(July 8, 2009 at 3:40 am)Anto Kennedy Wrote: Heaven isn't supposed to refer to an afterlife. Originally, and in most cultures, it still only refers to the sky, the firmament, Hebrew "raqiya."
Fire Below
Sky Above
Earth, Water & Air inbetween.
And that's our world.
It's a universal amongst all the worlds cultures (obviously, since we all share the same planet)
Oh, and the thunder god with the long beard, looks like Leonardo Da Vinci (and that is NOT a coincidence) actually belongs to the Air element, and not Sky (which is usually depicted as a snake encircling the earth i.e. Uranous)
The thunder god represents judgement. Air is the element of speech, so when you see a judge bang his hammer down and call for, 'ORDER', just imagine he's the thunder god. Because that's where the symbolism of the justice system comes from.
Actually heaven was both the sky and the afterlife. Rulers became stars and common souls became part of the Milky Way which the ancients correctly deduced was a group of stars. Meteors were seen as souls coming to earth to enter the body. The heavens had gates. Souls would enter via Cancer and leave via Capricorn.
The symbol for judgement was the scale. It is the constellation of Libra. It is where souls were weighed to sell if they could enter heaven. It is also harvest time when crops are weighed.
"On Earth as it is in Heaven, the Cosmic Roots of the Bible" available on the Amazon.
