by Emanuel Swedenborg

Originally published anonymously in Latin as De Coelo et Ejus

Mirabilibus, et de Inferno, ex Auditis et Visis (London, 1758). Translated by George F. Dole for the Swedenborg Foundation's New Century Edition. © 2000 by the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc. All rights are reserved by the Swedenborg Foundation.

This downloadable version includes the entire Dole 2000 translation, and nothing but the Dole 2000 translation, of Swedenborg's original (Swedenborg Foundation: West Chester, Pa., 2000). It is intended solely for personal use. This file was derived electronically from the typeset version but has not been proofread against the printed text. Some characters may not have converted accurately.

For a hardcover or paperback volume of the same work that includes introductions, diagrams, bibliographies, notes, and indices, order the New Century Edition Heaven and Hell from the Swedenborg Foundation ([800] 355-3222 in the United States, or www.swedenborg.com) or other booksellers.

HE AV E N & H E L L

IN the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, we find the Lord¹ talking to his disciples about the close of the age, the last time of the church.^a,*,2 At the end of his prophecies concerning the sequence of states of its love and faith,^b,3 he says:

Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Human-born One⁴ will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will lament. And they will see the Human-born One coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens all the way to the other end. (Matthew 24:29-31)⁵

When people understand these words according to their literal meaning, they can only believe that all these things are going to happen just as this meaning describes them, at that end of time called the Last Judg-ment.⁶ This does not mean only that the sun and moon will be darkened and that the stars will fall from heaven, that the sign of the Lord will appear in heaven, and that he will be seen in the clouds with angels blowing trumpets. It also includes matters prophesied elsewhere, statements that the whole visible world is going to be destroyed and that afterward a new heaven and a new earth will come into being.

• a. On the close of the age as the last time of the church: 4535, 10672 [10622].

• b. For explanations of what the Lord said in Matthew 24 and 25 about the close of the age, his coming, and thus the gradual destruction of the church and the Last Judgment, see the material prefaced to chapters 5-24 [26-40] of Genesis. In particular, see 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3759 [3751-3757], 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4129-4231 [4229-4231], 4332-4335, 4422-4424, [4535,] 4635-4638, 4661-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071.

* Swedenborg's footnotes, indicated by superscript letters, comprise references to his previously published Secrets of Heaven (1749-1756). Endnotes, containing information helpful to the reader, are indicated by superscript numbers. Text citations in both series of notes refer to Swedenborg's section numbers. See the list of short titles and other conventions on pages 79-84 above. [GFD]

Many people in the church these days are of this opinion.⁷ However, people who believe such things are not aware of the hidden depths that lie within the details of the Word.⁸ There is in fact spiritual meaning in these details, for they intend not only the outward and earthly events that we find on the literal level but spiritual and heavenly events as well. This holds true not just for the meaning of phrases but even for each word.^c

The Word is in fact written in pure correspondences^d,9 so that there may be deeper meaning in the details. Questions about the nature of this meaning can be resolved by all the things I have set forth about it in Secrets of Heaven.¹⁰ A selection of these may be found also in my explanation of the white horse in the Book of Revelation.¹¹ It is in this deeper sense that we are to understand what the Lord said in the passage just cited about coming in the clouds of heaven. The sun that will be darkened means the Lord in respect to love,^e the moon means the Lord in respect to faith.^f The stars mean insights into what is good and true, or into love and faith.^g The sign of the Human-born One in heaven means the appearing of divine truth. The wailing tribes of earth mean all the elements of what is true and good, or of faith and love.^h The Lord's coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory means his presence in the Word, and revelation.ⁱ The clouds refer to the literal meaning of the Word^j and the glory to the Word's inner meaning.^k The angels with a trumpet and a loud voice mean heaven, which is where divine truth comes from.^l

• c. There is deeper meaning in every detail of the Word: 1143, 1984, 2135, 2333, 2395, 2495, 4442, 9049, 9086.

• d. The Word is composed using pure correspondences, so that its every detail points to something spiritual: 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2900, 9086.

• e. The sun in the Word means the Lord in respect to love, and therefore love for the Lord: 1529, 1837, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 4996 [4966], 7083, 10809.

• f. The moon in the Word means the Lord in respect to faith, and therefore faith in the Lord: 1529, 1530, 2495, 4060, 4996[4696], 7083.

• g. Stars in the Word mean insights into what is good and true: 2495, 2849, 4697.

• h. Tribes mean all true and good elements in a single complex, or all elements of faith and love: 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335.

• i. The Lord's coming is his presence in the Word, and revelation: 3900, 4060.

• j. Clouds in the Word mean the Word in the letter or its literal meaning: 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574.

• k. Glory in the Word means divine truth as it is in heaven and in the inner meaning of the Word: 4809, 5292 [?], 5922, 8267, 8427, 9429, 10574.

• l. The trumpet or horn means divine truth in heaven and revealed from heaven: 8815, 8823, 8915. “Voice” has the same meaning: 6971, 9926.

This enables us to see what these words of the Lord mean. They mean that at the end of the church, when there is no longer any love and therefore no longer any faith, the Lord will open the Word by disclosing its deeper meaning and will reveal the heavenly contents hidden ¹² within it. The particular hidden contents to be disclosed in the pages that follow have to do with heaven and hell and with our own life after death.

Church people these days¹³ know practically nothing about heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there are descriptions of everything available to them in the Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever come back to tell us about it.

To prevent this negative attitude—especially prevalent among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly wisdom—from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been enabled to see what is in heaven and in hell, a process that has been going on for thirteen years. Now I am being allowed therefore to describe what I have heard and seen, in the hopes of shedding light where there is ignorance, and of dispelling skepticism.

The reason this kind of direct revelation is taking place today is that this is what the Coming of the Lord means.¹⁴

FIRST and foremost, we need to know who the God of heaven is, since everything else depends on this. Throughout the whole of heaven, no one is acknowledged as God of heaven except the Lord.¹⁵ Angels say what he himself taught, namely that he is one with the Father, that the Father is in him and he in the Father, that anyone who sees him sees the Father, and that everything holy emanates from him ( John 10:30, 38; 14:9—ll;¹⁶ 16:13—15). I have often talked with angels about this, and their consistent testimony has been that in heaven they cannot divide the Divine¹⁷ into three because they both know and perceive that the Divine is one and that this “one” is in the Lord. They have also told me that when people arrive from earth with the idea of three divine beings they cannot be admitted to heaven. This is because their thinking vacillates between one opinion and the other, and in heaven they are not allowed¹⁸ to think “three” and say “one.”^a,19

In heaven people actually speak directly from their thought, so that we have there a kind of thoughtful speech or audible thought. This means that if people have divided the Divine into three in the world and held a separate image of each one without gathering and focusing these three into one, they cannot be accepted. In heaven, there is a communication of all thoughts, so if people arrive who think “three” and say “one,” they are recognized immediately for what they are and are sent away.

Still, it needs to be realized that in the other life any people who have not put “good” in one compartment and “true” in another—who have not separated faith from love—accept the heavenly concept of the Lord as God of the universe once they have been taught. It is different, though, with people who have separated their faith from their lives, that is, who have not lived by the guiding principles of true faith.

If people within the church have ignored the Lord and recognized only the Father and have closed their minds to other thoughts, they are outside heaven. Since they do not receive any inflow²⁰ from heaven, where the Lord alone is worshiped, they gradually lose their ability to ponder the truth of one thing after another. Eventually they either become speechless or inarticulate. They walk around aimlessly with their arms hanging down loosely as though all the strength had gone from their joints.

On the other hand, people who have denied the Lord's divine nature and have recognized only his human nature (like the Socinians)²¹ are also excluded from heaven. They are taken a little way forward to the right²² and are let down into the depths, which completely separates them from the Christian realm. Then too, there are people who claim to believe in an invisible Divine called the Being of the Universe and reject any faith in the Lord. When they are examined, it turns out that they do not believe in any god at all, since this invisible Divine of theirs is actually like the first principles of nature. This is incompatible with faith and love,

• a. In the other life, Christians have been examined to find out what kind of concept of God they had, and it has turned out that they had a concept of three gods: 2329, 5256, 10736, 10738, 10821. On the recognition in heaven of a trinity within the Lord: 14, 15, 1729, 2005, 5256, 9303. because it eludes [actual] thought.^b These people are banished to the company of those called materialists.²³

Things happen differently for people who are born outside the church, the ones we call non-Christians. We will discuss them later.²⁴

All little children (and these make up a third part of heaven) are led first into an acknowledgment and belief that the Lord is their father. Later they are brought into an acknowledgment and belief that he is Lord of all, which means God of heaven and earth. It will be made clear below that little children mature in heaven and by means of insights²⁵ are brought into full angelic intelligence and wisdom.²⁶

There can be no doubt among church people that the Lord is God of heaven, because he himself teaches that everything of the Father's belongs to him (Matthew 11:27; John 16:15; 17:2) and that he has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). It says “in heaven and on earth” because the ruler of heaven rules earth as well, the one actually depending on the other.^c His “ruling heaven and earth” means our accepting from him everything good that is intrinsic to love and everything true that is intrinsic to faith. It therefore means accepting all intelligence and wisdom, and thus all happiness—in short, eternal life.

This too the Lord teaches when he says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever does not trust the Son will not see life” ( John 3 : 36 ). Or again, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, will be alive, and whoever lives and believes in me will not die to eternity” (John 11:25-26).²⁷ Or again, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

There were some spirits who had acknowledged the Father but whose only concept of the Lord had been that he was a human being like everyone else. This meant they did not believe that he was the God of heaven. As a result, they were allowed to travel here and there and to ask at will whether there was a heaven that did not belong to the Lord. They asked around for some days without finding any.

• b. A Divine Being that cannot be grasped in any concept cannot be accepted by faith: 5110, 5633 [5663], 6982, 6996, 7004, 7211, 9359 [perhaps 9356], 9972, 10067.

• c. The whole of heaven belongs to the Lord: 2751, 7086. Power in the heavens and on earth belongs to him: 1607, 10089, 10827. Because the Lord governs heaven, he also governs everything that depends on heaven, which means everything in this world: 2026, 2027, 4523, 4524. Only the Lord has the power to banish the hells, restrain people from evils, and keep them engaged in what is good—the power therefore to save: 10019.

They were people who placed happiness in glory and in being in control, and since they could not get what they craved and were told that such feelings were not part of heaven, they felt insulted. They wanted a heaven where they could lord it over others and excel in the kind of glory they had had in this world.

WHILE we call the total assemblage of angels heaven because they do make it up, what really makes heaven overall and in every specific instance is the divine nature that emanates from the Lord, flowing into angels and accepted by them. The divine nature that emanates from the Lord is the good intrinsic to love and the truth intrinsic to faith. The amount angels accept from the Lord of what is good and what is true determines the extent to which they are angels and are heaven.

Everyone in the heavens knows, believes, and even perceives that nothing good is intended and done by the self and that nothing true is thought and believed by the self. Everything comes from the Divine, which means from the Lord. Anything good and true from the self is not good or true, because there is no life from the Divine within it. Angels of the central²⁸ heaven perceive and feel the inflow distinctly. The more they accept, the more they seem to be in heaven, because they are more fully absorbed in love and faith, in the light of intelligence and wisdom, and in the heavenly joy that results. Once we see that all these qualities emanate from the Lord's divine nature, we can see that the Lord's divine nature makes heaven. It is not anything the angels do with a sense of ownership.^a

• a. Angels recognize that everything good comes from the Lord and nothing from themselves, and that the Lord dwells within them in what is his own and not in anything that they can claim as their own: 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157. Consequently, “angels” in the Word mean something that belongs to the Lord: 1925, 2821, 3093, 4085, 8192, 10528. Because of their acceptance of the Divine from the Lord, angels are called gods: 4295, 4402, 7268, 7873, 8301, 8192. In fact, the Lord is the source of everything that is really good and everything that is really true—of all peace, love, thoughtfulness, and faith: 1614, 2016, 2751, 2882, 2883, 2891, 2892, 2904. He is also the source of all wisdom and intelligence: 109, 112, 121, 124.

This is why in the Word heaven is called the Lord's dwelling and his throne. It is why the people who live there are described as being “in the Lord.”^b We will explain later how the divine emanates from the Lord and fills heaven.²⁹

In their wisdom, angels press on even further. They say that it is not just everything good and true that comes from the Lord, but every bit of life as well. They support this by pointing out that nothing can come into being from itself. Everything presupposes something prior. This means that everything has come into being from a First, which they call the essential reality of the life of everything. Everything endures in the same way, too, because enduring is a constant coming into being.³⁰ If anything were not kept in constant connection with the First,³¹ through intermediate means, it would instantly collapse and disintegrate. They add that there is only one single wellspring of life, with human life as one stream flowing from it. If it were not constantly supplied from its wellspring, it would immediately peter out.

[2] Still further, they say that nothing flows from that unique wellspring of life, the Lord, that is not divinely good and divinely true. These affect every individual according to the way they are accepted. People who accept them into their faith and life are in heaven, while people who reject or stifle them transform them into hell. They actually change what is good into evil and what is true into falsity—life into death.

Angels also support their belief that the Lord is the source of eve ry bit of life by observing that eve rything in the universe goes back to what is good and true. Our volitional life, the life of our love, goes back to what is good, while our cognitive life, the life of our faith, goes back to what is true. Since eve rything good and true comes to us from above, it follows that this is the source of all of our life.

[3] Because angels believe this, they decline any thanks offered them for the good they do. In fact they feel hurt and withdraw if anyone gives them credit for anything good. It bewilders them to discover that people can believe they are wise on their own or do good on their own. Doing good for one's own sake, in their language, cannot be called “good,” because it stems from self. Doing good for its own sake is what they call “good from the Divine.” This, they say, is the kind of good that makes heaven, because this kind of good is the Lord.^c

• b. People in heaven are described as being in the Lord: 3637, 3638.

• c. Good from the Lord has the Lord within it, but good attributed to oneself does not: 1802, 3951, 8478.

  10

  
  

Spirits who during their earthly lives had convinced themselves that they were the sources of the good they did and the truth they believed, or who had claimed these virtues as their own, are not accepted into heaven. This is the belief of all those who place merit in good deeds and claim to be righteous. Angels avoid them. They regard them as stupid and as thieves—stupid because they are constantly looking at themselves and not at the Divine, and thieves because they take from the Lord what is actually his. They stand in opposition to heaven's belief that the Lord's divine nature in angels is what makes heaven.

If people are in heaven or in the church, they are in the Lord and the Lord is in them. This is what the Lord taught when he said, “Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit; because without me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-7 [4-5]).

This allows us finally to conclude that the Lord dwells in angels in what belongs to himself, and therefore that the Lord is the sum and substance of heaven. This is because the good from the Lord is the Lord within and among them, since what comes from him is himself. Accordingly, the good from the Lord, and not anything of their own, is heaven for angels.

INheaven, the divine nature that emanates from the Lord is called divine truth, for reasons that will be given below. This divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord, out of his divine love. Divine love and the divine truth that derives from it are like the sun's fire and the light that comes from it in our world. The love is like the sun's fire, and the derivative truth is like the light from the sun. By reason of correspondence, fire means love and light means the truth that flows from it.^a

This enables us to determine the character of the divine truth that emanates from divine love: in its essence, it is divine good united to divine truth, and because it is united, it gives life to everything in heaven the way the warmth of the sun, united to its light, makes everything fruitful on earth in spring and summer. It is different when the warmth is not united to light, when the light is therefore cold. Then everything slows down and lies there, snuffed out.

The divine good we have compared to warmth is the good of love within and among angels, and the divine truth we have compared to light is the means and the source of this good of love.

The reason the Divine in heaven (which in fact makes heaven) is love is that love is spiritual union. It unites angels to the Lord and unites them with each other. It does this so thoroughly that in the Lord's sight they are like a single being.³³ Further, love is the essential reality of every individual life. It is therefore the source of the life of angels and the life of people here. Anyone who weighs the matter will discover that love is our vital core. We grow warm because of its presence and cold because of its absence, and when it is completely gone, we die.^b We do need to realize, though, that it is the quality of our love that determines the quality of this life.³⁴

There are two quite distinguishable loves in heaven—love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. Love for the Lord is characteristic of the third or central heaven, while love for our neighbor is characteristic of the second or intermediate heaven.³⁵ Both come from the Lord, and each one makes a heaven.

In heaven's light, it is easy to see how these two loves differ and how they unite, but this can be seen only dimly in our world. In heaven, “loving the Lord” does not mean loving him for the image he projects³⁶ but loving the good that comes from him. Further, “loving one's neighbor” does not mean loving companions for the images they project but loving the truth that comes from the Word. Loving the truth is intending and

• a. In the Word, fire means love in both senses [that is, love for good and for evil]: 934, 4906, 5215; holy and heavenly fire means divine love and every affection that belongs to it: 934, 6314, 6832; the derivative light means the truth that flows from the good of love, and light in heaven is divine truth: 3395 [3195], 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 9548, 9684.

• b. Love is the fire of life, and life itself actually comes from love: 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314. doing it. We can therefore see that these two loves differ the way “good” and “true” differ and unite the way these two unite.^c

All this, though, will not conform to the notions of anyone who does not know what love is, what the good is, and what the neighbor is.^d

I have talked with angels about this on a number of occasions. They have expressed their astonishment that church people do not know that to love the Lord and to love one's neighbor is to love what is good and true and to do them intentionally. They should realize, though, that we demonstrate our love by intending and doing what someone else wants. This is how we become loved in return—not by “loving the other” and not doing what that other wants; in essence, that is not loving at all. They should also realize that the good that comes from the Lord is the Lord's own likeness because he is within it. We become likenesses of him and are united to him when we make what is good and what is true matters of our lives by doing them intentionally, since intending something is loving to do it. The Lord teaches that this is true when he says, “Those who have my commandments and do them are the ones who love me, and I will love them and make my dwelling with them” (John 14:21, 23);³⁷ and again, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” ( John 15:10, 12).³⁸

All my experience in heaven bears witness to the fact that the divine nature that comes from the Lord, affects angels, and constitutes heaven, is love. In fact, all the people there are forms of love and thoughtfulness. They look indescribably beautiful. Love radiates from their faces, from their speech, from every detail of their behavior.^e

Further, there are surrounding auras³⁹ of spiritual life that emanate from every angel and from every spirit and envelop them. By means of these auras one can recognize even from a distance the quality of the affections of their loves, since these auras flow out from the life of their affection and consequent thought—that is, from the life of their love and

• c. Loving the Lord and our neighbor means living according to the Lord's laws: 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10648.

• d. Loving one's neighbor is not loving the image he or she projects but loving what is within one's neighbor and is therefore one's neighbor's source, namely the good and the true: 5025 [5028], 10336; if people love the individual and not what is within the individual and is therefore the source of the individual, they love the evil as much as the good: 3820; thoughtfulness is intending what is true and being influenced by things true for their own sake: 3876, 3877; thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor is doing what is good, fair, and honest in every task and in every office: 8120, 8121, 8122.

• e. On angels as forms of thoughtfulness: 3804, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 9879, 10177.

consequent faith. The auras that emanate from angels are so full of love that they touch the deepest reaches of life of the people they meet. I have been aware of them a number of times, and they have moved me deeply.^f

I have been able to see that love was the source of angels' life because all the people in the other life turn in a direction determined by their own love. People engaged in a love for the Lord and a love for their neighbor are constantly turning toward the Lord, while people who are engaged in self-love are constantly turning their backs to the Lord. This holds true no matter which way they turn, since in the other life spatial relationships are determined by people's inner natures. These also determine geographical regions, whose boundaries are not drawn the way they are in the physical world but depend on which way people are facing. Actually, it is not angels who turn to the Lord but the Lord who turns toward himself the people who love to do whatever has its source in him.^g,40 But there will be more on this subject below, when we discuss geographical regions in the other life.⁴¹

The reason the Lord's divine nature in heaven is love is that love is what is receptive of every heavenly quality—that is, of peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness. Love is receptive of everything that is in harmony with it. It longs for such things, it seeks them out, it absorbs them spontaneously because it has the constant purpose of uniting itself with them and being enriched by them.^h People actually recognize this fact, since the love within them surveys memory, so to speak, and draws out from it the items that agree with it. It gathers these together and arranges them within and beneath itself—within itself so that it may possess them and beneath itself so that they may serve it. It discards and eradicates, though, the items that do not agree with it.⁴²

I have been able to see very clearly that love has a full, intrinsic ability to accept elements of truth that suit it and has also a desire of uniting them to itself. This has become clear from observing people who have

• f. A spiritual aura that is an aura of life flows out in waves from every person, every spirit, and every angel and clings to them: 4464, 5179, 7454 , 8630. It flows out from the life of their affection and consequent thought: 2489, 4464, 6206.

• g. Spirits and angels are constantly turning in the direction of their loves, which means that people in the heavens are constantly turning toward the Lord: 10130, 10189, 10420, 10702. Geographical regions in the other life depend for particular individuals on the direction they are facing; this is what draws their boundaries, unlike the situation in the physical world: 10130, 10189, 10420, 10702.

• h. Love includes countless elements, and welcomes into itself everything that is in harmony with it: 2500, 2572, 3078, 3189, 6323, 7490, 7750.

been transported into heaven. Even people who were simple folk in this world have arrived at angelic wisdom and heavenly happiness in the company of angels. This was because they loved what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true. They had grafted these qualities into their lives and had thereby become capable of accepting heaven and all its indescribable riches.

People caught up in love for themselves and for the world, however, have no such receptive ability. They turn away from such things, discard them, and at their first touch or inflow try to escape them. They ally themselves with people in hell who are caught up in loves like their own.

There were some spirits who doubted that love was so full and wanted to know whether this was really true. In order that they might find out, they were let into a state of heavenly love with all obstacles removed and were brought forward a considerable distance to an angelic heaven. They talked with me from there and told me that they felt deeper happiness than words could express, sorrowing that they would have to return to their former state. Other people as well have been raised into heaven, and the deeper or higher they have been taken, the deeper and higher they have penetrated into intelligence and wisdom, becoming able to grasp things that were incomprehensible to them before. We can see from this that the love that emanates from the Lord is open to heaven and all its riches.

We can conclude that love for the Lord and love for our neighbor embrace within themselves everything that is true from the Divine because this follows from what the Lord himself said about these two loves: “You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul: this is the greatest and first commandment. The second, which is like it, is that you should love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). The Law and the Prophets are the whole Word, which means all divine truth.

SINCE there are infinite varieties in heaven—since no community and in fact no individual is just like any other^a—heaven is therefore divided overall, more specifically, and in detail. Overall, it is divided into two kingdoms, more specifically into three heavens, and in detail into countless communities.⁴³ We will now discuss the details. They are called “kingdoms” because heaven is called “the kingdom of God.”

There are angels who accept the divine nature that emanates from the Lord on a deeper level and angels who accept it less deeply. The ones who accept it more deeply are called heavenly angels, and the ones who accept it less deeply are called spiritual angels. Heaven is therefore divided into two kingdoms, one called the heavenly kingdom⁴⁴ and the other called the spiritual kingdom.^b

Because the angels who make up the heavenly kingdom accept the Lord's divine nature on a deeper level, they are called more inward or higher angels. The heavens they constitute are therefore called more inward or higher heavens.^c We use the words “higher” and “lower” as a way of referring to more inward things and more outward things.^d,45

The love that envelops people in the heavenly kingdom is called heavenly love, and the love that envelops people in the spiritual kingdom is called spiritual love. Heavenly love is love for the Lord, and spiritual love is thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor. Further, since all “good” is

• a. There is an infinite variety, and nothing can ever be identical to anything else: 7236, 9002. There is an infinite variety in heaven as well: 684, 690, 3744, 5598, 7236. The varieties in heaven are varieties of what is good: 3744, 4005, 7236, 7833, 7836, 9002. By this means all the communities in heaven and every angel in a community are distinguishable from each other: 690, 3241, 3519, 3804, 3986, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 7836. Still, they all form one entity by means of love from the Lord: 457, 3986.

• b. Overall, heaven is divided into two kingdoms, a heavenly kingdom and a spiritual kingdom: 3887, 4138. Angels of the heavenly kingdom accept the Lord's divine [nature] in their volitional side, and therefore more deeply than do spiritual angels, who accept it into their cognitive side: 5113, 6367, 8521, 9935 [9915],9995, 10124.

• c. The heavens that constitute the heavenly kingdom are called “higher,” while those that constitute the spiritual kingdom are called “lower”: 10068.

• d. Deeper matters are expressed as higher, and higher matters as deeper: 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325.

a matter of love (since whatever we love is good in our estimation), the good of the one kingdom is called heavenly and the good of the other, spiritual. We can see from this the way in which these two kingdoms are distinguished from each other: namely, that it is like the way the good of love for the Lord is distinguished from the good of thoughtfulness toward our neighbor.^e Since the former good is a deeper good and the former love is a deeper love, heavenly angels are more inward angels, and are called “higher.”

The heavenly kingdom is also called the Lord's priestly kingdom—in the Word, “his dwelling”; and the spiritual kingdom is called his royal kingdom—in the Word, “his throne.” The Lord in the world was called “Jesus” because of his heavenly divine nature, and “the Christ” because of his spiritual divine nature.

The angels in the Lord's heavenly kingdom far surpass the angels of the spiritual kingdom in regard to wisdom and splendor because they accept the Lord's divine nature on a deeper level. They live in love for him, and are therefore more intimately united to him.^f The reason for their excellence is that they have accepted divine truths directly into their lives and continue to do so, rather than taking them into memory and thought first, the way spiritual angels do. This means they have them engraved on their hearts and grasp them, virtually see them, within themselves. They never calculate whether or not they are true.^g They are like the people described in Jeremiah,

I will put my law in their mind and engrave it on their heart: no longer will one person teach a friend or a brother, saying, “Know Jehovah”;⁴⁶ from the smallest to the greatest, they will know me. ( J eremiah 31:33, 34)

In Isaiah, they are called “the people who have been taught by Jehovah” (Isaiah 54:13). In John 6:45-46, the Lord himself teaches that those who are taught by Jehovah are the ones who are taught by the Lord.

• e. The good of the heavenly kingdom is the good of love for the Lord, and the good of the spiritual kingdom is the good of thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor: 3691, 6435, 9468, 9680, 9683, 9780.

• f. Heavenly angels are far wiser than spiritual angels: 2718, 9995. On the nature of the difference between heavenly angels and spiritual angels: 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 4788, 7068, 8121 [8521], 9277, 10295.

• g. Heavenly angels do not reason about truths of faith because they grasp them within themselves, while spiritual angels do reason about whether they are true or not: 202, 337, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387 [1384], 1398 [1385, 1394], 1919, 3246, 4448, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277, 10786.

We have stated that they have more wisdom and splendor than others because they have accepted divine truths directly into their lives and continue to do so. The moment they hear them, they intend them and live them out. They do not refer them to memory and consider whether they are true. People like this know instantly, from an inflow from the Lord, whether the truth they are hearing is actually true. The Lord flows directly into our intentions, and indirectly, through our intentions, into our thinking. In other words, the Lord flows directly into what is good within us, and indirectly, through that good, into what is true.^h That is, we call “good” whatever is a matter of intent and therefore of action, while we call “true” whatever is a matter of memory and therefore of thought. However, as long as any truth is in memory and therefore in thought, it is neither good nor living. It is not assimilated into the person, because a person is a person by virtue of intent primarily and cognitive abilities secondarily—not by virtue of cognitive abilities apart from volition.^i,47

Since there is such a difference between angels of the heavenly kingdom and angels of the spiritual kingdom, they do not live together or associate with each other. They are granted communication only through intermediate angelic communities, communities called “heavenly-spiritual”: it is through them that the heavenly kingdom flows into the spiritual kingdom.^j The result of this is that while heaven is divided into two kingdoms, they still make a single whole. The Lord always provides intermediate angels like these through whom there can be communication and union.

• h. The Lord's inflow is into the good and through the good into the true, and not vice versa. So it is into volition and through it into discernment, and not vice versa: 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153.

• i. Our volition is the substance of our life and is what receives the good of love, while our cognitive ability is the consequent manifestation of life and is what receives true and good elements of faith: 3619, 5002, 9282. Therefore our volitional life is our primary life, and our cognitive life issues from it: 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9285 [9282], 10076, 10109, 10110. It is the things that are accepted into our volition that become matters of life and are assimilated to us: 3161, 9386, 9393. A person is a person by virtue of volition, and secondarily by virtue of cognitive abilities: 8911 , 9069, 9071, 10076, 10106, 10110. People who intend good and think well are loved and valued by others, while people who think well but do not intend good are rejected and disparaged: 8911, 10076. After death, we continue to have the character of our volition and of the discernment that follows from it. Whatever is a matter of cognition only, and not of volition, disappears because it is not really within us: 9069, 9071, 9282, 9386, 10153.

• j. There is a communication and union between the two kingdoms by means of angelic communities called “heavenly-spiritual”: 4047, 6435, 8787 [8796], 8881 [8802]. On the inflow of the Lord through the heavenly kingdom into the spiritual: 3969, 6366.

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Since there will be a good deal of material on the angels of each kingdom in the pages that follow, I forego details at this point.

THERE are three heavens, very clearly distinguished from each other.

There is a central or third heaven, an intermediate or second one, and an outmost or first.⁴⁸ These follow in sequence and are interdependent, like the highest part of the human body, the head; the middle, or torso; and the lowest, or feet; or like the highest, middle, and lowest parts of a house. The divine life that emanates and comes down from the Lord is in this kind of pattern as well. It is this necessity of design that determines the tripartite arrangement of heaven.

The deeper levels of the human mind and disposition⁴⁹ are in a similar pattern as well. We have a central, intermediate, and outmost nature. This is because when humanity was created the whole divine design was gathered into it, to the point that as to structure, the human being is the divine design and is therefore a heaven in miniature.^a For the same reason we are in touch with heaven as to our inner natures and come into the company of angels after death—of angels of the central or the intermediate or the outmost heaven depending on our acceptance of divine good and truth from the Lord during our earthly lives.

The divine nature that flows from the Lord and is accepted in the t h i rd or central heaven is called heave n l y, and the angels there are

• a. All the elements of the divine design are gathered into the human, and by creation the human is, structurally, the divine design: 4219, 4220 [4222], 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5368 [3628, 5168], 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472. Within the human individual, the inner person is structured in the likeness of heaven and the outer in the likeness of earth, which is why the ancients called the human a microcosm: 4523, 5368 [3628, 5115], 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472. So by creation, the human being is a miniature heaven as to inward things, a mirror of the macrocosm, and so too is the person who has been created anew or regenerated by the Lord: 911, 1900, 1982 [1928], 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523, 4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632. consequently called heavenly angels. The divine nature that flow s f rom the Lord and is accepted in the second or intermediate heaven is called spiritual, and the angels there are consequently called spiritual angels. The divine nature, though, that flows from the Lord and is accepted in the outmost or first heaven is called natural. Howe ve r, since the “n a tu r a l” of that heaven is not like the “natu r a l” of our world, but has something spiritual and heavenly within it, that heaven is called “s p i r i t u a l- n a t ur a l” or “heavenly-natural,” and the angels there are called “s p i r i t u a l - n a t u r a l” or “heavenly - n a t u r al . ”^b The angels called spiritual-natural are the ones who accept an inflow from the intermediate or second heaven, which is the spiritual heaven, while the angels called heavenly-natural are the ones who accept an inflow from the central or third heaven, which is the heavenly heaven. Sp i r i t u a l -natural and heavenly-natural angels are different from each other, but they constitute one heaven because they are all on the same level.

There is an outside and an inside to each heaven. The angels who are in the inner region are there called “inner angels,” while the ones in the outer region are called “outer angels.” The outside and the inside in the heavens (or in each particular heaven) are like our own volitional side and its cognitive aspect. Everything volitional has its cognitive side—nei-ther occurs without the other. The volitional is like a flame and the cognitive like the light that it sheds.⁵⁰

It needs to be quite clear that it is the inner nature of angels that determines which heaven they are in. The more the deeper levels have been opened, the more inward the heaven they are in. There are three inner levels of every angel and spirit, and of every person here as well. The people whose third level has been opened are in the central heaven, while the people whose second or first only has been opened are in the intermediate or the outmost heaven.

The deeper levels are opened by our acceptance of divine good and divine true gifts. People who are actually affected by divine true gifts and let them directly into their lives—into their intentions and therefore into act—are in the central or third heaven, located there according to their

• b. There are three heavens, a central one, an intermediate one, and an outmost one, or a third, a second, and a first: 684, 8594 [9594], 10270. The different kinds of good also follow in the same triple sequence: 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017. The good of the central or third heaven is called heavenly, the good of the intermediate or second is called spiritual, and the good of the outmost or first is called spiritual-natural: 4279, 4286, 4938, 4639, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068. acceptance of what is good in response to truth. People who do not let such gifts directly into their intentions, but into their memory and from there into their discernment, intending and doing them as a result of this process, are in the intermediate or second heaven. People who live good moral lives, though, and believe in the Divine with no particular interest in learning, are in the outmost or first heaven.^c We may therefore conclude that the state of our inner natures is what constitutes heaven and that heaven is within each one of us, not outside us. This is what the Lord teaches in saying,

The kingdom of God does not arrive when we are looking for it, nor do they say, “Here it is,” or “There it is.” Behold, you have the kingdom of God within you. (Luke 17:20—21)

All perfection increases as we move inward and decreases as we move outward, because more inward things are closer to the Lord and intrinsically purer, while more outward things are more remote from the Lord and intrinsically cruder.^d Angelic perfection consists of intelligence, wisdom, love, and everything good, with happiness as their result. It does not consist in happiness without these former qualities, since happiness without them is merely superficial, with no depth.

Since the inner reaches of angels of the central heaven are opened at the third level, their perfection far surpasses that of angels in the intermediate heaven, whose inner reaches are opened at the second level. By the same token, the perfection of angels of the intermediate heaven surpasses that of angels of the outmost heaven.

Because of this difference, an angel of one heaven cannot gain admission to angels of another heaven: someone from a lower heaven cannot come up, nor can someone from a higher heaven come down. Anyone who comes up is seized by anxiety even to the point of pain and cannot

• c. There are as many levels of life within the human individual as there are heavens, and these are opened after death depending on the way the individual has lived: 3747, 9594. Heaven is within us: 3884. So people who have accepted heaven within themselves in the world enter heaven after death: 10717.

• d. More inward things are more perfect because they are closer to the Lord: 3405, 5146, 5147. There are thousands and thousands of things within that outwardly appear to be only a single generality: 5707. To the extent that we are raised from outer concerns toward more inward ones, we come into light and therefore into intelligence, and this ascent is like coming from the fog into clear air: 4598, 6183, 6333 [6313].

see the people who are there, let alone talk with them. Anyone who comes down from a higher heaven loses his or her wisdom, stammers, and loses confidence.

There were some people from the outmost heaven who had not yet been taught that heaven is a matter of angels' deeper qualities, but believed that they would find greater angelic happiness if only they were admitted to the heaven where these angels lived. They were allowed to visit them, but when they arrived, even though there were a great many angels there, they did not see anyone no matter where they looked. The deeper levels of the newcomers had not been opened at the level where the more inward angels lived, so they had no sight. Before long, they were seized by heart pain and eventually could scarcely tell whether they were still alive or not. So they quickly made their way back to the heaven they had come from, and were delighted to be among their own people. They vowed that they would never again crave conditions that were higher than the ones that suited their own way of life.

