Notes


The most fundamental aspect of my site is that it has two complementary sides. The left side, derived from Dante's Divine Comedy, can be viewed as the Western or Yang or mental or left-hemisphere (of the brain) side of my project, and the right side, derived from many alternate spiritualities, can be viewed as the Eastern or Yin or intuitive or right-hemisphere (of the brain) side of my project. Together they form a whole, like Yang and Yin in Taoism, or the masculine and feminine in Alchemy.

Someone once concluded that the first canto of the Commedia must be the extra one (Inferno has 34, Purgatorio 33, and Paradiso 33), and most people since then have accepted this without question, but I look at the perfect 33, 33, 33 and see the 34th canto as the extra one. 3 and 9 (Beatrice's number) are Dante's core numbers. The 34th canto is the doorway to higher worlds. It is the extra one, so I have made it the basis of my project. 3 is my core number on the left side, and 4 is my core number on the right side. 3 and 4, or 34.

My mind is mathematical enough so that it was easy for me to create a new structure revolving around 4, which is the number of season's, directions, and ancient elements. This side of my visual poem has 256 stanzas, which is 4 to the 4th power. If you look at the intervals between sections, 4, 4, 8, 16, 28, 44, 64, and 88 you get 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24, and if you divide these by 4 you get 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and 6 is a mathematically "perfect" number. Further, the title of this side is Cyclic Dharma (CD is an inversion of DC), and there are eight spokes in the Buddhist wheel of dharma, so my topmost Bliss section is like two wheels of dharma (male and female) side by side. Further, 256 is also 2 to the 8th power.

4+4+8+16+28+44+64+88=256
4_4_8_16_28_44_64_88
0_4_8_12_16_20_24
0_1_2__3__4__5__6

Some divide creation into the lower and higher worlds. The mental is the highest lower world plane, and everything above is pure soul or being. My first plane above Mental is Light, which starts with 6 spectral color stanzas, red up through violet, mirroring the idea that creation is vibratory, like the electro-magnetic specrum. 6 is a perfect number. 28 is the next perfect number. There are 28 stanzas in my Light section. The other 22 stanzas are taken from the corresponding stanzas in Paradiso, Phoenix up through Circles, emphasizing both rebirth and the cyclic nature of life after life. I repeat this set of 22 themes two more times in Sound (44 stanzas), further emphasizing the cyclic nature of life after life. So, this is 3 cycles of these 22 themes. Add in the set over in Paradiso and it becomes 4. 3 and 4 again.

(22+22+22+22=88) Bliss (22+22+22+22=88)
[(4*4*4=64) Creation (4*4*4=64)]
(22+22=44) Sound (22+22=44)
(6+22=28) Light (6+22=28)

(16) Mental (16)
(8) Causal (8)
(4) Astral (4)
(4) Physical (4)

Also, you have (or will have) 4 sets of 22 tarot-related themes up above in Bliss (88 stanzas). Again 3 and 4. These 7 sets of 22 on the right side allow me to add in musical notes. The first set of 22 are in the keys of A major, A minor, and A major, the second set of 22 in B minor, B major, and B minor, and so on up through G major. Alternating major and minor in this way alludes to the Commedia line rhyme structure where the first and third line of each three-line group rhymes and also rhymes with the middle line of the next set of three. In the Commedia the topmost canto is God. In my Cyclic Dharma the topmost stanza will be "World in G(od)" completing the musical progression from A through G.

Then there is my Creation section between Bliss and Sound. It is in 64 stanzas, the number of hexagrams in the Taoist I Ching. All of the other stanzas include the month of creation. Here they do not because timelessness (of being and creation) are a theme here. The three columns in these stanzas are past, present, and future, all simultaneous. The hexagram line color progression, red up through violet, allude not only to the visible portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum, but also to the color progression of the body's chakras and to the evolution of soul's underlying color as it passes through lives, violet souls no longer incarnating, only serving as teachers on the other side. Timeless Creation is between C and D (Divine Comedy / Cyclic Dharma) in the context of my musical scale progression.

These are a few structural notes. There is more. For example each side of my visual poem scrolls, like Chinese scroll art. The grouping of sections from Astral up through Sound, which includes three 22-stanza sub-groupings of themes drawn from Paradiso, consists of 100 stanzas making it a journey through heavenly worlds that complements or balances the Commedia journey. The very right-side, left-side, with the middle different, mirrors the line structure of the Commedia. Most of the gallery pages (except for timeless creation) that appear between the two side strands of my project abstractly resemble a doule helix with their diamond form. Most of the gallery pages are in 9 over 9 thumbnail format, relating to Dante's La Vita Nuova. One exception is Creation where this 9 over 9 takes the form of I Ching hexagrams. The other is Bliss where 4 addition thumbnails are inserted yeilding 22 thumbnails in all, and since the 4 extra pieces are card flip pieces with 4 images each, or 4 times 4, the total number of images in the Bliss galleries is 34, the number of the canto in Inferno which serves as a gateway to the higher worlds.

Having said all of this, I am a sensual artist and love color. Compared to other 3D artists I could be viewed as a 3D expressionist. Some of my pieces change color, going through the whole spectrum. Counting the four introductory gallery pages, Inferno (1), Purgatorio (2), Paradiso (3), and Creativo (4), there are 360 gallery pages, or stanzas, in all, the number of degrees in a complete circle, making this project whole and complete. What comes after reaching Paradiso? Being a creator yourself.