The Third Heaven

In the Apocalypse Explained is found a summary account of the distinctive characteristics of the three heavens.¹ From this and many other passages we draw the following teachings. But much that is said of the third or highest heaven is also applicable to the celestial kingdom, which is sometimes virtually identified with the inmost heaven.² Similarly, the angels of the second, or spiritual, heaven are often described in the same terms as those used about the spiritual kingdom. A certain amount of repetition may therefore be unavoidable.

The angels of the third heaven, which is called the celestial, have as their dominant love "a love to the Lord from the Lord"— so as to have a perception of it. They have heavenly truths written on their life, not merely upon their memory.³ And for this reason they never talk about truths but listen to others and— from a celestial perception—see within themselves whether what is said is true or not. This is what the Lord referred to when He said, "Let your conversation be, Yea, yea, Nay, nay."⁴

This does not mean that a celestial angel is infallible, or that he can think from "intellectual truth"—by which phrase the Arcana sometimes distinguishes the influx into his inmost soul. Intellectual truth is far beyond the conscious thought of either man or angel, and "is not the man's but is the Lord's with the man."⁵ Man "cannot possibly think as of himself from intellectual truth, but only from rational and scientific truth, for these appear as his own." The celestial angels think from the rational, but from "the interior rational," thus from rational appearances of truth.⁶

"The internal in the inmost heaven is the good of love to the Lord . . . and the external there is the good of mutual love"— which is to "wish better to another than to one's self." Into this, conjugial love is implanted. It is through the presence of the celestial that men are able at times to taste—whatever befalls— an inward joy and happiness which springs from innocence.⁷ It is through this inmost heaven that the Lord insinuates conjugial love into angels and men.⁸ For that heaven is "in the communication of good affections."⁹ These angels are also moved with an inmost delight when they perceive from men the sphere associated with innocent caresses of infants and lovers.¹⁰ They are not only the guardian angels who attend babes and take care of them after death, but they are also present with fetuses in the womb.¹¹ In the Grand Man of heaven, "all the members allotted to generation in both sexes, and especially the womb, correspond to the societies of the third heaven."¹²

It is to be observed that while—in the marriages of heaven— the husband always represents the lungs (or the truth of the understanding) and his wife the heart (or the good of that truth¹³), yet it is revealed as an "arcanum" that in the celestial church the husband related to good and the wife to the truth of that good. But this refers to the celestial kingdom of heaven.¹⁴

Mutual love is also a love to do uses to the community—a love which is to characterize the New Church.¹⁵ The angels of the third heaven thus have a deep love of the neighbor. But by the neighbor they mean uses—uses which relate not only to the good of their society but especially to the worship of the Lord and to His Church, and to the implantation of holy things with little children whom they inspire with innocence. In their wisdom they regard others not from person, but from quality.¹⁶

It must not be imagined that they have no care for matters of civil and domestic life; for such things are what they think and talk about. It is what they see with their eyes that enters their memory and furnishes subjects for conversation and reasoning. They never think of persons that are absent!¹⁷ With them, the holy things of heaven and the church are not held in the memory as rational abstractions, and therefore are not discussed.¹⁸ Indeed, their interior natural memory, which is the memory for abstract ideas, is not developed. Therefore they seem to themselves and others as simple. The truths which they hear are "hidden" or unconscious, taking the form of "an affection of good which does not descend into speech" but immediately into life. Only when others are uttering truths "or their ministers are preaching them from the Word," do such truths become manifest to their perception. Thus they are perfected by preachings, by books, and by conversation with those who come to them—among whom are preachers from the spiritual kingdom.¹⁹

Since their wisdom is hidden in forms of affection, these angels might at a distance appear as children or as naked infants— although to themselves they appear adult and fully clothed. Of some it is said that they go naked inside their homes. But when meeting others they are seen dressed with much variety—in red or crimson garments, or in fine linen, or in robes of hyacinthine color, with golden ornaments and jewels, etc. These garments in every detail signify the truths from the memory which clothe their particular good. Such apparel, with the celestial, may signify the "truths of justice" or morality which— as was noted—they can discuss and change and apply.²⁰

