The Christian Mystery
GA 97
11 February 1906, Düsseldorf
II. The medieval view of the world in Dante's Divine Comedy
Today we'll consider one of the greatest works in world literature, Dante's11Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). Divine Comedy.12Rudolf Steiner was here considering the fundamental aspect of La Divina Commedia, the Divine Comedy. He spoke of this in a very different style in the lecture given to the workers at the Goetheanum on 14 March 1923, published in GA 349, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde. Über das Wesen des Christentums (in process of publication). The influence of Brunetto Latini was discussed in a lecture given in Dornach on 30 Jan. 1915, published in GA 161, Wege der geistigen Erkenntnis und der Erneuerung künstlerischer Weltanschauung (not yet translated) and a number of lectures given in 1924, especially in Dornach on 10 Sept. 1924, published in translation as Karmic Relationships vol. 4 (in GA 238). 10 lectures, Dornach 5-23 Sept. 1924. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1957. For the translation of this lecture I have followed the terminology used in Dante Aleghieri, The Divine Comedy, text with translation by Geoffrey L. Bickersteth. Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1981. Translator. We have to understand that to gain even a little insight into this work we must go back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Goethe has Faust say:
The spirit of our times, as you will say,
is basically just the gentlemen's own mind
acting as mirror for the times.13Faust I, 577-578.
When someone wants to discuss a work written in earlier times he usually does so from his own point of view, finding in it the things that come from his own subjective feelings.
In the case of Dante's Divine Comedy we can see how hard it is to go back to the Middle Ages in one's mind. All kinds of interpretations are available, among them Cameri's translation into German.14Cameri, B. Sechs Gesänge ausDantes Göttlicher Komödie, in German, with an introduction on Dante's use of alliteration. Vienna 1896. The introduction shows that Cameri was attempting something very difficult. He said the Divine Comedy was always spoiled for one because it was given theological interpretations. He himself had given it a purely human interpretation. Cameri was the ethic philosopher of Darwinism.15Sir Bartholomaeus Cameri (1821–1909). See essay ‘Bartholomaeus Cameri, der Ethiker des Darwinismus’ (not translated) in GA 30, also in Steiner R. The Riddles of Philosophy (GA 18). Tr. F. C. A. Köllin. New York: Anthroposophic Press 1973. Basing himself on Darwinism, he developed noble ethics which, however, were materialistic, with no awareness of spiritual powers in the world. The whole of his translation reflects a materialistic attitude. That is ‘the gentlemen's own mind acting as mirror for the times’.
But let us now really enter into the spirit of that past time. For once let us forget everything we have taken in from childhood and enter into those times. People both thought and felt very differently about things then. We have learned that the planets and the sun are one system and that this system is one of many. At school we learn that the sun is at the centre of this one system, with the planets orbiting around it. Abstract rational laws govern everything which is in orbit there, everything that lives and moves in the infinity of cosmic space around us. Anyone who thinks like that sees nothing but cosmic bodies orbiting in a vast empty space, cosmic bodies that have life forms on them.
The people who lived in Dante's time saw the world very differently. No one would then have thought of such abstract ideas. The earth was to them the centre of the whole world system. It was not only a solid planet, however, for within it were spirits that related to human beings. These were the powers that made man animal-like. They were at the centre of the earth. The different stages of ‘hell’, as it was called, were there. Dante described things that were wholly real to people in those days. He did not invent them. Anyone who thinks even for one moment that Dante believed it all to be mere superstition does not understand him. The idea people had at that time was that yonder, on the other side of the earth, the pull of gravity went in the opposite direction. In medieval times people thought of the forces that were in opposition to man, forces that removed him from everything there was by way of earthly gravity in mind and spirit. That was kama-loka, the purging fire.
Looking out from there into the starry heavens people had very different ideas then. The moon was not a mineral but the body of a spiritual entity and the abode of many spirits—a cosmic body. The spirits who lived there had gone through similar evolutional states as human beings, but had fallen deeper than man. Their vices were, however, of a more spiritual kind than the animal vices of humanity.
Mercury was also seen as a body encompassing a spirit. Just as we derive man from his innermost soul qualities, so did medieval people see the sun, the moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter and saturn as spiritual entities. People saw spirit everywhere then. The world was populated by spirits for them.
The Christ lived in the region of the fixed stars since he had left this world. Beyond the fixed stars was the empyrean, the tenth heaven, where the source of all being was. People thought the spirits which were not here on earth and in this body dwelt in some region or other beyond the earth. A warrior who had gone through death would have to be sought on Mars. Someone who had lived a contemplative life would be on Saturn. Those who had risen even higher had to be sought in the region of the fixed stars, where the Christ was after he died. Beyond this would be even higher spirits.
Dante wrote his Divine Comedy out of this way of thinking. Today people have simply no idea that people in his day still saw something of the spirit in everything material. For them, nothing was wholly physical and nothing purely spiritual. Interweaving matter and spirit was something entirely natural for them. If we enter into such a way of thinking we are alive to the feelings out of which the Divine Comedy was written. It is pointless to fight over whether Beatrice was just a symbol or Dante's lover. The two are not contradictory. Beatrice was a real person, and she also stood for all that is spirit. For someone not lead astray by learning she was the true personification of Theologia.
Let us consider the atmosphere in mind and spirit in which the work evolved. It gives sublime expression to 13th and 14th century strict Christian Catholicism, before the Church came to be divided. People like Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa,16Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). See Steiner R. Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age (GA 7). Tr. K. E. Zimmer. Blauvelt: Steinerbooks 1980. Also Steiner R. The Origins of Natural Science (GA 326). Tr. M. St Goar, N. Macbeth. New York: Anthroposophic Press 1985. whose thinking was that of scholasticism. Dante was a student of scholasticism. He saw the world the way his teacher Thomas Aquinas did.17Aquinas, Thomas (1225–1274). In his teachings high scholasticism reached its pinnacle. Rudolf Steiner spoke about him at Whitsun 1920 in Dornach (see The Redemption of Thinking. A study in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas (GA 74). Tr. A. P. Shepherd, M. R Nicoll. London: Hodder and Stoughton 1956.) Concerning his relationship to Aristotle, see lecture given in Munich on 20 March 1908 (in GA 108, not available in English).
What was the mission of Christianity? It was to create a new basic religious approach. Before that, a girdle of religious views spread around the whole world. Christianity brought a different basic approach to religion.
We have to go back a long way to enter into the basic tenor of Dante's work. About ten thousand years before the Christian era18The first German edition said ‘thirty thousand years’. It is doubtful, however, if the figure was written down correctly. See Steiner R. Occult History (GA 126) lecture of 31 Dec. 1910. Tr. D. S. Osmond, C. Davy. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co. 1957.2nd edn Rudolf Steiner Press 1982. the vast continent known as Atlantis was gradually sinking. Theodor Arldt19Arldt, Theodor, b. 1878, palaeontologist and palaeogeographer. has given scientific proof of the existence of Atlantis in the journal Kosmos.20Das Atlantisproblem. Kosmos 1905; 2: Nr. 10. The Flood, as we call it, refers to that continent gradually becoming flooded. The ancestors of the people who now live in Europe and Asia lived on Atlantis. The mythologies of all these nations show profound similarities. German mythology speaks of Atlantis, calling it Niflheim, home of mists. A view of the world has come down through tradition that gives us the figure of Wotan, the ruler. Wotan is the same as Bodha or Buddha. And Veda and the Edda have the same linguistic origin, for example.
