Author Archives: Richard

Three Images for Life. The three carvings in Purgatory 10 are a unique and lingering passage, with three artworks that simply sums up the Spiritual Life in its growth and presence. There are dramatic scenes and passages about rebirthing the … Continue reading →

After the experience and understanding of the three marble carvings in Purgatory X  have started to sink in, the Pilgrim (here almost as conscious afterthought), looks at them and delights in their beauty. Mentr’io mi dilettava di guardare l’imagini di … Continue reading →

After the first 93 lines of Purgatory X, Dante gives us a brief reflection of how this process of the three carvings is only discovered as “new” to us, because we have had been away from it. Colui che mai … Continue reading →

The nudging widow inside you. The passage with Trajan the Emperor and the little suffering widow in Canto X can be read on several levels after some years of more familiarity with the spiritual life. As a first time reader, … Continue reading →

The widow as the first return of the Spiritual, into your secular life. After the main theme of the third carving is presented, Dante describes how this new relationship between “Trajan” and “Gregory” internally might start out at first – … Continue reading →

After the first 69 lines of Canto 10 a major argument has already been laid out, and is in some ways concluded in its initial form: discovering (or re-discovering) the spiritual life, the connection key to it, how it immerses … Continue reading →

What the annunciation scene means inside of you. After the first 69 verse lines of Purgatory 10 we can see a complete argument and roadmap for how to start healing and treating the distortions of Superbia, and to a large … Continue reading →

After discovering the “choirs” as the flooding of the spiritual into the faculties of thought, mind and bigger perceptions, a new image appears: the smoke. Similemente al fummo de li ‘ncensi che v’era imaginato, li occhi e ‘l naso e … Continue reading →

After the discovery of the Ark in the Chariot, pulled by Oxen, the Pilgrim sees more in the same image: people into front grouped in seven choirs, and his material and spiritual perceptions are again in conflict. One says “no”, … Continue reading →

After the first substance with a connection to the Spiritual Life and the Heavens, a new question might naturally pose itself: What does this mean for one’s own understanding of Reality, and one’s one place within it? This is at … Continue reading →

Dante suggests how a matured Reason actually works. After the first receiving and connection of sensing Heaven’s outreach with “Gabriel” as the “Archangel” (literally: source message) in Purg X:40-45, the temptation internally is to make this a new focus and … Continue reading →

The beginning and end of the spiritual path: how to receive. After the first ~40 lines, the confirmation comes in Purgatory X:40-45, that this is indeed the key or the technique, for how to connect with the Heavens. And the … Continue reading →

A first gift after recalibrating the method of perception. After several steps to reconfigure and gain a new awareness of the apparatus of perception, the first image or “substance” appears: the outreach from the Heavens. As in the Archangel “Gabriel”. … Continue reading →

Not directly in front, but receiving “from the side”. After the basic first moments in the entrance to the spiritual path, Dante gives a first lesson and moves miles beyond the first misunderstood impression of “wall, path and void”. And … Continue reading →

Early perceptions can almost by nature be mistaken – on the spiritual path. After the empty plain in the beginning of Purg X:19-21, a new image is presented of the outlook for the Pilgrim and Virgil: a path, a void … Continue reading →

The “eye” of the spiritual process comes with a sense of instability, and the need for a full withdrawal of illumination on the soul. From the opening of Purg X:13-16 E questo fece i nostri passi scarsi, tanto che pria … Continue reading →

Why the portal to the Good Life can be hard to find. Here is the opening of Canto X in Purgatory: Poi fummo dentro al soglio de la porta  che ‘l mal amor de l’anime disusa,  perché fa parer dritta … Continue reading →

A new journey starts once again today, with Trina – as a returning subscriber! The opening is such a beautiful and timeless reminder of the basics: humility, an open mind, start connecting with something transcendent again. And more concretely here, … Continue reading →