The Secret Language of Dante

and the 'Fedeli d'Amore' Le Langage secret de Dante et des « Fidèles d'Amour », March 1932.

We have previously devoted an article here (in February 1929) to the important work published under this same title by Mr. Luigi Valli; last year we learned of the sudden and premature death of the author, whose other studies we had hoped were no less worthy of interest; then a second volume came to us bearing the same title as the first and containing within it the answers to the objections which were targeted at the thesis, and a number of additional notes.^[238] Objections, bearing witness to a misunderstanding for which we have no reason to be surprised as it easily foreseen, which can be reduced almost entirely to two categories: some emanate from 'literary critics' imbued with all the scholarly and academic prejudices, and others from Catholic circles where they do not wish to admit that Dante belonged to an initiatic organization; all agree, albeit for different reasons, to deny the existence of esoterism, even where it appears with the most manifest evidence. The author seems to attach a greater importance to the former, which he discusses at much greater lengths than the latter; for ourselves, we would have been tempted to do the exact opposite, seeing in the latter a much more serious symptom of the distortion of the modern mentality; but this difference of perspective is explained by the special point of view to which Mr. Valli wishes to place himself in, which is that of a 'research' and a historian. From this far too exterior point of view results a number of gaps and inaccuracies of language which we have already pointed out in our previous article; Mr. Valli recognizes, precisely in connection with this, that "he has never had contact with initiatic traditions of any kind," and that “his mental training is clearly critical;” it is all the more remarkable then that he has arrived at conclusions so far removed from those of ordinary 'criticisms,' which is rather astonishing on the part of someone who affirms his wish to be 'a man of the twentieth century.' It is none the less regrettable that he refuses to be biased in comprehending the notion of traditional orthodoxy, that he persists in applying the unfortu-nate term 'sects' to initiatic and non-religious organizations, and that he denies having confused the 'mystic' and the 'initiate,' when he precisely repeats this again throughout this second volume; but these faults must not prevent us from recognizing the great merit of this 'layman,' of which he wishes to be and to remain, who has seen a good part of the truth in spite of all the obstacles that his education naturally brings with it, and to have said it without fear of the contradictions which would be attracted by those who have some interest in all this being disregarded. We will note only two or three typical examples from the misunder-standings of the academic 'critics:' some have even claimed that poetry which is beautiful cannot be symbolic; it seems to them that a work of art can only be admired if it means nothing, and that the existence of a profound meaning destroys its artistic value! This is clearly expressed as clearly as possible, this 'profane' conception which we have recently pointed out on several occasions, with regards to art in general, and po-etry in particular, as a completely modern degeneration and as contrary to the character that the arts, as well as the sciences, originally possessed and they always had in any traditional civilization. Note in this concep-tion a rather interesting formula quoted by Mr. Valli: in all medieval art, as opposed to modern art, “it is about the incarnation of an idea, and not of the idealization of a reality;” we would say a reality of a sensory order, because the idea is also a reality, and even of a higher degree; this ‘incar-nation of the idea' in a form is nothing else than the same symbolism. Others have made a really comical objection: it would be 'wretched,' they claim, to write in 'jargon,' which is to say in conventional language; they obviously see in this a kind of cowardice and concealment. As a matter of fact, Mr. Valli himself insisted, perhaps a bit too exclusively, and as we have already noted, on the desire of the 'Fedeli d'Amore' to hide for reasons of prudence; it is indisputable that this actually existed, and it was a necessity imposed on them by circumstance; but this is only the slightest and most external reason for their usage of a language that was not only conventional but also, and above all, symbolic. Similar ex-amples would be found in other circumstances, where there would have been no danger in speaking clearly if this had been possible; it can be said that, even then, there was an advantage in excluding those who were not 'qualified,' which is already a concern other than a simple prudence; but what must be said above all is that truths of a certain order, by their very nature, can only express themselves symbolically. Finally, there are some who have found the existence of a symbolic poetry unlikely in the 'Fedeli d'Amore' because it would constitute a 'unique case,' whereas Mr. Valli had endeavored to show precisely that the same had existed in the Orient at the same time, especially in Persian poetry. One may even add that this symbolism of love has sometimes also been used in India; and to stick to the Muslim world, it is rather odd that one always speaks almost exclusively in this respect of Persian poetry, whereas one can easily find similar examples in Arabic poetry, of a character which is no less esoteric, for example in ‘Umar ibn Al-Fārid. Let us add that many other 'veils' have been also used in the poetic expressions of Şūfism, including that of skepticism, examples of which are 'Umar al-Khayyām and Abū al-'Alā al-Ma'arrī; especially for the latter, very few know that he was in fact a high-ranking initiate; and, as we have not seen it said elsewhere so far, it is particularly curious for the subject before us that his Risālat al-Ghufrān could be regarded as one of the principal Islamic ‘sources' of the Divine Comedy.

