These
four cantos fill in Dante’s (the author) vision of the cosmos. Let’s walk through this to see how stunning
and beautiful it actually is.
The
Crystalline Sphere comprises the ninth circlet of either orbits of celestial
planets (moon through Saturn) or circumscribing regions such as the Starry
Sphere, which are constellations of stars, and the Crystalline Sphere. The earth is the center of the physical universe
as commonly thought then. What is the
Crystalline Sphere? We learn it is the
swiftest circling of the spheres (XXVII.99) and Beatrice explains its nature.
'This heaven has no other
where
but in the mind of God,
in which is kindled
the love that turns it
and the power it pours down.
'Light and love enclose
it in a circle,
as it contains the
others. Of that girding
He that girds it is the
sole Intelligence. (XXVII.109-114)
It
doesn’t have a physical existence and exists in the mind of God. It’s made up of light and love and it wraps
the entire universe into a sort of encompassing ball if you can imagine it
three dimensionally. Dante uses the
metaphor of a flowerpot to describe how it wraps the entrails of the physical universe. While it is in the mind of God, I think the
implication is that is actually part of the mind of God.
If
the Crystalline Sphere is part of the mind of God, in the next canto Dante is
allowed to see God Himself, albeit from a far distance. At first Dante sees God reflected in
Beatrice’s two eyes. It is a beam of
light which he refers to as a “double-candle lamp’ (XXVIII.4). It’s double because it’s reflecting in each
eye, but when he turns around he can see it’s a single pinpoint beam of light.
When I turned back and my
eyes were struck
by what appears on that
revolving sphere --
if one but contemplates
its circling –
I saw a point that
flashed a beam of light
so sharp the eye on which
it burns
must close against its
piercing brightness. (13-18)
He
goes on to describe the size of that point.
He says if you take the smallest star that one sees and puts it beside
this point, the star would seem the size of our moon relative to the point
(19-20). In other words, that point is
infinitesimally small.
Now
contemplate the wonder of this. God is
simultaneously an infinitesimal point—which is one dimensional, not even two
and certainly not three—and infinitely huge when you consider that the mind of
God, the Crystalline Sphere, enwraps the entire universe. Dante has conceptualized the infinite from
both ends of size simultaneously in God.
Next time a snotty atheist ridicules you for believing in an “old man in
the sky,” present this as the nature of God.
That
pin point which is God also has nine ringlets around it, just like the physical
universe. Each ring is made up of a
multitude of angels, a huge number, gathered in a queue and circling about the
point which is God. There are nine types
of angels and each ring is comprised of a particular type. From the inner ring to the out, they are
Seraphim, Cheraphim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities,
Archangels, and Angels. I don’t
understand enough about angels to understand the progression, but I am sure
there is a logic to the progression.
While
the concentric circles of the physical universe increase in rotating speed the
further you go out, the concentric circles surrounding God increase in speed
the further in toward God you go. It is
explained that the inner circle is “spurred on by flaming love”
(XXVIII.45). The outer circle of angels
is in contact with Crystalline Sphere, and the motion of the angels drives the
motion of the physical universe. It’s almost
as if it is two gears are in contact with each other, one driving the other. So God at the center propels the energy of
its gear wheel which drives the second gear wheel. God’s bursting love is the energy that makes
the cosmos move.
Side
note. T. S. Eliot in his great The Four Quartets, refers to a “still
point point of the turning world.” This
is what he is alluding to, Dante’s vision of God as a point in the center of
the universe that propels everything.
I’m
not completely sure, but I don’t think the Crystalline Sphere and the Primum
Mobile are the same thing. Or perhaps
the Primum Mobile may be a subset of the Crystalline Sphere. I’m speculating a little here, but I think
the contact surface between the outer ring of angels and the Crystalline Sphere
is Dante’s conception of the Primum Mobile.
The Primum Mobile was not a Dantean invention but something
conceptualized as far back as classical astronomy. It is the point from which God moves the
universe, the first cause of a link of causes that enacts God’s will. So here is Dante’s total cosmic conception:
God causes the angels to metaphysically enact His will which transfers to a
physical act at the Primum Mobile, which effects events down at the earth. Beatrice explains it thus:
'Greater goodness makes
for greater blessedness,
and greater bliss takes
on a greater body
when all its parts are
equal in perfection.
'This sphere, therefore,
which sweeps into its motion
the rest of the universe,
must correspond
to the ring that loves
and knows the most,
'so that, if you apply
your measure,
not to their appearances
but to the powers themselves
of the angels that appear
to you as circles,
'you will see a marvelous
congruence,
larger with more, smaller
with less, in each sphere
according to its
celestial Intelligence. (XXVIII.67-78)
Now
one can fully picture the journey through Paradiso that Dante (the character)
has been on. There are two groups of
concentric circles, almost as if two pebbles have been dropped in a lake, each
having ripples of circles emanating outward.
Dante starts at the center of the first, the earth, and traverses
outward until he reaches the end and has to traverse into the other group of
ripples. And from there he is projected
into the center of the second group, the center which is God. This is not only Dante’s journey, but the
journey of all saved souls who will come to rest in heaven.
It
is a vision of cosmic creation, function, and harmony worthy of any
mystic. It is beautiful and complete.
###
These
are very rich cantos. Let me provide
some more thoughts.