These views, which are, as it were, a sediment from the past, have something in common. Reincarnation was originally taken as a matter of course in all of them. Buddhism then spread among Mongol tribes, however, and not among Aryans. The Semitic element entered into the views of Aryan peoples, and reincarnation is unknown in this. The most sublime expression of this type of religion, which thinks in terms of one incarnation only, is Christianity. It is a characteristic feature of Christianity that it considers one incarnation only. This was not the case with esoteric Christian teachings, but the popular teaching did not include the idea of reincarnation. Ancient Judaism and Arabism knew nothing of reincarnation.
Knowing this, we have the basic tenor of Dante's magnificent work. It represents a vision beginning on Good Friday. That was the day to mark life's victory over death. People did not think of this in abstract terms. They would feel that the sun was given new powers of spring on Good Friday and at Easter. It rises, entering into the sign of the Ram or Lamb,21Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno 1,38f The general view held at the time was that the sun was in the Ram when god made the heavenly bodies move in orbits. Thus be the day when Dante set out on his journey would have been the first day of spring. (Comment on 1,38 in W. v. Wartburg's German translation). The German translation has ‘panther’ instead of ‘leopard’ (translator). letting the plant world come into active growth. The sun was considered to represent a particular spirit. People thought that the powers of spirit and soul related to the spirit of the sun body. And Good Friday night was felt to be the best time for the soul to enter the realm that lies beyond death.
Dante's work is a vision of the kind initiates know, something real in the world of the spirit. Dante was truly able to perceive the spiritual. He perceived the world of the spirit with spiritual senses. He gained his images as a strictly Catholic initiate. As he had his visions he brought into them the catholic world that had come alive in his organism, but he would see it in the spirit. People always see things of the spirit through the spectacles of personal experience. As the child's presence in the mother's womb relates to the physical level, so does one's presence in the world of the spirit relate to the things we know in the spirit here on earth. Our life on this earth is like a maternal womb in which we grow mature so that we may later arise in the spirit. The senses we have developed for things of the spirit depend on our life here on earth. Here we mature for the other world, preparing spiritual eyes and ears for the other world. Dante had thus developed his spiritual organs in the way made possible in a strictly Catholic world.
When we enter into the other form of existence we are able to perceive the things that are now inside us. They then become outwardly visible. We say that passions, instincts and drives are ours. When we have entered into the worlds of spirit, the contents of our soul organism become something that exists outside us, just like the objects we perceive around us in physical existence. The things that live in our souls become visible in symbolic form.
Dante wrote of three symbols representing three main qualities in his astral body, the body of drives or lower soul—a leopard, a lion, a she-wolf.22In Roman mythology, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars, who later founded Rome were suckled and reared by a wolf. His three main passions thus appeared to him in the form of three animals. This was no mere symbol, however. When man enters the astral level, his lower passions truly appear to him in the form of animals. The she-wolf represented one passion. This is the she-wolf who once suckled Romulus and Remus. It is the passion people adopted at the founding of the Roman nation, the passion which lives in everything connected with property—the desire to possess and on the other hand the right to have personal possessions. This passion was implanted in human beings at the time when the wolf suckled Romulus and Remus. Before this, humanity gained the power of courage, indicated by the lion, which can become lust for power. Even earlier came the increased cunning that developed from priestly rule—the leopard, the ability shown by Odysseus.23Odysseus or Ulysses, in Greek mythology king of Ithaca. Homer spoke of him in his Odyssey as being cunning and wise. When Virgil24Divine Comedy, Inferno 1,94 f. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 BC). Roman poet highly esteemed in the Middle Ages. came to meet Dante he said: cannot make those animals go away, least of all the she-wolf? He said so because Dante had grown up in what remained of those old Roman passions in Italy. Virgil, who had given a picture of the initiation process in his Aeneid,25Virgi's Aeneid, a great epic about the role ofRome in ancient history, speaks of the wanderings of Aeneas after the sack ofTroy before he finally settled in Italy. had to be Dante's guide. It was from the works of Virgil that people learned most about the other world in those days. They saw that world as having three levels—hell, purgatory and heaven.
There are only two consistent views of the world—that of Augustine26Augustine (354–430), greatest of the Latin church fathers. He taught that because of Adam's fall into sin humanity was incapable of goodness (original sin), with individual people chosen for eternal salvation by an act of grace (predestination). See Steiner R. Christianity as Mystical Fact and The Mysteries of Antiquity (GA 8) chapter on Augustine and the Church. Tr. H. Collison, rev. C. Davy, A. Bittleston. Bristol: Rudolf Steiner Press 1992. and that of reincarnation and karma. Augustine said: ‘Part of humanity on this earth is destined to be good and part to be evil’. According to the other view we develop through many incarnations. These are the only two possible views. Dante took Augustine's view, according to which human beings prepare here on earth for a destiny that will be eternal. Because of this, life on earth is immediately followed by hell, purgatory or heaven. The one life was all that counted. The person was all that was considered.
If we go beyond the person we are beyond birth and death. The principle that enters at birth and departs again at death goes beyond the personal. It is the individual. Anything the individual has done wrong must be compensated for in a next life. If we take away reincarnation and karma, everything has to be compensated in a single life. If one looks for retribution for everything concerning one person, a counter image of the personal is created and that is hell. Hell is nothing but being utterly caught up in the personal. The counter image of the personal in this world is hell in the other world. The personal must not be caught up in this world to such an extent that it beautifies existence. Christianity brought the view that everything depends on the one life between birth and death. The earth world had therefore to be made into a vale of sorrows, and people had to be told to let go of earthly things. Art on the other hand was a pagan element that made people be caught up in the personal aspect. The artists of old sought to make this earthly realm beautiful. Someone who sees only the personal element will say: ‘This personal aspect must do away with all that is beautiful. The earth must be made less beautiful, the person must be torn away from all that belongs to this world.’ It was therefore perfectly logical for Homer and all the poets of antiquity to appear to Dante in hell.27Divine Comedy, Inferno 4, 25 f
Dante gave a true picture of avaricious and prodigal people on the astral level.28Inferno 7. There people see their own passions in mirror images. On the astral level an avaricious person will see what he has done with his avarice in the image of a prodigal. The prodigal will see his attributes in the counter image of an avaricious person.
In the city of Dis, Epicurus represents the approach to life that aims to expand and develop this world.29Inferno 10. The city of Dis stands for physical reality. There people are in coffins. The materialists are living dead. They have been saying that man is but a corpse. As dead souls they now have to lie in coffins.