As for the obligation imposed on all members of an initiatic organization to write in verse, it was perfectly in keeping with the character of the 'sacred language' of poetry; as Mr. Valli quite rightly states, it was far more than “to make literature,” a goal that Dante and his contemporaries never had, which, he adds ironically, “were wrong in not having read the books of modern criticism. Even in very recent times, in certain esoteric Muslim fraternities, each year on the occasion of the Shaykh's mawlīd, each have to present a composed poem in which he strove, even at the expense of the perfection of form, to enclose a more or less profound doctrinal meaning.

With regards to the new notes made by Mr. Valli and which pave the way for further research, one of them relates to the links between Joachim de Fiore with the ‘Fedeli d'Amore:' Fiore is one of the most common symbols in poetry of this type, synonymous with Rosa; and, under this title Fiore, an Italian adaptation of the Roman de la Rose was written by a Florentine named Durante, who is almost certainly Dante himself.^[239] Furthermore, the name of the convent of San Giovanni di Fiore, from which Gioacchino di Fiore took his name, does not appear anywhere before him; is it he who gave himself this, and why has he chosen this name? Remarkably, Joachim de Fiore speaks in his works of a symbolic 'widow,' just as Francesco da Barberino and Giovanni Boccaccio did, both of which belonged to the 'Fedeli d'Amore;' and we will add that, even today, this 'widow' is well known in Masonic symbolism. In this regard, it is unfortunate that political concerns seem to have prevented Mr. Valli from making some very striking comparisons; no doubt, he is right to say that the initiatic organizations in question are not Masonic, but between them the link is unquestionable; is it not curious, for example, that the 'wind' has exactly the same significance in the language of the 'Fedeli d'Amore' as 'rain' in that of Masonry? Another important point is that concerning the relationship of the 'Fedeli d'Amore' with the alchemists: a particularly significant symbol in this respect can be found in Francesco de Barberni's Documenti d'Amore. It is a figure in which twelve characters arrange symmetrically and which form six couples representing so many initiatic degrees, leads to a single character placed in the center; the latter, which carries in its hands the symbolic rose, has two heads, one male and the other female, and is obviously identical to the Hermetic Rebis. The only notable difference with the figures that are found in the alchemical treatises is that it is the right side that is male and the left side is female, whereas here we find the opposite disposition; this peculiarity seems to have escaped Mr. Valli, who nevertheless gives the explanation himself, without seeming to no- tice it, when he says that “the man with his passive intellect is united with active intelligence, represented by the woman," whereas generally it is the masculine that symbolizes the active element and the feminine the passive element. What is most remarkable is that this kind of reversal of the ordinary relation is also found in the symbolism employed by Hindu Tantrism; and the link is even stronger when we see Cecco d'As- coli say “onde io son ella,” exactly like the Shaktas, instead of saying So'ham, 'I am He,' (the Ana Huwa of Islamic esoterism), say Sa'ham, 'I am She.' Furthermore, Mr. Valli notes that, next to the Rebis figured in the Rosarium Philosophorum, we a kind of tree bearing six pairs of faces arrange symmetrically on each side of the steam and a single face at the top, which he identifies with the characters of the figure of Francesco da Barberino; it seems to effectively be in both cases an initiatic hierarchy and seven degrees, the last degree being essentially characterized by the reconstitution of the Hermetic Androgyne, which is to say, on the whole as the restoration of the 'primordial state;' and this is consistent with what we have had the opportunity to say here about the meaning of the 'Rose-Cross' as designating the perfection of the human state. On the subject of the seven degree initiation, we have spoken in our study on The Esoterism of Dante of the seven-step ladder; it is true that these, gen- erally, are put in correspondence with the seven planetary heavens, which refers to superhuman states; but, by reason of analogy, there must be in the same initiatic system a similarity of hierarchical distribution between the 'lesser mysteries' and the 'greater mysteries.' Moreover, the being reintegrated into the center of the human state is thereby ready to rise to the higher states, and he already dominates the conditions of ex- istence in this world of which he has become master; this is why the Rebis of the Rosarium Philosophorum has under its feet the moon, and that of Basil Valentine the dragon; this meaning has been completely misunder-stood by Mr. Valli, who has seen it only as symbols of a corrupt doctrine or 'the error that oppresses the world,' whereas, in reality, the moon rep-resents the domain of forms (the symbolism is the same as that of the 'walk on the waters'), and the dragon here is the figure of the elementary world. Mr. Valli, while having no doubts about Dante's relationship with the Templars of which there is many