Dante: In Quest of Paradise
Yesterday we spoke of Death, of Dying & Surviving – of those who momentarily leave their bodies & return to us with precious tales to tell.
Throughout the ages, many have been graced with such experience – visionaries, shamans, artists & poets the world over like Dante Alighieri, the supreme Italian poet who - in a moment out of time – a moment of divine grace - at the end of his long journey through the depths of hell and purgatory looks back, on the advice of his beloved Beatrice who waits for him at the edge of paradise & guides him to his bliss.
Throughout the ages, many have been graced with such experience – visionaries, shamans, artists & poets the world over like Dante Alighieri, the supreme Italian poet who - in a moment out of time – a moment of divine grace - at the end of his long journey through the depths of hell and purgatory looks back, on the advice of his beloved Beatrice who waits for him at the edge of paradise & guides him to his bliss.
And he looks back then and sees his whole life and the entire world behind him & he understands – how & for what reason he had first arrived at the Gates of the Inferno at the start of his long quest & he understands the meaning of his journey thus far - in a way that all those who return to us from such experience do. And from their understanding, live re-newed lives.
This is the gift all these souls bring – this opportunity to stand back - if only for a moment - to look at our world – at our own journey’s – our sorrows & joys – and in so doing - create a different world – here, now, on earth. But this is not where Dante began.
This is the gift all these souls bring – this opportunity to stand back - if only for a moment - to look at our world – at our own journey’s – our sorrows & joys – and in so doing - create a different world – here, now, on earth. But this is not where Dante began.
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
Dante Alighieri
ThIs the famous line everyone knows from the start of The Divine Comedy – La Divina Commedia. What follows will be Dante’s own story but it will be our story too, personal and also universal - as we have seen with all these tales.
Canto one: Inferno, is the furthest distance from heaven’s bliss & from the insights he gained above – it is the densest frequency within Dante’s cosmology.
Canto one: Inferno, is the furthest distance from heaven’s bliss & from the insights he gained above – it is the densest frequency within Dante’s cosmology.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered, he tells us,
So full was I of slumber at the moment.
Dante Alighieri
All without warning then it seems to Dante and perhaps to us too - in our own crisis - that we find ourselves similarly lost. We didn't see it coming! Or if we did we ignored the signs. We were sleeping - unconscious - like those surrounding the Sleeping Beauty behind her Hedge of Thorn - and yet somehow a great turning point has been reached - moment in time when all at once our world looks very different and unfamiliar and we struggle to orient ourselves as before.
It is a hard thing to speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was, so that thinking of it recreates the fear. It is scarcely less bitter than death: but, in order to tell of the good that I found there, I must tell of the other things I saw there.
Dante Alighieri
He then tells us tale of all the pitiful sights encountered beyond those gates. But he is not alone – and like so many of our heroes – and many of us too – he has a guide, Virgil his beloved poet from ancient times. And the two of them set forth and Vigil helps him understand how the suffering souls have fallen – how they have come to be as they are.
And the deeper into hell they go the suffering they see is more terrible to behold - until at last they come to depths where Lucifer, the fallen angel resides in the pit of the abyss.
Their tale is far too long to tell here of course – but suffice to say – many lessons are learned & much is understood.
And later, much, much later – at the moment when he looks back from the edge of paradise where we began – only then does he fully know – and even then only fleetingly.
Yet we can say of Dante that in the end he came to understand that everything is in all of us – good & evil and everything inbetween. Whatever we are putting out comes back to us in some way – collectively and individually too as the case may be. And this is how it is.
And the deeper into hell they go the suffering they see is more terrible to behold - until at last they come to depths where Lucifer, the fallen angel resides in the pit of the abyss.
Their tale is far too long to tell here of course – but suffice to say – many lessons are learned & much is understood.
And later, much, much later – at the moment when he looks back from the edge of paradise where we began – only then does he fully know – and even then only fleetingly.
Yet we can say of Dante that in the end he came to understand that everything is in all of us – good & evil and everything inbetween. Whatever we are putting out comes back to us in some way – collectively and individually too as the case may be. And this is how it is.
In Italy right now - we see utterly inspirational scenes of solidarity - of people helping and supporting one another - setting the tone for the rest of Europe to follow. They were the first to come out onto their balconies singing cherished partisan songs like Bella Ciao and clapping on mass for their health and support workers. And their government was the first to create spectacles of national hope - like the Italian Air Force flying over Rome emitting plumes of the red, white and green vapor - colours of their flag to the accompaniment of Pavarotti belting out his rousing Vinc'ero (I will win) and by inference Vinceremo (we will win - we will overcome!)
Such songs have always unified Italians, always held them together through past danger. Yet whilst the crisis has brought out the very best - it has brought the very worst as well. And this is a danger for all of us. As I write – on the 28th March – stories are beginning to emerge of hardships being just too hard to bear in the South of Italy – where people are already poor – and where most are pulling together some are pulling apart. Civil unrest is feared, theft but also profiteering – cashing in –desperate & even malicious crime – violence – and dark forces at both high and low levels - corruption like Dante saw - its perpetraitors paying for their sins deep within his Inferno.
Only time will tell how this present crisis will evolve - which parts of us will rise to the challenge - which parts will come through - and what kind of a world we might all have a the end of it!
Much Love
Anne Maria
x x x
Such songs have always unified Italians, always held them together through past danger. Yet whilst the crisis has brought out the very best - it has brought the very worst as well. And this is a danger for all of us. As I write – on the 28th March – stories are beginning to emerge of hardships being just too hard to bear in the South of Italy – where people are already poor – and where most are pulling together some are pulling apart. Civil unrest is feared, theft but also profiteering – cashing in –desperate & even malicious crime – violence – and dark forces at both high and low levels - corruption like Dante saw - its perpetraitors paying for their sins deep within his Inferno.
Only time will tell how this present crisis will evolve - which parts of us will rise to the challenge - which parts will come through - and what kind of a world we might all have a the end of it!
Much Love
Anne Maria
x x x
