Steve Watson

The Necessary Elements of the Ascension Story

We can discover the necessary elements of the Ascension story.

1. By comparison of the various particular texts in which the Ascension plotline occurs.
   

   1. Take the following to be the primary documents[1]:
      

      1. Dante, Commedia Divina: Paradiso;
      2. Ibn Ishaq, Sirat rasul Allah; (ibn al-‘Arabi[2], Kitab al-Isra‘; Miraj Nameh)
      3. Ezekiel, 1-11[3], 40 -48;
      4. R. Ishmael, The Apocalypse of Enoch[4];
      5. Anon. ‘The Legend of Etana and the Eagle.’[5]

   2. These supply the following primary plotline elements:
      

      1. Two principal characters
         1. The prophet
         2. The guide

      2. The guide meets the prophet in an isolated place
      3. The guide and the prophet ascend through heaven (by winged animal, chariot, or ladder)
      4. Heaven is envisaged as arranged in several levels
      5. As each level of heaven is closer to the Godhead than the last, each level represents a ‘higher’ state than the last.
      6. The souls of the dead are encountered.
      7. The prophet interacts with the inhabitants of each level and learns from them what is required to be of that level.
      8. The guide does not progress to the final level.
      9. At the final level the prophet encounters the Ultimate and comes to know the Truth of things.
      10. The prophet returns to the world

2. By analysis of the ur-form of the Ascension plotline if that can be established.

   1. Shamanic ecstasy.[6]

      1. Shaman goes into a state approximating death (illness, sleep, coma, etc.)
      2. Encounters supernatural creatures
      3. Is teamed with a spirit-guide
      4. Shaman and guide ascend to heaven (he flies, climbs a pole or a tree, …)
      5. They enter heaven, which may be arranged in levels
      6. They tour heaven, possibly by moving through levels
      7. During the Tour (and possibly corresponding to heavenly levels):

         1. The souls of the dead are encountered
         2. The shaman learns important things from the inhabitants of heaven
         3. He faces dangers and initiations

      8. He returns to life

   2. The reported phenomena of mystical enlightenment.[7]

      1. Subject prepares for the meditative state – possibly through ascetic practices or techniques of mind-concentration.
      2. Enters meditative state – an altered state of consciousness.
      3. The states of consciousness are arranged hierarchically
      4. The subject progresses through each state of consciousness by effort resulting in further enlightenment
      5. The final state is one of mystical Union and complete enlightenment
      6. The subject recovers normal consciousness.

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      [1] These form a pseudo-stemma of the Ascension plotline in a single broad cultural tradition. That is the Western Asian tradition. That is one of the traditions which lie at the root of the Modern Western European literary culture; therefore they are appropriate guides to a literary work that is a part of that culture. There are, of course, a vast number of secondary documents, which lack the cultural prominence of the primary documents, but which are not for that reason less reliable indicators of the fundamental plotline.

     [2] Dante’s direct debt to al Shaykh al Akhbar is argued for in M. Asin Palacios (1925) (tr. Sunderland) Islam and the Divine Comedy, New Delhi: Goodword.

     [3] Ma‘aseh Merkabah – ‘The Story of the Chariot’ (Mishnah Hagigah 2:1, ref. in Merkur, D. (1993) Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions, Albany: SUNY, p. 155.)

     [4] Sefer Hekhalot – ‘The book of the Palace’. Source: P. Alexander (tr., ed.) in Charlesworth, J. H. (1983) The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Vol. 1, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, London: Darton, Longman & Todd. See also the other Enoch stories (1 & 2). (cf. also the tale of Enmeduranki [‘Prince of the me of the bond of Heaven and Earth’] who is often associated with Enoch.)

     [5] ANET p. 118. Assuming it is a related tale, it is by far the most primitive version. (Unfortunately we seem to lack evidence of a chain of transmission from it to the monotheist versions, unless the stories of Nimrod and Alexander (pseudo-Callisthenes) can play that role.)

     [6] The Ascension plotline is derived from the experiences of shamans in the older religion. Eliade, M. (1964) Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Harmondsworth: Arkana.

     Note that many proposed templates combine the two related but narratively separable traditions of ascent and descent. The consensus of our culture is that the tour of heaven and the harrowing of hell are best kept separated. I also choose to consider the theme of organ removal and replacement as separable from the ascension theme: it seems to be specifically initiatory.

     [7] Many sources are available. Chiefly refer to the studies of mystical experiences in the following traditions: Buddhist (Buddhaghosa, Vasubandhu); Jewish (Merkabah, Hekhalot); Islamic (Sufi); Christian.

     The shamanic experience is essentially the ancestor of the supposedly more sophisticated mystical experience. The apparent difference between the two arises from the conceptual background within which the psychological experience is interpreted. The relationship is complex: the shamanic experience gives rise to mythological expression, which affects the way that future experiences are conceptualised. Through mythology, too, the shamanic ecstatic experience becomes a cultural and therefore a psychological form, so that relevantly similar mystical experiences become assimilated to it. These experiences also give rise to further elaborations of literary expression, which in turn affect the way that mystical experiences can be felt.