In Canto X of Purgatory, Dante masterfully depicts a profound spiritual transformation through three pivotal tercets. As the Pilgrim moves beyond the carved images of Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, we witness a subtle yet significant shift from rational observation to mystical contemplation. This passage not only illustrates the duality between literal and anagogical meanings but also foreshadows the deeper journey towards divine unity that defines the whole of the Divine Comedy.
Right after the Pilgrim and Virgil have entered the real Purgatory and seen the carvings of Gabriel and Virgin Mary, a profound shift is happening in the spiritual orientation of the Pilgrim. He suddenly goes far beyond both the carvings, their symbolic meaning, and also rationality, and aims for the deeper source of it all, the source of Being itself.
Once Virgin Mary pronounces “Ecce ancilla Dei“ (“Here is the servant of God”) in verse 44 of Canto X, thereby making the alignment and subordination to the bigger picture, three tercets are presented that shows this significant shift in the Pilgrim, with two distinct meanings on the literal vs. anagogical (mysticism) level. Let’s look at the literal first:
“Do not hold at only one point your mind”,
said the gentle master, which had me
on that side where humans have the heart.
Dante is here opening a bigger shift with the two elements of the mind or intellect, and of the heart. Already here he is pointing to the bigger theme in Paradiso of having the “two wheels” of the rational-intellect and the spiritual-mystic as both essential for the ascent to the Heavens. This is the “carro” or chariot that will be revealed in the Sphere of the Sun.
He also untangles any over-fixation of a rational focus on a specific point. Virgil is gently saying: “Step back and have a bigger view of this scene of Mary and Gabriel”, in the literal: “look at more of the carvings”, but spiritually: “see a bigger picture beyond the first ignition point or contact point with the Heavens.” This is in some ways the move of the Pilgrim’s attention or experience towards where the heart is, and having both: the rational and the spiritual at the same time. This is perhaps the most essential teaching of Dante, to develop your mind and heart and thus being able to open up infinite new worlds of experience and insight.
So this tercet shifts the Pilgrim from a detailed attention at one point, and broadens it, and also evokes or brings in the dimension of the heart.
The second step is this:
“For which I moved my face, and saw
beyond Mary, on that side
where was he that moved me,”
Which is more clearly dual layered with the literal and spiritual. The Pilgrim is moving his attention beyond the engravings of Mary and Gabriel, towards the right side, which is where Virgil is standing. But the deeper meaning is that he follows Virgil’s instructions from the previous tercet, and starts gazing beyond the idea or experience of Mary, further into the source of the spiritual itself. He is trying to gaze towards the source of the human soul, that within which the image of our soul is being made. The phrase “he that moved me” is a recurring reference to both the Aristotelian “First Mover” but ultimately to the bigger source beyond even that, to God. And the original text uses the word “costa” for “side”, meaning the shores of the Divine on the “other side”.
The third step in the motion of refocusing his spiritual orientation is this:
“another story in the rock imprinted;
for which I surpassed Virgil, and made myself next to,
such that it was to my eyes disposed.”
Literally this is just the Pilgrim moving past Virgil to have a closer look at the engravings. Spiritually this is pointing to “another story” as a whole different reality, that he is discovering. The infinite spiritual realm and the Divine. And this move within himself surpasses rationality altogether, and makes him “next to” or “close to” the spiritual and the Divine, so that his “vision” of the transcendent can be more receptive, or disposed.
So the Pilgrim is guiding us spiritually in these three tercets; step back from the rational or literal reading, and behold the deeper transcendent meaning: move towards the heart, and you will see beyond the representations, towards the source of spirit and being, and see a whole different reality emerging. And this will entail transcending rationality and thus giving you a very different outlook and view, and capacity for apprehending and receiving new wisdom and insights.
In other words: Already in Canto X of Purgatory, Dante is outlining the bigger aim and process of discovering and moving closer to the Divine, and ultimately unifying or communing with God. He makes the argument embedded in a literal description of looking at engravings with a symbolic message in them, but at a meta-level he goes much further, and plants a small seed about the deeper source, that there is something beyond the glimmers of the Divine that we might behold in a symbol, allegory, or new insights into our soul or to the Heavens.
In addition, Dante is showing meaning through form; in just nine lines he shows the duality of the material and spiritual, the gradual revelation of deeper substance, and the process of this discovery and new unity that emerges. He is now “disposta”, meaning disposed, for a new kind of journey from this point. And the main key is: the Humility of Mary.
