Paradiso

Paradiso is divided into nine heavens, beyond which is the immaterial Empyrean, a heaven that is purely spiritual. The first seven take their name from the planets in the Ptolemaic system, while the last two are the heaven of the fixed stars and the Primum Mobile. The real home of the blessed is the Empyrean, but exceptionally they show themselves to Dante in the various heavens so that his human perception can grasp the ineffable experience of paradise. In the heaven of the moon are the spirits that failed in their vows, as victims of the violence of others; in the heaven of Mercury are the souls of those active in political life; in the heaven of Venus are the lovers; in the heave of the Sun are the spirits of the wise; in the heaven of Mars are the spirits of those who fought for their faith, including Dante’s great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida; in the heaven of Jupiter are the righteous; in the heaven of Saturn are the contemplative spirits. In the eighth heaven Dante witnesses the Triumph of Christ and Mary and is examined by Saint Peter, Saint James and Saint John on the theologal virtues, while in the ninth heaven he is offered a vision of the angelic hierarchies. In these heavens the blessed introduce themselves to him bathed in light and disposed so as to form various symbolic configurations (two crowns, a cross, the head of the Imperial Eagle, a ladder of light). In the Empyrean, however, the blessed appear as they will on the final day of judgement and, set out as on the steps of an amphitheatre, they form a white rose. Here Saint Bernard, who takes the place of Beatrice as Dante’s guide, prays to the Virgin that Dante might be granted a vision of God. The vision is granted and the poet grasps the unity of God in the multiple nature of the universe and understands the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, annulling himself (and this is the sole instant of mystical abandon in the entire poem) within the universal circularity of the Amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle (“Love that moves the sun and the other stars”).