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War in Heaven

An Integral Part of the

Evolution of the Cosmos

and with ambitious aim

Against the Throne and Monarchy of God

Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud

With vain attempt.  Him the Almighty Power

Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie

With hideous ruine and combustion down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,”

From Milton’s Paradise Lost

*************************

And there was war in heaven, Michael and

his angels fought against the dragon, and the

dragon and his angels fought back. But he was

not strong enough, and they lost their place in

heaven. The great dragon was hurled down –

that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan,

who leads the whole world astray. He was

hurled to the earth and his angels with him.

From Revelation Chapter 12 Verses 7 -9

**********************

H P Blavatsky explains why most religious traditions

have at least one war in heaven with some having several.

Posted 23/2/07

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Milton’s Paradise Lost probably provides one of the best known accounts in literature of the war between the Angels which takes place in Heaven and is described in The Book of Revelation.

Wars in Heaven are found throughout mythological and religious traditions and in many cases several cosmic wars have taken place. The Christian tradition has a revolt of Angels against a supreme god. In many other traditions there is a falling out and struggle between rival gods.

These Wars are derived from major and cataclysmic events which have taken place in the evolution of the universe.

In the Secret Doctrine, H P Blavatsky says;

The "Fallen Angels" and the legend of the "War in Heaven" is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and Chaldea. The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii.,

(Secret Doctrine Vol 1 Page 199)

She also points out that Wars in Heaven are a constant theme in many other mythologies and can be interpreted on many levels;

Puranic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory with Cosmic facts and human events. Any symbologist may discern the astro-cosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp the whole meaning. The great "Wars in Heaven," in the Puranas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other classical writers; the "struggles," also in the Egyptian legend between Osiris and Typhon, and even those in the Scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject. Northern Mythology refers to it as the battle of the Flames, the sons of Muspel who fought on the field of Wigred. All these relate to Heaven and Earth, and have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric application to things above as to things below. They relate severally to astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the adjustment of orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes. The "Struggle for Existence" and the "Survival of the Fittest" reigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being, and could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages. Hence the incessant fights of Indra, the god of the Firmament, with the Asuras -- degraded from high gods into Cosmic demons; and with Vritri or Ah-hi; the battles fought between stars and constellations, between Moon and planets -- later on incarnated as kings and mortals. Hence also the War in Heaven of Michael and his Host against the Dragon (Jupiter and Lucifer-Venus), when a third of the stars of the rebellious host was hurled down into Space, and "its place was found no more in Heaven." As said long ago -- "This is the basic and fundamental stone of the secret cycles. It shows that the Brahmins and Tanaim . . . speculated on the creation and development of the world quite in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the natural selection of species, the survival of the fittest,”

 

(Secret Doctrine Volume 1 Page 203)

 

H P BLavatsky ultimately decides that the “War in Heaven” concept originated in India but is now found in nearly every tradition. The earliest Indian tradition has accounts of three wars in heaven

The origin of the "War in Heaven" and the FALL has, in our mind, to be traced unavoidably to India, and perhaps far earlier than the Puranic accounts thereof. For TARAMAYA was in a later age, and there are three accounts, each of a distinct war, to be traced in almost every Cosmogony.

 

(Secret Doctrine Volume 1 Page 419)

 

These Wars are derived from major and cataclysmic events which have taken place in the Universe and H P Blavatsky puts wars from the India traditions into the context of the development of the universe

 

“The first war happened in the night of time, between the gods the (A)-suras, and lasted for the period of one "divine year."* On this occasion the deities were defeated by the Daityas, under the leadership of Hrada. After that, owing to a device of Vishnu, to whom the conquered gods applied for help, the latter defeated the Asuras. In the Vishnu Purana no interval is found between the two wars. In the Esoteric Doctrine, one war takes place before the building of the Solar system; another, on earth, at the "creation" of man; and a third "war" is mentioned as taking place at the close of the 4th Race, between its adepts and those of the 5th Race, i.e., between the Initiates of the "Sacred Island" and the Sorcerers of Atlantis.”land" and the Sorcerers of Atlantis.

(Secret Doctrine Volume 1 Page 418 - 419)

 

H P Blavatsky also provides a rationale within the Greek Tradition

 

Kronos stands for endless (hence immovable) Duration, without beginning, without an end, beyond divided Time and beyond Space. Those "Angels," genii, or Devas, who were born to act in space and time, i.e., to break through the seven circles of the superspiritual planes into the phenomenal, or circumscribed, super-terrestrial regions, are said allegorically to have rebelled against Kronos and fought the (then) one living and highest God. In his turn, when Kronos is represented as mutilating Uranus, his father, the meaning of this mutilation is very simple: Absolute Time is made to become the finite and the conditioned; a portion is robbed from the whole, thus showing that Saturn, the father of the gods, has been transformed from Eternal Duration into a limited Period. Chronos cuts down with his scythe even the longest and (to us) seemingly endless cycles, yet, for all that, limited in Eternity, and puts down with the same scythe the mightiest rebels. Aye, not one will escape the scythe of Time! Praise the god or gods, or flout, one or both, and that scythe will not be made to tremble one millionth of a second in its ascending or descending course.”

(Secret Doctrine Volume 1 Page 418)

 

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