indications, raises a discussion about the medal in the Vienna Museum, which we discussed in The Esoterism of Dante; when he wished to see this medal, he found that the two faces had been united later and had belonged first to two different medals; moreover, he recognizes that this strange operation did not have to be done without some reason. As for the initials F. S. K. I. P. F. T., which appears on the reverse, they are for him the seven virtues: Fides, Spes, Karitas, Justitia, Prudentia, Fortitudo, Temperantia, although there is an anomaly in the fact that they are arranged in two lines of four and three instead of being three and four as it would be the distinction of the three theological virtues and the four cardinal virtues; as they are joined with laurel and olive branches, “which are properly the two sacred plants of the initiates," he admits that this interpretation does not necessarily ex-clude the existence of another more hidden meaning; and we will add that the anomalous spelling of Karitas, rather than Charitas, could have been necessitated precisely by this dual meaning. Besides, we have also pointed out in the same study the initiatic role given to the three theo-logical virtues, which has been preserved in the eighteenth degree of Scottish Masonry;^[240] in addition, the septenary of virtues is formed of an upper ternary and a lower quaternary, which indicates sufficiently that it is constituted according to esoteric principles; and finally it can, just as the 'liberal arts' (divided into a trivium and quadrivium too), correspond-ing to the seven echelons to which we alluded a moment ago, especially since 'Faith' (the Fede Santa) is still at the peak of the 'mysterious ladder' of the Kadosch; therefore all of this forms a much more coherent whole than superficial observers can believe. On the other hand, Mr. Valli discovered Dante's original medal at the same Vienna Museum, and the reverse of it presents an even stranger and enigmatic figure: a heart placed in the center of a system of circles that has the appearance of a celestial sphere, which may not be one in reality, and which is not accompanied with any inscription.^[241] There are three meridian circles and four parallel circles, which Mr. Valli relates again respectively to the three theological virtues and to the four cardinal virtues; which would lead us to believe that this interpretation must be cored, it is above all the accuracy of the application which is made, in this arrangement, to the vertical meaning and the horizontal meaning to the relations of the contemplative life and the active life, or of the spir- itual authority and the temporal power governing one and the other, to which these two groups of virtues correspond, that an oblique circle, completing the figure (and forming with the others the number 8, which is that of equilibrium), connects in perfect harmony under the radiation of the 'doctrine of love.’^[242] One last note concerning the secret name that the 'Fedeli d'Amore' gave to God: in Francesco da Barbernio's Tractatus Amoris, represented himself in an attitude of adoration before the letter I, and in the Divine Comed Adam says that the first name of God was I,^[243] the next being El. This letter I, which Dante calls the 'ninth figure' according to its rank in the Latin alphabet (and we know what symbolic importance the number 9 had for him), is obviously none other than the yod, although this is the tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet; and the yod, besides being repre- sented by the first letter of the Tetragrammaton, constitutes a divine name by itself, either isolated or repeated thrice.^[244] It is the same yod which, in Masonry, became the letter G, by assimilation with God (be- cause it was in England that this assimilation took place); this being with- out prejudice against the other multiple meanings which came second- arily in this same letter G, and which is not our intention to examine here. It is to be hoped, while saddened by the demise of Mr. Luigi Valli, that he finds successors in this field of research, which is as vast as it is so far explored; and it seems that this must be so, since he himself informs us that he has already been followed by Mr. Gaetanu Scarlata, who has de-voted a work^[245] to the special study of the treatise De vulgari eloquentia by Dante, a book also “full of mysteries," as Rossetti and Aroux had clearly seen, and while it seems to speak simply on the Italian idiom, it relates in reality to the secret language, following a process also used in Islamic esoterism where, as we have pointed out on another occasion, an initiatic work can assume the appearance of a simple treatise on gram-mar. Many other discoveries will likely be made in this same order of ideas; and even if those who devote themselves to this only personally bring a 'profane' mentality (on the condition that it is impartial) and see there only the object of a sort of historical curiosity the results obtained will not be less apt in themselves, and for those who will know to under-stand their full significance, to contribute effectively to a restoration of the traditional spirit: are these works, unconscious and involuntary as they are, attached to the 'search for the Lost Word,' which is the same as the 'Quest for the Grail?'

Hermes Hermès, April 1932.

