There are no circles of Heaven. They're called spheres and they surround the earth. And just like the Inferno and the Purgatorio, the arrangement of Heaven follows the formula of 9 + 1 = 10
The 9 Spheres include:
the Moon (The Inconstant)
Mercury (The Ambitious)
Venus (The Lovers)
The Sun (The Wise)
Mars (The Warriors of Faith)
Jupiter (The Just Rulers)
Saturn (The Contemplative)
The Fixed Stars (Faith, Hope and Love)
The Primum Mobile (The Angels)
The 10th level of Heaven is the Empyrean. This final and Highest Realm is the exact opposite of Lucifer fixed in the frozen pit of betrayal. This is where Beatrice takes on her most beautiful form and Dante is rendered worthy of seeing God.
Note that in Dante's view of the world Earth is the center of the universe and not the sun. The Inferno is located below Jerusalem and Mount Purgatory is on the opposite end of the earth, formed out of the land displaced by the pit of Hell.
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marinecorpsmedic6
14 years ago
Insightful. Did the Divine Comedy say what it was like up there?
"I'd rather be a superb one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." -Barack Obama
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carl_89
14 years ago
It was all allegorical much like hell. In Hell the fortune tellers and false prophets had to walk forwards with their heads on backwards to symbolize their sinful lives. The same goes for heaven. The Waxing and Wanning of the moon is used as an allegory for the Inconstant souls in the lowest sphere in Heaven. Even though they were good people in life, they were not fully devoted to god because they abandoned their vows.
Each sphere holds the righteous souls associated with the heavenly bodies. Mars for example is the sphere of the warriors of faith because the Greeks believed Mars was the God of War.
The Empyrean is separate from all other spheres because it exists outside of the realm of physical existence. According to Dante souls in the Empyrean shed their mortal bodies and abandon all earthly desires and spend eternity gazing upon the awesomeness of God. Dante sees a rose in the Empyrean which is an allegory for Divine love in which all souls in heaven have a space waiting for them. And he sees God as 3 circles who are each separate yet at the same time equal in size and space. These circles represent the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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