It is different when the Lord raises people from a lower heaven into a higher one so that they can see its splendor, which happens quite often. Then they are prepared in advance and provided with mediating angels who serve as agents of communication.

We can see from all this that the three heavens are quite distinct from each other.

However, people who live in the same heaven can associate with anyone there, and their delight in getting together is in proportion to the similarity of the values they are devoted to. There will be more about this, though, in later chapters.⁵¹

Even though the heavens are so distinct from each other that angels of one heaven cannot have regular dealings with angels of another, still the Lord unites all the heavens by means of a direct and an indirect inflow. The direct inflow is from him into all the heavens, and the indirect is through one heaven into another.^e In this way, the Lord brings about a unity of the three heavens. They are all linked together, from the First⁵² to the last, so that nothing exists that is not connected. Anything that is

• e. The inflow from the Lord is directly from himself and also indirectly through one heaven into another, and the same holds true for us in regard to our more inward processes: 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683. On the direct inflow of divine [life] from the Lord: 6058, 6474-6478, 8717, 8728. On the indirect inflow through the spiritual world into the natural world: 4067, 6982, 6985, 6996. not connected to the First by some intermediary does not endure, but disintegrates and becomes nothing.^f

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Anyone who does not know how the divine design is arranged in levels cannot grasp how the heavens are distinguished from each other, or for that matter, what the inner person and the outer person are (in an individual). The only idea most people in this world have about inner and outer things is one of continuity, or of a coherence along a continuum from the finer to the coarser. Inner and outer things are not arranged in a continuum, though, but with definite boundaries.

There are two kinds of levels, continuous and noncontinuous. Continuous levels are like decreasing levels of light from a flame, all the way to darkness, or like decreasing amounts of sight from objects in the light to objects in the shade, or like levels of density of the atmosphere from the lowest to the highest. These levels are measured by distance.

[2] Noncontinuous or distinct levels, though, are separated like prior and posterior, cause and effect, producer and product. Anyone who looks closely will discover that there are these kinds of stages of production and composition in everything in the world, no matter what, with one thing arising from another, and a third from that, and so forth.

[3] People who do not acquire a grasp of these levels have no way of knowing how the heavens are arranged or the arrangement of our own deeper and more outward abilities, or the difference between the spiritual world and the natural world, or the difference between our spirit and our body. This also means they cannot understand what correspondences⁵³ and images ⁵⁴ are or what inflow is like. People who are attentive only to their physical senses do not grasp these differences, but regard them as instances of increase and decrease on the model of continuous levels.⁵⁵ As a result, they cannot think of the spiritual except as a kind of purer natural; so they stand outside, far removed from intelligence.^g

• f. All things come into being from things prior to them and therefore from a First. They are maintained in being in the same way, since continuance in being is constant coming into being. Therefore, nothing unconnected exists: 3626, 3627, 3628, 3648, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056.

• g. More inward and more outward realities are not on a continuum, but are arranged in distinct and discrete levels, with each level having a boundary: 3691, 4145 [5145], 5114, 8603, 10099. Each level is formed from another, and things formed in this way are not on a continuum from finer to cruder: 6326, 6465. Anyone who does not understand the difference between more inward and more outward realities according to levels of this kind cannot understand the inner and the outer person or the more inward and more outward heavens: 5146, 6465, 10099, 10181.

Lastly, let me disclose a particular secret about the angels of the three heavens that people have not been aware of until now because they have not understood levels. It is this, that within every angel—and within every one of us here—there is a central or highest level, or a central and highest something, where the Lord's divine life flows in first and most intimately. It is from this center that the Lord arranges the other, relatively internal aspects within us that follow in sequence according to the levels of the overall design. This central or highest level can be called the Lord's gateway to the angels or to us, his essential dwelling within us.

It is this central or highest level that makes us human and distinguishes us from the lower animals, since they do not have it. This is why we, unlike animals, can be raised up by the Lord toward himself, as far as all the deeper levels of our mind and character are concerned. This is why we can believe in him, be moved by love for him, and therefore see him. It is why we can receive intelligence and wisdom, and talk rationally. It is also why we live forever.

However, what is arranged and provided by the Lord at this center does not flow into the open perception of any angel, because it is higher than angelic thought, and surpasses angelic wisdom.

These, then, are some of the general facts about the three heavens. In the following pages, we will need to say more about each heaven in pa rtic u lar.⁵⁶

THE angels of any given heaven are not all together in one place, but are separated into larger and smaller communities depending on differences in the good effects of the love and faith they are engaged in. Angels engaged in similar activities form a single community. There is an

infinite variety of good activities in heaven, and each individual angel is, so to speak, his or her own activity.^a

The distances between angelic communities in the heavens also vary as their activities vary, in general and in detail. This is because the only cause of distance in the spiritual world is the difference of the state of our more inward natures—in the heavens, then, differences in the state of love. When communities are very different, the distance between them is great; when the difference is slight, the distance is slight. Likeness makes for unity.^b

All the individuals in a single community are distanced from each other by the same principle. The better ones, that is, the ones who are more complete in goodness and therefore in love, wisdom, and intelligence, are in the center. Those who are less outstanding surround them at distances graded in proportion to their lessened perfection. It is like the way light decreases from a center toward a circumference. The ones who are in the middle are in the greatest light, while the ones who are toward the perimeter are in less and less.

Kindred souls gravitate toward each other spontaneously, as it were, for with each other they feel as though they are with their own family, at home, while with others they feel like foreigners, as though they were abroad. When they are with kindred souls, they enjoy the fullest freedom and find life totally delightful.

We can see from this that the good gathers everyone together in the heavens, and that angels are differentiated by what good they do. Still, it is not the angels who gather themselves, but the Lord, the source of all that is good. He leads them, unites them, differentiates them, and keeps them in freedom to the extent that they are engaged in what is good. So

• a. There is an infinite variety, and there is never anything the same as anything else: 7236, 9002. There is an infinite variety in the heavens: 684, 690, 3744, 5598, 7236. The infinite varieties that exist in the heavens are varieties of the good: 3744, 4005, 7236, 7833, 7836, 9002. These varieties arise by means of truths, which are manifold, and which provide individuals with their good: 3470, 3804, 4149, 6917, 7236. As a result, all the communities in the heavens, and all the angels in the communities, are differentiated from each other: 690, 3241, 3519, 3804, 3986, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 7836. Still, they all act in concert because of love from the Lord: 457, 3986.

• b. All the communities of heaven have permanent locations depending on differences in their state of life, therefore depending on their differences in love and faith: 1274, 3638, 3639. Remarkable information about distance, location, place, space, and time in the other life or in the spiritual world: 1273-1277.

he keeps every individual in the life of his or her own love, faith, intelligence, and wisdom—and therefore in happiness.^c

Further, people of similar quality all recognize each other there just the way people in this world recognize their neighbors and relatives and friends, even though they may never have seen each other before. This happens because the only relationships and kinships and friendships in the other life are spiritual ones, and are therefore matters of love and faith.^d

I have often been allowed to see this when I was in the spirit and therefore out of body and in the company of angels. Then some of them looked to me as though I had known them from infancy, while others seemed totally unfamiliar. The ones who looked as though I had known them from infancy were the ones who were in a state like that of my own spirit, while the unfamiliar ones were in dissimilar states.⁵⁷

All the individuals who make up a particular angelic community have a general facial resemblance, but differ in detail. I could grasp this general similarity and particular difference to some extent on the basis of similar situations in this world. We know that every race has a general similarity about the face and eyes that enables us to recognize it and distinguish it from other races, and that the same is even more true from one family to another. This holds true much more perfectly in the heavens, because there all the deeper feelings are visible and shine forth from the face, the face there being their outward and graphic form. It is not possible in heaven to have a face that differs from our feelings.⁵⁸

I have also been shown how this general similarity is varied in detail in the individuals of a single community. There was a kind of angelic face that appeared to me, and this was varied according to the qualities of affections for the good and the true that were characteristic of the individuals in a particular community. These variations lasted quite a while, and through it all I noticed that the same general face remained

• c. All freedom is a matter of love and attraction, because whatever we love we do freely: 2870, 3158, 8907 [8987], 8990, 9585, 9591. Since freedom is a matter of love, it is the source of life and joy for every individual: 2873. Nothing seems to be our own unless it comes from freedom: 2880. The very essence of freedom is to be led by the Lord, because in this way we are led by a love for what is good and true: 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890, 2891, 2892, 9096, 9586-9591.

• d. In heaven, all matters of proximity, family, kindred, and apparent blood relationship arise from what is good and depend on its affinities and differences: 695 [685], 917, 1394, 2739, 3612, 3815, 4121.

constant as a basis, with everything else being simply derivations and elaborations from it. In this way, too, I was shown the affections of the whole community that occasioned the differences in the faces of its members, for as already noted, the faces of angels are their deeper qualities taking form, which means they are forms of the affections proper to their love and faith.

This is also why an angel of outstanding wisdom sees the quality of others instantly, from their faces. In heaven, no one can conceal inner character by facial expression and pretend, much less lie and deceive others by guile and hypocrisy.

It does sometimes happen that hypocrites steal into [heavenly] communities, hypocrites trained in hiding their inner nature and arranging their outward appearance in the benevolent form they present in public, thereby misleading angels of light. However, they cannot stay around very long. They begin to feel inner discomfort and torment, their faces start to turn blue, and they almost faint—changes caused by their opposition to the life that is flowing in and affecting them. So they promptly cast themselves back into the hell of people like themselves and no longer dare to climb up again. These are the people meant by the man who was discovered among the dinner guests without a wedding garment and was thrown out into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11[—14]).

All the communities communicate with each other, but not through open interaction. Actually, not many individuals leave their own community to go to another, because leaving their community is like leaving themselves or their life and crossing over into another that does not suit them. Rather, they all communicate by the outreach of the auras that emanate from the life of every individual.⁵⁹ An aura of life is an aura of affections based in love and faith. This reaches out far and wide into surrounding communities, farther and wider as the affections are deeper and more perfect.^e Angels possess intelligence and wisdom in proportion to this outreach. The ones who are in the most inward heaven and therefore at the center have an outreach into all of heaven, so that there is a communication of everyone in heaven with each individual and of each

• e. A spiritual aura, which is an aura of life, flows out from every person, every spirit, and every angel, and surrounds them: 4464, 5179, 7454, 8630. It flows out from the life of their affection and thought: 2489, 4464, 6206. In angelic communities, the outreach of these auras is proportional to the quality and intensity of their love: 6598-6613 [6598-6612], 8063, 8794, 8797. individual with everyone.^f We will have more to say about this outreach below, though, when we discuss the heavenly form in which angelic communities are arranged (and also when we discuss the wisdom and intelligence of angels), for all the outreach of affections and thoughts follows this form.⁶⁰

We have noted above that there are larger and smaller communities in the heavens. The larger ones consist of tens of thousands of individuals, the smaller of some thousands, and the smallest of hundreds. There are even people who live alone, house by house, so to speak, and family by family. Even though they live apart, they are still arranged in the same pattern as those who live in communities, with the wiser of them in the center and the simpler at the periphery. They are very closely under the Lord's guidance, and are the best of angels.

THE reason each community is a heaven in smaller form and each angel a heaven in smallest form is that the activity of love and faith is what makes heaven. This good activity is in every community of heaven and in every angel of a community. It does not matter that this activity is different and distinctive everywhere, it is still the activity of heaven. The only difference is that heaven has one activity here and another there. So whenever anyone is raised into any community of heaven, they say that he or she has arrived in heaven. They say of those who are there that they are in heaven, each in his or her own. All the people who have arrived in the other life realize this; so individuals who are standing outside or below heaven and looking off into the distance where there is a gathering of angels say that heaven is there—and over there as well.

• f. There is a sharing of everything good in heaven because heavenly love shares everything it has with others: 549, 550, 1390, 1391, 1399, 10130, 10723.

It is rather like the situation of officials and functionaries and servants in a royal palace or court. Even though they live individually in their dwellings or in their rooms, some higher than others, still they are in a single palace or a single court, each one involved in a particular function in the service of the king. We can see from this what is meant by the Lord's saying that “in my Father's house there are many dwellings” (John 14:2) and by “the stories of heaven” and the “heavens of heavens” in the prophets.⁶¹

We may also gather that a community is a heaven in lesser form from the fact that the heavenly form in each community is of the same nature as it is in heaven overall. In heaven overall (as noted above in §43), the most outstanding individuals are in the center, and around them, in decreasing order all the way to the circumference, are those who are less outstanding. It follows also from the fact that the Lord leads all the people in the whole of heaven as though they were a single angel, and does the same for those who are in any particular community. As a result, sometimes a whole angelic community appears as a single entity in the form of an angel, a sight that the Lord has allowed me to see. Further, when the Lord appears in the midst of angels, he does not appear surrounded by a crowd but as a lone individual in angelic form. This is why the Lord is called an angel in the Word, as is also a whole community: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are nothing but angelic communities that are given these names because of their functions.^a

Just as a whole community is a heaven in lesser form, so too an angel is a heaven in least form. For heaven is not outside angels but within them. Their deeper levels, the levels of their minds, are arranged in the form of heaven and therefore are arranged to accept all the elements of heaven that are outside them. These elements they accept according to the quality of the goodness that is within them from the Lord. As a result, an angel is also a heaven.⁶²

It can never be said that heaven is outside anyone. It is within; because every angel accepts the heaven that is outside in keeping with the heaven that is within. We can see, then, how mistaken people are who

• a. In the Word, the Lord is called an angel: 6280, 6831, 8192, 9303. A whole community is called an angel, and Michael and Raphael are angelic communities so named because of their functions: 8192. Angelic communities and individual angels do not have particular names, but are identified by the quality of their goodness and by some concept of it: 1705, 1754. think that getting into heaven is simply a matter of being taken up among the angels, regardless of the quality of their inner life, who believe that heaven is granted merely because of [the Lord's] mercy.^b On the contrary, unless heaven is within an individual, nothing of the heaven that is outside flows in and is accepted.

There are many spirits who hold this opinion and who, because of their faith, have been taken up into heaven. However, once they arrived, because their inner life was contrary to the life angels are engaged in, they began to be blinded in their understanding to the point that they became virtually idiotic, while in regard to their self-control they began to be so tormented that they carried on like people gone mad. In short, people who have lived evil lives and who arrive in heaven bring their souls with them and are tormented like fish out of water, in the air, or like animals in the vacuum in air pumps once the air has been pumped out.⁶³ It stands to reason, then, that heaven is within us and not outside.^c

Since everyone accepts the heaven that is outside according to the quality of the heaven that is within, angels accept the Lord in the same way, because it is the Lord's divine nature that constitutes heaven. Consequently, when the Lord renders himself present in any particular community, his appearance depends on the nature of the good activity that community is engaged in. It is therefore not exactly the same in one community as in another.⁶⁴ It is not that this difference is in the Lord: it is in the individuals who are seeing him from their own goodness and therefore in keeping with it. They are affected by the sight of him according to the quality of their own love. The ones who love him deeply are deeply moved, while the ones who love him less deeply are less deeply moved. Evil people, who are outside of heaven, find his presence intensely painful.

When the Lord does appear in any community, he appears there as an angel, but he is identified by the divine quality that shines through.

Further still, heaven is where the Lord is recognized, trusted, and loved. The different ways he is worshiped—in variations that stem from

• b. Heaven is not granted out of sheer mercy, but according to our life; and every trace of the life through which we are led into heaven by the Lord is from mercy, which is what “mercy” means: 5057, 10659. If heaven were given by sheer mercy, it would be given to everyone: 2401. Information about some evil people who had been rejected from heaven, and who believed that heaven was granted to everyone out of sheer mercy: 4276 [4226].

• c. Heaven is within us: 3884.

the difference of activity from one community to another—do not cause harm but bring benefit, because they are a source of heaven's perfection.

It is hard to explain this in such a way that it can be grasped without resorting to expressions usually found in academic circles and using them to explain how a perfect whole is formed from a variety of elements. Every perfect whole arises from a variety of elements, for a whole that is not composed of a variety of elements is not really anything. It has no form, and therefore no quality. However, when a whole does arise from a variety of elements, and the elements are in a perfected form in which each associates with the next in the series like a sympathetic friend, then it has a perfect quality. Heaven is, then, a single whole composed of a variety of elements arranged in the most perfect form; for of all forms, the form of heaven is the most perfect.

We can see that this underlies all perfection from every instance of beauty, charm, and delight that moves both our senses and our spirits. Such instances arise and flow invariably from a harmonious agreement of many things that are in sympathetic concord, whether they are together simultaneously or follow in a sequence. They do not flow from a single unit that lacks plurality. So we say that variety delights, and recognize that the delight depends on the quality of the variety. We can see from this, as though in a mirror, how perfection stems from variety in heaven as well, since things that happen in the natural world offer us a reflection of things in the spiritual world.^d

We can say the same of the church as we have of heaven, since the church is the Lord's heaven on earth. It also has many components, and yet each is called a church and is a church to the extent that the qualities of love and faith rule within it. In it, the Lord forms a single whole out of the varied elements, and therefore makes a single church out of many churches.^e

Much the same can be said of the individual member of the church as has been said about the church in general, namely that the church is

• d. Every whole arises from a harmony and agreement of many elements, and otherwise would have no quality: 457. The whole heaven is a single entity: 457. This is because all the people there are focused on a single goal, namely the Lord: 9828.

• e. If goodness were the essential characteristic of the church and not truth apart from goodness, the church would be one: 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452. Further, all the churches constitute a single church in the Lord's sight because of their quality: 7395 [7396], 9276. within and not outside, and that anyone is a church in whom the Lord is present in the qualities of love and faith.^f

Much the same can be said of the individual who has the church within as has been said about the angel who has heaven within, that such an individual is a church in least form as the angel is a heaven in least form. Even more, we can say that the individual who has the church within is a heaven just as much as an angel is, for we have been created to enter heaven and become angels. So anyone who has the quality of goodness from the Lord is an angel-person.^g

It is worth noting what we have in common with angels and what we possess that they lack. We have in common with angels the fact that our deeper levels are formed in the image of heaven and that we also become images of heaven to the extent that we participate in the qualities of love and faith. What we have that angels lack is that our more outward levels are formed in the image of this world; and that to the extent that we are engaged in what is good, the world within us is subordinated to heaven and serves it;^h and that then the Lord is present with us on both levels as he is in his heaven. He is actually present on both levels in his divine order, for God is order.ⁱ

It should be noted in closing that people who have heaven within themselves have heaven not only in their larger or shared aspects but also in their smallest or most specific ones, with the smallest ones in them

• f. The church is within the individual and not outside, and the church in general is made up of people who have the church within themselves: 3884.

• g. The individual who is a church is a heaven in least form, in the image of the greatest, because the deeper levels of his or her mind are arranged in the form of heaven and are therefore arranged for the acceptance of all the elements of heaven: 911, 1900, 1982 [1928], 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523, 4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632.

• h. We have an inner and an outer nature, our inner formed from creation in the image of heaven, and our outer in the image of the world, which is why the ancients called the human being a microcosm: 4523, 4524, 5368 [3628], 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472. Consequently we have been so created that the world serves the heaven in us, which actually happens in good people: however, the opposite holds true for evil people, in whom heaven is subservient to the world: 9283, 9278.

• i. The Lord is order because the divine good and truth that emanate from the Lord constitute order: 1728, 1919, 2201 [2011], 2258, 5110, 5703, 8988, 10336, 10619. Divine truths are laws of order: 2247, 7995. To the extent that we live according to order—that is, to the extent that we are engaged in what is good as determined by divine truths—to that extent we are human and have the church and heaven within us: 4839, 6605, 8067 [8513].

reflecting the largest. The reason for this is that as individuals we are our love and have a quality that depends on the quality of the love that is ruling. Whatever rules flows into the specifics and arranges them, and imposes everywhere an image of itself.^j In heaven, it is love for the Lord that rules, because the Lord is loved there above all else. As a result, the Lord is the sum and substance of everything there, flowing into absolutely everything, arranging everything, clothing everything with his likeness, and making heaven to be where he is. So an angel is a heaven in least form, a community a heaven in greater form, and all the communities together a heaven in greatest form. On the Lord's divine nature as constituting heaven, and on his being the sum and substance of heaven, see above, §§7-12.

ITis a secret not yet known in this world that heaven, taken in a single all-inclusive grasp, reflects a single individual. In heaven, though, nothing is better known. Knowing this, knowing particulars and details about it, is the hallmark of angelic intelligence there. In fact, many other things follow from it and do not come clearly and distinctly to mind without this as their general principle. Since angels do know that all the

• j. The ruling or controlling love in every individual is found in every single detail of that individual's life and therefore in every single detail of thought and intent: 6159, 7648, 8067, 8853. The quality of each of us depends on the dominant quality of our life: 918, 1040, 1568, 1571 [?], 3570, 6571, 6934 [6935], 6938, 8854, 8856, 8857 [8858], 10076, 10109, 10110, 10284. When love and faith rule, they are within the details of our lives, even though we are not aware of this: 8854, 8864, 8865.

heavens, like their communities, reflect a single individual, they refer to heaven as the universal and divine human^a—“divine” because the Lord's divine nature constitutes heaven (see above, §§7-12).⁶⁵

People who do not have an appropriate concept of spiritual and heavenly realities cannot grasp the fact that heavenly and spiritual realities are arranged and connected in this form and image. They think that the earthly and material elements that make up their outmost form⁶⁶ really make them what they are, and that without them they would not be human. Let them know, though, that they are not human beings because of these elements but because they are able to understand what is true and will what is good. These are the spiritual and heavenly realities that make them human.

People do recognize that the humanity of every individual depends on the quality of his or her understanding and intentions. They can also realize that the earthly body is formed to serve them in this world and to perform useful actions in a suitable manner in this outmost sphere of nature. This is also why the body does not do anything on its own, but acts in complete obedience to the bidding of our understanding and intentions. This holds true even to the point that our tongue and mouth say whatever we think, and the body and its limbs do whatever we intend. The actor is therefore our understanding and intention, not the body on its own. We can see from this that matters of our understanding and intention are what make us human, and that these are in a similar form because they act into the very details of the body just the way an inner reality acts into an outer one. It is because of these facts that we are called inner and spiritual humans. Heaven is this kind of person in the greatest and most perfect form.

This is the angelic concept of person, so angels never pay attention to what someone's body is doing, but rather to the intent from which the body is acting. They call this the essential person, together with the intellect to the extent that it is acting in unison with the intent.^b

• a. Heaven in a single grasp appears in the form of a person, and therefore heaven is called the universal human: 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625.

• b. Our intent is the essential reality of our life, and our intellect is the ensuing manifestation of that life: 3619, 5002, 9282. The life of our volition is our principal life, and the life of our intellect flows from it: 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110. A person is a person because of volition and consequent intellect: 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110.

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Actually, angels do not see heaven in a single overview in this kind of form, since the entire heaven does not lie within the scope of any angel's sight. However, they do consistently see particular communities that are made up of many thousands of angels as single units in this kind of form; and from the community as a sample they draw their inference about the totality that is heaven. This is because in the most perfect form the greater elements are arranged like the parts, and the parts like the greater elements. The only distinction is between what is greater and what is lesser. Therefore they say that the entire heaven looks like this in the Lord's sight, because the Divine sees everything from the very center and summit.⁶⁷

Since heaven is of this nature, it is also governed by the Lord as though it were a single individual and therefore a single unit. We ourselves consist of countless different things, both overall and in our parts. We are made up overall of our limbs, organs, and viscera, and in our parts of series of nerves, fibers, and blood vessels—made up of members within members, then, and parts within parts. Still, we do of course recognize that when we do anything, we do it as whole individuals. This is what heaven is like, too, under the Lord's guardianship and guidance.

The reason so many varied elements act as one in an individual is that there is nothing whatever there that does not contribute something to the common good and do something useful. The inclusive body serves its parts and the parts serve the inclusive body because the inclusive body is made up of parts and the parts make up the inclusive body. So they provide for each other respectively, they focus on each other mutually, and they are united in the kind of form that gives every single component a relationship to the inclusive entity and its well-being. This is what enables them to act as a unit.

[2] It is the same with assemblies in the heavens. People there unite in this kind of form in pursuit of any worthwhile activity. As a result any individuals who do not serve some use for the larger body are cast out of heaven because they are misfits. To “serve some use” is to intend well to others for the sake of the common good, while “not to serve some use” is to intend well to others not for the sake of the common good but for the sake of oneself. People who act in this latter fashion are people who love themselves above all, while people who act in the former fashion are the ones who love the Lord above all. This is why people in heaven act in unison not from themselves but from the Lord. They in fact focus on him as the unique source of all, and on his kingdom as the commonwealth⁶⁸ that is to be cared for. This is the meaning of the Lord's words, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything will be given you in addition” (Matthew 6:33). To “seek his righteousness” is to seek his good.^c

[3] There are people who in this world love the good of their country more than their own and the good of their neighbor as their own. They are the ones who love and seek the kingdom of the Lord in the other life, since there the kingdom of the Lord takes the place of one's country. Further, people who love to do good to others not for self-centered reasons but for the sake of the good itself are people who love their neighbor, since in the other life the good is one's neighbor.^d All individuals who are of this quality are in the universal human—that is, in heaven.

Since heaven in its entirety does reflect a single individual, and is in fact the divine spiritual person in its greatest form and image, heaven is therefore differentiated into members and parts like a person, and these are given similar names. Angels know what member one community or another is in and say that this community is in the member or province of the head, that one in the member or province of the chest, that one in the member or province of the genitals, and so on.

In general, the highest or third heaven forms the head down to the neck, the middle or second forms the torso as far as the genitals and knees, and the lowest or first forms the feet to the very soles and also the arms all the way to the fingers, since the arms and hands are among our “lowest things” even though they are at our sides. We can see from this again why there are three heavens.

Spirits who are below heaven are amazed when they hear and see that heaven is both below and above them. They have had the faith and opinion common to people in this world that heaven is only overhead. They do not really know that the locations of the heavens are like the locations of the members and organs and viscera in a human being, with some above and some below, and that it is also like the locations of the parts

• c. In the Word, “righteousness” refers to the good and “judgment” to the true, so “to do justice and judgment” is to do what is good and true: 2235, 9857.

• d. In the highest sense, the Lord is our neighbor, and so loving the Lord is loving what comes from him, since he is present in everything that comes from him, and therefore what is good and true is also our neighbor: 2425, 3419, 6706, 6711, 6819, 6823, 8123. Therefore, everything good that comes from the Lord is our neighbor, and intending and doing that good is loving our neighbor: 5028, 10336.

within each member and outer or inner organ, with some within and some outside. This is the reason for their confusion about heaven.

We have presented these statements about heaven as the universal human because without them as preface there can be no comprehension whatever of the things about heaven that are to follow. No clear concept of heaven can be gained, either, no clear concept of the union of the Lord with heaven, of the union of heaven with us on earth, of the inflow of the spiritual world into the natural world, and none whatever of correspondence, all of which must be discussed in sequence in the pages that now follow. This material has been presented first, then, to shed light on these matters.

SEVERAL times I have been allowed to see that each community of heaven reflects a single individual and is in the likeness of a human being as well. There was one community that was infiltrated by a number of spirits who knew how to assume the guise of angels of light. They were hypocrites. As they were being set apart by some angels, I observed that the whole community first looked like something cloudy, then gradually took on a human form, though still a cloudy one, and finally appeared in the light as a person. The individuals who were in that person and made it up were the ones who participated in the benevolence of that community. The others, who were not in the person and did not make it up, were the hypocrites. These latter were cast out, while the former ones were retained. This is how the separation was accomplished.

Hypocrites are people who speak well and even behave well, but who are focused on themselves in specifics. They talk like angels about the Lord and heaven and love and heavenly life and they also behave well, so that their character seems to be in accord with their speech. However, they are thinking differently. They do not believe anything or will well to anyone but themselves. Any good they do is done in their own interests.

If it is in the interest of others, it is for the sake of appearance, and therefore in their own interest.

I have also been allowed to see that a whole angelic community appears as a single entity in human form when the Lord makes himself present. High up toward the east, there appeared something that looked like a cloud, white at first and then reddening, surrounded by little stars. It came down, and as it gradually did so, it became brighter and finally took on a perfect human form. The little stars that surrounded the cloud were angels, who looked like that because of the light from the Lord.

We do need to realize that even though all the individuals in a community of heaven look like a single entity in human likeness when they are all together, still one community is not the same person as any other. They are differentiated like the faces of individuals of one lineage. The reason for this is the same as that given in §47 above, namely that they differ depending on the various good activities that they participate in and that give them their form. Those communities that are in the central or highest heaven and are at its center appear in the most perfect and lovely human form.

It is worth noting that the more members there are in a single community and the more united they are in action, the more perfect is their human form. This is because variety arranged in a heavenly form makes perfection, as explained above in § 56; and variety occurs where there are many individuals.

Every community in heaven is growing in numbers daily, and the more it grows, the more perfect it becomes. In this way, not only is the community perfected, but heaven in general is perfected as well, since the communities constitute heaven.

Since heaven is perfected by its numerical growth, we can see how mistaken people are who believe that heaven will be closed to prevent overcrowding. Actually, it is just the reverse. It will never be closed, and its ever increasing fullness makes it more perfect. So angels long for nothing more than to have new angel guests arrive there.

The reason each community appears in human likeness when it is seen all together as a unit is that heaven as a whole has this likeness, as may be seen in the preceding chapter; and in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of parts and whole, of lesser and greatest. The lesser elements and parts of heaven are the communities of which it consists, each of which is a heaven in lesser form, as may be seen above in §§51—58.

The reason for this constant likeness is that in the heavens all the qualities stem from a single love and therefore from a single source. The single love that is the origin of everything good in heaven is love for the Lord from the Lord. This is why all heaven is a likeness of him on the grand scale, every community a likeness on a less grand scale, and every angel in specific. See what has been said on this matter above in §58.

IT has been explained in the two preceding chapters that heaven as a whole reflects a single individual and that the same holds true for each community in heaven. From the chain of causes presented there, it follows that each single angel reflects the same as well. As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. The reason for this is that heaven is a commonwealth. In fact, it shares everything it has with each individual, and individuals receive everything they have from the commonwealth. An angel is a recipient and therefore a heaven in least form, as has been explained in the relevant chapter above.

To the extent that they accept heaven, people here too are receptacles and heavens, and are angels (see §57 above).

This is described in the Book of Revelation as follows: “The wall of the holy Jerusalem was measured, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel” (Revelation 21:17). “Jerusalem” in this passage is the Lord's church, and in a more elevated sense, heaven.^a The wall is the truth that protects it from the assault of false and evil things.^b “A hundred and forty-four” refers to all good and

• a. “Jerusalem” is the church: 402, 3654, 9166.

• b. A wall is truth protecting from the assault of false and evil things: 6419. true things as a whole.^c “Measure” refers to its quality.^d The human being is where all these things are found, in general and in specific, and therefore where heaven is found; and since an angel is a person as well because of these characteristics, it says “the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel.” This is the spiritual meaning of these words. Apart from this meaning, who would understand that the measure of the wall of the holy Jerusalem would be the measure of an individual, which was the measure of the angel?^e

But let us turn to experience now. As for angels being human forms, or people, this I have seen thousands of times. I have talked with them face to face, sometimes with just one, sometimes with several in a group, and as far as their form is concerned, I have seen in them nothing different from that of a human being. At times I have felt surprised that they were like this; and to prevent it being said that this was some illusion or hallucination, I have been allowed to see them while I was fully awake, or while I was in full possession of my physical senses and in a state of clear perception.

I have often told them that people in the Christian world are in such blind ignorance about angels and spirits that they think of them as minds without form, as mere thoughts, and can conceive of them only as something airy with something alive within it. Further, since they attribute to them nothing human except a capacity for thought, they believe angels cannot see because they have no eyes, cannot hear because they have no ears, and cannot talk because they have no mouths or tongues.

[2] Angels have replied that they know many people on earth have this kind of belief and that it is prevalent among the learned and— strangely!—among the clergy. They have told me that it is because some of the learned who were particularly eminent and who came up with this kind of concept of angels and spirits thought about them on the basis of the sensory faculties of the external person. If people think on this basis

• c. Twelve refers to all true and good things taken together: 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913. The same holds for seventy-two and for a hundred and forty-four, because a hundred and forty-four is twelve multiplied by itself: 7973. All the numbers in the Word mean something: 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 5265. Multiples have the same meaning as the simple numbers that produce them: 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.

• d. Measurement in the Word means the quality of an entity in regard to truth and good: 3104, 9603.

• e. On the spiritual or inner meaning of the Word, see the expository work The White Horse Men -tioned in the Book of Revelation, and the appendix to The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine. and not on the basis of a more inward light and the common idea native to everyone, they cannot help constructing images like this, because the sensory faculties of the external person grasp only matters that are within the bounds of nature and not things that are higher. So they do not grasp anything at all about the spiritual world.^f From these eminent people as leaders, false thoughts about angels spread to people who did not think independently but relied on others; and people who let their thinking rely primarily on others and then form their faith, and later look into these matters with their minds, have a hard time giving these ideas up. As a result, many of them cooperate in confirming these false notions.

[3] Angels have also told me that people of simple faith and heart are not caught up in this concept of angels, but have an image of them as people in heaven. This is because they have not let erudition snuff out the image implanted in them from heaven and because they do not grasp anything unless it has some form. This is why the angels we see sculpted and painted in churches are invariably represented as human. As for this “image implanted in them from heaven,” angels tell me that it is something divine that flows into people who are intent on goodness of faith and life.

On the grounds of all my experience, which has lasted for several years now,⁶⁹ I can say with full confidence that in their form, angels are completely human. They have faces, eyes, ears, chests, arms, hands, and feet. They see each other, hear each other, and talk to each other. In short, they lack nothing that belongs to humans except that they are not clothed with a material body. I have seen them in their own light, which is far, far greater than noonday on our earth, and in that light I have seen all the details of their faces more crisply and clearly than I have seen the faces of people here in the world.

I have also been allowed to see an angel of the central heaven. His face was more glorious, more radiant, than that of angels of the lower heavens. I looked at him very closely, and he had a human form in full perfection.

It does need to be realized, though, that we cannot see angels with our bodily eyes, only with the eyes of our spirit,^g because they are in the

• f. Unless we are raised above the sensory faculties of the outer person, we have little wisdom: 5089. A wise person thinks on a higher level than that of these sensory faculties: 5089, 5094. When we are raised above these sensory faculties, we are in a clearer light and ultimately in a heavenly light: 6183, 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922. Being raised above and freed from these sensory faculties was a familiar experience for the ancients: 6313.

• g. As to our inner levels, we are spirits: 1594. The spirit is the essential person, and it is from the spirit that the body lives: 447, 4622, 6054.

spiritual world while everything bodily is in the natural world. Like sees like because it is of like substance. Further, the body's visual organ, the eye, is so crude that as everyone knows it does not even see the smaller elements of nature without a lens, much less things that are above the sphere of nature, as are all the realities of the spiritual world. These can be seen by us, though, when we are released from bodily sight and the sight of our spirit is opened. This happens instantly when it pleases the Lord that we should see. It then seems to us exactly as though we were seeing with our bodily eyes. This is how angels were seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah, and the prophets. This is how the Lord was seen by the disciples after the resurrection. This is the same way, too, in which I have seen angels.