Canto
XXIX is almost entirely spent on the creation and nature of angels. It reminds me of medieval philosophical
arguments on angels, the common joke being that they argued over how many
angels can dance on the head of a pin, It is pointed out that God did not need
to create angels to enact His will. He
can do it through His word. So why did
He? Beatrice explains:
'Not to increase His
store of goodness,
a thing impossible, but
that His splendor,
shining back, might say Subsisto,
'in His eternity, beyond
time, beyond
any other limit, as it
pleased Him,
in these new loves,
Eternal Love unfolded. (XXIX.13-18)
Through
the creative act, God unfolded the love that He is into other substances, so
that shining back they gave existence to love, all for His pleasure. How many angels did He create? Dante (through Beatrice) decidedly stipulates
that it is a finite number but a number that is huge. It’s greater than two to the sixty-fourth
power (a doubling of each square of a chess board) which amounts to 18 followed
by 18 zeros. Why so many? Because God in His abundant love creates
abundantly. Cureently it’s spring time here
and all the little buds and leaves are starting to open green, and when one
steps back one can see such an abundance of new life. That’s God in action creating angels, like the
blossoming of every new bud or leaf or blade.
It
is interesting that the rebellion and defeat of the bad angels happened almost
immediately after their creation. Time
seems to always be conflated in Dante’s heaven.
Remember that Adam back in Canto XXVI says that his fall from grace
happened six hours after creation.
Dante’s (the character) trip through Paradiso amounts to a single
day. Is eternity in the Dantean cosmology
the living out of a single day forever?
I don’t know.
While
these four cantos capture the most sublime visions and conceptions of God and
the heavens, there are several moments where Dante (the author) contrasts such
beauty and divine with the fallen and sordid.
In Canto XXVII we see St. Peter, the first Pope, angrily rant against
Pope Boniface VIII, Dante's nemesis.
'He who on earth usurps
my place,
my place, my place, which
in the eyes
of God's own Son is
vacant,
'has made my tomb a sewer
of blood and filth,
so that the Evil One, who
fell from here above,
takes satisfaction there
below.' (22-27)
St.
Peter says it three times, Boniface VIII has desecrated "my place/my
place, my place," making it a
sewer. Putting the words in the mouth of
the most important Holy Father ever makes the condemnation of Boniface even
more forceful.
Later
in Canto XXVII, when Beatrice and Dante are half way up the Crystalline Sphere
and they stop to look back on earth, Dante (the character) identifies not some
noble earthly spot but the locations where some disreputable events occurred.
Since the last time I
looked down
I saw I had traversed all
of the arc
from the midpoint of the
first clime to its end,
so that on the one side I
could see, beyond Gades,
the mad track of Ulysses,
on the other, nearly
to the shore where Europa
made sweet burden of herself. (79-84)
The
"mad track of Ulysses" beyond Gades refers to Ulysses' last voyage to
penetrate God's domain (see Inferno, Canto XXVI) and the shore where Zeus
seduced Europa. Both these stories trace
back to the earliest roots of civilization, perhaps indicating intrinsic
qualities to mankind, pride for Ulysses and lust for Europa.
Other
examples of contrasting baseness are the fallen angels, the bad preachers who
in their pride drift into heresy and buffoonery (XXIX.83-117), and Beatrice's
last words where once again Pope Boniface is denigrated:
'But short shall be the
time God suffers him
in holy office, for he
shall be thrust
down there where Simon
Magus gets what he deserves,
and push that fellow from
Anagni deeper down.' (XXX.145-148)
The
contrast for the fallen is just as important as the sublime. It accentuates the sublime.
Allow
me this one personal opinion. Far be it
from me to tell Dante how to write the greatest work of literature, but at this
point in heaven I think it would have been best for Dante to let go the
bitterness of Boniface VIII's treacherous actions that led to Dante being
exiled, but if he could not forgive him, at least be at peace with him. He is before the Divine Being, where
forgiveness is mandated for Christians. Consider
this. If it wasn't for Dante being
exiled, he would most likely not have written the Divine Comedy. He would probably be remembered as a good
poet who was a bureaucrat in the Florentine government. The Commedia
would never have existed.
When
Dante (the character) passes into the Primmum Mobile, he goes blind again. When his eyes adjust he sees a flowing river
of light. Beatrice explains his final
baptism: 'But you must drink first of these waters before your great thirst may
be satisfied’ (XXX.74-75). Notice the
echo of Christ words to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks
this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give
will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).
Dante creates that spring in the Empyrean.
When
Dante lifts his head out of the flowing light, he now can see everything. He sees the river actually flows circularly. He sees what he thought were flowers to be
saints and what he thought to be sparks to be angels. He sees the light of God above and vast court
of heaven beyond him, which is in the shape of a rose.
There is a light above
that makes the Creator
visible to every creature
that finds its only peace
in seeing Him.
It spreads itself into so
vast a circle
that its circumference
would be larger
than the sphere that is
the sun. (XXX.100-105)
Beatrice
welcomes him to the rose where the blessed reside.
I, like a man who is
silent but would speak,
was led by Beatrice, and
she said: 'Behold
how vast the white-robed
gathering!
'See our city, with its
vast expanse!
See how many are the
seats already filled --
few are the souls still
absent there! (127-132)
This
city is akin to a huge stadium where each of the blessed have a seat, and at
the center, equidistant to any seat is God.
It
is striking how many images of circles we have been given in heaven, with a
crescendo of circlets here at the inner regions; the planetary orbits, the
crystalline sphere, the rose, the pinpoint that is God, the nine circles of
angels rotating about God, the universe circling about the pinpoint, the circular
river of light. The circle is the symbol
of eternity, of perfection, and of wholeness.
The circle makes things complete, which is what heaven does to us.