In speaking here of the Hermetic tradition (April 1931 issue), we have said that it properly refers to a knowledge which is not metaphysical, but only cosmological, by seeing in it the dual application of the 'macrocosmic' and the 'microcosmic.' This affirmation has not had the good fortune in pleasing some, despite it being an expression of the strict truth, and they see Hermetism through their own fantasy which would like to make everything fit indistinctly; it is true that they do know know what pure metaphysics can be... Be that as it may, it must be understood that we have not intended to deprecate the traditional sciences which fall within the domain of Hermetism, nor those which correspond to them in other doctrinal traditional forms of the Orient or of the Occident; but it is necessary to know how each thing falls in place and these sciences, like all specialized knowledge, are secondary and derived from the principles, of which they are only the applications to a lower order of reality. Only those wish to attribute to the 'Royal Art' the pre-eminence over the 'Sacerdotal Art' can claim the opposite; ^[246] perhaps it is precisely here, at its essence, the more or less conscious reason for these protests which we have just alluded to. Without concerning ourself with what everyone thinks or says, because it is not our wont to take into account those individual opinions which do not exist in the light of tradition, it does not seem useless to us to make some new clarifications concerning what has already been said, and this refers particularly with what concerns Hermes, since at the least no one can deny that it is from this that Hermetism has its name.^[247] The Greek Hermes does indeed have characters which correspond exactly to what is in question, and which is expressed particularly by his principal attribute, the caduceus, which we have no doubt we will examine the symbolism more completely on another occasion; for the moment, it will suffice to say that this symbolism relates essentially and directly to what may be called 'human alchemy, '^[248] which concerns the possibilities of the subtle state, even if these should only be taken as the preparatory means of a higher realization, as in the Hindu tradition, the equivalent practices come under Hatha-Yoga. We can also transfer this to the cosmic order, since all that is in man has his correspondence in the world and inversely so;^[249] here again, because of this very correspondence, it will properly be the 'intermediate world,' where forces are implemented whose dual na-ture is clearly represented by the two serpents of the caduceus. We will also recall in this respect, that Hermes is represented as the messenger of the Gods and as their interpreter (hermeneutes), a role which is indeed that of an intermediary between the celestial and terrestrial worlds, and that he also has the function of a 'psychopomp,' which in a lower order, obviously also relates to the realm of subtle possibilities.^[250] Perhaps one may object when it relates to Hermetism, that Hermes takes the place here of the Egyptian Thoth which he has been identified with, and that Thoth properly represents Wisdom, relating to the priest-hood as a conservator and transmitter of tradition; this is true, but since call 'Kabbalah' a doctrine that is not specifically Hebrew. Without a doubt, if we write in Hebrew we would say qabbalah refers to tradition in general, just as writing in Arabic, we would call tasawwuf initiation in any form whatsoever: but, transported into another language, the Hebrew, Arabic, etc., words must be reserved for the traditional forms whose languages of origin are their respective expressions, whatever the comparisons or even the assimilations to which they may give rise legitimately; and we must in no way confuse a certain order of knowledge considered within itself with this or that special form, of which it has been clothed in certain historical circumstances.

this assimilation cannot be made without reason it must be admitted that in this we must consider more specifically a certain aspect of Thoth, cor- responding to a certain part of the tradition, which includes knowledge relating to the 'intermediary world;' in fact, all that can be known of the ancient Egyptian civilization, according to the vestiges of what it left, shows precisely that knowledge of this order was much more developed and had taken on an importance which is more significant than any- where else. For the rest, there is another link, we may even say an equiv- alence, which shows that this objection would be without real signifi- cance: in India, the planet Mercury (or Hermes) is called Budha, whose real root properly means Wisdom; here again it is enough to determine the order in which this Wisdom, which in its essence is indeed the in- spiring principle of all knowledge, must find its more particular applica- tion when relating to this specialized function.^[251] Regarding this name Budha, it is a curious fact to note that it is iden- tical to the Scandinavian Odin, Woden, or Wotan;^[252] so it is not arbitrary that the Romans assimilated him to their Mercury, and anyway, in the Germanic languages Wednesday, or the day of Mercury, is currently stilled designated the day of Odin. Perhaps what is even more remark- able is that this same name if found exactly as the votan of the ancient Central American traditions, which also has the attributes of Hermes in Quetzalcohuatl, the 'Bird-Snake,' and the union of these two symbolic animals (corresponding respectively to the elements of air and fire) is also represented as the wings and serpents of the caduceus.