From hell Dante is taken into purgatory. Princes who neglected their soul's salvation over affairs of state also need to be purified in the fire.30Purgatorio 7, 64 f. The strictly Catholic view is that the personality must be developed. Princes who have not done so must therefore languish in the fire.
The next region between purgatory and heaven Dante enters is the Garden of Eden.31Purgatorio 27, 124 f; 28 f. Here we are introduced to the truly Christian view, which is that the origin of the Church rests in the realm of the spirit. Anyone wishing to understand the medieval view of the ideal Church must organize himself in a higher way so that he may see its original image in the other world.32Purgatorio 29 f. Dante used the views of the heavenly hierarchies held by Dionysius the Areopagite33Dionysius the Areopagite, member of the Areopagus, the highest judicial and legislative council in ancient Athens, converted to Christianity by Paul (Acts 17:34). The works published in his name in the 6th century were much venerated by scholastics and mystics and translated from Greek to Latin by Johannes Scotus Erigena in the 9th century. They include the treatises On Divine Names, On Mystical Theology, On the Heavenly and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies, and 10 epistles. See also Steiner R. The Spiritual Hierarchies and their Reflection in the Physical World (GA 110) lecture given in Düsseldorf on 12 April 1909. Tr. R. Querido. New York: Anthroposophic Press 1983. for this. Dionysius wrote of a ranking order of angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominations, thrones, cherubim, seraphim. The ranks in the temporal hierarchy of the Church were meant to reflect those heavenly hierarchies. Dante wrote of the hierarchies in symbolic form in the Garden of Eden.
Then Beatrice took on the role of guide.34Purgatorio 30. We distinguish between a female element in the soul, which is inner soul nature, and a male element, which is the spiritual principle in the universe that impregnates the soul. The female soul draws us upwards. Medieval alchemists called the female aspect of the human being the ‘Lilium’.35Purgatorio 30, 21. This is also why Goethe spoke of the ‘beautiful Lily’ in his Tale.36Goethe's Tale (of the green serpent and the beautiful Lily) first appeared in the literary magazine Horen in 1795, concluding the story ‘Conversations of German emigrants’. See Allen PM, Allen J deRis, The Time is at Hand! Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press 1995., and Steiner R. Goethe's Standard of the Soul. As illustrated in the Fairy Story of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (GA 22). Tr. D. S. Osmond. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co. 1925. In the Dantean way of thinking Beatrice represents the edifice of scholastic theology.
Spirits of the moon who had broken their spiritual vows were first of all brought before Beatrice.37Paradiso 3. They had broken their vow to serve only the spiritual and had fallen back into sensuality. In ancient Greek theosophy Mercury38Paradiso 5,91 - VII. was still the spirit who had a role to play when the ancient Atlanteans advanced to a concept of the I. The earliest Atlanteans were not yet conscious of the I. The personal comes under the sign of the god Mercury, Hermes. Man came to the personal level when he fell into I-nature, egotism. This also made us into people who want to have possessions and is the reason why Mercury was also the god of merchants.
On Jupiter Dante found the princes who exercised justice.39Paradiso 18, 70 f. Something very important occurred on the sun.40Paradiso 10-14. Dante was shown the true nature of eternity on the sun; how to see the day known as the Day of Judgement. The Day of Judgement changes everything. Two people made their appearance—Thomas Aquinas and King Solomon. Thomas Aquinas represented life in terms of Christianity, of the New Testament, and King Solomon was the teacher of the Old Testament.
Christians saw the priesthood as a physical expression of what the Christ meant to them in spiritual development. After life on earth the Christ had gone away and was now triumphant in the fixed star heaven. Someone who has prepared his spiritual embryo here on earth so that he has spiritual vision is able to see the Christ in the fixed-star heaven. The disciple who had been most profoundly initiated, John, appeared as the teacher of this view.41Paradiso 26, 1-69; 31, 58 f Only the Christ and Mary were able to take their bodies up into the fixed star heaven. A master also has his body fully in hand. Just as people are learning to master their passions with moral ideas in our present civilization, so does someone who has reached a higher level truly learn to control the physical body. Jesus and Mary had hallowed their physical body to such a degree that they were able to take it with them to the highest regions.
Then St Bernard42Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). See Steiner R. A Sound Outlook for Today and a Genuine Hope for the Future. Lecture given in Berlin on 16 July 1918. Typescript translation C 50, Rudolf Steiner House Library, London: ‘Perhaps the most significant figure in the 12th century.’ became the guide for the higher regions where God is beheld and one enters wholly into the divine self. There Dante went beyond the teachings of the Church. He saw the three cycles, the threefold original essence of the world, father, son and spirit. They are called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in Indian religion. Here the trinitarian nature of the universe became apparent, with Dante rising to pure vision in the spirit, to contemplation.
In the end we are shown how we live, move and are in God but must not presume to understand God.43Paradiso 33, 124 to the end. In the end, Dante only wrote of growing certainty in the human ability to recognize God. For him, this work was the drama of the world seen from the other side.
Das Religiöse Weltbild des Mittelalters in Dantes «Göttlicher Komödie»
Wir wollen heute über eine der größten Schöpfungen der Weltliteratur sprechen, über die «Göttliche Komödie» Dantes. Da müssen wir uns klar sein, daß es notwendig sein wird, wenn wir uns nur ein klein wenig Verständnis für diese Dichtung aneignen wollen, uns in das 13. und 14. Jahrhundert zurückzuversetzen. Goethe läßt seinen Faust sagen:
Was ihr den Geist der Zeiten heißt,
Das ist im Grund der Herren eigner Geist,
In dem die Zeiten sich bespiegeln.
Wenn einer eine Dichtung aus früherer Zeit deuten will, geschieht es gewöhnlich so, daß er seinen eigenen Geist hineinlegt und das aus der Dichtung herausliest, was aus seinem subjektiven Gefühl kommt.
Bei Dantes «Göttlicher Komödie» sieht man, wie schwer es ist, sich in die Zeit des Mittelalters zu versetzen. Es gibt dazu alle möglichen Auslegungen. So ist da eine deutsche Übersetzung von Garneri. Aus der Vorrede sieht man, er hat ein außerordentliches Wagnis unternommen. Er sagt, die «Göttliche Komödie» würde einem immer verleidet durch die theologische Anschauung, die von den Auslegern hineingebracht werde. Er habe die rein menschliche Anschauung hineingebracht. Carneri ist der Ethiker des Darwinismus. Er hat auf Grundlage des Darwinismus eine Sittenlehre aufgestellt, eine edle Ethik, aber materialistisch, ohne Bewußtsein von den geistigen Kräften in der Welt. Über seine ganze Übersetzung ist eine materialistische Gesinnung ausgegossen. Das ist «der Herren eigner Geist, in dem die Zeiten sich bespiegeln».
