The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 16 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
First Dialogue-o
Because those lights which made present the illuminating, acting intellect and sun of intelligence found easy ingress through his eyes; that of Truth (the intellect of Truth?) through the door of the intellectual faculty; that of Goodness (intellect of Goodness?) through the door of the appetitive faculty, to the heart, that is, the substance of the general affection.
This was that double ray, which came as from the hand of an irate warrior, who showed himself, now, as ready and as bold, as aforetime he had appeared weak and negligent.[I] Then, when he first felt warmed and illuminated in his conception, was that victorious point and moment of which it is said: Vicit instans.
[I] He takes it by assault, without offering battle: the heart is unable to resist him.—("Spiritual Torrents.") Thus you can understand the sense of the following figure, legend and sonnet, which says:— 49.
I fought with all my strength, 'gainst Love Divine When he assailed with blows from every side This cold, enamelled, adamantine heart, Whence my desires defeated his intent.
At last, one day, 'twas as the heavens had willed.
Encamped I found him in those holy lights Which, through mine own alone, of all the rest An easy entrance to my heart could find.
'Twas then upon me fell that double bolt, Flung as from hand of irate warrior Who had for thirty years besieged in vain.
He marked that place and strongly there he held, Planted the trophy there, and evermore He holds my fleet wings in restrainment.
Meanwhile since then with more solemnity of preparation The anger and the ire of my sweet enemy Cease not to wound my heart.
Rare moment was that; the end of the beginning and perfection of victory; rare were those two species which amongst all others found easy entrance, seeing that they contain in themselves the efficacy and the virtue of all the others; for what higher and more excellent form can present itself than that of the beauty, goodness and truth, which are the source of every other truth, beauty, and goodness?
"He marked that place"—that is, took possession of the affections, noted them, and impressed upon them his own character; "and strongly there he held;" he confirmed and established them and sanctified them so that he can never again lose them; for it is not possible that one should turn to love any other thing when once he has conceived in his mind the Divine Beauty, and it is as impossible that he can do other than love it, as it is impossible that his desires should fall otherwise than towards good, or species of good.
Therefore his inclination is in the highest degree towards the primal good.
So again, the wings, which used to be so fleet to go downwards with the weight of matter, are kept in restrainment, and the sweet augers which are the efficacious assaults of the gracious enemy, who has been for so long time kept back, and excluded, a stranger and a pilgrim, never cease to wound, soliciting the affections and awakening thought.
But now, the sole and entire possessor and disposer of the soul, for she neither wills nor wishes to will other, nor is she pleased, nor will she that any other please her, whence he often says:— Dolci ire, guerra dolce, dolci dardi, Dolci mie piaghe, miei dolci dolori!
X.
Ces.
It would seem that we have nothing more to consider upon this proposition.
Let us see now, how this quiver and bow of Eros display the sparks around, and the knot of the string, which hangs down with the legend, which is: Subito, clam.
Mar.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The transformation of the 'adamantine heart' into a sanctified state mirrors spiritual alchemy.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
Specific divine lights enter specific human faculties (eyes/intellect, heart/appetite), reflecting cosmic structure.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The 'easy ingress' of lights through specific doors suggests hidden affinities between divine and human.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The soul 'neither wills nor wishes to will other', indicating a radical letting-go of personal will.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] The passage repeatedly references 'lights', 'illuminating intellect', and 'holy lights' entering the faculties as the primary mechanism of divine encounter.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
[auto] The imagery of an 'irate warrior', 'sweet enemy', and 'Dolci ire' reflects the ecstatic rapture and reframed madness central to Bruno's furor.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The event is described as 'as the heavens had willed', indicating divine ordering.
Bruno's eroici furori — a passionate, ennobling spiritual ardor that drives the soul toward divine wisdom; distinguished from base or animal passions by its orientation to infinite truth.
[auto] The passage is from 'The Heroic Enthusiasts' and describes the 'irate warrior' Love assaulting the soul with 'sweet anger', embodying Bruno's concept of ennobling spiritual ardor.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
The text describes the ascent via Eros ('Love Divine') culminating in the vision of Divine Beauty, central to Bruno's scala amoris.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Divine lights enter specific human faculties (eyes, intellect, heart), reflecting the cosmic structure within the human.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The divine is described as having been 'excluded, a stranger and a pilgrim' before the entrance.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The heart is 'sanctified' and the soul becomes possessed by the divine nature.