In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, we find the Lord talking to his disciples about the close of the age, the last time of the church.(a) At the end of his prophecies concerning the sequence of states of its love and faith (b) 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 One 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)
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 Judgment. 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.
Many people in the church these days are of this opinion. However, people who believe such things are not aware of the hidden depths that lie within the details of the Word. 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) 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. A selection of these may be found also in my explanation of the white horse in the Book of Revelation. 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)
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 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 days 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.
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.
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.
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. 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; 14:9-11;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 Divine 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 allowed to think “three” and say “one.”(a)
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.
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.
On the other hand, people who have denied the Lord’s divine nature and have recognized only his human nature (like the Socinians) are also excluded from heaven. They are taken a little way forward to the right 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, because it eludes [actual] thought.(b) These people are banished to the company of those called materialists.
Things happen differently for people who are born outside the church, the ones we call non-Christians. We will discuss them later.
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.
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). Or again, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
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.
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.
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.
b. People in heaven are described as being in the Lord: 3637, 3638.
[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 every bit of life by observing that everything 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 everything 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)
c. Good from the Lord has the Lord within it, but good attributed to oneself does not: 1802, 3951, 8478.
In heaven, 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.
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.
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 projects 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 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)
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.
Further, there are surrounding auras 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 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), But there will be more on this subject below, when we discuss geographical regions in the other life.
e. On angels as forms of thoughtfulness: 3804, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 9879, 10177.
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.
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 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.
h. Love includes countless elements, and welcomes into itself everything that is in harmony with it: 2500, 2572, 3078, 3189, 6323, 7490, 7750.
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. We will now discuss the details. They are called “kingdoms” because heaven is called “the kingdom of God.”
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.
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.
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”; from the smallest to the greatest, they will know me. (Jeremiah 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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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)
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.
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].
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.
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.
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.
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 correspondences and images 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. 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)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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]).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. It stands to reason, then, that heaven is within us and not outside.(c)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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 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)
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.
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].
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.
It is 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 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).
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.
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.
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.
[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 commonwealth 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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)
a. “Jerusalem” is the church: 402, 3654, 9166.
b. A wall is truth protecting from the assault of false and evil things: 6419.
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 Mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and the appendix to The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 servant, of whom we read, “Elisha prayed, ‘Jehovah, 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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the lot of people within the church who deny the Lord and who, like the Socinians, deny his divinity. 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.
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.
References to Passages in Secrets of Heaven Concerning the Lord and His Divine Human
[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: 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, 8541-8547, 10736, 10737, 10738. They are overjoyed when they hear that the Lord actually became a human: 9361. The Lord accepts everyone who is involved in what is good and worships the Divine in human form: 9359. It is impossible to think about God except in human form, and what is incomprehensible does not accord with any concept, so it does not accord with any faith: 9359, 9972. We can worship something of which we have some concept, but not something of which we have no concept: 4733, 5110, 5633 [5663], 7211, 9267 [10067], 10267. Therefore by most people worldwide the Divine is worshiped in human form; and this is the case because of an inflow from heaven: 10159. 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, 4724, 4731, 4766, 8878, 9193, 9198. The people nowadays who think about the Lord’s human apart from the Divine are the ones in the church 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: 3212, 3241, 4689, 4692, 4724, 4731, 5321, 6372 [6872], 8878, 9193, 9198. The Lord’s human was divine because he had his soul from the very reality of the Father; illustrated by the resemblance of a father in his children: 10270 [10269], 10372, 10823. Also because it came from divine love, which was the very reality of his life from conception: 6872. 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, 10177, 10284. The Lord made his whole human nature divine-both its inward and its outward constituents: 1603, 1815, 1902, 1926, 2093, 2803 [2083]. So, unlike any other person, he rose with his whole body: 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.
[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 emanating 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 pearl 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)
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 [4749], 4844, 4964, 4965 [4966], 6004, 7729, 10252. The knowledge of correspondences flourished among those in the Near East and Egypt: 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407.
By “the natural world,” I mean all that extended reality that is under our sun 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.
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)
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.
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.
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 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, someone in power as having a long arm, 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.
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.
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.
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; 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.
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 Lord was no longer adequate to sustain everything, since we, the foundation of heaven, had undermined and destroyed the design.
In the passages referred to at the close of the preceding chapter you 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 heaven then.
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.
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.
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.
First, some from the animal kingdom. In this field, many people realize what kind of knowledge is virtually instinctive in any creature you 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.
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.
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, 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. 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.
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.
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 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.” 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)
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.
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.
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 or-which amounts to the same thing-of functions that are purposes. For this reason, the universe has been so created and formed by the Divine that functions can clothe themselves in materials that enable them to present themselves 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)
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, 57); so to the extent that we are spiritual, we are a means of union. However, 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.
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 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.
In order that there might be a union of heaven with humanity, the Word was written in pure correspondences. Absolutely everything in it corresponds.(i) So if we were steeped in a knowledge of correspondences, we would understand the Word in its spiritual meaning and be enabled to 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. 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.
j. On the spiritual meaning of the Word, see the booklet The White Horse Described in the Book of Revelation.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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) “The good of faith” is, essentially, truth that comes from what is good.
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.
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.
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)
The sun became black as hairy sackcloth, 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.
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.
e. In the Word, the lesser and greater stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true: 2495, 2849, 4697.
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.
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.
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)
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.
i. The Lord is the common center toward which everything in heaven turns: 3633.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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)
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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. [The note at this point refers the reader back to the second note in 118 above.]
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)
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].
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, 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.
l. Truths apart from what is good are not truths intrinsically because they do not have any life; in fact, all the life of things true is from what is good: 9603; so they are like a body without a soul: 3180, 9454 [9154]. Truths without good are not accepted by the Lord: 4368. The nature of truth apart from goodness, and therefore the nature of faith without love; and the nature of heartfelt truth and therefore the nature of faith from love: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1964, 5830, 5951. It boils down to the same thing whether you say “truth” or “faith,” “good” or “love,” because truth is an attribute of faith and goodness is an attribute of love: 2839, 4353 [4352], 4997, 7178, 7623, 7624, 10367.
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 glory. (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, 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)
m. “The Word” in Sacred Scripture has various meanings-speech, the thought of the mind, every entity that actually comes into being, or anything at all, and in the highest sense divine truth and the Lord: 9987. “The Word” means divine truth: 2803, 2884 [2894], 4692, 5075, 5272, 7830 [7930], 9987. “The Word” means the Lord: 2533, 2859.
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.
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.]
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 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. 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)
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.
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)
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 distance between the sun and the moon is thirty degrees, 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).
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)
“The Lord’s flesh” means what is divine and good, and his “blood” means what is divine and true.(e)
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].
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 half-light 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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is 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.
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.
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 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.
b. We have a concept of eternity that includes time, while angels have one without time: 1382, 3404, 8325.
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.
c. Unlike angels, we do not think without some concept of time: 3404.
Anyone 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 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.
f. Jerusalem means the church where there is genuine doctrine: 402, 3654, 9166.
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.
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, 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.
[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.
a. Angels have towns, palaces, and homes, described: 940, 941, 942, 1116, 1626, 1627, 1628, 1630, 1631, 4622.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We can see from all this again that distance and space itself depend wholly on the inner state of angels;(c) 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.
c. Places and spaces are presented to view in response to the inner states of angels and spirits: 5604 [5605], 9440, 10146.
[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; 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)
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.
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.
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); 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 south-north 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)
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.
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.
[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.)
[3] There was one particular spirit who believed that he thought independently-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 communication-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)
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.
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 should also be known that this sharing with communities is not something that comes to the overt perception of the people involved in it, but is a communication with the quality in which they participate and which reaches out from them.(f)
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.
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.
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.
Since the union of the heavens through inflow is accomplished by the Lord alone, the greatest possible precautions are taken to prevent 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. Every angel has three levels of life, like the three levels of heaven. 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 dwells 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 not turn back to what is behind them: remember Lot’s wife. (Luke 17:31-32)
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.
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.
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 community. However, in the heavens there is no government except the government of mutual love, and the government of mutual love is heavenly government.
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).
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 them because they are wise, and in matters of doubt they are enlightened by the Lord.
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.
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)
“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)
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)
They ask me for judgments of justice, they long for the approach of God. (Isaiah 58:2)
And elsewhere.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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 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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
c. [The 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].
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)
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.
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 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. 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.
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, 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, 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).
Further, each individual angel is her or his own truth and own 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) Therefore, to the extent to which an angel is truth from the Divine and good from the Divine, that angel is a power because the Lord is with her to that extent. Further, since no one enjoys exactly the same good and truth as anyone else (for in heaven and in this world there is constant variety, 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 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.
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.
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].
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)
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.
Angels 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.
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].
[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 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.
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.
[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)
b. Angels’ concepts, from which they speak, arise through wondrous shifts of heaven’s light: 1646, 3343, 3693.
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. 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 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)
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.
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.
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. 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. 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 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 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, 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.
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.
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 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.
Angels 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.
[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.
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.
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.
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 is any 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 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, in a desert area.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
c. Spirits cannot see, through us, anything that is in this subsolar world; but they have seen through my eyes, and why: 1880.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
There are also things written in the heavens without the use of hands, simply in response to thoughts; but these do not last.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 and freely from their thought, which in turn comes from their affection, so that their speech is their thought from 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)
a. On angels’ wisdom-that it is incomprehensible and inexpressible: 2795, 2796, 2802, 3314, 3404, 3405, 9094, 9176.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[3] I should also like to illustrate the matter with one example. An angel, out of his wisdom, described the process of regeneration 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 we have by comparison, with hardly any knowledge of what regeneration is and no awareness of a single step when we are being regenerated.
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.
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 out 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)
[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 have talked about this with angels, who have told me that the difference between the wisdom of angels of the third heaven and the wisdom of angels of the first heaven is like the difference between something bright and something dark. Or again, they have compared the wisdom of angels of the third heaven to a palace full of everything useful, surrounded far and wide by parklands, with all sorts of splendid things beyond. Since these angels enjoy truths of wisdom, they can enter the palace and see everything there. They can stroll anywhere in the parks and enjoy whatever they see. It is different for people who are trying to figure things out, though, and even more so for people who argue about them. These individuals do not see truths in the light of truth, but adopt them either from other people or from the literal meaning of the Word, which they do not understand in depth. So they say that truths must be believed or that people must have faith in things-things that they then do not want anyone looking into very deeply. The angels kept saying that these people could not get to the first threshold of the palace, much less enter it and stroll around in its parks, because they are stuck at the first step. It is different for people who are engaged in actual truths. Nothing keeps them from moving ahead without limit; for once truths have been seen they lead on wherever they are headed, even into spacious meadows, because every truth has an infinite outreach and is united to many, many others.
[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.)
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].
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])
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.
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.
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).
g. Angels are being perfected to eternity: 4803, 6648.
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.
[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.
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.
[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)
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.
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.
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. 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 love 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 spouses, like their minds, love each other. This is the source of the childlike and innocent play in marriage love.(f)
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.]
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 union of the good and the true: 1094 [1904], 2173, 2429 [2729], 2503 [2508], 3101, 3102, 3155, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5407 [5807], 5835, 9206, 9207, 9495, 9637. So in the Word, “marriage” means the union of the good and the true as it is in heaven and as it should be in the church: 3132, 4434, 4834.
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.
g. A lamb in the Word means innocence and the good it does: 3994, 10132.
This has shown me that our self-image and the self-love it fosters are opposed to innocence, for all the people who are in hell are caught up in their own self-image and therefore in self-love.(h)
h. The human “ego” [Latin proprium, literally, “That which is one’s own”] is loving oneself more than God, and the world more than heaven, and regarding one’s neighbor as nothing compared to oneself; which means that it is love for oneself and for the world: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. Evil people are so completely opposed to innocence that they cannot stand its presence: 2126.
Anyone who has not experienced heaven’s peace cannot know what the peace is that angels enjoy. As long as we are in our bodies, we cannot accept heaven’s peace, so we cannot perceive it, our perception being on the natural level. In order to perceive it, we need to be the kind of person who as to thought can be raised and taken out of the body and brought into the spirit so as to be with angels. Since I have perceived heaven’s peace in this way, I can describe it, but not in words as it really is, because human words are not adequate. Using words, I can only describe what it is like compared to that peace of mind that people have who are content in God.
In the previous chapter on the state of innocence of heaven’s angels, it was shown that innocence is the very heart of good. Now I need to explain that peace is the very heart of the delight that comes from the goodness of innocence.
a. In the highest sense, peace means the Lord, because he is the source of peace; and in the inner sense it means heaven, because people there are in a state of peace: 3780, 4681. Peace in the heavens is the divine nature profoundly touching everything good and true there with a blessedness that is beyond our comprehension: 92, 3780, 5662, 8455, 8665. Divine peace occurs in what is good, but not in what is true apart from what is good: 8722.
A child is born to us, a son is given to us, on whose shoulder the government [shall rest], and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace; of the increase of government and peace there shall be no end. (Isaiah 9:5-6 [6-7])
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27)
I have told you these things so that you might have peace in me. (John 16:33)
May Jehovah lift his face to you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:26)
The angels of peace weep bitterly, the highways are ruined. (Isaiah 33:7-8)
The work of justice will be peace, and my people will live in a dwelling place of peace. (Isaiah 32:17-18)
[2] We may also gather that “peace” in the Word means divine and heavenly peace from other passages where it is mentioned, as for example in Isaiah 52:7; 54:10; 59:8; Jeremiah 16:5; 25:37; 29:11; Haggai 2:9; Zechariah 8:12; Psalms 37:37; and elsewhere.
Because peace means the Lord and heaven and also heavenly joy and the delight of good, greetings in ancient times were-and consequently still are-“Peace be with you.” The Lord confirmed this, too, when he sent out his disciples and told them, “When you enter a house, first say ‘Peace be upon this house’; and if a child of peace is there, let your peace rest upon it” (Luke 10:5-6). Further, the Lord himself said “Peace be with you” when he appeared to the apostles (John 20:19, 21, 26).
[3] A state of peace is also meant in the Word when it says that “Jehovah smelled an odor of quietness,” as in Exodus 29:18, 25, 41; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9; 6:8, 14 [6:15, 21]; 23:12, 13, 18; Numbers 15:3, 7, 13; 28:6, 8, 13; 29:2, 6, 8, 13, 36. “An odor of quietness,” in the heavenly sense, means a perception of peace.(b)
b. An odor in the Word means a perception of something pleasant or unpleasant, depending on the quality of the love and faith of the entity described: 3577, 4626, 4628, 4748, 5021 [5621], 10292. An odor of quietness, in relation to Jehovah, means a perception of peace: 925, 10054. So frankincense, various kinds of incense, and the fragrances in oils and salves came to be representative: 925, 4748, 5621, 10177.
Since heaven’s peace is a divine blessedness that profoundly affects the essential good within angels, it does not come to their open perception except through a heartfelt delight when they are involved in the good of their life, a pleasure when they hear something true that is in accord with their good, and a gaiety of mind when they perceive the union of the two. Still, it does flow into all the acts and thoughts of their life and makes itself known as joy, even in outward form.
[2] Peace varies in quality and quantity in the heavens, though, in proportion to the innocence of the people in any given location, because innocence and peace walk hand in hand. For as already noted, innocence is the source of everything good in heaven and peace is the source of all the joy of that good. We may conclude, then, that we can say much the same about the state of peace as has already been said about the state of innocence in the preceding chapter, since innocence and peace are united the way anything good and its delight are. Whatever is good is in fact sensed by its delight, and whatever is delightful is recognized by virtue of its goodness. This being the case, we can see that angels of the inmost or third heaven are in the third or inmost level of peace because they are in the third or inmost level of innocence, and that angels of the lower heavens are in lesser levels of peace because they are in lesser levels of innocence (see above, 280).
[3] If we look at little children, we can see that innocence and peace occur together in the same way that anything good and its delight do. Because they are in innocence, they are at peace as well; and because they are at peace, everything associated with them has a playful quality. However, their peace is an outward peace. Inner peace, like inner innocence, is found only in wisdom; and since it does dwell in wisdom, it is found in the union of the good and the true, since this is the origin of wisdom.
Heavenly or angelic peace occurs in us when we are attuned to wisdom because of the union of the good and the true and therefore see ourselves as contented in God. However, as long as we are living in this world, that peace lies hidden in our depths. Still, it is unveiled when we leave our bodies behind and enter heaven, because then those depths are opened.
c. In the highest sense, the Sabbath means the oneness of the Divine itself with the divine human in the Lord; and in the inner sense the union of the Lord’s divine human with heaven and the church. In a general sense it means the union of the good and the true and therefore the heavenly marriage: 8495, 10356, 10730. So the rest on the Sabbath day meant the state of that oneness, because then the Lord has rest, through which peace and salvation come to the heavens and to earth; and in a relative sense it means the union of the Lord with us, because then we have peace and salvation: 8494, 8510, 10360, 10367, 10370, 10374, 10668, 10730.
That peace is like the morning time or dawn in spring, when, once the night has passed, all things of earth begin to take new life from the rising of the sun; the dew that falls from heaven spreads a leafy fragrance far and wide, and springtime’s gentle warmth makes meadows fertile and instills its charm in human minds as well. This is because morning or dawn in springtime corresponds to the state of peace of angels in heaven (see 155).(e)
d. The union of the good and the true in people who are being regenerated takes place in a state of peace: 3696, 8517.
e. The state of peace in heaven is like the state of morning or spring on earth: 1726, 2780, 5662.
For people engrossed in evil, though, there is no peace.(f) There is an apparent calm, tranquillity, and pleasure when they get their way, but this is outward only, with no inward substance. Inside there is raging hostility, hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and all kinds of evil cravings. Their spirits rush into these feelings the moment they see anyone who is not on their side, and it bursts forth whenever there is no fear [to restrain it]. This is why their delight is at home in insanity, while the delight of people involved in good is at home in wisdom. It is like the difference between hell and heaven.
f. The cravings that arise from love for oneself and for the world totally destroy peace: 3170, 5662. Some people find peace in restlessness and in other such things that are the opposite of peace: 5662. There is no peace until the cravings of evil have been taken away: 5662.
It is acknowledged in the church that everything good comes from God and nothing of it from us, and therefore that we should never take personal credit for anything good. It is also recognized that evil comes from the devil. This is why people who talk from the doctrine of the church describe people who are acting well and who are talking devoutly and preaching as being led by God, and say the opposite about people who are acting maliciously and speaking blasphemously. None of this could happen unless we had a union with heaven and a union with hell, and unless those unions were with our volition and our understanding, since it is from these that the body acts and the mouth speaks. We need now to describe what this union is like.
When these spirits come to us, they come into our whole memory and from there into all our thinking-evil spirits into the matters of memory and thought that are evil, and good spirits into the matters of memory and thought that are good. These spirits are totally unaware that they are with us. Rather, as long as they are, they believe that all these matters of our memory and thought are actually theirs. They do not see us, either, because their sight does not extend to things in our subsolar world.(a)
The Lord takes the greatest care to prevent spirits from knowing whom they are with. If they did know, they would talk with them, and then the evil spirits would destroy them; for evil spirits, being united to hell, want nothing more than to destroy us not only as to spirit (that is, as to our love and faith) but as to our bodies as well. It is different when they do not talk with us. Then they do not know that we are the source of what they are thinking-and what they are saying to each other, since they talk to each other just the way we do-but believe that these matters are their own. They value and love whatever is their own, so these spirits are constrained to love and value us, even though they do not know it.
This kind of union has become so familiar to me through years of constant experience as to be commonplace.
a. There are angels and spirits with every individual, and through them we have communication with the spiritual world: 697, 2796, 2886, 2887, 4047, 4048, 5846-5866, 5976-5993. Apart from these spirits with us, we could not live: 5993. We are not visible to the spirits, nor are they to us: 5885 [5862]. Spirits cannot see anything in our subsolar world of humanity except things [visible] to the individual they are talking to: 1880.
I have been shown that to the extent that we exist from our hereditary nature and from ourselves, we could have no life at all if we were not allowed to engage in evil. We would also have no life if we were not in some freedom, and we cannot be compelled to good: anything compelled does not become part of us. I have also been shown that anything good that we accept in freedom is sown in our intentions and becomes virtually our own.(b) This is why we have a communication with hell and a communication with heaven.
b. All freedom is a matter of love and affection, because what we love, we do freely: 2870, 3158, 8907 [8987], 8990, 9585, 9591. Freedom is a matter of love, which is its life: 2873. Nothing seems to be ours unless it comes from our freedom: 2880. We need to have some freedom in order to be reformed: 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031, 8700. Otherwise, the love for what is good and true could not be sown in us and given to us as though it were ours: 2877, 2879, 2880, 2888 [2883], 8700. Nothing that is forced upon us is united to us: 2875, 8700. If we could be reformed by force, then everyone would be reformed: 2881. The use of force in reformation is harmful: 4031. The state of some people who had been compelled: 8392.
Still, this association is arranged by the Lord for people who can be reformed and regenerated. It is different for people who cannot be reformed or regenerated. Good spirits are assigned to them as well in order to restrain them from evil as much as possible, but their direct connection is with the evil spirits who are in touch with hell. This means that the spirits are of the same nature as the people they are associated with. Whether they love themselves or money or revenge or adultery, the same kind of spirits are with them and are, so to speak, taking up residence in their evil affections. To the extent that we cannot be restrained from evil by good spirits, they inflame us, and to the extent that an evil affection is in control, they cling to us and will not back off.
In this way, evil people are united to hell and good people to heaven.
This [general] inflow determines the way things move from thought and intent into act and therefore determines our speech and actions, since these both do flow according to a natural pattern. So the spirits who are with us have nothing to do with these processes.
Animals are also controlled through a general inflow from the spiritual world because they are in the pattern proper to their life, a pattern that they can neither distort nor destroy, because they do not have a rational faculty.(c) (On the difference between humans and animals see above, 39.)
c. The difference between us and animals is that we can be raised by the Lord to himself, can think about the Divine and love it, and so can be united to the Lord and have eternal life, which is not true of animals: 4525, 6323, 9231. Animals are in the pattern proper to their lives and are therefore born into things that are suited to their natures; but we are not, so we need to be led into the pattern proper to our lives by cognitive means: 637, 5850, 6323. Thought descends into speech and intention into actions for us according to a general inflow: 5862, 5990, 6192, 6211. On the general inflow of the spiritual world into the lives of animals: 1633, 3646.
This divine inflow is unceasing and is accepted in what is good in good people, but not in evil ones. In them it is either rejected or stifled or distorted. So they have an evil life that spiritually understood is a death.(d)
d. There is a direct inflow from the Lord and also an indirect inflow through the spiritual world: 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683. The Lord’s direct inflow is into the most minute details of all: 6058, 6474-6478, 8717, 8728. The Lord flows into our first and our last things at the same time [see the note to 304:3 below], and how this happens: 5147, 5150, 6473, 7004, 7007, 7270. The Lord’s inflow is into the good within us and through that good into the truth, and not the reverse: 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153. The life that flows in from the Lord varies according to our state and according to our openness: 2069 [1909], 5986, 6472, 7343. In evil people, the good that flows in from the Lord is turned into evil and the truth into falsity; from experience: 3643 [3642], 4632. We accept the good and the consequent truth that are unceasingly flowing in from the Lord to the extent that evil and its consequent falsity do not block the way: 2411, 3142, 3147, 5828.
e. People who do not have a conscience do not know what a conscience is: 7490, 9121. There are even people who laugh at conscience when they hear that it exists: 7217. Some people believe that conscience is nothing, some that it is a kind of natural, distressing sadness that arises either from events in the body or events in the world, and some that it is something common people get from their religion: 950. There is a true conscience, an imitation conscience, and a false conscience: 1033. Pangs of conscience are an anxiety of mind because of anything unjust, dishonest, and evil that we believe to be contrary to God and contrary to the welfare of our neighbor: 7217. People who are in love for God and charity toward their neighbor have conscience, but not people who are not: 831, 965, 2380, 7490.
People who think from their deeper rationality can see that there is a connection of all things, through intermediate ones, with a First, and that anything that is not so connected will disintegrate. When they think about it, they know that nothing can exist on its own, but requires something prior to itself, which means that everything goes back to that First. They know that the connection with what is prior is like that of an effect with its efficient cause, since when the efficient cause is removed, the effect comes apart and collapses. Since this has been the thought of the learned, they have both seen and pronounced that existence is a constant becoming, so that all things are constantly coming into being-that is, existing-from that First from which they originated.
But there is no way to explain briefly the nature of that connection of everything with what is prior and therefore with the First that is the source of everything, because it is varied and diverse. We can say generally only that there is a connection of the natural world with the spiritual world that results in a correspondence between everything in the natural world and everything in the spiritual world. (On this correspondence, see 103-115, and on the connection and consequent correspondence of everything in us with everything in heaven, see 87-102.)
[2] Over and above what angels have, though, there is the fact that we are not just in a spiritual world by virtue of our inner natures but are at the same time in a natural world by virtue of our outward natures. These outward things that are in the natural world are all the contents of our natural or outer memory and the thinking and imaging we do on that basis. In general, this includes our insights and information together with their delights and charm to the extent that they have a worldly flavor, and all the pleasures that derive from our physical senses. Then too, there are those senses themselves and our words and actions. All these are ultimate things in which the Lord’s divine inflow comes to rest, since it does not stop in the middle but goes on to its very limit.
We may gather from this that the ultimate form of the divine pattern is in us, and since it is the ultimate form, it is the basis and foundation.
[3] Since the Lord’s divine inflow does not stop in the middle but goes on to its very limit, as just stated, and since the intermediate region it crosses is the angelic heaven and the limit is in us, and since nothing disconnected can exist, it follows that there is such a connection and union of heaven with the human race that neither can endure without the other. If the human race were cut off from heaven, it would be like a chain with a link removed, and heaven without the human race would be like a house without a foundation.(a)
a. Nothing arises from itself, but only from something prior to itself; so all things come from a first, and endure by connection with what they originated from, so that existing is a constant becoming: 2886, 2888, 3627, 3628, 3648, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056. The divine pattern does not stop in the middle but keeps on to its limit, and its limit is in us; so the divine pattern ends in us: 634, 2853, 3632, 5897, 6239, 6451, 6465, 9216, 9217 [9215], 9824, 9828, 9836, 9905, 10044, 10329, 10335, 10548. The inner elements flow sequentially into the outer all the way to the end or limit, and there they take form and endure: 634, 6239, 6465, 9216, 9217 [9215]. The inner elements take form and endure in the outer in a simultaneous arrangement, which is described: 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099. So all the inner elements are kept connected together from the First to the ultimate: 9828. For this reason, “the First and the Last” means everything in detail, the whole: 10044, 10329, 10335; and for this reason, strength and power are in ultimate things: 9836.
Just how the Word serves as that medium, though, has been shown at length in Secrets of Heaven, with pertinent material collected in the booklet The White Horse Described in the Book of Revelation and also in the “Appendix to the Heavenly Teaching.” Some of these references are cited in the footnote below.(b)
b. The Word in its literal sense is natural: 8783; because the natural level is the ultimate level in which spiritual and heavenly things (which are more inward) come to rest, and on which they rest like a house on its foundation: 9430, 9433, 9824, 10044, 10436. In order to be of this nature, the Word was written in pure correspondences: 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1615 [1619], 1659, 1709, 1783, 8615, 10687. Since the Word is like this in its literal meaning, it is a vessel for spiritual and heavenly meaning: 9407; and it is adapted to us and to angels at the same time: 1769-1772, 1887, 2143, 2157, 2275, 2333, 2396 [2395], 2540, 2541, 2545, 2553, 7381, 8862, 10322. It is what unites heaven and earth: 2310, 2495, 9212, 9216, 9357, 9396, 10375. The Lord’s union with us through the Word by means of its inner meaning: 10375. This union takes place by means of every detail in the Word, so it is more marvelous than any other writing: 10632, 10633, 10634. Now that the Word has been written, the Lord speaks to us through it: 10290. Relative to people outside the church, who do not have the Word and know the Lord, the church where the Word is and where the Lord is known is like the human heart and lungs relative to the other parts of the body, which derive their life from the heart and lungs as from a wellspring: 637, 931, 2054, 2853. The whole church throughout the world is like a single person in the Lord’s sight: 7395 [7396], 9276. This is why the human race would perish if there were not a church in our world where the Word was found and the Lord was known: 468, 637, 931, 4545, 10452.
Once all knowledge of correspondences and representations had been lost, then a Word was written in which all the words and the meanings of the words are correspondences and therefore contain that spiritual or inner meaning in which angels are engaged. So when we read the Word and grasp it in its literal or outward meaning, angels grasp it in its inner or spiritual meaning. In fact, all the thought of angels is spiritual, while ours is natural. These two kinds of thought do seem different, but they are one because they correspond.
This is why, after we had moved away from heaven and broken the connection, the Lord provided that there should be a means of union of heaven with us through the Word.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the former heaven and former earth had passed away. And I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. The city was foursquare, its length equal to its breadth. And the angel measured the city with the reed at twelve thousand stadia; the length, breadth, and height were equal; and he measured its wall, 144 cubits, the measure of a human being, which was that of the angel. The construction of the wall was jasper, but the city itself was pure gold and like pure glass; and the foundation of the wall was decorated with every precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. (Revelation 21:1, 2, 16, 17, 18)
People who read this understand it simply according to its literal meaning, namely that this visible sky and earth are going to perish and that a new heaven is going to be established, that on a new earth the holy city Jerusalem is going to descend, and that all its measurements will be as described. But the angels who are with us understand it very differently, understanding spiritually what we take in a natural sense. [2] For them, the new heaven and the new earth mean a new church; the city Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven means its heavenly doctrine revealed by the Lord; its length, breadth, and height, which are equal at twelve thousand stadia, mean all the good and true elements of that doctrine grasped as a single whole; the wall means the truths that protect it; the measure of the wall being 144 cubits, which was the measure of a human being, that is, of the angel, means all those protective truths grasped as a single whole, and their quality; the twelve gates made of pearls mean introductory truths (pearls mean that kind of truth); the foundations of the wall that were of precious stones mean the acknowledgments on which that doctrine is based; and the gold like pure glass of which the city and its streets were made means the good of love that makes doctrine and its truths transparent. This is how angels understand all these things, so it is not the way we do. This is how our natural concepts are transformed into spiritual concepts among angels without their knowing anything about the literal meaning of the Word-about the new heaven and the new earth, for example, or the new city Jerusalem, its wall, the foundations of the wall, and its measurements. Still, the angels’ thoughts form a unity with ours because they correspond. They form a single whole almost like the words of a speaker and the understanding of those words by a listener who is focused not on the words themselves but on understanding them. This may enable us to see how heaven is united to us through the Word.
[3] For another example from the Word,
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be a third for Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the land, whom Jehovah of hosts will bless, saying, “Blessed is my people Egypt, and the work of my hands Assyria, and my inheritance Israel.” (Isaiah 19:23, 24, 25)
We can see how people on earth think and how angels think when they read this if we look at the literal meaning of the Word and at its inner meaning. We think, on the basis of its literal meaning, that Egypt and Assyria are going to be converted to God and received, and that they will become united to the Israelite nation. The angels, though, think on the basis of its inner meaning about people of the spiritual church, who are being described here in that inner meaning. Their spiritual level is Israel, their natural level is Egypt, and their rational level, which is the intermediate level, is Assyria.(c) Still, these two meanings are one because they correspond. Consequently, when angels are thinking spiritually like this and we are thinking naturally the way we do, we are united almost like a soul and a body. The inner meaning of the Word is its soul, and the literal meaning is its body.
The Word is like this throughout; so we can see that it is a means of heaven’s union with us and that the literal meaning serves as its basis and foundation.
c. Egypt and Egyptian in the Word mean what is natural, and therefore what has to do with information: 4967, 5079, 5080, 5095, 5460 [5160], 5799, 6015, 6147, 6252, 7353 [7355], 7648, 9340, 9319 [9391]. Assyria means the rational level: 119, 1186. Israel means the spiritual level: 5414, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 5879, 5951, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223, 7956 [7957], 8234, 8805, 9340.
In the Lord’s sight, the universal church on earth is like a single individual just as heaven is (as noted above in 59-72). However, the church where the Word is and the Lord is known through it is like the heart and lungs of that person. It is common knowledge that the viscera and members of the whole body get their life from the heart and lungs by various routes. So too the human race that is outside the church where the Word is gets its life in the same way and constitutes the members of that person. Heaven’s union through the Word with people who are at a distance can be compared to light that spreads in all directions from a center. The divine light is in the Word, and the Lord is present there with his heaven. People who are far off also receive light from that presence. It would be different if there were no Word, which can be more fully understood by reference to what has been presented above about the form of heaven that determines its gatherings and communications.
Still, this arcanum is understandable to people who are in spiritual light but not to people who are only in natural light. People who are in spiritual light, that is, see quite clearly countless things that people who are in natural light alone either do not see at all or see only as a single vague entity.
d. The church in specific is where the Word is and where the Lord is known because of it, so it is where divine truths from it have been revealed from heaven: 3857, 10761. The Lord’s church exists throughout the whole world with all people who live in good according to their religions: 3263, 6637, 10765. All people who live in good according to their religions and acknowledge something divine are accepted by the Lord, wherever they are: 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256; and especially all infants, wherever they may have been born: 2289-2309, 4792.
