The Divine Comedy tells of a pilgrimage through the medieval realms of the dead – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise – and the lessons about fortune and destiny one learns along the way. Although astrologers, along with diviners and magicians, were placed in Hell, Dante’s great poem is full of astrology. This book offers the reader an understanding of Dante’s vast cosmology within the poem’s moral, spiritual and dramatic contexts; it is an especially valuable resource for those interested in the intersection of cosmology or astrology and spirituality. We also closely examine Inferno 20 and the relationship of astrological practice to that of divination, magic, and prophecy.
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This work brought together my love for astrology and for Dante’s great poem. Not only does astrology’s universe form the background of the spiritual journey depicted in The Divine Comedy, but the movements of the heavens speak of a divine ordering of the universe. Basic planetary symbolism pervades this poem and is surprisingly relevant for today’s astrologer.
An astrological and literary tour de force!
This is a wonderful, engaging, and well written book that should be on every astrologer’s bookshelf. I say that because 99% of contemporary astrology books are all the same and this one is certainly different in a good way. The author provides a general overview of Dante, his life and times, and then journeys, much like the Pilgrim in the Inferno, through the book, peeling back the astrological symbolism contained in the book… This book is not an easy read in that it demands your full attention, but you will feel smarter after reading it, and will be thinking about many of the provocative images in the Inferno he helps to illuminate. If you are a beginner astrologer or don’t know the basics of Western astrology, you can still enjoy this book as it will reveal to you the extent to which astrological thinking was prevalent and instrumental in understanding both the world and human nature in Dante’s time, just before the Renaissance started in Italy.
— A Sen
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