as completing the Purgatorio. The task is complete. And the Heavens await, in the stars.

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The “515” and its role in Redemption

After the vision presented by Beatrice with the Eagle, Fox and Dragon – she presents a new image in cryptic form, which is most likely describing the role of Grace in healing distortions and redemption.

Beatrice first says that the Eagle will always try to return with some feathers, which changes the chariot into a monster and makes it a pray. This suggest the return of ideas of Divinity as an arbitrary non-covenantal power, which operates at a whim, as exemplified with Zeus. There is a consistent potential for misapprehending the Heavens and God’s nature.

But then she says that she sees that a “515” (cinquecento diece e cinque), put/placed by God, that will destroy (anciderà) the harlot (fuia) and the giant that commits offenses with her.

From the spiritual view this is likely how God’s Grace operates throughout creation to heal and rectify distortions – both as a universal template, and also showing how this happened in Dante’s own life; the force that led to his return out of the dark forest, and away from the separation from the Heavens.

The thief and giant would in this anagogical sense be the perverted soul, and the bigger structures that control and feed off the perverted souls. The radiance of God’s Grace illuminates and removes these dynamics – in the numerical symbolism of 5 = Grace and 1 = God, so Divine Light surrounded by Grace (515). It will come “secure from every obstacle and barrier”, in Beatrice’s words.

In a bigger sense this also completes Dante’s inner process of not only recognizing his earlier faults and main flaw of falling away from the relationship, but also understanding why it happened, and also how it was restored partly through God’s Grace. Thus we have a self-referring dynamic: we are in the Garden of Eden, the soul and relationship are restored, and we also understand the longer process that led us here.

And with that, the main movements in Eden (except the drinking from Eunoe) are complete . The biblical Eden shows the Fall and the exile of the human soul, and Dante has now given a poetic rendering of the coming back and restoration of this relationship.

Which then also completes the foundation for embarking on the third canticle, with the ascent into Paradiso and final communion with the Empyrean, and the Heavens.

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Distorted perception of Reality

After the vision of the Eagle tearing into the Tree (relationship) and Carro (perception), Beatrice continues her lesson to the Pilgrim about the perils and consequences of losing aligned perception of fuller Reality.

In short, after the Eagle (partly seen as the Divine as Arbitrary Power rather than Relationship and Love) there appears a Fox from the side – likely representing false doctrines and teachings, and then, a Dragon emerges from underneath with a poisonous sting, most likely the injection of evil into the foundations of one’s perception.

After these three threats and potential damages to one’s capacity to perceive reality clearly – the transformations start. The carro changes into a monster, and then a harlot appears on top of it, as a perverted form of your soul – once these distorting and damaging elements have infected your apprehension.

In addition there suddenly appears a Giant, likely the representation of overall systems of authority that will perpetuate these distorting influences as poison to a clear view of reality. The harlot and the Giant occasionally “kiss each other”, which could point to how a perverted soul is both used by these overall structures, but is also necessary for these structures to survive over time. The distorted harlot does flicker her eyes around at times, and when briefly looking at the Pilgrim, which could here be a more virtuous and truthful source, the Giant instantly whips her from “head to toe”, seeking instant control and punishment.

The final scene is the Giant disconnecting the now monstrous carro with the harlot on top, away from the Tree – and carrying them both far away, into the forest (la selva).

And then the whole passage ends, perhaps both as a warning of threats to an existing relationship to the Heavens, and as a circling back to the opening scene of the whole Comedy, when the pilgrim was lost in a “dark forest”. Eden is about the relationship to God, and we have just seen various forces that destroy this bond and bring you back into this forest. Perhaps this is even answering parts of why the Pilgrim had found himself in such a place in the opening scene in the first place, being separated from the heavens, and spiritually dead.

So through restoring the soul and the relationship in Eden, Dante also gains a new capacity to see what went wrong when he himself got lost, in an earlier period of his life, and in the lives of so many, and also for humanity in a bigger sense.

We have already learned how to repair this damage through the climb of Purgatorio, and now perhaps also learned how to prevent it from happening again, in the future.

And with that the vision is over, and the focus goes back to Beatrice, the radiantly glowing soul at the foot of the blossoming tree, and with the virtues with lights singing a celestial song. They are now mourning how a soul might fall away from the relationship and into a dark forest, and Beatrice is similar to Mary in front of the passion. But this too is soon transformed into further growth and strengthening of the soul, and how even the forest can be redeemed when re-finding the path and spiritual life. Thus it soon becomes  another deep gift in the last steps before the final journey, up into Heaven.

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