Category Archives: Reflections

The Purgation Process

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Richard

After the opening prayer of Canto XI Dante briefly describes the overall process of purgation as similar to how one sometimes dreams of the boulders – likely referring to the sense of old distortions disappearing and healing in a sort of dreamlike state.

Così a sé e noi buona ramogna 
quell’ombre orando, andavan sotto ‘l pondo, 
simile a quel che tal volta si sogna,    

Roughly: “Like this to themselves and to us, these shades were singing good prayers, walking under the boulder, similar to that which one sometimes dreams of.”

The “pondo” as stone/boulder thus becomes a symbol of the whole terrace, and the whole central transition in a life as well – removing the distortions, healing, and opening up to fuller reality and a categorically different experience and participation in Being.

The elements within oneself, slowly being crushed, the faculties gradually rebuilding healthy and aligned assumptions and elements of a new cosmology.

This process itself is really something of a miracle.

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Reflection on Purgatory X

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Richard

After the entrance of the gate and in many ways laying out the foundations for the spiritual life and the process of changing cosmology, one might take a deep breath, and a step back, and consider the nutrition of Purgatory X.

Purg X gives an internal map and process with the three images to carry within oneself, and a general understanding of the “snapping corbels” of the earlier world view one perhaps have had for a few decades. The canto thus gives the outlook, and an idea of the first terrace, which is the foundation for everything else up the mountain.

In short:

  • 3 images (opening, motion and presence of the spiritual)
  • disappearing distortions

So once entered; correcting the inner cosmology of the world, being, oneself, the relationship to bigger reality, all of this comes first. And all of this is now already contained in one single canto, to be savored and returned to, infinite times in the future. The moving oxen and the snapping corbels. A monumental process over the longer stretches of life.

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Purgatory 10 – first 129 lines

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Richard

For a quick recap; here is what Dante presents in the first chapter inside the Gate, where the Spiritual Path begins.

We first have 99 lines of the opening and presence of the spiritual within onself.

Then we have the process of treating Superbia, as distorted perception of Reality. Overall this is about the growing presence of the bigger picture by nature crushing the distorted constructs in you to the ground. Simply by providing bigger context.

And then we are made aware of the pitfalls of the spiritual, that one might start containing it. This will produce a distorted spirituality. Meaning: Superbia can and will manifest both in rational and spiritual forms. This is important to recognize internally.

So in short, Purgatory X is to sense the spiritual within you, and noticing how this in itself starts pressuring your earlier distortions. But only if your spiritual sense is kept open, aligned, and in the receiving state.

Open, and start healing.

That is the first change inside.

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From Widow to Gregory Internally

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Richard

Today’s reflection is the first one without moving further into the poem. This is more the overall view of what Dante is doing in the first half of Canto X in Purgatorio – read from two different stages of spiritual growth and insights.

In the longer view this is about changing the separated spiritual life within; into a “spiritual leader” within, as in having a “Pope Gregory” internally, together with a secular leader – of a “Trajan”.

From separation to a matured and fuller life, with both the secular and the spiritual, Dante thus outlines the following process:

  • The first opening with “Gabriel”. This is complicated.
  • The steady presence of the spiritual life within you. The Ark & Oxen.
  • The changing of the widow to the “pope” in one’s overall cosmology.

And these are the three carvings – seen from a long term view of one’s own life.

This could and often does, take decades.

But once discovered and become more familiar with, the clarity is almost stunning and effortless. All the pieces fall into place.

So in addition to a detailed discernment of symbolism and anagogical meaning, there is a wonderful “homecoming” sense in these passages too. Of how life will find a new rhythm and sense of being, after the changes, after the acknowledgement of the “dark forest”, and after the process of the Comedy.

Things change. One arrives. And then a new life also begins. A richer, more natural, and much more aligned with the fullness of Reality.

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