Because this was how the prophets saw, they are called “seers” and “ones whose eyes are opened” (1 Samuel 9:9; Numbers 23:3 [24:3] ); and the act of enabling them to see this way is called “opening the eyes.” This is what happened to Elisha's ser vant, of whom we read, “Elisha prayed, ‘Jehovah,⁷⁰ open his eyes, I pray, so that he may see,' and as Jehovah opened the eyes of his servant, behold the mountain was full of horses and fiery chariots surrounding Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

Some honest spirits I talked with about this were distressed at heart that there was such ignorance in the church about the state of heaven and about spirits and angels. They kept insisting that I should take back the message that they were not formless minds or ethereal breath but human in form, and that they saw and heard and felt just as much as people in this world do.^h

• h. All angels, being recipients of divine order from the Lord, are in a human form whose perfection and beauty are proportional to their receptivity: 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 3804, 4622, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 6054, 9879, 10177, 10594. Divine truth is the means of order and divine good is the essence of order: 2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555.

THIS conclusion—that it is owing to the Lord's divine human that heaven, in its entirety and in its parts, reflects a person—follows from all the things that have been presented in the preceding chapters: (1) the Lord is God of heaven [§§2-6]; (2) it is the Lord's divine nature that makes heaven [§§7-12]; (3) the heavens are made up of countless communities, and each community is a heaven in smaller form and each angel a heaven in smallest form [§§41-58]; (4) the whole heaven, grasped as a single entity, reflects a single individual [§59-67]; (5) each community in the heavens reflects a single individual [§§68-72]; (6) therefore every angel is in perfect human form [§§73-77]. All these propositions lead to the conclusion that because the Divine is what makes heaven, the Divine is human in form.

It may be seen with somewhat greater clarity that this is the Lord's divine human from the references to Secrets of Heaven at the close of this chapter, since this collection provides a condensation. It can also be seen from these references that the Lord's human is divine, contrary to the belief in the church that it is not. This may be seen as well from the material about the Lord at the close of The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Teaching.⁷¹

The truth of this has been witnessed to me by an abundance of experiences, some of which now follow.

None of the angels in the heavens ever sees the Divine in any form except the human form. Even more remarkably, angels in the higher heavens cannot think about what is divine in any other way.They are led into the necessity of thinking this way because of the essential divine that is flowing into them and also because of the form of heaven, which determines how their thoughts reach out around them. In fact, all the thought that angels have spreads out in heaven, and they have intelligence and wisdom in proportion to this outreach. This is why everyone there acknowledges the Lord, since the divine human exists only in him. I have not only been told this by angels, I have been allowed to perceive it when I was raised into a more inward sphere of heaven.

We can see, then, that the wiser angels are, the more clearly they perceive this, which is why the Lord is visible to them. The Lord does appear in a divine angelic form, which is a human form, to people who acknowledge and trust in a visible Divine Being, but not to people who acknowledge and trust in an invisible Divine Being. The former can see the Lord's divine [form], but the latter cannot.

Since angels do not perceive an invisible Divine Being (which they call a formless Divine) but a visible Divine Being in human form, it is common practice for them to say that only the Lord is a person, and that they are people because of him. They also say that each of us is human in proportion to our acceptance of him. By “accepting the Lord” they understand accepting what is good and true that comes from him, because the Lord is present in everything good and true that comes from himself. Angels call this wisdom and intelligence. They say everyone knows that intelligence and wisdom are what make us human, not simply the outward form by itself.

The truth of this is actually visible to angels of the inner heavens. Since the Lord keeps them engaged in what is good and true and therefore in wisdom and intelligence, they are in the loveliest and most perfect human form; while the angels of lower heavens are in a less perfect and lovely form.

Everything is inverted in hell. In heaven's light, the people who are there hardly look human at all. They look like monsters. They are caught up in what is evil and false and not in what is good and true, and are therefore in the opposite of wisdom and intelligence. As a result, their life is not called life, but spiritual death.

Since heaven in its entirety and in its parts does reflect a person because of the Lord's divine human, angels say that they are “in the Lord” and even that they are “in his body,” meaning that they are in the very substance of his love. This is also what the Lord is teaching us when he says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me; for without me you can do nothing. Abide in my love. If you keep my precepts, you will abide in my love” (John 15:4-10).

Since this is how the Divine Being is perceived in the heavens, it is instinctive in everyone who accepts any inflow from heaven to think of the Lord in a human guise. The ancients did so and even modern people do, both outside and inside the church. Simple people see him in thought as an ancient one, in glory.

But this instinct has been stifled by all the people who have distanced themselves from the heavenly inflow by pride in their own intelligence

and by evil lives. The ones who have stifled it by pride in their intelligence prefer an invisible God, while the ones who have done so by evil lives prefer no God at all. Because this instinct is not in them, neither type knows that it even exists, although this is the essential heavenly divine nature that flows into us first and foremost from heaven because we are born for heaven; and no one enters heaven without some concept of the Divine Being.

This is why people who do not share in heaven's concept (that is, in the concept of the Divine Being who makes heaven) cannot be raised even to the first threshold of heaven. The moment any such individuals arrive, they feel a perceptible opposition and forceful resistance. This is because the deeper levels of such people, levels that are intended to accept heaven, are actually closed because they are not in heaven's form. In fact, the nearer such people come to heaven, the more tightly their deeper levels are closed.

This is the lot of people within the church who deny the Lord and who, like the Socinians, deny his divinity.⁷² The lot of people who have been born outside the church and who have not acknowledged him or possessed the Word will be seen below.⁷³

We can tell that the ancients had an image of the Divine as human from the way the Divine appeared to Abraham, Lot, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah and his wife, and others. Even though they saw God as a person, they still worshiped him as God of the universe, calling him “God of heaven and earth” and “Jehovah.” In John 8:56, the Lord himself teaches that it was he whom Abraham had seen. We can see that it was the Lord whom others saw from the Lord's words, “No one has seen the Father or his appearance, or heard his voice” (John 1:18; 5:37).

But people who judge everything on the basis of their outward senses have great difficulty grasping the fact that God is a person. In fact, the only way sense-centered people can think about the Divine Being is on the basis of this world and what it contains, so they can think about a divine and spiritual person only as they do about a physical and natural one. This leads to the conclusion that if God is to be a person, he must be as big as the universe, and if he does rule heaven and earth, it must be through many underlings the way kings on earth rule. If such individuals are told that in heaven there is not the kind of extended space we have in this world, they do not grasp it at all. People who think on the basis of nature and of its light alone cannot help thinking in terms of the kind of extended space that lies before our eyes. However, they are sadly mistaken when they think the same way about heaven. The “extension” that exists there is not like that in our world. In our world, it is fixed and therefore measurable, while in heaven it is not fixed and therefore not measurable. There will, though, be more about extension in heaven below, in the chapters on space and time in the spiritual world.⁷⁴

Further, everyone knows how far our eyesight reaches—all the way to the sun and stars, which are so very far away. Anyone who thinks more deeply also knows that the inner sight that pertains to thought reaches even farther, and that still deeper sight reaches still farther. What must we say, then, of the divine sight, which is the deepest and highest of all?

Since thoughts do have this kind of extension, everything of heaven is communicated to everyone there. This means all of the divine nature that makes heaven and fills it, as I have explained in the preceding chapters.

People in heaven are amazed that people here believe they are intelligent when they think of something invisible in the process of thinking about God, something that cannot be comprehended in any form, and that they call people who think otherwise unintelligent and even simple -minded, when the opposite is in fact the case. They assert that if people who regard themselves as intelligent on this account would examine themselves, they would find nature in the place of God—for some, the nature in front of their eyes, for others, a nature they cannot see with their eyes. They would find that they are so blind that they do not know what God is, what an angel is, what a spirit is, what the soul is that will live after death, what the life of heaven is for us, or many other things that are matters of intelligence. Yet all the people whom they call simple know these things in their own way. They have an image of God as a Divine Being in human form, an image of an angel as a heavenly person, a concept of their soul that will live after death as being like an angel, and a concept of the life of heaven for us here as living by the divine commandments. Angels refer to these people as intelligent and fit for heaven, but the others they call unintelligent.

• [2] The Lord had a divine element from his very conception: 4641, 4963, 5041, 5157, 6716, 10125. Only the Lord had a divine seed: 1438. His soul was Jehovah: 1999,2004,2005,2018,2025. So the inmost of the Lord was the Divine itself, and its clothing was from his mother: 5041. The Divine itself was the very reality of the Lord's life, and his human nature then emerged and became the manifestation from that reality: 3194, 3210, 10270 [10269], 10372.

• [3] Within the church, where there is the Word and where the Lord is known through it, there must be no denial of the Lord's divine nature or of the holy emanation from him: 2359. People within the church who do not acknowledge the Lord have no union with the Divine; it is different for people outside the church: 10205. The essence of the church is to acknowledge the Lord's divine nature and his oneness with the Father: 10083, 10112, 10370, 10738 [10728], 10730, 10816, 10817, 10818, 10820.

• [4] The Word has a great deal to say about the Lord's glorification: 10828. This is everywhere in the inner meaning of the Word: 2249, 2523, 3245 . The Lord glorified his human nature but not his divine nature, because the latter was intrinsically glorified: 10057. The Lord came into the world to glorify his human nature: 3637, 4286 [4287], 9315. The Lord glorified his human nature by means of the divine love that was within him from conception: 4727. The Lord's love for the whole human race was the Lord's life in this world: 2253. The Lord's love transcends all human understanding: 2077. The Lord saved the human race by glorifying his human: 4180, 10019, 10152, 10655, 10659, 10828. Otherwise, the whole human race would have perished in eternal death: 1676. On the Lord's states of glorification and humiliation: 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866. When “glorification” is attributed to the Lord, it means his human becoming one with the Divine, and “glorifying” means “making divine”: 1603, 10053, 10828. When the Lord glorified his human, he laid aside the human he had received from his mother so completely that he was no longer her son: 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10829 [10830].

• [5] The Son of God from eternity was the divine truth in heaven: 2628, 2798, 2803, 3195, 3704. The Lord also made his human nature divinely true from the divine good that was in him when he was in the world: 2803, 3194, 3195, 3210, 6716, 6864, 7014, 7499, 8127, 8724, 9199. The Lord then arranged everything within himself in the heavenly form that accords with divine truth: 1928, 3633. Therefore the Lord is called the Word, which is divine truth: 2533, 2818 [2813], 2859, 2894, 3393, 3712. Only the Lord possessed perception and thought from himself and above all angelic perception and thought: 1904, 1914, 1915 [1919].

The Lord made the divine truth that was himself one with the divine good that was in himself: 10047, 10052, 10076. This uniting was reciprocal: 2004, 10067. [6] When the Lord left this world, he also made his human divinely good: 3194, 3210, 6864, 7499, 8724, 9199, 10076. This is what is meant by “going out from the Father” and “returning to the Father”: 3194, 3210. This is how he became one with the Father: 2751, 3704, 4766. Since this union, divine truth emanates from the Lord: 3704, 3712, 3969, 4577, 5704, 7499, 8127, 8241, 9199, 9398. Examples of the way divine truth emanates: 7270, 9407. The Lord united his human to his divine nature by his own power: 1616, 1749, 1753 [1752], 1813, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2523, 3141, 5005, 5045, 6716. It therefore stands to reason that the Lord's human nature was not like the human nature of any other person, because it was conceived by the Divine itself: 10125, 10826. His union with the Father, who was the source of his soul, was not like a union between two entities, but like that between soul and body: 3737, 10824.

• [7] The earliest people were not able to worship a divine reality but a divine manifestation, which is the divine human; so the Lord came into the world in order to become the divine manifestation from the divine reality: 4687, 5321. The early people acknowledged the Divine because it appeared to them in human form, and this form was the divine human: 5110, 5663, 6846, 10737. The infinite reality cannot flow into heaven among angels or into people on earth except through the divine human: 1646 [1676], 1990, 2016, 2035 [2034]. In heaven, no other Divine is perceived except the divine human: 6475, 9303, 9267 [9315, 9356], 10067. The divine human from eternity was the divine truth in heaven and the divine nature passing through heaven; so it was the divine manifestation, which later, in the Lord, became the divine reality in its own right, the source of the divine manifestation in heaven: 3061, 6280, 6880, 10579. What the state of heaven was like before the Coming of the Lord:⁷⁵ 6371, 6372, 6373. The Divine was not perceptible except as it passed through heaven: 6982, 6996, 7004.

• [8] The inhabitants of all the planets worship the Divine in human form—therefore, the Lord: 6700, 8541-85 47, 10 73 6, 10 7 37, 10738. They are overjoyed when they hear that the Lord actually became a human: 9361. The Lord accepts eve ryone who is invol ved in what is good and worships the Divine in human form: 9 35 9. It is impossible to think about God except in human form, and what is incomprehensible does not accord⁷⁶ with any concept, so it does not accord with any faith: 9 35 9, 9972. We can worship something of which we have some concept, but not something of which we have no concept: 4733, 51 10, 5633 [5 6 6 3] , 7 21 1, 9267 [1 0 0 6 7] , 10267. T h e refo re by most people worldwide the Divine is worshiped in human form; and this is the case because of an inflow from heaven: 10 159. When people who are engaged in what is good in their behavior think about the Lord, they think about a divine human, and not about some human separated from the Divine. It is different for people who are not engaged in what is good in their behavior: 2326, 47 24, 4 7 31, 4766, 8878, 9 193, 9198. The people nowadays who think about the Lord's human apart from the Divine are the ones in the c h urch who are engaged in evil in their behavior and those who are in faith separated from thoughtfulness; also some reasons why they do not grasp what the divine human is: 32 12, 3 24 1, 4689, 4 692, 4724, 4731, 5 321, 6 37 2 [6 8 7 2] , 8878, 9193, 9198. The Lord's human was divine because he had his soul from the ve ry reality of the Father; illustrated by the re semblance of a father in his children: 1 02 7 0 [1 0 2 6 9] , 10372, 10 82 3. Also because it came from divine love, which was the very reality of his life f rom conception: 6 872. The nature of every individual is determined by his or her deepest love; and each of us is his or her own deepest love: 6872, 1 0 177, 102 84. The Lord made his whole human nature divine— both its inward and its outward constituents: 1603, 18 15, 1 9 02, 192 6, 2 0 93, 28 03 [2 0 8 3] . So, unlike any other person, he rose with his whole body: 1 7 29, 2 083, 507 8, 10 82 5.

• [9] The divinity of the Lord's human is recognized in his omnipresence in the Holy Supper: 2343, 2359. It is also recognized in his transfiguration before the three disciples; 3212, and also from the Word of the Old Testament, where he is called “God”: 10154; and where he is called “Jehovah”: 1603, 1736, 1815, 1902, 2921, 3035, 5110, 6281, 6303, 8864, 9194, 9315. In the literal meaning, a distinction is made between Father and Son or between Jehovah and the Lord, but this is not the case in the inner meaning of the Word that angels attend to: 3035. In the Christian world, the Lord's human is not recognized as divine, a situation that has come about in order that the pope might be recognized as his vicar: 3035 [4738].

• [10] Some Christians in the other life were examined to determine what kind of concept of the one God they had, and it was discovered that they had a concept of three gods: 2329, 5256, 10736, 10737, 10738, 10821. A trinity or divine trine in one person—and therefore a single God—is conceivable, but a trinity in three persons is not: 10738, 10821, 10824. A divine trine in the Lord is acknowledged in heaven: 14, 15, 1729, 2005 [2004], 5256, 9303. The trine in the Lord is the essential divine nature called the Father, the divine human called the Son, the emanating⁷⁷ Divine called the Holy Spirit, and this divine trine is one: 2149, 2156, 2288,2321[2319],2329,2447,3704,6993,7182,10738,10822,10823.The Lord himself teaches that the Father and he are one: 1729, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2751, 3704, 3736, 4766; and the holy Divine emanates from him and is his: 3969, 4673, 6788, 6993, 7499, 8127, 8302, 9199, 9228, 9229, 9270[9264],9407, 9818, 9820, 10330.

• [11] The divine human flows into heaven and makes heaven: 3038. The Lord is everything in heaven, and is heaven's life: 7211, 9128. The Lord dwells among angels in what is his: 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157. So people who are in heaven are in the Lord: 3637, 3638.The union of the Lord with angels takes place according to their acceptance of the quality of love and thoughtfulness from him: 904, 4198, 4206 [4205], 4211, 4320 [4220], 6280, 6832, 7042, 8819, 9680, 9682, 9683, 10106, 10811 [10810]. The whole heaven corresponds directly to the Lord: 551, 552. The Lord is the common center of heaven: 3633. Everyone there turns toward the Lord, who is above the heavens: 9828, 10130, 10189. However, angels do not turn themselves toward the Lord; rather, the Lord turns them toward himself: 10189. There is no presence of angels with the Lord, but there is a presence of the Lord with angels: 9415. There is no union with the essential Divine in heaven, but there is with the divine human: 4211, 4724, 5633 [5663].

• [12] Heaven corresponds to the Lord's divine human, and heaven overall is therefore like a single person; and therefore heaven is called the universal human: 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625. The Lord is the only person, and only those who accept something divine from him are human: 1894. To the extent that they do so accept, they are human beings and images of him: 8547. Therefore angels are forms of love and thoughtfulness in human form, which is [given] by the Lord: 3804, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 9879, 10177.

• [13] The whole heaven belongs to the Lord: 2751, 7086. He has all power in the heavens and on earth: 1607, 10089, 10827. Because the Lord rules the entire heaven, he also rules everything that depends on it— therefore everything in the world: 2026, 2027, 4523, 4524. The Lord alone possesses the power to move the hells away from us, restrain us from evils and keep us in good, and thus to save us: 10019.

PEOPLE today do not know what “correspondence” is. There are many reasons for this ignorance, the primary one being that we have moved away from heaven because of our love for ourselves and for the world. You see, people who love themselves and the world above all focus on nothing but earthly matters because these provide gratification to their more outward senses and pleasure to their moods. They do not attend to spiritual matters because these offer gratification to their deeper senses and pleasure to their minds. So they set such matters aside, saying that they are too lofty to think about.

The early people behaved differently. For them, knowledge about correspondences was the pearl⁷⁸ of all knowledge. By means of it, they gained intelligence and wisdom, and by means of it those who were of the church had a communication with heaven. Knowledge about correspondences is in fact angelic knowledge.

The earliest ones, who were heavenly people, did their thinking from correspondence like angels, so they could even talk with angels. Further, the Lord was quite often visible to them, and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has been so completely lost that people do not know what correspondence is.^a

Now, without some grasp of what correspondence is, nothing can be known in clear light about the spiritual world or about its inflow into the natural world, nothing at all about what the spiritual is relative to the natural, nothing in clear light about the human spirit that is called “the soul” and how it affects the body inwardly, nothing about our state after death. Because of all this, I need to define it and explain what it is like. This will also pave the way for matters that are to follow.

First, I need to state what correspondence is. The whole natural world is responsive⁷⁹ to the spiritual world—the natural world not just in general, but in detail. So whatever arises in the natural world out of the

• a. How superior a knowledge of correspondences is to other knowledge: 4280. The primary knowledge of the ancients was the knowledge of correspondences, but today this has been blotted out: 3021, 3419, 4280, 6749 [4 7 4 9] , 4844, 4964, 4965 [4 9 6 6] , 6004, 7729, 10252. The knowledge of correspondences flourished among those in the Near East and Egypt: 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407.

spiritual one is called “something that corresponds.” It needs to be realized that the natural world arises from and is sustained in being by the spiritual world, exactly the way an effect relates to its efficient cause.

By “the natural world,” I mean all that extended reality⁸⁰ that is under our sun⁸¹ and that receives its light and warmth from it. All the things that are sustained in being from that source belong to that world. The spiritual world, in contrast, is heaven, and to that world belong all the things that are in the heavens.

Since a human being is a heaven and a world in least form in the image of the greatest (see §57 above), there is a spiritual world and a natural world within each of us. The deeper elements, which belong to our minds and relate to our intelligence and volition, constitute our spiritual world, while the outer elements, which belong to our bodies and relate to our senses and actions, constitute our natural world. Anything that occurs in our natural world (that is, in our bodies and their senses and actions) because of our spiritual world (that is, because of our minds and their intelligence and volition) is called something that corresponds.

We can see in the human face what correspondence is like. In a face that has not been taught to dissimulate, all the affections of the mind manifest themselves visibly in a natural form, as though in their very imprint, which is why we refer to the face as “the index of the mind.” This is our spiritual world within our natural world. Similarly, elements of our understanding are manifest in our speech, and matters of our volition in our physical behavior. So things that occur in the body, whether in our faces or in our speech or in our behavior, are called correspondences.

We can also see from this what the inner person is and what the outer person is, namely, that the inner is the one that is called the spiritual person, and the outer the natural person. We can also see that they are as distinct from each other as heaven and earth, and that everything that happens and comes forth in the outer or natural person does so from the inner or spiritual one.

We have been talking about the correspondence of our inner or spiritual person with our outer or natural one. In what follows, though, we need to discuss the correspondence of heaven in its entirety with the individual human being.

It has already been explained that heaven in its totality reflects a single person, and that it is a person in image and is therefore called the universal human. It has also been explained that for this reason, the heavenly communities that make up heaven are arranged like the members, organs, and viscera in a human being. So there are communities that are located in the head, in the chest, in the arms, and in the particular parts of

these members (see above, §§59-72). The communities that are in a particular member, then, correspond to the like member in a human being. For example, the ones in the head in heaven correspond to our head, the ones in the chest there correspond to our chest, the ones in the arms correspond to our arms, and so on for the rest. We continue in existence because of this correspondence, for heaven is the only basis of our continued existence.

The differentiation of heaven into two kingdoms, one called the heavenly kingdom and the other the spiritual kingdom, has been presented in its proper chapter above.⁸² The heavenly kingdom in general corresponds to the heart and to all the extensions of the heart throughout the body. The spiritual kingdom corresponds to the lungs and to all their extension throughout the body. Further, the heart and the lungs form two kingdoms in us, the heart governing through the arteries and veins and the lungs through the nerve and motor fibers, each involved in every effort and action.

Within each one of us, in the spiritual world of ours that is called our spiritual person, there are also two kingdoms. One is volitional and the other is cognitive, the volitional governing through affections for what is good and the cognitive through affections for what is true. These kingdoms also correspond to the kingdoms of the heart and lungs in the body. The same holds true in the heavens. The heavenly kingdom is heaven's volitional side, where the good that flows from love rules. The spiritual kingdom is heaven's cognitive side, where truth rules. These are what correspond to the functions of the heart and the lungs in us.

It is because of this correspondence that “the heart” in the Word means volition and the good of love, while “the breath of the spirit” means understanding and the truth of faith. This is also why we ascribe feelings to the heart, even though they do not reside or originate there.^b

The correspondence of heaven's two kingdoms with the heart and lungs is the general correspondence of heaven with the human being.

• b. On the correspondence of the heart and the lungs with the universal human that is heaven, based on experience: 3883-3896. The heart corresponds to people who are in the heavenly kingdom, while the lungs correspond to people in the spiritual kingdom: 3685 [3885], 3886, 3887. In heaven there is a pulse like that of the heart and a breathing like that of the lungs, but on a deeper level: 3884, 3885, 3887. The heartbeat there varies depending on states of love, and the breathing varies depending on states of charity and faith: 3886, 3887, 3889. “The heart” in the Word is volition, so what comes from the heart is what comes from volition: 2930, 7542, 8910, 9113, 10336. So too, the heart in the Word means love, so what comes from the heart comes from love: 7542, 9050, 10336.

The less general correspondence, though, is with the specific members, organs, and viscera, and we need to note what this is like as well.⁸³

People who are in the head in the universal human that is heaven are supremely involved in everything good. In fact, they are in love, peace, innocence, wisdom, intelligence, and therefore in delight and happiness. These flow into the head and into the components of the head in us, and correspond to them.

People who are in the chest of the universal human that is heaven are involved in the qualities of thoughtfulness and faith, and also flow into our chests and correspond to them. However, people who are in the groin of the universal human or heaven and in the organs dedicated to reproduction are in marriage love.⁸⁴

People who are in the feet are in the outmost heaven, which is called “natural-spiritual good.” People who are in the arms and hands are in the power of what is true because of what is good. People who are in the eyes are in understanding; people who are in the ears are in attentiveness and obedience; people who are in the nostrils are in perception; people in the mouth and tongue in conversing from discernment and perception.

People who are in the kidneys are in truth that probes and discriminates and purifies; people in the liver, pancreas, and spleen are in various aspects of purification of what is good and true; and so on. They flow into the like parts of the human being and correspond to them.

The inflow of heaven is into the functions and uses of these members, and since the uses originate in the spiritual world, they take form by means of elements characteristic of the natural world and thus make themselves known in their effects. This is the origin of correspondence.

This is why these same members, organs, and viscera in the Word mean similar things. Everything there actually has meaning according to its correspondence. The head there means intelligence and wisdom, the chest thoughtfulness, the groin marriage love, the arms and hands the power of truth, the feet what is natural, the eyes discernment, the nostrils perception, the ears obedience, the kidneys the probing of truth, and so on.^c

• c. The chest in the Word means charity: 3934, 10081, 10087. The loins and reproductive organs mean marriage love: 3021, 4280, 4462, 5050, 5051, 5052. The arms and hands mean the power of truth: 878, 3091, 4931-4937, 6947, 7205, 10017 [10019]. The feet mean the natural: 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952. The eyes mean discernment: 2701, 4403-4421, 4523-4534, 6923, 9051, 10569. The nostrils mean perception: 3577, 4624, 4625, 4748, 5621, 8286, 10054, 10292. The ears mean obedience: 2542, 3869, 4523, 4653, 5017, 7216, 8361, 8990, 9311, 9396 [9397], 10061. The kidneys mean probing and purification of what is true: 5380-5386, 10032.

This is also why people commonly say that someone has a good head when they are talking about someone intelligent and wise, why they talk about a truly thoughtful person as a bosom friend, a particularly perceptive individual as having a keen nose, a discriminating one as sharp-sighted,⁸⁵ someone in power as having a long arm,⁸⁶ someone who acts intentionally from love as acting from the heart—these and many other expressions in human language come from correspondence. The expressions actually originate in the spiritual world, though people are unaware of it.

The reality of this kind of correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in us has been shown me by a great deal of experience— by so much, in fact, that I am as convinced of this as I am of anything that is so obvious as to be beyond doubt. There is no need to append all the evidence here, though, and there is too much to include. The reader may see some included in Secrets of Heaven where correspondences, representations, the inflow of the spiritual world into the natural, and the interaction of soul and body are dealt with.^d

Even though we completely correspond physically to all of heaven, we are still not images of heaven in outward form, but only in inward form. Our deeper reaches are receptive of heaven, while our more outward ones are receptive of this world. To the extent, then, that those deeper reaches do accept heaven we are heavens in least form, in the image of the greatest; but to the extent that our deeper reaches are not receptive, we are not heavens or images of the greatest. Nevertheless, our more outward aspects, which are receptive of the world, may be in some form that is determined by the world, and therefore in more or less beauty. Outward, physical beauty has its origins in our parents and from our formation in the womb, and thereafter is maintained by a general inflow from the world. This is why our natural form differs markedly from our spiritual form.

I have been shown at times what a spiritual person is like in form, and I have seen that in some people who were lovely and attractive in physical appearance that inner form was misshapen, black, and grotesque—what you would call an image of hell rather than of heaven;

• d. On the correspondence of all the members of our bodies with the universal human or heaven, in general and in detail, based on experience: 3021, 3624-3649, 3741-3751 [3741—3750], 3883-3896, 4039-4051 [4039-4054], 4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4421, 4523-4534, 4622-4633, 4652-4660, 4791-4805, 4931-4953, 5050-5061, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 10030. On the inflow of the spiritual world into the natural world, or of heaven into earth, and the inflow of the soul into all the elements of the body, based on experience: 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626. On the interaction of the soul and the body, based on experience: 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626.

while in some who were not beautiful, the inner form was graceful, radiant, and angelic. After death, our spirit looks the way it actually did within the body while we were living in it in this world.

Correspondence, though, extends to much more than human beings. There is a correspondence of the heavens with each other. The second or intermediate heaven is responsive to the third or central one, the first or outmost heaven is responsive to the second or intermediate one, and this is responsive to the physical forms in us, the forms that are referred to as our members, organs, and viscera. So it is our bodily nature in which heaven finally comes to rest, on which it stands like a foundation. But this mystery will be explored further elsewhere.⁸⁷

It is absolutely necessary to realize, though, that all correspondence with heaven is correspondence with the Lord's divine human, because heaven is from him and because he is heaven, as has been explained in the preceding chapters. For unless the divine human flowed into every bit of heaven and, in accord with correspondences, into every bit of our world, there would be no angels and none of us.

Again then, we can see from this why the Lord became an individual on earth and clothed his divine nature with a human nature from first to last. This happened because the divine human on which heaven depended before the Coming of the Lord⁸⁸ was no longer adequate to sustain everything, since we, the foundation of heaven, had undermined and destroyed the design.

In the passages re f erred to at the close of the preceding chapter yo u may see what the divine human before the Coming of the Lord was and what its nature was, as well as the quality of the state of heave n t h en.

Angels are s tun ned when they hear t h at t h e re are peop le who cre dit eve ry th i ng to nature a nd n othing to t h e Divine , as wel l as peop le who believe t h at t h e i r bo dies, in which so many wo nders of heaven are g ath-e red, are fashio ned o ut of nature, and eve n that this is the source of o ur rational cap acity. On t h e contr ary, i f people would jus t ra ise their minds a l i ttle , they c oul d see that t h ings like this come from the Divin e and no t from nature, a nd t h at n at u re w as created simp ly to c lo the the spir itua l and responsivel y rep res e nt it on the lowest l e vel of the des ign. They c om pa re such peo ple t o owl s, whi ch see in darkness, b ut s e e n ot h ing in the lig h t.

IN the preceding chapter, we have stated what correspondence is, and have explained as well that absolutely everything in the soul's body is a correspondence. Next in orderly sequence we need to explain that everything earthly and in general everything in our world is a correspondence.⁸⁹ All earthly things are differentiated into three classes that we call “kingdoms,” namely the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom. Members of the animal kingdom are correspon-dences⁹⁰ on the first level because they are alive. Members of the vegetable kingdom are correspondences on the second level because they merely grow. Members of the mineral kingdom are correspondences on the third level because they neither live nor grow.

The correspondences in the animal kingdom are the living creatures of various kinds, both those that walk and creep on the earth and those that fly in the air. We need not list them by name, because they are familiar. Correspondences in the vegetable kingdom are all the things that grow and bloom in gardens and forests and farms and meadows, which again are so familiar that they need not be listed by name. Correspondences in the mineral kingdom are metals noble and base, stones precious and common, and soils of various kinds, as well as bodies of water. Beyond these, things made from these elements by human industry for our use are correspondences, things such as foods of all kinds, garments, houses, major buildings, and so on.

Things that are above the earth are also correspondences, things like the sun, the moon, and the stars, and also things that occur in our a t m o s p h e res like clouds, mists, rainstorms, lightning bolts, and thun-d erclaps. The emanations of the sun in its presence and absence like light and shade, warmth and cold, are also correspondences; and so are such corollaries as the times of the year called spring, summer, fall, and winter, and the times of the day—morning, noon, evening, and n igh t .

In a word, absolutely everything in nature, from the smallest to the greatest, is a correspondence.^a The reason correspondences occur is that the natural world, including everything in it, arises and is sustained from the spiritual world, and both worlds come from the Divine. We say that it also is sustained because everything is sustained from that from which it arose, enduring being in fact a perpetual arising;⁹¹ and since nothing can endure independently, but needs something prior, it therefore needs a First, and if it were separated from that First, it would utterly perish and disappear.

Everything is a correspondent that arises and endures in nature according to the divine design. What makes the divine design is the divine good that emanates from the Lord. It begins from him, emanates from him through the heavens in sequence into the world, and there comes to a close in things most remote. Things there that are in accord with the design are correspondences. The things that are in accord with the design are everything that is good and is perfected for some use, for everything good is good according to its usefulness. Its form reflects what is true because the true is the form of the good. This is why everything in the whole world and in the world of nature that is in the divine design goes back to what is good and what is true.^b

The fact that everything in this world arises from the Divine and is clothed with the kinds of elements in nature that enable it to be present there, serve some use, and therefore correspond, follows clearly from little things we can observe in both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. In each there are things that anyone, with some deeper thought, can see must come from heaven. By way of illustration I may mention only a few out of the countless many.

First, some from the animal kingdom. In this field, many people realize what kind of knowledge is virtually instinctive in any creature you

• a. Everything in the world and its three kingdoms corresponds to heavenly things that are in heaven; or things in the natural world correspond to things in the spiritual world: 1632, 1881, 2758, 2890-2893 [2990-2993], 2897-3003 [2987-3003], 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649 [3624-3639], 4044, 4053, 4116, 4366, 4939, 5116, 5377, 5428, 5477, 9280. Through correspondences, the natural world is united with the spiritual world: 8615. So nature in its entirety is a theater portraying the Lord's kingdom: 2758, 2999, 3000, 3483, 4938, 4939, 8848, 9280.

• b. Everything in both heaven and this world that is in accord with the design goes back to what is good and what is true: 2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122; and to the union of the two, if it is actually to be anything: 10555.

choose. Bees know how to collect honey from flowers, build cells from wax in which they store their honey, and so provide food for themselves and their families for the coming winter. Their queen lays eggs, while the others cover them over and lead her around so that a new generation may be born. They live under a kind of government that all their members know instinctively, protecting their useful members and expelling the useless ones and clipping off their wings. There are even more marvels that are given them from heaven for their use. In fact, their wax serves the human race throughout the world for candles, and their honey for flavoring foods.

• [2] Then what about caterpillars, the lowest creatures in the animal kingdom! They know how to nourish themselves with the sap of their leaves and in due time how to make a covering around themselves and virtually put themselves in a womb and so to hatch offspring of their own species. Some first turn into nymphs and chrysalides and make threads, and after exhausting labor grace themselves with new bodies and adorn themselves with wings. Then they fly in the air as though it were their heaven, celebrate their “weddings,” lay their eggs, and so provide themselves with a posterity.

• [3] Over and above these particular examples, all the fowl of the air know the foods that are good for them—not only what they are, but where they are. They know how to construct nests for themselves, each species differently from all others, how to lay their eggs there, incubate them, hatch and feed their chicks, and expel them from the nest when they can be on their own. They also know the particular enemies they must avoid and the allies they can associate with, all from earliest infancy. I will say nothing about the wonders in the eggs themselves, where everything necessary for the formation and nourishment of the embryonic chicks lies properly available, or countless other wonders.

• [4] Will anyone who thinks with any rational wisdom say that such things arise from any source but a spiritual world, a world that the natural world serves by clothing what comes from it with a body, or presenting in effect that which is spiritual in origin?

The reason why earthbound animals and the fowl of the air are born into all this knowledge while we, who are actually superior, are not, is that animals are in the proper pattern of their life and cannot destroy what is within them from the spiritual world because they are not rational. It is different for us, who think from the spiritual world. Because we have corrupted ourselves by living contrary to the design that reason itself has recommended to us, we cannot escape being born into total ignorance, so that we can be led from there, by divine means, back into the pattern of heaven.

We can deduce how members of the vegetable kingdom correspond from a multitude of instances—for example, from the fact that tiny seeds grow into trees, beget leaves, produce flowers and then fruits in which they place another generation of seeds, and that these things happen in a sequence and emerge all together in such a wondrous design that there is no way to describe it briefly. It would take volumes, and still there would be deeper mysteries suited to their uses that our knowledge could not compass.

