In Plato’s Symposium, the ascent to Beauty has three stages: (A) experiencing beauty in things, (B) experiencing beauty in souls, (C) experiencing the idea of Beauty itself. That is, there is a shift of focus, from (A) outside us (extra nos), to (B) within us (intra nos), to (C) above us (supra nos): extraversion, introversion and supraversion. St. Augustine (354-430) adopted this basic scheme, but divided it into seven substages. However, Dante was following St. Bonaventura (1221-1274), who split each of Plato’s stages in two, giving the six stages of ascent, which correspond to Dante’s six guides (Virgil, Cato, Statius, Matilda, Beatrice, St. Bernard).

In On the Dimension of the Soul, St. Augustine distinguishes three powers of the soul (relating to matter, the soul and God), which he then subdivides into seven degrees:

The degrees of the soul may be described briefly as follows:

1. Animation, vitality: This power gives life to the body, regulating its nourishment, growth and generation.
2. Sensation: The power of sensation and locomotion, by which the soul seeks what is suitable for the body. The generation, care, protection and nourishing of offspring.
3. Art, reason: The power of reason and thought, which is the power proper to human beings.
4. Virtue, evaluation: Moral goodness and true worth. The soul distinguishes the good of the world from its own good. At this stage the soul withdraws from baser things and cleanses itself.
5. Tranquillity, stabilization: In the previous stage the soul made itself pure, but now it must maintain its purity. As a result it is in a state of joy, for it fears nothing and is disturbed by nothing.
6. Approach, fixation: The soul advances to the Truth itself (i.e. God). This is the soul’s highest vision, but to be able to maintain a calm and steady gaze on the light of Truth, the soul’s vision must have been cleansed (in stage IV) and protected and strengthened (stage V); otherwise the light will be misperceived or rejected. (One may compare the experience of the light described in Plato’s "Myth of the Cave.")
7. Contemplation: The vision and contemplation of the Truth, which is not so much a step as a dwelling place. The delight and enjoyment of God; undisturbed peace and eternity.

All humans manifest the first three degrees of the soul. Religion, however, aids in activating the third and higher degrees. In these, religion:

3. engages the soul and begins to lead it;
4. purifies;
5. reforms;
6. leads into;
7. feeds.

The later degrees do not replace the earlier, but are layered upon them. The entire ascent may be accomplished quite rapidly or much more slowly, depending on one’s love and merits.

In The Mind’s Road to God, St. Bonaventura begins with the three Platonic stages, in which God is contemplated (A) outside us (extra nos), in the world; (B) inside us (intra nos), in His image in our minds; and (C) above us (supra nos), through His light:

He divides each these into two substages, the first focusing on a mode in relation to the prior mode, the second focusing on the mode in its own purity. These pairs of modes are compared to seeing through a mirror and to seeing in a mirror. Thus we have the six rungs:

These stages may be explained as follows:

1. Empiricism, sense: The whole sensible world is seen as a mirror reflecting God. Delight in the apprehension of things.
2. Theory, imagination: By abstraction, one understands the eternal, necessary truths of the physical world. Bonaventura says, "number is the outstanding exemplar in the mind of the Maker, and in things it is the outstanding trace leading to wisdom."
3. Cognition, reason: We enter into ourselves and see the divine image stamped on our own natural faculties, which include memory, discursive reason and choice (deliberation, judgement and desire). We are led toward the divine by the powers of the rational soul.
4. Ethics, intellect: This is an affective rather than a rational process, which requires the three theological virtues – faith, hope and charity – which respectively purify, illuminate and perfect the soul. We are led toward the divine by the power of the soul reformed by the virtues, the gifts of Grace, which must descend into the heart before the spirit can ascend.
5. Being, intelligence: Apprehends God in His Being, as a Divine Unity. "See then purest Being itself," "One in the highest degree," "One, the universal source of all multiplicity." "If you see this in the pure simplicity of your mind, you will somehow be infused with the illumination of the eternal light." Being is experienced as "an intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."
6. The Good, apex of the mind: Apprehends God in His Goodness, as a Divine Plurality (the Trinity). Bonaventura tells us to "look with the mind’s eye on the purity of goodness, which is the pure actualization of the principle of Charity, pouring forth free and due love, and both mingled together…" This stage is paradoxical; one cannot expect to understand rationally the Trinity, which is incomprehensible. "In this consideration [stage VI] is the perfection of the mind’s illumination, when, as if on the sixth day, it sees man made in the image of God."
7. Rest: Nothing remains but "the day of rest, on which, by the elevation of the mind, its insight rests from all work which He had done."

The ascent is accomplished with grace, not instruction; desire, not intellect; prayer, not study; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; "not light, but the whole flaming fire which will bear you aloft to God with fullest unction and with burning affection. … He who chooses this death can see God… Let us then die and pass over into darkness…"

This is a tentative comparison between the systems of ascent that we have seen. Correspondences are not exact, but I think they are approximately correct.

1. Augustine, St. The Magnitude of the Soul (De Quantitate Animae), tr. John J. McMahon, chs. 33-36. In Writings of Saint Augustine, ed. Ludwig Schopp, vol. 2. CIMA Publishing Co., 1947.
2. Bonaventura, St. The Mind’s Road to God (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum), tr. George Boas, Liberal Arts Press, 1953.