Symbols - What does heaven look like
Stairs
The symbol of Stairs is connected with that of the Levels and Layers and may be a symbolic representation of them. It is connected with the idea of Ascent and Ascension as well as Descent. Symbolically a Ladder and Stairs, as well as Chains that climb upwards are the same thing.
Although Ladders/Stairs, Ropes and Wings all appear to be similar as means of Ascent, there is a very distinct difference symbolically. The ones with Wings are those who are capable of having spiritual experiences with little difficulty. In a sense they are the ‘mystics’, but they are also naturally able to ‘fly’.
Those with Ladders and Stairs have a rather slow upward climb that involves stages and steps towards the goal of enlightenment. This is why Chains and Ladders are interchangeable – the word chain is a pun – the ‘links’ in the chain are the links between stages of progress. This is a more Hermetic path.
The ones using Ropes have to have assistance from above and occasionally below and are always having to pull themselves up by sheer hard work against the ‘gravity’ of the pull to the earth – the physical. It means the person is much more attuned to the world of physical perceptions and the physical, and is not naturally a spiritual traveller. If they make it, it will only be through sheer force of will and perseverance.
Ladders and Stairs are seen when the Ascent is also symbolic of some spiritually perceived path. [see Spiritual path]. Pilgrims of old often saw Ladders and Stairs.
The symbolism derives from the Levels and layers. In the greatly simplified diagram shown below you can see that progression up the levels appears to look like a Stairs or Ladder and the combination of the two sides gives us the characteristic Pyramid shape found all over the world from Chichen Itza to Egypt, Africa with its Ziggurats to South America and its Aztec and Inca temples.
The Ladder/Stairs and the spine are related concepts. The longest ‘ladder’ is the spine, in effect there is a belief that the rise of kundalini energy up the spine is a ladder to the ‘gods’.
Observations
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- A Visit to Theodor Geisel's La Jolla Mountaintop - May 25, 1986
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 06 - 3 Baby pig
- Anon - Ladder of Augustine
- Attempted suicide
- Babylon - The Hanging Gardens
- Ball, Dr Martin - The golden pyramid
- Baudelaire, Charles - Rêve parisien
- Beausobre, Iulia de - out of body in the steam baths
- Benjamin, Walter - On Hashish - Puppets
- Billy Rose - Me and my shadow
- Braveheart - Warnings of a rebirth
- Bridges, Robert - The Growth of Love
- Buhlman, William - Affirmations
- Burne-Jones, Edward - King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Burne-Jones, Edward - The Golden Stairs
- Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz - The Second Day
- Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz - The Third Day
- Chesterton, G K - The ballad of the White Horse
- Chichen Itza - Mayan - Pyramid
- Chichen Itza - Mayan - Pyramids and pools
- Cirlot on castles
- Copan - Mayan - The staircase
- Dante - Purgatorio - Canto 03 & 04
- Dante - Purgatorio - Canto 12 & 13
- Dante - Purgatorio - Canto 28
- Delville, Jean - Dante drinking from the Waters of Lethe
- Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections – Miss A. Thomas, of 'West Norwood, London, S.E.27 has three OBEs
- Egyptian Book of the Dead - Spell 098
- Escher - Ascending Descending
- Etemenanki
- Experiencing hypnotic regression therapy
- Ezekiel - Ezekiel 40 - The New Temple Area
- Fourteen year old has NDE from pneumonia
- Freddie Mercury and Queen - The Prophet’s Song
- Gaudi - Professional work - 10 Casa Milà La Pedrera
- Gaudi - Professional work - 11 The Artigas Gardens
- Goosey goosey gander
- Green, Drs Elmer and Alyce – Experiments - The benefits of using EEG, biofeedback and visualisation
- Han Yu - A Girl from Splendour Bloom Mountain
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Egg and the Labyrinth
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Queen
- Isole Madre
- Jung, C G - Memories, Dreams and Reflections - The crypt
- Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven - live
- Li Po - Marble stairs grievance
- Lowry, L S - Wick and Crowther street
- Michaux, Henri - Miserable Miracle Mescaline - The glass stairway
- Mircea Eliade - On the number of levels and layers
- Mircea Eliade - Australian Aboriginal Initiation rites
- Mircea Eliade - Australian aboriginal ropes and stairs
- Mircea Eliade - Bird as symbol of the spiritual person
- Mircea Eliade - Stairway to Heaven
- Mircea Eliade - The Ladder
- Morrells, Luce and the party
- Nerval, Gerard de - 02 La Reve et Vie
- Nietzsche - Thus spake Zarathustra - Ye shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future
- Ogotemmeli - Granary
- Ogotommeli - Egg and Atom layout
- Ogotommeli - The Matrix and constellations
- Ogotommeli - Weaving the universe
- Parrish, Maxfield - The Arabian Nights
- Paul Devereux - The sacred landscape of Native Americans
- Pauli, Wolfgang - Dream of October 1949
- Pauli, Wolfgang - Letter 28th September 1952
- Persepolis - And its sacred geography 05 Stairs and ladders
- Philippine nurse has NDE after car accident .... with after-effects
- Pinchbeck, Daniel - Ten years of therapy in one night – 04
- Piranesi s fever
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Reaction to Penicillin produces NDE
- Rig veda - Rudra with braided hair
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 07 Second Elegy
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 29 Seventh Elegy
- Romance of the Rose - The Garden of Pleasure
- Rossetti, Dante Gabriel - Dante's Dream
- Rumi - Rubaiyat - Beyond a hundred steps of wisdom
- Rumi - Rubaiyat - We are bound together
- Schwabe, Carlos - Les Champs-Elysées 1903
- Segantini - Frühmesse
- Spencer, Stanley - Symbolism 09 - Early visionary period
- Sri Aurobindo - 07 Savitri Book VII Canto II
- Sting - A Thousand Years
- Stolz von Stolzenberg, Daniel - Viridarium chemicum 1624
- Teotihuacan
- Through the Looking Glass - Ch 01 - 3 Jabberwocky
- Tikal - Mayan - Pyramid
- Tikal - Mayan - Temple I
- Uxmal - Mayan - Ball Court
- Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry - The Builders
- Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry - The Ladder of St Augustine
- Waterhouse, John William - A Tale from the Decameron
- Waterhouse, John William - Diogenes
- Wee willie winkie
- Whiteman, J H M goes back down the well
- Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass - I am an acme of things accomplished
- Yeats, W B - A Dialogue of Self and Soul - I summon to the winding ancient stair
- Zen priest - The Hellraiser leaf 2
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 02
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 03
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 07
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 08