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Encyclopedia of Heaven
By Miriam Van Scott St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 1998 Miriam Van Scott
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-9118-0
CHAPTER 1
A
ABA Aba is the creator of earth and the lord of heaven according to the tradition of the Choctaw, Native Americans of the bayous of Louisiana. When members of the tribe die, they are said to go to Aba, where they will dwell in bliss and tranquillity. Aba is a loving god who will give his human children eternal happiness.
The Choctaw share the idea of a pleasant land of the dead with other tribes, such as the Ojibwa. Both view the abode of the departed as a land of plentiful hunting and perpetual good clime located in some distant place, perhaps in another country just beyond the horizon. Neither tribe considers this to be a reward for a good life, but rather a realm free of conflict where all spirits will dwell in harmony.
ADIRI Melanesian mythology includes belief in Adiri, the land of the dead. Adiri is said to be either a mountain or an island located in the west, beyond the sunset. The dead exist in Adiri in a quiet realm devoid of pain, hunger, and the travails of human life.
According to the myth, the soul survives bodily death and must make a perilous supernatural journey, past geographic obstacles and mystic gatekeepers who try to thwart the spirit's progress. Its fate is determined not by moral factors but by the status it enjoyed in life and the rituals performed in its memory. If a soul fails certain tests or if the proper rites are not conducted, then it will cease to exist. Souls can also fade from Adiri if the living fail to respect and remember them properly.
ADORATION OF THE TRINITY Artist Albrecht Dürer offers his vision of CHRISTIAN PARADISE in the early sixteenth-century composition Adoration of the Trinity. His work shows a regimented heaven where every saved soul has a specific place and level appropriate to the spirit's piety. It reflects the celestial village suggested by SAINT AUGUSTINE's CITY OF GOD, in which heaven and earth are separated by only the thinnest of veils.
Dürer places God the Father in the center, holding up JESUS Christ on the cross while a white dove representing the Holy Spirit hovers above them. The Father wears the crown and robes of an emperor. Beside him to his left, the VIRGIN MARY, mother of Jesus, is adorned in dazzling blue. Behind the smiling Queen of Heaven is a plethora of female SAINTS waving palms in worship of the Trinity. John the Baptist sits on his right, kneeling before an army of patriarchs andMARTYRS, including Moses, Solomon, and Daniel. Below this realm is a layer of saved souls ranging from kings and nobles to peasants (recognizable by their garments) all praising the Godhead.
Adoration of the Trinity is a breathtaking splash of bright colors and crisp strokes. Dürer uses brilliant reds, blues, yellows, and greens to show the majesty of heaven. His paradise is a delight for the eyes as well as the spirit, where everything is lush and beautiful. The work is a compelling depiction of the joys promised to virtuous souls in the world to come.
ADVERTISING Astute business people have been using heavenly images to peddle their wares for decades. Early examples include using ANGELS in print advertisements to suggest that their products are mystical and wondrous. Cherubs have been used to sell everything from soap powder to guitar strings. (This continues to this day, especially in advertisements for baby products. Promotional directors use angelic beings to imply that their wares are as innocent and miraculous as the children themselves, "fresh from heaven.")
Another favorite trick of the trade is adding a sales pitch to a familiar icon of paradise. An 1887 advertisement for Williams Shaving Products features a representation of MICHELANGELO's artwork from the Sistine Chapel showing God giving life to the first man. Underneath the illustration is the assertion that "Adam was created without a beard," implying that the ideal male face is clean-shaven. Those wishing to emulate the divine Father's creation should therefore stock up on razors and shaving cream.
The biblical image of paradise as a celestial city was similarly incorporated into Post Health Product's 1925 ad for its cereals. In the printed promotional piece, a family is shown embarking on a holy pilgrimage to good nutrition with the "shining spires" and glimmering walls of the heavenly "Wellville" blazing before them. Readers are invited to "lift up your eyes" and see the splendor of this promised land. It is the reward for healthful eating, the salvation of those who make the appropriate sweet and salty sacrifices.
Other advertising themes incorporate religious interpretations of the afterlife according to specific faiths. Concepts of CHRISTIAN PARADISE have provided a host of images for salespeople, often focusing on one particular aspect of the celestial realm. In 1885 Jordan Marsh (a prominent Boston department store) used an illustration on its catalog that transformed the storefront into a veritable cathedral of commerce. Adapting fixtures from CHURCH ART AND ARCHITECTURE, the picture shows a semicircular window reminiscent of the STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS that Christian churches use to portray paradise as a realm of brilliant light. Through this mercantile portal flows not a cascade of light but a deluge of envelopes stuffed with mail orders. These letters are carefully collected by cherubic couriers who assure customers that their requests will be handled with the utmost grace and care. The angels subtly promise that both the products and services offered are truly divine.
Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia went a step further, actually transforming its main showroom into a church during the 1928 Christmas shopping season. The lavish display included linen banners adorned with regal crests, stained-glass windows, and Gothic arches. At the center of the sales floor, a painting of the nativity showing all of heaven rejoicing at the birth of the Christ child was prominently displayed. The store's owner, John Wanamaker, was a great believer in the marriage of religion and capitalism and devised this presentation as an example of how gloriously (and profitably) the two could be combined.
Wanamaker promotions borrowed SYMBOLS from other religions as well. The store's 1913 fashion show had as its theme the Garden of ALLAH, the exotic paradise of the Muslim faith. Images of DJANNA, Islamic heaven, adorned the store's luxurious hall. Few residents of turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania had ever even heard of the enchanted garden with its rivers of wine and honey, flowering trees, and splendid orchards, and visiting the paradise vicariously was a unique thrill. Attendees were as dazzled by the opulence of the mystic decor as they were by the new clothes being modeled. The effect worked perfectly: Elated buyers were left with the feeling that they had indeed undergone a supernatural experience, and they bought plenty of souvenirs to remember the journey.
Edison Electric reached even further back in time for its heavenly advertisements. During the early 1900s, the utility company—striving to depict electricity as something mythical, even godly—lit upon the symbol "Edison Mazda," patterned after the Persian deity AHURA MAZDA, the Zoroastrian god of light. The Mazda figure appeared on print ads and in promotional calendars as a vibrant, luminous beauty lounging amid the clouds. Implicit was the message that electric power is a mysterious, auspicious gift from above, and those availing themselves of this new technology shared in the bounty of heaven.
As technology progressed, television advertising brought new depth to the depiction of the celestial orb. Televised commercials routinely showed heaven as a place where those who have lived good lives are rewarded with eternal access to superior consumer products. This includes being attended by angels, chatting with the SAINTS and even interacting with the Almighty himself. In the ultimate embodiment of conspicuous consumption, paradise is even presented as a realm that can be custom-tailored to each individual's tastes.
An example of this is the 1996 Reebok basketball gear ad campaign. In one commercial, a black teen is shown "going up for the jam" in slow motion. As he pauses at the rim, the hoop resembles aHALO glimmering in the muted light. The narrator then whispers, "This is my Heaven." A recent Roy Roger's fast-food ad offers this perspective as well, showing a newly deceased young man who is reluctant to leave his steady diet of roast beef sandwiches, fried chicken, and french fries. The celestial welcome wagon joyfully reassures him that in paradise he will be able to continue enjoying the restaurant's tasty treats.
Another common usage of the supernatural in electronic promotions paints the afterlife as a realm where humans who have made the right consumer choices will receive eternal reward. In an Orville Reddenbacher commercial for low-fat popcorn, the departed tells the guardian of the gate that she has restrained her passions while on earth, opting for the healthful snack over more caloric indulgences. She is immediately admitted into heaven. A 1996 Chesapeake Bagel Bakery radio ad echoes the sentiment that selecting a proper diet translates into eternity in paradise. The narrator sings about a dream in which "I died and went to Heaven—and I was wearing a bagel for a halo," sung in the style of old-time religious HYMNS.
Other ads visit the opposite end of the spectrum, depicting the HEREAFTER as an endless festival of carnal delights. In 1997, Miller Brewing Company pitched a "Party in Heaven" complete with dance music, beautiful women, and, of course, malted barely beverage. When one reveler discovers that the refrigerator is empty, accommodating "angels" cause a tree to fall back on earth, smashing a few cases of Miller Lite bottles on a passing delivery truck. As the bottles break, their "spirits" ascend to the hereafter, where they refill the heavenly refrigerator allowing the party to resume in earnest.
Many afterlife promotions hint that although advertisers have a sense of humor, the powers that be might not. A pitch for Snickers candy bars depicts a waiting line of newly deceased souls stretching from the PEARLY GATES to the distant cloudy horizon. When one of them shouts, "Does this line ever move?" a hole in the sky opens and the impatient soul plummets into hell. The heavenly gatekeeper wryly ask, "It's moving now, isn't it?" As the rest of the arrivals wait in shocked silence, the narrator coos, "Not going anywhere for an eternity?" and suggests that a chocolate bar might make the wait a bit more tolerable.
A number of modern commercials stick to traditional images of heaven as an enlightened bureaucracy. Alpha-graphics recently aired an advertisement for a speedy copier service that shows a middle-aged angel as heaven's receptionist. She dutifully forwards calls from those desperate for miracles, but when a frantic caller declares, "I need five thousand copies of this report by Monday," the celestial office worker replies that such a feat is beyond even divine intervention. The narrator reminds viewers that paradise might fall short, but Alphagraphics can deliver.