^[253] You would have to be blind to not see, in facts of this type, a mark of the innate unity of all traditional doctrines; unfortunately, such a blindness is all too common in our times when those who really know how to read the symbols are no more than a disabled minority, and where, on the other hand, there are too many 'laymen' who believe themselves qualified to interpret 'sacred science,' which they accommodate according to their more or less disordered imagination. Another point that is not less interesting: in the Islamic tradition, Sayyidūnā Idrīs is identified in both Hermes and Enoch; this dual assimilation seems to indicate a continuity of tradition that goes beyond the Egyptian priesthood, the latter having only been an inheritance of what Enoch represents, which clearly is related to an earlier period.^[254] At the same time, the sciences attributed to Idrīs and placed under his special influence are not purely the spiritual sciences, which are linked to Sayyidūnā Īsā, which is to say Christ; these are the sciences that can be described as 'intermediary,' among which are, primarily, alchemy and astrology; and these are indeed the sciences which can be said to be properly 'Hermetic.' But here is another consideration which could, at first sight at least, be regarded as a rather strange reversal compared to the usual correspondences: among the first prophets, there is one, as we shall see in a future study, which presides over each of the seven planetary heavens, of which he is the ‘Pole' (Al-Qutb); it is not Sayyidūnā Idrīs who presides over the sky of Mercury, but Sayyidūnā Īsā, and Sayyidūnā Idrīs presides over the sky of the Sun; naturally, this entails the same transposition in the astrological correspondences of the sciences which are respectively attributed to them. This raises a very complex question, which we cannot claim to deal with entirely here; it may be that we have the opportunity to return to this, but for the moment we will limit ourselves to a few remarks which will perhaps make it possible to foresee the solution, and which, in any case, will at least show that there is some-thing more than a mere confusion, and what would risk being regarded as such in the eyes of the superficial and 'external' observer is in reality based on very profound reasons. First, this is not an isolated case in the ensemble of traditional doc-trines, because something quite similar can be found in Hebrew angelol-ogy: generally, Michael is the angel of the Sun and Raphael is the angel of Mercury, but sometimes these roles are reversed. Furthermore, if Mi-chael, representing the solar Metatron, is esoterically assimilated to Christ, ^[255] Raphael is, according to the nature of his name, the 'divine healer,' and Christ also appears as the 'spiritual healer' and as the 'spir-itual revivifier;' moreover, one can find other relations between Christ and the principle represented by Mercury among the planetary spheres.^[256] It is true that among the Greeks medicine was attributed to Apollo, which is the solar principle, and to his son Asclepius (of which the Latins made Aesculapius); but in the 'Hermetic books,' Asclepius be-comes the son of Hermes, and it is also to be remarked that the staff which is his attribute has a close symbolic relationship with the cadu-ceus. ^[257] Cet exemple de la médecine permet d'ailleurs de comprendre comment une même science peut avoir des aspects qui se rapportent en réalité à des ordres différents, d'où des correspondances également dif-férentes, même si les effets extérieurs qui en sont obtenus sont apparem-ment semblables, car il y a la médecine purement spirituelle ou « théur-gique », et il y a aussi la médecine hermétique ou « spagyrique »; ceci est en relation directe avec la question que nous envisageons présentement; et peut-être expliquerons-nous quelque jour pourquoi la médecine, au point de vue traditionnel, était considérée essentiellement comme une science sacerdotale.

On the other hand, there is almost always a close connection between Enoch (Sayyidūnā Idrīs) and Elijah (Sayyidūnā Dhū al-Kifl), both taken to heaven without passing through the corporeal death,^[258] and the Is- lamic tradition places them both in the solar sphere. In teh same manner, following the Rosicrucian tradition, Elias Artista, who presides over the Hermetic 'Great Work,'^[259] resting in the 'Solar Citadel,' which is also properly the residence of the 'Immortals' (in the sense of the Chirajivis of the Hindu tradition, which is to say, being 'endowing with longevity,' or whose life perpetuates throughout the cycle), ^[260] and represents one of the aspects of the 'Center of the World.' All this is undoubtedly worth of reflection, and if we add to this the traditions which symbolically equate the Sun itself with the fruit of the 'Tree of Life,'^[261] we can understand that the special relationship that exists between solar influence and Her- metism, for the latter, as the 'lesser mysteries' of antiquity, has for its essential aim is the restoration of the human 'primordial state:' is it not the 'Solar Citadel' of the Rose-Cross that must ‘descend from Heaven to Earth' at the ending of the cycle, in the form of the 'Celestial Jerusalem,' realizing the 'quadrature of the circle' according to the perfect measure of the 'golden reed?'