{"id":17430,"date":"2025-05-22T17:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=17430"},"modified":"2025-05-22T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:12:07","slug":"the-anagogical-reading-of-the-divine-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=17430","title":{"rendered":"The Anagogical Reading of the Divine Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guido De Giorgio, in his first article for Julius Evola\u2019s La Torre<\/em><\/a>, writes of modern man as a worm, covered in worms, and a worshipper of worms. It is a withering assault that makes Evola’s and Guenon’s critiques seem gentle and mild by comparison. He draws his morbid poetic imagery from Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, Canto III, a.k.a. \u201cHell\u2019s Vestibule\u201d:<\/p>\n

These wretched ones, who never were alive,
\nwent naked and were stung again, again
\nby horseflies and by wasps that circled them.<\/p>\n

The insects streaked their faces with their blood,
\nwhich, mingled with their tears, fell at their feet,
\nwhere it was gathered up by sickening worms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While De Giorgio focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of Dante\u2019s symbolism, there is an inner level to this which is even deeper, the dimension that Dante termed Anagogical<\/a><\/strong>. Unlike the Literal, Allegorical, and Moral interpretations, the Anagogical sense is that of a real inner experience. Understood anagogically, the Divine Comedy is not merely a literal story, or allegory, or moral exposition, rather, it is an initiatory roadmap of actual inner states and experiences.<\/p>\n

Canto III is, of course, at the very beginning of this initiation. As Gornahoor has pointed out, the first spiritual exercises involve detached self-observation<\/a>. Now, the souls that Dante sees in the Vestibule are the eternally restless ones, without a true guiding light or direction, who chase illusory banners, are harassed and prodded along by bee stings, and whose vital substance is consumed by worms, etc. This state of perpetual agitation does not refer only to society at large, but to the state of fallen man\u2019s own inner life: blindly moved by forces outside himself, he is dominated by disorderly thoughts, volitions, and desires.<\/p>\n

In his Key to the Divine Comedy<\/em>, Luigi Valli<\/strong> corresponds the Vestibule of Dante\u2019s Hell to the infirmity caused by Original Sin, which consists of:<\/p>\n