SEVEN HEAVENS – MANY MANSIONS

8 Copyright 2018, John H. Davidson M.A. (Cantab)

John H. Davidson M.A. (Cantab)

Adapted from The Gospel of Jesus – In Search of His Original Teachings,

John Davidson, 2004.

Available from:
http://www.scienceofthesoul.org/product_p/en–176–0.htm

All religions speak of a heaven or the heavens, by whatever names they may call them.
Generally, they are depicted as places to which good people and ‘believers’ go after
death. But precisely where they are located is usually left open to speculation. There
would appear to be only two possibilities, however, outside oneself or inside. While some
religions do suggest that heaven lies outside, somewhere up in the sky, mystics have all
stated, without exception, that the heavens are within. They also state that these heavens
can be reached not only after death but also during a person’s lifetime. Indeed, the ability
to leave the body and enter the heavens is what characterizes a mystic, though some can
penetrate further than others and with a greater or lesser degree of free-will.

The highest mystics are those who can leave their bodies, traverse the inner heavens and
return to God, the Kingdom of heaven, whenever they so desire. They can also return to
their bodies whenever they wish. In fact, they can be in the body and with God at the
same time, giving them all-knowledge and all-power, seeing God everywhere and in
everything, even as human beings. This is why it was said of Jesus (Matthew 3:16):

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.

He was immediately able to ascend into heaven by means of the Spirit of God, the “dove”
being a symbol of spirituality in the ancient world.

In traditional Judaism, and other religions that have come out of the Middle East, the
number of such heavens was commonly counted as seven, and this idea of a hierarchy of
seven heavens, each one higher than the other in its innate spirituality, was inherited by
Christianity. Paul, for instance, speaks of “a man in Christ” – often considered to be Paul
himself – who was “caught up to the third heaven” – which he also describes as
paradise:

I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ
above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether
out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) Such an one was caught up
to the third heaven.

1 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot
tell: God knoweth), how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard
unspeakable words (the Unspeakable Word?), which it is not lawful
(possible) for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:1–5).

Similarly, in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Judas Thomas speaks of the Holy Spirit as
the “compassionate Mother... of the seven houses”:

Come, compassionate Mother....

Come, she that revealeth the hidden mysteries.
Come, Mother of the seven houses (mansions),
that thy rest may be in the eighth house.

The “eighth house” is the eternal realm of rest.

Mystics have also said that all the creation is liable to occasional dissolution. Only that
which is truly eternal will remain forever, beyond all constraints of time. This must be
the meaning of Jesus’ saying as recorded in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas:

Jesus said,
“This heaven will pass away,
and the one above it will pass away.”

In the canonical gospels, Jesus speaks of the highest heaven as the Kingdom of heaven or
the Kingdom of God, describing the inner regions in the hierarchy of the Lord’s creation
as the “many mansions” “in my Father’s house” (John 14:2–4):

In my Father’s house are many mansions:

if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to leave this world but that he is going to
receive them when they either leave this world at death or when they are able to leave
their bodies and enter the higher worlds during their spiritual practice. As he says,
“whither I go ye know, and the way ye know”.

This interpretation is in accord with the full context of John’s gospel and is also endorsed
by early Christian writers. The second century Papias, for instance, describes the ascent
of the soul to the eternal abode (the “City”), through “heaven” and then through the
higher realm of “paradise”:

As the presbyters say, then (in the higher state) those who are deemed
worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights
of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the City (of God).
For everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according to the worthiness of
those who see Him (in Church History, Eusebius).

Papias goes on to relate this differentiation in ascent to Jesus’ parable of the sower, where

2 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

the “good seed” yields differing harvests. And he observes that these regions are a part of
the “many mansions” of the “Father’s house”:

But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who
produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and
that of those who produce thirty-fold. For the first will be taken up into the
heavens, the second class will dwell in paradise, and the last will inhabit
the City (of God).

