Purgatory

After the circulation of the Divine and Creation, and the right ordering of receiving and engaging, Dante moves on to the idea of alignment of the Will, in gratitude.

Come del suo voler li angeli tuoi
fan sacrificio a te, cantando osanna,
così facciano li uomini de’ suoi.

Meaning roughly: “Like how the Angels are sacrificing their Wills to You, whilst singing Hosannah, so do the humans with their own Wills.”

Simply pointing to how reconnecting to the bigger picture and aligning one’s cosmology with these bigger and deeper Truths, is in a way to “sacrifice” the Will to choose any cosmology one would like, but at the same time: once understood there is no greater joy or gift than to find one’s place in the bigger and fuller living Reality, in gratitude and in richness.

Choosing the richest, eternally beautiful and generative abundant relationship to reality is indeed to forego the “choice” of other outlooks – but what better sacrifice can one possibly make. Even more: the sacrifice is the choice of something much bigger and better, once fully apprehended and experienced.

Then, comes a more practical aspect from Dante:

Dà oggi a noi la cotidiana manna, 
sanza la qual per questo aspro diserto 
a retro va chi più di gir s’affanna.  

Meaning: “Give us today the daily manna, without which in this dry desert, those who struggle more to turn themselves will go backwards again.”

So there is a double effect in this tercet: both the confession that this is a difficult or strenuous change to undertake within oneself, and also that one needs support and nutrition every day on this journey. It is not sufficient to merely “understand”, and having a Gabriel moment internally, one has to keep working for a long time, and one also needs the spiritual nutrition, “bread”, manna – from the Heavens.

In a way, this could also come in the form of Dante’s Divine Comedy in periods. Reading a couple of tercets every morning and contemplate, dwell, enrich oneself in the meaning and wisdom and experience, is in itself a form of spiritual daily practice. Which also changes you, and will gradually open Scripture as well, which in some sense is harder to apprehend for a closed or blocked secular mind. Dante’s Comedy reaches people in this condition too, through beauty, poetry, as literature, more secular philosophy at times, and rationality itself as guide for 2/3rds of the whole Journey. This is in some ways a key pedagogical aspect of the work – start with the rational to reach out to the disconnected secular minds, and gradually build out a bigger cosmology of both the spiritual and rational, and also see how rationality itself leads to this balance and combination over time.

So a simple advice and companionship from Dante here; once the spiritual path is found and started, remember the little daily inputs and devoted time/experience in the spiritual. It will grow slowly. And using the Comedy itself is excellent nutrition and even channeled manna from the Heavens in many places.

Which is in large part why, the poem still reads like and performs miracles right here in the real (and bigger) world.

After the lifting of sights up to the Heavens, and to the Love that overflows for the first effects (souls and angels), the second tercet returns this outpouring of love, with a praising up from the whole of creation:

laudato sia ‘l tuo nome e ‘l tuo valore
da ogni creatura, com’è degno
di render grazie al tuo dolce vapore.

as in “every creature rendering gratitude for the sweet breath/spirit of the Divine.”

And Dante then continues the third tercet with a newfound humility from the distortions, now in a way being remade into something different: the faculties of apprehension and overall world views – having found the right ordering of Being itself:

Vegna ver’ noi la pace del tuo regno,
ché noi ad essa non potem da noi,
s’ella non vien, con tutto nostro ingegno.

Meaning: “Come towards us the peace of your Kingdom, as we to it cannot by ourselves, if it does not come, with all our ingenuity.”

Or in more flowing language: “May come towards us the peace of your Kingdom, as we cannot arrive there by ourselves, even with all our intellect and ingenuity, if it does not come to us first.”

So a significant point here is the acknowledgement, and perhaps a new understanding, of the correct ordering of things. The light and peace of the spiritual Kingdom must arrive to us, so we can reach it, and we cannot reach it alone by force or determination. This touches on the deepest dynamic throughout the rest of the Comedy: we must Receive, and then engage with that which we receive, and this sequence is essential.

And in many ways one might hear Dante’s own voice in this – his own hard learned lessons, that by one’s own devices and no transcendent connection and receiving, one will only reach so far.