There are many different types of angels in the third heaven. This makes it difficult to describe their common features. While all other angels are in the separate heavens of their own earth, those of the inmost heaven are together from every earth and live in closest conjunction, so that "they constitute one heaven throughout the universe."²¹ Those from our earth are mostly from the men of the most ancient church;²² but this may refer only to the most internal type—found in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom. To this heaven those born at this day on our earth cannot be admitted, because of hereditary evils and a change of genius.²³ Some from this earth, whose celestial degree has been opened by regeneration, can be elevated into the third heaven. Indeed, "those who imbibe the laws of life from the Word and live according to them, and worship the Lord, become angels of the third heaven."²⁴ But because the sensual degree of his mind, which is now destroyed with man, can now be regenerated with "scarcely any one," there are few who are fully regenerated.²⁵

That the celestial heavens from different ages and different races must vary in many respects, is obvious. One conjugial couple from the third heaven approached Swedenborg in a horse-driven chariot.²⁶ Others, he found, dwelt in tents like a shepherd people, yet had a written tablet in their sanctuary. Some of those from the Golden Age are apparently more primitive—like the spirits from Mars or Jupiter— and have "internal respiration" and communicate by the expressions of their faces and by gestures, rather than by articulated words.

The abodes of the angels of the third heaven are generally situated on mountains and amid luxuriant vegetation—paradises with beautiful flowers and shrubs, forests of olives and fig trees. Strangely, no rocks or sandy places appear. The mineral kingdom is represented by gold and jewels, which are also used as ornaments in their dress.²⁷

These angels live mostly in tents or simple wooden houses.²⁸ All things in their heaven seem to be alive and sport before their eyes.²⁹ The air seems like pure ether, and their heaven from below looks like a thin cloud in the sky, in an inaccessible expanse above the spiritual angels.³⁰

The wisdom of the celestial angels cannot be divorced from their remarkable perception of correspondences; and those from the most ancient churches are therefore "scattered throughout the heavens in order that other [angels] may enjoy wisdom." It is also stated that "the best of the angels" dwell in a central situation, not associated together, but apart, house by house, or family by family.³¹

This dispersion of the ancient wise men within the Grand Man is reminiscent of the way in which the brain, in guiding the currents of life through the nerve fibres into all the viscera and sense organs, establishes ganglia and plexuses as subsidiary centers in the body; and this without depriving these isolated nerve centers of their unity with the brain as to function and structure. The brain and its nervous system in general correspond to the third heaven.³² The presence of some of the most ancient celestials is similarly needed in the other heavens in order that all the angels may, when the Word is being read by men, derive their share of the wisdom lodged in its spiritual sense. For "the whole of the intelligence and wisdom of the angels is from the Lord by means of the Word which is with man and spirit . . . Even its minutiae correspond and are turned into angelic ideas in their due order . . ,"³³

There is writing in the inmost heaven. The angels there can express their wisdom—and better than in words—by a writing which consists of inflections and curves which they instinctively know how to construct without either art or teacher; "for all the extension of the thoughts and affections . . .moves according to the form of heaven." And there is also a written correspondential language used by other celestials, which seems to consist in mere numbers, yet contains heavenly arcana. In various heavens, writing is also used for messages between the angels. Some writing comes forth "without the aid of the hand, from mere correspondence with the thoughts. But these writings are not permanent." For they are representative creations which may dissolve in a moment.³⁴

The Word exists in each of the three heavens, but in different forms.³⁵ Each heaven is in its own sense of the Word, and from this is their heaven and their worship. The celestials attend mostly to the uses in the Word.³⁶

The celestial Word is composed in letters unknown in the world. They are alphabetical characters, bearing some slight resemblance to the Hebrew letters.³⁷ They treat of the Lord alone, and express the subtle nuances of celestial affections rather than thoughts. Each letter involves some thing which is perceived from affection. For in the Word all symbols—whether in the form of letters or objects or things—originate in the Lord's creative wisdom, and contain infinite truths which men and angels can feel even if they cannot express them except in wonder, awe, and love.³⁸