Because these things stem from the spiritual world or heaven, which is in a human form (as was explained in the appropriate chapter above [§§78-86]), it is also true that the details of that kingdom have a kind of relationship to human characteristics—a fact that is recognized by some individuals in the learned world.

It has become clear to me from a great deal of experience that everything in that kingdom is also a correspondence. Very often, when I have looked over trees and fruits and flowers and vegetables in gardens, I have become aware of corresponding things in heaven. Then I have talked with nearby people there and have learned where these plants were from and what their characteristics were.

Nowadays, though, no one can know about the spiritual things in heaven to which natural things in the world correspond except from heaven, because the knowledge of correspondence has now been completely lost. I should like to present a few examples to show what the correspondence of spiritual things with natural ones is like.

In general, earth's living creatures correspond to affections, the mild and useful ones to good affections, the fierce and useless ones to evil affections. Specifically, cattle and calves correspond to affections of the natural mind, sheep and lambs to affections of the spiritual mind. Flying creatures, species by species, correspond to cognitive activities of either level of the mind.^c This is why various animals such as cattle, calves,

• c. By reason of correspondence, animals refer to affections; mild and useful animals to good affections, fierce and useless ones to evil affections: 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 716, 719, 2179, 2180, 3519, 9280; illustrated by experience drawn from the spiritual world: 3218, 5198, 9090. On the inflow of the spiritual world into the lives of animals: 1633, 3646. By reason of correspondence, cattle and calves refer to affections of the natural mind: 2180, 2566, 9391, 10132, 10407. What birds mean: 4169, 4809. What lambs mean: 3994, 10132. Flying creatures mean cognitive activities: 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 993 [991], 5149, 7441; varied as indicated by their genera and species, based on experience in the spiritual world: 3219.

rams, sheep, male and female goats, male and female lambs, as well as pigeons and turtle doves were accepted for holy use in the Israelite church, which was a representative church.⁹² They used them for their sacrifices and burnt offerings, and in these uses they did in fact correspond to spiritual realities that are understood in heaven in accord with their correspondence.

The reason animals are affections, according to their genera and species, is that they are alive, and the only source of the life of any creature is from affection and is in proportion to it. We humans are like animals as far as our natural person is concerned, which is why we are compared to them in colloquial usage. For example, we call a gentle person a sheep or a lamb, a violent one a bear or a wolf, a crafty one a fox or a snake, and so on.

There is a similar correspondence with things in the vegetable kingdom. A garden, in general terms, corresponds to heaven in respect to intelligence and wisdom, which is why heaven is called the garden of God and a paradise,^d and why we call it a heavenly paradise.

Trees, species by species, correspond to perceptions and firsthand knowledge of what is good and true, which yield intelligence and wisdom. So the early people, who were absorbed in the knowledge of correspondences, held their holy worship in groves.^e This is why trees are mentioned so often in the Word and why heaven, the church, and people are compared to them—to the vine, for example, the olive, the cedar, and others—and the good we do is compared to fruit.

Further, the foods we derive from them, especially the ones we get from crops planted in fields, correspond to affections for what is good and true because they nourish our spiritual life the way earthly foods nourish our natural life.^f

Bread, generally speaking, corresponds to an affection for whatever is good because it is the mainstay of life and because it is used to mean all

• d. By reason of correspondence, a garden or paradise means intelligence and wisdom: 100, 108; from experience: 3220. Everything that corresponds has the same meaning in the Word as well: 2890 [2896], 2987, 2989, 2990, 2971 [2991], 3002, 3225.

• e. Trees mean perceptions and experiential knowledge: 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 7692. So the early people held their divine worship in groves, under particular trees depending on their correspondence: 2722, 4552. On the inflow of heaven into members of the vegetable kingdom; for example, into trees and small plants: 3648.

• f. By reason of correspondence, foods mean the kind of things that nourish our spiritual life: 3114, 4459,4792,4976,5147, 5293,5340,5342,5410,5426,5576,5582,5588,5656[5655],5915, 6277, 8562, 9003.

food. It is because of this correspondence that the Lord calls himself the bread of life; and it is also because of this that bread was put to holy use in the Israelite church—they did in fact place bread on the table in the tabernacle and called it “the bread of presence.”⁹³ Then too, all divine worship that they performed by sacrifices and burnt offerings was called “bread.” Because of this correspondence too, the most sacred worship in the Christian church is the Holy Supper, in which bread and wine are shared.^g

From these few examples, we can infer what correspondence is like.

We may note briefly how the union of heaven with the world occurs by means of correspondences. The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of purposes that are functions^{9 4} or—which amounts to the same thing—of functions that are purposes. For this reason, the unive r s e has been so created and formed by the Divine that functions can clothe themselves in materials that enable them to present themselve s in act or in results, first in heaven and then in this world, and so step by step all the way to the lowest things in nature. We can see from this that the correspondence of natural phenomena with spiritual ones, or of the world with heaven, takes place through functions, and that the functions are what unite them. We can also see that the forms that clothe the functions are correspondences and unions to the extent that they are forms of the functions.

In the three kingdoms of earthly nature, all the things that happen according to the design are [outward] forms of their functions or results formed by function for function. This is why the things that occur there are correspondences.

As for us, though, our acts are services in forms to the extent that we live according to the divine design—that is, in love for the Lord and in thoughtfulness toward our neighbor. To that extent, our acts are correspondences that unite us to heaven. In general terms, loving the Lord and our neighbor is being of service.^h

• g. Bread means everything good that nourishes our spiritual life: 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 9323, 9545, 10686. The loaves that were on the table in the tabernacle have a similar meaning: 3478, 9545. Sacrifices in general were called “bread”: 2165. “Bread” includes all food: 2165. So it means all heavenly and spiritual food: 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 6118, 8410.

• h. Everything good has its delight from its functions and in proportion to them, and this is also the source of its quality; so the nature of the function determines the nature of the good: 3049, 4984, 7038. Angelic life consists of good deeds of love and thoughtfulness, and therefore of being

We need to know as well that it is humankind through which the natural world is united to the spiritual world, that we are the means of the union. For there is within us a natural world and also a spiritual world (see above, §5 7); so to the extent that we are spiritual, we are a means of union. Howe ve r, to the extent that we are natural and not spiritual, we are not a means of union. The Lord's inflow into the world and into the world's gifts within us continues even without our aid, but it does not come into our rational functioning.

Just as everything that is in accord with the divine design corresponds to heaven, everything that is contrary to the divine design corresponds to hell. Everything that corresponds to heaven reflects what is good and true, while what corresponds to hell reflects what is evil and false.

We may now say something about the knowledge of correspondences and its use. We have just stated that the spiritual world, which is heaven, is united to the natural world by means of correspondences; so it is through correspondences that we are given communication with heaven. Heaven's angels do not think in terms of natural phenomena the way we do, so when we are absorbed in the knowledge of correspo n-dences we can be in the company of angels in respect to the thoughts of our minds. So we can be united to them in reg ard to our spiritual or inner person.

In order that there might be a union of heaven with humanity, the Word was written in pure correspondences. Absolutely everything in it cor-responds.ⁱ So if we were steeped in a knowledge of correspondences, we would understand the Word in its spiritual meaning and be enabled to

of service: 453 [454]. The Lord—and this holds true for angels as well—focuses on nothing but purposes that are functions in regard to us: 1317, 1645, 5844 [5854]. The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of functions and therefore of purposes: 453 [454], 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. To serve the Lord is to be useful: 7038. Absolutely everything in us is formed for some function: 3565 [3570], 4104, 5189, 9297; and everything comes from function; so function is prior to our organic forms through which the functions are exercised, because function arises from the inflow of the Lord through heaven: 4223, 4926. Further, the deeper structures of our mind are formed as we mature from function and for function: 1964, 6815, 9297. So the quality of an individual is determined by the quality of that individual's function: 1568, 3570, 4054, 6571, 6934, 6938, 10284. Functions are causative purposes: 3565, 4054, 4104, 6815. Function is our beginning and end, and therefore our whole humanity: 1964.

• i. The Word was written in pure correspondences: 8615. Through the Word, there is a union of humanity with heaven: 2899, 6943, 9396, 9400, 9401, 10375, 10452. know hidden treasures in it that we do not see at all in its literal meaning. The Word does in fact have a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning.^j The literal meaning consists of the kind of things that are in our world, while the spiritual meaning consists of the kind of things that are in heaven; and since the union of heaven with our world is maintained by correspondences, we have been given a Word in which the details correspond, even down to the last jot.

I have been taught in heaven that the earliest people on our planet, who were heavenly people, thought on the basis of actual correspondences, and that the natural phenomena of the world that greeted their eyes served them as means for thinking in this way. Because they were of this character, they were in the company of angels and talked with them; and in this way heaven was united to the world through them. Therefore, that era was called the Golden Age. Classical authors described it as a time when the inhabitants of heaven dwelt with mortals and kept them company as friend with friend.⁹⁵

After their era, though, a people came who did not think from actual correspondences but from a knowledge about correspondences. There was still a union of heaven with humanity, but not such an intimate one. Their era was called the Silver Age.

The people who came next were indeed familiar with correspondences but did not do their thinking on the basis of their knowledge of correspondences. This was because they were engrossed in what is good on the natural level and not, like their ancestors, on the spiritual level. Their era was called the Bronze Age.

I have been taught, lastly, that after that era humanity became more and more externally minded and at last physically minded. Then the knowledge of correspondences was completely lost, and with it any awareness of heaven and of its riches.

The names of these ages—Golden, Silver, and Bronze—also come from correspondence,^k because gold, by reason of correspondence, means

• j. On the spiritual meaning of the Word, see the booklet The White Horse Described in the Book of Revelation.

• k. By reason of correspondence, gold means heavenly good: 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9510, 9874, 9881. Silver means spiritual good, or truth from a heavenly source: 1551, 1552, 2954, 5648 [5658]. Bronze means natural good: 425, 1551. Iron means truth on the lowest level of the design: 425, 426.

the heavenly goodness in which the earliest people lived. Silver, in contrast, means the spiritual goodness in which their successors, the early people, lived; while bronze means the natural goodness characteristic of their immediate followers. Iron, though, which gave its name to the last era, means a harsh truth, devoid of good.⁹⁶

OUR world's sun is not visible in heaven, and neither is anything that is derived from it, since all that is natural. Nature, in fact, begins with that sun, and whatever is produced by it is called natural. The spiritual reality in which heaven exists, though, is above nature and completely distinct from anything natural. They communicate with each other only through correspondences.

The nature of the distinction can be gathered from what was said above about levels in §38, and the nature of the communication from the last two chapters about correspondences.

However, even though neither this world's sun nor anything derived from it is visible in heaven, there is a sun there; there is light and warmth, there are all the things we have in our world and many more—not from the same origin, though, since things in heaven are spiritual while things in our world are natural.

Heaven's sun is the Lord; light there is the divine truth and warmth the divine good that radiate from the Lord as the sun. Everything that comes into being and manifests itself in the heavens is from this source. We will discuss the light and warmth and the things that arise from them in subsequent chapters; here we restrict ourselves to the sun.

The reason the Lord in heaven appears as the sun is that he is the divine love from which all spiritual things come into being—and, through the agency of our world's sun, all natural things as well. That love is what shines like a sun.

As for the Lord's actually appearing in heaven as the sun, this is something I have not simply been told by angels but have also been

allowed to see a number of times; so I should like at this point to describe briefly what I have heard and seen⁹⁷ concerning the Lord as the sun.

The Lord does not appear as a sun in the heavens, but high above them, and not directly overhead but in front of angels at a middle elevation. He appears in two places, in one for the right eye and in another for the left, noticeably far apart. For the right eye he looks just like a sun, with much the same fire and size as our world's sun. For the left eye, though, he does not look like a sun but like a moon, with similar brilliance but more sparkling, and with much the same size as our earth's moon; but he seems to be surrounded by many apparent lesser moonlets, each similarly brilliant and sparkling.

The reason the Lord appears in two places, so differently, is that he appears to people according to their receptiveness. So he looks one way to people who accept him through the good of love and another way to people who accept him through the good of faith. To people who accept him through the good of love, he looks like a sun, fiery and flaming in response to their receptivity. These people are in his heavenly kingdom. To people who accept him through the good of faith, though, he looks like a moon, brilliant and sparkling in response to their receptivity. These people are in his spiritual kingdom.^a This is because the good of love corresponds to fire, so that fire, in its spiritual meaning, is love; while the good of faith corresponds to light, so that light, in its spiritual meaning, is faith.^b

The reason he appears to the eyes is that the deeper levels of the mind see through the eyes, looking from the good of love through the right eye and from the good of faith through the left eye.^c You see, everything on

• a. The Lord is seen in heaven as a sun, and is the sun of heaven: 1053, 3636, 3643, 4060. The Lord appears as a sun to people in the heavenly kingdom, where love for him reigns, and as a moon to people in the spiritual kingdom, where thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor and faith reign: 1521, 1529, 1530 , 1531 , 1837, 4696. The Lord as a sun appears at a medium elevation for the right eye, and as a moon for the left eye: 1053, 1521, 1529, 1530, 1531, 3636, 3643, 4321, 5097, 7078, 7083, 7173, 7270, 8812, 10809. The Lord has been seen as the sun and as the moon: 1531, 7173. The Lord's essential Divine is far above his Divine in the heavens: 7270, 8760.

• b. Fire in the Word means love for either good or evil: 934, 4906, 5215. Sacred or heavenly fire means divine love: 934, 6314, 6832. Hellfire means love for oneself and the world, and all the craving that belongs to those loves: 1861, 5071, 6314, 6832, 7575, 10747. Love is the fire of life, and life itself actually comes from it: 4096 [4906], 5071, 6032, 6314. Light means the truth of faith: 3395 [3195], 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684.

• c. The sight of the left eye corresponds to what is true in faith, and the sight of the right eye corresponds to what is good in it: 4410, 6923.

the right side of an angel or one of us corresponds to what is good and yields truth, while everything on the left side corresponds to that truth that comes from what is good.^d,98 “The good of faith” is, essentially, truth that comes from what is good.

This is why in the Word the Lord is compared to the sun when the focus is on love and to the moon when the focus is on faith. It is also why the sun means a love for the Lord that comes from the Lord, and the moon means a faith in the Lord that comes from the Lord. Compare the following passages.

The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days. (Isaiah 30:26)

When I annihilate you, I will cover the heavens and blacken the stars.

I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not make its light.

I will blacken all the luminaries in the heavens above you and send

darkness over your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

I will darken the sun in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. (Isaiah 13:10)

The sun and the moon will be blackened and the stars will withdraw their shining; the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. (Joel 2:2, 10, 31; 3:15)⁹⁹

The sun became black as hairy sackcloth,¹⁰⁰ and the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to earth. (Revelation 6:12[-13])

Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven. (Matthew 24:29)

And elsewhere. In these passages, the sun means love and the moon faith, while the stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true.^e These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when they no longer exist.

• d. Things on our right side have reference to the good that yields truth, while things on our left have reference to the truth that comes from what is good: 9495, 9604.

• e. In the Word, the lesser and greater stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true: 2495, 2849, 4697.

The Lord's appearance as a sun in heaven may also be inferred from his transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, when “his face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was seen by those disciples when they had been lifted out of their bodies and were in the light of heaven.

For this reason, when the early people (who constituted a representative church) were engaged in their divine worship, they faced the sun in the east. It is why they set their temples to face the east.

We can gather how great divine love is and what its quality is by comparison with the sun of our world—that love is most intense, far more intense, if you will believe it. So the Lord as the sun does not flow directly into the heavens; rather, the intensity of his love is by degrees tempered in its course. The stages of this tempering look like sparkling halos around the sun. Further, angels are shielded by a suitably thin cloud so that they will not be hurt by the inflow.^f As a result, the heavens are distanced according to their receptiveness. The higher heavens, being in the good of love, are closest to the Lord as the sun. The lower heavens, though, being in the good of faith, are farther from him. People who are engaged in nothing good whatever, like the people in hell, are farthest away, their removal being in proportion to their opposition to what is good.^g

However, when the Lord appears in heaven (which happens quite often) he does not appear clothed with the sun but in an angelic form, distinguishable from the angels by the divine quality that shines from his face. He is not actually there in person—since the Lord “in person” is always clothed with the sun—but is present in appearance. It is commonplace in heaven for things to be seen as though they were present in the

• f. The quality and greatness of divine love, illustrated by comparison with the fire of our world's sun: 6834, 6844 [8644], 6849. The Lord's divine love is a love for the whole human race, for its salvation: 1820, 1865, 2253, 6872. The love that emanates most closely from the fire of the Lord's love does not come into heaven, but appears around the sun like a sparkling halo: 7270. Further, angels are shielded by a suitably thin cloud, so that they will not be hurt by the inflow of the heat of love: 6849.

• g. The manner of the Lord's presence with angels depends on their acceptance of the good of love and faith from him: 904, 4198, 4320, 6280, 6832, 7042, 8819, 9680, 9682, 9683, 10106, 10811. The Lord appears to every individual according to that individual's own quality: 1861, 2235 [3235], 4198, 4206. The hells are distanced from the heavens by the fact that they cannot bear the presence of divine love from the Lord: 4299, 7519, 7738, 7989, 8157 [8137], 8266 [8265], 9327. So the hells are very far indeed from heaven, and this is the “great gulf ”: 9346, 10187. place where their appearance is focused or delineated, even though this is very far from the place where they themselves actually are. This presence is called “a presence of inner sight,” and will be discussed further be-low.¹⁰¹

Then too I have seen the Lord outside the sun in an angelic form overhead, a little below the sun, and also nearby in a similar form—once even among some angels, looking like a fiery ray of light.

To angels, our world's sun looks like something murky opposite to heaven's sun, and our moon like something dim opposite to heaven's moon, consistently. This is because our world's fire corresponds to a love for ourselves, and the light it emits corresponds to the distortion that arises from that love. Love for oneself is the absolute opposite of divine love, and the distortion that arises from it is the absolute opposite of divine truth. ¹⁰² Anything that is opposed to divine love and truth is darkness to angels.

This is why in the Word, worshiping our world's sun and moon and bowing down to them means loving oneself and the distortion that arises from self-love, and why these are to be abolished (Deuteronomy 4:19; 18:3-5 [17:3—5]; Jeremiah 8:1-2; Ezekiel 8:15, 16, 18; Revelation 16:8; Matthew 13:6).^h

Since the Lord does appear in heaven as a sun because of the divine love that is in him and from him, all the people there constantly turn toward him. The inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom turn toward him as the sun, while the inhabitants of the spiritual kingdom turn toward him as the moon. In contrast, the inhabitants of hell turn toward the darkness and dimness that are on the opposite side, and therefore turn away from the Lord. This is because all the people who are in the hells are caught up in love for themselves and the world and are therefore opposed to the Lord. The ones who turn toward the darkness that stands for our world's sun are at the back of the hells and are called “demons,” while the ones who turn toward the dimness that stands for our moon are in the front of hell and are called “spirits.”¹⁰³ This is why people in the hells are described as being in darkness and people in the heavens as being in light. “Darkness” means falsity arising from evil, and “light” means truth arising from good.

• h. Our world's sun is not visible to angels, but instead something dim behind them, opposite to heaven's sun or the Lord: 7078, 9755. In its opposite meaning, the sun means love for oneself: 2441; and in this meaning “worshiping the sun” means worshiping things that are contrary to heavenly love, or to the Lord: 2441, 10584. For people in the hells, heaven's sun is darkness: 2441.

The reason people turn in this way is that in the other life we all look toward what rules in our deeper natures—toward our own loves, then; and these deeper natures form the faces of angels and spirits. Further, in a spiritual world the cardinal points are not fixed the way they are in a natural world. Instead, they are determined by the way people face.

We ourselves, in spirit, are also turning in the same fashion—away from the Lord if we are caught up in self-love and love of the world, and toward him if we are in a love for him and for our neighbor. We are unaware of this, though, because we are in a natural world where the cardinal points are determined by the sun's rising and setting. Since it is hard for people to grasp this, examples will be given below where we deal with the cardinal points and with space and time in heaven.¹⁰⁴

Since the Lord is the sun of heaven, and since everything that comes from him looks toward him, the Lord is the common center, the basis of all direction and orientation.¹ So too everything beneath is in his presence and under his control, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

This enables us to see in clearer light the things that have been presented in the earlier chapters about the Lord, namely that he is the God of heaven (§§2-6), that his divine nature makes heaven (§§7-12), that the divine nature of the Lord in heaven is love for him and thoughtfulness toward our neighbor (§§13-19), that there is a correspondence of everything in our world with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord (§§87-115) ,¹⁰⁵ and that the sun of our world and its moon are correspondent entities (§105).

PEOPLE who think solely on the basis of nature cannot grasp the fact that there is light in the heavens; yet in the heavens there is so much light that it is vastly greater than noonday light on earth. I have seen it often, even during our evenings and nights. At first I was amazed when I heard angels saying that our world's light was nothing but shadow in

comparison to heaven's light, but now that I have seen it, I myself can bear witness. Its brightness and brilliance are beyond description. What I have seen in heaven I have seen in that light, and therefore more clearly and distinctly than what I have seen in this world.

Heaven's light is not natural like the light of our world, but spiritual. It actually comes from the Lord as the sun, and that sun, as explained in the preceding chapter, is divine love. While what emanates from the Lord as the sun is called divine truth in the heavens, in essence it is divine good as one with divine truth. This is the source of light and warmth for angels: they get their light from the divine truth and their warmth from the divine good.

We can therefore conclude that heaven's light, in view of the nature of its source, is spiritual and not natural, as is its warmth.^a

The reason divine truth is light for angels is that angels are spiritual and not natural. Spiritual people see things from their sun, and natural people see from theirs. Divine truth is what provides angels with discernment; and discernment is their inner sight, which flows into their outer sight and produces it. So whatever is seen in heaven from the Lord as the sun is seen in the light.^b Since this is the source of light in heaven, it varies depending on the acceptance of divine truth from the Lord or (which amounts to the same thing) depending on the intelligence and wisdom angels participate in. This means that it is different in the heavenly kingdom than in the spiritual kingdom, and different in each community. The light in the heavenly kingdom looks fiery because the angels who are there accept light from the Lord as the sun. The light in the spiritual kingdom, though, is white because the angels who are there accept light from the Lord as the moon (see above, § 118). Further, the light is not the same in one community as in another. It even differs within each community. People in the middle are in more light, and people round about are in less (see §43).

In short, to the extent to which angels are open to divine truth (that is, participate in intelligence and wisdom from the Lord), they have light.^c This is why heaven's angels are called angels of light.

• a. All the light in the heavens is from the Lord as the sun: 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. Divine truth emanating from the Lord appears in heaven as light, and constitutes all the light of heaven: 3195, 3222 [3223], 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684.

• b. Heaven's light illuminates the sight and the discernment of angels and spirits: 2776, 3138.

• c. Light in heaven is proportional to angels' intelligence and wisdom: 1524, 1529, 1530, 3339. There are as many variations of light in the heavens as there are communities, because there are constant variations in regard to what is good and true, and therefore in regard to wisdom and intelligence: 684, 690, 3241, 3744, 3745, 4414, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836.

Because the Lord in the heavens is divine truth and divine truth there is light, the Lord is called “light” in the Word, as is the truth that comes from him. Note the following passages:

Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:15 [9:5])

Jesus said, For a little while longer the light is with you; walk while you have the light, to prevent the darkness from overtaking you. While you have light, believe in the light, so that you may be children of light. I have come as a light into the world, so that anyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. (John 12:35, 36, 40 [46] )

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness more than light. (John 3:19)

John said of the Lord, his is the true light that enlightens everyone. (John 1 : 4 , 9 )

The people that sit in darkness will see a great light, and for those who were sitting in the shadow of death, a light has risen. (Matthew 4:16)

I will make you a covenant of the people, a light of the nations. (Isaiah 42:6)

I have established you as the light of the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

The nations that have been saved will walk toward his light. (Revelation 21:24)

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me. (Psalms 43:3)

In these and other passages, the Lord is called “light” by reason of the divine truth that comes from him, and that truth itself is called “light” as well. Because the Lord as the sun is light in the heavens, when he was transfigured before Peter, James, and John

his face shone like the sun and his garments as light, sparkling and white as snow, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. (Mark 9:3; Matthew 17:2)

The reason the Lord's garments looked as they did was that they were images of the divine truth that comes from him in the heavens. Garments in the Word mean truths as well,^d so it says in David, “Jehovah, you clothe yourself with light as a garment” (Psalms 104:2).¹⁰⁶

It stands to reason that the light in the heavens is spiritual and that that light is divine truth when we consider that we also have spiritual light and that we have enlightenment from it to the extent that we participate in intelligence and wisdom on the basis of divine truth. Our spiritual light is the light of our discernment, whose objects are things true that it arranges in order by a process of analysis and forms into relationships, and from which it draws a series of conclusions.^e

Natural people are unaware that the light that enables us to see such things is a real light because they do not see it with their eyes or notice it with their thought. Still, many people do recognize it and also distinguish it from the natural light in which they find themselves when they are thinking naturally and not spiritually. People are thinking naturally when they are focusing solely on this world and attributing everything to nature. They are thinking spiritually, however, when they focus on heaven and attribute everything to the Divine.

I have often been allowed to perceive that the light that illumines the mind is a true light, quite different from the light that we call natural light. I have also been allowed to see it. I have been gradually elevated into that light inwardly, and as I was raised up, my discernment was enlightened to the extent that I could grasp what I had been unable to grasp before, ultimately things that could in no way be comprehended by thought from natural light. At times I have resented the fact that they were incomprehensible [in natural light] when they were so clearly and plainly perceived in the heavenly light.^f

• d. Garments in the Word mean the truths that clothe what is good: 1073, 2576, 5248, 5319, 5954, 9216, 9952, 10536. The garments of the Lord when he was transfigured meant the divine truth that emanates from his divine love: 9212, 9216.

• e. Heaven's light illuminates our discernment, making us rational individuals: 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9126 [9128], 9399, 10659 [10569]. Discernment is enlightened because it is what is receptive of truth: 6222, 6608, 10659 [10569]. Discernment is enlightened to the extent that we accept what is true in what is good from the Lord: 3619. The quality of our discernment is determined by the quality of heartfelt truths out of which it is formed: 10064. Discernment has light from heaven the way sight has light from the world: 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128. Heaven's light from the Lord is always present with us, but flows in [only] to the extent that we are engaged in truth because of what is good: 4060, 4213 [4214].

• f. When we are lifted above the sensory level, we come into a gentler light, and eventually into a heavenly light: 6313, 6315, 9407. An actual raising into heaven's light occurs when we are engaged in intelligence: 3190. How much light I perceived when I was led out of my worldly concepts: 1526, 6608.

Since our mind does have light, we speak of it much as we do of our eyes—for example, that it sees and is in the light when it grasps something, and that it is in darkness and shadows when it does not; and there are many other similar sayings.

Since heaven's light is divine truth, that light is also divine wisdom and intelligence. Consequently “being raised into heaven's light” means the same thing as “being raised into intelligence and wisdom” and “being enlightened.” So too, light among angels is at exactly the same level as their intelligence and wisdom.

Since heaven's light is divine wisdom, people are recognized in heaven's light for what they really are. Everyone's inner nature shines forth from the face just as it is, with nothing whatever concealed. Further, the more internally minded angels love to have everything within them visible because they do not intend anything but what is good. It is different for people who are below heaven and do not intend what is good. They are profoundly afraid of being seen in heaven's light. Remarkably, people in hell look human to each other, but in heaven's light they look like monsters, with frightful faces and bodies, in the exact form of their evil.^g

We have a similar appearance as to our spirits when angels look at us. If we are good, we look like handsome individuals in accord with our goodness; if we are evil we look like monsters, misshapen in accord with our evil. We can see from this that everything is clear in heaven's light. It is clear because heaven's light is divine truth.

Since divine truth is the light in the heavens, all true things are luminous there wherever they occur—whether within an angel, outside of an angel, within the heavens, or outside of the heavens. Still, the truths outside the heavens do not shine the way the truths inside the heavens do. The truths outside the heavens shine coldly, like something snowy, without warmth, because unlike truths within the heavens, they do not derive their essence from what is good. So that cold light disappears at the touch of heaven's light; and if there is some underlying evil, it turns to darkness. I have seen this several times, along with many other remarkable things concerning luminous truths, which I forego for now.¹⁰⁷

Something now needs to be said about heaven's warmth. In its essence, heaven's warmth is love. It emanates from the Lord as the sun,

• g. People in the hells look human in their own light, which is like the light of glowing coals; but in heaven's light they look like monsters: 4532 [4531], 4533, 4674, 5057, 5058, 6605, 6626. which is divine love for the Lord and from the Lord, as has been explained in the preceding chapter. We can therefore see that heaven's warmth is just as spiritual as its light, because they come from the same source.^h

There are two things that emanate from the Lord as the sun, divine truth and divine good. Divine truth comes out in heaven as light and divine good as warmth. However, divine truth and divine good are so united that they are not two, but one. For angels, though, they are separated. There are angels who accept divine good more readily than divine truth, and there are angels who accept divine truth more readily than divine good. The ones who are more open to divine good are in the Lord's heavenly kingdom; the ones who are more open to divine truth are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. The most perfect angels are the ones who are equally open to both.

Heaven's warmth, like heaven's light, is different in different places. It has one nature in the heavenly kingdom and another in the spiritual kingdom. It also differs in each community, not only in intensity but in quality. It is more intense and pure in the Lord's heavenly kingdom because the angels there accept more divine good. It is less intense and pure in the Lord's spiritual kingdom because the angels there accept more divine truth. In each community, it varies depending on people's receptivity. There is also warmth in the hells, but it is unclean.ⁱ

The warmth in heaven is meant by sacred and heavenly fire, and the warmth of hell by profane fire and hellfire. Both refer to love: heavenly fire to love for the Lord and love for one's neighbor, and hellfire to love for oneself and love of the world and all the craving that is associated with these loves.^j

The fact that love is warmth of a spiritual origin can be seen from the way we grow warm in proportion to our love, even becoming inflamed and heated in proportion to its intensity and quality, with its full heat evident when we are attacked. This is why it is usual to talk about inflaming,

• h. There are two sources of warmth and also two sources of light, our world's sun and heaven's sun: 3338, 5215, 7324. Warmth from the Lord as the sun is affection, which is a matter of love: 3636, 3643. So in its essence, spiritual warmth is love: 2146, 3338, 3339, 6314.

• i. There is warmth in the hells, but it is unclean: 1773, 2757, 3340; and the smell that comes from there is like the smell of manure and excrement in our world—in the worst hells, like the smell of corpses: 814, 815 [819], 817 [820], 943, 944, 5394.

• j. [Swedenborg's note at this point refers the reader back to the second note in §118 above.] heating up, burning, boiling, and kindling when we are talking about either the affections of a good love or the cravings of an evil love.

The reason the love that emanates from the Lord as the sun is experienced as warmth in heaven is that the deeper levels of angels are involved in a love that comes from the divine good, which in turn comes from the Lord. Consequently, their more outward levels, which are warmed by this, are in warmth. This is why warmth and love are mutually responsive to each other in heaven, so that everyone is in the kind of warmth that accords with her or his love, as follows from what we have just been saying.

Our world's warmth does not enter heaven at all, because it is too crude, being natural and not spiritual. It is different for us, though, since we are in the spiritual world as well as in the natural world. As far as our spirits are concerned, we grow warm exactly according to our loves, but as far as our bodies are concerned, we respond to both—the warmth of our spirits and the warmth of the world. The former flows into the latter, because they correspond.

We can determine the nature of the correspondence of these two kinds of warmth by looking at animals, whose loves—the primary one being for the procreation of offspring of their own species—break forth and become active in response to the presence and touch of warmth from our world's sun, a warmth that comes primarily in spring and summertime.

People who believe that the inflow of our world's warmth arouses these loves are much mistaken. There is actually no inflow of what is natural into what is spiritual, but of what is spiritual into what is natural. This latter inflow is of the divine design, while the former would be contrary to the divine design.^k

Like people on earth, angels have discernment and volition. Heaven's light produces their cognitive life because heaven's light is divine truth and the divine wisdom that comes from it; while heaven's warmth produces their volitional life because heaven's warmth is the divine good and the divine love that comes from it. The quintessential life of angels is from the warmth, but not from the light except to the extent that there is warmth in it. We can see that life comes from the warmth because when the warmth is taken away life dies. It is the same for faith without love or

• k. There is a spiritual inflow and not a physical one, so the inflow is from the spiritual world into the natural and not from the natural into the spiritual: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9110 [9109], 9111 [9110].

for truth without goodness, since the truth that is attributed to faith is light and the goodness that is attributed to love is warmth.²

All this becomes even clearer from the warmth and light of our world, to which heaven's warmth and light correspond. From the warmth of our world, united to its light, all things on earth come to life and blossom. They are united in spring and summer. However, nothing comes to life or blooms from light separated from warmth—everything languishes and dies. They are disunited in winter, when the warmth is gone but the light remains. It is from this correspondence that heaven is called a paradise,¹⁰⁸ because there the true is united to the good, or faith to love, as light is united to warmth in springtime on earth.

This gives even clearer support to the truth discussed above in §§13-19, that the Lord's divine nature in heaven is love for him and thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor.

It says in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word: all things were made by means of him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind. He was in the world, and the world was made by means of him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glor y. (John 1:1, 3, 4, 10, 14)

It is clear that the Lord is the one who is meant by “the Word,” since it says that the Word was made flesh. Precisely what is meant by “the Word,” though, is not yet known and must therefore be stated. The Word in this passage is the divine truth that is in the Lord and from the Lord,^m so here it is also called the light, which is divine truth, as has been shown earlier in this chapter. Now we need to explain the statement that all things were made and created by means of divine truth.

• [2] In heaven, it is divine truth that possesses all power, and apart from it there is no power whatever.ⁿ All angels are called “powers” because of divine truth, and are powers to the extent that they are recipients or vessels of it. Through it they prevail over the hells and over all who oppose them. A thousand enemies there cannot bear one ray of heavenly light, which is divine truth. Since angels are angels because of their acceptance of divine truth, it follows that all heaven is from this source and no other, since heaven is made up of angels.

• [3] People cannot believe that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth if the only concept of truth they have has to do with thought or speech, which have no power in them except to the extent that other people concede it by being obedient. There is an intrinsic power within divine truth, though, power of such nature that by means of it heaven, the world, and everything in them was created.

We can illustrate the fact that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth by two comparisons—by the power of what is true and good in us, and by the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world.

By the power of what is true and good in us: Everything we do, we do out of our discernment and intent. Out of our intent, we act by means of what is good, and out of our discernment by means of what is true. In fact, all the elements of our volition are related to what is good, and all the elements of our discernment are related to what is true.^o On this basis, then, we set our whole body in motion and a thousand things there rush to do our bidding of their own accord. We can see from this that our whole body is formed for obedience to what is good and true and therefore from what is good and true.

