1

By the Beating of Our Own Wings

Over seven hundred years ago, an Italian poet by the name of Dante Alighieri wrote an epic poem entitled Divine Comedy—an allegorical representation of the soul’s journey to (or away from) God.

The first part of the poem contains a chilling description of the nine circles of hell. As Dante figuratively descends these nine levels, he details the torture and agony of the souls he witnesses along the way.

In the ninth circle, the very depth and center of hell, Dante encounters Satan: a massive, terrifying beast with six wings and three nightmarish faces of different colors. Upon his back rests the entire vestibule of hell—and surrounding him is an element that we all fear and dread.

Hellfire?

No, there is no fire in Satan’s level of torment.

According to Dante, instead of standing in the midst of fire, Satan is standing waist deep in a lake of solid ice.

If you think that’s strange, wait until you read this:

The emperor of the realm of grief protruded
From mid-breast up above the surrounding ice….

If he was truly once as beautiful
As he is ugly now, and raised his brows
Against his Maker—then all sorrow may well…

Two wings spread forth from under [his head]…

Strong, and befitting such a bird, immense—
I have never seen at sea so broad a sail—
Unfeathered, batlike, and issuing three winds

That went forth as he beat them, to freeze the whole
Realm of [hell] that surrounded him.
He wept with all [eyes], and the tears fell…¹

Did you catch that?

Satan’s lake of ice—Satan’s prison—is kept frozen by the beating of his own wings.

This is one of the most impressive ironies in literature because it symbolically illustrates three things: the isolation of hell, the stagnation of hell, and the fact that the isolation and stagnation of hell are of our own making. In his anger, frustration, and bitterness, Satan has sunk to the lowest levels of isolation. There, by the beating of his own wings, this fallen angel is “trapped,” crushed under the weight of his own victims and mired in a frozen lake of victimhood.

You see, in Dante’s Inferno (one of the three parts of The Divine Comedy), Satan has embraced the most damning philosophy of all time. This philosophy is contemptible and destructive, crushing hope and freezing its followers in a lake of stagnation. Instead of ennobling and strengthening those who embrace it, this belief drags men and women down. It encourages isolation, fosters fear, and perpetuates resentment. It robs men and women of their strength and will to fight; it makes them give in and fall down instead of holding true and standing up. Like a pernicious plague, this belief—if embraced—will stunt our growth and limit our life.

The philosophy?

I can’t change. I am a victim of my circumstances.

And yet, for all its horrifying consequences, we nevertheless cling to this damning belief to one degree or another. To make it go down easier, we sugarcoat it with pleasing justifications and reassure ourselves that this belief will soothe our pains. And for a time, it does. Like the addict who self-medicates with drugs or the alcoholic who escapes life through drink, we run to victimhood to make ourselves feel better. The belief that we’re not responsible for our actions gives us a buzz, or a temporary relief, before dropping us down lower than before.

It’s like eating a chocolate-covered razor blade—it tastes sweet at first, but after you swallow it, the chocolate wears off and the razor is exposed.

You see, victimhood is a vicious thing; it takes and tortures its prisoners. Unaware that the belief is the thing that is hurting us and halting us, we will continue to blame anything and everything around us—even our own bodies—but certainly not ourselves.

And so it is with Dante’s Satan. Blaming others for his misfortune, he sits at the bottom level of hell, trapped in a prison of his own making.

Although we are certainly not like the “fallen angel” of Dante’s Inferno, we can pull some powerful, personal lessons from his imprisonment.

Often, we may feel trapped, isolated, beaten down, and defeated. We may feel like our lives are pure hell. But in those moments, we must realize this one, powerful truth: we do have the power to stop “beating our wings” (or fists) at our problems. Again, we cannot always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we react. And more often than not, it is our reaction to the situation that liberates us—or damns us.

To get out of your own personal hell, you must recognize that you are a person of worth and that you have an inherent power to persist and strength to move forward. No matter what you might be tempted to think, there is always someone out there who believes in you. Use that belief in you to light a fire of belief in yourself. Believing in yourself will free you from stagnation and light the way forward.

Use the following affirmation as encouragement:

I choose to live by choice, not by chance.
I choose to make changes, not excuses.²

We are always free to choose—to act and not be acted upon. The sooner we embrace this belief and accept our responsibility, the sooner we will triumph over our circumstances and become a victor instead of a victim.