Nun wollen wir uns aber wirklich in die damalige Zeit hineinversetzen. Wir müssen einmal alles ganz vergessen, was wir seit unserer Kindheit aufgenommen haben, um uns in jene vergangenen Zeiten zu versetzen. Damals dachten die Menschen darüber ganz anders und fühlten ganz anders. Wir haben gelernt, wie die Planeten mit der Sonne ein System bilden, und daß dieses System eines unter vielen ist. In der Schule lernen wir: Die Sonne steht in der Mitte des einen Systems, und um sie herum kreisen die Planeten. Abstrakte Verstandesgesetze beherrschen alles, was da kreist, was da lebt, was da schwebt in dem unendlichen Weltenraume um uns her. Wer so denkt, sieht in diesem weiten Weltenraum nichts anderes als Weltenkörper, die in dern großen, unendlichen leeren Raum kreisen, Weltenkörper und darauf Lebewesen.
Ganz anders war das Bild der Welt für die Menschen, die zur Dante-Zeit lebten. Kein Mensch dachte damals an so etwas wie diese abstrakten Vorstellungen. Da war unsere Erde der Mittelpunkt des ganzen Weltensysterns. Sie war aber nicht nur dieser feste Planet, sondern innerhalb der Erde waren Wesenheiten, die zu dem Menschen in Beziehung standen. Es waren dort die Kräfte, die den Menschen zu einem tierähnlichen Wesen machten. Diese waren in der Mitte der Erde. Darin waren die verschiedenen Stufen dessen, was man als Hölle bezeichnete. So wie Dante diese Dinge schildert, so galten sie dem Menschen dazumal als wirklich. Das ist bei Dante nicht Dichtung. Der versteht ihn nicht, der nur einen Moment daran denken kann, daß Dante das als bloßen Aberglauben angesehen hat. Damals hatte man die Vorstellung: Jenseits, auf der andern Seite der Erde, wirkt die Schwerkraft in der entgegengesetzten Richtung. Da stellten sich die mittelalterlichen Menschen die Kräfte vor, die dem Menschen entgegengesetzt waren, die Kräfte, die ihn loslösten von alledem, was geistige Erdenschwere bedeutet. Da war das Läuterungsfeuer, Kamaloka.
Wenn man von da aus in den Sternenraum hinausblickt, so waren da ganz andere Vorstellungen. Der Mond war nicht ein Mineral, sondern der Körper eines Geistwesens, auf dem viele Geistwesen wohnten, ein Weltenkörper. Es lebten darauf Wesen, die ähnliche Entwickelungszustände durchgemacht hatten wie die Menschen. Sie waren aber tiefer hinuntergefallen als die Menschen, nur waren ihre Laster geistiger aufgefaßt als die tierischen Laster der Menschen.
Den Merkur stellte man sich auch als körperliches Wesen vor, welches einen Geist umfaßte. Wie wir den Menschen aus dem innersten des Seelenwesens ableiten, so dachte sich der mittelalterliche Mensch als Geistwesen die Sonne, den Mond, Merkur, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Der Mensch nahm damals überall Geist wahr. Überall war die Welt für ihn von Geistwesen bevölkert.
In dem Fixsternhimmel lebte der Christus, seit er die Welt verlassen hatte. Jenseits des Fixsternhimmels war das Empyreum, das heißt der zehnte Himmel, welcher die Urgründe alles Daseins umfaßte. Diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche nicht hier auf der Erde in diesem Leibe waren, stellte sich der Mensch vor als wohnend in irgendeinem Gebiet außerhalb der Erde. Einen Krieger, der durch den Tod gegangen war, hätten wir nach der damaligen Vorstellung auf dem Mars zu suchen. Einer, der ein beschauliches Leben geführt hat, wäre auf dem Saturn. Der noch höhergestiegen war, war im Fixsternhimmel zu suchen, wo der Christus nach seinem Tode war. Darüber standen dann noch höhere Wesenheiten.
Aus solcher Vorstellungsweise heraus hat Dante seine «Göttliche Komödie» gedichtet. Die Menschen haben jetzt gar keine Vorstellung davon, daß Leute der damaligen Zeit in allem Materiellen noch etwas Geistiges gesehen haben. Für die damalige Anschauung gibt es kein rein Körperliches und kein rein Geistiges. So ist ein Ineinanderweben des Physischen und Geistigen für alle Gemüter selbstverständlich gewesen. Wenn wir uns in eine solche Anschauung hineinversetzen, dann leben und weben wir in den Gefühlen, aus denen heraus die «Göttliche Komödie» geschrieben ist. Es ist unsinnig, darüber zu streiten, ob Beatrice nur Symbol war oder die Geliebte des Dante. Darin liegt gar kein Widerspruch. Beatrice war eine wirkliche Persönlichkeit, sie war aber auch der Ausdruck alles Geistigen. Beatrice ist gerade vor dem nicht verlernten inneren Sinn die echte Personifikation der Theologia.
Wir wollen nun die geistige Atmosphäre untersuchen, aus der das Gedicht herausgewachsen ist. Es ist der höchste Ausdruck des christlichen Katholizismus im 13., 14. Jahrhundert, der vor der Kirchenspaltung liegt, aus dem heraus solche Geister gewirkt haben wie der Kardinal Nikolaus Cusanus, der aus der Scholastik herausgewachsen ist. Dante ist ein Schüler der Scholastik. Er hat die Welt so angesehen wie sein Lehrer Thomas von Aquino.
Was war die Mission des Christentums? Es hatte die Mission, eine andere religiöse Grundanschauung zu begründen als diejenige, welche vorher auf der Erde war. Vorher war ein Gürtel von religiösen Anschauungen über die ganze Welt verbreitet. Nun kam eine andere Grundanschauung.
Wir müssen weit zurückgehen, wenn wir uns in den Grundton des Danteschen Gedichtes versetzen wollen. Etwa zehntausend Jahre vor unserer Zeitrechnung geschah es, daß der weitausgebreitete Kontinent, welcher Atlantis heißt, immer mehr und mehr unterging. In der Zeitschrift «Kosmos» wird die Existenz von Atlantis von dem Naturforscher Arldt naturwissenschaftlich bewiesen. Was wir Sintflut nennen, ist das allmähliche Überfluten dieses Kontinentes. Die Vorfahren der jetzigen europäischen und asiatischen Menschheit lebten auf diesem Kontinent. Eine tiefe Verwandtschaft findet sich bei all diesen Völkern in ihrer Mythologie. Die deutsche Mythologie spricht von jener Atlantis und nennt den atlantischen Kontinent Niflheim, Nebelheim. Was herübergekommen ist nach Deutschland, ist die Weltanschauung, die uns die Gestalt mitgebracht hat, die als Wotan geherrscht hat. Wotan ist derselbe wie Bodha oder Buddha. Veda und Edda haben beispielsweise ebenfalls sprachlich den gleichen Ursprung.
