The First Step of Personal and Cultural Transformation
How Dante enters the Psychological Process of Rebuilding and Healing
After spending several Cantos in the mental preparation of the “Ante-Purgatory”, where slowness is a part of the nature of getting closer to a threshold point, the Pilgrim is suddenly transported up a part of the Mountain to where the real Gate of Purgatory is, in his sleep. And this is where the spark, the ignition, the life-changing moment can commence, when a transformation may begin.
The Gate has three coloured steps leading up to it, where the first one is of white marble, “and polished to the glaze of a looking glass”.
And this is where the first challenge is confronted, to take a hard look at oneself and one’s own misshapings, misunderstandings, and wrong ideas and apprehensions of the world and one’s own nature. In Dante’s words:
“I saw myself reflected as I was”.
But with that, the necessary threshold to begin has in many ways already been been surpassed. And this suggestion of the necessary first step could be applied to both a person, a community, or a culture on a much larger scale. An honest look and a real examination of itself. And then the improvements and a much better future could be closer than ever before.
The First Step of Personal and Cultural Transformation
Beautiful. So often we turn outward, trying to blame others for our problems. And even when that is true, we can’t do anything to change other people. We can only change ourselves. I love that the first step is seeing ourselves as we really are. Only with honesty can we make changes.