Hechalot – Ladder to Heaven

Over millennia, humankind has created many different maps of the Interspace, which can be divided into two broad groups: 1) those that pay greater attention to its “horizontal” geography (striking examples of such “guides” are the “Books of the Dead“) and 2) those that focus on the “vertical” structure of the Interworld (such are the “Hechalot literature” and the “Enochian” descriptions of the “Ethers”).

We have already discussed that, beginning with the “Books of Enoch”, the works of many kabbalists and mystics describe the experience of passing through various halls of the heavenly palaces (hechalot, ההיכלות), guarded by angelic hosts, on the way to the Throne of Glory, the Presence of the Deity, the center of the creative activity of the cosmos. Moreover, according to some interpretations, in such “journeys” the visionary descends into the depths of their own being, meeting face-to-face with their divine archetype.

This way leads through a varying number (most often seven) of “levels” or celestial spheres, stacked one above another, and each has its own “heavenly palace”. The ascent of the mystic’s soul is impeded by watcher angels, who pose a mortal danger. One who nonetheless manages to overcome this arduous and perilous journey and enter the hall of the seventh heaven is deemed worthy to stand before God’s throne and behold his glory.

After the establishment of the sephirotic description, the concept of hechalot did not merge with it or vanish entirely; it continued to exist “in parallel” and was revived and expanded by John Dee in his system of “Ethers”.

It is therefore unsurprising that Crowley’s experience of passing through the Ethers, described in his “The Vision and the Voice“, is in many respects analogous to the visionary allusions of the authors of Hechalot literature.

Indeed, a defining characteristic of the Interspace, which we have already discussed, is its “infinite dimensionality“, allowing the mind (with the support of appropriate carriers) to move in an indeterminate number of directions, including “vertical” ones — that is, involving an increase in evolutionary status, a hierarchy of corresponding energies.

In other words, upon entering the Interspace, the mind may not only wander through its boundless “horizontal” expanses but also “ascend” (and likewise “descend” into infernal layers), encountering increasingly exalted energies. This idea opens broad possibilities for transformational practices, including ascents to the Palaces or the Ethers.

Such experience and skills developed from it can be highly valuable both for mystics inclined toward exteriorization of the mind and mystics practicing “ascents”, and especially for the Postmortem Journey. In the latter case, such an “ascent” may enable one to raise the evolutionary level of a future incarnation or (ideally) to lead the mind entirely beyond gilgul.

At the same time, it is important to remember that, like the rest of the “fabric” of the Interspace, its “vertical” layers are unstable and are sustained only by the traveler’s perception, and contacts with the “beings” that inhabit them are fraught with various dangers — from significant energy loss to “strikes of light“.

This is the key distinction between the “levels” of the Interspace and the “divine worlds”, which are also accessible to visionary perception: the worlds of the gods (and also of the asuras) possess their own stable “materiality”, governed by their own laws and “internal logic”, whereas the Ethers are highly plastic and unstable.

In other words, whereas the experiences of various mystics who perceive the “worlds of the gods” can be generalized and largely unified, the perception of the “Ethers” and of “hechalot” is strictly individual; their “reality”, like dream spaces, arises only for the duration of perception, and analogies between different visions appear only insofar as the glossaries used by the visionaries are similar.

Nevertheless, with all these caveats taken into account, the development of experience and skills for ‘ascents’ along ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ can render an extraordinarily useful service for individual development and the liberation of the mind. It is important, as in any Magical (“spiritual”) practice, to cultivate a serious, responsible, and disciplined approach, not to neglect safety measures, and to make broad use of checks and safeguards.