The Fifth Heaven: The Heavenly Jerusalem

The Sefirah Tifereth, located in the centre of the middle pillar, as well as in the centre of the whole Sefiroth Tree, is the key to the Fifth Heaven. It is a manifestation of the “heart of God,” the centre of the Universe, where the archetypes of all that exist take “form” and “colour”: Tifereth embraces and fuses everything which is ‘above’ and ‘below’, ‘on the right’ or ‘on the left’ in the world of emanation.  It is called the ‘sun’ or the supreme ‘wheel’, because its unlimited rays connect all the Sefiroth and synthesize their antinomies in its one centre or ‘hub’. (Leo Schaya, The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah, Unwin paperbacks London, 1989, p. 50)

When we reach Tifereth, the Fifth Heaven, and become able to contemplate the whole mystery of Creation through the synthesis of all Divine aspects (manifested by the ten Sefiroth), we enter into the centre (the Heart) of the World of Creation. Symbolically, this is our contemplation from the top of the Kabbalistic Sacred Mountain.

In the system of Halevi of Seven Heavens, Tifereth is connected with the fourth Heaven, composed of the triad Teferet-Neza-Hod, called Zebul, which means Habitation… Here, where the Sun, Moon, planets and stars have their origin, is the Celestial Temple in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Within this Beriatic edifice is the design and architecture of the lower universe which is to be formed out of the Yeziratic spiritual triad that it will eventually underlie. In this celestial region, the Great Spirit or Archangel Michael mediates from the Beriatic Tiferet between the Azilutic World above, through Creation at which he is the centre, and the creatures of the two lower Worlds that are yet to come…Michael is guardian over the House of Israel which is the Kabbalistic term for the Beriatic World of human beings who live in any one of the seven Heavens of Creation. Indeed, in this particular Heaven dwell the ten great spiritual Masters who sit at the feet of the Messiah, the perfect and anointed man who is the Crown of Incarnate Humanity at the Keter of Yezirah. This is why this Heaven is sometimes called the heavenly Sanhedrin which guides men in their spiritual evolution towards this Celestial Jerusalem, whose Temple and altar lies just below the Azilutic Malkhut of ADONAI the LORD. (A Kabbalistic Universe, p.69-70)

 Halevi defines the Fourth Heaven through the triad Triferet-Neza-Hod. When we integrate the contents of the Third Heaven (the Construction of the Seven Temples), the Fourth Heaven (the Creative Divine Rainbow) and the Fifth Heaven (the reality of the Heavenly Jerusalem), we will get an extremely rich picture of this Heaven. If we take into account that Tifereth in the World of Creation overlaps with Malkuth from the World of Emanation and Keter from the World of Formation (that is, the place where the three upper worlds meet), we will understand why Tifereth in the World of Creation is the New Heaven foreseen by the great prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, St. John and others. From this point of view, the life of humanity in the new Heavenly-Jerusalem cosmic cycle of evolution in the World of Creation is with:

a) New Heaven (from the Fifth Heaven upwards, in the language of Kabbalah this is the Upper Face of the World of Creation);

b) New Earth (from the First to the Fourth Heaven, inclusive, which is respectively the Lower Face of the World of Creation);

c) New Humankind, evolving from the level of the Soul (in the First Heaven), through the level of the Higher Self (in the Fifth Heaven), up to Union and Co-creation with God, reaching the Heaven of Heavens!

In this Post I do not have the opportunity to describe the practically inexhaustible wealth of the Fifth Heaven and its connections with the other Heavens. In fact, this has been the content of our spiritual work for many years. Here however, I will only note that in the system of the Ten Heavens, Tifereth as the Fifth Heaven is the reality of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which integrates the whole spiritual history of humankind throughout the Indo-European cycle of evolution and leads to the Second Resurrection of the human being into a Higher, Divine Self.

I will briefly introduce the essence of Fifth Heaven with the help of two great visions from the Holy Scriptures.  The first is St. John’s vision of the New Jerusalem from his Book of Revelation:

The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming  down out of heaven  from God and  shining with the glory of God.  The  city  shone  like  a  precious  stone,  like a jasper, clear  as crystal.  It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels in charge of the gates.  On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel.  There were three gates on each side:  three on the east, three on the south, three on the north, and three on the west.  The city’s wall was built on twelve foundation-stones, on which were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:10-14)

We could interpret the twelve gates as spiritual paths, traced by the world religions, which lead through one or another ‘entrance’ to the wholeness of the Kingdom of God. The twelve tribes of the people of Israel represent the archetypal image of the whole of humankind, while the twelve apostles of the Lamb personify specific human qualities and virtues enabling entry into the Holy City through the various gates.

