Dante, Inferno
The Storm of the Second Circle
The unceasing wind that carries the souls whose desire overruled reason.
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Cosmologies describe the order of a world and the places within it. Here, accounts of creation and the afterlife sit alongside named realms in particular texts. Read each world through the source that gives it form.
109 entries · A–Z
Dante, Inferno
The unceasing wind that carries the souls whose desire overruled reason.
Dante, Inferno
The dark marsh of the fifth circle, crossed before the city of Dis.
C. W. Leadbeater, The Hidden Life in Freemasonry
Leadbeater describes angels constructing a luminous geometric temple during a visionary ceremony.
William Blake’s illuminated poetry
The flower-filled home from which Thel questions passing life and to which she returns after her descent.
Dante, Inferno
The region before Acheron occupied by those who committed themselves to neither good nor evil.
Norwegian fairy tales: Old Tales from the North
The splendid dwelling entered through a steep hill, which vanishes when the girl loses the enchanted prince.
Goethe’s Faust, Part One
The supernatural household where the companions seek a change in Faust.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The fantastic destinations of Davis’s account of Shikaiya Wasobioye.
Egyptian funerary religion
The Egyptian otherworld in Tirard’s account, accommodating agricultural abundance, solar journeys and the deceased’s hope for bodily wholeness.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The heaven where the Buddha-elect waits before choosing the final earthly birth.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The sea realm where Urashima encounters lasting youth and simultaneous seasons.
Vishnu’s abode in Vaishnava devotion and theology
Explore Vaikuntha as Vishnu’s abode through Vaishnava teaching, Ramanuja’s devotional tradition and the festival of Vaikuntha Ekadashi.
The land of the dead in early Japanese narrative and later interpretation
Explore Yomi through the Kojiki, scholarly interpretation and a historical Library retelling, tracing the boundary between the living and the dead.