We on this earth are by nature incapable of accepting any direct revelation and being taught about divine truths by that means, unlike the inhabitants of other planets ([whose abilities] have been dealt with in their own separate booklet). We more than they are engrossed in worldly concerns and therefore in superficial matters, while it is the deeper levels that are open to revelation. If the outer levels were receptive, we still would not understand the truth.
This nature of people on our earth is clearly visible in members of the church. Even though they know from the Word about heaven, hell, and life after death, they still deny these things at heart. This includes people who have made a name for themselves for outstanding learning, who you would think would therefore be wiser than others.
They have also said that if we knew that this kind of meaning existed and when we read the Word did our thinking with any knowledge of it, we would come into a deeper wisdom and be more closely united to heaven, because in this way we would have access to concepts like those of angels.
People in the Christian world are totally unaware that heaven and hell come from the human race. They actually believe that angels were created in the beginning and constitute heaven, and that the devil or Satan was an angel of light who became rebellious and was cast out together with his faction, and that this gave rise to hell.
Angels are utterly amazed that there can be this kind of belief in the Christian world, and even more so that people know absolutely nothing about heaven, even though this is a primary doctrine of the church. Knowing that this kind of ignorance is prevalent, they are profoundly delighted that it has now pleased the Lord to reveal to us so much about heaven-and about hell as well-and so as much as possible to dispel the darkness that is rising daily because this church is drawing to a close. [2] So they want me to testify on their behalf that in all heaven there is not a single angel who was created as such in the beginning, nor is there in all hell a devil who was created as an angel of light and cast out. Rather, all the people in heaven and in hell are from the human race-in heaven the ones who have lived in heavenly love and faith, and in hell the ones who have lived in hellish love and faith. Hell as a whole is what is called the devil and Satan. The hell at the back, where the people called evil demons live, is the devil, and the hell that is in front, where the people live who are called evil spirits, is Satan.(a) We will describe later what each hell is like. [3] They insisted that the reason the Christian world has adopted this kind of belief about people in heaven and people in hell is that they have taken a few passages of the Word, understanding them only in their literal meaning, with no enlightenment or instruction based on genuine doctrine from the Word. Yet the literal meaning of the Word, without the light of genuine doctrine, leads the mind astray in all directions, giving rise to ignorance, heresy, and error.(b)
a. The hells as a whole, or hellish people en masse, are called the devil and Satan: 694. People who were devils in the world are devils after death: 968.
b. The church’s doctrine must be derived from the Word: 3464, 5402, 6832 [6822], 10763, 10765 [10764]. Without doctrine, the Word is not understood: 9021 [9025], 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10582. True doctrine is a lamp for people who read the Word: 10401 [10400]. Genuine doctrine must be provided by people who have enlightenment from the Lord: 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105. People engaged in the literal meaning apart from any doctrine do not attain any understanding of divine truths: 9409, 9410, 10582; and are carried off into many errors: 10431. The nature of the difference between people who teach and learn from the doctrine of the church derived from the Word and people who do so solely from the Word’s literal meaning: 9025.
[2] So to convince people that this is not the case, I have been allowed to associate with angels and to talk with people in hell for several years now, sometimes constantly from morning until evening, and so to learn about heaven and about hell. The purpose of all this is that church people should remain no longer in their mistaken beliefs about a resurrection on Judgment Day and about the state of their souls in the meanwhile, or about angels and the devil. Because this faith is a mistaken one, it brings darkness with it; and for people who think about such things on the basis of their own intellect, it leads to doubt and eventually to denial. They are actually saying in their hearts, “How can such a vast heaven and so many stars be destroyed and disappear, along with the sun and the moon? How can stars that are larger than the earth fall on the earth? How can bodies that have been eaten by worms and destroyed by decay and scattered to the four winds be reunited to their souls? Where have these souls been in the meanwhile, and what have they been like without any of the senses they had in their bodies?” [3] There are many other questions like these, which do not accord with belief because they are incomprehensible, and for many people they are destroying any belief in a life after death, in heaven and hell, and along with these the rest of the contents of the faith of the church. This destruction can be observed in people who say, “Who has come back from heaven and told us that it exists, or from hell, to say that it exists? What is this business about people being tortured by fire to eternity? What is this Judgment Day? Haven’t we been waiting for it for centuries, all in vain?” along with any number of other things that imply a denial of everything. [4] Many people who are particularly skilled in worldly affairs think like this; so to prevent them from further disturbing and misleading people of simple faith and simple heart and bringing on a hellish darkness concerning God, heaven, eternal life, and the other matters that follow from them, the deeper reaches of my spirit have been opened by the Lord, enabling me to talk after their death with all the people I have ever known during their physical lives. I have talked with some for days, with some for months, and with some for a year. I have talked with so many others that it would be no exaggeration to talk in terms of a hundred thousand, many in heaven and many in hell. I have talked with some just two days after their deaths and told them that now their funerals and burial rites were being performed so that they could be interred; to which they have responded that it was a good thing they had cast off what had served them as a body for their functions in our world, wanting me to say that they were not dead at all. They were just as alive and just as human as ever, having simply crossed over from one world to another. They were not aware of having lost anything, since they were just as much in a body as before, enjoyed volition and understanding just as before, and had thoughts and affections, sensation, and desires similar to the ones they had in our world.
[5] Many people who have just died, when they have discovered that they are living persons just as they were before, and in a similar state (for our first state after death is like the one we were in on earth, although this changes gradually for us either toward heaven or toward hell), have been moved by a newfound joy at still being alive. They have said they would not have believed it. They were absolutely amazed that they had been in such ignorance and blindness about the state of life after death, all the more so that this is true of people within the church, who could be in more light about such matters than all the rest of the whole world.(c) Now for the first time they were seeing the reason for this blindness and ignorance, namely, that their outward concerns, their concerns for worldly and bodily matters, preoccupied and filled their minds so completely that they could not be raised into heaven’s light and look into ecclesiastical subjects beyond the formalities of doctrine. When bodily and worldly matters are loved as much as they are today, nothing flows in from them but darkness when the mind tries to press further.
c. Not many people in today’s Christianity believe that we will rise again immediately after death: Genesis 16 preface, 4622, 10758; but only at the time of the Last Judgment, when the visible world will perish: 10594 [10595]. The reason for this belief: 10594 [10595], 10758. The fact is, though, that we do rise again immediately after death, and are then completely human in all respects: 4527, 5006, 5078, 8939, 8991, 10594, 10758. The soul that lives after death is our spirit, which is the essential person within us and is in a perfect human form in the other life as well: 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 4735, 5883, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10594; from experience: 4527, 5006, 8939; from the Word: 10597. An explanation of the meaning of the dead who were seen in the holy city in Matthew 27:53: 9229. How we are revived from death, from experience: 168-189. Our state after we have been revived: 317, 318, 319, 2119, 5079, 10596. False notions about the soul and its resurrection: 444, 445, 4527, 4622, 4658.
d. The spiritual world and the natural world are united in us: 6057. The inner person is formed on the model of heaven, while the outer is formed on the model of the world: 3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314 [6013], 9706, 10156, 10472.
e. There are as many levels of life in a human being as there are heavens, and these are opened after death depending on how we have lived: 3747, 9594. Heaven is within us: 3884. People who are living lives of love and thoughtfulness have an angelic wisdom within them, but it is hidden; and they come into the use of it after death: 2494. In the Word, anyone who accepts the good of love and faith from the Lord is called an angel: 10528.
f. [The note here refers the reader back to the note in ?303 above.]
g. We rise again as to our spirits: 10593, 10594. Only the Lord rose as to his body as well: 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.
The general opinion is that people who have been born outside the church, the people called “the nations” or “non-Christians,” cannot be saved because they do not have the Word and therefore do not know the Lord; and without the Lord there is no salvation. They could know, however, that these people too are saved simply from the fact that the Lord’s mercy is universal, that is, it is extended to all individuals. Non-Christians are born just as human as people within the church, who are in fact few by comparison. It is not their fault that they do not know the Lord. So anyone who thinks from any enlightened reason at all can see that no one is born for hell. The Lord is actually love itself, and his love is an intent to save everyone. So he provides that everyone shall have some religion, an acknowledgment of the Divine Being through that religion, and an inner life. That is, living according to one’s religious principles is an inner life, for then we focus on the Divine; and to the extent that we do focus on the Divine, we do not focus on the world but move away from the world and therefore from a worldly life, which is an outward life.(a)
a. Non-Christians are saved just as Christians are: 932, 1032, 1059, 2284, 2589, 2590, 3778, 4190, 4197. On the lot of non-Christians and people outside the church in the other life: 2589-2604. The church specifically defined is where the Word is and where the Lord is known through it: 3857, 10761. This does not mean, though, that people belong to the church by being born where the Word is and where the Lord is known, but rather by living a life of thoughtfulness and faith: 6637, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10829. The Lord’s church is found among all the people in the whole world who live intent on what is good as their own religion defines it and who acknowledge a divine being; they are accepted by the Lord and enter heaven: 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256.
It is recognized that non-Christians live lives that are just as moral as the lives of Christians-many of them, in fact, live more moral lives. A moral life may be lived either to satisfy the Divine or to satisfy people in this world. A moral life that is lived to satisfy the Divine is a spiritual life. The two look alike in outward form, but inwardly they are totally different. One saves us, the other does not. This is because if we live a moral life to satisfy the Divine we are being led by the Divine; while if we live a moral life to satisfy people in this world, we are being led by ourselves.
[2] This may be illustrated by an example. If we do not do harm to our neighbor because that is against our religion and therefore against the Divine, our refraining from evil stems from a spiritual source. But if we refrain from doing harm to others simply because we are afraid of the law or of losing our reputation or respect or profit-for the sake of self and the world, that is-then this stems from a natural source and we are being led by ourselves. This latter life is natural, while the former is spiritual. If our moral life is spiritual, we have heaven within ourselves; but if our moral life is merely natural, we do not have heaven within ourselves. This is because heaven flows in from above, opens our deeper natures, and flows through those deeper natures into our more outward natures; while the world flows in from below and opens our more outward natures but not our deeper natures. No inflow occurs from the natural world into the spiritual, only from the spiritual world into the natural; so if heaven is not accepted at the same time, the deeper levels are closed. We can see from this who accept heaven into themselves and who do not.
[3] However, the heaven in one individual is not the same as the heaven in another. It differs in each according to the affection for what is good and true. If people are absorbed in an affection for what is good for the sake of the Divine, they love divine truth because the good and the true love each other and want to be united.(b) Consequently, non-Christian people who have not had access to genuine truths in the world still accept them in the other life because of their love.
b. There is a likeness of a marriage between what is good and what is true: 1094 [1904], 2173, 2503 [2508]. What is good and what is true are engaged in a constant effort toward union, with what is good longing for what is true and for union with it: 9206, 9207, 9495. How and in whom this union of what is good and what is true takes place: 3834, 3843, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 9258.
It is a divine truth that there is no salvation apart from the Lord, but this needs to be understood as meaning that there is no salvation that does not come from the Lord. There are many planets in the universe, all full of inhabitants. Hardly any of them know that the Lord took on a human nature on our planet. Still, though, since they do revere the Divine Being in human form, they are accepted and led by the Lord. On this matter, see the booklet Other Planets.
c. The difference between the good that non-Christians are engaged in and the good that Christians are engaged in: 4189, 4197. On truths among non-Christians: 3263, 3778, 4190. The deeper levels are not as closed in non-Christians as they are in Christians: 9256. Neither can there be such dense clouds for non-Christians who have lived by their religions in mutual thoughtfulness as there are for Christians who have lived in no thoughtfulness at all, and the reasons this is so: 1059, 9256. Non-Christians cannot profane the holy matters of the church the way Christians can, because they do not know them: 1327, 1328, 2051. They are afraid of Christians because of the way Christians live: 2596, 2597. The ones who have lived well according to their religious principles are taught by angels and readily accept truths of faith and confess the Lord: 2049, 2595, 2598, 2600, 2601, 2603, 2661 [2861], 2863, 3263.
One particular individual was with me who had been one of the wise at one time and who was therefore well known in the scholarly world.
I talked with him about various subjects and was given to believe that he was Cicero. Since I knew that he was wise, we talked about wisdom, intelligence, the pattern of reality, the Word, and finally about the Lord.
[2] On wisdom, he said that there was no wisdom that was not a matter of life, and that wisdom could not be an attribute of anything else. On intelligence, he said that it came from wisdom. On the pattern of reality, he said that the pattern comes from the Supreme Deity, and that living in accord with this pattern is being wise and intelligent. As to the Word, when I read him something from the prophets he was utterly enchanted, especially at the fact that the individual names and the individual words referred to deeper realities. He was quite astonished that modern scholars take no pleasure in this pursuit. I could sense very clearly that the deeper levels of his thought or mind were open. He said that he could not remain present because he felt something too holy for him to bear, it affected him so deeply.
[3] Finally, our conversation turned to the Lord-on his birth as a person here, but one conceived from God; on his putting off the maternal human nature and putting on a divine human nature; and on his being the One who rules the universe. He said that he knew a great deal about the Lord that he grasped in his own way, and that there was no other way the human race could have been saved. All this time, some evil Christians were showering us with libels of various kinds; but he paid no attention to them. He said it was not surprising. It was because during their physical lives they had soaked up notions on these subjects that were not fitting, and that until these were ousted they could not let in notions that supported [the truth] the way people who were simply ignorant could.
When I read chapters 17 and 18 of Judges about Micah (whose idol, household gods, and Levite were stolen by the Danites), there was one non-Christian spirit who had revered an idol during his physical life. He listened intently to what happened to Micah and was deeply pained because of the idol that the Danites stole. His distress overcame him and moved him so deeply that he scarcely knew what he was thinking because of the depth of his pain. I sensed his pain and at the same time the innocence within his particular affections. There were some Christian spirits present who were surprised that this idolater was moved by such mercy and such an affection of innocence.
Later some good spirits talked with him and told him that he should not revere idols and that he could understand this because he himself was a human being. Rather, his thought should reach beyond the idol to the God who was creator and ruler of the whole heaven and the whole earth, and who was the Lord. When he was told this, I could sense his deep feeling of reverence. It was communicated to me as something much holier than what could be found among Christians. I could gather from this that non-Christians come into heaven more readily than Christians nowadays, in keeping with the Lord’s words in Luke:
Then they will come from the east and the west and the north and the south and will recline in the kingdom of God; and indeed there will be many of the last who will be first, and of the first who will be last. (Luke 13:29-30)
Because of the state he was in, that is, he could absorb all matters of faith and could accept them with a deep inner affection. There was a loving mercy about him and in his ignorance an innocence; and when these are present, all matters of faith are accepted spontaneously, so to speak, and with joy. After this, the non-Christian spirit was accepted among the angels.
I talked with them shortly afterward, and eventually mentioned the Lord. When I called him “Christ,” I could sense a kind of resistance in them. The reason for this was uncovered, though. This derived from their experience in the world, from their having known that Christians lived worse lives than they did, lives devoid of thoughtfulness. When I simply mentioned “the Lord,” though, they were deeply moved. Later they were taught by angels that Christian doctrine more than any other in the whole world demands love and thoughtfulness, but that there are not many people who live up to it.
There are non-Christian individuals who during their earthly lives have learned by hearsay that Christians live evil lives-lives of adultery, hatred, bickering, drunkenness, and the like-which appalled them because things like this are contrary to their religion. In the other life they are particularly hesitant about accepting truths of faith. However, they are taught by angels that the Christian doctrine and the faith itself teach something very different, but that Christians do not live up to their doctrines as much as non-Christian people do. When they grasp this, they accept truths of faith and worship the Lord, but only after quite a while.
If they have worshiped particular individuals, then they are introduced either to those people themselves or to individuals who play their parts. Many Jews, for example, are introduced to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, or David; but when they realize that they are just as human as anyone else and that they have nothing special to offer them, they are embarrassed, and are taken off to whatever place is in keeping with their lives.
Of non-Christians, the Africans are especially valued in heaven. They accept the good and true things of heaven more readily than others do. They want especially to be called obedient, but not faithful. They say that Christians could be called “faithful,” since they have a doctrine of faith, but only if they accept the doctrine-or, as the Africans say, if they can accept it.
This led me to reflect on the many Christians who are not idolaters outwardly but are inwardly because they actually worship themselves and the world, and at heart deny the Lord. This is the kind of lot that awaits them in the other life.
d. The first or earliest church on this planet was the one described in the opening chapters of Genesis, and this church was above all heavenly: 607, 895, 920, 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545. What those people are like in heaven: 1114-1125. There were various churches after the flood, referred to as the early church; together with some description: 1125, 1126, 1127, 1327, 10355. What the people of the early church were like: 609 [607], 895. The early churches were symbolic churches: 519, 521, 2896. There was a Word in the early church, but it has been lost: 2897. What the early church was like as it began to decline: 1128. The difference between the earliest church and the early church: 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493. The statutes, judgments, and laws that were obligatory in the Jewish church were to some extent like those of the early church: 4288, 4449, 10149. The Lord was the God of the earliest church and of the early church, and was known as Jehovah: 1343, 6846.
Some people believe that only children born in the church get into heaven, not children born outside the church. They say this is because children born in the church are baptized and are introduced into the faith of the church by this baptism. They do not realize that no one gets either heaven or faith by baptism. Baptism serves only as a sign and reminder that we need to be reborn, and that people born in the church can be reborn because the Word is there, the Word that contains the divine truths that make regeneration possible. The church is where the Lord, who is the source of rebirth, is known.(a)
May it be known, therefore, that every child who dies, no matter where he or she was born, within the church or outside it, of devout or irreverent parents, is accepted by the Lord after death, brought up in heaven, taught according to the divine design and filled with affections for what is good and through them with direct knowledge of the truth; and then, being continually perfected in intelligence and wisdom, all such individuals are led into heaven and become angels.
Anyone who thinks rationally can realize that no one is born for hell-everyone is born for heaven. We ourselves are to blame if we arrive in hell, but children are not yet liable for any blame.
a. Baptism means regeneration by the Lord by means of truths of faith from the Word: 4255, 5120, 9089 [9088], 10239, 10386, 10387, 10388, 10392. Baptism is a sign that a person belongs to the church where the Lord, the source of rebirth, is acknowledged: 10386, 10387, 10388. Baptism does not give either faith or salvation, but bears witness to the fact that the people who will be accepted [into heaven] will be the ones who have been reborn: 10391.
This heaven can be seen in the forward part of the forehead, directly on the line or radius along which angels look at the Lord. The reason for this location is that children are under the direct care of the Lord. Into them flows the heaven of innocence, which is the third heaven.
The first things instilled into these affections (which all stem from their innocence) are the kinds of thing they see with their eyes that particularly delight them; and since these are from a spiritual origin, aspects of heaven flow into them that serve to open their deeper natures. In this way they become more perfect every day. Once this first age has been completed, they are taken to another heaven where they are taught by instructors, and so on.
At first, the Lord was pictured rising from the tomb, and along with this, the uniting of his human nature with his divine nature. This was done in such a wise manner as to surpass all human wisdom, but at the same time with a childlike innocence. The idea of a tomb was presented, but with the Lord present only so remotely that one could hardly tell that it was the Lord, as though he were far off. This was because there is a sense of death in the notion of a tomb, which they were removing by this means. Then something ethereal, something that looked faint and watery was carefully let into the tomb, referring to the spiritual life represented by baptism, again from a proper distance.
Then I saw a representation of the Lord coming down to the captives and rising with the captives into heaven, presented with incomparable care and reverence. The childlike aspect of this was that little cords were let down, almost invisible, as soft and delicate as possible, which supported the Lord in his ascent. Throughout it all, there was a holy fear lest anything in the images should touch on a matter in which there was not something spiritual and heavenly.
There were other representations that engaged the children as well-for example, plays suited to the minds of children-through which they were led into awareness of truth and affections for what is good.
We may gather from all this that children do not become angels immediately after their death but are gradually led [into heaven] through awareness of what is good and true, all according to the design of heaven. This is because the least details of their nature are known to the Lord, so they are led, in cooperation with every least impulse of their inclinations, toward the acceptance of truths that arise from good and the good that is done from truth.
The reason children look more grown-up as they are perfected in intelligence and wisdom-that is, like adolescents and young adults-is that intelligence and wisdom are the essential spiritual food.(b) So the things that nourish their minds also nourish their bodies, which is a result of correspondence, since the form of the body is nothing but an outward form of their inner natures.
It does need to be known that children in heaven do not grow up beyond the prime of youth, but remain at that age forever. To assure me of this, I have been allowed to talk with some who had been raised as children in heaven and had grown up there, with some while they were still children, and then later with the same ones when they had become youths; and I have heard from them about the course of their life from one age level to another.
b. Spiritual food is information, intelligence, and wisdom, and therefore the goodness and the truth that are their source: 3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5656 [5655], 8562, 9003. So “food” in a spiritual sense is whatever comes forth from the mouth of the Lord: 681. “Bread” means all food in general, so it means all heavenly and spiritual good: 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 6118, 8410. This is because they nourish the mind, which belongs to the inner person: 4459, 5293, 5576, 6277, 8418 [8410].
Children’s innocence, though, is not real innocence, because it still lacks wisdom. Real innocence is wisdom because to the extent that we are wise we want to be led by the Lord; or what amounts to the same thing, to the extent that we love being led by the Lord, we are wise.
[2] So children are brought through from the outward innocence that characterizes them at first, which is called the innocence of infancy, to the inner innocence that is the innocence of wisdom. This latter innocence is the goal of their whole process of instruction. Consequently, when they arrive at the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of infancy that had served them as a matrix in the interim is united to them.
[3] The nature of children’s innocence was portrayed to me as something woody and almost lifeless that was brought to life as the children were brought toward fulfillment by discoveries of truth and the effects of what is good. Afterward the nature of real innocence was portrayed as a supremely beautiful child, naked and very much alive. The actual innocent people who are in the inmost heaven look to the eyes of other angels simply like children, some of them naked, since innocence is portrayed as a nakedness without embarrassment, as we read concerning the first man and his wife in the garden (Genesis 2:25). So too, when they lost their innocence they were ashamed of their nakedness and hid themselves (Genesis 3:7, 10, 11).
In short, the wiser angels are, the more innocent they are; and the more innocent they are, the more they look like children. This is why infancy in the Word means innocence (see above, 278).
[2] There was one individual who had died in infancy and grown up in heaven who had this kind of opinion. He was the son of a particular king; so he was let back into his own innate life of evil. I could tell then from the aura of his life that he had a drive to lord it over others and regarded adultery as of no concern whatever-evils that were part of his heredity from his parents. Once he recognized that he was like this, though, he was again accepted among the angels he had been with before.
[3] In the other life, none of us suffers any punishment for inherited evil, because it is not ours. We are not at fault for our hereditary nature. We suffer punishment for any actualized evil that is ours-that is, for whatever hereditary evil we have claimed as our own by acting it out in our lives.
The reason grown-up children are let back into the state of their hereditary evil is not to punish them. It is to make sure they know that on their own they are nothing but evil and that they are borne from hell into heaven by the Lord’s mercy, that they are in heaven not because they deserve it but as a gift from the Lord. This prevents them from inflating themselves over others because of the good that attends them, for this is in opposition to the blessing of mutual love just as it is against the truth of faith.
c. We are all born in evils of every kind, to the point that our own identity is nothing but evil: 210, 215, 731, 874, 875, 876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731 [10732]. So we need to be reborn-that is, regenerated: 3701. The evil we inherit is loving ourselves more than God and the world more than heaven, and regarding our neighbor as nothing compared to ourselves, except for our own benefit and therefore for ourselves; so that inheritance is love for oneself and for the world: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. It is from love for oneself and for the world, when they rule, that all evils come: 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 1691, 3413, 7255, 7376, 7480 [7489], 7488, 8318, 9335, 9348, 10038, 10742; which evils are a contempt for others, hostility, hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and deceit: 6667, 7372, 7373, 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742; and from these evils comes everything that is false: 1047, 10283, 10284, 10286. These loves rush in to the extent that they are given free rein, and love for oneself aspires even to the throne of God: 7375, 8678.
An example may serve to illustrate how different the upbringing of children on earth is in many instances. I was on the street of a large city and saw some boys fighting with each other. A crowd gathered and watched this with great delight, and I was told that the parents themselves urged their children into fights like these. The good spirits and angels who were seeing all this through my eyes were so repelled that I could feel them shudder, especially at the fact that the parents were encouraging this kind of behavior. They said that by doing this they would at the very earliest age stifle all the mutual love and all the innocence that little ones receive from the Lord and lead them into hatred and vindictiveness. So by their own deliberate practices they would shut their children out of heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Let any parents who wish well for their children beware of things like this.
People who have died in childhood and have been raised in heaven, though, do not have this kind of plane. They have a natural-spiritual plane because they bring with them nothing from the material world or their earthly bodies. This means that they cannot be engrossed in such crude affections and consequent thoughts. They actually derive everything from heaven.
Not only that, little children are unaware that they were born on earth, so they think they were born in heaven. This means they do not know what any birth is other than the spiritual birth that is accomplished through familiarity with what is good and true and through the intelligence and wisdom that make people truly human. Since these come from the Lord, they believe that they belong to the Lord himself, and love to have it so.
However, the state of people who have grown up on earth can become just as perfect as the state of children who have grown up in heaven if they move away from the physical and earthly loves, love for themselves and love for the world, and accept spiritual loves in their stead.
People think that wise individuals will have more glory and renown in heaven than simple people because it says in Daniel, “The intelligent will shine like the radiance of the firmament, and those who have justified many, like stars forever” (Daniel 12:3). However, not many people know who are meant by “the intelligent” and “those who justify.” The common opinion is that these are the people we call scholarly and learned, especially the ones who have had teaching roles in the church and have surpassed others in doctrine and in preaching-even more so if they are among those who have converted many to the faith. People like this are all considered “intelligent” in the world; but still, the people this verse is about are not intelligent in heaven unless their intelligence is the heavenly intelligence that we are about to describe.
This light enters the deeper levels of the mind only, since the deeper levels of the mind are formed to accept it; and to the extent that it enters, it moves and delights because anything that flows in from heaven and is accepted has delight and pleasure within it. This is the source of a genuine affection for what is true-an affection for what is true for its own sake. People who are caught up in this affection (or in this love, which amounts to the same thing), enjoy heavenly intelligence and shine in heaven like the radiance of the firmament. The reason they shine is that wherever divine truth occurs in heaven, it shines (see above, 132); and by reason of correspondence, the firmament of heaven means the deeper intelligence, both in angels and in us, that is in heaven’s light.
[2] However, people who are engaged in a love for what is true for the sake of praise in this world or praise in heaven cannot possibly shine in heaven, because they are not delighted and moved by heaven’s light, only by the world’s light; and this latter light without the heavenly one is pure darkness.(a) Their own praise is actually in control because it is the goal they have in view, and when that praise is our goal, then we are focused primarily on ourselves; and the truths that are useful as means to our praise are regarded solely as means to an end and as slaves. This is because whenever we love divine truths for the sake of our own praise, we are focusing on ourselves in the divine truths and not on the Lord. This switches our sight (which is an activity of our understanding and faith) from heaven to the world and from the Lord to ourselves. This is why we are in the world’s light and not in heaven’s light.
[3] Outwardly, in each other’s sight, they look just as intelligent and wise as people who are in heaven’s light, because they talk in much the same way. They may even seem wiser outwardly, because they are energized by their self-love and have learned to imitate heavenly affections. Inwardly, though, as angels see them, they are totally different.
We may gather in some measure from this just who are meant by “the intelligent, who will shine like the radiance of the firmament.” Now we need to explain who are meant by “the ones who justify many, who will shine like stars.”
a. The world’s light is for the outer person, heaven’s light for the inner: 3222, 3223 [3224], 3337. Heaven’s light flows into our natural illumination, and as natural people we are wise to the extent that we accept heaven’s light: 4302, 4408. Looking from the world’s light, which is called natural illumination, things that are in heaven’s light cannot be seen, but the reverse can happen: 9754 [9755]. So people who are solely in the world’s light cannot see things that are in heaven’s light [reading luce, “light,” for lude of the first edition]: 3108. The world’s light is darkness to angels: 1521, 1783, 1880.
People who are in the Lord’s heavenly kingdom, especially the ones in the third or inmost heaven, are called the just because they do not ascribe any justice to themselves, but all justice to the Lord. The Lord’s justice in heaven is the good that comes from the Lord,(b) so these are the people meant by “those who justify.” They are also the ones the Lord was talking about when he said, “The righteous shall shine like the sun in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 13:43). The reason they shine like the sun is that they are caught up in love for the Lord from the Lord, and this love is what the sun means (see above, 116-125). Further, the light they have is fiery, and their individual thoughts have something flamelike about them because they are receiving the good of love directly from the Lord as the sun in heaven.
b. The Lord’s worth and justice are the good that rules in heaven: 9486, 9986. Just people, or justified ones, are people to whom the Lord’s worth and justice have been allotted, and unjust people are people who have their own justice and self-worth: 5069, 9263. The nature in the other life of people who have claimed righteousness for themselves: 942, 2027. Justice in the Word is ascribed to what is good and judgment to what is true, so to do justice and judgment is [to do] what is good and true: 2235, 9857.
To love what is true and good for the sake of what is true and good is to intend and to do them, for the people who intend and act are the ones who love, not the ones who do not intend and act. The former are the ones who love the Lord and are loved by the Lord, because what is good and what is true are from the Lord; and since they are from the Lord, the Lord is within them (within what is good and what is true, that is); so he is also with people who accept what is good and what is true into their lives by intending and doing them.
Seen in our own right, we are nothing but our good and our truth, because the good is the substance of our volition and the true is the substance of our understanding, and the quality of our volition and understanding determines our own quality as persons. We can see from this that we are loved by the Lord to the extent that our volition is formed from what is good and our understanding is formed from what is true.
To be loved by the Lord is to love the Lord as well, because love is reciprocal. The Lord enables the beloved to love.
[2] True intelligence and wisdom are seeing and grasping what is true and good; on that basis seeing what is false and evil, and distinguishing accurately between them; and doing this from insight and an inner perception. There are deeper and more external levels to every individual, the deeper comprising what belongs to the inner or spiritual person and the outer what belongs to the outer or natural person. The way the deeper levels are formed and unite with the outer ones determines the way we see and perceive. Our deeper levels can be formed only in heaven, while the outer ones are formed in this world. When the inner levels have been formed in heaven, then whatever occurs there flows into the outer levels that are derived from this world and forms them to be responsive-that is, to act as one with the inner levels. Once this has been accomplished, we see and perceive from within.
The only way these inner levels can be formed is by our focusing on the Deity and on heaven, for as already noted, the deeper levels are formed in heaven. We focus on the Deity when we believe the Deity and believe that it is the source of everything true and good and therefore of all intelligence and wisdom. We believe the Deity when we want to be led by the Deity. This is the only way our deeper levels are opened.
[3] When we are devoted to this faith and are in a life in keeping with it, we enjoy the ability to understand and to be wise. However, in order to be intelligent and wise, it is fitting that we learn a great deal not only about heavenly matters but also about earthly ones. We learn about heavenly matters from the Word and the church and about earthly ones from the arts and sciences. To the extent that we learn and apply our learning to our lives, we become intelligent and wise, for to that extent our deeper vision, the sight of our understanding, and our deeper affection, which is the affection of our intentions, are perfected.
Of people like this, the simple ones are the ones whose deeper levels have been opened but have not been so much developed through spiritual, moral, civil, and natural truths. They grasp truths when they hear them, but do not see them within themselves. In contrast, the wise ones are the ones whose deeper levels have been not only opened but also developed. They both see truths within themselves and grasp them.
We can see from all this what true intelligence and wisdom are.
The less intelligent and wise people of this sort are those who have convinced themselves of a great many opinions, and the more intelligent and wise are the ones who have convinced themselves of fewer.
We can see from all this what pseudo-intelligence and wisdom are.
[2] However, this category does not include people who as children believed as true what they heard from their teachers, if in later youth, when they began to think on their own, they did not hang on to these opinions but had a longing for truth, sought it because of their longing, and were moved inwardly when they found it. Because they are moved by truth for its own sake, they see what is true before they make it a matter of conviction.(c)
[3] An example may serve to illustrate this. Some spirits were engaged in a conversation about the reason why animals are born into all the knowledge that is appropriate to their natures, while humans are not. They were told that this is because animals are wholly engaged in the pattern appropriate to their lives, while we are not; so we have to be led into that pattern by means of insights and information. If we were born into the pattern of our lives, which is loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, we would be born into intelligence and wisdom and therefore into a trust in everything true to the extent that our insights built up. The good spirits immediately saw and grasped that this was so, simply from the light of truth. However, some spirits who had convinced themselves of faith alone and had therefore pushed love and thoughtfulness aside could not understand it, because the light of false convictions obscured the light of truth for them.
c. The part of wisdom is to see and grasp whether something is true before one ratifies it, not to ratify what we are told by others: 1017, 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950. Seeing and grasping what is true before it is ratified is granted only to people who are moved by truth for its own sake and for the sake of their lives: 8521. The light of ratification is a natural and not a spiritual light; it is a sensory light that can be found among evil people as well: 8780. Anything can be rationalized, even false things, so as to appear to be true: 2482 [2477], 2490 [2480], 5033, 6865, 8521.
