As Light into Water, Experiencing Differently.

When the Pilgrim (also meaning us) reaches the Moon there are two major points being illustrated at once – an opening to detect your own thinking and experiencing differently, and a symbolic way of understanding an important aspect of the Cosmos and nature of the deep Essences, being blended and spread down through the spheres of Heaven. So after the blistering opening of “taking off” from the Earthly Life with Beatrice (Theology) – Dante is addressing both the psychology, and the larger substance of the World we are entering and starting to move deeper into.

The thinking part is illustrated by a paradox, that the Pilgrim is finding himself enveloped in a cloud as “brilliant, hard, and polished as a diamond struck by a ray of sunlight”. So this is how he’s describing entering into the bright Moon, the “celestial pearl”, which is “receiving us as water takes in light”. And it opens a mental space of experience for us that could seem contradictory, but there is also an allusion to understanding a sort of unity or unification of two natures into one – as well as gradually accepting that in this book, not everything will be rationally graspable in the sense we might be used to. It is a kind of giving a soft example of something to accept – and then be willing to enjoy the book even if the Left Hemisphere cannot comprehend everything. And therein lies a key element of the Journey into Paradise.

The second part is a more concrete explanation of the Medieval cosmology, and how the variety of light from the Moon is showing the blend of different Divine Essences coming from the Primo Mobile, filtered through the Fixed Stars, and then shining down into the spheres. There’s a great point here in showing us a beautiful image of the one-and-many being unified into one, with a visual image that we can see most nights if we just look out the window and up towards the stars.

Overall there is an allegorical technique here of showing us the first few steps of exploring inwards into the more spiritual worlds within ourselves. Once we focus on our own “Beatrice” and look towards the light, things might happen very quickly, and there will be strange things as well. Which is why Dante is careful with warning us; Do not embark on this Journey if you are not yet ready, Intellectually and Spiritually. And once we are, we can safely follow Dante’s “ship” in our little boats – with the guidance of Minerva (wisdom), Apollo (Poetry), and the Nine Muses of Inspiration.