There are three heavens, entirely distinct from each other, an inmost
or third, a middle or second, and an outmost or first. These have a
like order and relation to each other as the highest part of man, or
his head, the middle part, or body, and the lowest, or feet; or as
the upper, the middle, and the lower stories of a house. In the same
order is the Divine that goes forth and descends from the Lord;
consequently heaven, from the necessity of order, is threefold.
30. The interiors of man, which belong to his mind and disposition,
are also in like order. He has an inmost, a middle, and an outmost
part; for when man was created all things of Divine order were
brought together in him, so that he became Divine order in form, and
consequently a heaven in miniature.{1} For this reason also man, as
regards his interiors, has communication with the heavens and comes
after death among the angels, either among those of the inmost, or of
the middle, or of the outmost heaven, in accordance with his
reception of Divine good and truth from the Lord during his life in
the world.
{Footnote 1} All things of Divine order are brought together in
man, and by creation man is Divine order in form (n. 3628,
4219, 4220, 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5168, 6013, 6057, 6605,
6626, 9706, 10156, 10472). In man the internal man was formed
after the image of heaven, and the external after the image of
the world, and this is why man was called by the ancients a
microcosm (n. 3628, 4523, 5115, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156,
10472). Thus man is respect to his interiors is by creation a
heaven in least form after the image of the greatest; and such
also man becomes when he has been created anew or regenerated
by the Lord (n. 911, 1900, 1928, 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041,
4279, 4523, 4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632).
31. The Divine that flows in from the Lord and is received in the
third or inmost heaven is called celestial, and in consequence the
angels there are called celestial angels; the Divine that flows in
from the Lord and is received in the second or middle heaven is
called spiritual, and in consequence the angels there are called
spiritual angels; while the Divine that flows in from the Lord and is
received in the outmost or first heaven is called natural; but as the
natural of that heaven is not like the natural of the world, but has
the spiritual and the celestial within it, that heaven is called the
spiritual-natural and the celestial-natural, and in consequence the
angels there are called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural.{1}
Those who receive influx from the middle or second heaven, which is
the spiritual heaven, are called spiritual-natural; and those who
receive influx from the third or inmost heaven, which is the
celestial heaven, are called celestial-natural. The spiritual-natural
angels and the celestial-natural angels are distinct from each other;
nevertheless they constitute one heaven, because they are in one
degree.
{Footnote 1} There are three heavens, inmost, middle, and
outmost, or third, second, and first (n. 684 9594, 10270).
Goods therein also follow in triple order (n. 4938, 4939, 9992,
10005, 10017). The good of the inmost or third heaven is called
celestial, the good of the middle or second is called
spiritual, and the good of the outmost or first,
spiritual-natural (n. 4279, 4286, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005,
10017, 10068).
32. In each heaven there is an internal and an external; those in the
internal are called there internal angels, while those in the
external are called external angels. The internal and the external in
the heavens, or in each heaven, hold the same relation as the
voluntary and intellectual in man-the internal corresponding to the
voluntary, and the external to the intellectual. Everything voluntary
has its intellectual; one cannot exist without the other. The
voluntary may be compared to a flame and the intellectual to the
light therefrom.
33. Let it be clearly understood that with the angels it is the
interiors that cause them to be in one heaven or another; for as
their interiors are more open to the Lord they are in a more interior
heaven. There are three degrees of interiors in each angel and
spirit, and also in man. Those in whom the third degree is opened are
in the inmost heaven. Those in whom the second degree is opened, or
only the first, are in the middle or in the outmost heaven. The
interiors are opened by reception of Divine good and Divine truth.
Those who are affected by Divine truths and admit them at once into
the life, thus into the will and into action therefrom, are in the
inmost or third heaven, and have their place there in accordance with
their reception of good from affection for truth. Those who do not
admit truths at once into the will but into the memory, and thence
into the understanding, and from the understanding will and do them,
are in the middle or second heaven. But those who live morally and
who believe in a Divine, and who care very little about being taught,
are in the outmost or first heaven.{1} From this it is clear that the
states of the interiors are what make heaven, and that heaven is
within everyone, and not outside of him; as the Lord teaches when He
says:
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither
shall they say, Lo here, or Lo there; for behold the
kingdom of God ye have within you (Luke 17:20, 21).
{Footnote 1} There are as many degrees of life in man as there
are heavens, and these are opened after death in accordance
with his life (n. 3747, 9594). Heaven is in man (n. 3884).
Therefore he that has received heaven into himself in the
world, comes into heaven after death (n. 10717).
34. Furthermore, all perfection increases towards interiors and
decreases towards exteriors, since interiors are nearer to the
Divine, and are in themselves pure, while exteriors are more remote
from the Divine and are in themselves grosser.{1} Intelligence,
wisdom, love, everything good and the resulting happiness, are what
constitute angelic perfection; but not happiness apart from these,
for such happiness is external and not internal. Because in the
angels of the inmost heaven the interiors have been opened in the
third degree their perfection immeasurably surpasses the perfection
of angels in the middle heaven, whose interiors have been opened in
the second degree. So the perfection of these angels exceeds in like
measure the perfection of angels of the outmost heaven.
{Footnote 1} Interiors are more perfect because nearer to the
Divine (n. 3405, 5146, 5147). In the internal there are
thousands and thousands of things that appear in the external
as one general thing (n. 5707). As far as man is raised from
externals towards interiors, so far he comes into light and
thus into intelligence and the elevation is like rising out of
a cloud into clearness (n. 4598, 6183, 6313).