A tercet of gratitude, wisdom, practical instruction, and beauty. We ascend through receiving, not through grasping higher. And this will eventually become a daily and persistent reminder; open, receive, gratitude, engagement. Infinite enrichment and eternal circulation of grace, joy, and the light of the Heavens.

These are the fruits of healing Superbia.

After the discernment and reflection on Purgatory X, one might wonder: what comes naturally next after this? After the full outline of the spiritual life and removal of Superbia?

And the first tercet of Purgatory XI shows us.

«O Padre nostro, che ne’ cieli stai, 
non circunscritto, ma per più amore 
ch’ai primi effetti di là sù tu hai,  

Meaning: “Oh Our Father, who dwells in the Heavens, not circumscribed by it, but because of more love that you have for the first effects up there.”

And what else could come after the monumental Purgatory X, than lifting the sights to the biggest picture, to the Being and to the Divine. We have just been through a deep dive into the nature and beginning of the spiritual path, and inner purgation, and then – it zooms out into the overall picture, the Heavens, and a Divinity that dwells there from an overflowing and abundant love for the souls and the angels (first effects), and beyond any boundaries or circumscriptions. The wording here is another seed for the whole of Paradiso, and what will eventually become the unfolding image of Reality itself in its Divine nature.

But as a first journey and pilgrimage, this meaning is largely or fully hidden. For now, it is a reminder and a redirection of focus to something higher and bigger. Out of the self-focus of purgation and repair, and up towards the widest sense of Being there is, and to the Love from Being towards the Souls. An overflowing Love from the Heavens, for the living spirits, and from that from which we once originated.

At the end of Purgatory X we get a new image of the conclusion of the Divine Process that crushes the internal distortions. In a way this becomes an expression similar to the three carvings of the Spiritual Life that open the whole Canto and the main part of Purgatorio. We’re seeing the pressure on the old distortions as “corbels”, and how they eventually all will “snap”, each and every one of them, from the sheer presence of a new and bigger full picture of Reality, that also accounts for the mystery and transcendent aspects of Being.

Come per sostentar solaio o tetto, 
per mensola talvolta una figura 
si vede giugner le ginocchia al petto,

Meaning: “As if sustaining a floor or a roof, as corbels at times a figure one sees, bringing the knees to the chest.”

So this is setting up an image with the idea of earlier sustaining assumptions, ideas or axioms – which will then be exposed as the distorted ones internally, that “held up” the old reduced outlook or world view. Dante is doing two things at once here, portraying them both as earlier supporting systems, but now increasingly under direct and overwhelming pressure from a new reality being present.

It continues;

la qual fa del non ver vera rancura 
nascere ‘n chi la vede; così fatti 
vid’io color, quando puosi ben cura. 

Meaning: “That which makes of non-truth Truth, births anguish in the one that looks, and such made, did I look at them, when I placed careful attention.”

So this is Dante commenting on the experience of looking more carefully and back at older assumptions and outlooks, about to be removed or crushed in the process. And note that the process does not cause any anguish or suffering in itself, it is the Pilgrim (or one’s consciousness internally), that feels a certain dread looking back at what used to carry one’s own earlier cosmology and assumptions about reality. At times it could even strike oneself as “Did I really believe that? How could I not see its shortcomings? Its insufficiencies?“. And also note the idea of trying to make Truth out of non-truth, in some ways this becomes clearer later when Dante describes more in detail how partial frames posing as overall frames is one of the key mistakes one quickly makes growing up and through early maturation, but often eventually discovers produces significant errors on the biggest questions.

And the image then concludes:

Vero è che più e meno eran contratti 
secondo ch’avien più e meno a dosso; 
e qual più pazienza avea ne li atti, 
piangendo parea dicer: ‘Più non posso’.

Roughly meaning: “True it is, that more or less they were contracted according to how they had more or less on their backs, and those who had more patience in their gestures, cryingly appeared to say: ‘I cannot anymore'”.

So this seems to point to the variety of natures and processes of the distortions themselves. Some are more squeezed than others if one takes a “snapshot” of looking internally, meaning they will be in different states and stages of the process, but even the most “patient” ones, those who might endure for the longest time, eventually too will fold and admit, “I cannot hold this up anymore”.

And with that, the Canto is finished.