• [4] By the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world: Everything that grows in our world—things like trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, fruits, and seeds—arises only by means of the warmth and light of the sun. So we can see what kind of productive power is inherent in that warmth and light. What about the divine light that is divine truth, then,

n. Divine truth emanating from the Lord is what possesses all power: 6948, 8200. All power in heaven belongs to the true from the good: 3091, 3563, 6344, 6413 [6423], 8304, 9643, 10019, 10182. Angels are called powers, and are powers as a result of their acceptance of divine truth from the Lord: 9639. Angels are recipients of divine truth from the Lord, and are therefore often called “gods” in the Word: 4295, 4402, 8301, 8192, 9398 [8988].

o. Discernment is the recipient of what is true, and volition is the recipient of what is good: 3623, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930. Therefore, all the elements of our discernment are related to what is true, whether these things are actually true or whether we believe them to be so; and all the elements of our volition are similarly related to what is good: 803, 10122.

and the divine warmth that is divine good, the source from which heaven comes into being and consequently the world as well, since as we have shown above, it is through heaven that the world comes into being?

This enables us to determine how to understand the statement that all things were made by means of the Word, and that without him nothing was made that was made, and further that the world was made by means of him, namely that this was accomplished by means of divine truth from the Lord.^p

This is also why in the book of creation it first mentions light and then the things that arise from light (Genesis 1:3, 4). It is also why everything in all heaven and earth has to do with what is good and true and to

their union if it is to be anything at all.^q

It should be realized that the divine good and divine truth that come from the Lord as the sun in the heavens are not in the Lord but are from him. All that is in the Lord is divine love, which is the reality from which divine good and truth become manifest. Becoming manifest from reality is what “emanating” means.¹¹⁰ This too can be illustrated by comparison with our world's sun. The warmth and light in our world are not in the sun but are from it. In the sun there is nothing but fire, and warmth and light become manifest and emanate from it.

Since the Lord as the sun is divine love, and divine love is the essen -tial divine good, the divine that emanates from him—his divine nature in heaven—is called divine truth for the sake of clarity, even though it is divine good united to divine truth. This divine truth is what is called “the holy” that emanates from him.

THERE are four quarters in heaven just as there are in the world— east, south, west, and north. These are determined in each world by its sun, in heaven by heaven's sun, which is the Lord, and on earth by

p. Divine truth emanating from the Lord is the only thing that is real: 6880, 7004, 8200. By means of divine truth all things were made and created: 2803, 2884, 5272, 7835 [7796].

q. [Swedenborg's note at this point refers the reader back to the note in §107 above.]

earth's sun. However, there are major differences. The first is that in our world we call “south” the direction in which the sun reaches its greatest height above the earth, and “north” where it is below the earth, in the opposite direction. East is where the sun rises at the equinoxes, and west is where it sets at that time. So on earth, all the directions are determined on the basis of the south.¹¹¹ In heaven, though, they call “east” where the Lord is seen as the sun. West is in the opposite direction, south in heaven on the right, and north on the left. This holds true wherever people turn their faces and their bodies. So in heaven, all the directions are determined on the basis of the east.

The reason they give the name “east” to the direction in which the Lord is seen as the sun is that the whole source of life is from him as the sun. Further, to the extent that warmth and light, or intelligence and wisdom from him, are accepted among angels, they say that the Lord has risen among them. This is also why the Lord is called the east in the _Word.^a,112

A second difference is that for angels, the east is always in front of them, the west behind them, south on the right, and north on the left. However, since this is hard to understand in this world, because we turn our faces in all different directions, it needs to be explained.

All heaven turns toward the Lord as its common center, so all angels turn in the same direction. It is recognized that everything points to a common center on earth as well, but the orientation in heaven is different from that on earth. In heaven, it is the forward parts that are turned toward the common center, while on earth it is the lower parts. This orientation in our world is what we call centripetal, and also gravitational. The deeper levels of angels are effectively turned forward; and since these deeper levels manifest themselves in the face, it is the face that determines the orientation.^b

But that east is always in front of angels no matter which way they turn their faces and bodies—this is even harder to understand in our world, since for us, the direction that is in front of us depends on which way we are facing; so this too needs to be explained.

Angels turn and direct their faces and bodies in any direction just as we do, but still, the east is always before their eyes. The way angels turn is

• a. The east in the highest sense is the Lord, because he is heaven's sun, which is always rising and never setting: 101, 5097, 9668.

• b. All the people in heaven turn toward the Lord: 9828, 10130, 10189, 10219. Still, angels do not turn themselves toward the Lord; rather, the Lord turns them toward himself: 10189. There is no presence of angels with the Lord, but there is a presence of the Lord with angels: 9415. not the way we turn, since it comes from a different origin. The two modes of turning look the same, but they are not. The origin [for angels] is a ruling love. It is the basis of all delimitation for angels and spirits; for, as noted just above, their deeper levels are actually turned toward their common center. So in heaven they are turned toward the Lord as the sun; and since love is constantly in front of their deeper levels, and their faces are manifestations of these levels (being their outward form), the love that is predominant is always in front of their faces. In heaven, then, this is the Lord as the sun, since he is the source of all their love.^c Further, since the Lord himself is in his love among the angels, it is the Lord who causes them to be looking at him wherever they turn. These matters cannot be further clarified here, but they will be in subsequent chapters. In particular, where we deal with representations and appearances and with time and space in heaven, they will be presented to understanding more plainly.¹¹³

As for angels having the Lord constantly in front of them, this I have been granted to know through a great deal of experience. Sometimes when I have been in the company of angels, I have noticed the Lord's presence before my own face: even though I did not see him, I could tell he was there because of the light. Angels have often borne witness to the truth of this as well.

Since the Lord is constantly in front of angels, we say in our world that they have God before their eyes and faces, that people who believe in him and love him look to him and see him. Expressions like this come to us from the spiritual world, for this is the source of many of our expressions, though we are unaware that they come from there.

This kind of turning toward the Lord is one of heaven's wonders, for many individuals can be together in one place, turning faces and bodies toward each other, and yet all of them will have the Lord in front of them, and each will have the south on the right, the north on the left, and the west behind.

Another extraordinary fact is that even though angels are completely oriented toward the east, they still have an orientation to the other three directions. This orientation, though, involves their more inward sight, which is a function of their thinking.

• c. All the people in the spiritual world turn toward what they love, and the directions there have their source and definition on the basis of the face: 10130, 10189, 10420, 10702. The face is formed to correspond to the deeper levels: 4791-4805, 5695. So the deeper levels shine forth from the face: 3527, 4066, 4796. For angels, the face is united to the deeper levels: 4796, 4797, 4799, 5695, 8250. On the inflow of the deeper levels into the face and its muscles: 3631, 4800.

A further extraordinary fact is that in heaven, no one is allowed to stand behind anyone else and look at the back of his or her head. This disturbs the inflow of what is good and true from the Lord.

Angels see the Lord in one way, and the Lord sees angels in another. Angels see the Lord with their eyes, while the Lord sees angels through their foreheads. The reason for this is that the forehead corresponds to love, and it is through love that the Lord flows into their volition and makes himself visible to their minds, to which the eyes correspond.^d

However, the regions in the heavens that make up the Lord's heavenly kingdom differ from those in the heavens that make up the Lord's spiritual kingdom. This is because to the angels in his heavenly kingdom the Lord looks like a sun, while to the angels in his spiritual kingdom he looks like a moon, and the east is where the Lord is seen.

The distance between the sun and the moon is thirty degrees,¹¹⁴ and the same alignment therefore holds true for the directions. The division of heaven into two kingdoms called the heavenly kingdom and the spiritual kingdom has been presented in its own chapter above (§§ 20—28), as has the Lord's looking like the sun in the heavenly kingdom and like the moon in the spiritual kingdom (§118). Still, the directions are not rendered uncertain by this, since spiritual angels cannot rise up to the level of heavenly angels, nor the latter come down to the former (see §35 above).

We can see from this what the Lord's presence is like in the heavens: it is everywhere, with every individual in the good and true qualities that emanate from the Lord. So he is in angels in what is actually his own (as noted in §12 above).

Their sense of the Lord's presence is in their deeper reaches. It is from these that their eyes see, so he seems to be outside them because there is a continuum. This enables us to see how we should understand the Lord's being in them and their being in the Lord, according to the Lord's words,

Abide in me, and I in you (John 15:4),

and

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. ( John 6:56)

• d. The forehead corresponds to heavenly love, so in the Word the forehead refers to that love: 9936. The eye corresponds to our discernment, because discernment is inner sight: 2701, 4410, 4526, 9051, 10569. So to lift one's eyes and see means to discern, to perceive, and to notice: 2789, 2829, 3198, 3202, 4083, 4086, 4339, 5684.

“The Lord's flesh” means what is divine and good, and his “blood” means what is divine and true.^e

All the people in the heavens live in different areas according to the cardinal directions. People who are sensitive to the good that love does live along the east-west axis: the ones who have a clear perception of this, toward the east; and the ones who have a vague perception of it, toward the west. People who are sensitive to the issues of wisdom that result [from that good] live along the south-north axis: the ones in a clear light of wisdom, toward the south; and the ones in a dim light of wisdom, toward the north.

The dwelling arrangement for angels in the Lord's spiritual kingdom is like that of the ones in his heavenly kingdom, with a difference that depends on the good that love does and the light of truth that comes from the good. This is because the love in the heavenly kingdom is a love for the Lord, and the light of truth from that love is wisdom. On the other hand, the love in the spiritual kingdom is the love for our neighbor that is called thoughtfulness, and the light of truth that comes from it is intelligence, also called faith (see above, § 23). They also differ according to the directions, since as just noted (§146), the directions in the two kingdoms are thirty degrees apart.

There is a similar dwelling arrangement for the angels in each particular community of heaven. The ones who are engaged in a greater degree of love and thoughtfulness are toward the east, and the ones in less toward the west; the ones who are in greater light of wisdom are toward the south, and the ones in less toward the north. The reason for this arrangement is that each community is a reflection of heaven and is a heaven in lesser form as well (see above, §§51—58). The same thing happens in meetings. They are brought into this arrangement by the form of heaven, which enables every individual to know his or her place.

It is also provided by the Lord that there shall be all kinds of people in each community, because heaven has a consistent form throughout. Still, the arrangement of heaven as a whole does differ from that of a community as a general entity differs from its details. That is, the communities that are located toward the east are superior to those toward the west, and those toward the south are superior to those toward the north.

• e. In the Word, the Lord's “flesh” means his divine human and the divine good of his love: 3813, 7850, 9127, 10283; and “the Lord's blood” means divine truth and the holiness of faith: 4735, 4978 [6978], 7317, 7326, 7846, 7850, 7877, 9127, 9393, 10026, 10033, 10152, 10204 [10210].

This is why the cardinal directions in heaven mean the qualities of the people who live there. The east means love and its good clearly perceived, the west the same dimly perceived, the south wisdom and intelligence in clear light, and the north the same in dim light. Further, since the directions have these meanings, they mean similar things in the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word,^f since the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word is in complete accord with the way things are in heaven.

The opposite holds for the people who are in the hells. The people there do not focus on the Lord as the sun or the moon, but look away from the Lord toward that dark object that occupies the place of our world's sun and the gloomy object that occupies the place of earth's moon. The ones called demons look toward the dark object in our sun's place, and the ones called spirits toward the gloomy object in our moon's place.^g As explained in §122 above, the sun of our world and earth's moon are not visible in the spiritual world, but in place of our sun there is something dark opposite heaven's sun and something gloomy opposite heaven's moon. This means that hell's inhabitants have directions opposite to those of heaven. Their east is where they see that dark or gloomy object and their west is where heaven's sun is. Their south is to their right and their north to their left, no matter which way they turn their bodies. Nothing else is possible for them, because the whole tendency of their deeper natures, their whole orientation therefore, aims and strives in this direction. On the fact that love is what determines the tendency of our deeper natures and therefore the orientation of everyone's actions in the other life, see §143. The love of people in the hells is a love for oneself and for the world, these loves being what is meant by the sun of this world and earth's moon (see §122). Further, these loves are opposite to love for the Lord and love for one's neigh-bor.^h This is why they turn toward the darkness, away from the Lord.

The people who are in the hells also live arranged according to the cardinal directions. The ones who are obsessed with evils that arise from love for themselves are along the east-west axis, and the ones who are

• f. The east in the Word means love clearly perceived: 1250, 3708. The west means love dimly perceived: 3708 , 9653. The south means a state of light of wisdom and intelligence: 1458, 3708, 5672; and the north means that state dimly perceived: 3708.

• g. The identity and nature of the people called demons, and the identity and nature of the ones called spirits: 947, 5035, 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625.

• h. People who are absorbed in love for themselves and for the world turn away from the Lord: 10130, 10189, 10420, 10702. Love for the Lord and thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor make heaven, and love for oneself and for the world make hell, because they are opposites: 2041, 3610, 4225, 4776, 6210, 7366, 7369, 7490, 8232, 8678, 10455, 10741-10745.

obsessed with falsifications for the sake of evil are along the south-north axis. There will be more about them later, though, where we discuss the hells.¹¹⁵

When an evil spirit comes into the company of good ones, it usually results in such a confusion of directions that the good spirits hardly know where their east is. This is an event I have often noticed, and I have heard about it from spirits who complained about it.

Evil spirits sometimes seem to be oriented to heaven's directions, at which time they have intelligence and a grasp of what is true, but no affection for what is good; so as soon as they turn back toward their own directions, they are without intelligence or any grasp of what is true. They then say that the true things they had heard and understood are not true but false, and even want false things to be true. I have been told about this kind of turning, specifically that for evil people the intellectual faculty can be turned in this way, but not the vo lun ta ry faculty. I h ave also been told that this is provided by the Lord to the end that everyone may have the ability to see and acknowledge what is true, but that no one will accept it except people who are focused on what is good, since the good—never the evil—is what accepts truths. Furt h e r, it is similar with us, so that we can be corrected by means of trut h s, though the extent to which we are corrected depends on our focus on what is good. This is why we can be turned tow ard the Lord in much the same way. Howe ver, if we are engaged in evil in the conduct of our lives, we immediately turn back again and justify within ourselves the false rationalizations of our evil over against the truths that we have understood and seen. This happens when we think within ourselves, on the basis of our deeper inclinations.

BY “the changes of angels' states,” we mean their changes in regard to love and faith and therefore in regard to wisdom and intelligence— to the state of their life, that is. States are attributes of life and of matters

that pertain to life; and since angelic life is a life of love and faith and thereby of wisdom and intelligence, states are attributes of these, and we talk about states of love and faith and states of wisdom and intelligence. Now we need to describe how these states change for angels.

Angels are not constantly in the same state as to love, and consequently they are not in the same state as to wisdom, for all the wisdom they have is from their love and in proportion to it. Sometimes they are in a state of intense love, sometimes in a state of love that is not intense. It decreases gradually from its most to its least intense. When they are in the highest level of love, they are in the light and warmth of their lives, or in their greatest clarity and delight. Conversely, when they are in the lowest level they are in shadow and coolness, or in what is dim and unpleasant. From this latter state they return to the first, and so on. The phases follow each other with constant variety.

These states follow each other like variations of light and shade, warmth and cold, or like the morning, noon, evening, and night of individual days in our world, varying constantly throughout the year. Not only that, they correspond—morning to the state of their love in clarity, noon to the state of their wisdom in clarity, evening to the state of their wisdom in dimness, and night to a state of no love or wisdom. It should be known, though, that there is no correspondence of night with the states of life of people in heaven, but rather a correspondence of the halflight that comes before dawn. The correspondence of night is with people who are in hell.^a

Because of this correspondence, “day” and “year” in the Word mean states of life in general, warmth and light mean love and wisdom, morning the first and highest level of love, noon wisdom in its light, evening wisdom in its shade, and the half-light the dimness that comes just before the morning. Night, though, means the loss of love and wisdom.^b

As the states of the inner levels of angels' love and wisdom change, so too do the states of the various things that surround them and are visible to their eyes; for the things that surround angels are given their appearance

• a. In heaven, there is no state that corresponds to night, but to the half-light that comes before dawn: 6110. The half-light means the state halfway between the last and the first: 10134.

• b. The alternations of state as to enlightenment and perception are structured in heaven the way the times of day are in the world: 5672, 5962, 6310 [6110], 8426, 9213, 10605. Days and years in the Word mean all states in general: 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 4850, 10656. Morning means the beginning of a new state, and a state of love: 7216 [7218], 8426, 8427, 10114, 10134. Evening means a state when light and love are vanishing: 10134, 10135. Night means a state without love or faith: 221, 709, 2353, 6000, 6110, 7870, 7947.

according to the things that are within them. We will describe what these are and what they are like in later chapters, where we discuss representations and appearances in heaven.¹¹⁶

Each individual angel undergoes and passes through changes of state like this, and so too does each community collectively. Still, one individual does so differently from another because people vary in love and wisdom. There are people in the middle, in a more perfect state than those who are around them all the way to the borders (see above, §§23 [43] and 128). But it would take too long to recount the differences, since the quality of love and faith determines how each individual undergoes the changes. Consequently, one may be in clarity and delight when another is in dimness and discomfort, even at the same time, within the same community. It happens differently in one community than in another, too, and in communities of the heavenly kingdom differently than in communities of the spiritual kingdom.

Broadly speaking, the differences in their changes of state are like the variations of states of days in one climate and another on earth. There it is morning for some people while it is evening for others, and some have warmth while others are cold, and vice versa.

I have been told from heaven why changes of state like this occur. Angels have said that there are many reasons. First, the delight of life and of heaven that angels enjoy because of the love and wisdom given them by the Lord would gradually pall if they were constantly engaged in it, the way it happens for people who are involved in pleasures and enjoyments without variety. A second reason is that angels have a sense of self or self-image ¹¹⁷ just as we do, and this involves loving themselves. All the people in heaven are kept free of their sense of self, and to the extent that the Lord does keep them free, they enjoy love and wisdom. To the extent that they are not kept free, however, they are caught up in love for themselves; and since all of them do love that sense of self and carry it with them,^c these changes of state or successive alternations do occur. A third reason is that they are made more perfect in this way, since they become accustomed to being kept in love for the Lord and kept free from love for themselves. Further, by these alternations of delight and discomfort,

• c. Our self-image is loving ourselves: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. This self-image must be detached from us in order for the Lord to be present: 1023, 1044. It is actually detached when we are being kept in what is good by the Lord: 9334, 9335, 9336, 9445 [9447], 9452, 9453, 9454, 9938. their perception of and sensitivity to what is good become more and more delicate.^d

They have gone on to say that the Lord does not produce these changes of their states, since the Lord as the sun is always flowing in with warmth and light, that is, with love and wisdom. Rather, they themselves are the cause, since they love their sense of self and this is constantly misleading them. They illustrate this by comparison with our world's sun, which is not the cause of the changes of warmth and cold and of light and darkness, of distinct years and distinct days, because it stays motionless. The reason can be traced to our earth.

I have been shown how the Lord as the sun looks to angels in the heavenly kingdom in their first state, in their second state, and in their third. I saw the Lord as the sun, at first reddish and gleaming, so brilliant as to be beyond description. I was told that the Lord as the sun looks like this to angels in their first state. Later I saw a great, dim halo around the sun, because of which the reddish, gleaming quality that made the sun so brilliant began to dim. I was told that the sun looks like this to them in their second state. Then I saw the halo become darker so that the sun seemed less ruddy, step by step, until finally it looked quite pale. I was told that the sun looks like this to them in their third state. After this, I saw that pale [disk] move to the left toward heaven's moon and add its light to the light of the moon so that the moon shone exceptionally brightly. I was told that this was the fourth state of people in the heavenly kingdom and the first state of people in the spiritual kingdom. I was also told that the changes of state in each kingdom proceed alternately, not throughout, but in one community after another. I was also told that these alternations are not fixed, but happen more or less swiftly without people being aware of it.

Angels went on to say that the sun in and of itself neither changes nor moves, but that things look the way they do because of the ongoing progressions of state in themselves, since the Lord appears to each individual in keeping with that individual's state—reddish to people when they are in an intense love, less ruddy and ultimately pale as their love wanes. The quality of their state is pictured by the dim halo that imposes the apparent changes of flame and light on the sun.

• d. Angels are being made more perfect to eternity: 4803, 6648. In heaven, there is never any state exactly like any other, which results in a perpetual process of perfecting: 10200.

When angels are in this last state, which is when they are involved in their sense of self, they begin to feel depressed. I have talked with them when they were in this state and witnessed their depression.¹¹⁸ They kept saying, though, that they lived in hope that they would soon return to their earlier state and be in heaven again, so to speak, since heaven for them is being kept free from their sense of self.

There are also changes of state in the hells, but these will be described later, when I deal with hell.¹¹⁹

EVEN though things keep happening in sequence and progressing in heaven the way they do in the world, still angels have no notion or concept of time and space. The lack is so complete that they simply do not know what time and space are. Here we will discuss time in heaven, leaving space to be discussed in its own chapter.¹²⁰

The reason angels do not know what time is (even though everything for them moves along in sequence just the way it does in our world, so much so that there is no difference) is that in heaven there are no years or days, but only changes of state. Where there are years and days there are times, and where there are changes of state, there are states.

The reason we have times in our world is that the sun seems to move sequentially from one zone to another and to make the times we call the seasons of the year. It also moves around the earth and makes the times we call times of day, and it does these by fixed periods.

Itis different for heaven's sun. It does not make years and days by sequential motions and rotations, but makes apparent changes of state; and it does not make these by fixed periods, as explained in the preceding chapter. This is why angels are incapable of having any concept of time, but have a concept of state instead. What “state” is may be seen above in §154.

Since angels have no concept derived from time, as we in our world do, they have no concept of time or of the things that depend on time.

They do not even know what all these temporal things are, like a year, a month, a week, a day, an hour, today, tomorrow, or yesterday. When angels hear these expressions from one of us (angels are always kept in contact with us by the Lord), they perceive states instead, and things that have to do with state. So our natural concept is changed into a spiritual concept with the angels. This is why expressions of time in the Word mean states, and why things proper to time like the ones listed above mean the spiritual things that correspond to them.^a

It is much the same for all the things that occur as a result of time, such as the four seasons of the year called spring, summer, autumn, and winter; the four times of day called morning, noon, evening, and night; our own four ages called infancy, youth, maturity, and old age; and with the other things that either occur as a result of time or happen in temporal sequence. When we think about them, it is from a temporal standpoint; but an angel thinks about them from the standpoint of state. Consequently, anything in them that is temporal for us changes into an idea of state for the angel. Spring and morning change into an idea of love and wisdom the way they are for angels in their first state; summer and noon change into an idea of love and wisdom as they are in the second state; autumn and evening, as they are in the third state; and night and winter into a concept of the kind of state that is characteristic in hell. This is why similar things are meant by these times in the Word (see above, §155). We can see from this how the natural concepts that occur in our thought become spiritual for the angels who are with us.

Since angels have no notion of time, they have a different concept of eternity than we earthly people do. By “eternity,” angels perceive an infinite state, not an infinite time.^b

I was thinking about eternity once, and using a concept of time I could grasp what “to eternity” entailed—namely, without end—but not what “from eternity” entailed and therefore not what God did before

• a. Expressions of time in the Word mean states: 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 4816 [4814], 4901, 4916, 7218, 8070, 10133, 10605. Angels do their thinking without any concept of time or space: 3404. The reasons for this: 1274, 1382, 3356, 4882, 4901, 6110, 7218, 7381. What a “year” means in the Word: 487, 488, 493, 893, 2906, 7828 , 10209. What a “month” means: 3814. What a “week” means: 2044, 3845. What a “day” means: 23, 487, 488, 6110, 7430 [7443], 8426, 9213, 10062 [10132], 10605. What “today” means: 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984, 9939. What “tomorrow” means: 3998, 10497. What “yesterday” means: 6983, 7124 [7114], 7140.

• b. We have a concept of eternity that includes time, while angels have one without time: 1382, 3404, 8325.

creation, from eternity. As my anxiety mounted because of this, I was raised into the sphere of heaven and therefore into the perception of eternity shared by angels. This shed light for me on the fact that we ought not to think about eternity in temporal terms but in terms of state, and that when we do, we can grasp what “from eternity” entails, which was actually done for me.

The angels who talk with us never use the natural concepts that are proper to us, all of which derive from time, space, matter, and the like. They use spiritual concepts, all of which derive from states and their various changes in and around angels. However, when the angelic concepts, which are spiritual, flow into us, they change instantly and spontaneously into those natural concepts proper to us which exactly correspond to the spiritual ones. Neither the angels nor we are aware of this; but still, this is how all inflow of heaven occurs for us.

There were some angels who were let very intimately into my thoughts, all the way into natural ones that contained a mass of material from time and space. However, since at that point they could not understand anything at all, they promptly withdrew; and after they had withdrawn I heard them talking, saying that they had been in darkness.

[2] I have been allowed to know from experience what angels' ignorance of time is like. There was a particular individual from heaven whose nature did allow him to be let into natural concepts such as we have. I talked with him afterward, person to person, and at first he did not know what it was that I was calling “time.” So I actually had to tell him how the sun seems to travel around our earth and make years and days, and that as a result, years are divided into four seasons and into months and weeks, and days into twenty-four hours, and that these times recur at fixed intervals. This gives rise to our expressions for time. He was astonished when he heard this, and said that he had not known that kind of thing, but only what states were.

[3] In the course of our conversation I mentioned that it was known in our world that there is no time in heaven. We do actually talk as though we knew, since when people die, we say that they have left temporal things and have passed beyond time, meaning that they have left our world. I also said that it is known by some that times are states in origin because they recognize that times are experienced in precise accord with the states of affection we are caught up in. They are short for us when we are engaged in pleasant and cheerful pursuits and long when we are engaged in distasteful and depressing ones, and variable when we are in hope or expectation. As a result, scholars are asking what time and space are, and some of them even recognize that time is an attribute of the natural person.

A natural person may believe that we would have no thought if concepts of time, space, and matter were taken away from us, that all our thought is based on these foundations.^c Let such people know, though, that thoughts are limited and constrained to the extent that they derive from time, space, and matter, and that they are freed and expanded to the extent that they do not derive from such things, because to that same extent the mind is raised above bodily and worldly considerations. This is the source of angels' wisdom, which is so great that we must call it incomprehensible, since it does not fit into ideas that are formed merely from these [lower] concerns.

A NYONE who thinks solely from natural light cannot understand that anything in heaven is like anything in our world. This is because such people, on the basis of this light, have both thought and decided that angels are nothing but minds, and that minds are like ethereal breath. This would mean that angels did not have the senses we do, so they would not have eyes; and if they did not have eyes there would be no objects [of sight]. However, angels do have all the senses we do—far more delicate ones, in fact—and the light in which they see is far brighter than the light in which we see.

On angels being people in a most perfect form with the use of all their senses, see §§73-77 above; and on light in heaven being far brighter than the light in our world, see §§126-132.

There is no way to describe briefly how things look to angels in the heavens. To a considerable extent, they look like the things we see on earth, but they are more perfect in form and also more abundant.

• c. Unlike angels, we do not think without some concept of time: 3404.

We may conclude that there are things like this in the heavens because of what the prophets saw—for example what Ezekiel saw of the new temple and the new earth as described in chapters 40 to 48 [of his book], what Daniel describes in his chapters 7-12, what John saw as described from the first through the last chapter of Revelation, along with other visions presented in both the historical and the prophetic books of the Word.¹²¹ They saw things like this when heaven was opened to them, and heaven is said to be opened when our inner sight, the sight of our spirit, is opened. For the things that exist in heaven cannot be seen with our physical eyes, but only with the eyes of our spirit; and when it pleases the Lord, these are opened. At such times we are led out of the natural light that our physical senses are in and raised into the spiritual light in which we dwell because of our spirit. This is the light in which I have seen the things that exist in the heavens.

But even though the things that are seen in the heavens are largely similar to things on earth, they are not alike in essence. The things that exist in the heavens come from heaven's sun, while earthly things come from our world's sun. Things that arise from heaven's sun are called spiritual, while things that arise from our world's sun are called natural.

Things that arise in the heavens do not arise in the same way as things on earth. In the heavens, everything comes into being from the Lord in response to the deeper natures of the angels. Angels do in fact have more inward and more outward natures. Everything that is deeper within them has to do with love and faith, and therefore with their intending and discernment, since their intending and discernment are the vehicles of their love and faith. Their more outward natures, though, are perfectly responsive to their inner natures (on the responsiveness of their outward natures to their more inward ones, see §§87-115 above). This can be illustrated by what we have said above about heaven's warmth and light, that angels have warmth in keeping with the quality of their love, and light in keeping with the quality of their wisdom (see §§128-134). The same holds true for the other things that impinge on angels' senses.

When I have been allowed to be in the company of angels, I have seen what was there exactly the way I see things in our world, so perceptibly that I did not know I was not in our world and in the court of some king here. I have also talked with angels just as one person here talks to another.

Since all the things that are responsive to angels' deeper natures also portray them, they are called representations. Since they vary depending on the states of the deeper natures for angels, they are called appearances,

even though the things that are visible to angels' eyes in the heavens and are perceived by their other senses appear and are sensed just as vividly as things are for us on earth, in fact far more clearly, crisply, and perceptibly. The appearances that arise in heaven in this way are called real appear ances because they do actually come into being. There are also unreal appearances, things that seem to be present but do not correspond to deeper realities.^a But more on this later.¹²²

By way of illustration, I should like to offer one instance of the way things look to angels because of correspondences. To angels who are focused on intelligence there appear gardens and parks full of all kinds of trees and flowers. The trees there are laid out in the loveliest designs, joined into vaulted arches offering spaces for entrance, and with promenades around them. All this is so beautiful as to defy description. People who are focused on intelligence stroll there picking the flowers and weaving garlands to grace babies with. There are kinds of tree and flower there never seen, not even possible, in our world. In the trees, too, there are fruits in keeping with the quality of the love these intelligent angels are absorbed in. They see such things because a garden and a park, and the fruit trees and flowers, correspond to intelligence and wisdom.^b

It is known on earth that things like this exist in the heavens, but it is known only to people who are engaged in what is good and who have not extinguished heaven's light within themselves by natural light and its deceptiveness. When the subject is heaven, people actually think and say that things are there that ear has never heard, nor eye seen.¹²³

• a. All the things that are visible to angels are representations: 1971, 3213-3226, 3457 [3342], 3475, 3485, 9481, 9574 [9457], 9576, 9577. The heavens are full of representations: 1521, 1532, 1619. The representations are lovelier as one moves more deeply into the heavens: 3475. The representations there are real appearances because they come from heaven's light: 3485. The divine inflow is changed into representations in the higher heavens, and consequently in the lower heavens as well: 2179, 3213, 9457, 9481, 9576, 9577. Things are called representations that appear to angels' eyes in forms like those in nature and therefore like things in our world: 9574[9457].Inner things change into outer ones in this way: 1632, 2987-3002. The nature of representations in heaven, illustrated by various examples: 1521, 1532, 1619-1628, 1807, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 2761, 2762, 3217, 3219, 3220, 3348, 3350, 5198, 9090, 10278 [10276]. All the things that are visible in the heavens are in accord with correspondences and are called representations: 3213-3226, 3457 [3342], 3475, 3485, 9481, 9574 [9457], 9576, 9577. All the things that are responsive also portray and also mean what they respond to: 2890 [2896], 2987, 2971 [2991], 2989, 2990, 3002, 3225.

• b. “Garden” and “park” mean intelligence and wisdom: 100, 108, 3220. The meaning of the garden of [literally, “from”] Eden and the garden of Jehovah: 99, 100, 1588. How magnificent the paradisal things in the other life are: 1122, 1622, 2296, 4528, 4529. Trees mean the perceptions and insights that give rise to wisdom and intelligence: 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 7692. Fruits mean the good that love and thoughtfulness do: 3146, 7690, 9337.

SINCE angels are people and live together the way people on earth do, they have clothes and homes and a great many other things: the difference, however, being that everything is more perfect for them because they are in a more perfect state. For just as angelic wisdom surpasses our wisdom so greatly as to be inexpressible, so too does everything that comes to their perception and sight, since everything perceived by and apparent to angels corresponds to their wisdom (see above, §173).

Like everything else, the clothes angels wear correspond, and since they do correspond they truly exist (see above, §175). Their clothes reflect their intelligence, so all the people in heaven are dressed according to their intelligence; and since one will surpass another in intelligence (see §§43 and 128), one will have better quality clothing than another. The most intelligent wear clothes that gleam as though aflame, some radiant as though alight. The less intelligent wear pure white and soft white clothes that do not shine, and those still less intelligent wear clothes of various colors. The angels of the inmost heaven, though, are naked.

Because angels' clothes correspond to their intelligence they also cor respond to what is true, since all intelligence comes from divine truth. So it amounts to the same thing whether you say that angels are dressed according to their intelligence or according to divine truth. The reason the garments of some angels gleam as though aflame, while the garments of others shine as though alight, is that flame corresponds to what is good, and light to what is true because of that good.^a The rea so n some garments are pure white and soft white and do not shine, while others are of various colors, is that divine good and truth are less dazzling and are also differently accepted among less intelligent people.^b

a. Garments in the Word mean truths by reason of correspondence: 1073, 2576, 5319, 5954, 9212, 9216, 9952, 10536; because truths clothe what is good: 5248. A veil means something of intellect, since discernment is the vessel of what is true: 6378. White garments of linen mean truths from the Divine: 5319, 9469. Flame means spiritual good, and the light from it means truth from that good: 3222, 6832.

b. Angels and spirits are seen wearing clothes that accord with their truths and therefore with their intelligence: 165, 5248, 5954, 9212, 9216, 9814, 9952, 10536. Some garments of angels are radiant, and some are not: 5248.

Pure white and soft white correspond to what is true,^c and colors correspond to different shadings of tru th.^d The reason angels in the inmost heaven are naked is that they are in innocence, and innocence corresponds to nudity.^e

Since angels wear clothes in heaven, they have appeared clothed when they were seen in our world, like the ones seen by the prophets and the ones by the Lord's tomb, whose “appearance was like lightning and whose clothes were gleaming and white” (Matthew 28:3; Mark 16:5; Luke 22:4 [24:4]; John 20:11, 13 [20:12] ) and the ones seen in heaven by John whose “garments were of linen and white” (Revelation 4:4; 19:11, 13). And since intelligence comes from divine truth, the Lord's garments, when he was transfigured, were “gleaming and white as light” (Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29: on light as divine truth emanating from the Lord, see §129 above). This is why garments in the Word mean things true and the intelligence that results from them, as in John:¹²⁴ “Those who have not defiled their garments will walk with me in white, because they are worthy; whoever overcomes will be clothed with white garments” (Revelation 3:4, 5); and “Blessed are those who are watchful and take care of their garments” (Revelation 16:15).

Concerning Jerusalem, meaning the church as it is focused on what is true,^f it says in Isaiah, “Rise up, put on your strength, O Zion; put on the garments of your beauty, O Jerusalem” (Isaiah 52:1); and in Ezekiel, “O Jerusalem, I have clothed you with linen, I have veiled you with silk, your garments are linen and silk” (Ezekiel 16:10, 13); and many other passages.

In contrast, someone who is not engaged with truths is said not to be wearing a wedding garment, as in Matthew: “When the king came in, he saw the one not wearing a wedding garment and said, ‘Friend, how have you come in here without a wedding garment?' So that one was cast

• c. Pure white and soft white in the Word mean what is true, because they come from light in heaven: 3301, 3993, 4001 [4007].

• d. Colors in heaven are variegations of the light there: 1042, 1043, 1053, 1624, 3993, 4530, 4742, 4922. Colors mean various things that are matters of intelligence and wisdom: 4530, 4922, 4677, 9466. The precious stones in the Urim and Thummim, depending on their colors, meant all the truths in the heavens that stem from what is good: 9865, 9868, 9905. To the extent that colors are derived from red, they mean what is good; while to the extent that they are derived from white, they mean what is true: 9476.

