On the first step on the path towards a higher consciouness
Why Dante's first words are "Have Pity on Me" (Inferno 1 — Part 3)
Subscribe to get one e-mail per week with a portion of a canto each, to inspire your journey as a feminist and an artist FROM (CREATIVE) HELL TO PARADISE.
With each extract, you'll get a brief explanation and a journaling prompt, to help you reflect and take the next action in your creative and personal journey of growth, transformation and of stepping into your light.
Hello and welcome to the third issue of Dante’s Divine Comedy for Artists and Feminists!
We last left Dante as he was rushing down towards the lowland after meeting the Panther, the Lion and the She-Wolf. In this next extract, Dante meets his guide, Virgilius,… and we understand a little bit better where he is at.
Let’s get to the extract first.
Dante’s first words: “have pity on me”
Thus continues the Divine Comedy in the English Longfellow edition:
When I beheld him in the desert vast,
“Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,
“Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”He answered me: “Not man; man once I was,
And both my parents were of Lombardy,
And Mantuans by country both of them.Sub Julio was I born, though it was late,
And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
During the time of false and Iying gods.A poet was I, and I sang that just
Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
After that Ilion the superb was burnedBut thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?
Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable
Which is the source and cause of every joy?”
So, let us set orient ourselves. We are still in Canto 1, and Dante is still at the beginning of his journey. If he were a New Yorker getting by flight to Houston, he would still be very much in New York, barely having made it out his flat, and on his way to the metro station. He hasn’t reached any particular place yet. He is not at his first stop. He is just getting started. And suddenly, he sees someone, man or ghost, he does not know. And he says, “Have pity on me.”
These are Dante’s very first spoken words of the poem.
And to truly understand them, it helps to look at the original verses.
The word he uses for pity is «Miserere», from latin Miser, which is the root word for such words as Misery, Commiserate, Miserable, etc. and also, Mercy.
Dante is asking for pity of his wretchedness, and for mercy.
And the question is, Why does he do that?
When Dante ventures inside the forest, he is at a place in his life where he should be happy. He is successful, at the peak of his career, and yet, as these words suggest, he feels wretched.
You know that time in your life when you got the job you dreamed of, and suddenly you didn’t know what you wanted anymore, and soon, instead of ectstatic, you felt bleak? That’s what Dante is talking about here.
He has lost his path, but he doesn’t know why. Already, he has seen the top of the mountain peering over him, the sun high above the peak, as well as the three wild animals that attacked him in our last episode.
From where he is at, he sees the light, as well as the darkness: the one out there, in the forest, but especially his own.
Why beg for mercy now?
In Western society generally, we have a strenuous relationship with darkness. Think of the last time you were, like Dante, at a place in your life where you felt you should have been happy, but weren’t. Didn’t it suck? Didn’t you feel as if those feelings were somehow wrong? I know I have been there, and it was hell.
But as Dante suggests here, there is an upside to being in the darkness: it is the recognition that there is more to life than what we have allowed ourselves to see until now.
The first step though, is daring to admit out loud that that’s where we are at.
Thus, when Dante begs for mercy, he is both asking to be seen, and seeing for the first time the hint of an opportunity: the opportunity for something more, for something new.
There is an upside to being in the darkness: it is the recognition that there is more to life than what we have allowed ourselves to see until now.
Again, it helps here to go back to a feeling you might have had. You know that time in your life when things weren’t exactly exciting, and they weren’t exactly bad, but it all sorts of felt flat?
Possibly, it felt flat because there was something being repressed: a wish, or desire for more.
Just to clarify, though, I am not speaking of having more. I am speaking of being more. And the latter is not in opposition to a deep sense of gratitude.
It’s not, life sucks, I should have more.
It is, I already have a lot, and I see that I could be even more: even more in touch with myself, even more in love, even more creative, even more abundant, impactful, present, trascendent.
Dante is on a consciousness journey here, and what he suggests is that to move to that higher plane of understanding and awareness, one must first be willing to admit to feeling a vacuum, a sense of something amiss, and be willing to stay with that emptiness.
Not that this doesn’t hide a trap. The temptation, in fact, is the refusal of the call.
In the next episode, we’ll discuss what the conversation Dante entertains with Virgilio here has to say about finding the courage to accept the call. The way in and out of the dark forest, as Dante suggests, is one and the same.
Miserere: staying with our desire for more in our creative (and political journey)
When I first read the explanation that I am sharing here about this particular passage, I found it illuminating.
Years ago, when I was a 20-something year old screaming for the world to be better, and, fraknly, quite creatively blocked, I had an abrupt awakening the day I realised no one was going to change the world for me.
I don’t know about you, but in my creative journey, as well as in my journey as a feminist, I had to look inside (and read) a lot before I could come to terms with the fact that the starting point is not “how things should be.” The starting point is, “this is where we are coming from, and this is where we are at.”
What comes to mind is also the global situation at the moment. I think many of us would like things to be better, but in order for things to get better, we must first be willing to open our eyes to how they are. It’s not easy. It can require looking for mentors (like Dante does), and it does require going into a dark place.
I very much think it can make a difference.
Journaling Prompt:
The last time you felt as if you were in the dark forest, what moved you to admit for the first time you were really lost? What was the greater hope, wish or desire that brought you to your crisis? What did you need to let go of, and what was the invitation for?
Dante’s Divine Comedy for Artists and Feminists is a project by Stefania Montagna (not a literature expert, but a writer and life coach with an interest in psychology and spirituality).
Subscribe to get one e-mail per week with a portion of a canto each, to inspire your journey as a feminist and an artist FROM (CREATIVE) HELL TO PARADISE.
With each extract, you'll get a brief explanation and a journaling prompt, to help you reflect and take the next action in your creative and personal journey of growth, transformation and of stepping into your light.