[2] There are church dignitaries who deny the Divine. They do not raise their thoughts any higher than the sensory concerns of the outer person. They look on the contents of the Word as no different from knowledge about anything else; they do not treat those contents as subjects of thought or of any thorough consideration by an enlightened rational mind. This is because their own deeper levels are closed off, and along with them, the more outward levels that are next to these deeper ones. The reason they are closed is that they have turned their backs on heaven and reversed the things that they could see there, things that are proper to the deeper levels of the human mind, as we have noted before. This is why they cannot see what is true and good-because these matters are in darkness for them, while what is false and evil is in the light.
[3] Nevertheless, sense-centered people can think logically, some of them actually with more skill and penetration than other people. However, they rely on deceptive sensory appearances bolstered by their own learning, and since they can think logically in this fashion, they think they are wiser than other people.(e) The fire that fuels their reasoning is the fire of love for themselves and the world.
These are the people who are devoted to false intelligence and wisdom, the ones meant by the Lord in Matthew: “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13-15); and again, “Things are hidden from the intelligent and wise and revealed to children” (Matthew 11:25-26).
d. The sensory level is the outmost level of our life, attached to and embedded in our bodies: 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730. We call people sense-centered if they evaluate and decide about everything on the basis of their physical senses and do not believe anything unless they see it with their eyes and touch it with their hands: 5094, 7693. People like this do their thinking in their most external minds, and not more inwardly within themselves: 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693. Their deeper levels are closed, so that they can see nothing of divine truth: 6564, 6844, 6845. In short, they are in a crude natural illumination and can see nothing that comes from heaven’s light: 6201, 6310, 6564, 6844, 6845, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624. So they are profoundly opposed to whatever involves heaven and the church: 6201, 6316 [6310], 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949. Scholars who have convinced themselves in opposition to the truths of the church are sense-centered: 6316. A description of the nature of sense-centered people: 10236.
e. The logical thinking of sense-centered people is both keen and skillful because they place all intelligence in talking from their physical memory: 195, 196, 5700, 10236. However, all this relies on deceptive sensory appearances: 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693. Sense-centered people are more canny and vicious than others: 7693, 10236. The ancients called people like this “serpents of the tree of knowledge”: 195, 196, 197, 6398, 6949, 10313.
The ones who at heart denied the Deity, whether or not they acknowledged the Deity out loud, had become so stupid that they could scarcely understand any civic truth, let alone any spiritual truth. I could both comprehend and see that the inner levels of their minds were so shut off that they looked inky black (things like this are made visible in the spiritual world), and that this meant they could not bear any heavenly light or let in any inflow from heaven. The blackness that enveloped their deeper levels was greater and more extensive for people who had convinced themselves of their opposition to the Divine by means of their secular scholarship.
In the other life, people like this gladly accept anything false. They soak it up like a sponge soaking up water; and they repel anything true the way something bony and springy repels anything that falls on it. It is also said that if people convince themselves of their opposition to the Divine and their advocacy of nature, their deeper levels actually become bony. Their heads even look callused, as though they were made of ebony, and this reaches all the way to their noses, a sign that they no longer have any perception.
People like this are sunk in quagmires that look like swamps, where they are pestered by the hallucinations that their falsities turn into. Their hellfire is their craving for glory and fame, which leads them to denounce each other and to torment with hellish zeal anyone who does not worship them as gods. They do this to each other by turns.
This is what becomes of all earthly learning that does not accept light from heaven into itself by our acknowledgment of the Divine.
f. Information is a matter of our natural memory, which we have while we are in the body: 5212, 9922. We take our entire natural memory with us after death: 2475; from experience: 2481-2486; but for many reasons, we cannot pull things out of it the way we could in this world: 2476, 2477, 2479.
These people are received into heaven before others and live there with the ones who are in the center (43) because they are in more light than others. In heaven they are the intelligent and wise ones who shine like the radiance of the firmament and gleam like stars. The simple people there, though, are the ones who have acknowledged the Divine Being and have loved the Word and led a spiritual moral life, but who have not developed the deeper levels of their minds through insights and learning in the same way. The human mind is like soil whose quality depends on the way it is tilled.
References to Passages in Secrets of Heaven Concerning Different Types of Knowledge
[4] We should saturate ourselves with information and knowledge, because it is through them that we learn to think, then to sort out what is true and good, and ultimately to be wise: 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802. Factual information constitutes the elemental basis on which our civic and moral lives as well as our spiritual lives are built and grounded; and it is learned with a view to using it: 1489, 3310. Real knowledge opens a path to the inner person, and then unites that person with the outer in proportion to useful action: 1563, 1616. Our rational functioning is born through information and knowledge: 1895, 1900, 3086. This does not happen through knowledge itself, however, but through the affection of putting it to use: 1895.
[5] There are facts that are open to divine truths and facts that are not: 5213. Empty information should be destroyed: 1489, 1492, 1499, 1580 [1581]. Information is “empty” if it aims at and strengthens love for ourselves and love for the world, and if it leads us away from love for God and our neighbor. This is because such influences close off the inner person, even to the point that we cannot accept anything from heaven: 1563, 1600. Facts may be a means to wisdom or a means to insanity. Through them the inner person is either opened or closed, and rational functioning either nurtured or destroyed: 4156, 8628, 9922.
[6] The inner person is opened and is progressively completed by means of information if we have constructive activity as our goal-especially activity that focuses on our eternal life: 3086. Then the heavenly and spiritual characteristics of our spiritual person reach out to the information that is in our natural person, and adopt whatever is suitable: 1495. Then the Lord draws out whatever is useful for heavenly life from the information in our natural person, by way of the inner person, and elaborates and exalts it: 1895, 1896, 1900, 1901, 1902, 5871, 5874, 5901. Facts that do not fit, or that oppose, are banished to the sides and eliminated: 5871, 5886, 5889.
[7] The sight of the inner person selects from the information of the outer person only those items that suit its love: 9394. In the view of the inner person, the items that suit its love are in full light, in the center, while those that do not suit are off to the sides, in the shadows: 6068, 6085 [6084]. Suitable facts are grafted onto our loves step by step, and, so to speak, dwell in them: 6325. We would be born into discernment if we were born into love for our neighbor, but since we are born into love for ourselves and the world, we are born into complete ignorance: 6323, 6325. Information, discernment, and wisdom are children of love of God and our neighbor: 1226, 2049, 2116.
[8] It is one thing to be wise, another to be discerning, another to be well informed, and another to act; still, to the extent that we are alive spiritually, these follow in a sequence and are all together at once when we act, or in our deeds: 10331. Further, it is one thing to be well informed, another to acknowledge, and another to have faith: 896.
[9] The factual knowledge of the outer or natural person is in the world’s light, while the truths that have become matters of faith and love, and have thus come to life, are in heaven’s light: 5212. Truths that are suited to spiritual life are grasped through natural ideas: 5510. Spiritual inflow is from the inner or spiritual person into the information that is in the outer or natural person: 1940, 8005. Facts are receptacles and, so to speak, vessels of the good and the true elements of the inner person: 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077, 7770, 9922. They are like mirrors in which the good and true elements of the inner person appear as in an image: 5201. They are all there together in their most concrete form: 5373, 5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071.
[10] Inflow is spiritual and not physical: that is, there is an inflow from the inner person into the outer and therefore into its information, but not from the outer into the inner and therefore not from information into the truths of faith: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9110, 9111 [9401]. We are to start from the truths of the church’s teaching, which are drawn from the Word, and this teaching should first be acknowledged: it is legitimate to consider facts on this basis: 6047. This means that for people who are affirmatively disposed toward the truths of faith, it is legitimate to use facts intellectually to confirm them, but not for people who are negatively disposed: 2568, 2588, 4760, 6047. People who will not believe divine truths unless they are convinced by the facts will never believe: 2094, 2832. To enter into the truths of faith from factual information is disorderly: 10236. People who do this become insane in matters that concern heaven and the church: 128-130. They fall into the distortions of evil: 232, 233, 6047. In the other life, when they think about spiritual matters, they seem to become drunk: 1072. More on their nature: 196. Examples illustrating that spiritual matters cannot be grasped if they are entered from factual information: 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. Many of the learned are more insane in spiritual matters than simple people because they are negatively disposed, confirming [their opinions] by the information that is constantly and abundantly in their view: 4760, 8629.
[11] People who argue against the truths of faith on the basis of information argue keenly because they depend on sensory illusions, which captivate and convince because they are hard to dispel: 5700. What sensory illusions are and what they are like: 5084, 5094, 6400, 6948. People who understand nothing of the truth and who are also involved in evil can argue about what is true and good in matters of faith without understanding them: 4213 [4214]. It is not a matter of intelligence simply to confirm a dogma, but to see whether it is true or not before one confirms it: 4741, 6047.
[12] After death, factual knowledge makes no difference-[what make a difference are] the things we have drawn out for understanding and life: 2480. Everything we have learned still endures after death; it merely becomes dormant: 2476-2479, 2481-2486.
[13] The same facts are false for evil people, because they are applied to evil ends, that are true for good people because they are applied to good ends: 6917. True information is not true for evil people, even though things seem true when they say them, because there is evil within them: 10331.
[14] An example of the kind of craving for knowledge spirits have: 1993 [1973]. Angels have a tremendous desire to know and to be wise, because information, intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual food: 3114, 4459, 4792, 4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5656 [5655], 6277, 8562, 9003. The knowledge of the ancients was a knowledge of symbols and images, through which they led themselves into a familiarity with spiritual matters; but at the present time this knowledge has been totally effaced: 4844, 4749, 4964, 4965.
[15] Truths on a spiritual level cannot be grasped without a knowledge of the following universal principles:
1. Everything in the universe goes back to the good and the true and their union in order to be anything-that is, to love and faith and their union.
2. People have discernment and volition: discernment is the receptacle of what is true, and volition the receptacle of what is good. Everything in us goes back to these two and to their union just as everything [in the universe] goes back to the good and the true and their union.
3. There is an inner and an outer person, as distinct from each other as heaven and the world; yet they must become one if the person is to be truly human.
4. Heaven’s light is the light the inner person is in, and the world’s light is the light the outer person is in. Heaven’s light is what is essentially divine and true, the source of all intelligence.
5. There is a responsiveness between the things in the inner person and those in the outer, so that things from either side appear in a different guise on the other side-so different that they cannot be identified without a knowledge of correspondences.
Without knowledge of these and many other matters, only incongruous concepts can be grasped and formed of truths on the spiritual and heavenly levels. This means that without these universal principles, the information and insights of the natural person can scarcely serve for the discernment and development of the rational person. This shows how necessary elementary information is.
g. The loveliest colors can be seen in heaven: 1053, 1624. The colors in heaven come from the light that is there, and are modifications or shadings of it: 1042, 1043, 1053, 1624, 3993, 4530, 4922, 4742. They are appearances of truth from good, and refer to aspects of intelligence and wisdom: 4530, 4922, 4677, 9466.
There are various opinions about acceptance into heaven. Some people think that the poor are accepted but not the rich; some think that rich and poor alike are accepted; some think that rich people cannot be accepted unless they give up their assets and become like the poor-and all of them support their opinions from the Word. However, as far as heaven is concerned, people who differentiate between the rich and the poor do not understand the Word. At heart, the Word is spiritual, though it is natural in the letter; so if people take the Word only in its literal meaning and not in some spiritual meaning they go astray in all kinds of ways, especially regarding the rich and the poor. They believe that it is as hard for rich people to enter heaven as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and that it is easy for the poor by reason of their poverty, since it says, “Blessed are the poor, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens” (Luke 6:20-21).
However, people who know something about the spiritual meaning of the Word think differently. They know that heaven is for everyone who lives a life of faith and love, whether rich or poor. We will explain below who are meant by “the rich” in the Word and by “the poor.”
Out of a great deal of conversation and living with angels, I have been granted sure knowledge that rich people enter heaven just as easily as poor people do, and that no one is shut out of heaven for having abundant possessions or accepted into heaven because of poverty. There are both rich and poor people there, and many of the rich are in greater splendor and happiness than the poor.
We can see from this that our outer nature accomplishes nothing. It is our inner nature, which gives rise to the outer.
Take for example people who behave honestly and do not cheat others solely out of fear of the law and loss of reputation, leading to loss of respect or profit. If that fear did not restrain them, they would cheat others as often as they could. Their thought and intent are fraudulent, even though their actions look honest in outward form. Because they are dishonest and fraudulent inwardly, they have hell within themselves. But if people behave honestly and do not cheat others because this is against God and against their neighbor, then even if they could cheat someone they would not want to. Their thought and intent are their conscience, and they have heaven within themselves. In outward form, the actions of the two kinds look alike, but inwardly they are totally different.
a. It often says in the Word that we will be judged and requited according to our deeds and works: 3934. “Deeds and works” in the Word do not mean deeds and works in their outward form but in their inner form, because even evil people can do outwardly good deeds, while only good people can do things that are good both outwardly and inwardly: 3934, 6073. Our works, like all actions, derive their reality, their form, and their quality from our deeper levels, which pertain to our thought and intent, because they emanate from there; so the quality of the deeper levels determines the quality of the works: 3934, 8911, 10331. This means they depend on the quality of our deeper levels in respect to love and faith: 3934, 6073, 10331, 10333 [10332]. It also means that our works contain these qualities and in fact are these qualities in practice: 10331. To be judged and requited according to our deeds and works, then, is to be judged and requited according to these qualities: 3147, 3934, 6073, 8911, 10331-10333. To the extent that our works focus on ourselves and the world, they are not good-only as they focus on the Lord and our neighbor: 3147.
b. From love for oneself and for the world come all evils: 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 1691, 3413, 7255, 7376, 7480 [7490], 7488, 8318, 9335, 9348, 10038, 10742; which are contempt for others, hostility, hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and deceit: 6667, 7372, 7373, 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742. We are born into these loves, so our hereditary evils are in them: 694, 4317, 5660.
[2] The only way we can be formed for heaven is through the world. That is the ultimate goal by which every affection must be defined. Unless affection manifests itself or flows into action, which happens in sizeable communities, it is stifled, ultimately to the point that we no longer focus on our neighbor at all, but only on ourselves. We can see from this that the life of thoughtfulness toward our neighbor-behaving fairly and uprightly in all our deeds and in all our responsibilities-leads to heaven, but not a life of piety apart from this active life.(c) This means that the practice of thoughtfulness and the benefits that ensue from this kind of life can occur only to the extent that we are involved in our occupations, and that they cannot occur to the extent that we withdraw from those occupations.
[3] But let me say something about this from experience. Many people who devoted their energies to business and trade in the world, many who became rich, are in heaven. There are not so many, though, who made a name for themselves and became rich in public office. This is because these latter were led into love for themselves and the world by the profits and the positions they were given because of their administration of justice and morality and of profits and positions. This in turn led them to deflect their thoughts and affections from heaven and direct them toward themselves; for to the extent that we love ourselves and the world and focus on ourselves and the world exclusively, we estrange ourselves from the Divine and move away from heaven.
c. Thoughtfulness toward our neighbor is doing what is good, fair, and upright in all our deeds and in all our responsibilities: 8120, 8121, 8122. So thoughtfulness toward our neighbor extends to every least thing we think and intend and do: 8124. Without a life of thoughtfulness, a life of piety is of no use, but with it, it is immensely productive: 8252, 8253.
Good and useful activities include providing the necessities of life for oneself and one’s own, wanting ample resources for the sake of one’s country and one’s neighbor, whom a rich person can benefit in far more ways than a poor person can. [These activities are useful also] because they lead the mind away from an idle life, which is destructive, since in that kind of life our thoughts turn to evil because of our inborn evil nature.
These useful activities are good to the extent that the Divine is within them-that is, to the extent that we focus on the Divine and on heaven and invest ourselves in these as good, investing in wealth only as a subservient means.
d. It is from use and in proportion to use that everything good derives its delight: 3049, 4984, 7038; and its quality as well; so the quality of the use determines the quality of the good: 3049. All the happiness and delight of life comes from use: 997. In general, life is a life of useful activities: 1964. Angelic life consists of the good fruits of love and thoughtfulness, and therefore of being useful: 453 [452]. The Lord, and therefore the angels as well, focuses on nothing in us except our goals, which are useful activities: 1317, 1645, 5844. The Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of useful functions: 453 [454], 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. To serve the Lord is to be useful: 7038. Our quality is determined by the uses we fulfill: 4054, 6815; with examples: 7038.
I have been allowed to talk with people who lived more than seventeen centuries ago, people whose lives are known from the literature of their own times; and I have been convinced that the same love they had then is still sustaining them.
We may also gather from this that a love of wealth and the usefulness it affords also remains with us forever, with exactly the quality it acquired in this world. There is this difference, though: for people whose wealth served them as means to useful lives, it is turned into delights in keeping with their usefulness, while for people whose wealth served them as means to evil activities, it is turned into filth-filth that they enjoy just as much as they enjoyed their ill-used wealth in the world. The reason they enjoy the filth is that the foul pleasures and pursuits that were their practices in the world, and their greed (which is a love of wealth with no thought of use), correspond to filth. Spiritual filth is nothing else.
Poverty can actually seduce people and lead them away from heaven just as much as wealth can. There are many people among the poor who are not content with their lot, who covet much more, and who believe that wealth is a blessing;(f) so when they do not get what they want, they are enraged and harbor evil thoughts about divine providence. They envy other people their assets, and given the chance would just as soon cheat them and live in their own foul pleasures.
It is different, though, for poor people who are content with their lot, are conscientious and careful in their work, prefer work to idleness, behave honestly and reliably, and lead Christian lives. I have sometimes talked with rural and common people who had believed in God while they lived in this world and had behaved honestly and righteously in their jobs. Because they were impelled by a desire to know what was true, they kept asking what thoughtfulness and faith were, since they had heard a lot about faith in this world and were hearing a lot about thoughtfulness in the other life. So they were told that thoughtfulness is all about living and faith is all about doctrine. This means that thoughtfulness is intending and doing what is fair and right in every task, while faith is thinking what is fair and right; so faith and thoughtfulness go together like doctrine and a life according to it, or like thought and intent. Faith becomes thoughtfulness, then, when we intend and do the fair and right things that we think. When this happens, they are not two but one. They understood this perfectly well and were overjoyed, saying that in the world they had not understood believing to be any different from living.
e. There is no direct mercy, only mercy through means-that is, for people who live according to the Lord’s commandments, whom he in his mercy is constantly leading in this world, and afterwards to eternity: 8700, 10659.
f. High rank and wealth are not real blessings, so both evil and good people have them: 8939, 10755, 10776. Real blessing is the acceptance of love and faith from the Lord and a consequent union [with him], because these bring us happiness forever: 1420, 1422, 2846, 3017, 3408 [3406], 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584, 4216, 4981, 8939, 10495.
[2] The rich person dressed in purple and fine linen who was cast into hell means the Jewish nation. Because they had the Word and were therefore amply supplied with understandings of what is good and true, they are called “rich.” The garments of purple actually mean understandings of what is good, and the fine linen means understandings of what is true.(g) The poor person who was lying in the gateway and who longed to feast on the crumbs that were falling from the rich person’s table, who was carried up into heaven by angels, means the non-Jews who did not have understandings of what is good and true but who still longed for them (Luke 16:19, 31).
The rich who were invited to the great feast but who excused themselves also mean the Jewish nation, and the poor who were brought in to replace them mean the non-Jews who were outside the church (Luke 12:16-24 [14:16-24]).
[3] We need also to explain who are meant by the rich of whom the Lord said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). “The rich person” here means the rich in both senses, natural and spiritual. Rich people in the natural sense are people who have abundant wealth and set their hearts on it, while in a spiritual sense they are people who are amply supplied with insights and knowledge (for these are spiritual wealth) and who want to use them to get themselves into heavenly and ecclesiastical circles by their own intellect. Since this is contrary to the divine design, it says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. On this level of meaning, a camel means our cognitive and informational level in general, and the eye of a needle means spiritual truth.(h)
Nowadays people do not know that this is the meaning of the camel and the eye of a needle because there has not yet been any access to the knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by the rich in the Word.
[4] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual level “the rich” in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves, which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10:12, 13, 14; 30:6, 7; 45:3; Jeremiah 17:3; 47:7 [48:7]; 50:36-37; 51:13; Daniel 5:2-4; Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1-36; Zechariah 9:3-4; Psalms 45:12; Hosea 12:9; Revelation 3:17-18; Luke 14:33; and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see Matthew 11:5; Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18; Zephaniah 3:12, 18 [13]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages may be found in 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.
g. Garments mean things that are true, and therefore insights: 1033 [1073], 2576, 5319, 5954, 9212, 9216, 9952, 10536. Purple means heavenly good: 9467. Linen means truth of a heavenly origin: 5319, 9469, 9744.
h. A camel in the Word means our cognitive and informational level in general: 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145. What embroidery, embroidering, and therefore needles are: 9688. To start from outward facts in order to gain access to truths of faith is contrary to the divine design: 10236. People who do this become insane in matters of heaven and the church: 128, 129, 130, 232, 233, 6047; and in the other life, when they think about spiritual things, they become virtually drunk: 1072. More about their nature: 196. Examples to illustrate the fact that spiritual things cannot be grasped if they are approached on this basis: 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. It is all right to go from spiritual truth into the knowledge appropriate to our natural level, but not the other way around, because there is an inflow of the spiritual into the natural but not an inflow of the natural into the spiritual: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9110, 9111 [10199]. We need first to acknowledge the truths of the Word and the church, and then it is all right to take our secular learning into account; but not the other way around: 6047.
Since heaven comes from the human race, which means that there are angels of both sexes there, and since by creation itself woman is for man and man for woman, each for the other, and since this love is inborn in both sexes, it follows that there are marriages in the heavens just as there are on earth. However, the marriages in the heavens are very different from earthly ones. In the following pages I will be explaining how marriages in the heavens do differ from earthly ones and in what respects they agree.
We can see from this that marriage love finds its source in the union of two people in one mind. In heaven, this is called “living together,” and they are not called “two” but “one.” Consequently two spouses in heaven are not called two angels but one angel.(a)
a. The nature and source of marriage love are unknown at the present time: 2727. Marriage love is willing what the other wills-mutually, then, and reciprocally: 2731. People who are immersed in marriage love are living together at the deepest level of their lives: 2732. It is a union of two minds so that they become one because of their love: 10168, 10169; since the love of minds, which is a spiritual love, is a union: 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130.
This is why a boy or a man, in the spiritual sense of the Word, means the discernment of truth, while a girl or woman means an affection for what is good. It is also why the church is called a woman or a girl on the basis of its affection for what is good and true and why everyone who is absorbed in an affection for what is good is called a young woman, as in the Book of Revelation 14:4.(b)
b. Boys in the Word mean the understanding of what is true, or discernment: 7668; and men mean much the same: 158, 265, 749, 915, 1007, 2517, 3134, 3236, 4823, 9007. A woman means an affection for what is good and true: 568, 3160, 6014, 7337, 8994; and the church: 252, 253, 749, 770; and so does a wife: 252, 253, 409, 749, 770; with some difference: 915, 2517, 3236, 4510, 4822 [4823]. In the highest sense, “husband and wife” describes the Lord and his union with heaven and the church: 7022. A young woman means an affection for what is good: 3067, 3110, 3179, 3189, 6731, 6742; and also the church: 2362, 3081, 3963, 4638, 6729, 6775, 6778 [6788].
This is a truly effective union. The intent of the wife actually enters into the thinking of the husband, and the thinking of the husband enters into the intent of the wife, especially when they look each other in the face, since as already noted there is a sharing of thoughts and affections in the heavens. There is all the more sharing between a wife and a husband because they love each other.
We may gather from this what the union of minds is like that makes a marriage and that gives birth to marriage love in the heavens-it is that each wants his or her blessings to belong to the other, and that this is mutual.
The union of the true and the good makes an angel, and also makes angels’ intelligence, wisdom, and happiness. The actual nature of angels depends on how what is true in them is united to what is good, and what is good is united to what is true. In other words, the nature of angels depends on the way their love is united to their faith and their faith to their love.
This is why the union of the good and the true in the heavens is called the heavenly marriage and why heaven is compared to a marriage in the Word and is even called “a marriage.” It is why the Lord is called the Bridegroom and Husband, and heaven and the church are called the bride and wife.(c)
c. True marriage love finds its origin, its means, and its essence in the marriage of what is good and what is true, so it comes from heaven: 2728, 2729. About angelic spirits who can tell whether there is a marital quality present from people’s concepts of the union of what is good and what is true: 10756. Marriage love precisely parallels the union of what is good and what is true, with some description: 1094 [1904], 2173, 2429, 2503 [2508], 3101, 3102, 3155, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5407 [5807], 5835, 9206, 9495, 9637. How and for whom the union of what is good and what is true takes place: 3834, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 9258. Only people who are focused by the Lord on what is good and true know what real marriage love is: 10171. In the Word, a marriage refers to a marriage of what is good and what is true: 3132, 4434, 4834 [4835]. It is in real marriage love that the kingdom of the Lord and heaven is found: 2737.
Again, this is the meaning of the Lord’s words,
Have you not read that the One who made them from the beginning made them male and female and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but are one flesh. What God has united, let no one sever. Not everyone accepts this word, only those to whom it is given. (Matthew 19:4-6, 11; Mark 10:6-9; Genesis 2:24)
Here we have a description of the heavenly marriage angels are in and at the same time the marriage of the good and the true. “Let no one sever what God has united” means that the good is not to be severed from the true.
It does need to be realized that there is no greater love than the love between the true and the good, which is why real marriage love comes down from that love.(d) What is false and what is evil also love each other, but this love later turns into hell.
d. Everything in the universe, both in heaven and on earth, goes back to what is good and what is true: 2451 [2452], 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122; and to their union: 10555. There is a marriage between what is good and what is true: 1094 [1904], 2173, 2503 [2508]. What is good loves what is true, and from its love desires it and desires its union with itself, so it is in an unceasing effort toward union: 9206, 9207, 9495. The life of the true comes from the good: 1589, 1997, 2579 [2572], 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 9667. The true is the form of the good: 3049, 3180, 4574, 9154. The true is to the good as water is to bread: 4976.
I have been allowed to see what marriage is like between people who are caught up in false thoughts of an evil origin, which is called hellish marriage. They do talk to each other and even cohabit out of lust, but inwardly they burn with a mutual hatred so murderous as to be beyond description.
For this reason, marriages in the heavens are contracted with people within their own community because they are focused on similar kinds of good and truth, and they do not associate with people outside their community. It may be seen in 41-45 above that all the people who are within a given community are focused on similar good and truth, and that they differ from people who are outside the community. This was also represented in the Israelite nation by the fact that they contracted marriages within their tribes and even within their clans, and not outside them.
e. Marriages between people of divergent religions are not permitted because there is no union of like good and truth on the inner levels: 8998.
Angels say that taking more than one wife is absolutely contrary to the divine design and that they know this for many reasons, including the fact that the moment they think about marriage with more than one, they are estranged from their inner blessedness and heavenly happiness. They become virtually drunk because the good is severed from the true within them; and since the deeper levels of their minds come into this kind of state when they simply think about this with some slight intent, they perceive clearly that marriage with more than one woman closes their own inner nature and makes lust invade where there should be marriage love. Lust leads away from heaven.(f)
They added that people on earth have a hard time understanding this because so few do experience true marriage love, and if people are not intent on this, they have absolutely no knowledge of the inner delight that dwells within that love. They are aware only of the delight of lust, a delight that turns disagreeable after people have lived together for a little while. The delight of real marriage love, though, not only lasts into old age on earth but even becomes heavenly delight after death, when it is filled with a deeper delight that becomes better and better to eternity.
The angels even said that the blessings of real marriage love could be listed in the thousands, with not a single one known to people here or comprehensible to the understanding of anyone who is not in a marriage of the good and the true from the Lord.
f. Since husband and wife are to be one and are to live together at the very deepest level of life, and since the two together make one angel in heaven, genuine marriage love cannot exist between one husband and more than one wife: 1907, 2740. Taking more than one wife at the same time is contrary to the divine design: 10835 [10837]. It is clearly perceived by people in the Lord’s heavenly kingdom that there is no marriage except between one husband and one wife: 865, 3246, 9902 [9002], 10172; because angels there are in a marriage of what is good and what is true: 3246. The Israelites were allowed to take more than one wife and to take concubines in addition to their wives, but this is not allowable for Christians. This is because the former nation was focused on outward things apart from deeper ones, while Christians can be intent on deeper ones and therefore on the marriage of what is good and what is true: 3246, 4837, 8809.
[2] When one partner wants or loves what the other does, then there is a freedom for both, because all freedom stems from love. However, there is freedom for neither one when there is control. One is the servant; and so is the one in control, because he or she is being driven like a servant by a need to be in control. However, people who do not know what the freedom of a heavenly love is do not understand this at all. They might find out from the things just said about the origin and essence of marriage love, that as control comes in the door, minds are not united but severed. Control subjugates, and a subjugated mind either has no purpose or is of opposite purpose. If it has no purpose it has no love, and if it is of opposite purpose there is hatred in the place of love.
[3] The deeper natures of people who live in this kind of marriage clash and struggle with each other, as is normal for two things that are opposed to each other, no matter how their outer natures are restrained and tranquilized for the sake of peace. The clash and struggle of their inner natures comes out after their death. They usually get together and then battle each other like enemies and tear each other apart. They are in fact acting in accord with the state of their own deeper natures. I have occasionally been allowed to see how they fight and tear one another; some instances are full of spite and savagery. Everyone’s deeper levels are allowed a certain freedom in the other life, being no longer constrained by outward considerations, for their worldly purposes. Then people are outwardly what they are inwardly.
Marriage love also differs between spouses. It may be more or less in one, little or none in the other; and since it may differ, it may be heaven for one and hell for the other.
In a word, heaven portrays itself in marriage love because heaven for angels is the union of the good and the true, and it is this union that constitutes marriage love.
382b. Marriages in the heavens differ from marriages on earth in that earthly marriages are also for the purpose of having children, while this is not the case in the heavens. In place of the procreation of children there is the procreation of what is good and true. The reason for this replacement is that their marriage is a marriage of the good and the true, as presented above, and in this marriage what is good and true is loved above all, as is their union; so these are what are propagated by the marriages in the heavens. This is why in the Word births and generations mean spiritual births and generations, births of what is good and true. The mother and father mean the true united to the good that is prolific, the sons and daughters the good and true things that are born, and the sons-in-law and daughters-in-law mean the unions of these [descendants], and so on.(g)
We can see from this that marriages in the heavens are not the same as marriages on earth. In the heavens there are spiritual weddings that should not be called weddings but unions of minds, because of the union of the good and the true. On earth, though, there are weddings, because they concern not only the spirit but the flesh as well. Further, since there are no weddings in the heavens, two spouses there are not called husband and wife, but because of the angelic concept of the union of two minds into one, each spouse is identified by a word that means “belonging to each other.”
This enables us to know what is meant by the Lord’s words about marriages in Luke 21:35-36 [20:35-36].
g. Conception, giving birth, being born, and generations mean spiritual events that are matters of what is true and what is good, or of love and faith: 613, 1145, 1755 [1255], 2020, 2584, 3860, 3868, 4070, 4668, 6239, 8042, 9325, 10197 [10249]. Begetting and being born mean regeneration and rebirth by means of faith and love: 5160, 5598, 9042, 9845. A mother means the church in regard to truth and therefore the truth of the church as well; a father means the church in regard to good and therefore the good of the church as well: 2691, 2717, 3703, 5580 [5581], 8897. Sons mean affections for what is true and therefore truths: 489, 491, 533, 2623, 3373, 4257, 8649, 9807. Daughters mean affections for what is good and therefore things that are good: 489, 490, 491, 2362, 3963, 6729, 6775, 6778, 9055. A son-in-law means something true connected with an affection for the good: 2389. A daughter-in-law means something good connected with its truth: 4843.
I could tell that everyone in hell is opposed to marriage love from the aura that emanated from hell. It was like a ceaseless effort to break up and destroy marriages. This showed that the dominant pleasure in hell is the pleasure of adultery, and that the pleasure of adultery is also the pleasure of destroying the union of the good and the true, the union that makes heaven. It follows from this that the pleasure of adultery is a hellish pleasure, diametrically opposed to the pleasure of marriage, which is a heavenly pleasure.
h. Acts of adultery are unholy: 9961, 10174. Heaven is closed to adulterers: 275 [2750]. People who feel pleasure in acts of adultery cannot enter heaven: 539, 2733, 2747, 2748, 2749, 2751, 10175. Adulterers are merciless and have no religion: 824, 2747, 2748. Adulterers’ ideas are filthy: 2747, 2748. In the other life they love filth and are in that kind of hell: 2755, 5394, 5722. Acts of adultery in the Word mean adulterations of what is good, and prostitution means the distortion of what is true: 2466, 2729, 3399, 4865, 8904, 10648.
It occurred to me to tell him, though, that acts of adultery are unspeakable, no matter how different and even permissible they may look to people like him because of the pleasure they are grasping and their consequent rationalizations. He might realize this simply because marriages are the seedbed of the human race and therefore the seedbed of the kingdom of heaven. Because of this, they should never be violated but should be regarded as holy. He might also realize this because he must know that he was now in the other life and in a state to perceive that marriage love was coming down from the Lord through heaven, and that mutual love, the foundation of heaven, was derived from that love as from a parent. There was also the fact that when adulterers merely approach heavenly communities they become aware of their own stench and dive down toward hell. He should at least know that violation of marriage is against divine laws and against the civil laws of all kingdoms as well as contrary to genuine rational light because, among many other things, it is contrary to both divine and human order.