Alle diese Anschauungen, die hier gleichsam als ein älterer Bodensatz vorhanden sind, haben ein Gemeinsames. Ihnen war ursprünglich die Reinkarnation ganz selbstverständlich. Der Buddhismus fand dann allerdings seine Verbreitung bei mongolischen Völkern, nicht bei arischen Völkern. In die Anschauungsweise der arischen Völker schob sich das semitische Element hinein, das von Reinkarnation nichts weiß. Der erhabenste Ausdruck dieser Religionsform, die nur mit einer Inkarnation rechnet, ist das Christentum. Es hat sein charakteristisches Merkmal darin, daß es nur mit einer Verkörperung rechnet. Bei der esoterischen christlichen Lehre war das nicht so, doch in der Volksreligion war die Lehre von der Reinkarnation nicht enthalten. Das alte Judentum und der Arabismus kannten nicht die Lehre von der Reinkarnation.
Wenn man dies voraussetzt, hat man den Grundton, aus dem das herrliche Gedicht Dantes herausgewachsen ist. Das Gedicht stellt dar eine Vision, ausgehend vom Karfreitag. Der war der Merktag für den Sieg des Lebens über den Tod. Das stellte man sich nicht abstrakt vor. Der Mensch empfand am Karfreitag und an Ostern, daß die Sonne die neue Frühlingskraft empfängt. Sie steigt auf, sie tritt in das Sternbild des Widders oder Lammes. Sie treibt die Pflanzenwelt hervor. Die Sonne betrachtete man als den Ausdruck eines Geisteswesens. Man stellte sich eine Beziehung der geistig-seelischen Kräfte zum Geist des Sonnenkörpers vor. So empfand man die Nacht des Karfreitags als die geeignetste Zeit, in welcher die Seele sich in das versetzen kann, was jenseits des Todes liegt.
Eine Vision ist das Dantesche Gedicht, eine Vision in dem Sinne, wie sie der Eingeweihte erlebt, eine Wirklichkeit in der geistigen Welt. Dante kann wirklich das Geistige wahrnehmen. Er nimmt mit geistigen Sinnen das, was in der geistigen Welt ist, wahr. Er stellt sich das als ein christkatholischer Eingeweihter vor. Bei der Vision bringt er mit, was sich in seinen Organismus von der katholischen Welt hineingelebt hat, aber er sieht es geistig. Jederzeit sieht der Mensch das Geistige durch die Brille seiner Erfahrungen. Wie der Aufenthalt des Kindes im Leibe der Mutter sich zu dem physischen Plan verhält, so verhält sich der Aufenthalt in der geistigen Welt zu dem, was wir hier auf der Erde geistig erleben. Hier in unserem Erdenleben reifen wir gleichsam wie im Mutterleibe aus, um nachher geistig zu erstehen. Die Sinne, die wir für das Geistige ausgebildet haben, hängen von dem Leben auf dieser Erde ab. Hier reifen wir aus für das Jenseits, hier bereiten wir uns die geistigen Augen und Ohren für das Jenseits. Daher hatte Dante seine geistigen Organe in der Weise ausgebildet, wie es die christkatholische Welt hervorgebracht hatte.
Wenn wir in das andere Dasein hinüberkommen, dann können wir dasjenige wahrnehmen, was jetzt in uns ist. Das wird uns dann außerlich sichtbar. Von Leidenschaften, Instinkten, Trieben sagen wir, sie gehören uns. Wenn wir in die geistigen Welten eingetreten sind, dann werden die Inhalte unseres seelischen Organismus etwas, was außer uns vorhanden ist, so wie im physischen Dasein die äußeren Gegenstände wahrzunehmen sind. Was in unserer Seele lebt, wird uns symbolisch sichtbar.
Dante nennt drei Symbole, die drei Haupteigenschaften seines Triebkörpers, seines Astralleibes, seiner niederen Seele darstellen: einen Panther, einen Löwen, eine Wölfin. Seine Hauptleidenschaften treten ihm also in Gestalt von drei Tieren entgegen. Das ist aber nicht ein bloßes Sinnbild. Wenn der Mensch den Astralplan betritt, dann kommen ihm eben wirklich die niederen Leidenschaften in der Form ‚von Tieren entgegen. Die Wölfin bedeutet die eine Leidenschaft. Es ist dieselbe Wölfin, die einstmals Romulus und Remus gesäugt hat. Das ist die Leidenschaft, die dazumal, als das römische Volk gegründet wurde, von den Menschen angenommen worden ist, die Leidenschaft, die in allem lebt, was sich auf den Besitz richtet, die Habsucht und andererseits das Recht auf persönlichen Besitz. Diese Leidenschaft ist damals den Menschen eingeimpft worden, als die Wölfin Romulus und Remus gesäugt hat, vorher eignete sich der Mensch die Eigenschaft der Tapferkeit an, die im Löwen zum Ausdruck kommt und die zur Herrschsucht werden kann. Noch weiter zurück liegt das, wie sich aus der Priesterherrschaft die größere Schlauheit herausbildet: der Panther, die Odysseus-Eigenschaft. Als Pirgil dem Dante entgegentritt, sagt er: Befreien kann ich dich nicht von den drei Tieren, am wenigsten aber von der Wölfin. - Das sagt er, weil Dante aus dem herausgewachsen ist, was von den alten römischen Leidenschaften in Italien geblieben ist. Den Virgil, der in der Äneide ein Bild der Einweihung gegeben hat, mußte Dante zum Führer nehmen. Von Virgil lernten die Menschen damals am meisten darüber, wie es im Jenseits aussieht. In drei Stufen bauten sie sich damals das Jenseits auf: aus Hölle, Fegefeuer und Himmel.
Es gibt nur zwei konsequente Weltanschauungen. Die eine ist die des Augustinus, die andere ist die von Reinkarnation und Karma. Augustinus sagt: Auf dieser Erde ist ein Teil der Menschen zum Guten und ein Teil zum Bösen bestimmt. — Die andere Anschauung ist die, wonach wir uns durch viele Verkörperungen hindurch entwickeln. Nur diese zwei Weltanschauungen sind möglich. Dante steht auf dem Boden der Augustinischen Weltanschauung. Da bereitet sich der Mensch in diesem Erdenleben zu einem Schicksal für die Ewigkeit vor. Daher schließt sich an dieses Erdenleben unmittelbar Hölle, Fegefeuer oder Himmel an. Man betrachtet das eine Erdenleben hier als maßgebend. Man sieht nur auf die Persönlichkeit des Menschen.
