Dante's Divine Comedy

This episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues is the second part of a conversation between Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon on the Inferno of Dante’s Divine Comedy.  Deeper regions of hell are explored, in which individuals aren’t just confused about life but have become wedded to their confusions and the seeming power they bring. The deep ramifications of the worship of Mammon and worlds built o...

Dante and Otherworld Journeys was an online conference organised with the Scientific and Medical Network - https://scientificandmedical.net/events/dr-kayleen-asbo-lorna-byrne-dr-peter-fenwick-mariel-forde-clarke-david-lorimer-felicity-warner-dr-mark-vernon-dante-and-otherworld-journeys/ This is the conversation, with extra thoughts, that I had with Lorna Byrne - https://lornabyrne.com I was partic...

The Divine Comedy by Dante is one of the great spiritual works of the Christian tradition. But how can it be read and what does it mean?  In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the first part of Dante’s cosmic pilgrimage. It takes Dante through the circles of hell, until he reaches the lowest point of reality, the region furthest from God.  It b...

Dante was clear: he wrote so that others might follow him on otherworld journeys. So what might this mean? With the Scientific and Medical Network, an online conference, Sat 27th Nov, to explore this issue. Join individuals who have studied it and others who have so travelled. Full details here - https://scientificandmedical.net/events/dr-kayleen-asbo-lorna-byrne-dr-peter-fenwick-mariel-forde-clar...

This lecture was given to the Temenos Academy on Tuesday 19th October 2021 - a particular delight as it was on its perennial philosophy course that the Divine Comedy first began to open up to me. See here for more details - https://www.temenosacademy.org I make some remarks on the Inferno and Purgatorio first, about how spiritual intelligence recognises the significance of now and knowing yourself...

Today, people feel Dante's Paradiso is irrelevant. It's not. It is the place of true perception and delightful knowledge, and the goal of the Divine Comedy. The question is how to follow Dante's lead and become aware of this domain of reality that is here, now as much as anywhere. In this illustrated talk, I track how Dante's perceptions expanded as, led by Beatrice, he transhu...

For further details about Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey - https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book For further details about the Dante Society of London - https://dantesocietylondon.com/index.html 2:34 Welcome 3:23 Dante’s first 700 years 6:08 Dante Society of London 9:14 Invoking Dante today 10:33 Introducing my new book 18:08 Reading in Italian a...

Mark Vernon talks about Dante and his new book, Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey (Angelico Press) at the Church Times podcast. This year marks 700 years since Dante’s death, and the Church Times of 10 September 2021 includes features by Robin Ward and Alexander Faludy, as well as several reviews of books published to mark the anniversary. In a Church Times review of Mark’s...

To preorder Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey see - https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781621387480/dantes-divine-comedy To join me and register for the online book launch on 14th September at 6pm BST see - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mark-vernon-on-dantes-divine-comedy-tickets-168394477415?keep_tld=1 For more details about the book and an excerpt from the intro...

In this 700th anniversary year, the truth of the Divine Comedy is a key issue.  Modern critics may explain its spiritual veracity by putting its impact down to social construction and performativity. But Dante knew about literature as much as he knew about divine life. He is emphatically clear that he has travelled to the high heavens and seeks to write so that we may follow him too. In this talk,...

Categories like feminine and masculine can constrain as much as illuminate. But there is no denying that men and male entities play a major, often surprising part in Dante's journey through the Divine Comedy.  This talk complements my look at Dante and the Divine Feminine, now considering Dante's encounters with figures such as Belacqua and Statius,  Bernard and Cacciaguida. Archetypal q...

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 figure. In this talk, I use Erich N...

The Divine Comedy aims to deepen and broaden our perception of reality, often by exploding preconceptions. Nowhere is this more true than in Dante's take on the Christian perception of the Trinity. For Dante, it is way more than a doctrine. It is a mode of seeing that reveals reality as dynamic and dancing to its depths. For further talks and details of Mark's book on Dante see - www.mar...

For more on Dante do see - https://www.markvernon.com/dantes-divine-comedy Details of my book, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey, are here - https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book Also, use this code, “dantemv”, to get £10 off my Divine Comedy course at The Idler via this link - https://www.idler.co.uk/product/dantes-divine-comedy-in-100-images-with-...

[This is an audio version of a talk with images, which is on my YouTube channel.] Making sense of why Dante had to travel through hell, what was going on in purgatory, and how that's all linked to the destination of heaven, comes with appreciating how, in the spiritual life, descent and ascent are profoundly linked. Dante explores the links between virtues and vices, moving beyond the literal...

The word transhumanism was coined by Dante to capture his realisation of divine life in paradise. It has been colonised today by technologists dreaming of utopias. I explore 7 key differences to recover Dante’s vision from the Divine Comedy, in the 700th anniversary year of the great poet’s death, which is also to explore the richness of true transhumanizing. 1. Purge what stops you wanting not wh...

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 Christian tradition in embracing eros, not trying to cajo...

This is a recording of a talk I gave online as part of St Albans Cathedral's online adult education programme. The talk with images is online here - https://youtu.be/MiiG-isCCA0  For more on Dante, including details of my forthcoming book - https://www.markvernon.com/dantes-divine-comedy

We will learn a lot about Dante’s language, love, politics and humanism in 2021, the 700th anniversary of his death. But perhaps not so much about the spiritual insights he felt charged by heaven to communicate in his Divine Comedy. My top 10 spiritual insights are: 10. Comedy transcends, not excludes tragedy 9. Morality gets you nowhere, insight leads everywhere 8. Descent and ascent are the same...

Dante reaches the end of his journey, which is also the origin and moment of complete reception of divine life and light.

Bernard takes Dante on a tour of paradise, which is also a gathering together of all he has experienced.

Dante sees paradise as a white rose of beauty and heavenly amphitheatre of life, shining like the sun.

Dante enters the Empyrean conveying, in visions, the direct experience of divine, living light.

The unity of the eternal and temporal, as interpenetrating expressions of the divine, is unpacked by Beatrice.

Dante gains inner sight of the still centre of all things, the spark of being and ever present origin.