However, he answered that he had not thought that way during his physical life. He wanted to quibble about whether this was true or not; but he was told that there is no quibbling about the truth. Quibbling favors whatever pleases us, and therefore supports what is evil and false. He should first think about what he had been told, because it was true. Or again, he could start from the principle widely acknowledged in the world that we should not do anything to others that we do not want them to do to us. So if anyone had practiced this kind of deception on his own wife, whom he loved (as is the case in the early stages of every marriage), then when he was at the peak of his blazing rage about it and gave voice to his feelings, wouldn’t he himself hold adultery to be detestable and, being intellectually gifted, wouldn’t he of all people defend his condemnation to the point of damning adultery to hell?
On the other hand, the path of adultery led toward hell, step by step to the very lowest where there is nothing that is not grim and terrifying. This is the kind of fate that awaits adulterers after their life in the world. By “adulterers,” we mean people who find pleasure in acts of adultery and not in marriage.
There is no way to list all the functions that people have in the heavens or to describe them in detail, though it is possible to say something on the subject in general terms; they are innumerable and vary depending on the roles of the communities as well. In fact, each community plays a unique role, since the communities differ depending on their virtues (see above, 41) and therefore on their function. This is because virtues for everyone in the heavens are virtues in act, which are functions. Everyone there does something specifically useful, for the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses.(a)
a. The Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses: 453 [454], 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. Serving the Lord is being useful: 7038. Everyone needs to be useful in the other life: 1103; even evil and hellish people, but in a different manner: 696. Everyone’s quality is determined by the use that individual fulfills: 4054, 6815; with examples: 7038. Angelic blessedness consists of good, thoughtful deeds, and therefore of fulfilling uses: 454.
This is also what constitutes love for the Lord, since everything good that is effectively good comes from the Lord. It also constitutes love for our neighbor, since our neighbor is the welfare that is to be loved in our fellow citizens, our community, our country, and our church, and that is to be fostered for their sakes.(b)
b. Loving our neighbor is loving not the role but what is in our neighbor and is the source of our neighbor: 5025, 10336. People who love the role rather than the substance and source of the person love the evil just as much as the good: 3820; and help evil and good people equally even though helping evil people is hurting good ones, which is not loving one’s neighbor: 3820, 6703, 8120. Judges who punish evildoers in order to correct them and to keep them from corrupting and harming good people are loving their neighbor: 3820, 8120, 8121. Every individual and community, the country and the church, and in the widest sense the Lord’s kingdom, are all “our neighbor,” and helping them out of a love for their welfare and according to their state is loving our neighbor: this means that their welfare, which is to be focused on, is our neighbor: 6818-6824, 8123.
Broadly speaking, angels of all communities are assigned to us to protect us, to lead us away from evil feelings and the evil thoughts that these cause and to instill good feelings to the extent that we are freely open to them. These serve to control our deeds or works by removing our evil intentions to the extent that this can be done. When angels are with us they seem to dwell in our affections, near us to the extent that we are engaged in something good because of truth, and distant to the extent that our life is removed from such engagement.(c)
However, all these tasks are things the Lord does by means of angels, since angels do them not on their own but from the Lord. This is why in the deeper meaning of the Word “angels” does not mean angels but something of the Lord; and this is why angels are called gods in the Word.(d)
c. On angels with babies and then with children, and thereafter: 2303. We are awakened from death by angels; from experience: 168-189. Angels are sent to people in hell to prevent them from tormenting each other excessively: 967. On the services angels provide to people who are arriving in the other life: 2131. Spirits and angels are with us all, and the Lord is leading us through spirits and angels: 50, 697, 2796, 2887, 2888, 5847-5866, 5976-5993, 6209. Angels have power over evil spirits: 1755.
d. “Angels” in the Word means something divine from the Lord: 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 6280, 8192. Angels are called gods in the Word because of their openness to divine truth and good from the Lord: 4295, 4402, 8301, 8192.
[2] The people who are involved in civic affairs are the ones who loved their country and its welfare more than their own, who behaved honestly and fairly out of a love for what is honest and fair. To the extent that they sought out laws of justice because of the urging of this love and thereby became discerning they enjoy the ability to fill governing offices in heaven. They perform these duties in the place or on the level appropriate to their discernment, which in turn is equivalent to their love of service in the common good.
[3] Further, there are so many offices and departments in heaven, so many tasks, that there are simply too many to list. There are relatively few in the world. No matter how many people are involved, they are all caught up in a love of their work and tasks out of a love of service-no one out of selfishness or a love of profit. In fact, there is no love of profit for the sake of livelihood, since all the necessities of life are given them gratis. They are housed gratis, clothed gratis, and fed gratis. We can see from this that people who have loved themselves and the world more than service have no place in heaven. In fact, our love or affection invariably stays with us after our life in the world. It is not uprooted to eternity (see above, 363).
395. Heavenly Joy and Happiness
Hardly anyone nowadays knows what heaven is or what heavenly joy is. People who think about either subject come up with such pedestrian and crude notions that they scarcely amount to anything at all. I have had a wonderful opportunity to learn from spirits who were coming from this world into the other life what kind of idea they had about heaven and heavenly joy, for when they are left on their own, as they were in the world, they still think the same way.
The reason they do not know about heavenly joy is that people who think about it at all base their judgments on the external joys of the natural person. They do not know what the inner or spiritual person is, so they do not know what that person’s pleasure and blessedness are. So even if they were told by people involved in spiritual or inner joy what heavenly joy is and how it feels, they would not be able to grasp it. It would have descended into an unfamiliar concept and therefore not into their perception, so it would have become one of those things that the natural person casts aside.
Everyone is capable of knowing that when we leave our outer or natural person we enter our inner or spiritual one; so we can also know that heavenly pleasure is an inner and spiritual pleasure and not an outer or natural one. Since it is inner and spiritual, it is purer and finer and moves our deeper levels, the levels of our soul or spirit.
We may also conclude from this that the quality of our pleasure follows from the quality of the pleasure of our spirit, and that the pleasures of our bodies, called “the pleasures of the flesh,” have nothing to do with heaven by comparison. Whatever is in our spirit when we leave the body remains with us after death, for we then live as human spirits.
To the extent that the two loves of heaven are accepted and affect us, then, our deeper levels-levels of our souls or spirits-are opened; and they look away from the world toward heaven. To the extent that the two loves of the world are accepted and affect us, though, our outer levels-levels of the body or the flesh-are opened; and they look away from heaven toward the world. As loves flow in and are accepted, so their pleasures flow in, pleasures of heaven into our deeper natures and pleasures of the world into our outer natures, because as already noted all pleasure comes from love.
This kind of sharing flows from the two loves of heaven, which as noted are love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. These loves by nature want to share their pleasures. The reason love for the Lord is like this is that because the Lord’s love is a love of sharing everything it has with everyone, it intends the happiness of everyone. Much the same love exists in individuals who love him, because the Lord is in them. So there is a mutual sharing of angels’ pleasures with each other. We shall see later that love for our neighbor is like this as well. We may gather from all this that these loves by nature want to share their pleasures.
It is different for love for oneself and love for the world. Love for oneself takes away and carries off all the pleasure of others and diverts them to itself because it has only its own welfare in mind. Love of the world wants the possessions of the neighbor to be its own. So these loves by nature want to destroy pleasures for other people. If they have any tendency to share, it is for their own interests and not for others; so in relation to others (except insofar as they can appropriate and embody the pleasures of those others) they do not tend to share but to destroy.
I have very often been shown by vivid experience that this is what love for oneself and love for the world are like when they are in control. Whenever spirits who were engrossed in these loves when they lived as people in the world have come up to me, my own pleasure has waned and vanished. I have also been told that if people like these so much as move toward any heavenly community, the pleasure of the members of that community decreases in direct proportion to their presence. Remarkably, too, the evil people are then delighted. I could see from this what the state of the human spirit in the body is like, for it is much the same as it is after separation from the body. Specifically, they crave and covet the pleasures or assets of others, and to the extent that they acquire them they themselves are pleased. We can see from this that love for oneself and love for the world are destructive of heavenly joy and are therefore diametrically opposed to heavenly loves, whose nature is to share.
[2] There is nothing spirits want more when they are arriving in the other life from this world than to get into heaven. Almost all of them expect to because they believe that heaven is simply a matter of being let in and accepted. Because this is what they want, then, they are taken to some community of the outmost heaven. If they are devoted to love for themselves and the world, then the moment they reach the first border of that heaven they begin to feel pain and to be so tormented within that they feel as though they were in hell rather than in heaven. So they themselves dive down headlong and are not at rest until they are with their own kind in the hells.
[3] It has also often happened that spirits like this have wanted to find out what heavenly joy is, and when they have heard that it is within the deeper nature of angels, they have sought to share in it for themselves. So this too was done, because when spirits are not yet in heaven or in hell, whatever they want is granted if it may do any good. Once communication was established, they began to feel such agony that they did not know how to control their bodies because of the pain. It looked as though they pushed their heads down to their feet and threw themselves on the ground and twisted themselves into loops like snakes, all because of their inner agony. This was the effect that heavenly pleasure had on people whose pleasures stemmed from love for themselves and love for the world. The reason is that these loves are diametrically opposed, and when a love meets its opposite this kind of pain results. Further, since heavenly pleasure comes in by an inner path and flows into an opposing pleasure, it twists the deeper levels that are engrossed in that pleasure backward, in the opposite direction. This results in this kind of agony.
[4] As I have already noted, the reason these loves are contrary to each other is that love for the Lord and love for our neighbor want to share everything with others. This is in fact their delight. But self-love and love for the world want to take things away from others for themselves, and find pleasure to the extent that they can succeed.
This also enables us to realize why hell is separated from heaven. It is because all the people who are in hell, while they lived in the world, were wholly focused on pleasures of the body and the flesh because of their love for themselves and love for the world; while all the people who are in heaven, while they lived in the world, were focused on pleasures of the soul and the spirit because of their love for the Lord and their love for their neighbor. Since these loves are opposed to each other, the hells and the heavens are completely separated, even to the point that spirits who are in hell do not dare stick out a single finger or raise the top of their heads, for the moment they do so, even the slightest bit, they are in torment and agony. This too I have often seen.
In contrast, the faint sense of pleasure, the almost imperceptible sense of well-being that was found in people who were focused on love for God and love for their neighbor in the world, turns into the pleasure of heaven, perceptible and palpable in countless ways. That sense of well-being that had been lying hidden in their deeper natures while they lived in the world is now unveiled and released into open sensation, because now they are in the spirit, and this was the delight of their spirit.
We can be assured that heaven’s pleasures are pleasures of service by comparing them with our own five physical senses. Each sense has its own pleasure in accord with the service it performs. Sight has its pleasure, hearing its own, smell its own, taste its own, and touch its own. The pleasure of sight derives from beauty and forms, that of hearing from harmonies, of smell from fragrances, of taste from flavors. Anyone who reflects knows what services the individual senses perform, and people familiar with correspondences know this even more fully. The reason sight has the kind of pleasure it does lies in the service it performs for our discernment, which is an inner sight. The reason hearing has the kind of pleasure it does lies in the service it performs for our discernment and our volition by its attentiveness. The reason smell has the kind of pleasure it does lies in the service it performs for the brain and for the lungs. The reason taste has the kind of pleasure it does lies in the service it performs for the stomach and indirectly for the whole body by nourishing it. Marital pleasure, which is a purer and more delicate pleasure of touch, surpasses all others because of its service, the procreation of the human race and thus of the angelic heaven.
These pleasures are inherent in the senses because of the inflow of heaven, where all pleasure belongs to service and depends on service.
So that these people might feel shame (people who have had the notion that heavenly joy consists of a life of leisure, inhaling eternal bliss) they are enabled to perceive what kind of life this would be. They see that it is thoroughly miserable; and once all their delight therefore dies away, they are very soon disgusted and nauseated.
Useful activities in the heavens occur in similar variety and diversity. The function of one individual is never exactly the same as that of any other, so the delight of one is never the same as another’s. Not only that, the delights of each function are countless, and these countless delights are equally varied, yet they are united in a design that enables them to focus on each other as do the functions of the individual members and organs and viscera in the human body; or even more, like the functions of every vessel and fiber in those members and organs and viscera. These are all interconnected in such a way that they focus on what they can contribute to the other and therefore to all, with all mindful of the individual members. They act as one because of this regard for the whole and for the individual.
a. A unity consists of different constituents and derives its form and quality from them, and it derives its perfection from the way they harmonize and agree: 457, 3241, 8003. There is an infinite variety, and nothing is ever the same as anything else: 7236, 9002. It is the same in the heavens: 5744 [3744], 4005, 7236, 7833, 7836, 9002. Consequently all the communities in the heavens and all the individual angels in a community differ from each other because they are engaged in different virtues and services: 690, 3241, 3519, 3804, 3986, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 3986. The Lord’s divine love arranges them all in a heavenly form and unites them as though they were a single individual: 457, 3986, 5598.
When they heard this last point they were unable to respond, because they had heard something like this during their physical lives but had not believed it. They wondered whether there was that kind of love in heaven, whether it was possible for anyone to love her or his neighbor more than herself or himself. They were told, though, that in the other life everything good increases immensely. Life in a physical body cannot by nature progress beyond loving one’s neighbor as the self, because it is immersed in physical concerns. Once these are removed, though, the love becomes purer and ultimately angelic, which is loving one’s neighbor more than oneself. This is because in the heavens doing good for someone else is a delight and doing good for oneself is not unless it is to give to another and therefore for the sake of the other. This is loving one’s neighbor more than oneself.
As for the possibility of this love, it was said that in this world it might be gathered from the marriage love some people have for each other, people who would rather die than allow their spouse to be hurt. Or they might consider the love of parents for their children, the mother who would rather starve than see her children go hungry; or the true friendship that leads people to face peril for the sake of their friends. They might even consider the simulated friendship of formal courtesy, in which people try to imitate the real thing by offering the better portions to people they claim to want to help and then make noise about it, though it is not from their hearts. Lastly, they might consider the nature of love, whose nature is to find joy in serving others for their sake and not for its own.
However, the ones who loved themselves more than others could not grasp this, nor could the ones who had been keen on profit taking during their physical lives; and least of all, misers.
I went on to say that heaven did not consist of wanting to be least in order to be greatest. People who do this pant and long for greatness. Rather, it means a heartfelt wishing better for others than for oneself, and serving others for the sake of their happiness with no thought of reward, simply out of love.
When good spirits who have not yet experienced this pleasure (not having been raised into heaven yet) perceive it from the aura of love from some angel, they are filled with such pleasure that they find themselves in a kind of sweet faint. This often happens to people who want to know what heavenly joy is.
I have also noticed that heavenly joy and delight seemed to be coming from my heart, spreading very subtly through all my inner fibers and from there into the gatherings of fibers with such a profound sense of pleasure that my fibers seemed to be nothing but joy and delight, and everything I perceived and felt was alive with bliss. Next to these joys, the joy of physical pleasures is like crude and irritating dust compared to a pure and gentle breeze.
I noticed that when I wanted to convey all my pleasure to someone else, a deeper and fuller pleasure flowed in ceaselessly in its place. The more I wanted to convey it, the more it flowed in; and I perceived that this was from the Lord.
As the years pass, elderly women who have died of old age-women who have lived in faith in the Lord, thoughtfulness toward their neighbor, and in contented marriage love with their husbands-come more and more into the flower of growing youth and into a beauty that surpasses any notion of beauty accessible to our sight. Their goodness and thoughtfulness is what gives them their form and gives them its own likeness, making the pleasure and beauty of thoughtfulness radiate from every least corner of their faces so that they become actual forms of thoughtfulness. Some people have seen them and have been stunned. The form of thoughtfulness that is open to view in heaven is like this because it is thoughtfulness itself that both gives and is given visible form. In fact, it does this in such a way that the whole angel, especially her face, is virtually thoughtfulness itself appearing to open perception. When people look at this form, its beauty is unutterable, affecting the very inmost life of the mind with thoughtfulness. In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young. People who have lived in love for the Lord and in thoughtfulness toward their neighbor are forms like this, or beauties like this, in the other life. All angels are forms like this, in infinite variety. This is what makes heaven.
The vastness of the Lord’s heaven follows from many of the things that have been presented above, especially from the fact that heaven is from the human race (see 311-317), not only that portion of it born within the church but also the portion born outside it (318-328). This means that heaven includes everyone who has lived a good life since the very beginning of our planet.
Anyone familiar with the continents and regions and nations of this world may gather what a multitude of people there are on our whole globe. Anyone who goes into the mathematics of it will discover that thousands and thousands of people die on any given day, making hundreds of thousands or millions every year; and this has been going on since the earliest times, thousands of years ago. All of these people have arrived in the other world, called the spiritual world, after their decease, and they are still arriving.
I cannot say how many of these are or are becoming angels of heaven. I have been told that most of the earliest people became angels, because they thought more deeply and spiritually and were therefore enveloped in heavenly affection; while for later ages it was not so many because as time passed we became more externally minded and began to think more on the natural level, which meant that we were enveloped in more earthly affection.
This enables us to gather at the outset that heaven is huge simply from the inhabitants of this planet.
It may be seen above (329-345) that every child-wherever born, whether within the church or outside it, whether of devout or irreverent parents-is accepted by the Lord at death. Every child is raised in heaven, is taught and is permeated with affections for what is good according to the divine design and thereby with firsthand knowledge of things true, and is then perfected in intelligence and wisdom, so to speak, and admitted into heaven to become an angel. You can gather what a vast multitude of heaven’s angels has come from this source alone from the beginning of creation to the present day.
[2] It is common knowledge in the other life that there are many planets with people on them and therefore angels and spirits from them, since anyone who wants to talk with spirits from other planets because of a love of the truth and a desire to be useful is allowed to do so to be convinced of the plurality of worlds, to learn that the human race is not just from one earth but from countless planets.
[3] I have talked about this on occasion with spirits from our earth, noting that intellectually gifted people could know, on the basis of much that is familiar to them, that there are many earths with people on them. That is, they could come to the rational conclusion that masses as big as the planets, some of which are larger than our earth, are not empty lumps created only to meander around the sun and radiate their feeble light for just one planet, but that their function must be more worthwhile than this.
People who believe (as they should) that the Divine created the universe for the sole purpose of the emergence of the human race and a heaven from it (for the human race is the seedbed of heaven) cannot help but believe that there are people wherever there is a planet.
It is abundantly clear that the planets visible to our eyes, the ones in our solar system, are earths, because they are material bodies, since they reflect the sun’s light; and when we look at them through a telescope they do not look like ruddy, fiery stars but like earths with blurry bands of color. There is also the fact that they are borne around the sun, through the stations of the Zodiac, just like our earth, which must cause years and the seasons of the year called spring, summer, fall, and winter. Similarly, they rotate on their axes like our earth, which makes days and the times of day called morning, noon, evening, and night. Not only that, some of them have moons called satellites, which have their own periodic orbits around their sphere the way the moon orbits our earth. The planet Saturn, which is very far from the sun, has also a huge luminous belt that gives a great deal of light to that planet, even though it is reflected light. How could anyone who knows all this and thinks rationally say that these are empty bodies?
[4] Then too, I have talked with spirits about the fact that people could realize that there is more than one earth in the universe from the fact that the starry heaven is so immense. There are so incomprehensibly many stars in it, each one a sun in its own place and its own system, like our sun, of different magnitudes. If people think this through carefully, they will come to the conclusion that this whole vast universe cannot be anything but a means to an end, which is the goal of creation, a heavenly kingdom in which the Divine can dwell with angels and with us. The visible universe, the heaven spangled with so incomprehensibly many stars that are all suns, is in fact simply a means for the production of planets with people on them who can make up a heavenly kingdom.
Given all this, rational people cannot help thinking that such a vast means toward such an end did not come into being for the sake of a human race on one earth. What would that be for a divine being, an infinite being, for whom thousands or tens of thousands of planets, all fully inhabited, would be so slight as to be practically nothing?
There are spirits whose special passion is to learn at first hand, because this is the only kind of knowledge that gives them any pleasure. [5] These spirits are therefore allowed to travel around and even to leave this solar system and visit others, to gather firsthand knowledge there. They have told me that there are inhabited planets not only in our solar system but also outside it in the starry sky-a vast number of them. These spirits are from the planet Mercury.
[6] By a preliminary calculation, if there were a million planets in the universe with three hundred million people on each one, and two hundred generations over six thousand years, and if each person or spirit were allotted three cubic cubits, and if all these people or spirits were gathered into one place, they would not even fill the volume of our earth, hardly more than a satellite of one of the planets. This would be such a small space in the universe as to be barely visible, since we can scarcely see those satellites with the naked eye. What would this be for the Creator of the universe, for whom it would not be enough if the whole universe were filled? For the Creator is infinite.
[7] I have talked about this with angels, who have told me that they have much the same idea about how small the number of the human race is in comparison to the infinity of the Creator. However, they do not think in terms of space but of states, and to their minds, no matter how many tens of thousands of planets you could conceive of, it would still be simply nothing to the Lord.
Information on the planets in the universe, their inhabitants, and the spirits and angels who come from them may be found in the booklet mentioned earlier. What you will find there has been revealed and shown to me to let people know that the Lord’s heaven is vast and that it is all from the human race, and also that our Lord is recognized everywhere as the God of heaven and earth.
Anyone with a little rational enlightenment can figure out that the unanimous harmony of many people, especially from such a source and with such intimacy, brings forth perfection.
People who think that heaven is small because they have misunderstood the Word can only be thinking that heaven is in a single place where everyone is gathered together. Yet in fact heaven consists of countless communities. (See above, 41-50.) Further, they can only be thinking that heaven is granted to individuals out of direct mercy and therefore consists simply of admission and acceptance out of good will. They do not realize that the Lord, out of his mercy, leads everyone who accepts him, and that the people who accept him are the people who live according to the laws of the divine design, which are precepts of love and faith. They do not realize that being led by the Lord from infancy to the end of earthly life and then on to eternity is what mercy really means. If only they knew that everyone is born for heaven, that people are accepted into heaven who accept heaven into themselves in this world, and that people who do not accept it are shut out!
a. The elect are people who lead lives of goodness and truth: 3755, 3900. There is no election and acceptance into heaven out of mercy as this is commonly understood, only in keeping with one’s life: 5057, 5058. There is no direct mercy of the Lord, only an indirect mercy, that is, for people who live by his precepts, whom he, out of mercy, is constantly leading while they are in the world and afterward to eternity: 10659, 8700.
b. The poor in the Word means people who are spiritually poor, people who do not know what is true but still long to learn: 9209, 9253, 10227. When it says that they are hungry and thirsty, it is referring to their longing to encounter what is good and true and to be led in this way into the church and heaven: 4958, 10227.
What the World of Spirits Is
The world of spirits is neither heaven nor hell but a place or state between the two. It is where we first arrive after death, being in due time either raised into heaven or cast into hell from it depending on our life in this world.
A state of heaven for us is the union of what is good and true within us, and a state of hell is a union of what is evil and false within us. When the good in a spirit-person is united to the true, then that individual arrives in heaven, because as already stated that union is heaven within us. On the other hand, when the evil is united to the false within us, then we arrive in hell, because that union is hell within us. The process of union takes place in the world of spirits because then we are in a halfway state. It amounts to the same thing whether you say the union of intellect and will or the union of the true and the good.
In the following pages I will be explaining just how we are led from one state into another and prepared.
Even though we are sorted out in this way, we are still together in that world and can talk to anyone when we want to, to friends and acquaintances from our physical life, especially husbands and wives, and also brothers and sisters. I have seen a father talking with his six sons and recognizing them. I have seen many other people with their relatives and friends. However, since they were of different character because of their life in the world, they parted company after a little while.
However, people who are coming into heaven from the world of spirits and people who are coming into hell do not see each other any more. They do not even recognize each other unless they are of like character because of a likeness in love. The reason they see each other in the world of spirits but not in heaven or hell is that while they are in the world of spirits they are brought into states like the ones they were in during their physical lives, one after another. After a while, though, they settle into a constant state that accords with their ruling love. In this state, mutual recognition comes only from similarity of love, for as we explained above (41-50), likeness unites and difference separates.
All the hells are closed on the side that faces that world, accessible only through holes and crevices like those in rocks and through broad gaps that are guarded to prevent anyone from coming out without permission, which happens in cases of real need, as will be discussed later. Heaven too is bounded on all sides, and the only access to any heavenly community is by a narrow way whose entry is also guarded. These exits and entrances are what are called the doors and gates of hell and heaven in the Word.
The doors and gates to the hells are visible only to the people who are going to enter them. They open for them, and once they are opened you can see dark, sooty caves slanting downward into the depths, where there are still more gates. Rank, foul stenches breathe out from them, stenches that good spirits flee because they are repelled by them, while evil spirits are drawn toward them because they find them delightful. In fact, just as we find delight in our own evil in this world we find delight after death in the stench that corresponds to our evil. We might compare this with the delight of carrion birds and beasts like crows and wolves and pigs who fly or run toward rotting corpses as soon as they get wind of them. I heard one man who screamed aloud in utter torment at a breath of air from heaven, but was calm and happy when a breath from hell reached him.
I have mentioned these things so that our correspondence with heaven and with hell may be known. While our rational mind is in the process of being formed, it is responsive to the world of spirits. What is above it belongs to heaven, and what is beneath it belongs to hell. The higher things open, and the lower close against the inflow of evil and falsity, for people who are being readied for heaven; while the lower things open, and the higher close against the inflow of goodness and truth, for people who are being readied for hell. As a result, these latter can only look downward, toward hell, and the former can only look upward, toward heaven. Looking upward is looking toward the Lord, because he is the common center that everything in heaven faces. Looking downward, though, is looking away from the Lord toward the opposite center, the center toward which everything in hell faces and gravitates (see above, 123 and 124).
432. Each of Us Is Inwardly a Spirit
Anyone who thinks things through carefully can see that it is not the body that thinks, because the body is material. Rather, it is the soul, because the soul is spiritual. The human soul, whose immortality has been the topic of many authors, is our spirit; it is in fact immortal in all respects, and it is also what does the thinking in our bodies. This is because it is spiritual and the spiritual is open to the spiritual and lives spiritually, through thought and intention. So all the rational life we can observe in our bodies belongs to the soul and none of it to the body. Actually, the body is material, as just noted, and the matter that is proper to the body is an addendum and almost an attachment to the spirit. Its purpose is to enable our spirit to lead its life and perform its services in a natural world that is material in all respects and essentially lifeless. Since matter is not alive-only spirit-we may conclude that whatever is alive in us is our spirit and that the body only serves it exactly the way a tool serves a live and activating force. We may of course say that a tool works or moves or strikes, but it is a mistake to believe that this is a property of the tool and not of the person who is wielding it.
I have heard from heaven that some people who die, while they are lying on the slab, before they have been revived, are still thinking in their cold bodies, and cannot help but feel that they are alive, but with the difference that they cannot move a single part of the matter that makes up their bodies.
But some supporting instances from experience would be better, because rational arguments are beyond many people, and the ones who have convinced themselves of opposite opinions make these arguments grounds for their skepticism by arguing on the basis of sensory illusions.
People who have convinced themselves of an opposite opinion tend to think that animals live and sense just the way we do, so that they too have a spiritual nature like ours; yet this dies along with their bodies. However, the spiritual nature of animals is not the same as ours. We have an inmost nature that animals do not, a nature into which the Divine flows and which it raises toward itself, in this way uniting us to itself. So we, unlike animals, can think about God and about divine matters of heaven and the church. We can love God because of these matters and by engaging with them; and can so be united to him; and anything that can be united to the Divine cannot be destroyed. Anything that cannot be united to the Divine, though, does disintegrate. In 39 above, I discussed this inmost that we have and animals do not. The reason for mentioning it again here is that it is important to dispel the illusions many people get from [believing that animals are just like humans], people who cannot draw rational conclusions about these subjects because they lack information or because their intellect is not open. What I said there was as follows:
I should like to 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 the levels discussed in 38. 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 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.
Actually, we are not visible as spirits in our [spiritual] communities while we are living in the world because we are thinking on the natural level. However, if our thinking is withdrawn from the body we are sometimes visible in our communities because we are then in the spirit. When we are visible, it is easy to tell us from the spirits who live there because we walk along deep in thought, silent, without looking at others, as though we did not see them; and the moment any spirit addresses us, we disappear.
I have been admitted to this state three or four times, simply to let me know what it was like, and also to teach me that spirits and angels enjoy all the senses and that we do too, as to our spirits, when we are taken out of the body.
When someone’s body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs’ breathing and the heart’s systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are.
We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Word, “death” means resurrection and a continuation of life.(a)
a. Death in the Word means resurrection because when we die, our life still goes on: 3498, 3505, 4618, 4621, 6036, 6222 [6221].
The reason the deepest communication of our spirit is with our breathing and our heart is that all our vital processes depend on these, not only in a general way, but in every specific.(c)
b. The heart corresponds to our volition and therefore to affection of love as well, while the breathing of the lungs corresponds to our intellect and therefore to thought: 3888. In the Word, then, the heart means volition and love: 7542, 9050, 10336; and the soul means intellect, faith, and truth, so that “from the soul and from the heart” means what comes from intellect, faith, and truth, and what comes from intent, love, and good: 2930, 9050. On the correspondence of the heart and lungs [Latin anima, “soul,” also means “breath”] with the universal human or heaven: 3883-3896.
c. The heartbeat and the breathing of the lungs are regulative throughout the body and flow in together everywhere: 3887, 3889, 3890.
The reason our spirit is not separated from our body until the motion of the heart has stopped is that the heart answers to affection, an attribute of love, which is our essential life, since all of us derive our vital warmth from love.(d) Consequently, as long as this union lasts there is a responsiveness, and therefore the life of the spirit is [still] in the body.
d. Love is the very being of human life: 5002. Love is spiritual warmth and is therefore our own vital essence: 1589, 2146, 3338, 4906, 7081-7086, 9954, 10740. Affection is a corollary of love: 3938.
At first then a connection was established between my heartbeat and the heavenly kingdom, because that kingdom corresponds to the human heart.(e) I also saw angels from that kingdom, some at a distance, but two sitting close to my head. The effect was to take away all my own affection but to leave me in possession of thought and perception. [2] I remained in this state for several hours.
Then the spirits who were around me gradually drew away, thinking that I was dead. I sensed a sweet odor like that of an embalmed body, for when heavenly angels are present anything having to do with a corpse smells sweet. When spirits sense this, they cannot come near. This is also how evil spirits are kept away from our spirit when we are being admitted into eternal life.
The angels who were sitting beside my head were silent, simply sharing their thoughts with mine (when these are accepted [by the deceased], the angels know that the person’s spirit is ready to be led out of the body). They accomplished this sharing of thoughts by looking into my face. This is actually how thoughts are shared in heaven.
[3] Since I had been left in possession of thought and perception so that I could learn and remember how awakening happens, I noticed that at first the angels were checking to see whether my thoughts were like those of dying individuals, who are normally thinking about eternal life. They wanted to keep my mind in these thoughts. I was later told that as the body is breathing its last, our spirit is kept in its final thought until eventually it comes back to the thoughts that flowed from our basic or ruling affection in the world.
Especially, I was enabled to perceive and even to feel that there was a pull, a kind of drawing out of the deeper levels of my mind and therefore of my spirit from my body; and I was told that this was being done by the Lord and is what brings about our resurrection.
e. The heart corresponds to the Lord’s heavenly kingdom and the lungs to his spiritual kingdom: 3635, 3886, 3887.
I was also shown how this is done. It seemed as though the angels rolled back a covering from my left eye toward the center of my nose so that my eye was opened and able to see. To the spirit, it seems as though this were actually happening, but it is only apparently so. As this covering seemed to be rolled back, I could see a kind of clear but dim light like the light we see through our eyelids when we are first waking up. It seemed to me as though this clear, dim light had a heavenly color to it, but I was later told that this varies. After that, it felt as though something were being rolled gently off my face, and once this was done I had access to spiritual thought. This rolling something off the face is an appearance, for it represents the fact that we are moving from natural thinking to spiritual thinking. Angels take the greatest care to shield the awakening person from any concept that does not taste of love. Then they tell the individual that he or she is a spirit.
After the spiritual angels have given us the use of light, they do everything for us as newly arrived spirits that we could ever wish in that state. They tell us-at least to the extent that we can grasp it-about the realities of the other life. However, if our nature is such that we do not want to be taught, then once we are awakened we want to get out of the company of angels. Still, the angels do not leave us, but we do leave them. Angels really do love everyone. They want nothing more than to help people, to teach them, to lead them into heaven. This is their highest joy.
When spirits leave the company of angels, they are welcomed by the good spirits who are accompanying them and who also do all they can for them. However, if they had led the kind of life in the world that makes it impossible for them to be in the company of good people, then they want to get away from these as well. This happens as long and as many times as necessary, until they find the company of people their earthly life has fitted them for. Here they find their life; and remarkable as it may sound, they then lead the same kind of life they had led in the world.
