The saying goes that after reading the whole Divine Comedy by Dante, one is ready to start reading the Divine Comedy – so now we’re starting our second Journey through Paradiso, and we’ll write about the new discoveries and greatest highlights on the way!
First thing that is striking is how well Dante is summing up the whole book in the opening tercet, in three small lines. He sets the tone and describes his view and experience of the Divine, and unites the Biblical Stories and Aristotelian Metaphysics with the words “The Glory” (First word) and “the One Who moves all things” (Aristotle’s concept of God: the First Mover). And he invokes the light that is spread out to various degrees throughout the whole of the Cosmos and Creation, as well as the concept of Reflection.
Other things that stand out is how quickly and beautifully Dante is moving us into the experience of the Right Brain Hemisphere, invoking a more bright and unstructured sense of orientation, and his feeling of being “transhumanized” – moving us beyond the natural concept of a person, blurring the boundaries with the mystic and the transcendent.
When he looks at Beatrice and she has her eyes raised towards the sun, this could also be symbolically read as the Pilgrim focusing his mind on Theology as a world or a portal, which is directed to the source of the Light and the Divine. And when this leads the Pilgrim to start staring straight at the Sun, imitating Beatrice, there is a sense of him finding a way and learning, how to guide his own inner attention towards the center and source of Divinity within himself. And already at this point Dante is pointing out that he stares “into the Sun as no man could”, as he now has purified his soul and can start the Ascent towards the Empyrean.
This also emulates and shows us a path as a reader, by example. And as we get to know and understand Beatrice better, our own capacity to explore this experience within ourselves will be growing – which Dante is encouraging throughout the whole book, through the reactions and support from the souls we are meeting.
The first chapter ends beautifully as well – with Beatrice once again turning her gaze “up toward the heavens”, pointing out the way, the direction, the destination, and the recurring theme of growing and moving gradually towards the Light.
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We’d also like to invite you to our community forum for discussions on the Paradise – we’d love to see you there! https://discord.gg/4pxNQN9