The Throne of God, the four mythological directions (east, west, south, north) and the twelve gates, three on each side, depict a gigantic Cosmic-spiritual Zodiac.  In this metaphysical Zodiac G-d, as the CREATOR, is the Cosmic-spiritual Sun, which never sets; the four directions are the turning points of the spiritual ‘seasons’ and the twelve gates are specific cosmic-spiritual fields of energy (like twelve spiritual zodiacal signs). The ‘seasons’ correspond to the great spiritual epochs in the history of humankind – for instance, the Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali Yugas, according to the Hindu tradition. Each world religion comes in a particular cosmic-spiritual season (historical epoch) and reveals a complete picture of the Universe, but in accordance with its season.  Thus, the religions form one or another ‘mansion in the Father’s house’ with a specific gate (i.e., spiritual path) of entry into the Kingdom of God. The interpretation of the Heavenly Jerusalem as a cosmic-spiritual Zodiac allows us to integrate all spiritual traditions in human history, from the previous Golden Age (the last Satya Yuga) to the coming new one, into a gigantic metaphysical structure. So, the main purpose of the Fifth Heaven is contemplation of all ‘seasonal pictures’ of the Universe (all mansions in the Father’s house) and embracing the whole ‘cosmic-spiritual year‘ in human history on Earth.

The second vision, which could help us to understand the essence of the Fifth Heaven, is the one described in the previously quoted Sürangama Sütra. (Please, see the Post Exodus and Contemplation of the New Heaven, from 01.12.2022). Anticipating the coming of the Enlightened One, Maitreya-Buddha, Tomo Geshe Rinpoche had a staggering vision of ‘the Blessed Lord, sitting upon the throne in the midst of  Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from all the ten quarters of the  universe and manifesting his transcendental glory…’  The Sürangama Sütra vision is a vision of the glorious, breath-taking Buddhist Mandala which reveals the mystery of Creation from a Buddhist point of view.

Now, in the light of the New Creation,  we could imagine the CREATOR, sitting upon the Throne of God and shining with transcendental glory.  From each of the twelve Gates of the cosmic-spiritual Zodiac, the Divine Masters of humankind – Krishna, Hermes, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad and others – radiate Divine Light with dazzling brightness which converges upon the crown of the CREATOR. Similar to the Buddhist Mandala, each Divine Master has his own place in this Mandala of the Heavenly Jerusalem. He appears in a unique posture, with specific cosmological characteristics such as element, colour, symbol of initiation and others which symbolise his particular initiation.  Each Divine Master is accompanied by his Feminine Counterpart who plays an important role in his mission.  So, by meditating on them, we will receive their initiations and we will enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem through their respective gates as a majestic Mandala.

The celestial images of the Divine Masters, appearing at the twelve gates of the Holy City, are emanations of the CREATOR, through Metatron.  At the same time each one of them reflects the light of all the others in accordance with his own image and spiritual essence.  Thus, the Fifth Heaven is an illumination about the glorious appearance of all the Divine Masters simultaneously from the twelve gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem.  Radiating from the Divine Centre as images of Metatron, they reflect the essence of each other, keeping however their own unique identity.

The Masters are surrounded by the souls of enlightened followers – Prophets in Judaism,  Bodhisattvas in Buddhism, Gurus in Hinduism, Apostles and Saints in Christianity, Gnostics in Islam and so on. The Light emanating from the Divine Masters opens the Gates of Initiation into the ultimate reality.  So, if we imagine this staggering vision of Metatron radiating from the Centre and manifesting Himself through the images of all the Masters simultaneously, we  will  have an idea of the totality of the Kingdom of God in the form of a colossal Mandala revealing the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Thus, in the new Heavenly-Jerusalem cosmic cycle, the CREATOR blesses us with the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem as a majestic cosmic-spiritual Zodiac-Mandala, where each one of the twelve Gates leads to a unique Divine Temple of a particular world religion. Each Temple encompasses the entire vertical structure of Creation with its three worlds – the Earthly, Heavenly and Divine world (from its point of view), reaching the Absolute Origin of Being. The Teachers, Founders of the religions, and the Personifications of the Divine Feminine, associated with them, keep the Gates of the Temples in the Heavenly Jerusalem always open, so that millions of people can enter into it and receive their initiations.

The visions of the cosmic-spiritual Zodiac and the Mandala of Metatron are two aspects of one and the same revelation.  The vision of the celestial Zodiac emphasises the objective side of the Heavenly Jerusalem – that is the archetypal structure of the different aspects of the Universe disclosed by the world religions. The Mandala of Metatron emphasises the subjective side of the Holy City – the Personifications of the Divine Masters appearing from each mythological gate of the Heavenly Jerusalem as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Naturally, as two sides of the same revelation, they manifest themselves according to the orientation and can easily replace each other in the contemplation on the majestic celestial Zodiac – Mandala.

The living experience of so many different initiations in one single act of consciousness is the new type of illumination bestowed on us by G-d.  This illumination can take the form of a new Kabbalistic cosmology, of a new enlightenment (in accordance with the Buddhist tradition), of an integral yoga (Hinduism), of a new revelation (following the Christian visions), of a fulfilment of the Islamic prophecy, but whatever the form, the new illumination has to integrate and balance in absolute ideal harmony the cosmological features of all sublime religious states of consciousness  from the perspective of the Kabbalistic Monotheism!

In the Heavenly Jerusalem as the  Fifth Heaven, we will have access to the Tree of Life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). There the greatest mystical event in human history will take place: communion between Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus,  between the followers of all spiritual paths and traditions, coming together at the centre of the Heavenly Jerusalem and forming one God’s people on sacred Earth!

In our many years of spiritual work, the Zodiac-Mandala of the Heavenly Jerusalem was the basis of the Mystical School of the Spirit and is presented in almost all of our published books, in the diaries of all the International Assemblies of the sacred mountain Rila in Bulgaria and in many other materials.