My first challenge in writing the Angelic Wars series was to create an image of Heaven in light of existing Biblical verses that refer to it. The Scripture mentions (or eludes to) Heaven's description in only a few places; I tried to reconcile my imagining with these verses.
My conception of Heaven is that it’s all-encompassing structure is made up of two intersecting spirals, enclosed within a globe. Four main areas in the Bible contribute to this imagining. First, Ezekiel, who writes about Satan’s expulsion from heaven; Second, the book of Job that refers to a conversation between God and Satan (which occurs after his fall); Third, Paul’s reference in 2 Corinthians to a “third Heaven” and finally, John’s images in Revelation.
Ezekiel 28:17 makes clear that God cast Satan out of Heaven. Curiously, Satan reappears in Heaven in Job 1:6-7. How was Satan able to interact with God after his removal from Heaven? This created a specific challenge for me: I needed to create a Heaven where Satan could return after being cast out.
In the novels, I reconciled this dilemma by creating three different levels of Heaven, two of which exclude Satan and one of which allows his presence. I supported this concept of “levels” by reference to the Apostle Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 12:2-3, where he writes that he knew a person “who was caught up to the third Heaven.” In consideration of these Bible citations, I created an imagining of Heaven with three levels. Level one is God's Throne (described in Revelation 4) which exists on the outer globe; level two is one of the two spirals where only angels with access to God exist after the fall. The Angelic Wars, First Rebellion takes place on this level because no angel has fallen from grace at this point of the epic. Finally, the third level is the other intersecting spiral where Satan and demons can enter after their fall and engage in spiritual battles against the good angels for human souls. I will write these battle stories to start in the third novel.
For my fantasy, the only remaining issue was to create a passageway into the material world—what we know as the universe. I call this passageway the Siq, the porthole existing at the intersection of the two spirals. It is black and encompasses the entire material universe. The Siq is surrounded by all levels of Heaven. This illustration shows the Siq as a light in the middle, but that is surrounding the proposed black hole.