The corbels presented as your inner distortions of various natures being slowly pressured into nothingness, by the new Reality that asserts itself when the Spiritual Life is reconnected and active again. When this new combination of the secular and spiritual grows and finds a generative and healthy new dynamic, the old symptoms of Superbia will dissolve and be healed. In short: they are healed not by “treatment” directly, but simply by the presence of the new spiritual life that comes with Gabriel, the Ark and Oxen, and the dynamic of Trajan and widow/Gregory internally.

That is the process overall, and this is how The First Terrace of Superbia will be healed and corrected.

Three images carved in marble, and the snapping corbels that selfdestruct over time.

This also makes this canto a tremendously important key to the whole Comedy. It provides the starting point of the whole solution to the “Dark Forest” in the opening. And it is something one can start working on for oneself, today. An open mind, moving forward by receiving “from the side”, gradually notice the oxen within steadily moving, and then the joyful change and healing, and infinitely rich experience and cosmology that will follow.

A pure gift from Dante to us. “Here is the process, here are the mechanics.”

And a final note: give it time. Give it five to ten years. This is not about “understanding” per se, but about changing the approach, the awareness, the relationship to experience itself. And then day by day, month by month, gradually discover a whole new way of Being. This is the journey that starts right here in this canto, and it is perhaps the biggest adventure one can possibly embark upon in life. And the rewards are again, endless.

After the warning of a mis-shaped spiritual life vs. the full fruition of a healthy and aligned ascent, Dante points to the nature of superbia again – this time showing us the similar cases of distortions with or without the spiritual present.

The warning here is prescient longer term: the spiritual can quickly be contained in strictly rational frameworks and thus result in the same condition: effectively a loss of connection to the transcendent. This is a constant temptation in our minds and psyche. Choosing own constructs over openness and receiving from the bigger picture and eternal transcendence.

Dante writes:

Di che l’animo vostro in alto galla,
poi siete quasi antomata in difetto,
sì come vermo in cui formazion falla?

Roughly: “Of which spirit of yours are you floating in high, so you are almost insects in defects, yes just like worms in which the formation fails?”

The insects are thus the restricted, contained condition of a spiritual life, compared to the “worms” of a life where the spiritual has not yet even started. And again: these are pointing to internal dynamics at the anagogical level. We have these inclinations within ourselves, to reject or to contain the bigger picture – and assuming a cosmology of one’s own constructs instead.

In some ways the main wisdom here is longer term, the gradual process of capturing one’s own spiritual life. And Dante himself probably met many people in this condition, during his own conversion somewhere between 1300 and 1308. Opening the spiritual as in Purgatory 10 and the Gate is a first small step, however gigantic it feels at that moment. Once through it, a new life begins with infinite richness but also new temptations, for decades to come.

So all three conditions are there in us: the self-contained insect, the unstarted worm, or, with work and gradual transformation, the angelic butterfly.

In short: Dante plants a little flag right at the start. The spiritual path is now open, but notice the inner impulse for containment. It might once again put oneself in a different “dark forest”, and block the real opening into fuller Reality and into the Heavens.

After the warning of spiritual distortions, Dante continues with an image of how it should be, when the distortions are removed and the will and being are aligned:

non v’accorgete voi che noi siam vermi 
nati a formar l’angelica farfalla, 
che vola a la giustizia sanza schermi? 

Meaning: “Does it not occur to you that we are worms, born to form into the angelic butterfly, who flies towards the Justice without shields?”

Intuitive interpretation: Dante addresses the internal impulse for spiritual distortions, control and containment – pointing to how one internally is meant to transform into a spiritually free and ascending being, that flies towards Justice without any shields, in the sense of imposed constructs of “walls”, delineations, “capturings” of one’s own making. Partly playing on the David as dancing theme; the receiving and responsive nature of much of the spiritual life, whilst learning and ascending.

The Justice aspect is harder to decipher at this stage – but it will be explained later in Sphere Six of Paradiso: Divine Justice in part as one finding one’s own mission as part of a much larger and cosmic force of Virtue, the Good, the maintenance of the health of Being itself. This comes much later on the spiritual path, but is still a part of the overall process over years and decades towards the “butterfly”.