Some people during their earthly lives have not believed in any life of the soul after the life of the body. When they discover that they are alive, they are profoundly embarrassed. However, people who have convinced themselves of this join up with others of like mind and move away from people who had lived in faith. Most of them link up with some hellish community because such people reject the Divine and have no use for the truths of the church. In fact, to the extent that we convince ourselves in our opposition to the ideal of the eternal life of the soul, we also convince ourselves in opposition to the realities of heaven and the church.
453. After Death, We Are in a Complete Human Form
The fact that the form of a spirit-person is the human form or that a spirit is a person as far as form is concerned follows from what has been presented in a number of the earlier chapters, especially where I explained that every angel is in a perfect human form (73-77), that everyone is a spirit inwardly (432-444), and that the angels in heaven are from the human race (311-317).
[2] This may be grasped even more clearly from the fact that we are human because of our spirit, not because of our body, and because our physical form is appended to the spirit in keeping with its form, not the other way around, since a spirit is clothed with a body that suits its form. As a result, the human spirit acts upon the individual parts of the body, even the smallest ones, even to the point that any part that is not activated by the spirit, any part in which there is no spirit acting, is not alive. Anyone may realize this by considering that thought and intent activate absolutely everything in the body and are so completely in control that nothing dissents, and that if anything does not consent it is not part of the body. It is actually expelled as something with no life in it. Thought and intent are attributes of our spirit, not of the body.
[3] The reason we cannot see the human form of spirits who have left the body and spirits still within the people we meet is that our physical organ of sight, the eye, is material to the extent that it can see in this world, and what is material sees only what is material. What is spiritual, though, does see what is spiritual; so when the material eye is covered over and loses its coordination with the spirit, then spirit is visible in its own form. This is a human form not only for spirits who are in the spiritual world but also for spirits in people we meet while they are still in their bodies.
a. In us all the elements of the divine design are gathered together, and by virtue of creation we are the divine design in form: 4219, 4220, 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5368, 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472. To the extent that we live according to the divine design, in the other life we look like complete and lovely people: 4839, 6605, 6626.
[3] Since we are by nature able to understand what is true if we are willing to, I have been granted the privilege of supporting spiritual truths, truths of the church and heaven, by rational considerations. This is to the end that the false notions that have obscured the rational functioning of many people may be dispelled by rational considerations and their eyes perhaps opened a little. If people are focused on truths, it is granted them to support spiritual truths by rational ones. Who would possibly understand the Word simply from its literal meaning unless they saw some truths in it by enlightened reason? What else is the cause of the many heresies drawn from the same Word?(b)
b. A starting point should be derived from the truths of church doctrine drawn from the Word, and these should be acknowledged first; then it is all right to take factual knowledge into account: 6047. So if people have an affirmative attitude toward truths of faith, it is all right for them to support them rationally with factual knowledge; but this is not appropriate for people who have a negative attitude: 2568, 2588, 4760, 6047. It is in accord with the divine design to work rationally from spiritual truths into factual knowledge, natural truths, but not from the latter into the former, because there is an inflow of spiritual things into natural ones but not from natural or physical things into spiritual ones: 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9110, 9111.
[3] This is why almost all the people who arrive from this world are as astonished as they can be to find that they are alive and that they are just as human as ever, that they are seeing and hearing and talking, that their bodies are still endowed with the sense of touch, and that nothing at all has changed (see 74 above). Once they get over their amazement, though, then they are amazed that the church does not know anything about this state of ours after death and therefore does not know anything about heaven or hell, even though all the people who have lived in this world are in the other life and are living people. Since they do keep wondering why this has not been made plain to people on earth through visions, inasmuch as it is essential to the faith of the church, they have been told from heaven that such visions could happen whenever it pleased the Lord-nothing could be easier. However, people would not believe even if they were to see, because they have convinced themselves of the opposing false notions. Further, it is dangerous to use visions to convince people of anything if they are immersed in false opinions, because they will believe at first and then deny. In this way they will desecrate the truth itself, since desecration is believing and then denying. People who desecrate truths are forced down into the lowest and direst hell of all.(c)
[4] This is the danger meant by the Lord’s words, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn themselves and I might heal them” (John 12:40); and the fact that people immersed in false opinions still would not believe is meant when it says, “Abraham said to the rich man in hell, They have Moses and the prophets, let them heed them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead were to come to them, they would change. But Abraham said, If they do not heed Moses and the prophets, then even if someone were raised from the dead, they would not believe” (Luke 16:29-31).
c. Desecration is the mingling of the good and the evil and of the true and the false within us: 6348. The only people who can desecrate what is true and good, or the holy things of the Word and the church, are people who have first acknowledged them, all the more if they have lived by them, and later fall away from their faith, deny them, and live for themselves and the world: 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 3398, 3399, 3898, 4289, 4601, 10284, 10287. If we fall back into prior evils after heartfelt repentance, we commit desecration; and then our later state is worse than our former one: 8394. People cannot desecrate holy things if they have not acknowledged them, and still less if they have not even known about them: 1008, 1010, 1059, 9188, 10284. Non-Christians who are outside the church and do not have the Word are incapable of desecration: 1327, 1328, 2051, 2081. This is why deeper truths were not disclosed to the Jews, because if they had been disclosed and acknowledged, they would have desecrated them: 3398, 3489, 6963. The fate of desecrators in the other life is the worst of all because the good and truth they acknowledged is still there and so is what is evil and false; and since these coexist, there is a wrenching of their very life: 571, 582, 6348. So the Lord takes the greatest care to prevent desecration: 2426, 10384.
I have seen some newcomers from the world and have recognized them by their faces and voices; but when I saw them later, I did not recognize them. People who were engaged in good affections had lovely faces, while people who were engaged in evil affections had ugly ones. Seen in its own right, our spirit is nothing but our affections, whose outward form is our face.
The reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have, so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in. We are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend. This is why our faces all become forms and images of our affections; and this is why all the people who have known each other in the world still recognize each other in the world of spirits, but not in heaven or hell, as already noted (427).(d)
d. Our faces are formed to be responsive to our inner natures: 4791-4805, 5695. On the correspondence of our faces and their expressions with the affections of our minds: 1568, 2988, 2989, 3631, 4796, 4797, 4800, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306. For heaven’s angels, the face forms a single whole with the deeper levels of the mind: 4796, 4797, 4798, 4799, 5695, 8250. So in the Word, “the face” means the deeper levels of the mind, or of affection and thought: 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796, 5102, 9306, 9546. How the inflow from the brains into the face changed in the course of time, and with it the face itself in regard to its responsiveness to our deeper natures: 4326, 8250.
Hypocrites are people who talk like angels but who inwardly respect only nature, not the Divine Being, and who therefore deny the realities of the church and of heaven.
I have seen faces of angels of the third heaven so beautiful that no painters, with all their skill, could render a fraction of their light with their pigments or rival a thousandth part of the light and life that show in their faces. The faces of angels of the outmost heaven, though, can be mirrored to some extent.
This secret may not fit well into the understanding of anyone on earth, but it is clear to the understanding of angels because they are in heaven’s light.
Repeated experience has witnessed to me that when we move from the natural world into the spiritual, which happens when we die, we take with us everything that pertains to our character except our earthly body. In fact, when we enter the spiritual world or our life after death, we are in a body as we were in this world. There seems to be no difference, since we do not feel or see any difference. This body is spiritual, though, so it has been separated or purified from earthly matter. Further, when anything spiritual touches and sees something spiritual, it is just like something natural touching and seeing something natural. So when we have become a spirit, we have no sense that we are not in the body we inhabited in the world, and therefore do not realize that we have died.
[2] As “spirit-people,” we enjoy every outer and inner sense we enjoyed in the world. We see the way we used to, we hear and talk the way we used to; we smell and taste and feel things when we touch them the way we used to; we want, wish, crave, think, ponder, are moved, love, and intend the way we used to. Studious types still read and write as before. In a word, when we move from the one life into the other, or from the one world into the other, it is like moving from one [physical] place to another; and we take with us everything we owned as persons to the point that it would be unfair to say that we have lost anything of our own after death, which is only a death of the earthly body. [3] We even take with us our natural memory, since we retain everything we have heard, seen, read, learned, or thought in the world from earliest infancy to the very end of life. However, since the natural objects that reside in our memory cannot be reproduced in a spiritual world, they become dormant the way they do when we are not thinking about them. Even so, they can be reproduced when it so pleases the Lord. I will have more to say soon, though, about this memory and its condition after death.
Sense-centered people are quite incapable of believing that our state after death is like this because they do not grasp it. Sense-centered people can think only on the natural level, even about spiritual matters. This means that anything they do not sense-that is, see with their physical eyes and touch with their hands-they say does not exist, as we read of Thomas in John 20:25, 27, 29. The quality of sense-centered people has been described above in 267, and in note c there.
However, the other senses are not as delicate for angels as their senses of sight and hearing, because sight and hearing serve their intelligence and wisdom, while the others do not. If the other senses were as sensitive, they would take away the light and pleasure of angels’ wisdom and interject a pleasure of motivations centering in various physical appetites, appetites that obscure and weaken the intellect to the extent that they flourish. This happens to people in the world as well, who become dull and mindless in regard to spiritual truths to the extent that they pander to their taste and to the sensual allurements of the body.
[3] What was presented in the chapter on the wisdom of heaven’s angels (265-275) may suffice to indicate that the deeper senses of heaven’s angels, the senses of their thought and affection, are more delicate and perfect than the ones they had in the world.
As for the difference in state of people who are in hell from their state in the world, this too is substantial. The perfection and wonder of the outer and inner senses of angels in heaven is paralleled by their imperfection for people in hell. However, we need to deal with their state later.
462b. As for our keeping our whole memory when we leave the world, I have been shown this by many examples and have seen and heard a great deal worth talking about. I should like to cite a few examples in a sequence. There have been people who denied the crimes and transgressions they had committed in the world. To prevent them from believing they were blameless, everything was disclosed and drawn out of their own memory in sequence from the beginning of their life to the end. Most of these transgressions were acts of adultery and promiscuity.
[2] There were people who had deceived others with malicious skill and had stolen from them. Their deceptions and thefts were also recounted one after the other, many of them known to practically no one in the world other than themselves. They even admitted them because they were made plain as day, along with every thought, intention, pleasure, and fear that mingled in their minds at the time.
[3] There were people who had taken bribes and made money from judicial decisions. They were similarly examined from their own memories, and everything was recounted from their first taking office to the end. The details of amount and value, of the time, and of their state of mind and intention, all consigned to their remembrance together, were brought to view, a hundred or more instances. In some cases, remarkably enough, the very diaries in which they had recorded these deeds were opened and read to them, page by page.
[4] There were men who had lured virgins to dishonor and violated their chastity. They were summoned to a similar judgment, and the details were drawn out of their memory and listed. The actual faces of the virgins and other women were presented as though they were there in person, along with the places, the words, and the thoughts. It was done as instantaneously as when something is actually being witnessed firsthand. Sometimes these presentations lasted for hours.
[5] There was one man who thought nothing of slandering others. I heard his slanders recounted in sequence as well as his blasphemies, along with the actual words, the people they were about, and the people they were addressed to. All these were presented together as lifelike as could be even though he had very carefully kept them hidden from his victims while he was living in the world.
[6] There was one man who had defrauded a relative of his legacy by some devious pretext. He was exposed and judged in the same way. Remarkably, the letters and documents they exchanged were read aloud to me, and he said that not a word was missing. [7] This same man had also secretly killed a neighbor by poison just before his own death, which was disclosed in the following way. A trench seemed to open under his feet, and as it was opened, a man came out as though from a tomb and screamed at him, “What have you done to me?” Then everything was disclosed-how the poisoner had talked amicably with him and offered him a drink, what he had thought beforehand, and what happened afterward. Once this was uncovered, the murderer was condemned to hell.
[8] In a word, all their evils, crimes, thefts, wiles, and deceptions are made clear to every evil spirit. They are drawn from their own memories and exposed. There is no room for denial because all the circumstances are presented together.
I also heard that angels have seen and displayed from the memory of one individual everything he had thought one day after another over the course of a month, with never an error, recalled as though he himself were back in those very days.
[9] We may gather from these instances that we take our whole memory with us, and that nothing is so concealed in this world that it will not be made known after death, made known in public, according to the Lord’s words, “Nothing is hidden that will not be uncovered, and nothing concealed that will not be known. So what you have said in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear will be proclaimed from the rooftops” (Luke 12:2-3).
We may also gather from this what is meant by our book of life, mentioned in the Word. It is the fact that all our deeds and all our thoughts are written on our whole person and seem as though they are read from a book when they are called out of our memory. They appear in a kind of image when our spirit is looked at in heaven’s light.
I should like to add to this something noteworthy about the memory that we keep after death, something that convinced me that not just the general contents but even the smallest details that have entered our memory do last and are never erased. I saw some books with writing in them like earthly writing, and was told that they had come from the memories of the people who had written them, that not a single word was missing that had been in the book they had written in the world. I was also told that all the least details could be retrieved from the memory of someone else, even things the person had forgotten in the world. The reason for this was explained as well; namely, that we have an outer and an inner memory, the outer proper to our natural person and the inner proper to our spiritual person. The details of what we have thought, intended, said, and done, even what we have heard and seen, are inscribed on our inner or spiritual memory.(b) There is no way to erase anything there, since everything is written at once on our spirit itself and on the members of our body, as noted above. This means that our spirit is formed in accord with what we have thought and what we have done intentionally. I know these things seem paradoxical and hard to believe, but they are true nevertheless.
Let no one believe, then, that there is anything we have thought or done in secret that will remain hidden after death. Believe rather that absolutely everything will come out into broad daylight.
a. Good people, spirits, and angels are their own good and their own truth: that is, the nature of the whole person depends on the nature of that good and truth: 10298, 10367. This is because the good constitutes our volition and the true constitutes our intellect, and volition and intellect constitute the entire life for a person here, for a spirit, and for an angel: 3332, 3623, 6065. This is the same as saying that people here, spirits, and angels are their love: 6872, 10177, 10284.
b. We have two memories, an outer and an inner, or a natural one and a spiritual one: 2469-2494. We are not aware that we have this inner memory: 2470, 2471. How much better the inner memory is than the outer one: 2473. The contents of our outer memory are in the world’s light, while the contents of our inner memory are in heaven’s light: 5212. It is because of our inner memory that we can think and talk intelligently and rationally: 9394. Absolutely everything we have thought, said, done, seen, and heard is inscribed on our inner memory: 2474, 7398. That memory is our book of life: 2474, 9386, 9841, 10505. In our inner memory are the true things that have become matters of our faith and the good things that have become matters of our love: 5212, 8067. Things that have become second nature to us and part of our life and therefore have been erased from our outer memory are in our inner memory: 9394, 9723, 9841. Spirits and angels talk from their inner memory, which is why they have a universal language: 2472, 2476, 2490, 2493. Languages in the world are matters of the outer memory: 2472, 2476.
[2] As for our outer or natural memory, though, to the extent that its contents are derived from matter, time, space, and everything else proper to nature, it does not fulfill the same function for the spirit that it fulfilled in the world. This is because in the world, when we thought on the basis of our outer sensitivity and not at the same time on the basis of our inner or intellectual sensitivity, we were thinking on the natural level and not on the spiritual one. However, in the other life, when our spirit is in the spiritual world, we do not think on the natural level but on the spiritual one. Thinking on the spiritual level is thinking intelligently or rationally. This is why our outer or natural memory then goes dormant as far as material things are concerned. The only things that come into play are what we have gained in the world through those material things and have made rational. The reason our outer memory goes dormant as far as material things are concerned is that they cannot be recreated. Spirits and angels actually talk from the affections and consequent thoughts of their minds, so they cannot utter anything that does not square with these, as you may gather from what was said about the language of angels in heaven and their communication with us (234-257). [3] This is why we are rational after death to the extent that we have become rational by means of languages and the arts and sciences in this world, and emphatically not to the extent that we have become skilled in them.
I have talked with any number of people who were regarded as learned in the world because of their knowledge of such ancient languages as Hebrew and Greek and Latin, but who had not developed their rational functioning by means of the things that were written in those languages. Some of them seemed as simple as people who did not know anything about those languages; some of them seemed dense, though there still remained a pride, as though they were wiser than other people.
[4] I have talked with some people who had believed in the world that wisdom depends on how much we have in our memory and who had therefore filled their memories to bursting. They talked almost exclusively from these items, which meant that they were not talking for themselves but for others; and they had not developed any rational function by means of these matters of memory. Some of them were dense, some silly, with no grasp of truth whatever, no sense of whether anything was true or not. They seized on every false notion sold as true by people who called themselves scholars. They were actually incapable of seeing anything as it actually was, whether it was true or not, so they could not see anything rationally when they listened to others.
[5] I have talked with some people who had written a great deal in the world, some of them in all kinds of academic fields, people who had therefore gained an international reputation for learning. Some of them could quibble about whether truths were true or not. Some of them understood what was true when they turned toward people who were in the light of truth; but since they still did not want to understand what was true, they denied it when they focused on their own false opinions and were therefore really being themselves. Some of them did not know any more than the illiterate masses. So they varied depending on the way they had developed their rational ability through the treatises they had written or copied. Still, if people had opposed the truths of the church, had based their thinking on the arts and sciences, and had used them to convince themselves of false principles, they had not developed their rational ability but only their skill in argumentation-an ability that is confused with rationality in the world, but is in fact a different ability from rationality. It is an ability to prove anything one pleases, to see false things rather than true ones on the basis of preconceptions and illusions. There is no way people like this can be brought to recognize truths because it is impossible to see truths from false principles, though it is possible from true principles to see what is false.
[6] Our rational faculty is like a garden or flower bed, like newly tilled land. Our memory is the soil, information and experiential learning are the seeds, while heaven’s light and warmth make them productive. There is no germination without these latter. So there is no germination in us unless heaven’s light, which is divine truth, and heaven’s warmth, which is divine love, are let in. They are the only source of rationality.
Angels are profoundly grieved that scholars for the most part keep attributing everything to nature and therefore close the deeper levels of their minds so that they can see no trace of truth from the light of truth, the light of heaven. As a result, in the other life they are deprived of their ability to reason so that they will not use reason to spread false notions among simple people and mislead them. They are dismissed to desert areas.
For people who have focused solely on memorization during their physical lives, without developing their rational ability, their memory has a callused quality that looks hard and streaked with tendons inside. For people who have filled their memories with false notions it looks shaggy because of the random mass of disorganized stuff. For people who have focused on memorization with themselves and the world first in mind, it looks stuck together and bony. For people who have tried to probe divine secrets through acquired information, especially philosophical information, without believing anything before they are convinced by the information, their memory looks dark, with a quality that actually absorbs rays of light and turns them into darkness. For people who have been guileful and hypocrites it looks bony and hard as ebony that reflects light rays.
However, for people who have focused on the good of love and truths of faith, no such callus is visible. This is because their inner memory is transmitting rays of light into their outer memory, and those rays find definition in its objects or concepts as though it were their foundation or their soil, and find congenial vessels there. This is because the outer memory is the outmost element of the design, where spiritual and heavenly matters come gently to rest and dwell when there are good and true contents in it.
[2] There are three levels of life in every individual (see above, 267). Our rational ability is opened at the first level by means of civic truths, at the second level by moral truths, and at the third level by spiritual truths.
We need to realize, though, that our rational ability is not formed and opened simply by virtue of our knowing these truths, but by virtue of our living by them. Living by them means loving them out of a spiritual affection; and loving them out of a spiritual affection means loving what is fair and equitable because it is fair and equitable, what is honest and upright because it is honest and upright, what is good and true because it is good and true. On the other hand, living according to them and loving them out of a physical affection is loving them for the sake of oneself, one’s repute, prestige, or profit. Consequently, to the extent that we love these truths out of a carnal affection, we do not become rational because we do not love them; we love ourselves, with the truths serving us the way slaves serve their master. When truths become slaves, they do not become part of us or open any level of our life, not even the first. Rather, they stay in our memory like information in material form and unite with love for ourselves there, which is a physical love.
[3] We may gather from this how we become rational, namely that at the third level it is through a spiritual love of what is good and true in regard to heaven and the church; at the second level it is through a love of what is honest and upright; and on the first level it is through a love of what is fair and equitable. The latter two loves also become spiritual from a spiritual love of what is good and true that flows into them and unites itself to them and forms its own face in them, so to speak.
I have been shown that spirits and angels have memory by a great deal of experience as well. I have seen everything they had thought and done called up from their memory both in public and in private, when they were with other spirits. I have also seen people who had been focused on some truth from simple virtue become steeped in insights and in a consequent intelligence and then taken up into heaven.
It should be realized, though, that they are not steeped in insights and a consequent intelligence beyond the level of the affection for what is good and true that engaged them in the world. In fact, each spirit and angel retains the amount and kind of affection she or he had in the world, and this is afterward perfected by being filled in. This too goes on forever, since everything is capable of infinite variation and enrichment by different means, so it can be multiplied and can bear fruit. There is no end to any instance of goodness, since its source is the Infinite.
The fact that spirits and angels are constantly being perfected in intelligence and wisdom by means of insights into what is true and good has been presented in the chapters on the wisdom of heaven’s angels (265-275); on non-Christians or people outside the church in heaven (318-328); and on infants in heaven (329-345). This happens at the level of the affection for the good and the true that engaged them in the world, and not beyond it (349).
Any Christian knows from the Word that our life is still with us after death, since it says in many places that we will be judged according to our deeds and works and rewarded accordingly. Further, anyone who thinks on the basis of what is good and from real truth cannot help but see that people who live well enter heaven and people who live evil lives enter hell. However, people who are intent on evil do not want to believe that their state after death depends on their life in the world. They think rather, especially when their health begins to fail, that heaven is granted to all on the basis of mercy alone no matter how people have lived, and that this depends on a faith that they keep separate from life.
The Human-born One is to come in the glory of the Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his or her works. (Matthew 16:17 [16:27])
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Truly, says the spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, their works follow them. (Revelation 14:11 [14:13])
I will give to all according to their works. (Revelation 2:23)
I saw the dead, small and great, standing in the presence of God, and books were opened, and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their works; the sea gave up those who had died in it, and death and hell gave up the people who were in them, and they were all judged according to their works. (Revelation 20:13, 15 [20:12, 13])
See, I am coming; and my reward is with me, and I will give to all according to their works. (Revelation 22:12)
Everyone who hears my words and does them I will compare to a prudent person, but everyone who hears my words and does not do them is like a foolish person. (Matthew 7:24, 26)
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in the heavens. Many people will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied through your name, and through your name cast out demons, and in your name done many powerful deeds?” But then I will confess to them, “I do not recognize you. Get away from me, workers of iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22, 23)
Then you will begin to say, “We have eaten in your presence and drunk, and you have taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I tell you, I do not recognize you, workers of iniquity.” (Luke 13:25-27)
I will repay them according to their work, and according to the deeds of their hands. (Jeremiah 25:14)
Jehovah, whose eyes are open upon all our paths, to give to us all according to our ways and according to the fruit of our works. (Jeremiah 32:19)
I will visit upon their ways and repay them their works. (Hosea 4:9)
Jehovah deals with us according to our ways and according to our works. (Zechariah 1:6)
Where the Lord is predicting the Last Judgment, he recounts only deeds, and [says] that the people who have done good works will enter eternal life, and that the people who have done evil works will enter damnation (Matthew 25:32-46). There are many other passages as well that deal with our salvation and damnation.
We can see that our outward life consists of our works and deeds, and that the quality of our inner life is manifested through them.
[2] Take for example behaving honestly and fairly with an associate. One person can behave honestly and fairly with someone else in order to seem honest and fair for the sake of self and to gain respect; another person can do the same for the sake of worldly profit; a third for reward and credit; a fourth to curry friendship; a fifth out of fear of the law and loss of reputation and office; a sixth to enlist people in his or her cause, even if it is an evil one; a seventh in order to mislead; and others for still other reasons. But even though all of their deeds look good (for behaving honestly and fairly toward a colleague is good), still they are evil because they are not done for the sake of honesty and fairness, not because these qualities are loved, but for the sake of oneself and the world, because these are loved. The honesty and fairness are servants of this love, like the servants of a household whom their lord demeans and dismisses when they do not serve.
[3] People behave honestly and fairly toward their colleagues in a similar outward form when they are acting from a love of what is honest and fair. Some of them do it because of the truth of faith, or obedience, because it is enjoined in the Word. Some of them do it for the sake of the goodness of faith or conscience, because they are moved by religious feeling. Some of them do it out of the good of thoughtfulness toward their neighbor, because one’s neighbor’s welfare is to be valued. Some of them do it out of the goodness of love for the Lord, because what is good should be done for its own sake; so too what is honest and fair should be done for the sake of honesty and fairness. They love these qualities because they come from the Lord, and because the divine nature that emanates from the Lord is within them. So if we see them in their true essence, they are divine. The deeds or works of these people are inwardly good, so they are outwardly good as well; for as already noted, the nature of deeds and works is entirely determined by the nature of the thought and intent from which they stem, and apart from such thought and intent they are not deeds and works but only lifeless motions.
We may gather from this what is meant by works and deeds in the Word.
a. Just as everything in the universe that occurs in an orderly fashion goes back to what is good and true, so everything in us goes back to volition and intellect: 803, 10122. This is because it is our volition that receives what is good and our intellect that receives what is true: 3332, 3623, 5332, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930. It amounts to the same thing whether you talk about what is true or faith, since faith is a matter of truth and truth is a matter of faith; and it also amounts to the same thing whether you talk about what is good or love, since love is a matter of what is good, and what is good is a matter of love: 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367. So it follows that intellect is the recipient of faith and volition the recipient of love: 7178, 10122, 10367; and since our intellect can accept faith in God and our volition love for God, we can be united to God by faith and love; and anyone who can be united to God by faith and love cannot die forever: 4525, 6323, 9231.
We may gather from this what faith is apart from love-no faith at all, only information with no spiritual life in it. The same holds true for deeds apart from love. They are not deeds or works of life at all, only deeds or works of death containing some semblance of life derived from a love of evil and a faith in what is false. This semblance of life is what we call spiritual death.
b. Our volition is the essential reality of our life, since it is the vessel of love or what is good; and our intellect is the consequent manifestation of life because it is the vessel of faith or what is true: 3619, 5002, 9282; so our voluntary life is our primary life and our intellectual life is secondary to it: 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110. It is like light from a fire or flame: 6032, 6314. It follows from this that we are human because of our volition and our consequent intellect: 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110. Every individual is loved and valued by others in proportion to the virtue of her or his intentions and the consequent thought. We are loved and valued if we intend well and understand well, rejected and demeaned if we understand well but do not intend well: 8911, 10076. After death we retain the quality of our intentions and our consequent understanding: 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153. This means that after death we retain the quality of our love and faith. Any elements that are matters of faith but not at the same time of love vanish then because they are not within us and therefore are not part of us: 553, 2364, 10153.
c. Deeper things flow sequentially into more outward ones and ultimately into what is outmost or final, which is where they find presence and permanence: 634, 6239, 6465, 9216, 9217. They not only flow in, they form a simultaneous whole on that outmost level, in a particular design: 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099. This is why all our deeper elements are held in connection and are stable: 9828. Deeds or works are the final forms in which our deeper elements exist: 10331; so being repaid and judged according to our works is [being repaid and judged] according to everything that pertains to our love and faith or our intentions and thought, since these are the deeper realities within our works: 3147, 3934, 6073, 8911, 10331, 10333.
On the outreach into communities of all the thought and affection of spirits and angels, see the previous chapters on the wisdom of heaven’s angels and on heaven’s form, which determines its gatherings and communications [265-275, 200-212].
[2] We may also gather that we are our love after death from the fact that anything that does not agree with our dominant love is then removed and apparently taken away from us. For good people, what is removed and apparently taken away is everything that disagrees and conflicts, with the result that they are admitted to their love. It is much the same for evil people, except that what is taken away from them is everything true, while for good people everything false is taken away. Either way, the result is that ultimately everyone becomes his or her own love. This happens when we are brought into our third state, which will be discussed below.
Once this has happened, we constantly turn our faces toward our love and have it constantly before our eyes no matter which way we face (see above, 123-124).
[3] All spirits can be led wherever you want as long as they are kept in their dominant love. They cannot resist even though they know what is happening and think that they will refuse. Spirits have often tried to do something in opposition, but without success. Their love is like a chain or rope tied around them, with which they can be pulled and which they cannot escape. It is the same for people in this world. Our love leads us as well, and it is through our love that we are led by others. It is even more so when we become spirits, though, because then we are not allowed to present a different love or pretend to a love that is not ours.
[4] It is obvious in every gathering in the other life that our spirit is our dominant love. To the extent that we act and talk in keeping with someone else’s love, that individual looks whole, with a face that is whole, cheerful, and lively. To the extent that we act and talk against someone else’s dominant love, though, that individual’s face begins to change, to dim, and to be hard to see. Eventually it disappears as though it were not even there. I have often been amazed at this because this kind of thing cannot happen in the world. However, I have been told that the same thing happens to the spirit within us, in that when we turn our attention away from someone, that individual is no longer in our sight.
[5] I have also seen that our spirit is our dominant love from the fact that every spirit seizes and claims whatever suits his or her love and rejects and repels whatever does not suit it. Our love is like a spongy, porous wood that absorbs whatever liquids prompt its growth, and repels others. It is like animals of various kinds. They recognize their proper foods, seek out the ones that suit their natures, and avoid the ones that disagree. Every love actually wants to be nourished by what is appropriate to it-an evil love by falsities and a good love by truths. I have occasionally been allowed to see that some particular simple and good people wanted to teach evil people things that were true and good. Faced with this teaching, though, the evil people fled far away; and when they reached their own kind, they seized on whatever falsities suited their love with great delight. I have also been allowed to see good spirits talking with each other about truths, which other good spirits in attendance listened to eagerly, while some evil ones who were there paid no attention, as though they did not hear anything.
In the world of spirits you can see paths, some leading to heaven and some leading to hell, each one leading to some specific community. Good spirits travel only the paths that lead to heaven, and to the community engaged in their own quality of love. They do not see paths that lead anywhere else. On the other hand, evil spirits travel only the paths that lead to hell and to that community there which is engaged in the evil of their own love. They do not see paths that lead anywhere else; and if they do see them, they still do not want to follow them.
Paths like this in the spiritual world are “real appearances” that correspond to true and false [understandings]; so this is what “paths” in the Word mean.(d)
These proofs from experience support what was said above on rational grounds, namely that after death we are our own love and our own intent. I say “intent” because for each of us, our intent is our love.
d. A way, road, track, lane, or street means things that are true and that lead to something good, as well as false things that lead to something evil: 627, 2333, 10422. To sweep a path is to prepare to accept what is true: 3142. To make a path known, when it is said of the Lord, is to teach people about the truths that lead to what is good: 10564.
There were others who had lived seventeen centuries ago, also known from history books, and some who had lived four centuries ago, some three, and so on, with whom I was also allowed to talk and to learn that the same affection still governed within them. The only difference was that the pleasures of their love had been changed into corresponding ones.
Angels have told me that the life of our dominant love never changes for anyone to all eternity because we are our love, so to change it in any spirit would be to take away and snuff out his or her life.
They have also told me that this is because after death we can no longer be reformed by being taught the way we could in this world, since the outmost level, made up of natural insights and affections, is then dormant and cannot be opened because it is not spiritual (see above, 464). The deeper functions of our mind or spirit rest on this level the way a house rests on its foundation, which is why we do stay forever like the life of our love in the world. Angels are utterly amazed that people do not realize that our nature is determined by the nature of our dominant love and that many people actually believe they can be saved by instantaneous mercy, simply on the basis of their faith alone, regardless of the kind of life they have led, not realizing that divine mercy operates through means. The means involve being led by the Lord in the world as well as afterward in heaven, and the people who are led by mercy are the ones who do not live in evil. People do not even know that faith is an affection for what is true, an affection that comes from a heavenly love that comes from the Lord.
[2] Since these loves define our lives, we are all examined as to our quality immediately after death, when we arrive in the world of spirits, and we are put in touch with people of like love. If we are focused on heavenly love, we are put in touch with people in heaven; and if we are focused on carnal love, we are put in touch with people in hell. Further, once the first and second states have been completed the two kinds of people are separated so that they no longer see or recognize each other. We actually become our own love not only as to the deeper levels of our minds but outwardly as well, in face, body, and speech, since we become images of our love even in outward things. People who are carnal loves look coarse, dim, dark, and misshapen; while people who are heavenly loves look lively, clear, bright, and lovely. They are completely different in spirit and in thought as well. People who are heavenly loves are intelligent and wise, while people who are carnal loves are dense and rather silly.
[3] When leave is given to examine the inner and outer aspects of the thoughts and affections of people engaged in heavenly love, the inner reaches look as though they were made of light, in some cases like the light of a flame; and their outer manifestations are of various lovely colors, like a rainbow. In contrast, the inner reaches of people who are engaged in carnal love look gloomy because they are closed in, in some cases like a smoky fire for people who were inwardly maliciously deceptive. Their outer manifestations have an ugly color, depressing to look at (both the inner and outer aspects of the mind and spirit are presented visually in the spiritual world whenever it so pleases the Lord).
