Series: Dante’s Divine Comedy
Part I: Dante’s Inferno
Part II: Dante’s Purgatorio
Part III: Dante’s Paradiso
Paradiso
In Dante’s third act, he takes a journey through the ultimate paradise to hang out with God. But heaven is much stranger than you think.
When we left Dante, he was flying up into the sky from Mt. Purgatory with his love Beatrice, his new tour guide.
Background
The Bible states that those who live a good life with dedication to God get to go to heaven. It doesn’t, however, say all that much about what is actually up there. It’s mostly up to our imagination.
Our Italian Poet took this as a challenge.
In Paradiso, Dante describes heaven as 9 concentric spheres - each one corresponding to a different virtue. Many of them are also real bodies in our solar system. So it seems you can go to heaven, but still not be invited to the cool part.
Dante lived in medieval times, so the geocentric model was believed to be true back then.
And like in any good sci-fi, each one is also host to an array of wacky characters.
1) The Moon
We rejoin Dante and Beatrice blasting off into the earth’s upper atmosphere. Their first stop is the nearest celestial body - The Sphere of the Moon.
As they touch down on the lunar surface, they are met by some souls - The Inconstants. These are people who live righteously, but were forced to break their holy vows. They didn’t break them completely willingly, but lacked the fortitude under duress.
Here they meet a woman - Piccarda - a Nun who was forced to renounce her practice as part of a marriage. Despite this not being her fault, she is still relegated to heaven’s outermost sphere.
A more recent picture of Piccarda
2) Mercury
Dante and Beatrice now fly over to mercury, home of The Ambitious - those that propelled themselves to greatness.
While there they meet Emperor Justinian, famous for reclaiming Rome, codifying Roman Law, and building the Hagia Sophia - once the largest church in the world.
Dante learns that ambition, no matter how noble, is always tainted by a desire for personal glory - not glory to God. This is why they are relegated to the outer spheres.
3) Venus
The souls on Venus are defined by their Great Capacity for Love.
While Venus in real life, with it’s scorching temperatures and sulfuric rain, seems like it’d be better suited for Dante’s Inferno - Venus is the Goddess of Love in Greek myth and makes a nice setting for those with love in their hearts, described as radiantly glowing and dancing joyfully.
They are here in the third sphere because their love was imperfect and directed towards earthly things before being turned towards God.
We find here Charles Martel, an actual real life friend of Dante. This is part of the ongoing trend we’ll be seeing, where all of Dantes friends seem to end up in heaven, and his enemies down in Hell.
4) The Sun
Dante and Beatrice now arrive at the sun - home of the Wise.
The fourth sphere is a realm of pure golden light - it’s full of philosophers, theologians, and historians that used their wisdom in service to god. They illuminated the world with their knowledge.
Among them is St. Thomas Aquinas, the legendary theologian of the catholic church.
5) Mars
While scientists have been looking for life on Mars, no one thought to look for the afterlife.
Mars is home to the crusaders - those that fought, and killed, in the name of God.
As they arrive, the souls line up in the shape of a cross - specifically a greek cross where all four arms are the same length - the symbol of the crusaders.
Dante conveniently meets his great, great grandfather here - Cacciaguida.
He is a knight who died fighting in the second crusade. Dante uses this opportunity to catch his gramps up on Florence politics.
6) Jupiter
Jupiter, being the king of the planets, makes it a fitting place for the Noble Rulers.
Here, Dante is in for quite the spectral treat.
The souls of the noble kings arrange themselves into the shape of a great eagle. Fused into a single cosmic entity - the symbol of justice in ancient Rome. Dante is yet again making a political statement here - even Kings will receive judgement.
Dante sees a famous pagan king Trajan smooshed within the beast. Wondering how it’s possible that he is here, he decides to ask this strange eagle a question: “Is it really fair to condemn those who are noble and never had the chance to hear Christ?”
The Eagle basically responds: “God works in mysterious ways”
Just like how the eagle monster is beyond human comprehension, apparently so too is divine judgement.
7) Saturn
Reaching out now into the furthest reaches of the solar system we find Saturn, Home of The Contemplatives.
These are monks and hermits, those that devoted their entire lives to prayer and meditation.
In all the other spheres hymns and music filled the air, but here there is only silence.
To make their departure, a golden ladder descends from above. Similar to Jacobs Ladder, they begin to climb this to reach the higher spiritual realms.
8) Fixed Stars
Also known as the constellations, this is the realm of the Holiest people to ever have existed.
According to Dante, the stars aren’t just distant lights, but the souls of saints - those who devoted their lives to God perfectly.
Quite a few famous bible characters are here like the Virgin Mary, and Adam from the Garden of Eden.
Dante is also pop quizzed by the three apostles, luckily he is well studied. In summary, it basically went like this:
Peter asks “What is Faith?” “Confidence that what we cannot see is there.”
James asks “What is Hope?” “The expectation of future glory.”
John asks “Whom do you love?” “God.”
Also, St. Peter Damian, the first Pope, goes on a rant about how corrupt the current church is. Good thing Dante already reserved a spot for the current Pope in Hell.
9) Primum Mobile
Now we are entering a much more esoteric region. Primum Mobile, or “First Moved”, is the highest sphere of cosmology, containing all of space and time.
This is the last of the physical spheres moving only due to the direct influence of the last divine realm above - who itself is unmovable yet is causing all motion in the universe.
This is the realm of The Angels.
Ahead of Dante, the angels are sitting according to rank, and Dante takes this opportunity to explain their order and how divine justice and cosmic order are administered.
We have the first set of angels, archangels, and principalities - who deal with human affairs.
As well as the dominions, virtues, and powers - which enact God’s will in creation.
The third choir has the most peculiar of all:
- Thrones, made of interlocking rings covered in eyes, enact God’s judgement.
- Cherubim, multi-winged beings with various animal faces, associated with divine knowledge
- Seraphim, six-winged beings of pure fire, believed to have been created before the physical universe itself.
This cast makes up “Biblically Accurate Angels” that you’ve probably heard about before.
In any case, the angels in the ninth sphere work tirelessly to maintain the cosmic order.. by singing. The hymns sustain the very fabric of reality itself.
A fabric which Dante will now push beyond.
The Empyrean
Dante now enters a realm fundamentally different that any other, where reality itself dissolves into pure radiant light. It is timeless, existing outside of the physical universe, and is composed of pure light, eternal peace, and divine love.
This is The Empyrean, the domain of God.
It’s a realm that obviously goes way beyond all human comprehension. At the center of the brilliant is a white rose, and on it’s petals sit rows of Saints, where souls can be one with God.
As Dante admires the celestial flower, Beatrice takes her true form - the embodiment of divine wisdom and revelation. Returning to the rose, her role as Dantes guide is over.
Only now is Dante ready to gaze upon God.
He perceives three concentric rings - each one pertaining to the holy trinity.
To Dante, this is what God actually looks like - in a single infinite moment he sees the entire universe - bound together in perfect harmony, endlessly unfolding.
Conclusion
That’s it! This moment marks the end of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Dante has come quite a far way from being lost in the woods.
I hope you enjoyed our journey through endless suffering, up struggle mountain, to awesome peace land.