Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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KEYS OF HEAVEN AND OF HELL, OR OF DEATH AND OF HADES

A symbol of the higher mind which occupies the central position between the higher and lower natures, and is therefore the key to both.

"By key is signified the power of opening and also the act of opening." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 421.

"The true Guru holdeth the keys; none save him can open the door; the true Guru is found by good fortune." - MACAULIFFE, The Sikh Religion, Vol. II. p. 178.

“I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." - REV. i. 18.

The true Guru is the Higher Self, the Christ within, the Living One, who died out of involution, and who now in evolution is manifest in the higher mind and holds the issues of life and death in the lower worlds of time and space.

“In the soul's progress, the unperfected soul, or ‘wicked man,’ on its approach to the higher mental levels between its incarnations, is impelled downwards again to incarnate. The perfected soul, or ‘righteous man,’ is on the contrary drawn upwards to bliss.

"The most honorific passage (to Peter) in Matthew (xvi. 17-19) was omitted by Luke and Mark. . . . The section in Matthew is exceeding probably a quite late interpolation." - Enc. Biblica, "Simon Peter," (5).

The story about Jesus giving the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" to Peter does not fit in with the sacred symbology. “Peter,” being a symbol of the lower mind, could not possibly have control of the higher nature of the soul. The statement was probably ignorantly interpolated by some ecclesiastics early in the third century, who inserted it for the sake of the visible Church, in order that it should get apparent authority and sanction from the scriptures.

"It is the power of Thoth that binds and loosens; he holds the keys of heaven and hell, of life and death." - G. R. S. MEAD, T. G. Hermes, Vol. I. p. 61.

"Thoth" is a symbol of the higher mind which is the bridge, door, or gate between the higher and lower natures (heaven and earth).

 

See Also

BINDING
Bridge
Door
Doors OPENED BY THOTH
GATE
HADES
HEAVEN
HELL
PETER
THOTH