Paradiso
The glory of him who moves everything penetrates the universe and shines in one part more and, in another, less.
I have been in the heaven which takes most of his light, and I have seen things which cannot be told, possibly, by anyone who comes down from up there.
Because, approaching the object of its desires, our intellect is so deeply absorbed that memory cannot follow it all the way.
Nevertheless, what I was able to store up of that holy kingdom, in my mind, will now be the matter of my poem.
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O you who are in your little boat, anxious to listen, having followed so far behind my ship which puts to sea singing,
Turn back and revisit the shores you have left: Avoid the high seas in case, perhaps, losing me, you should find yourself bewildered.
The water I venture upon has never been sailed: Minerva breathes, Apollo shows the way and the nine muses point to the bears.
You other few, who have stretched up your necks in time to the bread of angels, upon which life is lived here and no one has too much,
You may well put out on the salt deep with your ships, following in my furrow before the water closes up again.
Dante, Paradiso
campbell states that the gulf between piety and truly breaking free breaks open at this departure point; this line where the symbols are transcended, beyond which thinking and feeling do not go. the journey dante departs upon on the ship borrowed from ulysses is not for all.
The way I understand this is in relation to a couple of things, one of which is that on some occasions, during a vision – once in waking life and other times in the astral – certain things were revealed that I was prevented from remembering. For example, I once saw the Holy Trinity (appearing in light like the letter shin, as a three-pronged crown with moving figures) but was first made to lie on one side. I was very wide awake as you might imagine, thinking I MUST remember this so I can tell people!, but the angle I was lying at meant that all my concentration was absorbed with seeing and that actually committing the sequence to memory was almost impossible. Similar things have happened when in the astral world or the etheric, or in dreams I’ve read texts that as soon as I became fully conscious of them melted away, leaving (in rare instances) only one or two words in mind. I think there are things that the soul remembers – which work on the spirit level – but the mind does not fully compute. It’s with our hearts that we ‘know’ the creator, intelligence – ‘intellect’ – hasn’t quite the same fullness of power….however, total consciousness would, ultimately I think, ‘remember’ on all levels at the appointed time.
i have always known that the real “knowing” that i do is beyond most of my perceptions and is truly wordless and without imagery, a great deep bell to which you resonate. it humbles.
not surprising when you consider our humble vantage point in this.
you have certainly voyaged the lightscape. things were “written” upon you that work beyond your intellect. like voyager’s golden record. to be played at the “appointed time”.
Thanks Charlotte – very beautiful and very beautifully put.