The Symbols of Ascension
including ladders, steps and wings
Introduction
We have two videos on Ascension:
the Concept of Ascension video and this one.
It may help to understand the concept
before looking at all the symbols used to represent it.
Of all the symbols Wings denoting direct ascent,
and ladders or stairs denoting staged ascent
are the two most important.
Corpus Hermeticum Hermes Trismegistus
Poimandres section 24 - The Ascent of the Soul
And thus it is that man rises thereafter through the Harmony
[ie the harmonious spheres of the planets].
to the first zone [Moon] he abandons the power of growth and decay;
to the second [Mercury] return evil schemings, now de-energised;
to the third [Venus] the illusions of desire, de-energised;
to the fourth [Sun] the arrogance of power, de-energised;
to the fifth [Mars] impious daring and presumption;
to the sixth [Jupiter] the striving for wealth by evil means;
and to the seventh zone [Saturn] ensnaring falsehood.
And then stripped of that which was given its energy by the Harmony
and clothed in its proper power,
he enters into the Eighth sphere.
Climbing a mountain
In this form of ascent, the Initiate climbs the steep spiral path,
of a hill or mountain [see video Mountain and hill].
An example of this form of ascent can be found in Dante’s Divine Comedy,
a poem in three parts, written in the early 14th century.
Purgatorio (Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part
of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno
and preceding the Paradiso.
During this long and arduous ascent Dante is guided by the poet Virgil.
In the last four cantos of Purgatorio, Beatrice,
the symbol of Love and Wisdom,
takes over as Dante's guide.
There are seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth
corresponding [depending on your viewpoint]
to either the Planets or the ‘seven deadly sins’.
In the Purgatorio, Initiates are basically taught morals
at numerous stages on the climb, as such
Vergil - representing logic, rhetoric and reasoning
- discusses ‘vice and virtues’ with Dante.
The poem expands on the theory - that all ‘sins’ arise from love
perverted love,
deficient love
or the disordered or excessive love of good things.
Ascending in a whirlwind
Elijah was the only Old Testament prophet who did not die,
but was said to have been taken up to heaven in a whirlwind
- literally, not figuratively.
Even today, Jews are waiting for Elijah to return.
An empty chair and a goblet of wine
are set at the Passover feast table
as a reminder of this belief.
Kings 2 Authorized (King James) Version
And it came to pass,
when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind,
that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee;
for the Lord hath sent me to Beth-el.
And Elisha said unto him,
As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
So they went down to Beth-el.
And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el
came forth to Elisha, and said unto him,
Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day?
And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee;
for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said,
As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.
And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha,
and said unto him,
Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day?
And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here;
for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said,
As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee. And they two went on.
And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and
stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together,
and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither,
so that they two went over on dry ground.
And it came to pass, when they were gone over,
that Elijah said unto Elisha,
Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee.
And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless,
if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee;
but if not, it shall not be so.
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked,
that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire,
and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder;
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Ascent via a Horse [and chariot]
The use of the Horse as a symbol of ascent
is explored in our Horse video. For example
The Rig Veda [translated by Wendy Doniger]
... when the horses reach the racecourse of the sky
... your spirit rushes like wind.
Your mane, spread in many directions,
flickers and jumps about in the forests ...
The swift runner has come to the highest dwelling place,
to his father and mother.
May he go to the gods today and be most welcome,
and then ask for the things that the worshipper wishes for.
Ladders, stairs, and steps
Those with ladders and stairs have a rather slow upward climb
that involves more easily discerned stages
and steps towards the goal
than those seen when climbing the mountain.
The Ladder of Augustine - by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
We have not wings, we cannot soar
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more
The cloudy summits of our time
The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs
When nearer seen, and better known
Are but gigantic flights of stairs
The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night
Rope, thread and Chains
The ones using ropes, threads or worse chains,
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.
Wings and flight
Wings in general symbolism signify a spiritual being
Thus, immortals may also have wings,
and the number of wings and their size may indicate their power.
Francis Thompson - from The Kingdom of God
The angels keep their ancient places
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estranged faces,
That miss the many splendoured thing.
Given that the Intelligence hierarchy has thousands and thousands
of ‘angels’, archangels and so on,
then all would be symbolically ‘winged’.
The 'Celestial Hierarchies' of Dionysius the Areopagite
... the holy prophet [Isaiah] saw in the sacred vision,
the sixfold wings of the first Intelligences
and beheld their many feet and many faces
and perceived that their eyes and their feet were covered by their wings
and that their middle wings were in ceaseless movement.
But we must remember that wings are entirely symbolic
Rev Robert Stephen Hawker
Angels have no wings, not a single feather.
Whensoever in the Old Testament or the New Testament they actually appear,
they are expressly said to be 'young men in white garments' ...
wings, moreover are to me destructive
of all poetry of motion from place to place. They imply effort.
In effect, anyone symbolically ‘winged’
is either already a spiritual being
or is capable of having spiritual experiences with little difficulty.
So the symbolism of wings, for example,
covers anyone able to have out of body experiences,
or one who has had a near death experience.
But although they may be able to go out of body,
and in fact, travel all over the ‘shell’ of the cosmic egg near the Earth level
They may not be able to ‘ascend’
Corpus Hermeticum XI
Consider this for yourself;
command your soul to travel to India,
and it will be there faster than your command.
Command it to cross over to the ocean,
and again it will be quickly there,
not as having passed from place to place
but simply as being there.
Command it even to fly up to heaven,
and it will not lack wings.
Nothing will hinder it, not the fire of the sun,
nor the aether, nor the swirl
nor the bodies of the other stars.
Cutting through them all, it will fly to the utmost body.