Word of the Day: Ascension
Ascension is a word that I hear often in spiritual learning.
Ascension seems to mean different things to different people. You can search and find a wide variety of answers to the question, “what is spiritual ascension?” The meaning seems to subtly shift depending on the individual’s belief system. Always it involves some sort of growth and an idea of upward motion.
Today we’ll dive deeper into the meaning of ascension by exploring the etymology of the word.
ascension (noun) :
the act of rising to a higher level or an important position
the process of going up from Earth to Heaven
Ascension comes from the Latin word ascensionem which means “a rising.” This comes from ascendere meaning “to mount, ascend, go up.”
Heaven is often described as being above the Earth. This is an ancient idea based on religious texts and cosmology. There are positive cultural associations with the word “up” vs. “down.” “Things are looking up” has a very different connotation to a phrase like “things are going downhill.”
In the Bible, Heaven is described as a realm separate from the Earth, beyond the physical realm. While there isn’t mention of a specific location for Heaven, there are often references to a place “above” us. In Genesis, Jacob dreams of a ladder ascending up towards Heaven. Jacob watches as God stands at the top of the ladder and angels climb the ladder up to Heaven.
The ladder in Jacob’s dream is often seen as a representation of divine connection between Heaven and Earth. It is sometimes interpreted as a symbol of spiritual growth. Each rung on the ladder represents a stage of growth and progression in one’s spiritual journey. Each experience that brings us closer to God is a rung we climb on the ladder. Ascension can refer to this spiritual journey, or this journey of climbing the divine ladder.
An early meaning for the word Heaven was “the visible sky.” It is believed that one possible root for the word Heaven is the PIE root *kem- meaning “to cover.” For many generations, humans have looked up to the sky above, pondering spirituality and existence.
There is also an association with growth when we speak of ascension. As mentioned in the story of Jacob’s ladder, each rung we climb on the ladder is an experience of growth that helps us to reach the top. This association of growth and ascension makes sense when we remember that ascension means “a rising.” Physically speaking, as humans grow we get taller. Our bodies literally go up or rise. This literal translation of ascension has been applied to other forms of growth, such as emotional and spiritual growth.
Whether or not you believe in Heaven or in a final destination, life is a process of growth and evolution. Each of us are in our own process of ascension, or rising, as we grow. It has helped me greatly to witness the truth that all of my experiences, comfortable and uncomfortable, are stages in my own ascension. As I climb the divine ladder, each experience or rung provides it’s own wisdom that adds to the wisdom learned in every lesson that came before it.
