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Summo bono
Jan. 24th, 2025 09:37 pmVia Dante, a virtuous pagan may lead you through the depths of hell and to the summit of purgation.
But when it comes to Paradise, Love must be your guide.
But when it comes to Paradise, Love must be your guide.
'Fatto in casa'
Nov. 14th, 2023 06:55 am
Somewhere in between the dream and the waking world, a sort of fully lucid dream, I found myself in the presence of a peculiar entity. I was leaving a sort of restaurant or hall with my family, one of light brown stone. They had gone to the parking lot, but this entity beckoned me to turn back into the restaurant, and so I did. She move with a grace and levity belying her apparent age, and looked like one of those venerable aunts one might see on the Benedetta cooking shows. Notwithstanding the fact that I had to see my family, she moved at her own pace, as if there were all the time in the world, and sat down at a wide kitchen table. Myriad workers and servers bustled about her, and I could perceive deep halls and kitchens beyond, full of activity.
We spoke only in Italian. I gently asked her identity. Fortuna, she said, pushing up her black-rimmed glasses, and I asked if she needed any assistance, but she smiled. She had many lavoranti e attendenti about. We spoke briefly, and I got the sense that I could leave, so I did.
The thought that remained: One may labor for many years for a particular end, but it is only by the Grace of God, Fortuna, the Providence of the Eternal One, that we arrive at an outcome.
Axé!
Dante and esotericism
Feb. 19th, 2022 03:21 pm
I've posted before about some of the unique currents coursing through the Divine Comedy while I was rereading it last year, and I'm far from alone in those sentiments. Although I cannot endorse some of their political viewpoints, some heavy contemplatives in the Italic tradition have written on the subject. Below are some links that may be worth pursuing, for those inclined to such a path.
René Guénon, The Esotericism of Dante
Mark Jay Mirsky, Dante, Eros, and Kabbalah
David Pantano, The Magic Door
Arturo Reghini, "L'allegoria esoterica in Dante" (in Italiano, PDF)
Sandra Debenedetti Stow, Dante e la mistica ebraica (in Italiano)
There is also a good (albeit rather conventional) examination of Paradiso in Jeffrey Burton Russell's A History of Heaven, in which Dante's version is held in high regard.
Some of these are more traditional than others, but all are suggestive of the sense of something "occult" hidden in that great work.
"Il soggetto della Commedia è l'uomo, o meglio la rigenerazione dell'uomo, la sua metamorfosi in angelica farfalla, la Psiche di Apuleio." —Reghini
Standing in the shadows of love
Oct. 29th, 2021 07:22 pmTo paraphrase Dante,
the divine light shines throughout
the cosmos, in some places more, in
some places less.
And in the shadowy places, strange
things lurk.
Linger not long in them.
Knock long enough, and something will answer.
the divine light shines throughout
the cosmos, in some places more, in
some places less.
And in the shadowy places, strange
things lurk.
Linger not long in them.
Knock long enough, and something will answer.
Una Via Negativa
Sep. 18th, 2021 09:59 pm
In the Primum Mobile of the Paradiso, Dante observes the orders of angels, which correspond to the various spheres. This derives from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an early Christian writer and another current of Neoplatonism feeding into the Commedia.
As noted in this essay, although some regard Pseudo-Dionysius as a "crypto pagan," the takeaway for me is that, regardless, his work represents yet another point of contact between Platonic and Neoplatonic thought and Christian mysticism. With Dante's explicit call-out to him, it further represents, as with the reference to Timaeus noted earlier, additional correspondences extending into the poem.
Worth reflecting on the fact, too, that Dionysus employs the term "eros" in relation to God, and for certain accounts of the early universe, Eros is among the primal divinities, and may indeed be the one that gets things rolling (see Hesiod, Parmenides, Aristophanes).
In addition to the angelology, there are interesting parallels between Pseudo-Dionysius's approach to God and Dante's encounter, which is recounted in the final canto of the poem. Consider (from the Mystical Theology):
"For the higher we soar in contemplation the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness that is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence of thoughts and of words."
It can be convincingly argued that Dante's conception of God, much like that of St. Augustine's, as noted by Roger Theodore Lafferty, "was no longer the superman Jahveh [Jehovah/YHVH] of the early Hebrew mind. He had become a great first principle." In effect, then, a synthesis between Ancient Greek thought and that of that nascent mystery religion, Christianity.
On drawing down life from the heavens
Sep. 13th, 2021 02:09 pm
An interesting through line from the Paradiso back to Plato's Timaeus: In his address to the reader in Canto XXII, Dante invokes the stars from which his genius flows, and this calls to mind the action of the Demiurge, who sows the myriad human souls in their respective stars. It is left for the "younger" gods to create the bodies these souls will inhabit, and then, if after living a life of appropriate virtue, those souls will return to these happy stars once again after their bodily death (else they will undergo a process of reincarnation, giving them additional chances to get things right).
