After the Pilgrim has admitted and realized his deepest mistake; abandoning the spiritual life and falling for lesser replacements, an even harder truth hits him.
The things he loved the most in his years of disconnect: secular philosophy, science, Greek philosophy and mythology, and Roman pagan epics, they had all become his enemies – and the more he loved them, the more they had blocked him from the bigger picture. And the reason is simple; when partial frames are applied as overall and fuller frames, they tend to obscure clear thinking while also distorting the true big picture, that only the “carro” and dual perception can give you. Assuming science or Greek mythology as a full cosmology will collapse your apprehension into single-mode thinking, and obscure big parts of reality.
This discovery hits Dante so hard, that he “falls conquered”, and can finally understand the depth of his mistake for maybe around twenty years. He fell for the sparkling partial frameworks, the human constructs, the original sin itself, rather then recovering and restoring the spiritual and unified life as the overall frame.
And when that has happened, the Pilgrim (and we as readers, perhaps realizing the same mistake in earlier parts of life) can finally enter the river of Lethe, to forget the mistakes, and rinse out the misconceptions of the past. In a sense, to flush out the “meta-mistake”, of applying limited frames as the whole, and denying the spiritual life. This is the core of his confession, and why he is now finally ready to restore the connection fully to God, in a sense restoring the fundamental dynamic of the Garden of Eden, internally.
So with this full confession and understanding, he is taken into the river Lethe, first to the neck, then into full submersion, and then finally also drinking from the river. All while the angels start singing “Asperges me” – from Psalm 51:7, meaning: “You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed“.
Then he is taken up on the other side of the bank, with a more clear spiritual perception than ever before. And a big step closer to the ascent up into Paradiso, and to the celestial spheres of the Heavens.
Great read! I think I see myself in this—someone who spent 20 years chasing achievement, while missing the bigger picture in the process (wonder, faith, purpose). 🙂
Thank you! And yep, makes sense – I think most of us have fallen into this “trap” to some degree over the years, which is also quite “encouraged” by the contemporary culture. The good news is that there are centuries of experience and solutions to this, that we can learn from!
And btw. just adding; part of the idea from Dante is that these “partial pursuits” are not at all wrong in themselves, only when they are elevated to overall and top values. Achievement is excellent and virtuous, when pursued within a bigger picture that is properly aligned!
That is such a good point, that all the things mentioned aren’t bad in and of themselves. It’s when there isn’t something greater and divine for context that there’s an issue. And we can see an example of the good vision in the ways Dante works myth, cosmology, etc. into the Comedy!
Exactly! One might think that Dante is more “sharing his love” of Greek mythology, philosophy and science, but he’s making a much bigger point. He re-examines them and then elevates them into a bigger picture, at times also transforming them into portals to Divine realities!