Heaven

thumb|Statue of the angel of the Annunciation, , [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] thumb|right|Schutzengel ("Guardian angel") by Bernhard Plockhorst depicts a [[guardian angel watching over two children.]] thumb|right|The Michael (archangel)|Archangel Michael. An angel is a spiritual heavenly, or supernatural entity, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in various traditions like the Abrahamic religions. Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels and servant

thumb|Dante Alighieri|Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heaven; from [[Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy. |288x288px]]

A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to have authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life, with many also being considered as sacred and worthy of worship. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".

primordial Greek deity, god of the Sky; one of the Greek primordial deities

the male form of God

the highest god of many Taoist sects, overseeing the universe through administration of a celestial bureaucracy mirroring ancient and medieval China's

supernatural beings in Buddhism; more powerful, longer-lived, and, in general, much happier than humans

seven levels or divisions of the Heavens in religious or mythological cosmology

'''' () is a term for a historical Chinese cultural concept that denoted either the entire geographical world or the metaphysical realm of mortals, and later became associated with political sovereignty. In ancient China and imperial China, tianxia'' denoted the lands, space, and area divinely appointed to the Chinese sovereign by universal and well-defined principles of order. The center of this land was directly apportioned to the Chinese court, forming the center of a world view that centered on the Chinese court and went concentrically outward to major and minor officials and then the comm

Tian () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and is a central concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and cosmology. During the Shang dynasty (17th–11th century BCE), the highest deity was referred to as Shangdi or Di (, "Lord"). In the subsequent Zhou dynasty, Tian became synonymous with this figure. Prior to the 20th century, the worship of Tian was considered an orthodox cosmic principle in China.

physically ascending into the afterlife without first experiencing corporal death

Legendary supposed afterlife

The hyperuranion or topos hyperuranios (, accusative of ὑπερουράνιος τόπος, "place beyond heaven"), which is also called Platonic realm, is a place in heaven where all ideas of real things are collected together. As a perfect realm of Forms, the hyperuranion is within Plato's view that the idea of a phenomenon is beyond the realm of real phenomena and that everything we experience in our lives is merely a copy of a perfect model. It is described as higher than the gods since their divinity depended on the knowledge of the hyperuranion beings."But the region above the heaven (ὑπερουράνιον τόπον

Cāturmahārājakāyika (; ) heaven is the first world of the devas in Buddhist cosmology. The word Cāturmahārājakāyika refers to the Four Heavenly Kings (Cāturmahārāja) who rule over this world along with the assemblage or multitude (kāyika) of beings that dwell there.

book by Emanuel Swedenborg