Dante, Paradiso; Blinded by the light

At work training is over and the grind of the everyday has begun. I enjoy Saturdays as I can sit by the window and stare at the people going past, though the phones can be either very busy or very quiet. Some of us, if it's quiet, sit there and judge people's parallel parking for a bit of fun. 

I am glad to have finished the Divine Comedy, though at times I have wondered if I should have read the other two works first(The New Life and Convivio). I just wonder if it would have given me a bit of background into who Beatrice is.

The Story
In Paradiso, Dante proceeds through the nine spheres of heaven.
First, the sphere of the moon, with those who failed to keep their vows to God.
Second, the sphere of Mercury, with those who were just and right but for the reason of selfishness and ambition.
Third, the sphere of Venus with the lovers of God and people.
Fourth, the sphere of the Sun where Dante meets with the wise of the faith e.g. Thomas of Aquinas.
Fifth, the sphere of Mars with the holy warriors. Here, Dante meets his great grandfather, who fought in the crusades, as well as Roland and Charlemagne.
Sixth, the sphere of Jupiter, with those who ruled well on earth, including David and Hezekiah.
Seventh, the sphere of Saturn, with those who dedicated their lives to prayer, ascending and descending the golden ladder. Here, Dante discusses the current corruption in the Church with those he meets. Then, Dante ascends the stair to the next sphere.
Eighth, the sphere of the fixed stars, with Mary and the Apostles. Again, Dante discusses the corruption in the Church with those he meets.
Ninth, the sphere of Premium Mobile. This is the last sphere and from here Dante sees the nine circles of angels, circling the triune God. He tries to explain what he is seeing but quickly gives up as he has no words.
As he progresses through these spheres, he gets further and further away from earth and out into space. Also, the amount of light increases at every stage and he is eventually blinded by the light, that he can barely see Father, Son, and Spirit.

Reflections
While Dante is, on the surface, taking us through a rather Christian view of heaven, he can not seem to leave out the references to the old Roman gods and to astrology (Scorpio). I find this dilutes his authority on these matters. I haven't read his other works yet but I must say that his idolization of Beatrice is odd and rather out of place in his attempted epic on heaven. He seems to almost deify her, which feels out of place in an epic about God.

Comparisons
I say "attempted epic", as it does not have the same feel as the earlier epics, like the Odyssey. Though, we saw in Inferno that he rates himself as up there with the great epic poets.
The change of guide from the Purgatorio seems necessary, in the sense that Virgil wasn't a Christian and we could not expect him to have access to heaven. But the choice of his lovers, Beatrice, as his new guide seems, well, odd.  We don't see the same fragmentation of levels as we see earlier in Inferno and Purgatorio, which is interesting, but I wonder if he wanted to stay with the religious numbers of 6 for Inferno, 7 for Purgatorio and, 9 for Paradiso. In fact, it even seems a little like he was stretching to find nine topics for spheres of heaven.

Have you read Paradiso? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Paradiso but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of Paradiso.