[4] People who are engaged in carnal love do not see anything in heaven’s light. Heaven’s light is darkness to them, while hell’s light, which is like the light of glowing embers, is like daylight to them. In fact, in heaven’s light their inner sight is deprived of light to the point that they become insane. As a result, they run away from it and hide in caves and caverns of a depth that corresponds to the false convictions that stem from their evil intentions. Exactly the reverse is true for people who are engaged in heavenly love, though. The deeper or higher they enter into heavenly light, the more clearly they see everything and the lovelier it all looks, and the more intelligently and wisely they grasp what is true.
[5] There is no way that people who are engaged in carnal love can live in heaven’s warmth, because heaven’s warmth is heavenly love. They can live in hell’s warmth, though, which is a love of cruelty toward people who do not support them. The pleasures of this love are contempt for others, hostility, hatred, and vengefulness. When they are absorbed in these they are in their very life, with no knowledge whatever of what it means to do good for others out of sheer goodness and for the sake of the good itself. All they know is how to do good out of malice and for the sake of malice.
[6] People who are engaged in carnal love cannot breathe in heaven either. When evil spirits are taken there, they draw breath like someone who is struggling painfully. On the other hand, people who are engaged in heavenly love breathe more freely and feel more alive the deeper into heaven they come.
We may gather from this that a heavenly and spiritual love is heaven for us because everything heavenly is written on that love; and that carnal and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love is hell for us because everything hellish is written on that love.
We can see, then, that people come into heaven who have a heavenly and spiritual love, and people come into hell who have a carnal and worldly love without a heavenly and spiritual one.
e. In the highest sense, the Lord is our neighbor because he is to be loved above all; however, loving the Lord is loving what comes from him because he is in everything that comes from him, so [our neighbor is] whatever is good and true: 2425, 3419, 6706, 6711, 6819, 6823, 8123. Loving what is good and true, which come from him, is living by them, and this is loving the Lord: 10143, 10153, 10310, 10336, 10578, 10648. Every individual and community, our country and church, and in the broadest sense the Lord’s kingdom, is our neighbor; and loving our neighbor is helping them from a love for their good in keeping with their state. This means that their welfare, which we are to value, is the neighbor: 6818-6824, 8123. Moral good, or what is honest, and civic good, or what is fair, are our neighbor as well; and acting honestly and fairly out of a love for what is honest and fair is loving the neighbor: 2915, 4730, 8120, 8121, 8122, 8123. Consequently, thoughtfulness toward our neighbor includes all aspects of our lives, and doing what is good and fair, and acting honestly from the heart in every position we hold and in everything we do, is loving our neighbor: 2417, 8121, 8124. The doctrine of the early church was a doctrine of charity, and this was the source of their wisdom: 2417, 2385, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628.
The result is that all the truths such people have learned from the Word and from the teaching of the church are taken away from them, all the things they claimed were part of their faith, and in their place they are filled with everything false that accords with the evil of their life. They are actually all plunged into their loves and into the false notions that support them as well. Then, since truths contradict the false, malicious notions they are absorbed in, they hate the truths, turn their backs on them, and reject them.
I can bear witness from all my experiences of what happens in heaven and in hell that people who have confessed faith alone as a matter of doctrine and have engaged in evil as regards their lives are all in hell. I have seen thousands of them sent there and have described them in the booklet The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed.
f. Our own nature is to love ourselves more than God and the world more than heaven, and to regard the neighbor as nothing in comparison to ourselves, so it is a love for oneself and for the world: 634 [694], 731, 4317. This is the self into which we are born, and it is solid evil: 210, 215, 731, 874, 875, 876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2318 [2308], 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731 [10832]. From our self-image comes not only everything evil but also everything false: 1047, 10283, 10284, 10286. The evils that come from our self-image are contempt for others, hostility, hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and deceit: 6667, 7372, 7373, 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742 [10743]. To the extent that our self-image rules, we either reject or stifle or pervert the goodness of love and the truth of faith: 2041, 7491, 7492, 7643, 8487, 10455, 10743. Our self-image is hell for us: 694, 8480. Anything good that we do because of our self-image is not good but is essentially evil: 8478 [8480, 8487].
I explained in the last chapter that our dominant affection or predominant love stays with us forever. Now, though, I need to explain that the pleasures of that affection or love change into things that correspond. “Changing into things that correspond” means changing into spiritual things that answer to the natural ones. We may gather that they change into spiritual things from the fact that as long as we are in our earthly bodies we are in the natural world; but once we leave that body behind, we arrive in the spiritual world and put on a spiritual body. (On angels having perfect human forms and being people after death, and on the bodies they wear being spiritual, see above, 73-77 and 453-460; and for a description of the correspondence of spiritual things with natural ones, see 87-115.)
There are different pleasures-as many, generally speaking, as there are different dominant loves, which means as many as there are of us, and of spirits and angels, since no one’s dominant love is entirely like that of anyone else. This is why no one’s face is exactly like that of anyone else, since the face is the image of the mind, and in the spiritual world is an image of the dominant love. The pleasures of any specific individual are infinitely varied as well, with no pleasure ever entirely like any other. This applies both to the pleasures that come in sequence and to the ones that occur simultaneously. No two are ever alike. However, the specific pleasures of any given individual go back to that single love which is that individual’s dominant love. In fact, they constitute it and therefore become one with it. In much the same way, all pleasures overall go back to one love that is universally dominant-in heaven, a love for the Lord, and in hell, a love for oneself.
However, people who are involved in self-love cannot know what their dominant love is because they love whatever is theirs and call their evils good. They also call false things true, the false notions that support them and that they use to rationalize their evils. If they were willing, though, they could still know [their dominant love] from other people who are wise, because these latter see what they themselves do not. This does not happen, though, in the case of people who are so enmeshed in their self-love that they have nothing but contempt for any teaching of the wise.
[2] On the other hand, people who are in heavenly love do accept instruction and do see the evils into which they were born when they are led into them. They see them from truths because truths make evils obvious. Anyone can in fact see what is evil and the distortion it causes by seeing from the truth that arises from what is good; but no one can see what is good and true from an evil standpoint. This is because the false notions that arise from evil are darkness and correspond to it. So people who are caught up in false notions that arise from evil are like blind people who do not see things that are in the light, and they avoid them the way owls avoid daylight.(a) On the other hand, the true perceptions that arise from good are light and correspond to light (see above, 126-134). So people who are focused on the true perceptions that arise from good are sighted and open-eyed and can differentiate between things that are in light and shade.
[3] I have been granted confirmation of this too by experience. The angels who are in the heavens both see and grasp the evil and false promptings that well up in them from time to time; and they can also see the evil and false promptings that engage the spirits in the world of spirits who are in touch with the hells, though the spirits themselves cannot see their own evil and false promptings. They do not grasp what the virtue of heavenly love is, what conscience is, what is honest and fair (except as it is to their own advantage), or what it means to be led by the Lord. They say these things do not exist and therefore make no difference whatever.
All this has been presented to encourage people to examine themselves and to identify their dominant love on the basis of their pleasures, so that according to their grasp of the knowledge of correspondences, they may know their state of life after death.
a. By reason of correspondence, darkness in the Word means falsities, and dense darkness or gloom means falsities that stem from evil: 1839, 1860, 7688, 7711. Heaven’s light is darkness to evil people: 1861, 6832, 8197. People who are in the hells are said to be in darkness because they are engrossed in false notions that stem from evil; with some discussion: 3340, 4418, 4531. In the Word, “the blind” means people who are engrossed in false convictions and do not want to be taught: 2383, 6990.
People who are caught up in evil and who have formed fixed false convictions against the truths of the church, especially people who have rejected the Word, flee from heaven’s light. They plunge into cellars that look murky through their openings and into crevices in the rocks and hide themselves there. This is because they have loved their false notions and hated true ones. Cellars like this, and crevices in the rocks as well,(b) and false things, correspond to darkness;(c) and light corresponds to things that are true. They find it pleasant to live there, and painful to live out in the open.
[2] People who took delight in covert plotting and in manufacturing deceptive schemes in secret also live in these cellars and move into rooms so dark that people can barely see each other. They whisper in each other’s ears in the corners. This is what becomes of the pleasures of their love.
If people have loved the academic disciplines only in order to sound learned, without using them to develop their ability to reason, taking delight in their pride at the contents of their memories, they love sandy areas and prefer them to meadows and gardens because sandy areas correspond to these kinds of study.
[3] People who are wrapped up in knowing the doctrines of churches, their own and others’, without applying them to life, love stony areas and live among rock piles. They avoid cultivated land because it is repulsive to them.
If people have given nature-and their own prudence-credit for everything and have used various devices to gain high office and a great deal of wealth, in the other life they study magical arts that are misuses of the divine design, and find in them the greatest pleasure of their life.
[4] People who have adapted divine truths to their own loves and have therefore falsified them love urinary things because urinary things correspond to the pleasures of this kind of love.(d)
People who were filthy misers live in cubicles and love the filth of pigs and the foul odors they breathe out from half-digested food in their stomachs.
[5] If people have devoted their lives wholly to pleasure, living elegantly, pandering to the gullet and the belly, loving this as the greatest good of life, in the other life they love feces and latrines and find them delightful. This is because pleasures like these are spiritual filth. They avoid places that are clean and free from filth because they find them distasteful.
[6] People who took pleasure in adultery pass their time in brothels where everything is filthy and foul. They love these places and avoid chaste homes. The moment they come near such homes they feel faint. Nothing pleases them more than to break up marriages.
People who have been bent on revenge and have therefore taken on a savage and sadistic nature love places like morgues, and are in hells of that sort.
Others fare differently.
b. In the Word, rocky crevices and fissures mean what is dim and false in faith: 10582; because rocks mean faith from the Lord: 8581, 10580; and stone means truth of faith: 114, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8608, 10376.
c. [The note at this point refers the reader back to the note in 487:2.]
d. Defilement of truth corresponds to urine: 5390.
[2] Since I have begun supporting this general proposition by examples drawn from my experience, to shed light on what has been said so far on the basis of the causes of things, I should also like to bring in at this point something about the heavenly pleasures into which the natural pleasures turn for people who live in heavenly love in the world.
People who have loved divine truths and the Word from a deep affection, or from an affection for the truth itself, live in the light, in uplands that look like mountains, and are constantly bathed in the light of heaven there. They know nothing of the kind of darkness we have at night in the world, and they live in a springtime climate as well. Their scenery offers them views like fields ripe for harvest and vineyards. Everything in their houses gleams as though it were made of precious stones. Looking through their windows is like looking through pure crystal. These are their visual pleasures; but they are actually deeper pleasures because of their correspondence with divine heavenly qualities, since the truths from the Word that they have loved correspond to the harvest fields, vineyards, precious stones, windows, and crystals.(e)
[3] People who have applied the teachings of the church from the Word directly to their lives are in the inmost heaven and more than anyone else are absorbed in the pleasures of wisdom. They see divine realities in particular objects. They actually do see the objects, but the corresponding divine realities flow directly into their minds and fill them with a sense of blessedness that affects all their sensory functions. As a result, everything they see seems to laugh and play and live (on this, see above, 270).
[4] If people have loved learning and have developed their rational ability accordingly and thereby gained intelligence, and if they have acknowledged the Divine Being at the same time, their delight in knowledge and pleasure in reasoning changes in the other life into a spiritual pleasure that is the delight of firsthand knowledge of what is good and true. They live in gardens where you can see flower beds and lawns beautifully marked off, surrounded by rows of trees with arcades and promenades. The trees and flowers change from day to day. Looking at all this brings pleasure to their minds generally, and the specific changes make it constantly new. Further, since all this corresponds to divine qualities, and since these people are drawn to their knowledge of correspondences, they are constantly being filled with new insights and thereby having their spiritual rational faculty perfected. They enjoy these pleasures because gardens, flower beds, lawns, and trees correspond to information, insights, and the intelligence that ensues.(f)
[5] If people have given the Divine credit for everything and regarded nature as relatively dead, simply subservient to spiritual concerns, and if they have convinced themselves of this, they are in heavenly light; and everything that presents itself to their eyes derives a kind of translucence from that light. In that translucency they see innumerable shadings of light that their inner sight seems to drink directly in. This is how they perceive deeper pleasures. The objects in their houses look like diamonds with similar variegations of light. I have been told that their walls look like crystal and are therefore also translucent, and that within them one can see what looks like fluid forms representative of heavenly things, again with constant variety. This is because this kind of translucence corresponds to an intellect that has been enlightened by the Lord, with the shadows that arise from faith in and love of natural things taken away. Things like this-and infinitely more-are what people who have been in heaven are talking about when they say that they have seen what the eye has never seen, and that from the grasp of divine things conveyed to them in this connection, they have heard what the ear has never heard.
[6] If people have not acted covertly but have wanted everything they were thinking to be out in the open to the extent that civil law allows, then since they have thought nothing but what was honest and fair because of the Deity, in heaven their faces are radiant. Because of that radiance, the details of their thoughts and affections are visible in their faces as though presented in a form; and in both speech and action they are virtual images of their feelings. They are more beloved than others. When they are talking, their faces dim a little, but after they have spoken, then the very things they have said can be fully and plainly seen in their faces. Further, since everything around them answers to their deeper natures, everything takes on a countenance that enables others to see clearly what they represent and mean. Spirits who have found pleasure in covert activity get as far from them as they can, and seem to themselves to slither away from them like snakes.
[7] People who have regarded adultery as unspeakable and have lived in chaste love of their marriage are more in the pattern and form of heaven than anyone else. This gives them a total beauty and a constant flower of youth. The pleasures of their love are indescribable, and increase to eternity. This is because all the joys and delights of heaven flow into that love; and this in turn is because that love comes down from the Lord’s union with heaven and with the church and in general from the union of the good and the true that is heaven in general and in every individual angel in particular (see above, 366-386). Their external pleasures are so wonderful that they cannot be described in human words.
Still, what I have said about the correspondences of pleasures for people who are involved in heavenly love is only a little.
e. A harvest in the Word means a state of acceptance and growth of what is true because of the good: 9291. Standing grain means truth being conceived: 9146. Vineyards mean the spiritual church and the truths of that church: 1069, 9139. Precious stones mean truths of heaven and of the church translucent from the good: 114, 9863, 9865, 9868, 9873, 9905. Windows mean the intellectual function of our inner sight: 655, 658, 3391.
f. Gardens, groves, and parks mean intelligence: 100, 103, 3220. Therefore the early people held their holy worship in groves: 2722, 4552. Flowers and flower beds mean truths of information and insight: 9553. Small plants, grasses, and lawns mean true information: 7571. Trees mean perceptions and insights: 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 7692.
491. Our First State after Death
There are three states that we pass through after death before we arrive in either heaven or hell. The first state is one of more outward concerns, the second is one of more inward concerns, and the third is one of preparation. We go through these states in the world of spirits.
Some people, however, do not go through these states but are either raised into heaven or cast into hell immediately after their death. The people immediately raised into heaven are ones who have been regenerated and thus prepared for heaven in this world. People who have been regenerated and prepared to this extent need only to slough off their natural uncleanness along with their bodies and are immediately taken into heaven by angels. I have seen people taken up an hour after their death.
On the other hand, people who have been profoundly malicious but have outwardly worn a guise of goodness, people who have therefore filled their malice with guile and used goodness as a means of deception are cast directly into hell. I have seen people like this cast into hell immediately after their death. One of the most deceitful went head first and feet last; for others it is different.
There are also people who are sent off into caves right after their death and in this way are segregated from people in the world of spirits. They are alternately brought out and sent back in. These are people who have treated their neighbors maliciously under the pretext of civic behavior.
There are few such people, though, compared to the number of people who are kept in the world of spirits and prepared there for either heaven or hell according to the divine plan.
It often happens that married partners meet and welcome each other joyfully. They stay together as well, but for a longer or shorter time depending on how happily they had lived together in the world. Ultimately, unless they had been united by real marriage love (which is a union of minds from heavenly love), they separate after having been together for a while.
If the minds of the partners disagreed, however, and if they were inwardly repellent to each other, they break out into open hostility and sometimes actually fight with each other. Still, they are not separated until they enter the second state, which will be described shortly.
Almost all of them want to know whether they will make it into heaven. Many of them think they will because they led moral and civic lives in the world, not reflecting that both evil and good people lead similar outward lives, being similarly helpful to others, going to church, listening to sermons, and praying similarly, utterly unaware that outward behavior and outward worship accomplish nothing whatever; only the inner realities that give rise to these outward ones are effective. Scarcely one in thousands even knows what the inner realities are or that they are the focal point of heaven and the church for us. Even fewer realize that the quality of our outward actions is determined by the quality of our intentions and thoughts and the love and faith within them, from which our actions arise. Even when they are told, they do not grasp the fact that thinking and intending actually make a difference. They attach importance only to speaking and acting. Many of the people who are coming into the other life from the Christian world are like this nowadays.
Our second state after death is called a state of our deeper interests because then we are given access to the deeper reaches of our minds, or of our intentions and thoughts, while the more outward interests that engaged us in the first state become dormant.
Anyone who is observant of our life and our words and actions can recognize that we all have more outward and more inward natures, or more outward and more inward thoughts and intentions. We can recognize this from the fact that if we are involved in civic life, we think about other people in terms of their reputation, or of what we have picked up about them when they were the subjects of conversation. However, we do not talk with them the way we think about them, and even if the others are evil people, we still behave courteously toward them. This is particularly noticeable in pretenders and sycophants whose words and deeds are wholly at odds with their thoughts and intentions, and in hypocrites who talk about God, heaven, the salvation of souls, the truths of the church, the welfare of the country, and their neighbor as though they were motivated by faith and love when at heart they believe otherwise and love no one but themselves.
[2] We may gather from this that we have two thought processes, one more outward and one more inward, and that we talk on the basis of our more outward thinking and feel differently on the basis of our more inward thinking. Further, these two thought processes have been separated to prevent the inner from flowing into the outer and becoming somehow visible.
We have been so created that our inner thought may act in unison with our outer by means of correspondence; and it does act as one when we are involved in something constructive, since we do not think anything that is not good, and what we say is good. But if we are involved in something evil, our deeper thought does not act as one with our outer thought, because we are thinking something evil and saying something good. This means that the pattern is inverted, since the good is on the outside for us and the evil lies within. As a result, the evil controls the good and suppresses it like a slave, to make it serve as a means to securing its own ends, the objects of its love. Since this kind of purpose is latent in the good we say and do, we can see that now the good is not really good but is infected with evil, no matter how good it may look in outward form to people who are not aware of deeper matters. [3] It is different for people who are involved in something good. For them, the pattern is not inverted; rather, the good flows from their deeper thought into their more outward thought and therefore into their words and deeds. This is the pattern into which we were created. In this way, our deeper reaches are in heaven and in the light there, and since heaven’s light is divine truth emanating from the Lord and is in fact the Lord in heaven (see 126-140), the Lord is leading us.
I mention this to show that each of us has a more inward thought and a more outward thought, and that these are distinguishable. When I say “thought,” I mean volition as well, since thought comes from volition. No one can actually think without intent.
We can see from this what our states of outer concerns and of inner concerns are.
We can see from this what really belongs to us and what does not. For evil people the contents of the outer thought that gives rise to their words and the outer intent that gives rise to their actions do not really belong to them. What belongs to them is the contents of their deeper thought and intentions.
We can see from all this that the state of more inward concerns that spirits are led into is their proper state, which means that it was also the proper state of the individuals when they were living in the world.
In contrast, people who were focused on evil in the world then behave foolishly and insanely, more insanely than when they were in the world, in fact, because they are in freedom and are no longer constrained. As long as they were living in the world, they were outwardly sensible, because this was how they imitated rational people. So when the outer layers are stripped off, their inner insanity is unveiled.
An evil person who outwardly pretends to be good can be compared to a brightly polished jar with a cover on, with all kinds of filth hidden inside, just as the Lord said: “You are like whitewashed sepulchers that look lovely on the outside but are inwardly full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
[2] Quite the opposite, though, is the state of people who in the world lived lives focused on evil, who had no conscience and therefore denied the Divine Being; for all the people who live in evil deny the Divine Being inwardly, no matter how convinced they are outwardly that they are not denying but acknowledging. This is because acknowledging the Divine Being and living in evil are opposites. When people like this come into the state of their deeper concerns in the other life, they seem foolish when people hear them talk or see them act, because their evil impulses impel them to break out into wicked deeds-into contempt for others, into derision and blasphemy, hatred, and vengefulness. They cook up plots, some of them with such ingenuity and malice that you would scarcely believe anything like this existed in any human being. They are then free to act in accord with the thoughts of their intentions because they are separated from the more outward factors that constrained them in the world. In short, they lose their rationality because in the world their rationality did not dwell in their deeper natures but in their outer ones. Still, they seem to themselves to be wiser than anyone else.
[3] Once people like this are in the second state, they are let back into the state of their more outward concerns for brief periods of time. They then retain a memory of how they behaved when they were in the state of their more inward concerns. Some of them are embarrassed, and admit that they were insane. Some of them are not embarrassed at all. Some of them resent the fact that they are not allowed to be in the state of their more outward concerns all the time, but they are shown what they would be like if they were constantly in this state. They would be constantly trying to do the same things covertly, misleading people of simple heart and faith with simulations of goodness, honesty, and fairness. They would destroy themselves completely, because eventually their outer natures would be ablaze with the same fire as their inner natures; and this would consume their whole life.
Some people have loved themselves above all else. They have focused on their own prestige in their duties and positions, they have done constructive things not for the sake of doing them or from finding pleasure in them but for the sake of their reputation, to be ranked above other people on that account, therefore finding pleasure in their reputation for eminence. When they arrive in the second state, they are supremely stupid because the more they love themselves the farther they move from heaven, and the farther they move from heaven, the farther they move from wisdom.
[2] There are people caught up in self-love and in guile at the same time, people who have used devious means to raise themselves to positions of esteem. They take up company with the worst people of all and study magical arts that are abuses of the divine design, using them to harass everyone who does not defer to them. They hatch plots, cherish hatred, breathe out vengeance, and long to savage everyone who does not submit to them. They plunge into all these behaviors to the extent that the malevolent horde supports them. Eventually, they start mulling over how they can climb up to heaven and destroy it, or how they can be worshiped there as gods. Their madness carries them all the way to this.
[3] Catholics like this are more insane than others. They cherish the thought that heaven and hell are in their power and that they can forgive sins at will. They claim everything divine for themselves and call themselves Christ. Their belief that this is true is so strong that wherever it flows in it disturbs minds and brings on a darkness to the point of pain. They are much the same in both states, though in the second they lack rationality. There will be particular information about their forms of insanity and their lot after this state in the booklet The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed.
[4] There are people who have attributed creation to nature and have therefore denied the Divine Being at heart, though not out loud, thus denying everything about the church and heaven. They gather with people like themselves in this state and call everyone God who is particularly guileful, even honoring such individuals with divine worship. I have seen people like this in a meeting worshiping a magician, discussing nature, and behaving like idiots-as though they were animals in human form. Some of them had been appointed to high office in the world and some had been considered learned and wise. The details may vary.
[5] You may gather from these few cases what people are like whose deeper levels of mind are closed toward heaven. This is what happens for everyone who does not accept any inflow from heaven by acknowledging the Divine Being and by a living life of faith. People may judge for themselves what they would be like if this were their nature, if they were allowed to behave with no fear of the law or fear for their lives, without any outward restraints-threats to their reputation or to their rank, their profit, and the pleasures that attend them.
[6] However, the Lord controls their madness so that it does not transgress the bounds of usefulness, for there is some use for every such individual. Good spirits see in them what evil is and what its nature is, and what people are like if they are not led by the Lord. Openly evil individuals also serve to gather people of similar evil and separate them from good people, to remove from evil people the true and good elements that they presented and feigned outwardly, and to lead them into the evils of their life and the falsities of their malice and thus prepare them for hell. [7] This is because people do not get into hell until they are immersed in their malice and in the falsities that stem from it, because no one is allowed to have a divided mind, to think and say one thing and intend something else. Every evil person there must think what is false out of malice and talk out of that malicious falsity there, both from intent and therefore from his or her own love and pleasure and gratification. This is how they behaved in the world when they were thinking in their spirit-that is, when they were thinking within themselves, from their deeper affection. This is because intent is the essential person, not thought except as it is derived from intent; and volition is the essential nature or character of the human being. So being remanded to our own intentions is being remanded to our own nature or character and to our own life as well, since it is through life that we acquire our nature. After death, we retain the nature we had gained by our life in the world, which for evil people can no longer be changed for the better by the path of thought or of understanding what is true.
The reason they are punished is that fear of punishment is the only means of taming their evils in that state. Encouragement does not work any more, or teaching or fear of the law or fear for their reputation, because they are acting from their nature, which cannot be compelled or broken by anything but punishments.
Good spirits are never punished, though, even though they have done bad things in the world. This is because their evils do not come back. I have also been granted a knowledge that their evils are of a different kind or nature. They do not stem from any deliberate resistance to what is true, and they are not from any evil heart except the one they acquired by heredity from their parents, which blind pleasure drove them into when they were involved in outward concerns separated from inner ones.
The actual community where their spirits were in the world is shown to them, too, while they are in the state of their outer concerns, so that they know from this that they were in hell during their physical life; but still they are not in the same state as the people who are in hell itself. Rather, they are in a state like that of people in the world of spirits. I will explain later what this state is like compared to that of people in hell.
There are various means used for this separation of good people from evil ones. Often it is by having them led around to the communities they had been in touch with through their good thoughts and affections during the first state. This brings them to communities they had misled by outward appearance into believing that they were not evil. Often they are led around through a great arc, and their intrinsic quality is displayed to good spirits everywhere. The good spirits turn away as soon as they see them; and as they turn away, so the evil spirits who are being led around turn away as well, facing the hellish community that is their destination. I forbear to mention other modes of separation; there are many of them.
Our third state after death, or the third state of our spirits, is one of instruction. This state is for people who are entering heaven and becoming angels, but not for people who are entering hell, because these latter cannot be taught. As a result, their second state is also their third, and ends in their turning straight toward their own love and therefore toward the hellish community that is engaged in a love like their own. Once this has happened, their intentions and thinking flow from that love; and since it is a hellish love, they intend only what is evil and think only what is false. These are their pleasures because they are matters of their love. Further, this results in their rejecting everything that is good and true that had served their love as means.
[2] Good people, though, are brought from the second state into a third, which is a state of preparation for heaven by means of instruction. In fact, no one can be prepared for heaven except by knowing at first hand what is good and true, and therefore only by being taught. This is because without being taught, no one can know what spiritual good and truth are and what the evil and falsity that oppose them are. We can know in the world what civil and moral good and truth are, what is called fair and honest, because there are civil laws there that teach what is fair, and there are also social situations where we learn to live by moral laws, which all deal with what is honest and equitable. Spiritual good and truth, however, are not learned from the world but from heaven. We can in fact know them from the Word and from the church’s doctrine from the Word, but this still cannot flow into life unless we are in heaven in regard to the deeper levels of our minds. We are in heaven when we acknowledge the Divine Being and at the same time act fairly and honestly, recognizing that we should because it is commanded us in the Word. In this way we live fairly and honestly for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of ourselves and the world as our primary goals. [3] However, no one can behave like this without first having been taught things like the fact that God exists, that heaven and hell exist, that there is a life after death, that God is to be loved above all and our neighbor as ourselves, and that we are to believe what it says in the Word because the Word is divine. Without recognizing and admitting these principles we cannot think spiritually, and without thought about such matters we cannot intend them; for what we do not know we cannot think, and what we do not think we cannot intend. However, when we do intend such things, heaven flows in-that is, the Lord flows into our lives through heaven, for he flows into the will and through that into the thought, and through both of these into the life, since they are where our whole life comes from. We can see from this that spiritual good and truth are not learned from the world but from heaven, and that no one can be prepared for heaven except by instruction.
[4] Then too, to the extent that the Lord flows into our life he does teach us, since to that same extent he kindles our intentions with a love of learning what is true and enlightens our thought so that we know what is true. To the extent that this happens, our deeper reaches are opened and heaven is sown in them. Even beyond this, to that same extent what is divine and heavenly flows into the honest deeds of our moral life and the fair deeds of our civic life and makes them spiritual, since then we are doing them from the Divine because we are doing them for the sake of the Divine. The honest and fair deeds of our moral and civic life that we do from this source are actual effects of spiritual life; and an effect derives all its being from its efficient cause, because the quality of the cause determines the quality of the effect.
Good spirits who need to be taught are taken there by the Lord after their time in the world of spirits has been fulfilled. This does not apply to everyone, though, since people who have been taught in the world have already been prepared for heaven by the Lord and are taken up into heaven by a different route. For some, this happens immediately after death. For others, it happens after a short stay with good spirits for the removal of the cruder elements of their thoughts and affections (acquired because of concerns for rank and wealth in the world), and their consequent purification. Some people are shattered first, which happens in sites under the soles of the feet called the lower earth, where they suffer harsh treatment. These are people who have convinced themselves of false principles but still have lived good lives. False convictions cling hard, and until they are dispelled, truths cannot be seen and therefore cannot be accepted. These shattering experiences and the different ways they happen have been treated in Secrets of Heaven, though, and some references to that work are appended in the note.(a)
a. Shattering experiences do happen in the other life-that is, some people who arrive there from the world are shattered there: 698, 7122, 7474, 9763. Upright people are shattered as regards false elements, and evil people as to true ones: 7474, 7541, 7542. Shattering experiences happen to upright people so that they can shed the earthly and worldly preoccupations they acquired while they were living in the world: 7186, 9763; and so that evil and false things may be removed, providing room for the inflow of good and true things out of heaven from the Lord, and providing the ability to accept them: 7122, 9331 [9330]. We cannot be raised into heaven before things like this are removed because they get in the way and do not agree with heavenly values: 6928, 7122, 7136 [7186], 7541, 7542, 9763. This is how people who are to be raised into heaven are prepared: 4728, 7090. It is dangerous for people to enter heaven before they have been prepared: 537, 538. On the state of enlightenment and the joy of people who are emerging from shattering experiences and being raised into heaven, and on how they are accepted there: 2699, 2701, 2704. The area where shattering experiences take place is called “the lower earth”: 4728, 7090. A description of this area under the soles of the feet, surrounded by hells: 4940-4951, 7090; from experience: 699. The particular hells that attack and shatter more than the others: 7317, 7502, 7545. People who attack and shatter upright souls later fear and flee and avoid them: 7768. These attacks and shattering experiences take different forms depending on the stubbornness of the evil and false elements and the manner and mode in which they persist: 1106-1113. Some people undergo shattering experiences willingly: 1107. Some people are shattered by fears: 4942; some by being assailed by evil things they had done in the world and false things they had thought in the world, which gives rise to anxiety and pangs of conscience: 1106. Some are shattered by spiritual imprisonment, which is ignorance and deprivation of truth yoked to a longing to know what is true: 1109, 2694; some by dreams [reading somnium; the first edition has somnum, “sleep”], some by a state halfway between waking and sleep, with a description: 1108. People who have claimed credit for their deeds seem to be chopping wood: 1110. And so on, with a wide range of variety: 699.
The general arrangement is like this. Toward the front are people who have died in childhood and are being educated in heaven up to the age of early adolescence. After having spent their infancy with women educators, they are brought to this location by the Lord and taught.
Behind them are the places where people are taught who died as adults and who in the world were drawn to truth because of the goodness of their lives.
Behind these again are people who were devoted to Islam and had led a moral life in the world, acknowledged one God, and recognized the Lord as the essential prophet. When they let go of Muhammad because he cannot do anything for them, they turn to the Lord and worship him, recognizing his divine nature; and then they receive instruction in the Christian religion.
Behind these, and farther to the north, there are sites for the instruction of various non-Christian people who in the world lived good lives in accord with their own religion, acquired a kind of conscience, and behaved fairly and honestly not because of the laws of their nation but because of the laws of their religion, believing these laws to be holy and not to be violated by their actions in any way. All of them are readily led to recognize the Lord when they have been taught, because at heart they have held that God is not invisible but visible in human form. There are more of these than of any other kind, and the best of them are from Africa.
Most people who have died as adults are taught by angels of the outmost heaven because these angels are better adapted to them than are angels of the more inward heavens. These latter focus on a deeper wisdom that the deceased cannot yet accept.
Muslims, though, are taught by angels who once adhered to that religion but have turned to Christianity. Other non-Christians too are taught by their own angels.
[2] Since this is their nature, they are constantly breathing in a desire to know what is true, for the sake of constructive living. The Lord in fact sees to it that we love the constructive activities that suit our gifts. This love is intensified by our hope of becoming angels. Further, since all the activities of heaven focus on a common use, which is the welfare of the Lord’s kingdom (which now is our country), and since we fulfill our distinctive individual functions to the extent that they focus directly and intimately on that common use, all the countless distinctive and individual functions are good and heavenly. This means that for each of us an affection for what is true is united to an affection for usefulness to the point that they act as one. A true understanding of use is sown in this way, so that the truths we learn are true perceptions of what is useful. This is how angelic spirits are taught and prepared for heaven.