On this account the Lord said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions”:
for all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-
place, even as His word says, that a share is given to all by the Father,
according as each one is or shall be worthy....

The presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, say that this is the gradation
and arrangement of those who are saved and that they advance through
steps of this nature; and that, moreover, they ascend through (in?) the
Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father.

The unknown writer of the early Christian text, the Doctrine of Addai, also alludes to the
same passage in St John when he asserts that “this King of ours” has “gone to prepare...
blessed mansions”:

Wherefore, as wayfarers and sojourners, who tarry for a night and return
early to the their homes, so may you yourselves consider concerning this
world, that from here ye go forth to the places where the Son went to
prepare for every one worthy of them. As with kings of countries, their
armies go forth before them, and prepare for them a dwelling-house for
their honour. So this King of ours, behold, he is gone to prepare for his
worshippers blessed mansions in which they may dwell.

Again speaking of the inner realms, he says:

All the souls of men, which depart from this body, die not; but they live
and rise, and have mansions, and a dwelling-place of rest, for the
understanding and the intelligence (consciousness) of the soul do not
cease, because the image of God is represented in it, which dieth not.

The soul of man does not die because the “image of God is represented in it”. The true
being of any soul is the same as that of God. God is in the soul and the soul is in God.
After death, a soul will find itself in the many “mansions”, according to the tendencies
and inclinations of its associated mind. It goes where its attachments take it and in the
case of those who have no genuine spiritual aspirations this usually means a prompt
return to this earthly ‘mansion’.

Through the Seven Heavens

One of the most complete descriptions of the seven heavens is to be found in the early
Christian ‘revelation’, the Ascension of Isaiah, a ‘revelation’ being a common literary
form of the times, employed when a writer wanted to speak of the inner realities, make
predictions and prophecies (sometimes of a political or radical nature) and so on. Few, if

3 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

any, of these ‘revelations’ relate to actual experiences – nor, in the majority of cases,
were their readers expected to believe so – and there is no reason to presume that the
Ascension of Isaiah is any different. All the same, the revelationary form is used quite
deliberately by the unknown writer to describe something of the higher regions.

The account being a long one, there is no room for the whole of it here, and we pick up
the story where Isaiah who is giving a spiritual discourse – known as prophesying – is
suddenly caught up by the Holy Spirit and taken on a trip through the seven heavens:

And while he was speaking in the Holy Spirit in the hearing of all, he
suddenly became silent, and his spirit was caught up into heaven, and he
no longer saw the men who were standing in front of him. But his eyes
were open although his lips were silent, and the spirit of his body (his
soul) was taken up from him. And only his breath remained in him, for he
was in a vision.

And the angel that was sent to explain things to him in the vision was not
of this world, nor was he one of the angels of glory of this world, but had
come from the seventh heaven.

Isaiah leaves his body and goes inside. Even though his eyes have remained open, his
soul or spirit is so withdrawn from this world that he sees nothing. Only his “breath” –
his vital life energies – remain to keep the body alive. Moreover, his soul is given a
guide – an angel – to take him through the regions. The guide, however, is no ordinary –
nor even middle-ranking – angel but one from the seventh heaven itself. In this
description, the seventh heaven is the eternal realm itself, the place where the Lord
dwells. The ‘revelation’ continues:

And, apart from the circle of the prophets, the people who were there did
not believe that the holy Isaiah had been caught up into heaven. For the
vision that the holy Isaiah saw was not a vision of this world, but of the
world that is hidden from man. After Isaiah had seen this vision he gave
an account of it to Hezekiah and to his son Josab and to the other prophets
who had come.

But the officials and the eunuchs and the people did not hear it, but only
Samnas the scribe, and Joachim, and Asaph the recorder, for they were
doers of righteousness and the fragrance of the Spirit was in them. But the
people did not hear it, for Micah and his son Josab had sent them away
when the wisdom (perception, consciousness) of this world had been taken
from him (Isaiah), and he had been left looking like a corpse.