• e. All the people in the inmost heaven are innocent, and therefore seem to be naked: 154, 165, 297, 2736, 3887, 8375, 9960. Innocence is manifested in heaven as nudity: 165, 8375, 9960. For innocent and chaste people, nudity is not a matter of shame because there is no occasion for offense: 165, 213, 8375.

• f. Jerusalem means the church where there is genuine doctrine: 402, 3654, 9166.

out into the outer darkness” (Matthew 22:12-13 [11—13]). The wedding house means heaven and the church by virtue of the Lord's union with them through his divine truth. This is why in the Word the Lord is called the Bridegroom and Husband, and heaven and the church the bride and wife.

We can tell that angels' clothes do not merely look like clothes but really are because they not only see them, they feel them as well. Further, they have many garments that they take off and put on, and they put away the ones they are not using and put back on the ones they are. I have seen thousands of times that they wear different clothes.

I have asked them where they got their clothes, and they have told me that their clothes come from the Lord and are given to them, and that sometimes they are clothed without noticing it. They have also said that their clothes change depending on the changes of their state, that their clothes are radiant and gleaming white in their first and second state, while in the third and fourth states they are somewhat dimmer. This too is because of correspondences, because these changes of state have to do with their intelligence and wisdom, discussed above in §§154-161.

For everyone in the spiritual world, clothing depends on intelligence and therefore on the truths that constitute intelligence. Although people in the hells do seem to be clothed, because they lack truths their clothes are nothing but rags, dirty and foul, each individual in keeping with his or her own insanity. They cannot be clothed in any other way, either. The Lord allows them to wear clothes so that they will not appear naked.

SINCE there are communities in heaven, with people living there the way we do, they too have homes; and these vary depending on the state of the life of each individual. They are splendid for people who are especially deserving and less splendid for people who are of lower rank.

At times, I have talked with angels about homes in heaven, telling them that nowadays hardly anyone would believe that they have homes

and houses—some because they do not see them, some because they do not realize that angels are people, some because they believe that the angelic heaven is the sky they see about them with their eyes. Since this appears to be empty and they think that angels are ethereal forms, they come to the conclusion that angels live in the ether. Further, they do not grasp the fact that the same kinds of thing exist in the spiritual world as in the natural, because they know nothing about the spiritual.

• [2] Angels have told me that they were aware that this kind of ignorance was prevalent in the world nowadays and, remarkably enough, mainly within the church, and more among the intellectuals there than among the ones labeled simple. They have also said that people could know from the Word that angels are people because the ones that have been seen have been seen as people. So too was the Lord, who took on his full humanity. People could then realize that since angels are people, they have houses and homes and do not fly around in the air,¹²⁵ that even though they are called “spirits” they are not breezes, as the ignorance (which angels call insanity) of some would have it. They could also grasp this if when they thought about angels and spirits they would step outside their preconceptions, which happens when they are not constantly questioning and consciously pondering whether this is so. Everyone actually has a general notion that angels are in human form and that they have homes that are called heavenly dwellings, which are more splendid than earthly houses. But this general notion (which comes from an inflow from heaven), the angels said, promptly collapses into nothing when it becomes the center of conscious attention and is faced with the question whether it is so. This happens particularly among scholars who have used their self-generated intelligence to shut off from themselves both heaven and the passage of light from it.¹²⁶

• [3] Much the same happens in regard to faith in our life after death. People who talk about it without thinking at the same time from scholarly concepts of the soul or the doctrine of reunion with our physical bodies believe that after death we will live as people—among angels if we have lived well—and that then we will see magnificent sights and experience raptures. But the moment they focus on the doctrine of reunion with our bodies or some hypothesis about “the soul,” and therefore begin to wonder whether the soul is really like this, whether it is all true, their former notion vanishes.

But it would be better to present some experiential evidence at this point. Whenever I have talked with angels face to face, I have been with them in their houses. Their houses were just like the houses on earth that

we call homes, but more beautiful. They have chambers, suites, and bedrooms in abundance, and courtyards with gardens, flower beds, and lawns around them. Where there is some concentration of people, the houses are adjoining, one near another, arranged in the form of a city with streets and lanes and public squares, just like the ones we see in cities on our earth. I have been allowed to stroll along them and look around wherever I wished, at times entering people's homes. This has happened when I was fully awake, with my inner sight opened.^a

I have seen palaces in heaven that were so splendid as to be beyond description. Their upper stories shone as though they were made of pure gold, and their lower ones as though they were made of precious gems. Each palace seemed more splendid than the last. It was the same inside. The rooms were graced with such lovely adornments that neither words nor the arts and sciences are adequate to describe them. On the side that faced south there were parklands where everything sparkled in the same way, here and there the leaves like silver and the fruits like gold, with the flowers in their beds making virtual rainbows with their colors. On the horizon of sight there were other palaces that framed the scene. The architecture of heaven is like this, so that you might call it the very essence of the art—and small wonder, since the art itself does come to us from heaven.

Angels tell me that things like this and countless others even more perfect are presented to their view by the Lord; but that such sights actually delight their minds more than their eyes because they see correspondences in the details, and through their correspondences they see things divine.

On this matter of correspondences, I have also been told that not only the palaces and the homes but all the little things within and outside them correspond to the deeper qualities that they receive from the Lord. In general terms, their houses correspond to the good that occupies them and the items within their houses to the various things that constitute that good.^b The items that are outside the homes refer to true things that

• a. Angels have towns, palaces, and homes, described: 940, 941, 942, 1116, 1626, 1627, 1628, 1630, 1631, 4622.

• b. Houses, and their contents, mean the things within us that are attributes of our minds, and therefore mean our more inward natures: 710, 2233, 2234 [2231], 2719 [2454], 3128, 3538, 4973, 5023, 6619 [6639], 6690, 7353, 7848, 7910, 7929, 9150; and therefore matters of what is good and true: 2233, 2234 [2231], 2559, 4982, 7848, 7929. Rooms and bedrooms mean the things that are deeper within: 3900, 5994 [5694], 7353. The roof of a house means the inmost: 3652, 10184. A wooden house means matters of good, and a stone house matters of truth: 3720. derive from the good, and also to experiences of perception and recogni-tion.^c Since these correspond to the good and true things they receive from the Lord, they correspond to their love and therefore to their wisdom and intelligence, because love is a matter of what is good, wisdom of what is both good and true, and intelligence of truth that stems from the good. This, they tell me, is the sort of thing angels perceive when they look at their houses; and this is why these sights delight and move their minds more than their eyes.

So I could see why the Lord calls himself the temple that is in Jerusalem (John 2:19, 21).^d I could also see why the New Jerusalem appeared as a city of pure gold, with gates of pearl and foundations of precious gems (Revelation 21): it is because a temple offers an image of the Lord's divine human; the New Jerusalem refers to the church that was going to be founded; and the twelve gates are the truths that lead to what is good, and the foundations are the truths on which it is based.^e

The angels who constitute the Lord's heavenly kingdom live for the most part in loftier places that look like mountains above the ground. The angels who constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom live in less lofty places that look like hills, while the angels who live in the lowest regions of heaven live in places that look like rocky cliffs. These things also stem from correspondences, since the deeper things correspond to higher ones and the more outward to lower ones.^f This is why mountains in the Word mean heavenly love, hills mean spiritual love, and rocks mean faith.^g

• c. [Swedenborg's note here refers the reader to the note in §176 above.]

• d. In the highest sense, “the house of God” means the Lord's divine human in respect to divine good, and the temple means the same in respect to divine truth. In a relative sense, they mean heaven and the church in respect to what is good and true: 3720.

• e. Jerusalem means the church where there is authentic doctrine: 402, 3654, 9166. The gates mean an introduction to the doctrine of the church, and through that doctrine, to the church itself: 2943, 4478 [4477]. The foundation means the truth on which heaven, the church, and the doctrine are based: 9643.

• f. In the Word, more inward things are expressed by “higher,” and higher things mean more inward ones: 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325. “High” means inner, and also heaven: 1735, 2148, 4210, 4599, 8153.

• g. In heaven, one can see mountains, hills, rocks, valleys, and plains just as we can in this world: 10608. Angels who are in the good of love live on mountains, angels in the good of charity on hills, and angels in the good of faith on cliffs: 10438. Therefore mountains in the Word mean the good of love: 795, 4210, 6435, 8327, 8758, 10438, 10608. Hills mean the good of charity: 6435, 10438. Rocks mean the good and truth of faith: 8581, 10580. The stone from which rocks are made also means the truth of faith: 114, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8608 [8609], 10376. This is why mountains mean heaven: 8327, 8805, 9420; and why a mountaintop means the highest heaven: 9422, 9434, 10608. Therefore the early people held their holy worship on mountains: 796, 2722.

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There are angels who do not live in communities but apart, home by home. They live in the center of heaven because they are the best angels.

The houses angels live in are not constructed as houses in our world are, but are given them by the Lord gratis, to each individual according to his or her acceptance of what is good and true. They also change slightly in response to the changes of state of their deeper natures (see above, §§154-160).

Whatever angels possess, they attribute to the Lord, and anything they need is given to them.

EVEN though everything in heaven appears to be located in space just like things in our world, still angels have no notion or concept of location and space. Since this can only seem like a paradox, and since it is highly significant, I should like to shed some light on it.

All motion in the spiritual world is the effect of changes of inner states, to the point that motion is nothing but change of state.^a This is how I have been led by the Lord into the heavens and also to other planets in the universe.¹²⁷ This happened to my spirit, while my body remained in the same place.^b This is how all angels move about, which

• a. In the Word, places and spaces mean states: 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 7381, 10578 [10580]; from experience: 1274, 1277, 1376-1381, 4321, 4882, 10146, 10578 [10580]. Distances mean differences in state of life: 9104, 9967. Motion and changes of location in the spiritual world are changes of the state of life because that is their source: 1273, 1274, 1275, 1377, 3356, 9440. The same holds true of journeys: 9440, 10734; illustrated from experience: 1273-1277, 5606 [5605]. This is why journeying in the Word means living, and also the course of life, as does emigrating: 3335, 4554, 4585, 4882, 5493, 5606 [5605], 5996, 8345, 8397, 8417, 8420, 8557. “To go with the Lord” is to live with him: 10567.

• b. An individual can be led great distances in spirit by changes of state, with the body staying in the same place: from experience, 9440, 9967, 10734. What it means to be led by the spirit into another place: 1884.

means they do not have distances; and if they do not have distances, they do not have space. Instead they have states and their changes.

This being the nature of motion, we can see that drawing near is likeness of inner state and moving away is dissimilarity. This is why the people who are nearby are the ones in a similar state and the ones who are far away are in dissimilar states. It is why space in heaven is nothing but the outward states that correspond to the inner ones.

This is the only reason the heavens are differentiated from each other, as are the communities of each heaven and the individuals in each community. It is also why the hells are completely separate from the heavens: they are in an opposite state.

This is also why in the spiritual world one individual is present to another if only that presence is intensely desired. This is because one person sees another in thought in this way and identifies with that individual's state. Conversely, one person moves away from another to the extent that there is any sense of reluctance; and since all reluctance comes from an opposition of affections and disagreement of thoughts, there can be many people appearing together in one place as long as they agree, but as soon as they disagree, they vanish.

Whenever people move from one place to another, whether it is within their town, in their courtyards, in their gardens, or to people outside their own community, they get there more quickly if they are eager to and more slowly if they are not. The path itself is lengthened or shortened depending on their desire, even though it is the same path. I have often seen this, much to my surprise.

We can see from all this again that distance and space itself depend wholly on the inner state of angels;^c,128 and since this is the case, no notion or concept of space can enter their minds even though they have space just the way we do in our world.

We can illustrate this by our own thoughts, which are also devoid of space; for whatever we focus on intently in our thought is seemingly present. Then too, anyone who reflects on it realizes that our eyesight registers space only through the intermediate objects on earth that we see at the same time, or from our knowing from experience that things are a certain distance away. This is because we are dealing with a continuum, and in a continuum there is no apparent distance except by means of

• c. Places and spaces are presented to view in response to the inner states of angels and spirits: 5604 [5605], 9440, 10146.

discontinuities. This is even more the case for angels because their sight acts in unison with their thought, and their thought in unison with their affection, and also because things seem near or remote, and things change, in response to the states of their deeper natures, as already noted.

This is why places and spaces in the Word (and everything that involves space) mean matters that involve state—distances, for instance, and nearness and remoteness, paths, journeys, emigrations, miles, sta-dia,¹²⁹ plains, fields, gardens, cities, streets, motion, various kinds of measurement, length, breadth, height, and depth, and countless other things—for so many things that enter our thought from our world derive something from space and time.

• [2] I should like only to highlight what length, breadth, and height mean in the Word. In this world we call something long and broad if it is long and broad spatially, and the same holds true for “high.” In heaven, though, where thinking does not involve space, people understand length as a state of good and breadth as a state of truth, while height is their difference in regard to level (discussed above in §38). The reason these three dimensions are understood in this way is that length in heaven is from east to west, which is where people live who are in the good of love. Breadth in heaven is from south to north, where people live who are in truth because of what is good (see above, §148); and height in heaven applies to both in regard to their level. This is why qualities of this sort are meant in the Word by length and breadth and height as in Ezekiel 40-48, where the measurements are given of the new temple and the new earth, with its courts, rooms, doors, gates, windows, and surroundings, referring to the new church and the good and true things that are in it. So too all the measurements elsewhere. [3] The New Jerusalem is similarly described in Revelation, as follows:

The city was laid out foursquare, its length the same as its breadth; and [the angel] measured the city with the reed at twelve thousand stadia;¹³⁰ the length and breadth and height were equal. (Revelation 21:16)

Here the New Jerusalem means a new church, so its measurements mean attributes of that church, length referring to the good of its love, breadth to the truth that derives from that good, and height to both the good and the true in respect to their level. Twelve thousand stadia means everything good and true taken together. Otherwise, what would be the point of having its height be twelve thousand stadia like its length and its breadth?

We can see in David that breadth in the Word means truth:

Jehovah, you have not left me in the grasp of my enemy's hand; you have made my feet stand in a broad place. (Psalms 31:8)¹³¹

I called on Jah from my constraint; he answered me in a broad place. (Psalms 118:5)

There are other passages as well; for example, Isaiah 8:8 and Habakkuk 1:6. It also holds true elsewhere.

We can see from this that even though there is space in heaven as there is in our world, nothing there is evaluated on the basis of space, but only on the basis of state. Also spaces there cannot be measured the way they can in our world, but only seen out of and in accordance with the state of their deeper natures.^d

The essential first cause of all this is that the Lord is present to each individual according to that individual's love and faith,^e and that everything looks near or remote depending on his presence, since this is what defines everything that exists in the heavens. This is what gives angels wisdom, since it provides them with an outreach of thoughts, which in turn affords them communication with everyone in the heavens. In a word, this is what enables them to think spiritually and not naturally, the way we do.

TO some extent, we can determine what heaven's form is like on the basis of what has been presented in the preceding chapters—that heaven has a basic similarity in its greatest and its smallest instances (§72);

• d. In the Word, length means what is good: 1613, 9487. Breadth means what is true: 1613, 3433, 3434, 4482, 9487, 10179. Height means what is good and true in respect to their level: 9489, 9773, 10181.

• e. The Lord' s union and presence with angels depends on their acceptance of love and thoughtfulness from him: 290, 681, 1954, 2658, 2886, 2888, 2889, 3001, 3741, 3742, 3743, 4318, 4319, 4524, 7211, 9128.

that therefore each community is a heaven in lesser form, and each angel in least form (§§51-58); that as heaven as a whole resembles a single person, so every community of heaven resembles a person in lesser form and every individual angel in least form (§§59-77); that the wisest people are at the center, with the less wise around them all the way to the borders, and that the same holds true for each community (§43); and that people who are engaged in the good of love live along the east-west axis and people who are engaged in truths that derive from the good along the southnorth axis, which also holds true for each community (§§148-149). All these things are determined by heaven's form, so we can figure out what that form is like in a general sense.^a

We need to know what heaven's form is like because it determines not only how angels associate with each other but also how all their communication takes place; and since all their communication is also an outreach of their thoughts and affections, this means all their intelligence and wisdom. This is why the extent to which we are in heaven's form (are forms of heaven) determines how wise we are. It amounts to the same thing whether you say “in heaven's form” or “in heaven's design,” since the form of any entity comes from its design and is determined by it.^b

One thing needs to be said first, namely what it is to be in heaven's form. We have been created in the image of heaven and in the image of this world, our inner being in the image of heaven and our outer in the image of this world (see above, §57). Whether you say “in the image” or “according to the form,” it amounts to the same thing. However, since by the evils of our intention and the distortions of our thinking we have destroyed the image and therefore the form of heaven within us, and in its place have imported the image and form of hell, our inner being is closed from the time of birth. This is why we, unlike all other kinds of animal, are born into utter ignorance. However, for the image or form of heaven to be restored for us, we need to be educated in the principles of the design; for the form, as explained above, depends on the design. The Word contains all the laws of the divine design, for the laws of the divine design are the precepts we find there. To the extent that we know them and live

• a. The whole heaven—specifically all its angelic communities—is arranged by the Lord according to his divine order, since the Lord's divine [nature] in and around the angels constitutes heaven: 3038, 7211, 9128, 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157. On the heavenly form: 4040-4043, 6607, 9877.

• b. Heaven's form is a form that follows from the divine design: 4040-4043, 6607, 9877. by them, our inner being is opened, and in it the design or form of heaven is formed anew. We can see from this what it is to be in heaven's form—namely, it is living according to what is in the Word.^c

To the extent that people are in heaven's form they are in heaven and are in fact a heaven in least form (§57). Further, they live in intelligence and wisdom to that same extent, for as already noted, all the thought of our intellect and all the affection of our volition reach out round about us in heaven according to its form and communicate wonderfully with the communities there, and they in turn communicate with us.^d

[2] There are people who believe that their thoughts and affections do not really reach out around them but are inside them, because they see what they are thinking as inside themselves and not as remote from themselves. They are sadly mistaken, though; for just as our eyesight reaches out to remote objects and is affected in keeping with the patterns that it sees in that outreach, so our inner sight, which is an attribute of our intellect, has an outreach in the spiritual world even though (for reasons presented in § 196 above) we do not perceive it. The only difference is that our eyesight is affected on the natural level because it is made of materials from the natural world, while the sight of our intellect is affected spiritually because it is made of materials in the spiritual world that all have to do with what is good and true. The reason we do not know that this is the case is that we do not know that there is a certain light that illumines our understanding. Yet without the light that illumines our understanding, we would be incapable of thinking anything. (On this light, see above, §§126-132.)

• c. Divine truths are the laws of the design: 2247 [2447], 7995. To the extent that we live according to the design—to the extent, that is, that we are engaged in what divine truths tell us is good—we are human: 4839, 6605, 6626. The human is the creature in which all the elements of the divine order are brought together, and from creation we are the divine design in form: 4219, 4220 [4222], 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5368 [4839], 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472. We are born not into what is good and true but into what is evil and false, into the opposite of the divine design, that is; and this is why we are born into utter ignorance, and why it is necessary for us to be born anew, that is, regenerated, which is accomplished by means of divine truths from the Lord, so that we may be brought into the design: 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731. When the Lord forms us anew (that is, regenerates us) he arranges everything within us according to the design, therefore in heaven's form: 5700, 6690, 9931, 10303.

• d. Everyone in heaven has a communication of life, which we can call an outreach, into the surrounding angelic communities in accord with the amount and quality of his or her good: 8794, 8797. Thoughts and affections have this kind of outreach: 2475, 6598-6613. We are united and separated according to our dominant affections: 4111.

• [3] There was one particular spirit who believed that he thought in-dependently—that is, without any outreach beyond himself and therefore communication with the surrounding communities. So that he might learn that he was wrong, he was deprived of any communication with nearby communities. As a result, he not only lost the power of thinking but actually collapsed lifelessly, just flailing his arms like a newborn baby. In a little while the communication was restored, and bit by bit, as it was restored, he returned to his usual state of thinking.

• [4] Some other spirits, who saw this, then admitted that all their thought and affection was flowing in according to this communica-tion—and since this was true of all their thought and affection, it was true of their whole life as well, since all our life consists of our ability to think and to be affected, or in other words, to understand and intend.^e

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We need to realize, though, that intelligence and wisdom vary for individuals depending on the communication. For people whose intelligence and wisdom are formed from things genuinely good and true, there is a sharing with communities according to heaven's form; while for people whose intelligence and wisdom are not formed from things genuinely good and true but [only] from things that are in accord with them, the communication is intermittent and only partially coherent because it is not with communities in the sequence characteristic of heaven's form. However, because people who are not in intelligence and wisdom at all are caught up in false notions that stem from their evils, they have a sharing with communities in hell. The outreach depends on the extent to which their attitudes have been internalized.

It should also be known that this sharing with communities is not something that comes to the overt perception of the people involved in

• e. There is only one life from which all the people in heaven and on earth live: 1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2886-2889, 3001, 3484, 3742, 5847, 6467. That life comes from the Lord alone: 2886-2889, 3344,3484,4319,4320,4524,4882,5986,6325,6468,6469,6470,9276,10196. It flows into angels, into spirits, and into us in a wondrous way: 2886-2889, 3337, 3338, 3484, 3742. The Lord flows in from his divine love, which by its very nature wants what is its own to be given to others: 3472 [3742], 4320. Therefore our life seems to be within us and not to be flowing in: 3742, 4320. On the joy of angels that I have perceived—and that has been confirmed by their testimony to me— at the fact that they do not live on their own but from the Lord: 6469. Evil people do not want to be convinced that their life is flowing in: 3743. Life from the Lord does flow in, even for evil people: 2706,3743,4417,10196. However, they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, because our quality determines our acceptance; with examples: 4319, 4320, 4417. it, but is a communication with the quality in which they participate and which reaches out from them.^f

All the people in heaven are grouped according to spiritual affinities, which are matters of what is good and true in their pattern—the same way in the whole heaven as in each community and in each household. This is why angels who are involved in similar good and true activities recognize each other the way relatives and kindred spirits do on earth— just as though they had known each other from infancy.

The good and true elements that make up intelligence and wisdom are similarly arranged within each individual angel. They recognize each other in much the same way, and as they recognize each other, they unite.^g

As a result, people in whom things good and true are united according to heaven's form see things that follow in their sequence and how things fit together far and wide around them. It is different for people in whom things good and true are not united according to heaven's form.

In each heaven, this is the form that determines communication and the outreach of thoughts and affections for angels and therefore determines their intelligence and wisdom. The communication of one heaven with another, though, is different—that of the third or inmost heaven with the second or intermediate, and of these two with the first or outmost. In fact, the communication between heavens should not be called “communication” but “inflow,” which we now need to say something about. On the three heavens and their differentiation, see the appropriate chapter above (§§29-40).

We mayconcludefromthe way the heavens are situated inrelationto each other that thereis nota communication ofone heaven withanother but an inflow. The third or inmost heaven is above, the second or intermediate is lower, and the first or outmost is still lower. It is much the same for all the communities of each heaven: for example there are some in lofty places that look like mountains (see §188), with people from the

• f. Thought flows outward into surrounding communities of spirits and angels: 6600-6605. Still, it does not agitate or disturb the thoughts of the communities: 6601, 6603.

• g. What is good recognizes its appropriate truth, and what is true recognizes its good: 2429, 3101, 3102, 3161, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5407 [5704], 5835, 9637. This is the source of the union of what is good and what is true: 3834, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 8530, 9258, 10555; and this happens because of heaven's inflow: 9079. inmost heavens living on their summits, people from the second heaven below them, and below them again people from the outmost heaven. It is like this everywhere, whether in lofty areas or in lowly ones. A community of a higher heaven does not have any communication with a community of a lower heaven except by means of correspondences (see above, §100), and communication by correspondences is what is called inflow.

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One heaven is united to another (or a community of one heaven with a community of another) by the Lord alone, through a direct and an indirect inflow. The direct is from himself, and the indirect is sequential through the higher heavens into the lower ones.^h

Since the union of the heavens through inflow is accomplished by the Lord alone, the greatest possible precautions are taken to pre vent any angel from a higher heaven from looking down into a community of a lower one and talking with anyone there. The moment this happens, the angel will lose intelligence and wisdom. The reason needs to be stated. Eve ry angel has three levels of life, like the three levels of h ea ven. For the ones in the inmost heaven, the third or inmost level is opened and the second and first are closed. For people in the intermediate heaven the second level is opened and the first and third are closed; and for people in the outermost heaven the first level is opened and the second and third are closed. The moment an angel of the third heaven, then, looks down into a community of the second and talks with anyone there, the third level of that angel is closed; and when it is closed the angel is deprived of wisdom because her or his wisdom d wells on the third level, with none on the second and first.

This is the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew:

Let those who are on the roof not come down to take what is in the house; and let those who are in the field not turn back to take their garments. (Matthew 24:17-18)

And in Luke:

Let those who are on the roof on that day while their belongings are in the house not go down to get them, and let those who are in the field

• h. There is a direct inflow from the Lord and an indirect one through heaven: 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683. The Lord's direct inflow is into the smallest details of everything: 6058, 6474-6478, 8717, 8728. Concerning the Lord's indirect inflow through the heavens: 4067, 6982, 6985, 6996. not turn back to what is behind them: remember Lot's wife. (Luke 17:31-32)

There is no inflow from lower heavens into higher ones because this goes against the design. Rather, inflow is from the higher ones into the lower. The wisdom of angels of a higher heaven surpasses the wisdom of angels of a lower one by a ratio of thousands to one. This is also why angels of a lower heaven cannot talk with angels of a higher one. In fact, when they look in their direction they do not see them; their heaven looks like something cloudy overhead. However, angels of a higher heaven can see people who are in a lower heaven, though they are not allowed to carry on conversations with them, to prevent them from losing their wisdom, as already mentioned.

The thoughts, the affections, and the conversations of angels of the inmost heaven are wholly beyond the perception of angels in the intermediate heaven because they are so transcendent; but when it pleases the Lord, they are visible in the lower heavens as something flamelike from the higher one, while conversations in the intermediate heavenareseenas something shining in the outmost heaven—sometimes as a bright, iridescent cloud. The lower angels can to some extent tell what thehigher ones aresaying from the waythe cloud rises and descends and from its form.

This enables us to conclude what heaven's form is like, namely that it is most perfect of all in the inmost heaven, perfect in the intermediate heaven but less so, and still less so in the heaven below that. We can also conclude that the form of one heaven is maintained by another through the inflow from the Lord.

However, there is no way to understand what communication by inflow is like without knowing what vertical levels are like and what the difference is between these levels and degrees of length and breadth. The nature of both kinds of levels may be seen in §38.

As to heaven's form and how it works and flows, this is incomprehensible even to angels. It can be brought to some measure of conceptualization by comparison with the form of all the elements of the human body as explored and examined by someone who is both wise and experienced; for as explained above in the relevant chapters, heaven as a whole resembles a single person (§§59-72) and everything in the human [body] corresponds to the heavens (§§87-102). We can see in a general way how incomprehensible and intricate this form is simply by looking at our nerve fibers, which serve to weave absolutely everything [in us] together. There is no way their nature and how they work and flow in the brain can be presented to our

eyes, for the countless things involved are so intricate that viewed en masse they look like a soft, undefined lump. Yet actually each and every function of our volition and understanding flows into act through them with perfect definition. We can see how these fibers rejoin in the body by looking at the various plexuses—cardiac, mesenteric, and others—and the nodes called ganglia where many fibers from all over the body come together, combining within these nodes and then exiting in different arrangements to various functions, a pattern that is repeated over and over again. Further, there are similar arrangements in all our viscera, in each member and organ and muscle. Anyone who probes these and other wonders with the eye of wisdom will be utterly stunned; and yet these are the few things that the eye can see, and what it cannot see is more amazing still because it is more inward in nature.

It is abundantly clear that this form corresponds to heaven's form if we consider the way our volition and discernment work in it and according to it, because whatever we intend flows spontaneously into act and whatever we think travels along the fibers from their beginnings to their ends, giving rise to our senses. Further, since this is the form of our thought and intentions, it is the form of our intelligence and wisdom.

It is this form that corresponds to heaven's form. We can learn from this that it is this kind of form that determines the way all the affection and thought of angels reaches out, and that they enjoy intelligence and wisdom to the extent that they are in this form. It may be seen above (§§78-86) that this form of heaven comes from the Lord's divine human.

These matters have been included so that it may also be known that heaven's form by its very nature can never be fathomed even in a general way and is thus incomprehensible even to angels, as already stated.

SINCE heaven is differentiated into communities, and the larger communities consist of some hundreds of thousands of angels (§50), and since all the people in a given community are involved in similar good but not in similar wisdom (§43), it follows of necessity that there are

forms of government. Good order needs to be kept, and all matters of good order seen to.

The actual forms of government in heaven vary, though. There is one kind in the communities that constitute the Lord's heavenly kingdom and another in the communities that constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom. They even vary depending on the particular function of each c ommun ity. However, in the heavens there is no government except the g overnment of mutual love, and the government of mutual love is heavenly government .

The form of government in the Lord's heavenly kingdom is called justice, since all the people there are intent on the good the Lord's love does in and through us, and anything that results from this good is called just. This government belongs to the Lord alone. He leads them and teaches them in matters of life. The truths that we associate with judgment are engraved on their hearts. Everyone knows them, grasps them, and sees them.^a So matters of judgment never come into dispute for them, only matters of justice that are matters of life. The less wise ask the wiser ones about them, and they in turn ask the Lord and bring back the responses.Their heaven—their deepest delight—is to live justly from the Lord.

Government in the Lord's spiritual kingdom is called judgment, since they are intent on that spiritual good that is the good of thoughtfulness toward their neighbor, and this good is in essence true.^b What is true is a matter of judgment, and what is good is a matter of justice.^c

These angels too are led by the Lord, but indirectly (§208); so they have officials, fewer or more depending on the needs of the community they live in. They also have laws that they observe in their life together. The officials manage everything according to the laws; they understand

• a. Heavenly angels do not think and talk on the basis of truths the way spiritual angels do, because they enjoy a perception of all matters of truth from the Lord: 202, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387 [1384], 1398, 1442, 1919, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277, 10336. Concerning truths, heavenly angels say, “Yes, yes,” or “No, no,” while spiritual angels consider whether they are true or not: 2715, 3246, 4446 [4448], 9166, 10786; where explanation is given of the Lord's words, “Let your conversation be ‘Yes, yes,' ‘No, no'; anything beyond this is from evil” (Matthew 5:37).

• b. People in the Lord's spiritual kingdom are focused on what is true and people in the heavenly kingdom on what is good: 863, 875, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113, 9596. The good of the spiritual kingdom is the good of thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor, and this good is essentially truth: 8042, 10296.

• c. Justice in the Word is associated with what is good and judgment with what is true, so to do justice and judgment is to do what is good and true: 2235, 9857. “Great judgments” [Exodus 6:6] are laws of the divine design and are therefore divine truths: 7206.

them because they are wise, and in matters of doubt they are enlightened by the Lord.

Since government on the basis of what is good (the kind in the Lord's heavenly kingdom) is called justice, and government on the basis of what is true (the kind in the Lord's spiritual kingdom) is called judgment, in the Word it says “justice and judgment” when it is talking about heaven and the church; “justice” meaning heavenly good, and “judgment” spiritual good—which latter good, as explained above, is in essence true. The following examples may serve:

There will be no end to peace on the throne of David and on his kingdom, to establish it and to sustain it in judgment and justice from now on and even to eternity. (Isaiah 9:7)¹³²

“David” here means the Lord,^d and his kingdom means his heaven, as we can see from the next passage:

I will raise up for David a just shoot and he will reign as king and act discerningly and make judgment and justice on earth. ( Jeremiah 23:5)

Let Jehovah be extolled because he lives on high and fills Zion with judgment and justice. (Isaiah 33:5)

Zion too means heaven and the church.^e

I, Jehovah, am he who makes judgment and justice on earth, because in them I take pleasure. ( Jeremiah 9:24)¹³³

I will betroth you to myself for eternity, and I will betroth you to myself in justice and judgment. (Hosea 2:19)

Jehovah, in the heavens your justice is like the mountains of God, and your judgment like the great deep. (Psalms 36:5-6)¹³⁴

They ask me for judgments of justice, they long for the approach of God. (Isaiah 58:2)

And elsewhere.

In the Lord's spiritual kingdom there are various forms of government, not the same in one community as in another but varying depending on the functions the communities fulfill. Their functions parallel those of the human [body], to which they correspond; and the variety of

• d. In the prophetic books of the Word, David means the Lord: 1888, 9954.

• e. Zion means the church, and specifically the heavenly church: 2362, 9055.

these is well known. The heart has one function, the lungs another, the liver another, the pancreas and spleen others, and so also for each sensory organ. Just as we have these various services going on in our bodies, so services are carried on in the universal human that is heaven, since it is its communities that correspond to them. (The reader may see in the appropriate chapter above, §§87-102, that everything in heaven corresponds to something in us.)

Still, all the forms of government share a central focus on the public good as their end, and within that good, the good of each individual.^f This is because everyone in all heaven is under the guidance of the Lord, who loves everyone and who from his divine love arranges things so that it is the common good from which individuals receive what is good for them. Each individual receives benefit in proportion to his or her love of the whole, for to the extent that they love the whole they love all the individuals. Since this love is the Lord's they are proportionally loved by the Lord and are benefited.

We may conclude from this what the officials are like—namely, that they are the people who more than others enjoy love and wisdom and who therefore, out of that love, wish well to everyone and out of that wisdom know how to make sure it happens. People like this do not control and command but minister and serve, for doing good for others out of a love for what is good is serving, and making sure that it happens is ministering. They do not make themselves more important than other people but less so, for they put the welfare of the community and of their neighbor first and their own later. What is first is more important, and what is later is less.

They do have respect and renown, though. They live in the center of their communities, loftier than others, and in splendid mansions as well; and they accept this renown and respect. However, they do so not on their own account but for the sake of obedience. They all know that this respect and this renown are gifts from the Lord, so that they may be obeyed.

• f. Every individual and community, including the country and the church and in a universal sense the Lord's kingdom, is our neighbor; and supporting them out of a love for their welfare, in keeping with the quality of their state, is “loving our neighbor”; so their welfare (which is the common good that is to be of primary concern) is our neighbor: 6818-6824, 8123. Further, civic good, which is what is just, is our neighbor: 2915, 4730, 8120-8123. So charity toward our neighbor reaches out to every single detail of our lives; and to love what is good and do what is good out of a love for what is good and true, to do what is just out of a love for what is just in every role and action is to love our neighbor: 2417, 8121-8124.

This is the meaning of the Lord's words to the disciples:

Whoever among you wants to be great needs to minister to you; and whoever among you wants to be first needs to serve you; just as the Human-born One did not come to be ministered to, but to minister.

