As the angels have speech, and their speech consists of words, they
also have writings; and by writing as well as by speech they give
expression to what is in their minds. At times I have had papers sent
to me, traced with written words precisely like manuscripts in the
world, and others like printed sheets; and I was able to read them in
a like way, but was allowed to get from them only an idea here and
there; for the reason that it is not in accordance with Divine order
for man to be taught by writings from heaven; but he must be taught
by means of the Word only; for it is only by means of the Word that
there is communication and conjunction of heaven with the world, thus
of the Lord with man. That papers written in heaven were seen also by
the prophets is shown in Ezekiel:
When I looked, behold a hand was put forth by a spirit
unto me, and a roll of a book was therein which he
unrolled in my sight; it was written on the front and on
the back (2:9, 10).
And in John:
I saw upon the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a
book written within and on the back, sealed up with seven
seals (Apoc. 5:1).
259. The existence of writings in the heavens is a provision of the
Lord for the sake of the Word; for the Word in its essence is Divine
truth, and from it is all heavenly wisdom, both with men and with
angels; for the Word was dictated by the Lord, and what is dictated
by the Lord passes through all the heavens in order and terminates
with man. Thereby it is adapted both to the wisdom of angels and the
intelligence of men. Thereby, too, the angels have a Word, and read
it the same as men do on the earth, and also draw from it their
doctrinals, and preach from it (n. 221). It is the same Word; but its
natural sense, which is the sense of the letter with us, does not
exist in heaven, but only the spiritual sense, which is its internal
sense. What this sense is can be seen in the small treatise on The
White Horse spoken of in the Apocalypse.
260. A little paper was at one time sent to me from heaven, on which
there were a few words only written in Hebrew letters, and I was told
that every letter involved arcana of wisdom, and that these arcana
were contained in the inflections and curvatures of the letters, and
thus also in the sounds. This made clear to me what is signified by
these words of the Lord:
Verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away,
one iota or one tittle shall not pass away from the law
(Matt. 5:18).
That the Word in every tittle of it is Divine is known in the church;
but just where the Divine lies hid in every tittle has not been known
heretofore, and therefore shall be told. In the inmost heaven the
writing consists of various inflected and circumflected forms, and
the inflections and circumflections are in accordance with the forms
of heaven. By means of these angels express the arcana of their
wisdom, and also many things that they are unable to express in
spoken words; and what is wonderful, the angels know this writing
without training or a teacher, it being implanted in them like their
speech (see n. 236); therefore this writing is heavenly writing. It
is implanted because all extension of thoughts and affections and
consequent communication of intelligence and wisdom of the angels
proceeds in accordance with the form of heaven (n. 201); and for the
same reason their writing flows into that form. I have been told that
the most ancient people on this earth, before letters were invented,
had such writing; and that it was transferred into the letters of the
Hebrew language, and these letters in ancient times were all
inflected, and none of them, as at present, were bounded by straight
lines. Thus it is that in the Word Divine things and arcana of heaven
are contained even in its iotas, points and tittles.
261. This writing in characters of a heavenly form is in use in the
inmost heaven, the angels of which surpass all others in wisdom. By
means of these characters they express the affections, from which
thoughts flow and follow in order in accordance with the subject
treated of. Consequently these writings, which I have also been
permitted to see, involve arcana which thought cannot exhaust. But
such writings do not exist in the lower heavens. The writings there
resemble the writings in the world, having like characters, and yet
they are not intelligible to man, because they are in angelic
language; and angelic language is such that it has nothing in common
with human languages (n. 237), since by the vowels they express
affections, and by the consonants the ideas of thought from the
affections, and by the words from these the sense of the matter (see
above, n. 236, 241). Moreover, in this writing, which I have also
seen, more is involved in a few words than a man can express in
several pages. In this way they have the Word written in the lower
heavens; but in the inmost heaven in heavenly characters.
262. It is a notable fact that the writings in the heavens flow
naturally from their very thoughts, and this so easily that the
thought puts itself forth, as it were, and the hand never hesitates
in the choice of a word, because both the words they speak and those
they write correspond to the ideas of their thought; and all
correspondence is natural and spontaneous. There are also writings in
the heavens that exist without the aid of the hand, from mere
correspondence with the thoughts; but these are not permanent.
263. I have also seen writings from heaven made up of mere numbers
set down in order and in a series, just as in writings made up of
letters and words; and I have been taught that this writing is from
the inmost heaven, and that their heavenly writing (spoken of above,
n. 260, 261), when the thought from it flows down, is set forth
before the angels of the lower heavens in numbers, and that this
numerical writing likewise involves arcana, some of which can neither
be comprehended by thought nor expressed by words. For all numbers
correspond, and have a meaning, the same as words do, in accordance
with the correspondence;{1} yet with the difference that in numbers
generals are involved, and in words particulars; and as one general
involves innumerable particulars, so more arcana are involved in
numerical writing than in literal writing. From this I could see that
in the Word numbers as well as words signify things. What the simple
numbers signify, as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and what the
compound numbers, as 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 144, 1000, 10,000, 12,000,
and others, may be seen in the Arcana Celestia, where they are
treated of. In this writing in heaven, a number is always prefixed on
which those following in a series depend as on their subject; for
that number is as it were an index to the matter treated of, and from
it is the determination of the numbers that follow to the particular
point.
{Footnote 1} All numbers in the Word signify things (n. 482,
487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264,
6470, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253). Shown from heaven (n.
4495, 5265). Composite numbers have the same signification as
the simple numbers from which they result by multiplication (n.
5291, 5335, 5708, 7973). The most ancient people possessed
heavenly arcana expressed in numbers forming a kind of
computation of states of the church (n. 575).
264. Those who know nothing about heaven, and who are unwilling to
have any other idea of it than as of something purely atmospherical,
in which the angels fly about as intellectual minds, having no sense
of hearing or seeing, are unable to conceive that the angels have
speech and writing; for they place the existence of everything real
in what is material; and yet the writings in heaven have as real an
existence as those in the world, and the angels there have everything
that is useful for life and useful for wisdom.