Contemporary advertisers also like to use "heavenly" terms in product names or promotions, hinting at the "out of this world superiority" of their products. This is especially common among sellers of FOOD NOVELTIES.
AENEID The Roman poet Virgil wrote his epic Aeneid in the first century B.C. It tells the story of the warrior hero Aeneas, founder of the city of Rome. Virgil left instructions in his will that the unfinished poem be destroyed after his death; however, emperor Caesar Augustus refused to carry out Virgil's request. In fact, he demanded that the work be hailed as a triumph of Roman literary accomplishment. The Aeneid has since become a pivotal work of Western literature.
The Aeneid opens as, Aeneas, his troops decimated in the Trojan War, searches for a new home for his fellow soldiers and the survivors of Troy. The gods send a messenger who tells him to found a new city and promises that Aeneas's empire will be a great civilization that will change the face of the earth. At first, the fallen hero sets out to perform this task as instructed. But during his travels, Aeneas falls in love with the beautiful Queen Dido of Carthage and decides to abandon his quest. He marries Dido and plans to remain in her kingdom, where they will rule together.
The gods, angered by this refusal to obey their orders, dispatch Mercury (HERMES) to remind Aeneas of his duty. With a great deal of sorrow, Aeneas realizes that he cannot stay in Carthage but must fulfill his divine destiny. He makes plans to set sail immediately. His wife, who has already lost one husband, is heartbroken to learn that her beloved Aeneas is about to cast off for Italy. She begs him to remain with her, but Aeneas replies that the decision is not his to make. He leaves Carthage the following morning, unaware that Dido has committed suicide in response to this "abandonment."
Unsure of how he should proceed in his quest, Aeneas travels to the underworld to ask the advice of his father, Anchises. With the help of a sibyl (an enchanted priestess of Apollo) and the magic of an enchanted golden bough, Aeneas enters the land of the dead. Here he views both the splendors of paradise and the horrors of the damned.
In the underworld, the road forks, with one branch leading to Dis, the city of the damned, the other going to ELYSIUM, the "place of delight." In the sweet paradise, souls "who in their lives were holy and chaste" are greatly rewarded, invited to "take ease among the Blessed groves" and enjoy games, music, and dancing. They move about freely, enjoying the companionship of their peers. As Aeneas travels through this mystic land, he recognizes that the REUNION of loved ones formerly separated by death is the truest pleasure of the afterlife.
When Aeneas first sees his father in Elysium, the two men begin weeping with joy. Aeneas tries three times to embrace Anchises, but his father's spirit slips through his arms, since they are of different worlds. Undaunted, Aeneas asks Anchises to explain to him the mysteries of the "other-world," especially why some souls "leave upper heaven" to reincarnate on earth. The elder replies that not all spirits can "clearly see heaven's air" and must live again to purge themselves of "stain." Others have "turned Time's wheel a thousand years" and are sent back to reexperience the pains and pleasures of the temporal plane. Aeneas declares that he longs to remain in this "lush meadow" with his father, but Anchises tells his son that this is not an option.
For a grand destiny awaits Aeneas below, Anchises explains. He tells his son that Aeneas's unconceived child "will be king and father of kings," and his line will one day produce "Caesar Augustus, son of the deified." As Anchises speaks, tears of pride well up in his eyes. Hearing this fantastic prophecy and witnessing his father's joy, Aeneas excitedly vows to return to Italy and plant the seeds of the Roman Empire. He bids his father farewell and departs through the "Ivory Gate" (through which dreams ascend to the living as they sleep) and rejoins his men in the upperworld.
The story of Aeneas has been adapted into a number of operas and stage plays, including Dido and Aeneas and Didonne Abandotta.
AFRA, SAINT (ca. 280–304) St. Afra, a MARTYR of the early Christian church, saw a vision of CHRISTIAN PARADISE at the time of her death. As she was being executed for refusing to renounce her religion, the heavens "opened up to receive her sweet soul." Then the young girl was carried to her exalted reward on the wings of ANGELS.
St. Afra was the child of St. Hilaria. (One account claims that Afra began her adult life a prostitute; however, this is historically inaccurate. Afra's life story has often been confused with that of Venerea, another martyr of the early days of Christianity.) Records show that Afra died a virgin and was executed under the Christian persecution of Diocletian. Her only crime was refusing to deny her faith and swear allegiance to pagan gods.
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Excerpted from Encyclopedia of Heaven by Miriam Van Scott. Copyright © 1998 Miriam Van Scott. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
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