4th Circle – Sun -384 Laws - (363)

Spendthrifts and Misers

In the fourth circle Dante and Virgil see something like a nation of souls divided into two parties. Where both parties heave and roll huge stones at one another, to only then roll the stones back towards themselves and then against each other once more, endlessly repeating the same.

One party is the hoarders and the other party is the wasters. The wasters shout “Why do you hoard?” and the hoarders shout “Why do you waste?”. They do this continuously without pause.

Dante sees that some of the hoarders were members of the clergy and that they are all so dim and without light. This is because excessive hoarding or squandering is a tremendous bottling of the consciousness and a denial of the light that will allow them to see their predicament. For example, gamblers lack the light to see that their squandering will lead them to complete ruin, and hoarders don’t see that they will die a lonely miserable death and will leave all their precious belongings behind. In fact many hoarders become so reclusive that they have no one to benefit when they die.   

  

Eternal Conflict

Hoarders and squanderers become so fixated in their position being a hoarder or squanderer that one can not understand the other, thus the eternal conflict between them. The clash of stones indicates that the extremes of both sides meet together in misery. The squander becomes the beggar and the hoarder becomes the lonely recluse. The heavy stones symbolize the effort and hard work both sides make to maintain their activities.

The mistake or error of the hoarders and misers is that they didn’t manage their goods with balance.

Plutus

Virgil and Dante are menaced by Plutus, however Virgil successfully silences him. Plutus is the Greek God of wealth and presides over this circle, see the image below.

Summary

“After deeply analysing this issue, we must solemnly state that squandering is as absurd as avarice. Within the common cosmic “Trogoautoegocratic” process we should always remain balanced. It is clear that the violation of the law of equilibrium brings painful karmic consequences.”

“The particular economy of each person, what each person earns and spends, etc also belongs to the great eternal common cosmic Trogoautoegocratic law.”

End (363).