The Second Heaven

The inmost of the spiritual heaven is mutual love which—as shown above — is the external of the celestial, also called the good of innocence or the truth or form which celestial love takes.³⁹ This inflows into the spiritual heaven and is there received as the good of charity—a spiritual love which partakes of the natural in varying degrees. The third heaven is therefore conjoined with the second heaven through intermediate angels—called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial angels—who, together with the third heaven, are referred to as "the higher heavens."⁴⁰

But only the most interior of the angels of the second heaven can serve as such intermediates. As a rule, the angels of a higher heaven can see those of a lower heaven, but not the reverse. And as a rule, no angel of the second heaven can ascend to the third, and, if they should, they would not retain anything that they experienced. For with the angels of the second heaven the celestial degree of their rational mind is not opened.⁴¹

The angels of the second or spiritual heaven are in spiritual love, or the love of truth—the love of the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord. Their love to the Lord takes this form. Spiritual angels admit truths first into the memory, and from that into the understanding; yet they admit no truth into the understanding unless they see it. They see truths from the light of truth. For truths in heaven are spiritual objects, which appear far more clearly to them than natural objects appear before men. He who loves truth because it is true, can see spiritual truths; and those which he does not see in the world he sees afterwards in heaven. Love becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word, when these are seen, loved, and done.⁴²

When trie spiritual angels think of love to the neighbor, they mean by neighbor not persons but "truths in act." This love is called spiritual good and has reference to the welfare of the church, of the society in which they are, of their fellow citizens, and of the moral good which is called integrity, as well as of the civil good which has to do with justice. Chastity and moral virtues reign among them. They know that only those who love to be useful and are intent on their work, can be maintained in spiritual good. For this keeps their thoughts "as it were at home" and holds them back from idleness which is called "the devil's pillow."⁴³

Yet their delight in good works does not mean that they are deprived of external joys. In the spiritual heaven there may be seen magnificent palaces in which everything within shines with precious stones and with forms unequalled in the world and of beauty indescribable. "For art, especially that of architecture, is there in its own art," since it is from that heaven that "many arts in the world derive their laws and harmonies."⁴⁴ Scenic paradises and rainbow colors of ineffable loveliness meet their eyes. Their garments which they sometimes receive as gifts, and sometimes are clothed with unawares, are often of fine linen and silk, and vary according to their functions.⁴⁵ These angels live on the fairest of hills, surrounded by lawns, gardens, and orchards. Their houses are mostly of stone, like marble and alabaster, and their temples may be of precious jewels.⁴⁶ Stone signifies natural truth, and—as will be noted—the spiritual is founded in the interior of the natural.⁴⁷

All spiritual angels have been men of the spiritual church, thus men of the Ancient Church or of the church of today—whose voluntary has been completely destroyed, but in whom a new will has been formed by the Lord, while the old will of the proprium has been entirely separated. For the Lord modifies His spiritual light to make man's natural beautiful like the bow in the clouds, even though much is absorbed and nullified by his proprium. Spiritual angels are of a nature similar to the people after the Flood.⁴⁸

"The chief thing of intelligence with the angels, is to know and perceive that all life is from the Lord, and also that all angels, spirits, and men correspond to heaven; and to know and perceive how they correspond. These are the principles of intelligence in which angels are above men. From these they know and perceive innumerable things which are in the heavens, and from these also those things which are in the world. For the things which exist in the world and its nature are causes and effects from those things as beginnings; since the whole of nature is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom." (AC 4318)

The thoughts of the spiritual angels transcend those of men and even of the natural angels. The objects of their thought are spiritual—not limited by concepts of space or by notions of person or material things.⁴⁹ As with all finite beings, their ideas are not pure truths, but appearances of truth, and in their case, the rational appearances of the "exterior rational"—by which is meant the abstract knowledges of the interior natural memory seen in spiritual light. Hence the teaching that the spiritual heavens are in the interiors of the natural.⁵⁰

It is therefore said that spiritual things—things seen in the light of heaven—are stored up as "remains" in "the interiors of the interior natural," in an order which corresponds to the angelic societies of the second heaven, and that man communicates with this heaven by means of these remains. The angels of this heaven are present with man while he is growing up and learning about spiritual things, but leave him if he does not begin to regenerate.⁵¹

