The Point of Light
Near the end of the Paradiso, Dante looks up and sees a single point, and nine rings of fire turning round it. The nearest turns the fastest. Rise through them.
“A point beheld I, that was raying out
Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles
Must close perforce before such great acuteness.”
“The primal circles
Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim.”
IX
Angels
Messengers
“From that point
Dependent is the heaven and nature all.”
The order is Dionysius’s
Dante ranks the rings as Dionysius did, the order this site descends through. Gregory the Great had ranked them otherwise. In heaven, Dante says, he saw his error, and smiled.
“But Gregory afterwards dissented from him;
Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes
Within this heaven, he at himself did smile.”