Canto 2 - The Sphere of the Moon

Dante warns his readers that now is the moment to leave his company if they do not wish to join him on this journey into the fantastic realms.

The Moon (represented by the musician Robert Schumann)

Transported by his own "thirst for God's own realm" he speeds up to it by gazing on Beatrice as she gazes heavenwards. He finds himself taken into the Sphere of the Moon that seems like a kind of cloud and observes:-

Once there shall we shall behold what we hold true
through faith, not proven but self-evident:
a primal truth, incontrovertible.

Beatrice explains the nature of Divine Power and how it relates to the structure of the heavens:-

and as the soul within your living dust
diffuses through your body's different parts,
adapted to its various faculties,

just so does this Intelligence unfold
its bounty which the stars have multiplied
while turning ever in its unity.

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