When men read the Word on earth in reverence, its natural sense is transposed before the angels of the second heaven into a spiritual subject matter, according to correspondences; and mediately through these angels, the celestial angels perceive the goods or affections within the sacred text.⁵² It is especially true of the spiritual angels that, when the Word is read, their former ideas, which they might have entertained from alien fallacies and from scruples formed in the world, are gradually dissipated and new ideas insinuated which are in conformity with the light of heaven. Above all other things they relish ideas which enlighten them about the unition of the Lord's Human Essence with His Divine Essence and the reception of His Divine in their own human.⁵³

The angels of the second heaven have the Word as well as other books, written in the spiritual language. The writing is composed of letters resembling those of the Latin language. They also communicate by written messages, as on earth. They use the Word in worship and for general reading, and are especially fond of singing — by which the Lord is glorified from joy of heart.⁵⁴

The First Heaven

John, in his prophetic vision, saw one hundred and forty-four thousand souls "sealed" in their foreheads with the seal of God—to signify those who, after the last judgment, were to be organized into the celestial and spiritual degrees of the new heaven. But besides he saw "a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues," — which meant spirits "whose quality no one knows but the Lord alone," and who when redeemed from "the lower earth," were to be instructed and formed into the natural degree of the new heaven.⁵⁶

The natural or ultimate heaven is really the external of the other two heavens. It is called the entrance or court of heaven.⁵⁶For those who are still natural are in the lowest parts of the heavens, thus in the boundaries of some higher heaven. It therefore contains a confusing variety of good spirits whose natural loves partake in different degrees of what is celestial or what is spiritual; that is, who receive the influx either from the celestial heaven or from the spiritual, and thus belong either to the celestial kingdom or the spiritual. These two types of natural angels are quite distinct, yet both together constitute one heaven because they are both in the natural degree.

The angels of this heaven include many who are in simple good and who believe that every one is equally the neighbor and that charity consists in doing good to the poor and needy, without discriminating. For they love the neighbor as a person.⁶⁷

What these angels of the ultimate heaven see in the Word is the "spiritual-moral" sense.⁵⁸ The degree of truth Divine which is accommodated to them is said to be "the fifth" descending degree; and this is to some extent perceptible even to men when they are in a state of enlightenment, as when the literal sense of the Word becomes translucent from the spiritual sense now laid bare in the Heavenly Doctrine in natural form.⁵⁹ As to understanding, the natural angels are therefore not much different from men in the world. Their spiritual degree is not opened to conscious life. But this does not mean that it is closed as it is with an evil spirit.⁶⁰ For their natural mind is opened to the influx of the higher heavens. Wisdom and intelligence are not inscribed upon their life, as is the case with higher angels. Yet they have shunned evils as sins and— if Christian—have believed in the Lord according to the doctrine of their church.⁶¹ In general, they are such as could be reformed but not regenerated. Some of these are described in the Word by the Hebrew man servant.⁶²

Thus they are primarily servants—being in the "good of faith," obedient to the precepts which their church has taught them.⁶³They will depend on the higher angels for leadership and example; even as on earth they were mostly in "historical faith" and did not inquire into the truth of what they were taught by their leaders. Only the more intelligent among them think more abstractly about the neighbor.⁶⁴ That there are many shades and degrees of those in the natural heaven is taught in connection with the heavens which are "under the Moon."⁶⁵ Among the natural angels there are many who are distinguished by a love of knowing. And although these angels are said to be natural and sensual, they receive spiritual light into their natural lumen.⁶⁶

"Those who have not confirmed themselves in a faith in what is unknown"—that is, in blind faith—"and at the same time have been in some affection of truth, are instructed by angels according to their reception of truths and a life according to them, and are elevated into the societies of those in spiritual love and thence intelligence. These become spiritual; but the rest remain natural." From this we may infer that through the natural heaven there is an entrance into higher heavens.⁶⁷

It is the Lord's presence which makes heaven. The Lord is indeed equally present with all angels of whatever degree. Yet with respect to the reception of His inflowing life He may be said to be "more fully present in the inmost heaven." while He is present "more remotely" with those who are conjoined with Him by the good of faith.⁶⁸

