angel's ladder

English

Noun

angel's ladder (plural angel's ladders)

1. Synonym of Jacob's ladder
   1. A ladder leading to heaven.
      • 1850, B. J. Lossing, “The Covenant”, in The Odd-fellows' Offering for 1850, page 108:

        Nor will the light fade from the vision, when it is turned toward the valley of the shadow of death, if faith shall keep it fixed upon the token of the covenant, for its beautiful arch bridges over the chasm, and like the angel's ladder, in Jacob's dream, it reaches from earth to heaven.

      • 1867, Martha Eugenia Berry, Celesta: A Girl's Book, page 122:

        She thought of Jacob, with his pillow of stone and his angel's ladder, and then raised her thoughts in prayer.

      • 1869, Nelly Marshall, As by Fire, page 156:

        And the vistas grew bright with the light of faith; and even as Jacob sleeping at the foot of the angel's ladder, saw that "all things are less dreadful than they seem," she knew that her life would not be barren of joy and comfort.

   2. A flowering plant of the genus Polemonium.
      • 1892, Ouida, Signa:

        Who gave the spiderwort to St. Bruno; the black briony for our Lady's Seal; the corn-feverfew to St. Anne; the common bean to St. Ignatius; the bane-berry to St. Christopher; the blue valerian to Jacob for his angel's ladder; the toywort to the shepherds for their purse?

      • 1894, J. Wood, Voices of the Past, page 33:

        Give me Consolation; and the Angel's Ladder: And the bright blue flow'r of Happiness, streaked with gold, That blooms only on the hill top; never in crowds: Remember , how happy she was with us.

      • 1968, Commentary - Volume 46, page 92:

        You heads of Jacob,/For you we hide the roots of dreams/ And let the airy angel's ladders / Sprout like the tendrils of a bed of bindweed.

2. A ray of sunlight descending from between clouds.
   • 1999, Bowker's Directory of Videocassettes for Children, page 969:

     Phenomena such as angel's ladders, sun dogs, & the coloration of everyday objects will will illustrate the occurence of these different frequencies.

   • 2016, Chuya Koyama, Space Brothers - Volume 25:

     You can see a beautiful "angel's ladder" in the sky!

   • 2024, Jessie Sale Lloyd, We Costelions, page 186:

     I supopse after the darkness of night and death's shadows, the soul loves to rise with the sunbeams. Angel's ladders!

3. (figurative) A way to be worthy of heaven; virtue or virtuous living.
   • 1864, Frances Power Cobbe, An Essay on Intuitive Morals: The Theory of Morals, page 46:

     At the beginning of the moral life, when we make our first steps towards virtue, all seems weakness, doubt, and hesitation. At the climax of mortal goodness we see that the saint's footing stands secure on the angel's ladder, whose summit is lost in heaven's splendors.

   • 1901 July, Cunningham Geikie, “Lessons From the Past for the Pulpit of To-day: Chrysostom”, in The Homiletic Review, volume 42, number 1, page 9:

     Prayer was in his eyes an angel's ladder to the heavens, and the shining path by which all blessings descend to the lowly soul.

   • 1990, Curt Leviant, The Man who Thought He was Messiah, page 123:

     One must descend to lustful night visions before climbing the angel's ladder of sun-filled dreams.

4. (figurative) A tall, craggy, cliff.
   • 1879, Charles Edwin Furman, Valley of the Genesee, page 101:

     When on the summit, we had gone part way Up angel's ladders, toward eternal day.

   • 1965, Garden Journal - Volumes 15-18, page 57:

     And down, and down we go on this angel's ladder. Antonio appears and disappears at the top of the ravine as the mist thickens and thins, and I know that he is smiling indulgently.

   • 1922, Alexander McConnell, ‎William Revell Moody, ‎Arthur Percy Fitt, Record of Christian Work - Volume 41:

     If we had eyes to see we should know every common bush as aflame with God and every craggy height as an angel's ladder.

5. (figurative) A chain of reasoning or actions that progresses to something sublime.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Sketches and Pictures, page 208:

     Vivid as was her admiration, however, she would probably have parted from him without the aspiring venture of loving him, if she had not seen disclosed, in the daily progress of her picture, an angel's ladder by which the heaven of an equality with him might be reached.

   • 1859, John William Jackson, Ecstatics of Genius, page 93:

     To him, phenomena were but the indications of a power whence they proceeded; the angel's ladder which leads from the world of fact to the heaven of principle, was never absent from his consciousness.

   • 1948, John Wymond, ‎Henry Plauché Dart, The Louisiana Historical Quarterly - Volume 31, page 864:

     Among his pupils thus discovered and assisted in their first effort to climb the angel's ladder of music, are Fleury-Urban, Durand Hitchcock and Minnie Hauk, now among the most illustrious votaries of art.

   • 2009, Robert Lumsden, Reading Literature After Deconstruction, page 238:

     Rimbaud has only sarcasm for this reason, "an angel's ladder of common sense” for this trickery practiced by man who "proves to himself the obvious, swells with pleasure at repeating his proofs, and lives only for this."