The acceleration of the Aquarian Pluto
The bench of the banking “business” + Dante’s’ question of free will and moral responsibility
Two unusual examples of the Gemini type in the field of letters are Dante and Bernard Shaw. Dante wrote his Inferno so that he could show in luminous verbiage all his enemies roasting in the pits of perdition. The Shavian humor has about it the bite of shallowness. It is not the deep laughter of the gods who understand all, but the shallow titillating laughter of mortals who understand not even themselves.”
― Manly P. Hall
PILGRIMAGE
To follow Dante in his pilgrimage is to follow the path of the human psyche, the human condition, and the experience of our existence. Dante offers a view of the hero’s journey from darkness to awakening, later known as the Jungian notion of individuation. Dante’s path is lyrical, literal, esoteric, anagogical1, allegorical, deep, and sometimes moralistic.
Witnessing it, one discovers stage by stage the process of living according to one’s design, illustrated as a political critique of the role of the individual in society. Dante tells the story of a protagonist (himself) who meets his hero (Virgil, the Roman poet), who becomes the voice of reason; the pilgrimage is a metaphor for self-inquiry. Virgil operates as a guide and creates in Dante an inner dia-logos, such as a relationship one can have with a journal, or with a therapist that listens and observes as one walks near the abyss. Virgil, as the other, creates a space where insights emerge for Dante (and for the viewer, who is the witness).
The Divine Comedy accounts that individuals must take responsibility for their deeds and aim for ethical and moral virtues to live purposeful lives. I resonate with this part, and the way Dante uses allegory as a device, the poem contains a compelling socio-economic and political examination addressing corruption and justice in familiar ways that seem extremely relatable to the roles we have constructed and what is expected for the individual in society. In my view, Dante Alighieri, if alive today, would have been a Bitcoiner.
God spoke to him in a dream: “You live and will die in this prison so that a man I know of may see you a certain number of times and not forget you and place your figure and symbol in a poem which has its precise place in the scheme of the universe. You suffer captivity, but you will have given a word to the poem.”
[...] Years later, Dante was dying in Ravenna, as unjustified and as lonely as any other man. In a dream, God declared to him the secret purpose of his life and work; Dante, in wonderment, knew at last who and what he was and blessed the bitterness of his life. Tradition relates that, upon waking, he felt that he had received and lost an infinite thing, something that he would not be able to recuperate or even glimpse, for the machinery of the world, is much too complex for the simplicity of men.
Translated by J. E. I. Inferno, I, 32:: J. L. Borges
Virtuosity, Dante becomes Virgil for later writers
Fideli D’Amore Dante through Borges’eyes
To observe Jorge Luis Borges follow Dante is to witness a path of admiration and pure enchantment; while Borges did not speak Italian (I do), he read the poem many, many times in the original text. As he mentions in his Seven-night lecture, the translation could serve as a stimulus for the reader to approach the original; he continues to say that Dante’s poetry is much more than what it says. Is Borges [or am I through him], stating that the pure comprehension of the beauty of this magnum opus is attained abstractly, rather than logically?
The four mathematical arts are arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; these anciently were termed the quadrivium, or fourfold way of knowledge.
Sir John Hawkins, "A General History of the Science and Practice of Music,1776
Borges says poetry is about intonation and accentuation. Often untranslatable, for me, it is about feeling it, and finding patterns I can correlate with my present experience, of what I am in the midst of discovering…
Borges adds that reading Dante like Shakespeare is a musical event, because each line must be read aloud, as music corresponds and generates an emotional response. Borges goes on to make a case about Dante as a hermetic wizard, and as a reader, one must de-cipher its hidden meaning:

Dante is already in Paradise, unaware of what his destiny awaits (including hard times); he compares his strength and principles to the 4 phase tetragono2 “Delle mi fuor di mia vita futura parole gravi, avvegna ch'io mi senta ben tetragono ai colpi di Ventura3.
What you may or may not know is that through mathematics4, we find patterns based on connections that configure aspects (phases) in relationships; the frequency, or time, of these dimensions is what harmony is all about, and using the celestial bodies results as a verification device.
For Dante, a single moment is enough– Borges has been admiring an encounter that actually belongs to Dante in the middle ages: that of presenting every occasion as a cipher of a life.
