I mentioned Northrop Frye's Axis Mundi earlier, that is "a vertical line running from the top to the bottom of the cosmos." This notion of a human world layered between higher and lower worlds is shared not only in the the Bible, but in mythology and literature. Aside from the obvious references to heaven & hell, this can also signify higher and lower consciousness and the subconscious. Doron, as you mentioned the ladder as a means of traveling through this distance, there are also mountains, towers etc. to reach the higher levels. It seems our narrator has now traveled to a lower level where mercy is poured into hell. The titanic descent into this level seems to create an almost crucible like effect on the narrator where the heart declares its secrets.
I find the idea of "the hope of evil" works well with theLet me be with you again, absolute companion, let me study your ways which are just beyond the hope of evil.
. Mankind, alone among the creatures lives in history as well as nature. For some reason, it makes me think of Auden's poem, Their Lonely Betters:the sorrows of our freedom
A robin with no Christian name ran through
The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,
And rustling flowers for some third party waited
To say which pairs, if any, should get mated.
Not one of them was capable of lying,
There was not one which knew that it was dying
Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme
Assumed responsibility for time.
Let them leave language to their lonely betters
Who count some days and long for certain letters;
We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep:
Words are for those with promises to keep.
If this were called "Book of Justice," the secrets of the heart would betray all those promises that were not kept-the consequences of our freedom. But I would predict that there will be an affirmative ascension out of this lower place.let me cry to the one who judges the heart in justice and mercy
Joe