Geht man über die Persönlichkeit hinaus, so geht man über Geburt und Tod hinaus. Über die Persönlichkeit hinausgehend ist das, was bei der Geburt hereinkommt und beim Tode wieder herausgeht. Das ist die Individualität. Was der Mensch als Individualität verschuldet hat, muß in einem nächsten Leben ausgeglichen werden. Streicht man Reinkarnation und Karma, so muß alles in einem Leben ausgeglichen werden. Wenn man für alles, was die Persönlichkeit angeht, die Vergeltung sucht, so schafft man für das Persönliche das Gegenbild, das ist die Hölle. Die Hölle ist nichts anderes als das völlige Verstricktsein in das Persönliche. Das Gegenbild des Persönlichen im Diesseits, das ist die Hölle im Jenseits. Das Persönliche darf nicht so verstrickt sein in das Diesseits, daß es das Dasein verschönt. Das Christentum hat in die Welt die Auffassung hineingebracht, daß alles davon abhängt, wie sich dies eine Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod abspielt. Darum mußte es das Irdische zu einem Jammertal machen. Es mußte darauf hinweisen, daß man das Irdische abzustreifen hat. Die heidnische Kunst ist dagegen das, was uns in das persönliche Element verstrickt. Die alten Künstler versuchten, dieses Irdische schön zu gestalten. Wer nur das Persönliche sieht, sagt: Dieses Persönliche muß alles Schöne abstreifen. Er muß gerade die Erde weniger schön machen, die Persönlichkeit von dem Diesseits losreißen. Darum war es konsequent, daß Homer und alle Dichter des Altertums dem Dante in der Hölle erschienen.
Wahr ist seine Schilderung der Geizigen und Verschwender auf dem astralen Plan. Dort kommen dem Menschen die eigenen Leidenschaften als Spiegelbilder entgegen. Der Geizige sieht auf dem astralen Plan das, was er mit dem Geiz anrichtet, als Verschwender. Der Verschwender sieht seine Eigenschaften in dem Gegenbild des Geizigen.
In der Stadt Dis ist Epikur, der Vertreter der Weltanschauung, die auf den Ausbau des Diesseits geht. Die Stadt Dis soll den Repräsentanten des physisch Wirklichen ausdrücken. Da sind die Menschen in Särgen. Die Materialisten sind lebendige Tote. Sie sagen, der Mensch sei ein bloßer Leichnam. Nun müssen sie als tote Seelen in Särgen liegen.
Aus der Hölle wird Dante in das Fegefeuer geführt. Fürsten, die ihr eigenes Seelenheil gegenüber dem Staatswohl versaumt haben, müssen auch im Fegefeuer gereinigt werden. Die christlich-katholische Weltanschauung geht auf Ausbildung des Persönlichen aus. Daher müssen die Fürsten, die das versäumt haben, im Fegefeuer schmachten.
Als nächstes Gebiet zwischen Fegefeuer und Himmel kommt Dante in den Garten Eden. Dort werden wir in die Anschauungsweise eingeführt, die die eigentlich christliche ist: wie der Ursprung der Kirche im Geistigen ruht. Wer im Sinne des Mittelalters verstehen will, wie die Kirche sein soll, muß sich hinauforganisieren dahin, ihr Urbild im Jenseits zu sehen. Das führt Dante im Hinblick auf die Weltanschauung des Dionysius Areopagita von den himmlischen Hierarchien aus. Eine Stufenfolge gibt es da, die Dionysius bezeichnet: Engel, Erzengel, Urkräfte, Gewalten, Mächte, Herrschaften, Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim. Die Stufenfolge der weltlichen Hierarchie der Kirche sollte ein Abbild dieser himmlischen Hierarchien sein. Das stellt Dante im Garten Eden dar, wo uns die Hierarchien symbolisch entgegentreten.
Dann übernimmt Beatrice die Führung. In der Seele unterscheiden wir ein weibliches Element, das innere Seelenwesen, und ein männliches Element, das Geistige im Universum, das die Seele befruchtet. Die weibliche Seele zieht uns hinan. Die mittelalterlichen Alchimisten nannten das Weibliche im Menschen das «Lilium». Darum spricht auch Goethe in seinem Märchen von der «schönen Lilie». Beatrice ist wirklich im Sinne der Danteschen Denkweise so dargestellt, daß er in ihr das Gebäude der scholastischen Theologie zum Ausdruck bringen kann.
Ihr, Beatrice, werden zuerst die Wesen des Mondes entgegengeführt, die ihr geistliches Gelübde gebrochen haben. Sie hatten das Gelübde, nur dem Geistigen zu dienen, gebrochen und waren wieder der Sinnlichkeit verfallen. Merkur war noch für die alte griechische Theosophie dasjenige Wesen, das mitgewirkt hat, als der alte Atlantier sich zu dem Begriff des Ich aufgeschwungen hat. Die ersten Atlantier hatten noch nicht das Ich-Bewußtsein. Die Wesenheit, in deren Zeichen das Persönliche steht, ist der Gott Merkur, Hermes. Der Mensch kommt zum Persönlichen, indem er zur Ichheit, zum Egoismus herunterfällt. Das hat uns zugleich zu den Menschen gemacht, die nach dem Besitz streben. Daher ist der Merkur auch der Gott der Kaufleute.
Auf dem Jupiter findet Dante die Fürsten, die Gerechtigkeit geübt haben. Auf der Sonne geht etwas sehr Wichtiges vor. Auf der Sonne wird Dante der eigentliche Charakter des Ewigen gezeigt; wie es aufzufassen ist, wenn man einen Tag erlebt, den man den Jüngsten Tag nennt. Der Jüngste Tag verändert die Verhältnisse. Da treten uns zwei Menschen entgegen: Thomas von Aquino und der König Salomo. Thomas von Aquino stellt das Leben im Sinne des Christentums, des Neuen Testamentes dar, und König Salomo ist der Lehrer des Alten Testamentes.
In dem Priestertum sah der Christ den körperlichen Ausdruck dessen, was ihm der Christus in der geistigen Entwickelung war. Nach dem Erdenleben ist der Christus entrückt und hält seinen Triumphzug in den Fixsternhimmel. Wer hier seinen geistigen Embryo so zubereitet hat, daß er geistig schauen kann, vermag Christus in dem Fixsternhimmel zu sehen. Der tiefsteingeweihte Jünger, Johannes, tritt als der Lehrer dieser Anschauung auf. Nur Christus und Maria konnten ihren Leib in den Fixsternhimmel mit hinaufnehmen. Eine Meisterindividualität hat auch den Körper ganz in der Hand. So wie der heutige Kulturmensch lernt, mit seinen sittlichen Ideen über die Leidenschaften Herr zu sein, so wahr lernt der Mensch auf höherer Stufe den physischen Leib beherrschen. Jesus und Maria hatten den physischen Leib so geheiligt, daß sie ihn in die höchsten Regionen mitnehmen konnten.
Dann übernimmt der heilige Bernhard die Führung in die höheren Gebiete, wo er die Gottesanschauung, die Versenkung in das göttliche Selbst erhält. Da wächst Dante über das Kirchlich-Christliche hinaus. Er sieht die drei Kreise, die dreifache Urwesenheit der Welt, Vater, Sohn und Geist. Die indische Religion nennt sie Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Hier stellt sich die Dreifaltigkeit des Universums dar, wo Dante sich zur rein geistigen Anschauung, zur Kontemplation aufschwingt.
Am Schluß wird dargestellt, wie wir in Gott leben, weben und sind, aber uns nicht vermessen können, Gott zu verstehen. Nur das ahnende Gewißwerden der menschlichen Erkenntnis von Gott wird am Ende dargestellt. Für Dante war sein Gedicht das Schauspiel der Welt, von der andern Seite gesehen.