In the beginning, we read the poem with the hope of someone who doesn’t project or expect anything, like a child, surrendering ourselves to it. Then it will guide us through the circles, and it will go on beyond space and time. This opera will perhaps turn into a sweet song of liberation…
I don’t know if Dante’s intention was to write the masterpiece using the Tuscan dialect, unknowingly converting it to lingua franca after his death. Though The Divine Comedy was not translated into every dialect, it became widely read, laying the structure for a cultural unification in terms of the language that would later be called ‘Italian’. This alone is a very Aquarian characteristic. He used the technology (skill) of language to be spread to all people (Aquarius), not just the erudite, and led the path toward the subconscious (a very Plutonian trait).
Borges loved Dante; I am enjoying this relationship, and I have been listening to the original text. What a joy! The reason I humbly attempt to create a relationship between these times and Dante’s was first expressed in the article I wrote a couple of weeks ago (see button below), and with the astrology of this year, I feel compelled to bring some lyrical textures to inspire you, my readers, to a beautiful journey.
This is the oldest of mysteries. I will say no more for now… Both Dante, Borges, and even Calvino are winking at me in a mischievous gesture of re-cognizance
Pluto retrograde and upcoming lunar eclipse
Lyrical dimensions - circles - structures
As with Dante’s circling journey, which travels down the bowels of mother Earth, this year shows the potential of being an incredible support if one allows the energy from the celestial bodies to assist on the journey of individuation.
Moved by the poetry of the circles that were used as a metaphor in Dante’s exquisite poem, with the extreme beauty and symbolism, which are reminders of vibrational spaces and stages needed to sense the illusion as we evolve -
The limbo - where desire leaves us clinging, like when we scroll the screen for more and more, or we indulge in numerous vices -
Dante, during his exile, used writing as a tool to heal. How to measure one’s value concerning others and the rest of the Universe (one verse)?
I would like to bring some poetry to the situation, a lyrical way to approach this decadence.
Dante’s Divine Comedy can serve as a metaphor for the different cycles we go through to reach the light, peace, (whatever you would like to call your journey).
-How to leave this space of limbo, the place where both pagans and no pagans can live as they attend the game of the light?
Dantes’s descent into the underworld is akin to Pluto’s abode in darkness, a place to confront all limitations and fears. Before ascending, he starts in a dark forest, and in his pilgrimage, he meets yet another poet, Virgil, who resonates as his Logos [reason]. As he climbs hills, wild beasts emerge and he finds a way into the darkness, confronting hell (the inferno within the depths of the Hades).
Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, squaring the nodal axis in Taurus/Scorpio, is an incredible event– quite rare, for in order to be living a sovereign life in community and full of joy, one must face the fears and obstacles that any relationship can create: the relationship to self (Taurus, Venus, 2nd house, essential needs and values, material appreciation, and manifestation); the relationship to the other person, situation or thing (Libra, Venus, 7th house); the beginning of the synthesis when one can integrate the shadows that are created via expectations; and, last but not least, the relationship to the collective (Uranus, Aquarius, 11th House). At this juncture, the individuals have learned to negotiate their needs, and have leverage, so when they enter the realm of the others, they shine and feel liberated, serving the community as authentic selves. Pluto is the ruler of the South Node, with the Full Moon at 15 degrees Scorpio (lunar eclipse), which will end mid-July.
The retrograde motion of both the lunar nodes and Pluto have a very individuated quality; Pluto will re-enter Capricorn a couple of times before the end of 2024 (initially on June 11th, 2023) and the lunar nodes will enter 29 degrees of Libra-Aries right after. The tension is present, it feels like a knife on your throat– any faux pas and it can go the wrong way.
Many old ways are being left behind, and many challenges that are happening now with the eclipses, showing as some shadows, are revealing the light, the way to embark. While we are still in the process, and as hard as it feels, one only has one option: keep rowing, remember the weeping boat analogy.
The theme is to know how to relate to self, relate to others, embrace the individual you have come to be, and contribute. As much as the focus is on the material realm, it is not about hoarding, but liberating ourselves from being possessive of ideas, which impairs our ability to improvise and allow the innovation, the new.
Position and orientation
Something magical happens when one is flowing down the river of life, not holding on to anything, just navigating down, feeling the wind caressing the skin…
Eager to meet the fresh new air, 9 ½ months ago the opportunity to orient the journey was suddenly present. It urged us to initiate something– sudden orientation; sudden grounding to the monopole (that which integrates the anima - animus); Uranus, the lord of the skies, met the path of destiny; the North Node of the Moon and Mars, who is all about initiating at gate 2.
I was fired up, with courage unafraid I made some radical changes – and now, after all these months, I can look back and know that I have started synthesizing the power of the Trinity.