35. Because of this distinction an angel of one heaven cannot go
among the angels of another heaven, that is, no one can ascend from a
lower heaven and no one can descend from a higher heaven. One
ascending from a lower heaven is seized with a distress even to
anguish, and is unable to see those who are there, still less to talk
with them; while one descending from a higher heaven is deprived of
his wisdom, stammers in his speech, and is in despair. There were
some from the outmost heaven who had not yet been taught that the
interiors of angels are what constitute heaven, and who believed that
they might come into a higher heavenly happiness by simply gaining
access to a heaven where higher angels are. These were permitted to
enter among such angels. But when they were there they could see no
one, however much they searched, although there was a great multitude
present; for the interiors of the newcomers not having been opened in
the same degree as the interiors of the angels there, their sight was
not so opened. Presently they were seized with such anguish of heart
that they scarcely knew whether they were alive or not. Therefore
they hastily betook themselves to the heaven from which they came,
glad to get back among their like, and pledging themselves that they
would no longer covet higher things than were in agreement with their
life. Again, I have seen some let down from a higher heaven; and
these were deprived of their wisdom until they no longer knew what
their own heaven was. It is otherwise when, as is often done, angels
are raised up by the Lord out of a lower heaven into a higher that
they may behold its glory; for then they are prepared beforehand, and
are encompassed by intermediate angels, through whom they have
communication with those they come among. From all this it is plain
that the three heavens are entirely distinct from each other.
36. Those, however, who are in the same heaven can affiliate with any
who are there; but the delights of such affiliation are measured by
the kinships of good they have come into; of which more will be said
in the following chapters.
37. But although the heavens are so distinct that there can be no
companionship between the angels of one heaven and the angels of
another, still the Lord joins all the heavens together by both direct
and mediate influx-direct from Himself into all the heavens, and
mediate from one heaven into another.{1} He thus makes the three
heavens to be one, and all to be in such connection from the First to
the Last that nothing unconnected is possible. Whatever is not
connected through intermediates with the First can have no permanent
existence, but is dissipated and becomes nothing.{2}
{Footnote 1} Influx from the Lord is direct from Himself and
also mediate through on heaven into another, and in like manner
into man's interiors (n. 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683). Direct
influx of the Divine from the Lord (n. 6058, 6474-6478, 8717,
8728). Mediate influx through the spiritual world into the
natural world (n. 4067, 6982, 6985, 6996).
{Footnote 2} All things spring from things prior to themselves,
thus from a First, and in like inner subsist, because
subsistence is unceasing springing forth; therefore nothing
unconnected is possible (n. 3626-3628, 3648, 4523, 4524, 6040,
6056).
38. Only he who knows how degrees are related to Divine order can
comprehend how the heavens are distinct, or even what is meant by the
internal and the external man. Most men in the world have no other
idea of what is interior and what is exterior, or of what is higher
and what is lower, than as something continuous, or coherent by
continuity, from purer to grosser. But the relation of what is
interior to what is exterior is discrete, not continuous. Degrees are
of two kinds, those that are continuous and those that are not.
Continuous degrees are related like the degrees of the waning of a
light from its bright blaze to darkness, or like the degrees of the
decrease of vision from objects in the light to those in the shade,
or like degrees of purity in the atmosphere from bottom to top. These
degrees are determined by distance. [2] On the other hand, degrees
that are not continuous, but discrete, are distinguished like prior
and posterior, like cause and effect, and like what produces and what
is produced. Whoever looks into the matter will see that in each
thing and all things in the whole world, whatever they are, there are
such degrees of producing and compounding, that is, from one a
second, and from that a third, and so on. [3] Until one has acquired
for himself a perception of these degrees he cannot possibly
understand the differences between the heavens, nor between the
interior and exterior faculties of man, nor the differences between
the spiritual world and the natural world, nor between the spirit of
man and his body. So neither can he understand the nature and source
of correspondences and representations, or the nature of influx.
Sensual men do not apprehend these differences, for they make
increase and decrease, even according to these degrees, to be
continuous, and are therefore unable to conceive of what is spiritual
otherwise than as a purer natural. And in consequence they remain
outside of and a great way off from intelligence.{1}
{Footnote 1} Things interior and things exterior are not
continuous but distinct and discrete according to degrees, and
each degree has its bounds (n. 3691, 5114, 5145, 8603, 10099).
One thing is formed from another, and the things so formed are
not continuously purer and grosser (n. 6326, 6465). Until the
difference between what is interior and what is exterior
according to such degrees is perceived, neither the internal
and external man nor the interior and exterior heavens can be
clearly understood (n. 5146, 6465, 10099, 10181).
39. Finally, a certain arcanum respecting the angels of the three
heavens, which has not hitherto come into any one's mind, because
degrees have not been understood, may be related. In every angel and
also in every man there is an inmost or highest degree, or an inmost
or highest something, into which the Divine of the Lord primarily or
proximately flows, and from which it disposes the other interiors in
him that follow in accordance with the degrees of order. This inmost
or highest degree may be called the entrance of the Lord to the angel
or man, and His veriest dwelling-place in them. It is by virtue of
this inmost or highest that a man is a man, and is distinguished from
irrational animals, for these do not have it. From this it is that
man, unlike the animals, is capable, in respect to all his interiors
which pertain to his mind and disposition, of being raised up by the
Lord to Himself, of believing in the Lord, of being moved by love to
the Lord, and thereby beholding Him, and of receiving intelligence
and wisdom, and speaking from reason. Also, it is by virtue of this
that he lives to eternity. But what is arranged and provided by the
Lord in this inmost does not distinctly flow into the perception of
any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom.
40. These now are the general truths respecting the three heavens;
but in what follows each heaven will be particularly treated of.