The religious worldview of the Middle Ages in Dante's “Divine Comedy”
Today we want to talk about one of the greatest creations of world literature, Dante's “Divine Comedy.” We must be aware that if we want to gain even a little understanding of this poem, we will need to transport ourselves back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Goethe has his Faust say:
What you call the spirit of the times,
Is basically the spirit of the masters themselves,
In which the times are reflected.
When someone wants to interpret a poem from an earlier time, they usually do so by putting their own spirit into it and reading from the poem what comes from their subjective feelings.
In Dante's “Divine Comedy,” one sees how difficult it is to transport oneself back to the Middle Ages. There are all kinds of interpretations. There is a German translation by Garneri. From the preface, it is clear that he undertook an extraordinary venture. He says that the Divine Comedy is always spoiled by the theological views introduced by interpreters. He introduced a purely human view. Carneri is the ethicist of Darwinism. On the basis of Darwinism, he has established a moral doctrine, a noble ethic, but materialistic, without awareness of the spiritual forces in the world. A materialistic attitude pervades his entire translation. This is “the spirit of the masters, in which the times are reflected.”
Now let us really put ourselves in the shoes of those times. We must forget everything we have learned since childhood in order to transport ourselves into those bygone times. Back then, people thought and felt very differently. We have learned how the planets form a system with the sun, and that this system is one among many. At school we learn that the sun is at the center of one system, and the planets revolve around it. Abstract laws of reason govern everything that revolves, everything that lives, everything that floats in the infinite space around us. Those who think this way see nothing in this vast space but celestial bodies orbiting in the great, infinite empty space, celestial bodies and the living beings on them.
The image of the world was very different for the people who lived in Dante's time. No one at that time thought of such abstract ideas. Our Earth was the center of the entire universe. But it was not only this solid planet; within the Earth there were beings that were related to human beings. There were forces that made human beings into animal-like beings. These were in the center of the Earth. Within it were the various levels of what was called hell. Just as Dante describes these things, they were considered real by people at that time. This is not fiction in Dante. Anyone who can even for a moment think that Dante regarded this as mere superstition does not understand him. At that time, people had the idea that on the other side of the Earth, gravity worked in the opposite direction. Medieval people imagined forces that were opposed to human beings, forces that detached them from everything that meant spiritual heaviness on earth. There was the purifying fire, Kamaloka.
Looking out into the starry space from there, people had completely different ideas. The moon was not a mineral, but the body of a spirit being, on which many spirit beings lived, a world body. Beings lived on it who had undergone similar stages of development as humans. However, they had fallen deeper than humans, only their vices were understood as more spiritual than the animal vices of humans.
Mercury was also imagined as a physical being that encompassed a spirit. Just as we derive human beings from the innermost part of the soul, medieval people thought of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as spiritual beings. At that time, people perceived spirit everywhere. For them, the world was populated by spiritual beings everywhere.
Christ had lived in the fixed starry sky since he left the world. Beyond the fixed starry sky was the Empyrean, that is, the tenth heaven, which encompassed the primordial foundations of all existence. Humans imagined that those beings who were not here on Earth in this body lived in some area outside of Earth. According to the ideas of that time, we would have to look for a warrior who had passed through death on Mars. Someone who had led a contemplative life would be on Saturn. Those who had ascended even higher were to be found in the fixed starry sky, where Christ was after his death. Above them were even higher beings.
Dante wrote his Divine Comedy based on this way of thinking. People today have no idea that people at that time still saw something spiritual in everything material. According to the view of that time, there is no such thing as purely physical or purely spiritual. Thus, the interweaving of the physical and the spiritual was a matter of course for all minds. When we put ourselves in such a perspective, we live and weave in the feelings from which the Divine Comedy is written. It is pointless to argue about whether Beatrice was only a symbol or Dante's beloved. There is no contradiction in this. Beatrice was a real person, but she was also the expression of everything spiritual. Beatrice is the true personification of theology, especially in the inner sense that has not been forgotten.
Let us now examine the spiritual atmosphere from which the poem grew. It is the highest expression of Christian Catholicism in the 13th and 14th centuries, before the schism in the Church, from which such minds as Cardinal Nikolaus Cusanus, who grew out of scholasticism, emerged. Dante is a student of scholasticism. He viewed the world in the same way as his teacher Thomas Aquinas.
What was the mission of Christianity? Its mission was to establish a different basic religious view than the one that had previously existed on earth. Previously, a belt of religious views had spread across the entire world. Now a different basic view came along.
We have to go back a long way if we want to understand the underlying tone of Dante's poem. About ten thousand years before our era, the vast continent known as Atlantis began to sink more and more. In the magazine “Kosmos,” the natural scientist Arldt provides scientific proof of the existence of Atlantis. What we call the Flood is the gradual flooding of this continent. The ancestors of today's European and Asian humanity lived on this continent. A deep kinship can be found in the mythology of all these peoples. German mythology speaks of Atlantis and calls the Atlantic continent Niflheim, Nebelheim. What came over to Germany is the worldview brought to us by the figure who ruled as Wotan. Wotan is the same as Bodha or Buddha. Veda and Edda, for example, also have the same linguistic origin.
All these views, which exist here as an older sediment, have one thing in common. Reincarnation was originally a matter of course for them. Buddhism, however, found its spread among Mongolian peoples, not among Aryan peoples. The Semitic element, which knows nothing of reincarnation, crept into the worldview of the Aryan peoples. The most sublime expression of this form of religion, which reckons only with one incarnation, is Christianity. Its characteristic feature is that it reckons with only one embodiment. This was not the case in esoteric Christian teaching, but the doctrine of reincarnation was not included in popular religion. Ancient Judaism and Arabism did not know the doctrine of reincarnation.
If one assumes this, one has the basic tone from which Dante's magnificent poem grew. The poem depicts a vision based on Good Friday. That was the day that marked the victory of life over death. This was not imagined in abstract terms. On Good Friday and Easter, people felt that the sun was receiving the new power of spring. It rises, it enters the constellation of Aries or the Lamb. It brings forth the plant world. The sun was regarded as the expression of a spiritual being. People imagined a relationship between the spiritual and soul forces and the spirit of the sun. Thus, Good Friday night was felt to be the most appropriate time for the soul to enter into what lies beyond death.
Dante's poem is a vision, a vision in the sense experienced by the initiate, a reality in the spiritual world. Dante can truly perceive the spiritual. He perceives what is in the spiritual world with his spiritual senses. He imagines this as a Christian Catholic initiate. In his vision, he brings with him what has become part of his organism from the Catholic world, but he sees it spiritually. At all times, human beings see the spiritual through the lens of their experiences. Just as a child's stay in its mother's womb relates to the physical plane, so does our stay in the spiritual world relate to what we experience spiritually here on earth. Here in our earthly life, we mature, as it were, as in the womb, in order to subsequently arise spiritually. The senses that we have developed for the spiritual depend on life on this earth. Here we mature for the hereafter; here we prepare our spiritual eyes and ears for the hereafter. That is why Dante had trained his spiritual organs in the way that the Christian Catholic world had produced.