–If one is oriented towards the right path, there are no worries, for one is in tune with the frequency that vibrates with their fractal family, who they have been recognizing in awe–
Uranus returns to the same gate at line 2.6 as last August. Two instances to look back to see where you were then, and later, by November 8, 2022, – orientation? Or total dislocation? If your journey changed direction then, well, this sounds great…
The eclipse falls at a very important angle, 45 from the 0 point Aries – activations during the lunar eclipse. Mercury retrograde in Taurus is revisiting all the work done by Uranus in the last 5 years, and when Jupiter comes through later in the year, we will all know how to use the new skills and resources to contribute to the new earth. Something incredible was left behind– let’s be grateful to the skies and for our eagerness to show up.
Mars squaring Jupiter and Venus entering Cancer–whatever you are rebirthing has a shape, and there is excitement. The valor needed to embrace how this new phase feels at times is anxious and insecure, yet it has the potential to expand in aspiration-generating value, by connecting to our emotional needs.
I feel it.
Do you?
Bring on the change, like Dante, the future, as we sail, feels solid and steady…
“Our economic systems were not built for a world driven by technology where prices keep falling. They were built for a pre-technology era when labour and capital were inextricably linked, an era that counted on growth and inflation, an era where we made money from scarcity and inefficiency. That era is over. But we keep on pretending that those economic systems still work.”
― Jeff Booth, The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future
The Corrupt Society
The bench of the banking “business” + Dante’s’ question of free will and moral responsibility
Money exchangers developed facilities for exchanging local and foreign currency, operating in market squares, originally occupying benches, which were later replaced by tables (money-lenders “bank", “banque" (Old French “banc"), Italian “banca", from Late Latin “bancus").
The word “bankrupt" also stems from the same time, when money exchangers physically broke their lending tables when things went south, signifying that business was not merely suspended but visibly and unequivocally short-lived. It derives from “banca rotta" (bench + broken) from Latin “ruptus", the past participle of “rumpere" (to break).
Dante’s concern about the relationship between political and ecclesiastical authority was known in the third book of the Monarch [Mon. 3.16.7–9], exposing that power in the temporal earthly realm is neither derived from nor dependent on spiritual authority. A human being consists of soul and body, its nature partakes of both the corruptible and the incorruptible. Uniting two natures, human existence must necessarily be ordered to the goals of both these natures.
Today, usury is the practice of charging exorbitant amounts of interest on a loan, but in the Middle Ages, it was considered usury to charge any interest on a loan at all. The 7th Circle is concerned with various sins of violence. In this canto, Dante and Virgil enter an area reserved for sinners guilty of usury. The idea is to keep separated the branches of government with the banks and the church, to have each individual decide and care for their relationship to authority, value, and faith.
All the blind faith has made people less accountable, for they still trust institutions to take care of themselves. Now, reading about the collapse of banks in the paper is becoming more normal, but what is not normal is to accept that this is the way it should be…
REVOLT, now BITCOIN solves that “banking” problem
Dante criticized the misuse of power by the political leaders of his time, and he was exiled from his native Florence for his political beliefs; the Divine Comedy is a response to this event, employing allegorical figures to condemn the political and public figures, proposing a new form of government based on virtue.
The origin of the word corruption has to do with something gone stale, no longer pure, beyond accountability, bending morals, and driven by greed. In the Commedia many figures of great social responsibility dwell in Hell; the last 3 tiers of hell are the core of what has gone stale and crooked– heresy, fraud, violence, and betrayal.
A strong message that Dante conveys is a warning not to subdue secular authority in favor of religious authority because power, when left unchecked, often corrupts. Other themes are keeping obedience to outer authority, abandoning inner command to figures that portray leadership in realms of government and religion, and forgoing natural law by losing the common sense that could make a life lived meaningfully. If only one were like Dante after entering hell, and learning the importance of making a commitment, which is the first step towards social action.
THE PROPER RELATION of individual states (cities or kingdoms) to the empire and the separate and distinct functions of ecclesiastical and secular authority discussed in chapters one and two provide the political framework for the Comedy. Within that framework, each cantica presents a different but related model for human society.
Paradise is the ideal society in all its essential elements working harmoniously; Purgatory is a society in transition, moving from self-centeredness to concern for and commitment to others, but not yet organized within an effective structure. Hell reveals what society is when all its members act for themselves and against the common good. The souls here are condemned not just for their selfish motivations but also for the effects of their actions on others.