Isaiah is discoursing to a number of people who include a group of holy men or prophets,
those who were following the path of spirituality. Since only they would understand what
had happened to Isaiah, only they are permitted to stay, all others being ushered out.
Isaiah himself then takes up the story, describing his ascent through the heavens, each one
being of greater light, radiance, beauty and purity than the one below. Each heaven is
also described as having its own “air”, meaning its own ‘place’, spiritually speaking. We
rejoin the narrative as Isaiah enters the sixth heaven:

And he (the angel) took me up into the air (spiritual space) of the sixth
heaven and I beheld a glory I had not seen in the five heavens while I was

4 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

 being taken up, and angels resplendent in great glory. And the praises
there were sublime and wonderful....

And... I asked him and said to him, “Why are there no companions for the
angels on the right?” And he said, “From the sixth heaven and above it
there are no more angels on the left, nor is there a throne set in the middle,
but they have their direction from the power of the seventh heaven, where
He dwells that cannot be named, from the Chosen One, whose Name has
not been revealed, and whose Name none of the heavens can learn.”

There are many references to the right and left hand paths in mystic literature, signifying
generally the duality of creation. Hence, in the lower heavens, each angel or power has its
counterpart. According to the system of classification used by this writer, however, the
sixth heaven and above transcend duality, and the angels are described as having no
“companions”. In fact, the sixth heaven is a part of the eternal realm itself, the seventh
being the dwelling (if such a term can be used) of the Nameless One, the one “whose
Name none of the heavens can learn”. And describing this Supreme One, the angel
continues:

“For it is to His Voice alone that all the heavens and the thrones respond;
and I have been empowered and sent to bring you up here so that you may
behold this glory.”

The Voice is the Sound or Creative Word of God which gives power to all the heavens
and thrones – the centres of power and administration – in the hierarchy of creation. It is
the one emanation or outpouring of the divine Source which has created and continually
sustains the creation. This primal vibration, lying at the heart of everything can be
experienced within as Sound or Music. It has been called the “Voice” of God, and by
many other names. The ‘revelation’ continues:

And I glorified and praised my Lord, because through sharing in his lot I
was to go up there. And he said to me, “Hear then this again from your
companion. When by the angel of the Spirit you have been taken up there
from that alien body of yours, then will you receive the garment that you
will see, and you will also see other garments numbered and stored up
there. And then will you become equal to the angels of the seventh
heaven.”

The garment is the true and eternal nature of the soul, its light and glory. Once it reaches
the realm of God, the soul has the same nature and light as the pure souls or angels who
already reside there. The soul then progresses into the sixth heaven:

And he took me up into the sixth heaven, and there were no angels on the
left nor was there a throne in the middle, but all the angels looked the
same and their praises were equal. And strength was given to me, and I
also sang praises with them, and the angel who was accompanying me
also, and our praises were like theirs. And they glorified the Father of all,
and his Beloved, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, all with one voice. But it
was not like the voice of the angels who were in the five heavens, nor was
it like their speech; but the voices were different there, and there was
much light there.

5 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

The Voice or Sound which emanates from and pervades all souls who dwell in the sixth
heaven is different from the Sound heard in the lower heavens. This realm is also full of a
light even brighter than that of the lower realms. All the souls here are full of the natural
worship, glory and intense love of the Supreme Father, of His Beloved Son, the Master –
the “Christ”, which literally means the ‘anointed one’ – and the Holy Spirit, the Word.

And then, when I was in the sixth heaven, I thought that the light which I
had seen in the five heavens was darkness. And I rejoiced and gave praise
to him who had bestowed such light upon those who await his promise.
And I entreated the angel who was accompanying me that I might not have
to return from there to the world of the flesh. For truth to tell, Hezekiah
and Josab, my son, and Micah, there is great darkness here (in the physical
world).