When we pass over into the other existence, we can perceive what is now within us. This then becomes visible to us externally. We say that passions, instincts, and drives belong to us. When we have entered the spiritual worlds, the contents of our soul organism become something that exists outside of us, just as external objects can be perceived in physical existence. What lives in our soul becomes symbolically visible to us.
Dante names three symbols that represent the three main characteristics of his instinctual body, his astral body, his lower soul: a panther, a lion, and a she-wolf. His main passions thus confront him in the form of three animals. But this is not merely a symbol. When a person enters the astral plane, the lower passions really do confront them in the form 'animals. The she-wolf represents one passion. It is the same she-wolf that once suckled Romulus and Remus. This is the passion that was adopted by the people when the Roman nation was founded, the passion that lives in everything that is directed toward possession, greed, and, on the other hand, the right to personal property. This passion was instilled in people at the time when the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus. Before that, people acquired the characteristic of bravery, which is expressed in the lion and can become a desire to rule. Even further back, greater cunning developed from the rule of priests: the panther, the characteristic of Odysseus. When Virgil confronts Dante, he says: I cannot free you from the three animals, least of all from the she-wolf. He says this because Dante has outgrown what remains of the ancient Roman passions in Italy. Dante had to take Virgil, who gave a picture of initiation in the Aeneid, as his guide. From Virgil, people at that time learned most about what the afterlife looks like. At that time, they constructed the afterlife in three stages: hell, purgatory, and heaven.
There are only two consistent worldviews. One is that of Augustine, the other is that of reincarnation and karma. Augustine says: On this earth, some people are destined for good and some for evil. — The other view is that we develop through many incarnations. Only these two worldviews are possible. Dante stands on the ground of the Augustinian worldview. There, man prepares himself in this earthly life for a destiny for eternity. Therefore, this earthly life is immediately followed by hell, purgatory, or heaven. One considers this one earthly life to be decisive. One looks only at the personality of the human being.
If one goes beyond personality, one goes beyond birth and death. Beyond personality is that which enters at birth and leaves again at death. That is individuality. What a person has caused as an individual must be balanced out in the next life. If you remove reincarnation and karma, everything must be balanced out in one life. If you seek retribution for everything that concerns the personality, you create the opposite image for the personal, which is hell. Hell is nothing other than being completely entangled in the personal. The counter-image of the personal in this life is hell in the hereafter. The personal must not be so entangled in this life that it embellishes existence. Christianity has brought into the world the idea that everything depends on how this one life between birth and death unfolds. That is why it had to make the earthly realm a vale of tears. It had to point out that one must strip oneself of the earthly. Pagan art, on the other hand, is what entangles us in the personal element. The ancient artists tried to make this earthly life beautiful. Those who see only the personal say: this personal aspect must strip away everything beautiful. It must make the earth less beautiful, tear the personality away from this world. That is why it was logical that Homer and all the poets of antiquity appeared to Dante in hell.
His description of the miser and the spendthrift on the astral plane is true. There, people encounter their own passions as mirror images. On the astral plane, the miser sees what he causes with his miserliness as a spendthrift. The spendthrift sees his characteristics in the opposite image of the miser.
In the city of Dis is Epicurus, the representative of the worldview that focuses on the development of the here and now. The city of Dis is supposed to express the representatives of the physical reality. There are people in coffins. The materialists are the living dead. They say that man is a mere corpse. Now they must lie in coffins as dead souls.
From hell, Dante is led to purgatory. Princes who have neglected their own salvation in favor of the welfare of the state must also be purified in purgatory. The Christian-Catholic worldview is based on the development of the individual. Therefore, princes who have neglected this must languish in purgatory.
The next area between purgatory and heaven is the Garden of Eden. There we are introduced to the Christian view of how the origin of the Church lies in the spiritual realm. Anyone who wants to understand what the Church should be like in the medieval sense must organize themselves to see its archetype in the hereafter. Dante derives this from the worldview of Dionysius Areopagita on the heavenly hierarchies. There is a sequence of levels that Dionysius describes: angels, archangels, primal forces, powers, authorities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, seraphim. The hierarchy of the Church should be a reflection of these heavenly hierarchies. Dante depicts this in the Garden of Eden, where the hierarchies symbolically confront us.
Then Beatrice takes the lead. In the soul, we distinguish between a feminine element, the inner soul, and a masculine element, the spirit in the universe that fertilizes the soul. The female soul draws us upward. Medieval alchemists called the feminine in humans the “lilium.” That is why Goethe also speaks of the “beautiful lily” in his fairy tale. Beatrice is truly portrayed in the spirit of Dante's thinking in such a way that he can express the structure of scholastic theology in her.
Beatrice is the first to be confronted with the beings of the moon who have broken their spiritual vows. They had broken their vow to serve only the spiritual and had fallen back into sensuality. In ancient Greek theosophy, Mercury was still the being who had contributed to the ancient Atlanteans' rise to the concept of the ego. The first Atlanteans did not yet have ego consciousness. The entity that represents the personal is the god Mercury, Hermes. Man becomes personal by falling into egoism. This has also made us people who strive for possessions. That is why Mercury is also the god of merchants.
On Jupiter, Dante finds the princes who have practiced justice. Something very important is happening on the sun. On the sun, Dante is shown the true character of the eternal; how to understand it when one experiences a day called Judgment Day. The Last Day changes circumstances. Two people come to meet us: Thomas Aquinas and King Solomon. Thomas Aquinas represents life in the sense of Christianity, of the New Testament, and King Solomon is the teacher of the Old Testament.
In the priesthood, Christians saw the physical expression of what Christ was to them in their spiritual development. After his earthly life, Christ ascended and made his triumphal procession into the fixed starry sky. Those who have prepared their spiritual embryo here in such a way that they can see spiritually are able to see Christ in the fixed starry sky. The most deeply initiated disciple, John, appears as the teacher of this view. Only Christ and Mary were able to take their bodies up into the fixed starry sky. A master individuality also has complete control over the body. Just as today's cultured human being learns to master his passions with his moral ideas, so too does the human being at a higher level learn to master the physical body. Jesus and Mary had sanctified their physical bodies to such an extent that they could take them with them to the highest regions.
Then St. Bernard takes the lead into the higher realms, where he receives the vision of God, the immersion into the divine Self. Here Dante grows beyond the ecclesiastical Christian sphere. He sees the three circles, the threefold primordial being of the world, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Indian religion calls them Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Here the Trinity of the universe is represented, where Dante rises to pure spiritual contemplation.
In the end, it is shown how we live, weave, and are in God, but cannot presume to understand God. Only the intuitive certainty of human knowledge of God is presented in the end. For Dante, his poem was the spectacle of the world seen from the other side.