(Matthew 20:27-28 [26-28])

Let the greatest among you be as the least, and the one who is your guide be as one who ministers. (Luke 22:26)

A similar form of government, on the smallest scale, is found in each household. There is a master and there are servants; and the master loves the servants and the servants love their master, so out of this love they serve each other. The master teaches how to live and says what needs to be done and the servants obey and fulfill their functions. Being useful is the essential delight of life for everyone. We can see from this that the Lord's kingdom is an organized structure of functions.¹³⁵

There are forms of government in the hells as well; for unless there were, they would not be kept in restraint. However, the forms of government there are exact opposites of those in the heavens because they all derive from selfishness. All people there want to control others and to be preeminent. They hate the people who do not agree with them, and use vicious means to get even with them because this is what selfishness is like. So for them it is the more vicious ones who hold office, and who are obeyed out of fear.^g But more on this later, where I discuss the hells.¹³⁶

OUTWARDLY, divine worship in the heavens is not unlike divine worship on earth, but inwardly it is different. People there too have doctrines and sermons and church buildings. The doctrines agree in

• g. There are two kinds of dominion, one from love for our neighbor and one from love for ourselves: 10814. Everything good and happy comes from dominion out of love for our neighbor: 10160, 10814. In heaven, no one wants to be in control because of self-love; all want to be helpful, and this is governing out of love for their neighbor and is the source of whatever power they possess: 5732. Everything evil comes from dominion out of self-love: 10038. Once love for oneself and for the world has begun to take control, people are forced into subjection to dictators simply in order to be protected: 7364, 10160, 10814.

essentials, but those in the higher heavens are of deeper wisdom than those of lower heavens. The sermons are in keeping with the doctrines; and just as they have homes and mansions (§§183-190), they also have church buildings where the instruction takes place.

The reason things like this exist in heaven is that angels are constantly being perfected in wisdom and love. They have volition and intellect just as we do, and their intellect, like their intentions, is by nature constantly striving toward perfection—their intellect by means of the truths that constitute intelligence and their intentions through the values that constitute love.^a

However, the essential divine worship in the heavens does not consist of going to church regularly and listening to sermons but of a life of love, thoughtfulness, and faith in keeping with doctrine. The sermons in church serve only as means of instruction in how to live.

I have talked about this with angels and have told them that people in this world believe that divine worship consists solely of going to church and listening to sermons, taking communion three or four times a year, and observing other rituals according to the church's regulations, as well as making time for prayer and behaving devoutly. The angels have told me that these are outward matters that are worth doing but that they are ineffective unless there is something within from which they flow, and that this something within is a life according to the principles that doctrine teaches.

So that I could learn what their church services are like, I have occasionally been allowed to go in and hear sermons. The preacher in the pulpit is stationed in the east. Directly in front sit the people who are in greater light of wisdom than others, while to their right and left are the people in less light. The seating is laid out in a circular form so that everyone can be seen by the preacher. No one is off to the sides and out of the preacher's sight. Newcomers stand by the door at the eastern end of the church to the left of the pulpit. No one is allowed to stand behind the pulpit; if anyone is there, the preacher loses the train of thought. The same thing happens if anyone in the congregation disagrees, so anyone who does is obliged to look away.

The sermons there are given with such wisdom that their earthly counterparts cannot be compared to them: people in the heavens actually experience a more inward light.

• a. Intellect is open to what is true and volition is open to what is good: 3623, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930. Just as everything goes back to what is true and good, so everything about our life goes back to intellect and volition: 803, 10122. Angels are being perfected to eternity: 4803, 6648.

Churches in the spiritual kingdom seem to be made of stone, and those in the heavenly kingdom of wood. This is because stone corresponds to the truth that occupies people in the spiritual kingdom and wood to the good that occupies people in the heavenly kingdom.^b The buildings in this latter kingdom are not called “churches” but “houses of God.”

Buildings in the heavenly kingdom are devoid of splendor, but in the spiritual kingdom they are more or less ornate.

I also talked with one particular preacher about the holy state characteristic of people who are listening to preachers in church. He said that there is something reverent, devout, and holy in all of us depending on the deeper levels of our love and faith, since there is something holy within our love and faith because the Lord's divine [presence] is there. He added that he did not know what anything holy was apart from these. Further, he said that when he thought about something externally holy apart from these, it might possibly be something that mimicked holiness in outer appearance, something acquired either by skill or by hypocrisy. A deceptive fire arising from love for oneself and the world would generate and present this kind of appearance.

All preachers are from the Lord's spiritual kingdom and none from his heavenly kingdom. The reason they are from the spiritual kingdom is that people there are attuned to truths that stem from what is good, and all preaching comes from truths. The reason none is from his heavenly kingdom is that the people there are attuned to the good of love, and see and grasp truths on this basis, but do not talk about them.^c

Even though the angels who are in the heavenly kingdom grasp and see truths, there are still sermons there because sermons are means of enlightenment in the truths that the angels already know and lead to further perfection by means of many things they have not known before. The moment they hear them, they acknowledge them and therefore grasp them. The truths they grasp they also love, and by living according to them they make them part of their life. They say that living by truths is loving the Lord.^d

• b. Stone means what is true: 114, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 10376. Wood means what is good: 643, 3720, 8354. So for the earliest people, who were attuned to heavenly good, buildings were wooden: 3720.

• c. [Swedenborg's note at this point refers the reader to the note in §214 above.]

• d. To love the Lord and our neighbor is to live by the Lord's precepts: 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645, 10648 [10659].

All preachers are appointed by the Lord and therefore enjoy the gift of preaching. No one else is allowed to teach in church.

They are called preachers rather than priests. The reason they are not called priests is that heaven's priesthood is the heavenly kingdom, priesthood meaning the good of love for the Lord that characterizes the people in that kingdom. In contrast, heaven's kingship is the spiritual kingdom, kingship meaning the truth from what is good that characterizes people in that kingdom (see above, §24).^e

All the doctrines that govern the preaching focus on life as their end, none on faith apart from life. The doctrine of the inmost heaven is more full of wisdom than that of the intermediate heaven, and this in turn is more full of intelligence than that of the outmost heaven. The doctrines are in fact suited to the grasp of the angels of each heaven.

The essential of all the doctrines is the recognition of the Lord's divine human.

PEOPLE who do not know anything about the spiritual world and its inflow into the natural world cannot grasp the fact that angels have power. They think that angels cannot have power because they are spiritual and so pure and insubstantial that they cannot even be seen by our eyes. People who probe more deeply into the causes of things, though, feel otherwise about it. They are aware that all the power we ourselves have comes from our intellect and volition, since without these we cannot move the slightest part of our bodies. Intellect and volition are our spiritual person. This person is what animates the body and its members at will, for the mouth and tongue say what it thinks and the body does

• e. Priests represented the Lord in respect to divine good, kings in respect to divine truth: 2015, 6148. So a priest in the Word means people who are attuned to the good of love for the Lord, and priesthood means that good itself: 9806, 9809. A king in the Word means people who are attuned to divine truth, so kingship means what is true from the good: 1672, 2015, 2069, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044.

what it intends. It even bestows energy at will. Our intention and discernment are governed by the Lord through angels and spirits; and since this is true of our intention and discernment, it is true of all aspects of our bodies because these latter come from the former. Believe it or not, we cannot move a step without the inflow of heaven.

I have been shown that this is true by a great deal of experience. Angels have been allowed to activate my walking, my actions, my tongue, and my conversation as they wished, by flowing into my intention and thinking, and I learned at first hand that I could do nothing on my own.¹³⁷ They told me later that everyone is governed in this way, and that we might learn this from the doctrine of the church and from the Word. We actually pray that God will send his angels who may lead us, guide our steps, teach us, and inspire us as to what we should think and say, and so on—this even though we talk and believe quite differently in our private thoughts apart from doctrine.

These things have been mentioned to illustrate the kind of power angels have with us.

In the spiritual world angels have so much power that if I were to highlight everything I have seen, it would strain credulity. If anything there is in the way and needs to be removed because it is opposed to the divine design, they raze and overturn it simply by an effort of will and a look. So I have seen mountains that were the abode of evil people leveled and overturned, sometimes shaken from end to end as happens in our earthquakes. I have seen cliffs split down the middle right to the bottom and the evil people on them swallowed up. I have also seen angels scatter some hundreds of thousands of evil spirits and cast them into hell. A vast multitude is powerless against them. The skills and wiles and alliances of evil spirits amount to nothing. Angels see everything and dispel it instantly. But there is more about this in the story of Babylon destroyed.¹³⁸ They do have this kind of power in the spiritual world.¹³⁹

The Word, too, shows that angels have power like this in the natural world when it is granted them. For example, they are said to have brought death upon whole armies,¹⁴⁰ to have brought about a plague that killed seventy thousand people. We read of this latter angel:

The angel stretched out a hand against Jerusalem to destroy it; but Jehovah, repenting of his evil, said to the angel who was destroying the people,¹⁴¹ It is enough, now hold back your hand: and David saw the angel who was striking the people. (2 Samuel 24:15, 16, 17)

among other passages.

Because angels do have this kind of power they are called powers. It also says in David, “Bless Jehovah, you angels most powerful in strength” (Psalms 103:20).

It does need to be known, though, that angels have absolutely no power on their own, but that all the power they have comes from the Lord. Further, they are powers to the extent that they recognize this fact. Any of them who believe that their power comes from themselves immediately become so weak that they cannot resist even a single evil spirit. This is why angels take absolutely no credit to themselves and turn down any praise or admiration for anything they have done, but attribute it all to the Lord.

It is the divine truth emanating from the Lord that possesses all power in the heavens, because the Lord in heaven is divine truth united to divine good (see §§126-140). To the extent that angels are open to this truth, they are powers.^a

Fu rt h e r, each individual angel is her or his own truth and ow n good, because the nature of each one is determined by her or his discernment and intent, discernment being a matter of what is true because all its functions originate in truths, and intent being a matter of what is good because all its functions originate in aspects of the good. You see, whatever we understand we call true and whatever we intend we call good. This is why each one of us is his or her own truth and own good.^b T h ere f o re, to the extent to which an angel is truth fro m the Divine and good from the Divine, that angel is a power because the Lord is with her^{1 4 2} to that extent. Fu rt h e r, since no one enjoys exactly the same good and truth as anyone else (for in heaven and in this world there is constant va r i e t y, §20), one angel does not enjoy the same power as another.

The angels who constitute the arm in the universal human or heaven have the most power because they are the ones who more than any others are focused on things true, and good flows into their truths from the entire heaven. So too, all our strength is concentrated in our arms, and the

• a. Angels are called powers, and they are powers because of their acceptance of divine truth from the Lord: 9639. Angels are open to divine truth from the Lord, and throughout the Word are therefore called “gods”: 4295, 4402, 8301, 8192, 9398 [8988].

• b. Both people here and angels are their own good and their own truth, therefore their own love and their own faith: 10298, 10367. They are their own discernment and intent because all their life comes from this source; the life of the good is a matter of intent and the life of truth is a matter of discernment: 10076, 10177, 10264, 10284.

whole body expresses its powers through them. This is why “arms” and “hands” in the Word mean power.^c

Sometimes a bare arm appears in heaven that has so much power that it could crush any obstacle, even if it were a boulder on earth. Once it moved toward me, and I saw that it could crush my bones to powder.

It may be seen in §137 above that all power belongs to the divine truth that emanates from the Lord and that angels are powers to the extent that they accept divine truth from the Lord. However, angels are open to divine truth to the extent that they are open to divine good, since all the power that truths have comes from good. Truths apart from good have none. Further, all the power good has is by means of truth; good has no power apart from truths. Power arises from the union of the two. The same holds true for faith and love, since it is all the same whether you say truth or faith, since everything that makes up faith is true, and whether you say good or love, since everything that makes up love is good.^d

I have been able to see how much power angels have through truths from good from the fact that when angels simply look at them, evil spirits fall down in a faint and no longer look human, and that this lasts until the angel looks away. The reason this sort of thing results from the gaze of angels is that their sight comes from the light of heaven, and heaven’s light is divine truth (see above, §§ 126-132). Eyes correspond to truths from good.^e

Since all power belongs to truths from good, deliberate distortions have none.^f All the people in hell are preoccupied with deliberate distortions, so they have no power against what is true and good. However, I will be describing later the kind of power they have among each other and the kind of power evil spirits have before they are thrown into hell.¹⁴³

• c. On the correspondence of the hands, arms, and shoulders with the universal human or heaven: 4931-4937. Hands and arms in the Word mean power: 878, 3091, 4931-4932 [4932-4933], 6947, 10017 [10019].

• d. All power in the heavens is a property of truth from good, and therefore of faith from love: 3091, 3563, 6413 [6423], 8304, 9643, 10019, 10182. All power comes from the Lord, since he is the source of everything true that constitutes faith and everything good that constitutes love: 9327, 9410. This power is meant by the keys given to Peter: 6344. It is divine truth emanating from the Lord that possesses all power: 6948, 8200. This power of the Lord is what is meant by “sitting at the right of Jehovah”: 3387, 4592, 4933, 7518, 7673, 8281, 9133. “The right” is power: 10019.

• e. Eyes correspond to truths from good: 4403-4421, 4523-4534, 6923.

• f. Falsity from evil has no power because truth from good has it all: 6784, 10481.

A NGELS talk with each other just the way we do in this world. They talk about various things—domestic matters, community concerns, issues of moral life, and issues of spiritual life. There is no difference except that they talk with each other more intelligently than we do because they talk from a deeper level of thought.

I have often been allowed to be in their company and talk with them like one friend with another, or sometimes like one stranger with another; and since at such times I was in a state like theirs, it seemed exactly as though I were talking with people on earth.

Angelic language, like human language, is differentiated into words. It is similarly uttered audibly and heard audibly. Angels have mouths and tongues and ears just as we do; and they also have an atmosphere in which the sound of their language is articulated. However, it is a spiritual atmosphere that is adapted to angels, who are spiritual. Angels breathe in their atmosphere and use their breath to utter words just the way we do in ours.^a

All people in heaven have the same language. They all understand each other, no matter what community they come from, whether nearby or remote.¹⁴⁴ This language is not learned but is innate; it flows from their very affection and thought. The sound of the language corresponds to their affection and the articulations of the sound—the words, that is—correspond to the mental constructs that arise from their affections. Since their language corresponds to these [inner events], it too is spiritual, for it is audible affection and vocal thinking.

• [2] Anyone who reflects may realize that all thought comes from affection, which is a function of love, and that mental constructs are various forms into which the general affection is apportioned; for no thoughts or concepts whatever occur apart from affection. This is the source of their soul and life. This is why angels know simply from speech

• a. There is a breathing in the heavens, but it is more inward: 3884, 3885; from experience: 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893. The ways they breathe differ and vary depending on their states: 1119, 3886, 3887, 3889, 3892, 3893. Evil people are utterly incapable of breathing in heaven and suffocate if they come there: 3893 [3894].

what kind of person someone is—they know the quality of the affection from the sound and the quality of the mind from the articulations of the sound, or words. Wiser angels know from a single series of statements what someone's ruling affection is, since this is what they are primarily attentive to.

• [3] It is recognized that all people have various affections or moods— one in times of happiness, another in times of sorrow, another in times of tenderness and compassion, another in times of honesty and truth, another in times of love and thoughtfulness, another in times of zeal or anger, another in times of pretense and guile, another in times of ambition for respect and adulation, and so on; but there is a dominant affection or love within all of these, so since the wiser angels perceive this, they know from conversation the whole state of another person.

• [4] I have been granted knowledge of this through an abundance of experience. I have heard angels discover a person's life simply by listening. They have told me that they know everything about another person's life from a few individual ideas because these enable them to know the person's ruling love, which contains everything in a pattern. This is all that our “book of life” is.¹⁴⁵

  237

  
  

Angelic language has nothing in common with human language except with a few of our words whose sound reflects some feeling, and in this case not with the words themselves but with their sound, which will be further dealt with later.¹⁴⁶

The fact that angelic language has nothing in common with human language is evidenced by angels' inability to pronounce a single word of a human language. It has been tried, and they could not. The only things they can utter are the ones that are in complete accord with their own affection. Anything that does not agree offends their very life, since their life is a matter of affection and their language flows from it.

I have been told that the first language of people on our earth shared this nature because it was given them from heaven, and that Hebrew resembles it in some respects.

Since angels' language corresponds to the affections of their love, and since heaven's love is love for the Lord and love for our neighbor (see above, §§13-19) , we can see how elegant and delightful their conversation is. It affects not only the ears but also the deeper levels of the minds of those who hear it. There was one particular hard-hearted spirit with whom an angel talked, and eventually he was so moved by what the angel was saying that he burst into tears, saying that he couldn't help it, love was talking, and he had never cried before.

The language of angels is also full of wisdom, since it flows from the deeper levels of their thought and their deeper thought is wisdom the way their deeper affection is love. Their love and wisdom unite in speech. As a result, it is so full of wisdom that they can in a single word express what we cannot say in a thousand words; and the concepts of their thinking can encompass things the like of which we cannot grasp, let alone articu-late.¹⁴⁷ This is why the things that have been heard and seen in heaven are called inexpressible, such as ear has never heard, nor eye seen.¹⁴⁸

[2] I have been granted knowledge of this through experience as well. At times I have been conveyed into the state in which angels are and have talked with them in that state. At such times I understood everything, but when I returned to my original state and therefore into the normal thought processes of physical consciousness and wanted to recall what I had heard, I could not. There were a thousand things that would not fit into natural ideas and were therefore inexpressible except by subtle shifts of heavenly light, and not at all, then, in human words.

[3] The individual ideas of angels that give rise to their words are also variations in heaven's light; and the affections that give rise to the sounds of the words are variations of heaven's warmth. This is because heaven's light is divine truth or wisdom and heaven's warmth is divine good or love (see above, §§126-140), and angels receive their affection from divine love and their thought from divine wisdom.^b

Because angels' language flows directly from their affection (since their individual ideas are various forms into which their affections are apportioned, as noted above in §236), angels can express in a minute more than we can say in half an hour, and can present in a few words things that would make many pages of writing. This too has been witnessed to me by a great deal of experience.^c

Angels' individual ideas and the words of their language form a single whole the way an efficient cause does with an effect; for what is presented in the words as an effect is what is resident in the ideas as a cause.¹⁴⁹ This is why a single word contains so much within itself.

When the details of angels' thought and the consequent details of their language are presented in visual form, they look like a subtle wave

• b. Angels' concepts, from which they speak, arise through wondrous shifts of heaven's light: 1646, 3343, 3693.

• c. In their language, angels can express in a moment more than we can in half an hour in our language, and this includes things that by nature do not fit into the words of human language: 1641, 1642, 1643, 1645, 4609, 7089.

or flowing atmosphere in which there are countless elements in their own pattern, elements of their wisdom that enter into thought at a higher level and stir the affections. The individual ideas of anyone—whether an angel or one of us—can be presented visually in heaven's light when it so pleases the Lord.^d

Angels who live in the Lord's heavenly kingdom talk much the same way as angels who are citizens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom. However, heavenly angels talk from a deeper level of thought than spiritual angels do. Further, since heavenly angels are attuned to the good of love for the Lord, they talk from wisdom, while spiritual angels—being attuned to the good of thoughtfulness toward their neighbor (which in its essence is truth, see §215)—talk from intelligence. For wisdom comes from what is good and intelligence from what is true.

The speech of heavenly angels is like a gentle stream, soft and virtually unbroken, while the speech of spiritual angels is a little more resonant and crisp. Then too, the vowels U and O tend to predominate in the speech of heavenly angels, while in the speech of spiritual angels it is the vowels E and I.¹⁵⁰ The vowels stand for the sound and in the sound there is the affection; for as already noted (§236), the sound of angels' speech is responsive to their affection, and the articulations of the sound, or the words, correspond to the individual ideas that stem from their affection. For this reason, the vowels do not belong to the language but to a raising of its words, by means of sounds, toward various affections according to the state of each individual. So in Hebrew the vowels are not written and are also pronounced variously.¹⁵¹ This enables angels to recognize what someone's quality is in respect to affection and love.

Further still, the language of heavenly angels lacks any hard consonants and rarely puts two consonants together without inserting a word that begins with a vowel. This is why the little word and ¹⁵² is inserted so often in the Word, as can be determined by people who read the Word in Hebrew, in which language that word is soft and in either pronunciation

• d. There are countless things within a single concept: 1008, 1869, 4946, 6613, 6614, 6615, 6617, 6618. Our concepts are opened in the other life, with a vivid visual presentation of their quality: 1869, 3310, 5510. What they look like: 6201 [6200], 8885. The concepts of angels of the inmost heaven look like the light of a flame: 6615. The concepts of angels of the outmost heaven look like faint, bright clouds: 6614. An angel's concept was seen from which rays went forth toward the Lord: 6620. Concepts of thought reach out far and wide on all sides in angelic communities: 6598-6613.

is a vowel sound. We can also learn some of this from the vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible, since the words belong to either a heavenly or a spiritual category. That is, they involve either what is good or what is true, with the expressions involving what is good making ample use of the vowels U and O and to some extent A, and the expressions involving what is true making use of E and I.

Since affections are expressed primarily through sounds, words that use U and O are well loved in human language to express great matters like heaven and God. Musical sounds tend in this direction as they rise,¹⁵³ when they are dealing with such matters, but not when they are dealing with lesser things. This is why the art of music is so adept at expressing various kinds of affection.

There is a certain concord in angelic speech that is indescribable.^e This concord stems from the fact that the thoughts and affections that give rise to speech flow forth and spread out in keeping with heaven's form, heaven's form being what determines how everyone there associates and communicates. (See above, §§200-212, on the way heavens form determines how angels associate and the flow of their thoughts and affections.)

The same kind of speech we find in the spiritual world is innate in all of us, but in the deeper part of our intellect. However, since for us it does not come down into words that parallel our affections the way it does for angels, we are unaware that we possess it. Yet this is why we have access to the same language as spirits and angels when we arrive in the other life and know how to talk with them without being taught.^f But more on this below.¹⁵⁴

There is, as already noted, a single language for everyone in heaven; but it does vary, in that the language of wiser people is more profound and more full of shades of affections and specific concepts. The language of less wise individuals is less profound and not so full, and the language of simple people is still less profound, actually consisting of words that

• e. In angelic speech there is a harmonic, descending concord: 1648, 1649, 7191.

• f. The spiritual or angelic language is within us, even though we are not aware of it: 4014 [4104]. The concepts of our inner person are spiritual, but while we are living in this world, we perceive them in natural forms because we are thinking on the natural level: 10236, 10240, 10550. After death, we have access to our deeper concepts: 3226, 3342, 3343, 10568, 10604. These then constitute our language: 2470, 2478, 2479.

yield meaning only the way they do when we on earth talk with each other.

There is also a language of facial expressions that switch over to a sound modified by ideas, and a language in which images of heaven are combined with concepts and the concepts are presented visually. There is also a language of bodily movements responsive to affections and portraying the same things that their verbal expressions do. There is a language of shared affections and of shared thoughts; there is a thunderous language; and there are other languages as well.

The language of evil and hellish spirits is much the same, because it too stems from their affections, but it comes from evil affections and their foul concepts, which are utterly repugnant to angels.This means that the languages of hell are opposite to the languages of heaven. Evil people cannot stand angelic speech, and angels cannot stand hellish speech. To angels, hellish speech is like a rank odor that assaults the nostrils.

The language of hypocrites—people who can imitate angels of light—is like that of angels as far as its words are concerned, but exactly opposite in respect to its affections and their individual thoughts. So when the inner quality of their speech is perceived, as it is by wise angels, it sounds like a grinding of teeth and strikes horror into them.

A NGELS who talk with us do not talk in their own language but in ours, or in other languages in which we may be fluent—not in languages of which we have no knowledge. The reason for this is that when angels talk with us they turn toward us and unite with us; and one consequence of this union is that the two parties have much the same thought processes. Since our thinking is closely allied with our memory, and our language flows from it, the two parties share the same language. Further, when angels or spirits come to us and unite with us by turning toward us, they enter into our whole memory so completely that it seems

exactly as though they themselves know everything we know, including our languages.

• [2] I have talked with angels about this and said that they might suppose they were talking with me in my own mother tongue simply because it seemed that way, when in fact it was not they talking but I. This follows from the fact that angels cannot utter a single word of our human language (§237). Then too, human language is natural and they are spiritual, and spiritual beings cannot produce anything natural. They have answered that they knew that when they were talking with us their union with us was with our spiritual thinking, but since this spiritual thinking flowed into our natural thought, and this natural thinking is so closely allied with our memory, it seemed to them as though our language were their own, along with all our acquired knowledge. This is because it has pleased the Lord that there should be this kind of union and inner presence of heaven with us. However, they said, the state of humanity is now such that this kind of union is no longer with angels but with spirits who are not in heaven.¹⁵⁵

• [3] I have talked with spirits about this matter, too; but they wanted to believe not that we were talking but that they were talking within us, so that we did not really know what we know, but they did, which meant that everything we knew came from them. I wanted to convince them by many arguments that this was not the case but failed.

We will explain later just who are meant by “angels” and who by “spirits,” when we come to our description of the world of spirits.¹⁵⁶

The reason angels and spirits are so intimately united to us that it seems to them as though our characteristics were their own is that there is such an intimate union within us of the spiritual and the natural worlds that they are virtually one. However, because we have separated ourselves from heaven, the Lord has provided that there should be angels and spirits with each of us and that we should be governed by the Lord through them. This is the reason there is such an intimate union.

It would have been different if we had not separated ourselves, because then we could have been governed by the Lord through a general inflow from heaven without having spirits and angels assigned to us.

There will be more on this later, though, where we describe how heaven is united to us.¹⁵⁷

When angels and spirits talk with us, it sounds just as audible as when we talk with each other, but it is not audible to people who are nearby, only to ourselves. This is because the speech of an angel or spirit

flows first into our thought and then by an inner route into our organ of hearing so that it activates it from within. Our speech with each other flows first into the air and comes to our organ of hearing and activates it byan outward route. We can see from this that the speech of an angel or spirit with us is heard within us, and that since it activates our hearing mechanism just as much [as our speech with each other does], it is just as audible.

The fact that the speech of an angel or spirit flows down into the ear from within has been made clear to me from the way it flowed into my tongue as well and made it tremble slightly, though not with the actual motion involved when we are articulating the sounds of speech in the formation of words.

Talking with spirits is rarely allowed nowadays, though, because it is dangerous.^a The spirits then actually know that they are with us, which otherwise they would not; and evil spirits by nature harbor a murderous hatred for us and crave nothing less than our total destruction, body and soul. This is what actually goes on in people who regularly lose themselves in delusions, even to the point that they lose touch with the pleasures appropriate to their natural person.

There are some people who lead solitary lives who sometimes hear spirits talking with them without risk; but the Lord keeps these spirits a little space away so that they do not know they are with these individuals. Most spirits, you see, are not aware that there isany other world than the one they are living in or therefore that there are people anywhere else. So we are not allowed to talk back to them, since if we did, they would know.

People who are constantly thinking about religious matters, so wrapped up in them that they practically see them within themselves, also begin to hear spirits talking with them. This is because when we voluntarily get wrapped up in religious matters, no matter what kind, without the interruption of various useful activities in the [external] world, these matters enter into us very deeply and take substance there so that they occupy our whole spirit, move into the spiritual world, and affect spirits there. However, people like this are visionaries or fanatics, and no

• a. It is possible for us to talk with spirits and angels, and the early people often did talk with them: 67, 68, 69, 784, 1634, 1636, 7802. On some planets, angels and spirits appear in human form and talk with people: 10751, 10752. On our planet at present, though, it is dangerous to talk with spirits unless we are involved in true faith and are led by the Lord: 784, 9438 , 10751.

matter what spirit they hear, they believe it is the Holy Spirit, even though the spirits they hear are fanatical. Spirits like this see false things as true; and because they see them as true they convince themselves and also convince the people into whom they flow. Further, since spirits like this who command obedience have also begun to urge people to do evil things, they have gradually been moved away. Fanatical spirits can be differentiated from other spirits by the fact that they believe they are the Holy Spirit and that what they are saying is divine. They do not harm us, because we offer them divine worship.

I have talked with them on occasion and the unspeakable things they instill into their worshipers have come to light. They live all together toward the left, ¹⁵⁸ in a desert area.

Conversation with angels is not granted, though, except to people who are focused on truths that flow from good intent, especially people who acknowledge the Lord and the divine nature within his human nature, because this is the truth in which heaven exists. For as already noted, the Lord is heaven's God (§§2-6); the Lord's divine nature makes heaven (§§7-12); the Lord's divine nature in heaven is love for him and thoughtfulness from him toward one's neighbor (§§13-19); and the whole heaven, grasped as a single entity, reflects a single individual, as does each community of heaven; and each individual angel has a perfect human form because of the Lord's divine human nature (§§59-86). We can see from this that conversation with angels is not granted except to people whose deeper levels have been opened by divine truths all the way to the Lord, since it is into these that the Lord flows within us, and when the Lord flows in, so does heaven.

The reason divine truths open our deeper levels is that we have been so created that our inner person is an image of heaven and our outer an image of the world (§57); and our inner person is opened only by the divine truth that emanates from the Lord, because this is the light and the life of heaven (§§126-140).

The inflow of the Lord himself into us is into the forehead and from there into the whole face.^b The inflow of the spiritual angels who are with us is into our head overall, from the forehead and temples to the

• b. The forehead corresponds to heavenly love, and therefore means that love in the Word: 9936. The face corresponds to our deeper levels, which have to do with thought and affection: 1568, 2988, 2989, 3631, 4796, 4797, 4800, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306. So too, the face is formed to be responsive to our more inward natures: 4791-4805, 5695. So the face in the Word means our deeper natures: 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796.

whole region that covers the cerebrum, because this area corresponds to our intelligence. In contrast, the inflow of heavenly angels is into the part of the head that covers the cerebellum and is called the occiput, from one ear to the other and down to the neck, since this area corresponds to our wisdom.

All the speech of angels comes into our thoughts by these two paths. This has enabled me to notice just which angels were talking with me.

People who talk with heaven's angels also see the things that are in heaven because they are seeing in that light of heaven that surrounds their inner levels. Not only that, through them angels see things that are on our earth.^c For people who talk with angels, heaven is actually united to our world and our world to heaven; for as already noted (§246), when angels turn toward us they unite themselves with us so completely that it seems to them exactly as though whatever is ours is actually theirs. This applies not only to elements of our language but to what is involved in our sight and hearing. In addition, it seems to us exactly as though the things that are flowing in through the angels are really ours.

The earliest humans on our planet enjoyed this kind of union with heaven's angels, which is why their times are called the Golden Age. Because they acknowledged the Divine in human form and therefore were acknowledging the Lord, they talked with heaven's angels as they did with members of their own family, and heaven's angels talked with them in the same way; and in them heaven and this world were a single whole.

But after those times, people moved step by step away from heaven by loving themselves more than the Lord and the world more than heaven. So they began to feel the pleasures of self-love and love of the world separately from the pleasures of heaven, ultimately to the point where they did not know there was any other kind of pleasure. Then their deeper levels were closed, the levels that open into heaven, while their outer levels were open to the world. Once this has happened, we are in the light in respect to everything in this world and in darkness in respect to everything in heaven.

Since those times people have seldom talked with heaven's angels, though some have talked with spirits who are not in heaven. Our inner and outer levels can by their nature be turned toward the Lord as their

• c. Spirits cannot see, through us, anything that is in this subsolar world; but they have seen through my eyes, and why: 1880.

common center (§ 124), or toward ourselves and therefore away from the Lord. The ones that are turned toward the Lord are also turned toward heaven, while the ones that are turned toward ourselves are also turned toward this world; and the ones that are turned in this latter direction are hard to raise up. Still, they are raised up by the Lord to the extent that they can be, through a turning of our love; and this is accomplished by means of truths from the Word.

I have been told how the Lord spoke to the prophets through whom the Word was written. He did not talk with them the way he did with the early people, by an inflow into their deeper natures, but through spirits sent to them whom the Lord filled with his appearance. In this way, he inspired them with the words that they in turn told to the prophets, so that it was not a case of inflow but of direct command. Since at that time the words were coming directly from the Lord, the very details are filled with the Divine and contain within themselves an inner meaning of such nature that heaven's angels take them in a heavenly and spiritual meaning while we are taking them in a natural meaning. In this way, the Lord unites heaven and earth through the Word.

I have also been shown how the Lord fills spirits with his divine nature by means of his appearance. Spirits filled with the Divine by the Lord have no sense whatever that they are not actually the Lord or that it is not the Lord who is speaking, which lasts as long as they are talking. Afterward they realize and admit that they are spirits and that they were not talking on their own, but from the Lord.

Because this was the state of the spirits who talked with the prophets, they themselves said that Jehovah was talking. The spirits actually called themselves “Jehovah,” as can be seen not only in the prophetic books but also in the historical books of the Word.¹⁵⁹

To illustrate what the union of angels and spirits with us is like, I may cite a few memorable instances that will serve to illuminate the subject and enable some conclusions to be drawn. When angels and spirits turn toward us, it seems to them exactly as though our language were their own and that they have no other. This is because they are involved in our language at such times, and do not even remember their own. The moment they turn away from us, though, they are back in their own angelic and spiritual language and have no knowledge whatever of ours. The same thing has happened with me when I have been in the company of angels and in a state like theirs. Then I have talked with them in their language and knew nothing of my own. I could not even remember it.

However, the moment I was no longer in their company I was back in my own language.

[2] It is also worth noting that when angels and spirits turn toward us, they can talk with us even from a great distance. They have talked with me from far off just as audibly as though they were nearby. Still, when they turn away from us and talk with each other, nothing of what they say is audible to us even though this is happening right next to our ears. This has enabled me to see that in the spiritual world, all union depends on the way people are facing.

[3] Again, it is worth noting that many of them can talk with one of us at the same time, and that person with them. They send some particular spirit from themselves to the individual with whom they want to talk, and this envoy spirit turns toward the person while the others turn toward their [envoy] spirit and so concentrate their thoughts, which the spirit then presents. It seems to such envoys entirely as though they were talking on their own, and to the others as though they themselves were. So a union of several with one is achieved by the way they face.^d But we will say more later about these envoy spirits, called agents, and the communication that takes place through them.¹⁶⁰

No angel or spirit is allowed to talk with one of us from the angel's or spirit's own memory, only from that of the individual in question. Angels and spirits actually have memory just as we do. If a spirit were to talk with us from his or her own memory, then it would seem to us entirely as though the thoughts were our own, when they would really belong to the spirit. It is like remembering something that we have never seen or heard. I have been granted knowledge of the truth of this by experience.

This is why some of the ancients were of the opinion that after some thousands of years they would return to their former life and all its deeds, and that they had in fact returned. They gathered this from the fact that sometimes a kind of memory would come up of things that they had never seen or heard. This happened because spirits had flowed from their own memory into the images of these people's thoughts.

There are also spirits called natural and physical spirits who do not unite with our thoughts when they come to us the way other spirits do but rather enter our bodies and take over all its senses, talking through

• d. Spirits sent out by communities of spirits to other communities are called “agents”: 4403, 5856. Communications in the spiritual world take place by means of such envoy spirits: 4403, 5856, 5983. Spirits who have been sent out and are serving as agents do not think on their own but from the spirits who sent them: 5985, 5986, 5987.

our mouths and acting through our limbs. It seems to them entirely as though everything of ours were theirs. These are the spirits that possess people; but they have been cast into hell by the Lord and moved decisively away; so possession like this no longer occurs nowadays.^e

SINCE angels do have language and their language is one of words, they also have written materials; and through those written materials just as through their conversation, they express what their minds are sensing. I have sometimes been sent pages covered with writing, just like pages handwritten or printed and published in our world. I could even read them in much the same way, but I was not allowed to get more out of them than a bit of meaning here and there. This was because it is not in keeping with the divine design to be taught by written materials from heaven, but [only] by the Word, since this is the sole means of communication and union between heaven and earth, and therefore between the Lord and humanity.

