[This is an audio version of a talk with images, which is on my YouTube channel.]
Making sense of why Dante had to travel through hell, what was going on in purgatory, and how that's all linked to the destination of heaven, comes with appreciating how, in the spiritual life, descent and ascent are profoundly linked.
Dante explores the links between virtues and vices, moving beyond the literal, high places are risky places, desiring not more but it all, the cross and failures as digressions, the emptiness that opens to fullness, and how hell is the way human beings discover the reality of heaven.
For more on Dante do see - https://www.markvernon.com/dantes-divine-comedy.
Details of my book, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey, are here - https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book