Dante’s point is that as civic beings, we are responsible not only for our actions but also for their results. The people he presents were all men and women of prestige and/or power, people in a position to influence others either directly or by example, and in one way or another, they all failed. The suffering, the violence, and the anarchy of Hell are a result of their failure to act up to their responsibilities or their outright abuse of those responsibilities.
Selfishness, greed for money, power, or pleasure, is the basis of the injustice that reigns in Hell, as charity is the basis of the justice that operates in Heaven.
The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy by Joan Ferrante
-Do you see why Dante is invested in sovereignty and would have supported a network that operates with numbers that are as sacred as Pythagoras and others held true?
you know I am talking about Bitcoin…
Time’s speed
I have become aware of many historic repetitions, and although I have that awareness I am still observing patterns and finding connections in between, in seeing every single opportunity there is to just breathe.
How dare I say these times are a simile of the times when Dante wrote his seminal work, the Divine Comedy, a brutally beautiful work of art that resonates in time? We are in the same frequency, as Pluto was in Aquarius back then, and Saturn was in Pisces– radical confrontations with corrupted institutions that give form, dissolving the past and allowing an openness to innovation, evolution, and a clear transformation of the timeline.
-why are we here if not to evolve?
Can we realign with our frequencies, the ones that shattered the crystals of your core design, and that are imprinted in your natal structural design? Your unconscious vessel that offers your evolution to take place as you move along the perception of all that is?
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates." "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.
The Kybalion
-Are you noticing the change? Are you still vibrating in the frequency of fear?
-What would be the worst thing that could happen if you embrace the darkness?
-Are you aware that there is a part of you that has been showing courage and is ready to let go of the vulnerabilities that at times seem to freeze you, or take you back to what is familiar, not necessarily the best outlet?
The time for really showing up is here revealed – no more masks… and it feels so free.
Sevens, threes, nines, and l’amoroso uso della Sapienza, the loving use of wisdom
The composition and structure of the poem, a spiritual journey towards the sublime, is divided into three: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each contains 33 cantos, mirroring the medieval theology of the trinity, and the hermetical triad.
-The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or the One, the Nous, and the Logos.
Its impetus is to show the horrors the soul goes through during the process of awakening to the light, and the darkness encountered during the hero’s journey of individuation.
The symbolism and connection to numerology persist throughout– he encounters 3 beasts, a three-headed dog (Cerberus), a three-faced Satan; 3 women pray for Dante, and there are 3 rings within the 7th circle of Hell. Dante travels through 7 terraces of purgatory, and 7 deadly sins are pictured in the 9 levels of Hell.
The number seven refers to harmonics, as there are seven deadly sins and seven terraces in Purgatorio. And nine is the number of the circles of hell, as well as the spheres in heaven. As for the love of knowledge and the more hermetic content, I shall explore that in the future, and I will add more about the redemption of love, Beatrice, as a metaphor for the connection to the Divine… and even his relationship to the secret societies, as La Fede Santa [the Templars] and the Sufis, and a mysterious group of ‘poets’ known in the literature as the Fideli D’Amore (the faithful to Love)...
O you possessed of sturdy intellects, observe the teaching which is hidden here beneath the veil of verses so obscure” Dante, Inferno section (IX, 61)

I say that by heaven I mean “science” and by heavens “the sciences”
Convivio II, xiii, 2
The anagogical is a method of mystical or spiritual interpretation of statements or events, especially scriptural exegesis, that detects allusions to the afterlife. Certain medieval theologians describe four methods of interpreting the scriptures: literal/historical, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical.
For the word “tetragon,” see Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi (“ParadisoXVII,” in Filologia e critica dantesca: Studi offerti a Aldo Vallone[Florence: Olschki, 1989], pp. 312-13) and Raffa (Divine Dialectic: Dante's Incarnational Poetry [Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2000], pp. 164-78), both of whom consider the two sets of meanings of the geometrical figure that may have influenced Dante's choice of the word here, defensive (it was reckoned by several authorities, including Aristotle and St. Thomas, to be the strongest shape capable of withstanding assault) and more positive (in one medieval tradition it is associated with Christ). Robert Hollander
Some grievous words; although I feel myself, In sooth foursquare against the blows of chance. Dante XVII Canto of Paradis
The adjective tetragon, from the Greek tetrágōnos, means "having four (tetra-) angles (gōníai)". This term from geometry is borrowed by Dante in the XVII canto of Paradise as a synonym for a firm, strong, resistant person, just like a solid with four vertices.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek menthere "to care," manthanein "to learn," mathēma "science, knowledge, mathematical knowledge;"