From the sixth heaven, the beginnings of the eternal realm, even the great light of the
lower heavens seems like such darkness that ‘Isaiah’ is full of a blissful gratitude and
wonderment that such an incredible treasure of light and eternal beatitude should be
“bestowed... on those who await his promise”, upon His chosen souls, His initiates.
Indeed, so great is his bliss and utter contentment that he begs that he may not have to
return to his physical body, for by comparison this world is so full of darkness and
misery. But the angel tells him that his time to leave the body has not yet come, though
otherwise he gives him ample cause for happiness:

And the angel who was accompanying me realized what I was thinking
and said, “If you rejoice in this light, how much more will you rejoice in
the seventh heaven when you see the light where the Lord is and his
Beloved, and also the garments and the thrones and the crowns stored up
for the righteous, for those, that is, who believe in that Lord who will
descend in your human form. For great and marvellous is the light that is
there. But as for your not returning to your body – the time has not come
for your coming here.”

And when I heard this I was sad; but he said to me, “Be not sad.”

Many mystics have pointed out that the eternal realm of God, the Godhead, has aspects,
often being described as fourfold in character. But here, since the writer is using the
ancient belief in seven heavens as his system of description and has ascribed five of these
to the created domains, he is left with only two for the eternal regions of God.
Consequently, he describes the sixth heaven as supremely bright, making even the lower
heavens seem dark by comparison. It is also beyond all division and is eternal. And the
seventh heaven he designates as the utterly Supreme Abode of the “Glorious One”. He
also emphasizes that the “righteous”, the chosen ones, are those who believe in the “Lord
who will descend in your human form”, that is – as a perfect Master or Saviour. In fact,
earlier in this writing, the angel has said that one of the reasons why Isaiah was being
taken up was:

“So that you may see the Lord of all these heavens and of these thrones,
transforming himself until He becomes like you in form and in
appearance.”

Isaiah is then taken up into the seventh heaven where he says:

6 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions

 I saw... a Glorious One... and the righteous came near him and
worshipped.... And I asked the angel who led me and I said to him, “Who
is this one?” And he said to me, “Worship him, for this is the angel of the
Holy Spirit who speaks in you and also in the other righteous ones.” And
the eyes of my spirit were opened and I beheld the Great Glory.

The Voice of the Word, the Holy Spirit, “speaks” in the soul of everyone, though only
the truly holy or spiritual ones – “you and the other righteous ones” – come to hear it in
all its full glory and power; and then, only when the “eyes of the spirit” – the spiritual
eye – is opened. It is this power which transforms an individual, making him pure,
subtle, bright, holy and “righteous”, in the truly spiritual rather than the religious sense.

And I heard then the voices and the praise that I had heard in each of the
six heavens – that I had heard as I ascended. And all the voices and the
praise were addressed to that Glorious One, whose glory I could see.

The highest, eternal realm of God is the source of all that lies below. Everything
emanates from here. All the Sounds or “Voices” of the lower heavens are contained
within the Sound or Voice of this realm. And with the Voice comes natural praise and
worship. The soul automatically knows and understands the nature of true worship. A
drop will always know how to love the Ocean for both are of the same essence. The soul
is entranced in the love, bliss and wonder of the divine Voice, and all such worship is
automatically directed towards the Lord. This is true worship “in Spirit”, as Jesus called it
(John 4:22–24).

And I heard and saw the praise which was being directed to him. And the
Lord and the angel of the Spirit heard everything and saw everything. And
all the praise which comes up from the six heavens is not only heard but
seen.

And most significantly, this worship is both visible and audible, “is not only heard but
seen” – these being the two faculties of the soul and the two characteristics of the Word
or Voice.

And I heard the angel, who was accompanying me, speaking to me; and he
said, “This is the One Eternal Being who dwells in the high world and
rests within his Holy Ones.”

The “Holy Ones” – notably in the plural – are the Masters and the remainder of the
revelation describes the appointment of the Master by the “Voice” and his descent
through the lower heavens until he incarnates in a human form.

7 Seven Heavens - Many Mansions