Categories like feminine and masculine can constrain as much as illuminate. But there is no denying that women and female entities play a major, often surprising part in Dante’s journey through the Divine Comedy. Saints including Beatrice, Lucia and Mary, historic figures such as Piccarda, Francesca and Cunizza, and mythological entities like the sirens all… Continue reading Dante and the Divine Feminine
Tag: Beatrice
Easter Sermon: How Dante teaches us the power of now
This piece is published by The Idler. (Use code, “dantemv”, to get £10 off my Divine Comedy course at The Idler and click here.) If there were one big lesson that Dante learns as he struggles through hell and up Mount Purgatory it would be this. The present moment, right now, is the only moment… Continue reading Easter Sermon: How Dante teaches us the power of now
Dante in love
Use this code, “dantemv”, to get £10 off my Divine Comedy course at The Idler via this link. The year was 1274, May Day to be precise. The young lady Beatrice was walking the lovely streets of Florence and she approached a youth called Dante. She smiled. Instantly, he was besotted. Little did he know… Continue reading Dante in love
Dante, awakening, and erotic love
Dante’s journey is all about erotic love, through ugly possessiveness, and powerful passions, to the realisation that love is usually experienced as an ignorance about what we desire, to which he awakens. The Divine Comedy is, therefore, a crucial resource for understanding this energy that surges through us. The poem is rare in the western… Continue reading Dante, awakening, and erotic love