Back to the Paradiso, Dante subsequently turns to survey the planets below, using explicitly mythological language to characterize them. It is in this correspondence, perhaps, that we find another clue to Dante's syncretism: In Dante's association of the Almighty with the "Demiurge" (whether this is accurate or not), there remains space, as it were, for a layer of additional celestial gods that correspond to the planets and to nature. This is a hierarchal view, of course, that may not comport with some "hard polytheist" Neoplatonic readings. Whatever we think of such a synthesis, it may be the philosophical grounding that allows Dante to more or less comfortably nest classical myths, for which he has a clear affinity, within the Christian worldview.
Indeed, earlier, in Canto IV, Beatrice specifically refers to the Timaeus, qualifying however that the sense of returning to a particular star contradicts what Dante is observing as he passes through the heavens. She goes on to indicate, though, that the Platonic conception may be closer to the truth if not taken literally.
To clarify, I'm no Dante scholar by any means, and not trying to say Dante read Plato directly, but rather that certain Platonic ideas may have filtered down into the work. As a reference, an interesting 1911 article on the philosophical aspects of Dante by Roger Theodore Lafferty.
La Vita É Un Paradiso di...Veritas?
Aug. 16th, 2021 04:23 pm
In Canto XIII of Paradiso, Thomas Aquinas discusses the procession of all things from the First Cause (in this case, God). While the aim is to describe the resultant natures of Adam and Christ, and ultimately Solomon's relationship to them, the depiction is interesting in other ways. The various sources I use (Musa's commentary on his translation, Garzanti in italiano) attribute it to the Scholastic model, which would make sense, but in my view it shares much with the Neoplatonic model of procession from The One: Light issuing from the Triune God is refracted down through the orders of angels, and Nature takes on a kind of demiurgic role, transmitting these rays, albeit imperfectly, into the material realm. The attempt is to reconcile the perfection of the Most High with the (seeming) disorder we witness so here in the material realm, with the answer being the distortion of things becoming manifest. Natura é un'artista chi ha mano che trema.
It's also interesting to note that one could conceivably map the orders of angels (and the "planets") onto some versions of the Cabala (such as the one seen by Jean Dubois), with the assumption that Purgatorio and the rest of the Earth is "below" (Malkuth, 10).
Thus the first sphere is the Moon can be mapped (inverted) with Yesod (9); the second sphere, Mercury, with Hod (8); the third, Venus, with Netzach (7); the fourth, the Sun, with Tiphereth (6); the fifth, Mars, with Geburah (5); the sixth, Jupiter, with Chesed (4); the seventh sphere, Saturn, with Binah (3); after which we go to the either sphere of the fixed stars, which could conceivably be mapped to Chokmah (2); and the the Primum Mobile, that directly moved by God, with Kether (1).
Omnia Vincit Amor
Jul. 30th, 2021 11:17 amVirgil, as imagined by Dante, speaking in Purgatorio Canto XXII (Musa translation):
"...Love,
kindled by virtue, always kindles love,
if the first flame is clearly visible..."
In Italiano:
"...Amore,
acceso di virtù, sempre altro accese,
pur che la fiamma sua paresse fore;..."
This ties back to his previous discussion on the movement of love, specifically when love takes on a positive aspect. What's left unsaid, of course, is what happens when that same love tends toward something less than virtuous, and what it then propagates (presumably, more of the same).
One day, maybe sooner, maybe later we will be no more. The material goods we’ve stored up here will waste away, the writings and artwork crumble into dust, the cities turned to waste. The one thing, perhaps, that will endure is the loves we have expressed—or failed to.
On this day of Venus, may all your loves be lit by virtue, and resonate in eternity.
Axé
"...Love,
kindled by virtue, always kindles love,
if the first flame is clearly visible..."
In Italiano:
"...Amore,
acceso di virtù, sempre altro accese,
pur che la fiamma sua paresse fore;..."
This ties back to his previous discussion on the movement of love, specifically when love takes on a positive aspect. What's left unsaid, of course, is what happens when that same love tends toward something less than virtuous, and what it then propagates (presumably, more of the same).
One day, maybe sooner, maybe later we will be no more. The material goods we’ve stored up here will waste away, the writings and artwork crumble into dust, the cities turned to waste. The one thing, perhaps, that will endure is the loves we have expressed—or failed to.
On this day of Venus, may all your loves be lit by virtue, and resonate in eternity.
Axé
