The Heavens and the features in them form a universal symbolic language, since they are the one consistent aspect of the natural world that can be shared by many people at the same time. It could be said that this shared experience is almost equal to the experience of music. Indeed, philosophers have said all the planets and stars do resonate, each playing its own "note" that resounds, collectively, as the Music of the Spheres.
The Heavens are seen to be the abode of an all encompassing supernatural superpower. This divine spirit very generously guarantees the fertility of the Earth by raining down upon it, providing heat and light via the clockwork regularity of the Sun, illuminating the darkness with the stars, planets and the Moon. It is also said each of these communicate messages by means of various wave lengths, signs and symbols, such as cloud patterns, rainbows, shooting stars and comets.
The idea that there are "steps" to Heaven is shared by many cultures. There are different "spheres" or "realms" of Heaven, generally seven or nine, which signify the stages of spiritual progress or transcendence necessary to progress to the highest echelons of the rarefied atmosphere. These stages of Heaven are also reflected in religious buildings, such as the 13 stepped New World Order pyramid. The 13 steps actually originated from the
Aztecs, lyrically characterized as distant places. Here is the example:1. Land of Stars
2. Land of the Tzitzimine (frightening skeleton like entities that will be unleashed on earth when the Sun dies)
3. Land of the 400 Guardians of the Heavens
4. land of the Birds (transcended souls)
5. Land of the Fiery Serpents (Shooting Stars and Comets)
6. Land of Four winds
7. Land of Dust
8. Land of the Gods
The next five to complete the 13 are the homes of Gods. The 13th and highest Heaven is the home of the great Mother and Father, the Heaven where babies come from and whence the spirits of stillborn babies return. The Chinese indeogram for Heaventien stands for all that is above the human head. The Immortals lived in a realm so transcendent and so high above that mortals could only dream of its glories, although mythologies all over the world talk of mortals ascending into the Kingdom.
For Viking warriors, Valhalla (the hall of slain warriors) was a place of continual feasting and merriment which became the ultimate desired destination after life on Earth. For Christians, Heaven is viewed as a paradisaical place full of angels with harps and the home of the Almighty.
For Ancient Egyptians, the relationship between Heaven and Earth was symbolized by the Goddess Nut, her body forming the arch of the sky with her husband, Geb, representing Earth beneath. For the Egyptians, the fructifying Heaven belonged most definitely to the female principle. This was the Goddess that gave birth to the mighty Sun God Ra.
The preconditions for "entry" into Heaven vary according to faith, although there is a very practical school of thought that says Heaven and indeed Hell is what we make of them ourselves.
Adele N.