Paradiso
God and the Angelic Hierarchies. After the truth against the present life Of miserable mortals was unfolded By her who doth imparadise my mind,
After the truth about the present life
of wretched mortals was revealed
by her who fills my mind with paradise,
Like someone who sees a candle's flame reflected in a mirror,
lit from behind before they turn to look directly at the source,
then spins around to check if the glass tells the truth,
finding perfect harmony between reflection and reality
like music matching its own rhythm—
so I remember doing as I gazed into those beautiful eyes
that Love had made into snares to capture me.
And when I turned, my own eyes touched
by what appears in that revolving sphere
whenever we focus our intent gaze upon it,
I saw a point radiating light so sharp and piercing
that any sight it kindles must close tight
against such overwhelming brilliance.
Whatever star appears smallest from earth
would seem a moon if placed beside this point,
as close as one star sits next to another.
Perhaps at the distance where a halo appears
to circle the light that paints it
when the mist holding it grows thickest—
at such a distance around the point, a ring of fire
spun so swiftly it would have outpaced
whatever motion fastest girds our world.
This ring was circled by another,
that by a third, the third by a fourth,
the fourth by a fifth, then a sixth around the fifth.
The seventh spread so wide in its circumference
that Juno's rainbow messenger entire
would be too narrow to contain it.
So too the eighth and ninth, and each one
moved more slowly as its number placed it
farther distant from the first.
The ring whose flame burned most crystal-clear
was closest to that stainless spark,
because, I think, it drinks most deeply of its truth.
My Lady, seeing me bewildered and perplexed,
said: "From that point depends
all heaven and all nature.
Look at the circle joined most close to it—
know that its motion burns so swift
because of the blazing love that spurs it on."
And I replied: "If the world were arranged
in the same order I see in those wheels above,
what you've set before me would satisfy me completely.
But in our world of the senses, we perceive
that the circles grow more divine
the farther they sit from the center.
If my longing is to find its end
in this miraculous temple made of angels,
bounded only by love and light,
I still need to understand how the model
and what it models don't follow the same pattern—
I contemplate this puzzle in vain."
"If your own fingers prove insufficient
for such a knot, it's no great wonder—
it has grown hard from lack of trying."
So spoke my Lady, then continued:
"Take what I tell you if you want satisfaction,
and sharpen your mind upon it.
The physical spheres are wide or narrow
according to how much virtue
flows distributed through all their parts.
Greater goodness creates greater blessing,
greater blessing fills a greater body
when all its parts achieve equal perfection.
Therefore this sphere that sweeps along
the entire sublime universe corresponds
to the circle that most loves and knows.
If you apply your measure to their power,
not to the mere appearance
of the substances that seem round to you,
you'll see a marvelous correspondence—
greater to more, and smaller to less—
in every heaven with its guiding Intelligence."
Just as the hemisphere of air remains
splendid and serene when the north wind
blows from his gentler side,
purified and clearing away the haze
that once disturbed it, until the sky laughs
with all the beauties of its pageantry—
so I became, once my Lady
provided me her luminous answer,
and like a star in heaven, the truth appeared.
As soon as her words came to a stop,
those circles blazed and sparkled
exactly like molten iron when it's stirred.
Each spark repeated their coruscation,
and they were so many that their number
makes more millions than the doubling of the chessboard.
View larger
CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN
“Each spark repeated their coruscation, / and they were so many that their number”
I heard them singing "Hosanna" choir by choir
to the fixed point that holds them in their place
and always will, where they have always been.
And she who saw the doubtful meditations
within my mind said: "The first circles
have shown you Seraphim and Cherubim.
They follow their bonds with such speed
to become as much like the point as possible,
and they can, as far as they soar high in vision.
Those other Loves that wheel around them
are called Thrones of the divine countenance,
completing the first Triad.
You should know they all find their delight
exactly as far as their vision penetrates
the Truth in which all understanding rests.
From this you see how blessedness
is founded in the power that sees,
not in the power that loves and follows after.
Merit measures this seeing,
born from grace joined with good will—
and so it proceeds from grade to grade.
The second Triad, blossoming
in this eternal spring
that no winter night can strip of leaves,
sings "Hosanna" perpetually
with threefold melody sounding through three
Orders of joy that braid together.
In this hierarchy dwell three Divine orders:
first Dominions, then Virtues,
and third comes the order of Powers.
In the final two dancing rings
Principalities and Archangels wheel,
the last made wholly of Angels at play.
All these orders gaze upward,
and prevail downward with such force
that all draw toward God and all attract.
Dionysius set himself with such great longing
to contemplate these Orders
that he named and ranked them as I do.
But Gregory later disagreed with him,
so when he opened his eyes
within this heaven, he smiled at himself.
And if a mortal revealed so much
secret truth on earth, don't be amazed—
the one who saw it here disclosed it to him,
along with much more truth about these circles."