The Soul as Reflecting Divine Light

A new relationship between the soul and the Divine, as we enter the Garden of Eden.

After the combined experience of Heavenly and Earthly is to some extent established in the Garden Eden – as grounded in the Earthly but with the Divine shining through all of Creation, Dante gives us a new image of the overall journey:

Di sopra fiammeggiava il bello arnese
più chiaro assai che luna per sereno
di mezza notte nel suo mezzo mese.

From above flamed the beautiful apparatus
more clear by far than the moon serene
in middle of night in its middle month.

In a literal sense this is describing the light coming from seven candle sticks emerging out from the forest, in their brightness and pure beauty. And this is also an image of how the spiritual wisdom and reality are starting to shine more intensely through into the Earthly and to the Pilgrim’s experience.

But it expresses something deeper too; it is about the soul and God, and the relationship. Which is the overall theme of the whole Divine Comedy.

The first line describes the Divine presence and flaming reality, in beauty (“flamed the beautiful apparatus”). The second line picks up the metaphor of the moon as your soul, as we had earlier with the soul’s rebirth as a cauldron of molten fire (here: “the moon serene”)

But several important points are being made here: your soul is not shining purely by itself, it is reflecting Divine Light. The more you grow in the spiritual life, the more you can reflect. But still – no matter how much you align and grow and participate/reflect (metaphorically as “middle of the night for the full moon”), the Divine source is “more clear by far” – or “più chiaro assai“, and eternally so by nature.

So we have the source, your soul as reflecting, the beauty and eternity of this dynamic, and the growing relationship between your soul and the Heavens. And a reminder perhaps, that your ability for this is ever changing too, just as the moon can reflect in various degrees.

And this scene comes right at the moment when the Pilgrim sees “seven trees of gold”, that turns out to be seven candle sticks, and a much deeper spiritual meaning is about to be unfolded.

An overall point being this: We are preparing for the ascent to Paradiso in just a few more cantos at this point, and this insight is important. Your soul is now growing, it is reflecting God’s light, but keeping this image of the latter “assai” more clear than the former is an essential key to the further ascent – up to the endeless gifts of the Heavens.