The Three Worlds
The differentiation of the three worlds, which constitutes the general plan of the Divine Comedy, is common to all traditional doctrines; but it takes diverse forms, and even in India there are two versions that, neither coinciding nor standing in contradiction, correspond simply to different points of view. According to one version the three worlds are the Underworld, the Earth, and the Heavens; according to the other, where the Underworld is no longer envisaged, they are the Earth, the Atmosphere (or intermediary region), and Heaven. In the first, one must admit that the intermediary region is considered simply as an extension of the terrestrial world, in much the same way that Dante views Purgatory-which can be identified with this region. On the other hand, and taking this assimilation into account, the second division is strictly equivalent to the distinctions made in Catholic doctrine between the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. Here again there can be no question of Hell. Finally, a variable number of subdivisions is frequently envisaged for the Heavens and the Underworld; but in all such cases it is a question of a hierarchical apportionment of the levels of existence-which are really of an indefinite multiplicity,
and can be classified differently according to the analogous correspondences that one selects as a basis for symbolic representation.
The Heavens are the superior states of the being; the Underworld, as the name itself indicates, is the inferior state. When we say 'superior' and 'inferior' this must be understood in relation to the human or terrestrial state, which is naturally taken as a term of comparison since it serves necessarily as our starting point. It is easy to understand that real initiationmeaning the conscious acquisition of superior states-can be described symbolically as an ascension or 'celestial journey'; but one could ask why this ascension must be preceded by a descent to the Underworld. There are several reasons for this, but these we cannot fully explain now, as it would require too long a digression and lead us too far from the special subject of our present study. We will say only that this descent is on the one hand like a recapitulation of the states that logically precede the human state, that have determined its particular conditions, and that must also partake in the 'transformation' to be accomplished; on the other hand, the descent allows the manifestation, according to certain modalities, of the possibilities of an inferior order that the being still carries in an undeveloped state, and that must be exhausted before it can attain the realization of the higher states. It must be emphasized moreover that there can be no question of the being actually returning to those states through which it has already passed; it can only explore these states indirectly, by becoming aware of the traces they have left in the most obscure regions of the human state itself; and this is why the Underworld is represented symbolically as situated in the interior of the Earth.
The Heavens on the contrary are superior states (and not merely their reflection in the human state) whose uppermost
extensions constitute only the intermediary region, or Purgatory-the mountain on whose summit Dante places the Terrestrial Paradise. The real object of initiation is not merely the restoration of the 'Edenic state' (which is only a stage on a path that must lead much higher, since it is beyond this stage that the 'celestial journey' really begins), but the active conquest of the 'supra-human' states; for as Dante remarks, following the Gospel, "Regnum coelorum violenzia pate ..."[57] and this is one of the essential differences that exist between initiates and mystics. In other words, the human state must first be brought to its full development by the complete realization of its inherent possibilities (and this plenitude is what must be understood here by the 'Edenic state'); however, far from being the end, this will be only the foundation on which the being will have to stand in order to "salire alle stelle"[58] that is to say, to raise himself to the higher states symbolized by the planetary and stellar spheres in the language of astrology, and by the angelic hierarchies in that of theology. There are therefore two stages to distinguish in the ascension, but the first is in truth only an ascension in relation to normal humanity (the height of a mountain, whatever it may be,
nothing in comparison to the distance that separates the Earth from the Heavens); in reality, it is more an extension, since it is the complete development of the human state. The unfolding of the possibilities of the total being takes place first in the direction of 'fullness', and then in that of 'exaltation' (to use terms borrowed from Islamic esoterism); and we will add that this distinction of two stages corresponds to the ancient one between the 'lesser mysteries' and the 'greater mysteries'.
The three phases with which the three parts of the Divine Comedy are concerned can also be explained by reference to the Hindu doctrine of the three gunas: these are the qualitiesor rather the fundamental tendencies-from which all manifested being proceeds. Beings are arrayed hierarchically in the totality of the three worlds-that is to say, in all the degrees of universal existence-according to which tendency predominates in them. The three gunas are: sattwa-conformity to the pure essence of Being, which is identical to the Light of Knowledge and is symbolized by the luminosity of the celestial spheres that represent the higher states; rajas-impulsion that provokes the expansion of the being in a given state (such as the human), or, if one wishes, the unfolding of this being up to a certain level of existence; and, finally, tamas-obscurity, equated with ignorance, the dark root of the being considered in its lower states. Thus sattwa, which is an upward tendency, refers to the higher and luminous states, or to the Heavens, and tamas, which is a downward tendency, refers to the inferior and dark states, or to the Underworld. Rajas, which could be represented as an extension in the horizontal sense, refers to the intermediary world (here the 'world of man', since it is our level of existence that we are taking as term of comparison), which we must regard as consisting of the Earth together with Purgatory-that is to say, of the whole of the corporeal
and the psychic world. We see that this corresponds exactly to the first of the two ways of looking at the division of the three worlds that we mentioned previously; and the passage from one to another of these three worlds can be described as resulting from a change in the general direction of the being, or from a change (by virtue of its predominance) in the guna that determines this direction. There is a Vedic text in which the three gunas are presented in precisely this way, the one changing into the other in an ascending order: "All was tamas: It [the Supreme Brabma] decreed a change, and tamas took the complexion [that is to say the nature] of rajas [intermediate between darkness and luminosity]; and rajas, having been commanded once more, assumed the nature of sattwa." This text outlines the organisation of the three worlds, starting from the primordial chaos of possibilities, and conforming to the order of generation and the succession of the cycles of universal existence. Moreover, in order to realize all its possibilities, each being must pass-in the particular way suited to its nature-through states that correspond, respectively, to these different cycles; and this is why initiation, which aims at the total realization of the being, must necessarily proceed through these same phases: the initiatic process rigorously reproduces the cosmogonic process, according to the constitutive analogy of macrocosm and microcosm. [59]