posted August 12, 2023 01:42 AM            

Paradiso 29

In a perfect moment of Light…when Latona’s children, Apollo and Diana - i.e. the Sun and the Moon - are equidistant and perfectly aligned on the horizon. That moment when…

…both Latona’s children take
(when, covered by the Ram and Scales, they make
their belt of the horizon at the same

moment) to pass from equilibrium—
the zenith held in balance—to that state
where, changing hemispheres, each leaves that belt

...Beatrice pauses for a moment to gaze at the Light and then turns to Dante and tells him about that point in space and time where God can be found. It is the point where all wheres and whens end. He is right there…

Not to acquire new goodness for Himself—
which cannot be—but that his splendor might,
as it shines back to Him, declare ‘Subsisto,’

in His eternity outside of time,
beyond all other borders, as pleased Him,
Eternal Love opened into new loves…

And he is not alone… At the same time he spoke creation into existence, he brought angels into being and…

The number of these angels is so great
that there has never been a mortal speech
or mortal thought that named a sum so steep;

and if you look at that which is revealed
by Daniel, you will see that, while he mentions
thousands, he gives no number with precision.

The First Light reaches them in ways as many
as are the angels to which It conjoins
Itself, as It illumines all of them;

and this is why (because affection follows
the act of knowledge) the intensity
of love’s sweetness appears unequally.

By now you see the height, you see the breadth,
of the Eternal Goodness: It has made
so many mirrors, which divide Its light,

but, as before, Its own Self still is One.”

And by now, you know that angels do exist… And they are too many to be counted… All these mirrors that illuminate the Divine Light are the reflection of God’s creation and all human beings are part of that Eternal Goodness whose only desire was to show forth his love to his creatures. You are Love. You are Light. Don’t hide behind your fears. Go out in the world and shine the Light you have in you. Go out in the world and show the Love You Are. Because this is what you’re made of. You are made of Love and Light.

Beatrice explains the 9 rings of the Primum Mobile to Dante. Starting from the center and moving outwards, she shows him the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

posted August 12, 2023 02:08 AM            

La Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXIX / by Sandro Botticelli