[3] There are various ways in which an affection for the truth suited to usefulness is instilled, many of them unknown in the world, primarily by depictions of useful activities. These can be presented in thousands of ways in the spiritual world, with such grace and charm that they permeate spirits all the way from the deeper levels of their minds to the outer levels of their bodies and therefore affect the whole person. As a result, spirits virtually become their constructive lives; so when they arrive in the communities their instruction has prepared them for, they are in their own life when they are engaged in their useful activities.(b)
We may gather from this that awareness, which is an outward form of truth, does not get anyone into heaven. Rather, what gets us in is the useful life that is granted through knowledge.
b. Everything good has its delight from constructive activities and in keeping with them; this is also the source of its quality, so the nature of the activity determines that of the good: 3049, 4984, 7038. Angelic life consists of the virtues of love and thoughtfulness, and therefore in constructive actions: 453 [454]. For the Lord and therefore for angels, nothing matters in people except goals that are useful activities: 1317, 1645, 5844 [5854]. The Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of useful activities: 453 [454], 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. Serving the Lord is living constructively: 7038. Our character is determined by the uses we have: 1568, 3570, 4054, 6571, 6934 [6935], 6938, 10284.
For others, though, the learning was lodged only in their memories. They had thereby acquired an ability to reason about truths and to prove the ones they accepted as fundamental, notions that looked true once they were proved, even though they were false. These people were not in heaven’s light at all, but were wrapped up in a faith based on the pride that characterizes so many people of like intelligence, a pride in being especially erudite and therefore destined for heaven where they will be waited on by angels. Because of all this, to extract them from their conceited faith, they were taken up to the first or outmost heaven to be admitted into one particular angelic community. Even as they were entering it, though, their sight began to darken at the inflow of heaven’s light. Then their intellects began to be confused, and eventually they began to labor for breath as though they were dying. Not only that, when they began to feel heaven’s warmth, which is heavenly love, they began to feel profound agonies. So they were expelled, and then were taught that knowledge does not make an angel, only the actual life that people have gained through their knowledge. This is because in and of itself, knowledge is outside of heaven; but a life gained through knowledge is inside heaven.
The four paths that lead to the Lord’s heavenly kingdom are graced by olive trees and various fruit trees, while the ones that lead to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom are graced by grapevines and laurel. This is because of correspondence, since vines and laurel correspond to an affection for truth and its uses, while olive and fruit trees correspond to an affection for what is good and its uses.
521. No One Enters Heaven on the Basis of Mercy Alone
If people have not been taught about heaven, the way to heaven, and the life of heaven for those on earth, they think that acceptance into heaven comes from a pure mercy extended to people of faith, people for whom the Lord intercedes, so that admission depends solely on grace. They therefore think that anyone at all can be saved out of good will; and some people even think that this includes the inhabitants of hell.
However, they do not know anything about human beings, that our quality depends on our lives and our lives on our loves. This applies not only to the deeper levels of our volition and intellect but even to the outer aspects of our bodies, with the physical form being nothing but an outward form in which our deeper natures manifest themselves in practice. This means that our love is our whole person (see above, 363). Nor do they realize that the body does not live on its own but from its spirit, and that our spirit is our actual affection, with our spiritual body being nothing more than our affection in the kind of human form it presents after death (see above, 453-460). As long as these facts are not known, people can be led to believe that salvation is nothing more than the divine pleasure that we call mercy and grace.
The divine design is heaven for us. We have distorted it by living contrary to its laws, which are divine truths. The Lord brings us back into the design out of pure mercy, through the laws of the design; and to the extent that we are brought back, we accept heaven into ourselves. Whoever accepts heaven enters heaven.
This shows again that the Lord’s divine mercy is pure mercy but not unmediated.(a)
a. Divine truth emanating from the Lord is the source of his design, and divine good is the essence of the design: 1728, 2258, 8700, 8988. As a result, the Lord is the design: 1919, 2011, 5110, 5703, 10336, 10619. Divine truths are the laws of the design: 2247 [2447], 7995. The whole heaven is arranged by the Lord according to its divine pattern: 3038, 7211, 9128, 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157. So heaven’s form is a form in accord with the divine design: 4040-4043, 6607, 9877. To the extent that we live according to the design, that is, to the extent that we live intent on what is good according to divine truths, we accept heaven into ourselves: 4839. The human being is where all the elements of the divine design are gathered together, and by creation we are the divine design in form because we are its vessels: 4219, 4220, 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5368 [4839], 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472. We are not born into what is good and true but into what is evil and false, and therefore not into the divine design but into a pattern contrary to it, which is why we are born into pure ignorance and need to be born again or regenerated; the Lord effects this through divine truths, in order to bring us back into the design: 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731. When the Lord is forming us afresh or regenerating us, he arranges everything in us according to the design, or into heaven’s form: 5700, 6690, 9931, 10303. Evil and false things are contrary to the design, but still people who are absorbed in them are governed by the Lord, not according to the design but from it: 4839, 7877, 10778 [10777]. It is impossible for someone who is living in evil to be saved out of pure mercy, because this goes against the divine design: 8700.
[3] Angels have also said that people who are caught up in this kind of principle concerning the essential means of our salvation cannot help believing in straight mercy because they can tell from natural light and from visual experience that faith by itself does not constitute human life-people who are leading evil lives can think and convince themselves of the same principles. This is why they believe that evil people can be saved just like good ones, provided in the hour of their death they talk about intercession and mercy obtained by it.
The angels kept insisting that they have never yet seen people who lived an evil life accepted into heaven out of straight mercy, no matter how fervently they had spoken in the world from faith, or from the trust that is meant by faith in its primary sense.
[4] When they have asked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, about the apostles, whether they were not accepted into heaven out of straight mercy, angels have answered that none of them was. Each one was accepted on the basis of his life in the world. They should realize where they were. No one had more prestige than anyone else. They said that the reason these individuals were mentioned in the Word with such respect was that they referred in the deeper meaning to the Lord-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the Lord in respect to his divine nature and his divine human nature, David to the Lord as to the regal divine nature, and the apostles to the Lord as to divine truths. The angels do not pay any attention to these individuals when the Word is being read by people on earth because their names do not cross over into heaven. They are conscious of the Lord instead, as just noted. So the Word that is in heaven (described above in 259) never mentions them, since that Word is the inner meaning of the Word that exists in the world.(b)
b. In the inner meaning of the Word, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob mean the Lord in regard to his divine nature and his divine human nature: 1893, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804, 6847. Abraham is unknown in heaven: 1834, 1876, 3229. David means the Lord in regard to his divine kingship: 1888, 9954. The twelve apostles represented the Lord in regard to all the elements of the church, and therefore to matters of faith and love: 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397. Peter represented the Lord in respect to faith, James in respect to thoughtfulness, and John in respect to thoughtful works: 3750, 10087. The statement that the twelve apostles would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel means that the Lord will judge according to the true and good elements of faith and love: 2129, 6397. The names of people and places in the Word do not make their way into heaven, but change into things and states; and in fact the names cannot even be pronounced in heaven: 1876, 5225, 6516, 10216, 10282, 10432. Further, angels think without reference to roles: 8343, 8945 [8985], 9007.
These and other similar kinds of experience teach simple good people that there is no way to change anyone’s life after death, no way to rewrite an evil life into a good one or a hellish life into an angelic one. This is because the nature of every spirit from head to toe is determined by his or her love and consequently by his or her life. To change this into its opposite would mean the total destruction of the spirit. Angels insist that it is easier to change one owl into a dove or another into a bird of paradise than to change a hellish spirit into an angel of heaven.
The reader may see in the appropriate chapter above (470-484) that our nature after death is determined by the quality of our life in the world. We can gather from this that no one can be accepted into heaven on the basis of pure mercy.
Some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called “spiritual” because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up the desires attributed to the body and the flesh and “live spiritually.” All they understand by this is spurning worldly interests, especially concerns for money and prestige, going around in constant devout meditation about God, salvation, and eternal life, devoting their lives to prayer, and reading the Word and religious literature. They think this is renouncing the world and living for the spirit and not for the flesh. However, the actual case is quite different, as I have learned from an abundance of experience and conversation with angels. In fact, people who renounce the world and live for the spirit in this fashion take on a mournful life for themselves, a life that is not open to heavenly joy, since our life does remain with us [after death]. No, if we would accept heaven’s life, we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs. In this way, we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven. This is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation, that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or totters until it collapses.
To begin with, then, we may gather that a spiritual life is not separate from a natural life or the world’s life but is united to it like a soul to its body; and if they were separated, it would be like a house without a foundation, as just stated.
In fact, moral and civic living is what spiritual life does, for intending well is the essence of spiritual life and behaving well is the essence of moral and civic life. If these are separated from each other, spiritual life consists solely of thinking and talking, and the intent ebbs away because it has no support. Yet intent is our actual spiritual substance.
Who can’t lead a civic and moral life? After all, we are introduced to it in infancy and know it from living in the world. We do in fact lead this kind of life whether we are evil or good, since no one wants to be called dishonest or unfair. Almost everyone practices honesty and fairness outwardly, even to the point of seeming genuinely honest and fair, or seeming to act from genuine honesty and fairness. Spiritual people have to live in much the same way and can do so just as easily as natural people, the difference being that spiritual people believe in the Divine Being and act honestly and fairly not just because it follows civil and moral laws but also because it follows divine laws. In fact, since they are thinking about divine [laws] when they act, they are in touch with heaven’s angels; and to the extent that they are, they are united to them, and their inner person-which is essentially a spiritual person-is opened. When this is our nature, the Lord adopts and leads us without our realizing it, and whatever things we do that are honest and fair-the deeds of our moral and civil life-come from a spiritual source. Doing what is honest and fair from a spiritual source is doing it from genuine honesty and fairness, or doing it from the heart.
[2] Outwardly, such honesty and fairness look just like the honesty and fairness of natural people or even evil and hellish people, but inwardly they are totally different. Evil people do what is fair and honest solely for the sake of themselves and the world. If they were not afraid of the law and its penalties, of losing their reputation, their wealth, and their life, they would act with utter dishonesty and unfairness. Since they have no fear of God or of any divine law, they have no inner restraint that keeps them in check; so to the extent that they can, they cheat and rob and plunder others just for the pleasure of it. Their inner nature is especially clear from people like them in the other life, when all people’s outer natures are stripped away and their inner natures disclosed, the natures in which they will go on living to eternity (see above, 499-511). Since they are then acting without external restraints, which are (as just noted) fears of the law and of losing reputation, prestige, profit, and life, they act wildly and scoff at honesty and fairness.
[3] In contrast, people who have lived honestly and fairly because of divine laws act wisely when their outer natures are stripped away and they are left to their inner natures, because they are united to heaven’s angels, who share their wisdom with them.
This enables us to gather initially that spiritual people can behave much the same as natural people in their civil and moral life, provided they are united to the Deity in their inner person, in their intent and thought (see above, 358, 359, 360).
[3] It is different for people who at heart have acknowledged the Deity and have attended to divine laws in the deeds of their lives, living both by the first three commandments of the Decalogue and by the others as well. When they are let into their inner nature, after their outer nature is stripped away, they are wiser than they were in the world. Coming into their inner natures is like coming from darkness into light, from ignorance into wisdom, from a sad life into a blissful one, because they are in the Divine and therefore in heaven.
I have mentioned this to let it be known what each kind of person is like, though both may lead the same kind of outward life.
[2] It is our love that creates our intentions and that focuses our inner sight or our thought on its objects. So love for ourselves directs our thought toward ourselves and what we claim as our own, love of the world directs it toward worldly matters, and love of heaven directs it toward heavenly matters. This can enable us to know what state the inner reaches of our minds are in once we identify our love. That is, if we love heaven, the inner reaches are raised up toward heaven and open upward. If we love the world and ourselves, our inner reaches are closed upward and open outward. So we may gather that if the higher reaches of our minds are closed to what is above them, we can no longer see the objects that pertain to heaven and the church. These are in darkness for us, and whatever is in darkness we either deny or do not understand. This is why people who love themselves and the world above all, since the higher levels of their minds are closed, deny divine truths at heart; and if they do say anything about them from their memory, they still do not understand it. They have the same attitude toward these matters as toward worldly and physical interests; and since they are like this, they cannot think about anything except what comes in through their physical senses, which are their sole delight. Their sensory experience also includes much that is foul, obscene, irreligious, and criminal. They cannot be distracted from these obsessions because there is no inflow from heaven into their minds, since as already noted their minds are closed to what is above them.
[3] The purpose that focuses our inner sight or thought is our volition, since our intentions determine our aims and our aims determine our thoughts. So if we aim for heaven, we focus our thinking on it, and with our thinking, our whole mind, which is therefore in heaven. This means it looks at the concerns of the world as below itself, like someone on the roof of a house. This is why people in whom the deeper levels of the mind are open can see the evil and false elements in themselves, since these are below their spiritual mind. Conversely, if people’s inner reaches are not open, they cannot see their evil and false elements because they are in them and not above them. We may gather from this where our wisdom comes from and where our insanity comes from, and what we will be like after death when we are left to intend and think and then to act and speak in keeping with our inner nature.
Again, this has been presented to show what we are like inwardly, no matter how much alike we may seem outwardly.
It is important to realize, though, that the difficulty of thinking like this and also of resisting evils increases to the extent that we deliberately do evil things-in fact, to that extent we become used to doing them until ultimately we no longer see them. Then we come to love them and to excuse them to gratify our love and to rationalize them with all kinds of self-deceptions and call them permissible and good. This happens, though, to people who in early adulthood plunge into all kinds of evil without restraint and at the same time at heart reject everything divine.
At first, everyone was clearly following the same path as far as the large boulder at the fork; but at that point they parted company. The good turned to the left and started along the confined path that led to heaven. The evil did not even see the boulder at the fork but fell over it and hurt themselves. When they got up, they rushed along the broad path to the right that led toward hell.
[2] Later, the meaning of all this was explained to me. The first path, the broad one where so many good and evil people were traveling together, chatting with each other like friends with no visible difference between them, pictured people who live similarly honest and fair outward lives, with no visible difference between them. The stone at the fork or corner where the evil people stumbled, from which they rushed along the path to hell, pictured divine truth, which is denied by people who are focusing on hell. In the highest sense this stone meant the Lord’s divine human nature. However, people who acknowledge divine truth and the divine nature of the Lord as well were taken along the path that led to heaven.
This showed me again that both evil and good people live the same life outwardly, or travel the same path, one as readily as the other. Yet the ones who at heart acknowledge the Divine, especially those within the church who acknowledge the Lord’s divine nature, are led to heaven; while those who do not acknowledge it are led to hell.
[3] Paths in the other life picture the thoughts that flow from our aims or intentions. The paths that are presented to view there answer exactly to the thoughts of our aims, and our course follows the thoughts that flow from our aims. This is why you can tell the quality of spirits and of their thoughts from their paths. This also showed me the meaning of the Lord’s words, “Enter through the narrow gate, for broad is the gate and open the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who walk along it; confined is the path and narrow the gate that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). The way that leads to life is not narrow because it is difficult but because so few people find it, as stated.
The boulder I saw at the corner where the broad, common path ended and the two ways seemed to lead in opposite directions showed me the meaning of the Lord’s words, “Have you not read what is written, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’? Whoever falls over this stone will be shattered” (Luke 20:17-18). The stone means divine truth, and the rock of Israel means the Lord in regard to his divine human nature. The builders are the people of the church. The head of the corner is where the fork is, and to fall and be shattered is to deny and perish.(a)
a. A stone means truth: 114, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 10376. So the law was written on stone tablets: 10376. The rock of Israel is the Lord as to divine truth and as to his divine human nature: 6426.
[2] There are other people who have lived outwardly devotional lives, constantly in churches and at prayer there. They have mortified their souls while constantly thinking about themselves, how they are worthier and more estimable than others and will be regarded as saints after their death. They are not in heaven in the other life because they have done all this with themselves first in mind. Since they have polluted divine truths by the self-love they immersed them in, some of them are so deranged that they think they are gods. So they are with similar people in hell. Some of them are ingenious and crafty and are in hells for the crafty people who used their skills and wiles to construct outward appearances that would lead the masses to believe them possessed of a divine sanctity.
[3] This includes many of the Catholic saints. I have been allowed to talk with some of them and have had their lives clearly described, both the lives they had led in the world and what they were like afterward.
I have mentioned all this to let it be known that the life that leads to heaven is not one of withdrawal from the world but a life in the world, and that a life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness (which is possible only in the world) does not lead to heaven at all. Rather, it is a life of thoughtfulness, a life of behaving honestly and fairly in every duty, every affair, every task, from our deeper nature and therefore from a heavenly source. The source of this life is within us when we act honestly and fairly because doing so is in accord with divine laws. This life is not hard, but a life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness is hard. Still, this latter life leads away from heaven as surely as people believe it leads to heaven.(b)
b. A life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness accomplishes nothing, but together they accomplish everything: 8252, 8253. Thoughtfulness toward our neighbor is doing what is good, fair, and upright in every task and in every duty: 8120, 8121, 8122. Thoughtfulness toward our neighbor includes absolutely everything we think, intend, and do: 8124. A life of thoughtfulness is a life by the Lord’s commandments: 3249. Living by the Lord’s commandments is loving the Lord: 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10648 [10645]. True thoughtfulness is not for credit because it comes from a deeper affection and a consequent deeper pleasure: 2340 [2380], 2373 [2371], 2400, 3887, 6388-6393. Our abiding character after death is determined by the quality of our life of thoughtfulness in the world: 8256. Heavenly bliss flows from the Lord into a life of thoughtfulness: 2363. No one is let into heaven simply by thinking, but by intending and doing together with thinking: 2401, 3459. Unless doing what is good is united to intending what is good and thinking what is good, there is no salvation and no union of our inner person with our outer: 3987.
The Lord Governs the Hells
In the earlier discussion of heaven, it was made clear throughout (particularly in 2-6) that the Lord is the God of heaven and that the whole government of the heavens is in the Lord’s hands. Since the relationship of heaven to hell and of hell to heaven is like that of two opposites that act against each other, with the action and reaction yielding the state of equilibrium within which everything exists, in order for absolutely everything to be kept in this balance, it is necessary that the ruler of the one be the ruler of the other as well. That is, unless the same Lord controlled the attacks of the hells and restrained their madness, the balance would be destroyed; and if the balance were destroyed, everything else would go.
[2] There is this kind of equilibrium between heaven and hell. However, it is not the kind of equilibrium that occurs between two people who are fighting physically, with one just as strong as the other; it is rather a spiritual balance, one of the false against the true and the evil against the good. Malicious falsity constantly breathes forth from hell and benevolent truth constantly breathes forth from heaven. This is the spiritual balance that provides us with our freedom for thinking and intending, since everything we think and intend depends either on evil and its consequent falsity or on good and its consequent truth. [3] So when we are in this state of equilibrium, we are in freedom either to let in and accept what is evil from hell and its consequent falsity or to let in and accept what is good from heaven and its consequent truth. Each of us is kept in this equilibrium by the Lord, who governs both heaven and hell.
I will explain later, in a separate chapter, why we are kept in this freedom by means of the balance, and why the evil and the false are not taken away from us by divine power and the good and true instilled.
I have sensed an aura of benevolent truth from heaven, though, that served to restrain the rage of the effort rising up from hell, which yielded an equilibrium. I perceived that the sole source of this aura was the Lord, even though it seemed to be coming from angels in heaven. The reason it comes solely from the Lord and not from angels is that every angel in heaven admits that nothing of what is good and true comes from herself or himself, but that it all comes from the Lord.
The reason all power belongs to what is good and true is that the essential divine nature in heaven is divine good and divine truth, and all power belongs to the Divine. Malevolent falsity has no power because all power belongs to benevolent truth, and there is no benevolent truth in malevolent falsity. This is why all the power is in heaven, and none in hell. Everyone in heaven is focused on what is true for the sake of the good, and everyone in hell is focused on what is false for the sake of what is evil. This is because no one is let into heaven until she or he is focused on what is true for the sake of good, and no one is cast into hell until she or he is focused on what is false for the sake of what is evil. In support of this, see the chapters where I dealt with our first, second, and third states after death (491-520); and on benevolent truth possessing power, see the chapter on the power of heaven’s angels (228-233).
This kind of balance would not be possible unless the Lord ruled both heaven and hell and regulated both. Otherwise, malicious falsity would cross the boundaries and affect the simple, good people who are in the outmost parts of heaven, people who are more easily misled than actual angels. This would destroy the balance, and with the balance would go our freedom.
However, the communities in hell are differentiated according to their evils and consequent falsities because the communities in heaven are differentiated according to their good will and consequent truths. We may be sure that there is some evil opposite to everything good and some falsity opposite to everything true from the fact that nothing exists without a relationship to its opposite. The opposite enables us to know its actual nature and level. Opposition is the source of all perception and sensation.
This is why the Lord is constantly taking care that every community of heaven has its opposite in some community of hell and that there is a balance between them.
Because there are three heavens overall, there are also three hells overall. There is a deepest hell that is opposite to the inmost or third heaven; there is a middle hell that is opposite to the middle or second heaven; and there is a highest hell that is opposite to the outmost or first heaven.
Specifically, the hells are governed by means of angels who are given the ability to look into the hells and check the insanities and riots there. Sometimes angels are sent there, and their very presence brings matters under control.
In general, though, all the people in the hells are governed by their fears, some by fears sown and still in place from the world. However, since these fears are not adequate and gradually weaken, they are governed through fears of punishment, which are the primary means of preventing them from doing evil. There are many kinds of punishment there, milder or more severe depending on the evil [they are restraining]. Most of the time, the relatively malevolent spirits are in power, having gained control by their experience and skill; and they are able to keep the rest in servile obedience by punishments and the fears that these give birth to. These dominant spirits do not dare go beyond fixed limits.
We do need to realize that the only way of controlling the violent rages of people in the hells is through fear of punishment. There are no other means.
We can also see that there is no devil to whom the hells are subject from the fact that all the people who are in the hells, like all the people in the heavens, are from the human race (see 311-317), that there are millions there from the beginning of creation to the present day, and that everyone there is the kind of devil he or she became by opposition to the Deity while in the world (see above, 311-312).
Some people cherish the notion that God turns his face away from people, spurns them, and casts them into hell, and is angry against them because of their evil. Some people even go so far as to think that God punishes people and does them harm. They support this notion from the literal meaning of the Word where things like this are said, not realizing that the spiritual meaning of the Word, which makes sense of the letter, is wholly different. So the real doctrine of the church, which is from the spiritual meaning of the Word, teaches something else. It teaches that the Lord never turns his face away from anyone or spurns anyone, never casts anyone into hell or is angry.(a)
Anyone whose mind is enlightened perceives this while reading the Word simply from the fact that the Lord is goodness itself, love itself, and mercy itself. Good itself cannot do harm to anyone. Love itself and mercy itself cannot spurn anyone, because this is contrary to mercy and love and is therefore contrary to the divine nature itself. So people who are thinking with an enlightened mind when they read the Word perceive clearly that God never turns away from us, and that because he does not turn away from us, he behaves toward us out of goodness and love and mercy. That is, he wills well toward us, loves us, and has compassion on us.
a. Blazing wrath is attributed to God in the Word, but it is the wrath in us; and the Word says such things because it seems that way to us when we are being punished and condemned: 798 [5798], 6997, 8284, 8483, 8875, 9306, 10431. Even evil is attributed to the Lord, though nothing comes from the Lord but what is good: 2447, 6073 [6071], 6992 [6991], 6997, 7533, 7632, 7677 [7679], 7926, 8227, 8228, 8632, 9306. Why the Word says such things: 6073 [6071], 6992 [6991], 6997, 7643, 7632, 7679, 7710, 7926, 8282, 9009 [9010], 9128. The Lord is pure mercy and clemency: 6997, 8875.
Enlightened people also see that good and evil are two opposite things, as opposite as heaven and hell, and that everything good is from heaven and everything evil from hell. Further, since the Lord’s divine nature constitutes heaven (see 7-12), nothing flows into us from the Lord but what is good, and nothing from hell but what is evil. So the Lord is constantly leading us out of evil and toward good, while hell is constantly leading us into evil. Unless we were in between, we would have neither thought nor intention, much less any freedom or choice. We have all these gifts because of the balance between good and evil. So if the Lord were to turn away and we were left to our own evil, we would no longer be human.
We can see from this that the Lord is constantly flowing into every individual with good, just as much into the evil person as into the good. The difference is that he is constantly leading evil people away from evil, while he is constantly leading good people toward the good. The reason for this difference lies in us, since we are the ones who accept.
We can see from this that the Lord is leading every spirit toward himself through angels and through an inflow from heaven, but that spirits who are absorbed in evil resist strenuously and virtually tear themselves away from the Lord. They are drawn by their evil-by hell, that is-as though it were a rope; and because they are drawn and want to follow because of their love of evil, it follows that they freely cast themselves into hell.
This is hard to believe in the world because of people’s notions about hell. In fact, it does not even look that way in the other life. It looks different for people who are outside of hell, though not to the people who are actually casting themselves in. They are entering voluntarily, and the ones who are doing so out of a burning desire for evil look as though they were diving in headfirst. This is why it looks as though they were being thrown into hell by divine power. There will be more on this below (see 574).
We can now see that the Lord does not throw anyone into hell. We throw ourselves in, not only while we are living in this world but after death as well, when we arrive among spirits.
To some extent, this can be illustrated by evil deeds and their punishments in the world, where they are also united. The laws here set penalties for each crime, so anyone who plunges into evil is plunging into its punishment as well. The only difference is that in the world, evil can be hidden, which cannot happen in the other life.
We can therefore conclude that the Lord does not do harm to anyone. It is like this in the world as well. It is not the king or the judge or the law that is responsible for the punishment of the guilty, because they are not responsible for the evil of the criminal.
All the people who are in the hells are devoted to evil goals and the distortions that result. There is no one there devoted to evil goals and interested in true perceptions. Many evil people in the world know about spiritual truths, the truths of the church, since they have learned them first in childhood and later from sermons and from reading the Word and have gone on to take them for granted in their conversations. Some of them have even led others to believe that they were Christians at heart because they had learned from these truths how to talk with apparent affection and to behave honestly as though motivated by a spiritual faith. As for the ones who inwardly thought the opposite, though, and who carefully refrained from doing the evil things they were thinking of simply because of civil laws and for the sake of their reputation and rank and profit, they are all evil at heart, involved in what is true and good only physically, not in spirit. So when their outer layers are stripped off in the other life and the inner natures that constituted their spirits are unveiled, they are wholly absorbed in evil and false concerns, unconcerned with anything true and good. Then one can see that the true and good values simply dwelt in their memories as things they had learned about, and that they retrieved them from memory when they were talking and imitated good deeds as though they were motivated by a spiritual love and faith.
When people like this are let into their inner natures-into their evils, that is-they can no longer say anything true. They can only say what is false because their speech arises from their evil intentions. It is impossible to say anything true for evil ends because by then their spirits are made up of nothing but their own evil, and falsity emanates from evil.
Every evil spirit is distilled to this state before he or she is thrown into hell (see above, 499-512). This is called being stripped down as to what is true and good.(a) The stripping down is simply the process of being let into their own inner natures, into what they have claimed as spirits, then, or into their spirits themselves. See also 425 above on these matters.
a. Before evil people are thrown down into hell they are stripped of what is true and good, and once these elements have been taken away, they move voluntarily into hell: 6977, 7039, 7795, 8210, 8232, 9330. The Lord does not strip them [of good and truth]-they do it to themselves: 7642 [7643], 7926. Every evil has something false within it; so people who are intent on evil are intent on what is false, even though some of them do not realize it: 7577, 8094. People who are intent on evil cannot help but think falsely when they are thinking on their own: 7437. All the people who are in hell say what is false, with evil intent: 1695, 7351, 7352, 7357, 7392, 7698 [7689].
[3] This is why hellish spirits all turn away from the Lord toward the gloomy and dark objects there that are in the location of earth’s sun and moon, while heaven’s angels all turn toward the Lord as the sun and the moon of heaven (see above, 123, 143, 144, 151).
This leads us to the conclusion that all the people in the hells are absorbed in evils and consequent falsities, and also that they turn toward their loves.
[3] I have not been allowed to see what form hell itself is in overall. I have only been told that in the same way that all heaven as a single entity resembles a single human being (59-67), so all hell as a single entity resembles a single devil and can be manifested as a likeness of a single devil (see above, 544). However, I have often seen what form particular hells or hellish communities have, since at their entrances (which are called the gates of hell), there often appears a monstrous figure that in a general way represents the form of the people who live there. The savagery of these inhabitants is then imaged by frightful horrors that I forbear to mention.
[4] It does need to be known, though, that hellish spirits look like this in heaven’s light, but that they look human to each other. This is a gift of the Lord’s mercy, so that they do not look as repulsive to each other as they do to angels. However, this appearance is deceiving, since the moment a ray of light from heaven is let in, these human forms turn into the monstrous ones that they are essentially, the forms just described, because in heaven’s light everything appears as it really is. This is also why they avoid heaven’s light and dive into their own illumination, an illumination like that of glowing coals or, in places, like burning sulfur. This light, though, turns into pure darkness when any ray of light from heaven flows in. This is why the hells are described as being in gloom and darkness, and why the gloom and darkness mean the kinds of malevolent distortions characteristic of hell.
Since this is in fact the case, I should like first to describe what love for oneself is, and then explain that everything evil and false wells up from this love.
People who love themselves do love their own as well, their own being specifically their children and grandchildren and more broadly all who ally with them, whom they call “their own people.” Loving both the former and the latter is actually loving themselves, because they regard the others as though they were in themselves, and focus on themselves in others. These “others” who are claimed as their own include everyone who praises and reveres and worships them.
Being led by self is being led by what we claim as our own, and what we claim as our own is nothing but evil. It is actually our evil heredity, which involves loving ourselves more than God and the world more than heaven.(b)
We are completely absorbed in our self-image and therefore in our hereditary evil whenever we focus on ourselves in anything worthwhile we are doing, for we are focusing on ourselves and away from what is good and not on what is good and away from ourselves. So in the worthwhile activities we set up an image of ourselves and not an image of the Divine. I have been assured of this by experience as well. There are evil spirits who live halfway between the north and the west, underneath the heavens, who are particularly skilled at getting upright spirits involved in their self-image and therefore focused on various kinds of evil. They do this by getting them absorbed in thinking about themselves, either openly by words of praise and esteem or covertly by focusing their feelings exclusively on themselves. To the extent that they succeed, they turn the faces of the upright people away from heaven and also becloud their understanding, calling up evils from their self-concern.
b. The self-image that we get from our parents by heredity is nothing but condensed evil: 210, 215, 731, 876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2318 [2308], 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731 [10732]. Our self-centeredness involves loving ourselves more than God and the world more than heaven, and regarding our neighbor as nothing compared to ourselves except when it benefits us; so it is loving ourselves and is a love for oneself and for the world: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. From love for oneself and for the world when they are put first come all evils: 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 1691, 3413, 7255, 7376, 7480 [7490], 7488, 8318, 9335, 9348, 10038, 10742; which are contempt for others, hostility, hatred, vengefulness, savagery, and deceit: 6667, 7372 [7370], 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742; and from these evils, everything false flows: 1047, 10283, 10284, 10286.
558b. If you look at their origins and essences, you can see that love for oneself and love of one’s neighbor are opposites. In people who are wrapped up in love for themselves, love of their neighbor begins from self. They claim that everyone is her or his own neighbor; and from this as a center they reach out to all who ally with them, with progressively less intensity depending on the love that unites the others with them. They regard people outside this group as worthless, and people who offer opposition to them and their evildoing they regard as enemies. It does not matter what they are actually like, whether they are wise or upright or honest or fair.
A spiritual love of their neighbor, though, begins with the Lord, and spreads out from him as its center to all who are united to him by love and faith. Its spread depends on the quality of their love and faith.(c)
We can see from this that a love of our neighbor that begins with ourselves is the opposite of a love of our neighbor that begins with the Lord. The former comes from evil because it comes from what we claim as our own; while the latter comes from what is good because it comes from the Lord, who is good itself. We can also see that a love of our neighbor that comes from us and from our self-image is a physical love, while a love of our neighbor that comes from the Lord is heavenly.
In a word, when we are absorbed in love for ourselves it constitutes our head, and heavenly love constitutes the feet we stand on. If heavenly love does not serve us, we trample it underfoot. This is why people who are being thrown into hell look as though they are diving in headfirst, with their heads down and their feet toward heaven (see above, 548).
c. People who do not know what loving their neighbor is think that everyone is their neighbor and that everyone who is in need ought to be helped: 6704. They also believe that we are our own neighbor, and that love toward our neighbor therefore begins with us: 6933. People who love themselves above all, who therefore are ruled by love for themselves, also begin their love for their neighbor with themselves: 8120 [6710]. An explanation of the way in which we are our own neighbors: 6933-6938. However, people who are Christians and who love God above all begin their love toward their neighbor with the Lord, because he is to be loved above all: 6706, 6711, 6819, 6824. There are as many different kinds of neighbor as there are different kinds of good from the Lord, and good is to be done differently toward each individual depending on the quality of that individual’s state, which is a matter of Christian prudence: 6707, 6709, 6710 [6711], 6818. There are countless such differences; so the pre-Christian people, who knew what the neighbor is, sorted thoughtful acts into classes and gave them names that enabled them to know in what way one or another person was their neighbor and how they were to be helped prudently: 2417, 6629 [6628], 6705, 7259-7262. The doctrine in the pre-Christian churches was a doctrine of thoughtfulness toward one’s neighbor, which was the source of their wisdom: 2417, 2385, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628 [6629].
We cannot fail to see this in people in power and kings who are not held back by any such restraints. They run wild and conquer as many territories and kingdoms as they can and aspire to boundless power and glory. This is even clearer in the modern Babylon, which extends its control into heaven and transfers all the Lord’s divine power to itself and even craves more.