So in short; Dante outlines the real outline for one’s inner Journey – from opening/beginnings, to growing ascent, to eventually finding one’s own being as an essential part of the infinite forces and nature of Being.

And now,
we well run the method for the more rational-analytic approach. This could be read either just for skimming, or for deeper study. It mostly maps – perhaps with the exception of seeing the “schermi” as a natural part of being built during the process. This is likely not Dante’s intention; the schermi  is the overreach – analyzing and processing the spiritual is good (and essential) for learning, but for adding insights, not for building an outer “shield” of containment. The result section however, is stunning in its conclusions.

Continue reading →

At this point in the canto, after the first 40 tercets and the opening and early familiarity with the Spiritual Life, and also now its beginning purgation – we get a stern and arresting warning: Do not think all is necessarily good, just because there is now a spiritual dimension in your life:

O superbi cristian, miseri lassi, 
che, de la vista de la mente infermi, 
fidanza avete ne’ retrosi passi, 

Roughly: “Oh Christians with distortions and superbia, wretched and weary, who from the outlook of a sick mind have trust in the backwards steps.”

From the anagogical it is immediately important to resist the temptation to externalize this. What Dante is referring to is the potentiality and presence of spiritual distortions within yourself. The “Cristian” can quickly be oneself, after an opening of the spiritual but then a closing and perhaps gradual impulse to control and contain the spiritual life and the Heavens again. Anagogically this is not about others, it is about you. And this trap can be very subtle and sophisticated. So Dante places it right at the start. Be aware – this can quickly happen to oneself.

As an aside, it is interesting how Isaiah seems to have exactly the same warning, of a distorted spiritual life and religious practices without a deeper relationship.

Running the new method is also fruitful, here are a few highlights:

Teleological direction: Everything serves the soul’s journey to God. The three carvings just established genuine spiritual content within the soul. The receiving was real. The connection is alive. And precisely HERE the warning must come, because the greatest threat to the journey is no longer the absence of the spiritual life but its distortion by the very apparatus that received it. “Superbi cristian” identifies the specific danger: not the secular mind rejecting the spiritual, but the spiritual mind claiming ownership of what it received. “De la vista de la mente infermi” names the mechanism: the organ of perception itself is sick, meaning the distortion operates at the level of how you see, not merely what you see. You cannot detect the disease with the diseased instrument.

As early encounter with the spiritual: Dante is warning me not to be arrogant about spiritual things. Even people who believe can go wrong if their thinking is confused. I should stay humble as I continue reading.

Reached Post-Paradiso perception: This is the Isaiah 1 dynamic operating at the soul level. The spiritual life ACTIVE but DISTORTED. Not absent but claimed. Not dead but performing. The sacrifices and rituals running at full capacity but disconnected from the living receiving.

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So right here in the first canto, with just five tercets left, another essential seed is planted: be aware of this aspect in your newfound spiritual life. Remember the distortions do not only come in rational, psychological or perceptual forms – they can (and often will) also infect one’s spiritual insights and experience.

And with that awareness, one is much better prepared for the actual real and true Journey, into the Heavens.

After the Pilgrim understands that something is crushing the distortions into the ground, Virgil tells him to take a closer look at what is actually happening:

Ma guarda fiso là, e disviticchia
col viso quel che vien sotto a quei sassi:
già scorger puoi come ciascun si picchia».

Meaning: “But look fixedly there, and untangle with the vision/face, that which comes under these boulders; already you can discern how each one is striking itself.”

So the intuitive reading: Consciousness is now guided by reason to notice in much more detail how the crushing pressure of the Divine Process is by nature exposing the distortions, and making them be exposed as self-defeating. Once the bigger picture is returning this becomes almost mechancial, and symbolically as them “striking themselves”. (Also note; the “beating of chests” as chosen in most commentaries is simply not there in the original.)

The method gives us: Continue reading →

After the new insights of the spirtual life, and also how to combine this with continuously new insights – Dante gives us a direct address and the reasons why one should continue.

The argument is very simple: do not focus on the nature of the fixing. Focus instead on:
a) the rewards from it
b) that doing nothing is at least as bad, but likely a lot worse

And this becomes the whole choice. Repairing distortions and Superbia gives great rewards, and doing nothing is worse.

Then the journey continues.