We gather from Ezekiel that pages written in heaven appeared to the prophets as well:

When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me by the spirit, and in it the scroll of a book that he unrolled in my sight. It was written on the front and on the back. (Ezekiel 2:9-10)¹⁶¹

And in John,

I saw in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. (Revelation 5:1)

The occurrence of written materials in the heavens is provided by the Lord for the sake of the Word, for in its essence the Word is the divine

• e. External or physical possession no longer occurs today the way it used to: 1983. Now, however, there is more internal, mental possession than there used to be: 1983, 4793. We are possessed more inwardly when we entertain filthy thoughts and libels against God and our neighbor and when we are kept from airing them only by the outward restraints imposed by our fear of losing reputation, respect, profit, legal standing, or life: 5990. On the diabolic spirits who primarily possess our deeper levels: 4793. On the diabolic spirits who want to possess our more outward levels, who are pent up in the hells: 2752, 5990.

truth from which both angels and people on earth get all their wisdom. It has in fact been spoken by the Lord, and what is spoken by the Lord passes through all the heavens in sequence and comes to rest with us. In this way it is adapted both to the wisdom that angels enjoy and to the intelligence that we do. As a result, angels have a Word that they read just as much as we do ours. They draw their doctrinal principles from it, and their sermons come from it (§221). It is the same Word; but its natural meaning, which to us is its literal meaning, does not exist in heaven. There is a spiritual meaning there instead, which is its inner meaning. The nature of this meaning may be seen in the booklet The White Horse Described in the Book of Revelation.¹⁶²

Another time I was sent a small page from heaven with only a few wo rds written on it in Hebrew letters. I was told that each letter enfolded tre as ures of wisdom, and that these were contained in the bends and curves of the letters and theref ore in the sounds as well. I could see f rom this the meaning of the Lord's words, “I tell you in truth, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass away from the Law” (Matthew 5:18).¹⁶³ It is acknowledged in the church that the Word is divine right down to the smallest point, but where in each point the Divine lies hidden—that is not known as yet, so it needs to be explained. In the inmost heaven, the writing consists of various curvin g and bending forms, and these curves and bends are in keeping with the form of heaven. Through them, angels express the treasures of their wisdom, including many things that they cannot say in words. Beli e ve it or not, the angels know this writing without practice or teachers. They are inw ardly gifted with it as they are with the language itself (§2 36), so this writing is heavenly writing. The reason they are inwardly gifted with it is that all the outreach of angels' thoughts and affections and therefo re all communication of their intelligence and wisdom takes place in keeping with heaven's form (§2 01). This is why their writing flows into that same form.

I have been told that before letters were invented, the earliest humans on our planet had this kind of writing, and that it was transferred into the Hebrew letters, which in early times were all curved, with none marked off by straight lines the way they are now. This is why there are divine things and treasures of heaven in the Word even in its jots and points and little horns.

This writing, which uses symbols of the heavenly form, is in use in the inmost heaven, whose inhabitants enjoy greater wisdom than others. It

expresses the affections from which their thoughts flow and which follow in sequence according to the substance of the matter under consideration. This is why these writings enfold treasures that cannot be completely drawn out by thought. I have also been allowed to see these writings.

In the lower heavens, though, there are no written materials of this sort. The written materials there are much like those in our world, with similar letters. However, they are still not intelligible to people on earth because they are written in an angelic language, and angelic language by nature has nothing in common with our languages (§237). They express affections through the vowels; with the consonants they express the particular concepts that derive from the affections, and with the words they express the meaning of the matter (§§236, 241).

Further, this writing enfolds in a few words more than we can describe in several pages. I have seen these written materials as well.

This means that they have a written Word in the lower heavens, and one expressed through heavenly forms in the inmost heaven.

It is worth knowing that in the heavens, writing flows spontaneously from thoughts. It is done with such ease that it is as though the thought projected itself. The hand does not pause over the choice of some particular word, because the words—both the spoken and the written ones— are responsive to their individual thoughts, and anything that is so responsive is natural and spontaneous.

There are also things written in the heavens without the use of hands, simply in response to thoughts; but these do not last.

I have also seen written materials in heaven comprising nothing but numbers arranged in a pattern and series, just like the writing of letters and words; and I have been told that these writings come from the inmost heaven, whose heavenly writing (described above in §§260-261) comes out as numbers for angels in the lower heavens when thought from the higher heaven flows down. I have also been told that this numerical writing enfolds mysteries, some of which cannot be grasped by thought or expressed in words. All numbers do in fact correspond and have meaning depending on their correspondence, just as words do,^a but with the difference that numbers represent general entities and words

• a. All the numbers in the Word mean particular things: 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4674 [4670], 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253; shown from heaven: 4495, 5265. Multiples mean the same thing as their factors: 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973. The early people conveyed heavenly mysteries by numbers—a kind of ecclesiastical algebra: 575. specific ones. Since one general entity involves countless specific ones, numeric writing enfolds more mysteries than alphabetic writing does.

I could see from this that numbers in the Word mean things just the way words do. What the simple numbers mean, like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 10, and 12, and what the composite ones mean, like 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 144, 1000, 10,000, and 12,000 and others, may be seen in Secrets of Heaven, where such matters are dealt with.¹⁶⁴

In this kind of writing in heaven the number on which the following numbers depend in sequence is always put first, as though it set their theme; for this number is a kind of title of the matter under consideration, and the numbers that follow serve to delimit the matter more specifically.

If people have no concept of heaven and do not want any concept of it other than one of some insubstantial atmosphere in which angels fly around like intellectual minds without the senses of hearing and sight, they cannot believe that angels have language and writing. They locate the entire presence of everything in matter. Yet the things that one finds in heaven occur with just as much reality as those in our world, and the angels who are there have everything they need for life, and everything they need for wisdom.

THE nature of the wisdom of heaven's angels is almost beyond comprehension because it so transcends human wisdom that there are no means of comparison, and anything transcendent seems to be nothing at all. Still, there are a few overlooked means that can be used for description, means which until they are recognized seem like shadows in the mind and actually obscure the nature of the matter as it is in itself. Yet they are the kinds of things that can be known, and can be understood once they are known, if only the mind takes delight in them; for since delight arises from love, it has a light with it; and for people who love matters of divine and heavenly wisdom, that light radiates from heaven and provides them with enlightenment.

We may gather what angels' wisdom is like from the fact that they live in heaven's light, and in its essence heaven's light is divine truth or divine wisdom. This light illuminates at one and the same time both their inner sight, which is mental, and their outer sight, the sight of their eyes. (On heaven's light being divine truth or divine wisdom, see above, §§126-133.) Angels also live in heaven’s warmth, which in its essence is divine good or divine love, and from this comes their affection and longing for wisdom. (On heaven’s warmth being divine good or divine love, see above, §§133-140.)

Angels enjoy wisdom to the point that they might be called “wisdoms,” as we may gather from the fact that all the elements of their thoughts and affections flow according to the heavenly form, which form is the form of divine wisdom, and further that their more inward levels, which are open to wisdom, are framed according to this form. (On angels’ thoughts and affections, and therefore their intelligence and wisdom as well, flowing according to heaven’s form, see above, §§201-212.)

• [2] We may further infer the excellence of angels’ wisdom from the fact that their speech is the speech of wisdom. It actually flows directly and¹⁶⁵ freely from their thought, which in turn comes from their affection, so that their speech is their thought from¹⁶⁶ affection in an external form. Consequently, nothing draws them away from the divine inflow: there is none of that external matter that for us keeps intruding into our speech from thoughts about other things. (On angels’ speech being the speech of their thought and affection, see §§234-245.)

It also contributes to this kind of angelic wisdom that everything they see with their eyes and perceive with their senses is in harmony with their wisdom. This is because all these things are correspondences and therefore the objects of their senses are forms that portray elements proper to their wisdom. (On the fact that everything visible in heaven is in correspondence with the deeper levels of the angels and is representative of their wisdom, see above, §§170-182.)

• [3] Further, angels’ thoughts are not bounded and constrained by concepts drawn from space and time the way ours are; for space and time are properties of nature, and properties of nature distract the mind from spiritual things and deprive our intellectual sight of breadth. (On angels’ concepts being devoid of time and space and therefore unlimited, relative to ours, see above, §§162-169 and 191-199.)

Angels' thoughts are not diverted to earthly and material concerns or interrupted by the cares and needs of life, so they are not distracted by such things from the joys of wisdom the way our thoughts are in this world. They are given everything by the Lord gratis: they are clothed gratis, fed gratis, housed gratis (§§181-190); and beyond this, they are provided with joys and pleasures in proportion to their acceptance of wisdom from the Lord.

All this has been presented to show where angels derive this kind of wisdom.^a

The reason angels can accept so much wisdom is that their deeper levels are open, and wisdom, like any perfection, increases as one moves toward the deeper levels and as they are opened.^b

In every angel there are three levels of life corresponding to the three heavens (see §§29-40). People whose first level has been opened are in the first or most remote heaven. People whose second level has been opened are in the second or intermediate heaven. People whose third level has been opened are in the third or inmost heaven. The wisdom of angels in heaven is according to these levels; so the wisdom of angels of the third heaven vastly transcends the wisdom of angels of the intermediate heaven, and their wisdom in turn transcends that of angels of the farthest heaven (see above, §§209-210, and on the nature of the levels, see §38).

The reason for these differences is that the elements of the higher levels are detailed, and those of the lower are general, the general ones being inclusive of the details. The ratio of details to generalizations is on the order of thousands or ten thousands to one, so this is the ratio between the wisdom of angels of a higher heaven and that of angels of a lower heaven.

However, the wisdom of these latter angels similarly transcends our wisdom, for we are engrossed in our bodies and their sensory operations,

• a. On angels' wisdom—that it is incomprehensible and inexpressible: 2795, 2796, 2802, 3314, 3404, 3405, 9094, 9176.

• b. To the extent that we are raised from more outward to more inward concerns, we come into the light and therefore into intelligence: 6183, 6313. This raising really happens: 7816, 10330. Being raised from outer to more inward concerns is like rising from a fog into the light: 4598. Our more outward levels are farther from the Divine and therefore relatively cloudy: 6451; and also relatively disorganized: 996, 3855. Our deeper levels are more perfect because they are nearer the Divine: 5146, 5147. In our inner nature there are thousands and thousands of things that outwardly look like a single generalization: 5707. So the deeper our thought and perception are, the clearer they are: 5920.

and these physical sensory faculties are on the lowest level of all. This fact enables us to see the nature of the wisdom of people who base their thinking on sensory information—that is, the ones we call sense-oriented people. Specifically, they have no access to wisdom, only to information.^c It is different, though, for people whose thoughts are raised above sensory matters, and even more for people whose deeper levels have been opened all the way into heaven's light.

We may gather how great angels' wisdom is from the fact that in heaven there is a communication that involves everyone. The intelligence and wisdom of one individual is shared with another: heaven is where everyone shares everything of value. This is because the very nature of heavenly love is to want what is one's own to belong to another; so no one in heaven regards his or her good as authentically good unless it is someone else's as well. This is also the basis of heaven's happiness. Angels are led into it by the Lord, whose divine love has this same quality.

I have also been granted knowledge, by experience, of this kind of communication in the heavens. Once some simple people were taken up into heaven, and after they had arrived, they arrived also at an angelic wisdom. They understood things they could not grasp before and said things they could not express in their former state.

Words are not adequate to describe the quality of angels' wisdom—it can be suggested only by some generalizations. Angels can express in a single word what we cannot express in a thousand words. Further, in a single angelic word there are countless things that are beyond the capacity of human words to convey. In the details of angelic speech there are actually treasures of wisdom in unbroken connection, utterly beyond the reach of human knowledge. Then too, what angels cannot evoke with the words of their language they fill in with the sound, which embodies

• c. The sensory level is the outmost level of our life, associated with and resident in our bodies: 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730. We call people sense-oriented if they base all their judgments and conclusions on their physical senses and believe nothing unless they see it with their eyes and touch it with their hands: 5094, 7693. People like this think on their outward level and not deeply within themselves: 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693. Their deeper levels are closed, so that they do not see any element of spiritual truth there: 6564, 6844, 6845. In short, they are people who live in the gross light of nature and therefore do not perceive anything that arises from heaven's light: 6201, 6310, 6564, 6844, 6845, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624. Inwardly, they are opposed to the principles of heaven and the church: 6201, 6316, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949. Scholars who have made up their minds against the truths of the church are like this: 6316. Sense-oriented people are especially wily and malicious: 7693, 10236. They reason acutely and skillfully, but on the basis of their physical memory, which for them is the location of all intelligence: 195, 196, 5700, 10236. However, this is based on sensory illusions: 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693.

their sensitivity to the proper arrangement of things; for as already noted (§§236, 241), they express their affections through the sounds and the concepts derived from their affections through the words. This is why the things that people have heard in heaven are called ineffable.

Angels can also state completely in a few words the details that are written in a whole volume, giving each word something that raises it toward a deeper wisdom. Their language by nature agrees with their affections, and every word agrees with their concepts. The words actually vary in infinite shadings depending on the way they express in sequence things that are simultaneous in their thought.

• [2] The more inward angels can even tell a speaker's whole life from the tone of voice and a few words. From the way the sound is differentiated by concepts into words, they actually perceive the speaker's ruling love, in which, so to speak, the very details of life are engraved.^d

We can see from all this what angels' wisdom is like. Relative to our wisdom, it is on the order of ten thousands to one. It is like the ratio between the motor energies of the body, which are countless, to some act that results from them, which to our senses seems like a single event. Or it is like the thousands of things we see through a perfect microscope compared to the one fuzzy thing we see with the naked eye.¹⁶⁷

• [3] I should also like to illustrate the matter with one example. An angel, out of his¹⁶⁸ wisdom, described the process of regeneration¹⁶⁹ and presented mysteries about it in their proper sequence, amounting to a hundred. He filled out each single mystery with concepts containing even deeper mysteries, and did this from beginning to end, explaining how the spiritual person is conceived anew; is carried in the womb, so to speak; is born; matures; and is gradually perfected. He said that he could multiply the number of mysteries into the thousands, and that the things he was talking about involved only the regeneration of the outer person. There were countless more about the regeneration of the inner person.

This and other things of the same sort that I have heard from angels have shown me how much wisdom they have and how much ignorance

• d. The love that rules or governs throughout is present within us in the details of our life, so it is present in every detail of our thought and affection: 4459, 5949, 6159, 6571, 7648, 8067, 8853-8858. Our nature is determined by our ruling love: 918 [917], 1040, 8858; illustrated by examples: 8854, 8857. Whatever rules throughout constitutes the life of our spirit: 7648. This is our essential intent, our essential love, and the goal of our life, because what we intend is what we love, and what we love is what we set as our goal: 1317, 1568, 1571, 1909, 3796, 5949, 6936. Therefore our intent, or our ruling love, or the goal of our life, determines the kind of person we are: 1568, 1571, 3570, 4054, 6571, 6934 [6935], 6938, 8856, 10076, 10109, 10110, 10284. we have by comparison, with hardly any knowledge of what regeneration is and no awareness of a single step when we are being regenerated.

I need now to say something about the wisdom of the angels of the third or inmost heaven, and about how much it surpasses the wisdom of the first or outmost heaven.

The wisdom of angels of the third or inmost heaven is beyond comprehension, even for angels of the first or outmost heaven. This is because the inner natures of angels of the third heaven are opened at the third level, while those of angels of the first heaven are open only at the first level; and all wisdom increases as you move toward the deeper levels and is perfected as they are opened (§§208, 267).

• [2] Since the inner levels of angels of the third heaven are opened at the third level, they have divine truths virtually engraved on them, for inner matters at the third level are more in heaven's form than those at the second and first level. Heaven's form arises from divine truth and therefore is in agreement with divine wisdom. This is why divine truths seem to these angels to be engraved, or to be instinctive and innate. Because of this, as soon as they hear genuine divine truths, they immediately acknowledge and grasp them and from then on virtually see them within themselves. Because this is characteristic of angels of this heaven, they never try to figure out¹⁷⁰ divine truths, much less argue whether some particular truth is true or not. They do not know what it is to believe or have faith, but say, “What is faith? I perceive and see that this is so.” They offer a comparison by way of illustration. It would be like someone seeing a house and various things in and around it and telling someone with him that he ought to believe that they existed and that they were what they seemed to be. Or it would be like someone seeing a garden with trees and fruit in it and telling someone that she should have faith that it was a garden and that those were trees and fruit when she could see them plainly with her own eyes. So these angels never call “faith” by name and in fact have no concept of it. This is why they do not try to figure out divine truths, much less argue whether any particular truth is true or not.^e

• e. Heavenly angels know countless things and are vastly wiser than spiritual angels: 2718. Heavenly angels do not think and talk on the basis of faith the way spiritual angels do, because they are gifted by the Lord with a perception of everything that has to do with faith: 202, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387 [1389], 1398, 1442, 1919, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277, 10336. Concerning truths of faith, they simply say, “Yes, yes,” or “No, no,” whereas spiritual angels try to calculate whether it is true: 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786; an explanation of the Lord's words, “Let your speech be yes, yes, no, no”: Matthew 5:36 [5:37].

• [3] In contrast, angels of the first or outmost heaven do not have divine truths engraved on their inner natures in this way because for them only the first level of life has been opened. So they do try to figure things out, and people who are calculating in this way see little more than the subject they are puzzling over. They do not go beyond that subject except to find support for their conclusions, and once they have decided, they say that these should be matters of faith and are to be believed.

• [4] I h ave talk e d a bout th i s wi t h a n ge ls, w ho h ave tol d me t h a t t h e di f f ere n ce be t wee n t h e wisd o m o f a ngels o f t he t h ird he a ve n a nd t he w is d o m of ang el s of t h e fi r st h e a ven i s li ke th e diffe re nc e b etwee n someth i n g bri gh t an d s o me t h in g d a rk . Or a gain, the y h ave c o mpare d the wi sdom o f a ngels o f t h e thi rd h e ave n to a p a lac e f ul l o f eve ry t hi n g u sefu l, surro u n d e d f ar an d wi d e by pa rkla nds, w i t h a l l so rts o f splendi d t hing s beyon d . Si nc e the se ang el s e n j oy truths o f wi sdom , t hey ca n enter th e p a lac e a nd s ee e ve ryth in g t h ere.T h ey ca n stroll a n yw h ere in t he p a rk s and e njoy w ha t eve r the y s ee . It is d i f f erent for pe ople who are t ry i n g to fi gu re th in g s out, though, an d even m o re so for pe ople who argue ab o u t t h em. T h es e i n di v idual s d o not s ee t ru t hs in th e l ight of t ru t h, but ado p t t hem e ithe r f ro m o th er pe ople o r from t h e li t e ra l m ea n i n g of the Word, wh ic h t h ey d o not un d ers t and in depth. So th e y s ay t ha t t ru th s m u st be be l i eved or t h a t p e o p le m us t ha ve fa ith in thi n gs —th i n gs that the y the n d o not w ant an yone l ook in g in t o ve ry de e p l y. T he ang els k e p t sayi n g th at th e se p eo p l e c ould not g et to t he f irst t hre s h o l d of th e p alac e , m u ch l e s s e nter it a nd st roll a round in i ts parks, b e caus e the y a re s tu ck at th e f irst s t e p. It is di f f e re n t for pe ople wh o are e n gag ed i n ac t u a l t ru t h s . Nothi ng k ee ps the m f ro m mov i n g a h ea d wi t h o u t li m i t ; f o r onc e t ru th s h ave b een s ee n the y l ea d o n whe rever th e y are he ade d , e ve n in t o sp a ci ous mea dows, b ec au se e ve ry t ruth has an i nfi ni t e o u t re ac h a nd i s u ni t e d t o man y, man y othe r s.

• [5] They also said that the wisdom of angels of the inmost heaven consists primarily of their seeing divine and heavenly things in individual objects and wonders in series of objects, for everything that appears to their eyes has a correspondence. When they see palaces and gardens, for instance, their insight does not dwell on the things in front of their eyes but sees the deeper things they stem from, the things, that is, to which they correspond. This goes on with constant variety in keeping with the appearance of the objects; so at any given time there are countless things in a pattern and a connectedness so delightful to their minds that they seem to be transported. (Everything that is visible in the heavens corresponds to something divine that is from the Lord in angels, see §§170-176.)

The reason angels of the third heaven are like this is that they are centered in love for the Lord, and that love opens the deeper levels of the mind to the third level and is open to and retentive of all wisdom. It should also be known that angels of the inmost heaven are constantly being even more perfected in wisdom and that this too happens differently than for angels of the outmost heaven. Angels of the inmost heaven do not store up divine truths in their memory or translate them into information. Rather, as soon as they hear them, they grasp them and apply them to their lives. This is why divine truths for them are virtually engraved, because anything that is committed to life is to that extent internalized. It is different, though, for angels of the outmost heaven. They first assign divine truths to their memory and store them in the form of information. Then they retrieve them and use them to perfect their understanding; and without any deeper grasp of their truth, they intend them and commit them to life. Consequently, things are relatively cloudy for them.

It is worth noting that angels of the third heaven are perfected in wisdom through hearing rather than through seeing. What they hear through preaching does not go into their memory but directly into their perception and intention and becomes a matter of their life. What they see with their eyes, though, does go into their memory, and they think and talk about it. This has enabled me to see that the path of hearing is the path of wisdom for them. This too is because of correspondence, since the ear corresponds to obedience, and obedience has to do with the way we live; while the eye corresponds to intelligence, and intelligence is a matter of doctrine.^f The state of these angels is described in many places in the Word; for instance in Jeremiah:

I will put my law in their mind and write it on their heart. No longer will anyone teach a friend or a brother by saying “Know the Lord,” for all the people there are will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

And in Matthew,

Let your conversation be “Yes, yes; no, no,” for anything beyond this comes from evil. (Matthew 5:36 [5:37] )

• f. On the correspondence of the ear and hearing: 4652-4660. The ear corresponds to perception and obedience and therefore refers to them: 2542, 3869, 4653, 5017, 7216, 8361, 9311, 9397, 10065 [10061]. It means the acceptance of truths: 5471, 5475, 9926. On the correspondence of the eye and its sight: 4403-4421, 4523-4534. Eyesight therefore means the intelligence of faith and also faith itself: 2701, 4410, 4526, 6923, 9051, 10569.

The reason anything beyond this comes from evil is that it is not from the Lord; for the truths that are resident within angels of the third heaven are from the Lord because they are centered in a love for him. Love for the Lord in that heaven is intending and doing divine truth, for divine truth is the Lord in heaven.

There is still another reason, beyond the ones already given, why angels can accept so much wisdom, a reason that in heaven is actually the primary one. It is that they are free of any selfishness;¹⁷¹ for to the extent that people are free of selfishness they can be wise in divine matters. Selfishness is what closes off our deeper natures from the Lord and heaven and opens our outer natures and turns them toward ourselves. So all people in whom that selfish love predominates are in the depths of darkness as far as heavenly realities are concerned, no matter how much light they may enjoy in regard to worldly matters. In contrast, since angels are free of that love, they enjoy the light of wisdom. The heavenly loves in which they are centered—love for the Lord and love for their neighbor—open the deeper levels because these loves come from the Lord and the Lord himself is within them. (These loves constitute heaven in general and form heaven in individuals in particular: §§13-19.)

Since heavenly loves open our deeper levels toward the Lord, all the angels turn their faces toward the Lord (§142): in the spiritual world love is what turns the deeper levels of every individual toward itself, and what turns the deeper levels turns the face, since the face there acts in unison with the deeper levels and is actually their outward form. Further, because love does turn the deeper levels and the face toward itself, it also unites itself to them, since love is spiritual union. Therefore it also shares what it has with them. It is from this turning and the consequent union and sharing that angels get their wisdom (all union in the spiritual world takes place according to the way people are facing, §255).

Angels are constantly being perfected in wisdom,^g but still they cannot to eternity be so perfected that there is any ratio between their wisdom and the Lord's divine wisdom. For the Lord's divine wisdom is infinite and the angels' is finite, and there is no ratio between the infinite and the finite.

Since wisdom perfects angels and makes their life, and since heaven with its blessings flows into individuals according to their wisdom, all the people there long for it and seek it, much the way a hungry person

• g. Angels are being perfected to eternity: 4803, 6648. seeks food. In fact, information, intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual nourishment the way food is natural nourishment. They correspond to each other.

The angels in any given heaven—even the angels in any given community—do not enjoy the same wisdom, but differ. Those in the center have the most wisdom, while those who have less are around them all the way to the borders. The decrease of wisdom according to the distance from the center is like the decrease in light as it tends toward darkness (see above, §§43, 128). Further, the light for them is on a consistent level, since heaven's light is divine wisdom and each individual is in light in proportion to his or her acceptance of it. (On heaven's light and the different ways it is accepted, see above, §§126-132.)

NOT many people in our world know what innocence is or what its quality is, and people involved in evil do not know at all. It is, of course, visible to our eyes—something about the face and the voice and the gestures, especially of infants—but still we do not know what it is, much less that it is where heaven lies concealed within us. To make it known, I should like to proceed in order and talk first about the innocence of infancy, and then about the innocence of wisdom, and finally about the state of heaven in respect to innocence.

The innocence of infancy, or of little ones, is not real innocence, since it is solely a matter of outward form and not internal. Still, we can learn from it what innocence is like, since it does radiate from their faces and from some of their gestures and from their first efforts at speech and affects [the people around them. The reason it is not real innocence is]¹⁷² that they do not have any internal thought—they do not yet know what good and evil are, or what true and false are, and this knowledge is the basis of our thinking. [2] As a result, they do not have any foresight of their own, no premeditation, and therefore no intent of evil. They have no self-image acquired through love for themselves and the world. They do not claim credit for anything, but attribute everything they receive to their parents. They are content with the few little things given them as gifts and enjoy them. They are not anxious about food and clothing or about the future. They do not focus on the world and covet¹⁷³ much from it. They love their parents, their nurse, and their little friends and play innocently with them. They are willing to be led, they listen and obey; [3] and since they are in this state, they accept everything as a matter of life. So they have suitable habits, language, and the beginnings of memory and thought without knowing where these gifts come from; and their state of innocence serves as a means of accepting and absorbing them. However, since this innocence is strictly a matter of the body and not of the mind,^a as already noted, it is external. Their mind is not yet formed, since the mind is our discernment and volition and the thought and affection that come from them.

• [4] I have been told from heaven that infants are especially in the Lord's care, and that there is an inflow from the central heaven, where the state is one of innocence, that passes through infants' deeper natures, affecting those natures in its passage only through innocence. This is the source of the innocence they present to our view in their faces and in some of their gestures. It is what deeply affects their parents and creates the love called storge.¹⁷⁴

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The innocence of wisdom is real innocence because it is internal, being a property of the mind itself and therefore of our volition itself and our consequent understanding. When there is innocence in these, then there is wisdom as well, because wisdom is a property of volition and understanding. That is why they say in heaven that innocence dwells in wisdom and why angels have as much wisdom as they do innocence. They support the truth of this by observing that people in a state of innocence do not take credit for anything good, but ascribe and attribute everything to the Lord. They want to be led by him and not by themselves, they love everything that is good and delight in everything that is true because they know and perceive that loving what is good—that is,

• a. The innocence of infants is not real innocence—real innocence dwells in wisdom: 1616, 2305, 2306, 3495 [3494], 4563, 4797, 5608, 9301, 10021 . The good of infancy is not spiritual good; that comes into being through the implanting of truth: 3504. Still, the innocence of infancy is a means through which intelligence is sown: 1616, 3183, 9301, 10110. Without the good of innocence in infancy, we would be wild: 3494. Whatever is absorbed in infancy seems to be part of our nature: 3494.

intending and doing good—is loving the Lord, and loving what is true is loving their neighbor. They live content with what they have, whether it is little or much, because they know that they receive as much as is useful—little if little is good for them and much if much is good for them. They do not know what is best for themselves—only the Lord knows; and in his sight everything he supplies is eternal. [2] So they have no anxiety about the future, but refer to anxiety about the future as “care for the morrow,”¹⁷⁵ which they say is pain at losing or not getting things that are not needed for their life's useful activities. They never collaborate with friends from evil intent, but only from good, fair, and honest intent. To act from evil intent, they say, is guile, which they avoid like the poison of a snake because it is diametrically opposed to innocence. Since their greatest love is to be led by the Lord, and since they ascribe everything to him, they are kept away from their self-centeredness, and to the extent that they are kept away from their self-centeredness, the Lord flows in. This is why they do not store in their memory what they hear from him, whether through the Word or through preaching, but immediately heed it, that is, intend and do it. Their intention itself is their memory. They appear extraordinarily simple in outward form, but they are wise and provident inwardly. They are the ones the Lord was referring to when he said, “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves” (Matthew 10:16). This is the nature of the innocence called the innocence of wisdom.

[3] Since innocence does not take credit for anything good but ascribes it all to the Lord, and since innocence loves to be led by the Lord, giving rise to that acceptance of everything good and true that leads to wisdom, we have been so created as to be in an outward innocence when we are little, but in an inward innocence in old age, to come to the latter through the former. So when we do get old, our bodies deteriorate and we become like little children again—but like wise little children or angels, for in the highest sense, a wise infant is an angel. This is why “infant” in the Word means one who is innocent, and “elderly one” means a wise person full of innocence.^b

It is much the same for everyone who is being regenerated. Regeneration is rebirth as a spiritual person. [When we are being regenerated,] we

• b. Infants in the Word mean innocence: 5608; and so do nursing babies: 3183. An old person means a wise one, or abstractly, wisdom: 3183, 6523 [6524]. We have been so created as to become like infants as we approach old age, but with wisdom in our innocence. This is so that we may cross over into heaven in this state and become angels: 3183, 5608.

are brought first into the innocence of infancy, which is realizing that we know nothing of truth and are capable of nothing of good on our own, but only from the Lord, and that we long for and seek what is true and good simply because it is true and good. These gifts are granted by the Lord as we advance in age. We are led first into knowledge about them, then from knowledge into intelligence, and finally from intelligence into wisdom, always hand in hand with innocence, which is, as already noted, the recognition that we know nothing of truth and are capable of nothing of good on our own, but only from the Lord. No one can accept heaven without this belief and this perception. It is the prime component of the innocence of wisdom.

Since innocence is being led by the Lord and not by ourselves, all the people who are in heaven are in innocence, since all the people who are there love to be led by the Lord. They know that to be led by oneself is to be led by one's self-centeredness, and self-centeredness is loving oneself. People who are in love with themselves are not willing to be led by anyone else. This is why angels are in heaven to the extent that they are in innocence; that is, to that extent they are absorbed in divine good and divine truth, for being absorbed in these is being in heaven. Consequently, the heavens are differentiated according to their innocence. People who are in the outmost or first heaven are in innocence of the first or outmost level. People who are in the intermediate or second heaven are in innocence of the second or intermediate level. People who are in the inmost or third heaven, though, are in innocence of the third or inmost level; so they are the very innocent of heaven, since they above all others want to be led by the Lord the way infants are led by their father. This is why they accept divine truth directly into their intent and do it, making it a matter of life, whether they receive it directly from the Lord or mediately through the Word and sermons. This is why they have so much more wisdom than angels of the lower heavens (see §§270-271). Because this is the nature of these angels, they are closest to the Lord, who is the source of their innocence, and they are also distanced from their self-centeredness so much that they seem to live in the Lord. In outward form they look simple—even like infants or little children in the eyes of angels of the lower heavens. They look like people who do not know very much, even though they are the wisest of angels. They are in fact aware that they have no trace of wisdom on their own and that to be wise is to admit this and to admit that what they do know is nothing compared to what they do not know. Knowing, recognizing, and perceiving this is what they call the first step toward wisdom. These angels are also naked, because nakedness corresponds to innocence.^c,176

I have talked a lot with angels about innocence and have been told that innocence is the inner reality of everything good and that therefore anything good is good to the extent that there is innocence within it. Consequently wisdom is wisdom to the extent that it derives from innocence, and the same is true of love, thoughtfulness, and faith.^d This is why no one can enter heaven unless he or she has innocence. This is what the Lord meant by saying,

Let the little ones come to me, do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens. I tell you in truth, whoever will not accept the kingdom of the heavens like a little child will not enter into it. (Mark 10:14-15; Luke 18:16-17)

Little ones in this passage, as elsewhere in the Word, mean the innocent.^e The state of innocence is described by the Lord in Matthew 6:24-25 [25—34], but in pure correspondences.¹⁷⁷ The reason good is good to the extent that there is innocence in it is that all good comes from the Lord, and innocence is being willing to be led by the Lord.

I have also been told that truth cannot be united to good or good to truth except by means of innocence. This is also why angels are not angels of heaven unless there is innocence in them, since heaven is not within anyone until the truth has been united with the good within. So the union of the true and the good is called the heavenly marriage, and the heavenly marriage is heaven.

I have also been told that true marriage love¹⁷⁸ derives its origin from innocence because it comes from the union of the good and the true that engages the two minds, the minds of husband and wife. When this union descends, it takes on the appearance of marriage love because the

• c. All the people in the inmost heaven are innocents: 154, 2736, 3887; and therefore they look to others like infants: 154. They are also naked: 165, 8375, 9960. Nakedness is innocence: 165, 8375. Spirits have a practice of witnessing to their innocence by taking off their clothes and standing naked: 8375, 9960.

• d. All the good of love and the truth of faith need to have innocence within them if they are to be good and true: 2526, 2780, 3111, 3994, 6013, 7840, 9262, 10134. Innocence is the essential element of what is good and true: 2780, 7840. No one is allowed into heaven unless she or he has some innocence: 4797.

• e. [Swedenborg's note at this point refers the reader to the note in §278 above.] spouses, like their minds, love each other. This is the source of the childlike and innocent play in marriage love.^f

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Since innocence, for heaven's angels, is the very essence of what is good, we can see that the divine good emanating from the Lord is innocence itself, inasmuch as it is this good that flows into angels, moves their deepest natures, and aligns and adapts them to accept all the blessings of heaven. Much the same happens with infants, whose deeper natures are not only formed by the passage of innocence from the Lord but are also constantly adapted and aligned to accept the good of heavenly love, because the good of innocence acts from deep within, being, as already noted, the very essence of all good. This shows that all innocence is from the Lord, which is why the Lord is called the Lamb in the Word, since a lamb means innocence.^g

Because innocence is the very heart of all the good of heaven, it also affects minds so strongly that people who feel it—which happens at the approach of an angel of the inmost heaven—feel as though they are not under their own control. They are moved by such a joy, so taken out of themselves, so to speak, that it seems as though all the pleasure of the world is nothing by comparison. I speak of this from having experienced it.

Anyone who is in the goodness of innocence is moved by innocence, and is moved by innocence to the extent that she or he is in that good. However, people who are not in the good of innocence are not moved by it. Consequently, all the people in hell are absolutely opposed to innocence. They do not know what innocence is. Their nature is such that the more innocent people are, the more they burn with desire to cause them harm. This is why they cannot stand to see little children. The moment they do, they are consumed with a vicious desire to inflict harm.

• f. True marriage love is innocence: 2736. Marriage love is intending what the other intends, mutually and reciprocally: 2731. People who are in marriage love are living together in the inmost aspects of life: 2732. There is a union of two minds, so effective that they become one from love: 10168, 10169. True marriage love derives its origin and essence from the marriage of the good and the true: 2728, 2729. About some angelic spirits who could perceive whether a true inclination toward marriage existed from the image they perceived of the union of the good and the true: 10756. Marriage love works exactly like the unio