The reader may see in the booklet Last Judgment that people like this are diametrically opposed to the Divine and to heaven and that they favor hell when they arrive in the other life after death.
d. Our world’s sun means love for oneself: 2441. How “worshiping the sun” [Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3] means worshiping things that are contrary to heavenly love and the Lord: 441, 10584. The warming sun [Exodus 16:21] means the rising up of cravings for evil: 8487.
I talked with one man who had been in power in the world and loved himself far too much. When he simply heard the Divine mentioned-especially when he heard the Lord named-he was so struck by angry hatred that he was consumed with thoughts of murder. When the reins of his love were loosened, he even wanted to be the devil himself in order to satisfy his love by ceaseless attacks on heaven. Many individuals of the papal religion feel this desire in the other life when they realize that the Lord has all power and that they have none.
Once more I could see from this that no matter how wisely people may seem to talk in the world from the fire of self-love, still it is just a matter of rote memory and not of any rational light. So in the other life, when they are no longer allowed to retrieve things from their natural memory, they are more stupid than other people because they are cut off from the Divine.
[2] In contrast, people whose self-love leads them to take power intend good to no one but themselves. Any services they perform for others are actually for their own esteem and renown, since only this is of any use to them. Helping others is for them simply a means to being waited on and respected and deferred to. They strive for high office not for the good they ought to do for their country and their church but to be prominent and praised and therefore in their heart’s delight.
[3] A love of power does stay with all of us after death. However, people whose authority rested on their love for their neighbor are entrusted with power in the heavens. Actually, it is not they who have power but the services that they love, and when service rules, the Lord is ruling. However, people whose authority rested on their self-love in the world arrive in hell after their life in this world and are miserable slaves there. I have seen powerful people whose authority had rested on their self-love in the world abandoned among the most miserable, some of them living in outhouses.
Love of the world is wanting to divert the wealth of others to ourselves by any means available. It is setting our heart on wealth and allowing the world to distract us from the spiritual love that is love for our neighbor and therefore from heaven and the Divine.
This love takes many forms, though. We may love wealth in order to be raised to exalted rank simply because we love exalted rank. We may love exalted rank and high position for the sake of wealth. We may love wealth for the sake of the various pleasures it offers in the world. We may love wealth simply for the sake of wealth, which is avarice, and so on. The purpose of being wealthy is called its use, and purpose or use is what gives a love its quality. That is, the quality of a love is determined by the goal it aims at. Everything else serves it as means.
566. Hellfire and Gnashing of Teeth
Until now, hardly anyone has known the meaning of the eternal fire and gnashing of teeth ascribed to people in hell in the Word. This is because people think materialistically about statements in the Word, in ignorance of its spiritual meaning. So some of them understand the fire to be material fire, some think it is torment in general, some the pangs of conscience, some that it is just words meant to strike a terror of evil into us. Some understand the gnashing of teeth to be a kind of grinding, some only the kind of shudder we feel when we hear this kind of clash of teeth.
Anyone familiar with the spiritual meaning of the Word, though, can realize what eternal fire and gnashing of teeth are, since there is spiritual meaning in every expression and in the meaning of every expression in the Word. At heart, that is, the Word is spiritual, and spiritual meaning can be expressed to us only in natural terms because we are in a natural world and think on the basis of what we encounter in it.
In the following pages, then, I shall explain what the eternal fire and gnashing of teeth are that evil people find after death, or that their spirits experience once they are in the spiritual world.
I mention all this to make it clear that there are two kinds of warmth, spiritual and natural, and that spiritual warmth comes from heaven’s sun and natural warmth from the world’s sun, and that inflow and cooperation set up the effects that we see before us in the world.(a)
a. There is an inflow of the spiritual world into the natural world: 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626. There is also an inflow into the lives of animals: 5850; and into the members of the vegetable kingdom as well: 3648. This inflow is a constant effort to act in keeping with the divine design: 6211-6212.
Further, since these evils are constantly breathing out the death and destruction of everyone we see as the enemy, of everyone who is the target of this blazing hatred and vengefulness, the delight of our lives is the intent to destroy and kill, or to the extent that we cannot do this, to inflict harm, to wound, and to savage.
[2] These are the meanings of fire in the Word when it deals with evil people and the hells. I should like to cite a few passages in support.
Everyone who is hypocritical and malicious, every mouth that utters folly, because it is aflame with malice as with fire, shall eat briars and brambles and kindle the thickets of the forest, and will rise up with the rising of smoke; and the inhabitants have become the food of fire, a man and his brother do not spare each other. (Isaiah 9:17-18 [9:17-19])
I will make great portents in heaven and on earth-blood and fire and columns of smoke; the sun will turn into darkness. (Joel 2:30, 31)
The earth will become burning pitch, night and day it will not be put out, its smoke will rise up forever. (Isaiah 34:9-10)
Behold, the day is coming that will burn like an oven, and all the proud and all that do wickedness will be stubble, and the coming day will burn them up. (Malachi 4:1)
Babylon has become the dwelling of demons, those who saw the smoke of her burning cried aloud, the smoke rose up forever and ever. (Revelation 18:2, 18; 19:2 [19:3])
He opened the pit of the abyss and smoke came up out of the pit like the smoke of a huge furnace, and the sun was darkened, and the air, by the smoke from the pit. (Revelation 9:2)
From the mouth of the horses came forth fire and smoke and sulfur; and a third part of the people were killed by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur. (Revelation 11:17-18 [9:17-18])
Whoever worships the beast will drink the wine of the wrath of God mixed with myrrh in the cup of his wrath and will be tortured with fire and sulfur. (Revelation 14:9-10)
The fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun, and it was allowed to burn people by fire with its heat, and so it scorched people with intense heat. (Revelation 16:[8-]9)
They were thrown into a swamp burning with fire and sulfur. (Revelation 19:20; 20:14-15, 21:8)
Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9)
The Human-born One will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that gives offense and everyone who does iniquity and consign them to a furnace of fire. (Matthew 13:41-42, 50)
The king will say to those on his left, “Leave me, cursed ones, for the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:4 [25:41])
And they will be sent off into eternal fire, into a Gehenna of fire, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. (Matthew 18:8-9; Mark 9:43-49)
The rich man in hell said to Abraham that he was being tormented in flame. (Luke 16:24)
In these and many other passages fire means the craving of love for oneself and love of the world, and the smoke from the fire means the falsity that comes from this evil.
When the hells are closed, though, this fire is not visible. Instead, there is something dark, as though made from thickened smoke. Still, that fire is raging inside, as you can tell from the radiating heat. It is like the heat of ruins after a conflagration, or in some instances like the heat of an active furnace, or in others like that of a hot bath. When this heat flows into us it rouses our cravings-hatred and vengefulness in evil people, and dementia in the ill.
This kind of fire or heat is characteristic of people who are engrossed in the aforementioned loves because in spirit they are in touch with these hells even while they are still living in their bodies.
It does need to be known, though, that the people in the hells are not actually in fire. The fire is an appearance. They do not actually feel any burning, only the kind of warmth they knew in the world. The reason there seems to be fire is correspondence, since love corresponds to fire, and everything we see in the spiritual world has its visible form from its correspondence.
This does not happen very often, though; only when there is need to quell rebellions that are getting out of hand.
All the hells are communities like this, so everyone there cherishes hatred toward others in her or his heart and bursts out in savagery whenever there is the strength to do so.
These acts of savagery and torture are what are meant by hellfire, because they are the results of their obsessions.
From each hell there breathes forth an aura of the cravings that obsess its inhabitants. When this aura is sensed by people who are obsessed with a similar craving, it touches their hearts and fills them with delight because the craving and the delight are inseparable-whatever we crave is delightful to us. This is why spirits turn in that direction and are impelled there by their hearts’ delight. They do not yet realize what kind of torment there is in hell, and the ones who do know still feel the craving. In the spiritual world we are all incapable of resisting our impulses because the impulses come from our love and the love comes from our intent and the intent comes from our nature, and we all act from our nature there.
[2] So when spirits voluntarily or freely arrive at their hell and go in, they are accepted cordially at first and think they have arrived among friends. This lasts only a few hours, though. All the while they are being probed to find out how crafty they are, and therefore how powerful. Once this probing is complete the attacks begin in various ways, getting more and more severe and intense. The intensification is effected by their being taken farther and deeper into hell, since the farther and deeper you go there, the more malevolent are the spirits. After these attacks, the malevolent spirits begin to torment the newcomers with punishments until finally they are reduced to slavery.
[3] However, since rebellious movements are always arising (everyone there wants to be greatest and burns with hatred against everyone else, which keeps generating new attacks), the scene is constantly changing. The people who were enslaved are released and offer their support to some new devil for the subjugation of others. Then the ones who do not surrender and yield their obedience are tortured in various ways, and so on and so on.
Torments like this are the torments of hell that are referred to as hellfire.
In these hells dwell all the people who acknowledged nature and denied the Divine. The people who deliberately convinced themselves are in the deeper hells. Since they cannot accept any ray of light from heaven and can therefore not see anything within themselves, most of them focus on their senses and their bodies. These are people who do not believe anything they cannot see with their eyes and touch with their hands. So for them, all sensory illusions are the truths on which they base their arguments. This is why their arguments sound like the gnashing of teeth. It is because in the spiritual world all false statements grate, and teeth correspond to the outmost aspects of nature and to our own outmost natures, which have to do with our senses and our bodies.(b)
On the gnashing of teeth in the hells, see Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; and Luke 13:28.
b. On the correspondence of teeth: 5565-5568. People who are merely sensory correspond to teeth and have hardly any spiritual light: 5565. In the Word, a tooth [reading dens for the obviously erroneous Deus, “God”] refers to the sensory level that is the outmost level of human life: 9052, 9062. Gnashing of teeth in the other life comes from people who give nature credit for everything and credit the Divine with nothing: 5568.
Anyone who thinks deeply and knows anything about the workings of the human mind can see and understand how significantly superior spirits are to other people. In a minute, we can consider and turn over and decide in our minds more than we can express in speech or writing in half an hour. This shows how much better we are when we are in the spirit and therefore when we become spirits, since it is the spirit that thinks and the body is what the spirit uses to express its thoughts in speech or writing.
This is why people who become angels after death have access to indescribable intelligence and wisdom relative to the intelligence and wisdom they had while they were living in the world. While they were living in the world, their spirits were confined in a body and by that means were in the natural world. So when the spirit did think spiritually, the thoughts flowed into natural concepts that are relatively general, crude, and hazy. This means they are not open to the countless elements characteristic of spiritual thought. They also immerse them in the thickets of the cares of the world. It is different once the spirit has been freed from the body and has arrived at its own spiritual state, which happens when it crosses from the natural world to the spiritual world that is appropriate to it. We can see from what has already been said that its state in regard to thoughts and affections is far better than its former state. This is why angels think thoughts that are unutterable and indescribable, things that cannot come through to our natural thoughts. Yet in fact, every angel was born a person on earth and lived as such, and then seemed to himself or herself to be no wiser than anyone else.
[3] The kind of malice that surfaces then defies all belief. There are thousands of things that burst forth from the evil itself then, including some that are beyond the words of any language to describe. I have been allowed to learn and even to observe what they are like by many experiences because the Lord has granted me to be in the spiritual world as to my spirit while I was in the natural world as to my body. This I can testify: their malice is so great that scarcely a thousandth part of it can be described. Further, if the Lord did not protect us we would never be able to escape from hell; for with each of us there are both spirits from hell and angels from heaven (see 292-293). Further, the Lord cannot protect us unless we acknowledge the Divine and live faithful, thoughtful lives. Otherwise, we are turning away from the Lord and toward hellish spirits and are therefore in spirit absorbing the same kind of malice. [4] Still, the Lord is constantly leading us away from the evils that we assimilate and attract by associating with these spirits, leading us if not by the inner restraints of conscience (which we do not accept if we deny the Divine), then by the outer restraints already listed, the fears of the laws and their penalties, of the loss of money and the forfeiture of rank and reputation. People like this can be led away from evils through the delights of their love and the fear of losing and forfeiting these delights, but they cannot be led into spiritual virtues. To the extent that they are led into them, you see, they convert them into guile and craft by pretending to be good and honest and fair-minded with a view to persuading and deceiving others. This guile is added to the evil of their spirits and gives it form, lending its own nature to the evil.
In contrast, if people have not been guileful but have been taken in by the craft of the malicious and still are engaged in evils because of their self-love, they find themselves toward the rear as well, but not so deep down. People engaged in evils because of their love of the world are in the hells toward the front, though, and are called spirits. They do not have the same kinds of evil, the same kinds of hatred and vengefulness, as people involved in love for themselves, so they do not have the same kind of malice and craft. As a result, their hells are milder.
These are people who, in the world, enticed the minds of others deceptively, using the delights of their affections or their impulses to mislead and persuade them.
However, the Lord keeps these spirits away from anyone for whom there is any hope of reformation because they are the kind of spirit who can not only destroy conscience but also stir up our inherited evils that would otherwise lie hidden. So to prevent them from leading us into those evils, the Lord makes sure that these hells are completely closed off. When people of this nature arrive in the other life after death, they are instantly thrown into their hell. When they are examined as to their guile and craft, they look like snakes.
The spirits of evil people come into these arts spontaneously when they are freed from their bodies. These arts are inherent in the evil they are then absorbed in.
They use these arts to torture each other in the hells. However, since with the exception of the different varieties of imitation and persuasion and pretense these arts are unknown in the world, I do not want to describe them in detail, both because they would not be understood and because they are unspeakable.
In the spiritual world, the world where spirits and angels live, things look much the same as they do in the natural world where we live-so similar that at first glance there seems to be no difference. You see plains there, mountains, hills, and cliffs with valleys between them, you see bodies of water and many other things that we find on earth. However, they all come from a spiritual source, so they are visible to the eyes of spirits and angels but not to our eyes because we are in a natural world. Spiritual people see things that come from a spiritual source, and natural people see things that come from a natural source. This means that there is no way for our eyes to see things in the spiritual world unless we are allowed to be in the spirit, or until we become spirits after death. On the other hand, angels and spirits are utterly incapable of seeing anything in the natural world unless they are with some one of us who has been allowed to talk with them. Our eyes are adapted to receive the light of the natural world, and the eyes of angels and spirits are adapted to receive the light of the spiritual world; yet the two kinds of eyes look exactly alike.
Natural people cannot understand that the spiritual world is like this, and sense-centered people even less so, being people who believe nothing unless they can see it with their physical eyes and touch it with their hands. This means they believe only what they glean through their sight and touch and that they think on this basis; so their thought is material and not spiritual.
Because of this resemblance between the spiritual world and the natural world, it is hard for people after death to realize that they are not in the world where they were born, the world they have just left; so they actually call death nothing but a crossing from one world into another like it.
On this kind of resemblance between the two worlds, see the discussion above of representations and appearances in heaven (170-176).
The heavens are not visible to spirits in the world of spirits unless their inner sight has been opened. Sometimes they do appear, looking like gleaming white clouds. This is because heaven’s angels are in a more inward state as regards their intelligence and wisdom, so they are beyond the sight of people in the world of spirits.
The spirits who are in the plains and valleys can see each other, though when they are being sorted out (which happens when they are being let into their inner natures), then evil spirits do not see the good ones. The good ones can still see the evil ones, but they turn away from them, and spirits who turn away become hard to see.
The hells themselves, though, are not visible, because they are closed. All one can see are the entrances, called gates, when they open to admit spirits like the ones already there. All the gates into the hells open from the world of spirits, none from heaven.
Some of these hells looked like the lairs or dens of wild animals in the woods, some like the vaulted chambers and crypts found in mines, with caverns leading downward. Many of the hells are threefold. The higher ones look gloomy inside because the people there are fond of malicious distortions. The lower ones look fiery, though, because their inhabitants are devoted to malice itself. Darkness in fact corresponds to malicious distortions, and fire to the actual malice. That is, the people in the deeper hells are the ones who acted from evil on a deeper level, while the people in the hells that are not so deep acted from evils on a more superficial level-that is, on the basis of their malicious distortions.
In some hells you can see what look like the ruins of houses and cities after a fire, where hellish spirits live and hide out.
In the milder hells you can see crude huts, sometimes grouped in something like a city, with alleyways and streets. There are hellish spirits in these homes, with constant quarrels, hostility, beating, and violence. The streets and alleys are full of thieves and robbers.
In some hells there are nothing but brothels, foul to look at and full of all kinds of filth and excrement.
There are also dark forests where hellish spirits roam like wild beasts; and there are underground caves there where they flee when they are being threatened by others. Then there are desert areas where everything is barren and sandy, with rugged cliffs here and there with caves in them, and huts scattered around as well. People are exiled from the hells into these desert places if they have suffered to the limit, especially people who in the world were craftier than others in the skills of deliberate manipulation and deceit. This kind of life is their final lot.
[3] Still, we cannot know how the hells are arranged in this region, only that the most horrifying are off to the side toward the northern quarter and the less horrifying toward the southern quarter. That is, the horror of the hells decreases between the northern region and the southern, and also, successively, toward the east. The people toward the east there are the ones who were foolish and did not believe in the Divine, but still were not given to the same kind of hatred and vengefulness or trickery as the people who are deeper in the western quarter.
[4] At present, there are no hells in the eastern region. The people who were there have been transferred to the front of the western quarter.
There are a good many hells in the northern and southern regions. The people there were absorbed in love of the world during their lives and therefore in various kinds of evil such as enmity, hostility, thievery, robbery, fraud, avarice, and callousness. The worst hells of this sort are in the northern quarter and the milder ones in the south. Their dreadfulness increases the nearer they are to the western region and the farther they are from the south, and decreases toward the east and also toward the south.
Behind the hells in the western region lie dense forests where malevolent spirits roam like wild animals, and much the same is true of the hells in the northern quarter. Behind the hells in the southern quarter, though, lie the deserts just described. So much for the location of the hells.
[2] There is an infinite variety to everything evil just as there is to everything good. People do not grasp this if they have only simplistic concepts of particular evils like contempt, hostility, hatred, vengefulness, deceit, and the like; but they should realize that each of these contains so many distinctive forms, each of which also contains distinctive or particular forms, that a whole volume would not be adequate to list them. The hells are so clearly arranged according to the distinctive features of everyone’s evil that nothing could be more definitely and clearly arranged. We can gather from this that they are beyond counting, some near each other and some far removed according to the general, specific, and particular differences of their evils.
[3] Further, there are hells below hells. Some communicate by traffic to and fro, many by emanations, all in strict accord with the affinities of each genus and species of evil with others.
I have been given some knowledge of the number of the hells from the fact that they are underneath every mountain, hill, and cliff, every plain and valley, and that they stretch out there far and wide and deep. In short, it is as though the whole heaven and the whole world of spirits are hollowed out with one continuous hell under them. So much for the number of the hells.
For anything to happen, there needs to be an equilibrium of everything involved. If there is no equilibrium, there is no action and reaction because the equilibrium occurs between two forces, one acting and the other reacting. The state of rest arising from equal agents and reagents is called an equilibrium.
In the natural world there is equilibrium throughout, in general in the atmospheres, with the lower layers reacting and resisting to the extent that the upper layers act and bear down. In the natural world there are also states of equilibrium between warmth and cold, light and darkness, dry and wet. Their median blend is the balance point. There is also an equilibrium in the members of all three of earth’s kingdoms-mineral, vegetable, and animal; for nothing would occur in those kingdoms if it were not for the equilibrium. Everywhere, there is a kind of effort acting from one side and another reacting from the other.
[2] Every event, or every result, happens in an equilibrium, or happens by one force acting and another allowing itself to be acted upon, or by one force actively flowing in and the other accepting and yielding appropriately.
In the natural world, what acts and reacts is called force or energy, but in the spiritual world what acts and reacts is called life and volition. Life there is a living force and volition is a living energy, and the actual equilibrium is called a state of freedom. This spiritual balance or freedom occurs, then, between the good acting from the one side and the evil reacting from the other, or from the evil acting on the one side and the good reacting from the other. [3] The balance between active good and reactive evil applies to good people, and the balance between active evil and reactive good applies to evil people. The reason the spiritual balance is between good and evil is that all human life has to do with good and evil, and our volition is their recipient vessel.
There is also a balance between what is true and what is false, but this is secondary to the balance between good and evil. The balance between the true and the false is like the balance between light and darkness, whose effect on members of the vegetable kingdom depends on the amount of warmth or cold there is in the light or darkness. You can tell that the light and shade themselves do not accomplish anything, only the warmth they bring, from looking at like amounts of light and darkness in winter and in spring.
The comparison of truth and falsity to light and darkness rests in their correspondence, since truth corresponds to light and falsity to darkness, and warmth corresponds to the goodness of love. Further, spiritual light is truth, spiritual darkness is falsity, and spiritual warmth is the goodness of love (on this, see the chapter on light and warmth in heaven, 126-140).
The reason the world of spirits is in this equilibrium is that after death we first enter the world of spirits and are kept in the same state we were in in the world. This could not happen unless there were a perfect balance there. This allows everyone to be examined there as to quality, since we keep the same kind of freedom we had in the world. Spiritual equilibrium is a state of freedom for us and for spirits, as just noted (589).
Angels in heaven can tell the kind of freedom people have by a communication of affections and consequent thoughts. It also becomes visible to angelic spirits from the paths people follow, with good spirits following paths that lead to heaven and evil spirits following paths that lead to hell. These paths are actually visible in that world, which is why paths in the Word mean truths that lead to what is good, or in an opposite sense, falsities that lead to what is evil. This is also why going, walking, and traveling in the Word mean processes of life.(a) I have often been allowed to see paths like these, with spirits walking along on them freely, in accord with their own affections and consequent thoughts.
a. Traveling in the Word means a process of life, as does going: 3335, 4375, 4554, 4585, 4882, 5493, 5606 [5605], 5996, 5181 [8181], 8345, 8397, 8417, 8420, 8557. Going and walking with the Lord is accepting spiritual life and living with him: 10567. Walking is living: 519, 1794, 8417, 8420.
We may gather from this that the equilibrium angels in the heavens and spirits in the hells are kept in is not like the balance that obtains in the world of spirits. The equilibrium of angels in the heavens depends on how much they had wanted to be involved in good or had lived in goodness in the world-how opposed they were to evil; while the equilibrium of spirits in hell depends on how much they had wanted to be involved in evil or had lived in evil in the world-that is, how resistant they had been to the good, in heart and in spirit.
b. A spiritual aura flows out in waves from every human being, spirit, and angel, and surrounds them: 4464, 5179, 7454, 8630. It flows out from the life of our affections and their thoughts: 2489, 4464, 6206-6207. The quality of spirits can be discerned from a distance by their auras: 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504. The auras of evil people clash with those of good people: 1695, 10187, 10312. These auras have a wide outreach in angelic communities, depending on the kind and amount of their good: 6598-6613, 8063, 8794, 8797; and in hellish communities depending on the kind and amount of their evil: 8794, 8797.
c. Our own self-image is nothing but evil: 210, 215, 731, 874, 875, 876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2318 [2308], 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731 [10732]. Our self-image is hell for us: 694, 8480.
Not only that, all the hells act in unison because the evil energies of the hells are all interconnected the way the good energies are in the heavens; and nothing but the only divine power can resist all the countless hells acting in concert against heaven and everyone there. That one divine power emanates from the Lord.
I mention this so that there may be some grasp of the fact that only the Lord provides that there shall be a balance between good and evil everywhere, and therefore between heaven and hell. On this kind of equilibrium depends the salvation of everyone in the heavens and everyone on earth.
All the people in the heavenly kingdom are involved in a love for the Lord, and all the people in the hells opposite to that kingdom are involved in love for themselves. All the people who are in the spiritual kingdom are involved in love for their neighbor, and all the people who are in the hells opposite to that kingdom are involved in love of the world. This has enabled me to see that love for the Lord and love for oneself are opposites, as are love for our neighbor and love of the world.
The Lord is constantly taking care that nothing should flow out from the hells opposite to the Lord’s heavenly kingdom toward the people who are in the spiritual kingdom. If this were to happen, the spiritual kingdom would be destroyed, for the reasons given in 578-579 above.
These are the two general balances that the Lord is constantly keeping intact.
I have just described the balance between heaven and hell and have shown that the balance is between what is good from heaven and what is evil from hell, which means that it is a spiritual balance that in essence is a freedom.
The reason this spiritual balance is essentially a freedom is that it exists between what is good and what is evil and between what is true and what is false, and these are spiritual realities. So the ability to intend either good or evil and to think either truth or falsity, the ability to choose one instead of the other, is the freedom I am dealing with here.
The Lord grants this freedom to every individual, and it is never taken away. By virtue of its source it in fact belongs to the Lord and not to us because it comes from the Lord; yet still it is given us along with our life as though it were ours. This is so that we can be reformed and saved, for without freedom there can be no reformation or salvation.
Anyone who uses a little rational insight can see that we have a freedom to think well or badly, honestly or dishonestly, fairly or unfairly, and that we can talk and act well, honestly, and fairly but not badly, dishonestly, and unfairly because of the spiritual, moral, and civil laws that keep our outward nature in restraint.
We can see from this that the freedom applies to our spirit, which does our thinking and intending, but not to our outer nature, which does our talking and acting, except as this follows the aforementioned laws.
[2] The second reason is that nothing becomes part of us except as a result of some affection of love. True, other things can enter us, but no deeper than into our thought, not into our volition; and anything that does not enter our volition is not ours. This is because thinking is derived from our memory, while volition is derived from our life itself. Nothing is ever free unless it comes from our volition, or what amounts to the same thing, from a particular affection that stems from our love. Whatever we intend or love, we do freely. This is why our freedom and the affection of our love or intentions are one. So we also have freedom in order to be able to be moved by what is true and good, or to love them, so that they do become part of us. [3] In a word, anything that does not enter us in freedom does not stay with us, because it does not belong to our love or intentions; and anything that does not belong to our love or intentions does not belong to our spirit. The actual reality of our spirit is love or volition-using the phrase “love or volition” because whatever we love, we intend. This is why we cannot be reformed except in a state of freedom.
But there is more on our freedom in the extracts from Secrets of Heaven below.
On the presence with us of angels from heaven and spirits from hell, see the chapter on the union of heaven with the human race (291-302).
On the location of the world of spirits halfway between heaven and hell, see the chapter on the world of spirits (421-431); and on its being at the point of balance between heaven and hell, see the last chapter (589-596).
We can see from this where we get our freedom.
I could see from this that everyone who is united to heaven has an instinctive notion about life after death. The sole source of this instinctive notion is the inflow from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, by means of spirits who are assigned to us from the world of spirits. This instinctive notion is possessed by people who have not stifled their freedom of thought by assumptions about the human soul that they have seized on and confirmed by various means, assumptions that the soul is either pure thought or some animate principle whose seat they seek in the body. However, the soul is nothing more nor less than our life, while the spirit is the actual person, and the body is an earthly thing we carry around in the world. It is only an agent through which our spirit, the actual person, acts in a way that is adapted to the natural world.
References to Passages in Secrets of Heaven Concerning Our Freedom, Inflow, and the Spirits Who Are the Means of Communication
[2] On Freedom. All freedom is a matter of love or affection, because whatever we love, we do freely: 2870, 3158, 8907 [8987], 8990, 9585, 9591. Since freedom is a matter of love, it is the life of every individual: 2873. Nothing seems to be part of us unless it comes from freedom: 2880. There is a heavenly freedom and a hellish freedom: 2870, 2873, 2874, 9589, 9590.
Heavenly freedom comes from heavenly love, or a love of what is good and true: 1947, 2870, 2872, and since a love of what is good and true comes from the Lord, we are truly free only when we are led by the Lord: 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890, 2891, 2892, 9096, 9586, 9587, 9589, 9590, 9591. The Lord brings us into heavenly freedom through regeneration: 2874, 2875, 2882, 2892. We need freedom in order to be regenerated: 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031, 8700. Otherwise the love of what is good and true could not be sown in us and become so much a part of us as to seem to be our own: 2877, 2879, 2880, 2888. Nothing is united to us that happens under compulsion: 8700, 2875. If we could be forcibly reformed, everyone would be saved: 2881. Compulsion in matters of reformation is destructive: 4031. All worship offered in freedom is worship, but not what is offered under compulsion: 1947, 2880, 7349, 10097. Repentance needs to happen in a state of freedom, and if it happens in a state of compulsion, it does not work: 8392. Just what a state of compulsion is: 8392.
[3] We are allowed to act from the freedom we have as rational beings, so that good may be provided to us; we therefore have a freedom of thinking and intending evil as well, and even of doing it to the extent that the laws do not prevent it: 10777. The Lord holds us between heaven and hell and therefore in a balance so that we can be in freedom for the sake of our reformation: 5982, 6477, 8209, 8907 [8987]. What is sown in freedom stays with us, but not what is sown under compulsion: 9588. So freedom is never taken away from anyone: 2876, 2881. The Lord does not compel anyone: 1937, 1947.
To compel oneself stems from freedom, but being compelled does not: 1937, 1947. We ought to compel ourselves to resist evil: 1937, 1947, 7914; and to do good as well, apparently on our own, but still recognizing that it comes from the Lord: 2883, 2891, 2892, 7914. We become more solidly free in those temptation struggles in which we win, because then we are inwardly compelling ourselves to resist, even though it does not seem that way: 1937, 1947, 2881.
[4] Hellish freedom is being led by love for oneself and love for the world and by their cravings: 2870, 2873. This is the only freedom people in hell know: 2871. Heavenly freedom is as remote from hellish freedom as heaven is from hell: 2873, 2874. Hellish freedom, which is being led by love for oneself and love for the world, is not freedom but slavery: 2884, 2890. So slavery is being led by hell: 9586, 9589, 9590, 9591.
[5] On Inflow. Everything we think and intend flows in; [learned] from experience: 904, 2886, 2887, 2888, 4151, 4319, 4320, 5846, 5848, 6189, 6191, 6194, 6197, 6198, 6199, 6213, 7147, 10219. Our ability to look into things, think, and draw analytic conclusions comes from inflow: 1288 [1285], 4319, 4320. We could not live for a moment if we were deprived of the inflow from the spiritual world, [from] experience: 2887, 5849, 5854, 6321. The life that flows in from the Lord varies depending on our state and our openness to it: 2069, 5986, 6472, 7343. In evil people, the good that flows in from the Lord is turned into evil, and the truth into falsity; from experience: 3643 [3642 or 3743], 4632. We accept the good and true things that flow in from the Lord to the extent that what is evil and false does not bar the way: 2411, 3142, 3147, 5828.
[6] Everything good flows in from the Lord and everything evil from hell: 904, 4151. Nowadays people believe that everything is in themselves and from themselves, when actually everything is flowing in, as they might learn from the doctrine of the church, which teaches that everything good comes from the Lord and everything evil from the devil: 4249, 6193, 6206. If our belief were in accord with doctrine, we would not claim evil as our own or make good our own: 6206, 6324, 6325. How happy our state would be if we believed that everything good flows in from the Lord and everything evil from hell: 6325. People who deny heaven or know nothing about it do not realize that there is any inflow from it: 4322, 5649, 6193, 6479. What inflow is, illustrated by comparisons: 6428 [6128], 6480 [6190], 9407.
[7] All of life flows in from the first wellspring of life because this is its source; and it is constantly flowing in, so it comes from the Lord: 3001, 3318, 3237 [3337], 3338, 3344, 3484, 3619, 3741, 3742, 3743, 4318, 4319, 4320, 4417, 4524, 4882, 5847, 5986, 6325, 6468, 6469, 6470, 6479, 9276, 10196. The inflow is spiritual and not physical, which means that 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, 9111 [9109]. The inflow comes through the inner person into the outer, or through the spirit into the body, and not the other way around, because our spirit is in the spiritual world and our body in the natural world: 1702, 1707, 1940, 1954, 5119, 5259, 5779, 6322, 9380 [9110]. The inner person is in the spiritual world and the outer in the natural world: 978, 1015, 3628, 4459, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6309, 9701-9709, 10156, 10472. It seems as though there were an inflow from our outer natures into our inner, but this is an illusion: 3721. There is an inflow into our rational workings and through these into our information processing, and not the other way around: 1495, 1707, 1940. What the pattern of inflow is like: 775, 880, 1096, 1495, 7270. The inflow comes directly from the Lord and indirectly through the spiritual world or heaven: 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683. The inflow from the Lord comes into what is good in us and through that good into what is true, but not the other way around: 5483 [5482], 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153. What is good enables us to accept the inflow from the Lord, but not what is true apart from that good: 8321. Nothing that flows into our thought harms us, only what flows into our volition, because this becomes part of us: 6308.
[8] There is a general inflow: 5850. This is a constant energy favoring action in keeping with the design: 6211. This is what flows into the lives of animals: 5850; and also into the members of the vegetable kingdom: 3648. Further, our thought descends into speech and our intentions into actions and modes of behavior according to this general inflow: 5862, 5990, 6192, 6211.
[9] On Agents. The spirits who are sent out from communities of spirits to other communities or to individual spirits are called “agents”: 4403, 5856. Communications in the other life take place by means of emissary spirits like these: 4403, 5856, 5983. Spirits who are sent out to act as emissaries do not think for themselves but think from the spirits who commissioned them: 5985, 5986, 5987. More about these spirits: 5988, 5989.
The End