cob in his vision saw, reaching from earth to heaven," was
widely dispersed among the religions of antiquity, where it was always
supposed to consist of seven rounds or steps.

For instance, in the Mysteries of Mithras, in Persia, where there were
seven stages or degrees of initiation, there was erected in the temples,
or rather caves,--for it was in them that the initiation was
conducted,--a high ladder, of seven steps or gates, each of which was
dedicated to one of the planets, which was typified by one of the metals,
the topmost step representing the sun, so that, beginning at the bottom,
we have Saturn represented by lead, Venus by tin, Jupiter by brass,
Mercury by iron, Mars by a mixed metal, the Moon by silver, and the Sun by
gold, the whole being a symbol of the sidereal progress of the solar orb
through the universe.

In the Mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference to the ladder of
seven steps; but here the names were different, although there was the
same allusion to the symbol of the universe. The seven steps were
emblematical of the seven worlds which constituted the Indian universe.
The lowest was the Earth; the second, the World of Reexistence; the third,
Heaven; the fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region between the
lower and upper worlds; the fifth, the World of Births, in which souls are
again born; the sixth, the Mansion of the Blessed; and the seventh, or
topmost round, the Sphere of Truth, the abode of Brahma, he himself being
but a symbol of the sun, and hence we arrive once more at the masonic
symbolism of the universe and the solar orb.

Dr. Oliver thinks that in the Scandinavian Mysteries he has found the
mystic ladder in the sacred tree _Ydrasil;_[83] but here the reference to
the septenary division is so imperfect, or at least abstruse, that I am
unwilling to press it into our catalogue of coincidences, although there
is no doubt that we shall find in this sacred tree the same allusion as in
the ladder of Jacob, to an ascent from earth, where its roots were
planted, to heaven, where its branches expanded, which ascent being but a
change from mortality to immortality, from time to eternity, was the
doctrine taught in all the initiations. The ascent of the ladder or of the
tree was the ascent from life here to life hereafter--from earth to
heaven.

It is unnecessary to carry these parallelisms any farther. Any one can,
however, see in them an undoubted reference to that septenar