That of the Divine which the natural angels can receive is called the Divine Natural—and the Divine Natural Good which thus "makes" the first heaven also includes civil good which has to do with justice among citizens, and moral good which embraces all the virtues of an honorable life.⁶⁹ These lower or external goods are said to be from the Lord's Divine Natural and Divine Sensual; yet these "are not lower in the Lord, for in Him and His Divine Human all is infinite." The meaning is simply that "those who are sensual men apprehend sensually the things which are in the Lord and from Him, and those who are natural apprehend them naturally."⁷⁰

"The Lord provides that man may be reformed and saved by those things that he adopts as his religion." By religion is meant the acknowledgment of God and the shunning of evils as sins. "For every nation the Lord provides a universal means of salvation."⁷¹ Salvation out of pure mercy apart from means is of course utterly impossible.⁷² The means are truths. And "everyone in every religion knows the evils and falsities that must be shunned," for most nations have laws similar to the Ten Commandments. "Few are wholly ignorant of God."⁷³ Such, when they first enter the other life, may appear and act almost like apes. But even these—if they have lived a moral life—can be taught by angels after death and receive something spiritual in their moral life. They are vivified by a knowledge concerning God as Divine Man.⁷⁴

Upright gentiles who have been in obedience and mutual charity from their religiosity, are in spiritual-natural good. And good recognizes truth when it is presented. These are therefore easily instructed and trained into choirs according to their religion, so far as possible.⁷⁵ If they have worshiped God under a human form they are conjoined with Christians in heaven.⁷⁶

On the other hand, the general teaching of the Writings is to the effect that the Grand Man of heaven "must be composed not of men of a single religion but of men of many religions," and that there are special heavens from each religion.⁷⁷ So, for instance, "all communication between the Christian heavens and the Mohammedan heavens and likewise the heavens of the Gentiles is taken away." Without such a provision the Christian heavens would be tormented by the unchaste spheres of polygamy and by pagan idolatries. And if the spiritual ideals of Christianity should constantly encompass Mohammedan spirits with the insinuation that polygamy is a sin, all the delights of their life would turn into misery, and none would be saved except "those who were in heavenly heat and light from the Lord."⁷⁸

But the Mohammedan heaven is described as threefold. In the lowest degree are those who are being initiated. In the second heaven are those who give up polygamy and live with one partner. In the highest heaven are those who—"as do many"—come tc acknowledge the Lord as the only God. These latter are separated into heavens that communicate with the Christian heavens, and with them there is conjugial love.⁷⁹

The infinite patience of the Lord is also shown in His gentle permission that monks and nuns are released after death from their vows of celibacy and are received in heaven, and may choose a conjugial life. But if saddened by the sphere of marriage they may choose to dwell with their like "at the sides of heaven" where they may regain a cheerful life.⁸⁰

Thus there are "many mansions" in our Father's house. And in the natural heaven the mercy of the Lord is shown. For He does not exclude from heaven those whose interior rational has not been opened and who cannot be separated from falsities which are not born of their own evils, but which seem to them to contain something good. Good gentiles who have been ignorant of any doctrine, have formed no principles contrary to the truths of faith, and therefore they can receive instruction more easily than adult Christians raised in a consummated church.⁸¹

And in every heaven there is a continual progress—a growth of spiritual life. There "all goods are immeasurably increased." The increase is "in proportion to the numbers."⁸² For "everyone communicates his own bliss and happiness to others." And "every one who comes into heaven enters the highest joy of his heart. He can bear no higher joy, for he would be suffocated by it." There can be no just complaint whether a man was born in a land where falsities of religion abounded, instead of in a celestial race; or if he died as an infant, rather than having to "bear the burden and heat of the day." There are indeed incomparable degrees and countless variations of heavenly joy even in the natural heaven, yet the lowliest angel has as much of joy as his heart can hold.⁸³

The outward life of the natural angels shows less perfection than that of higher angels. Yet it seems to be true of all angels, even those from the most ancient church, that their external customs, their dress, their houses, and their moral concepts continue to take color from their earthly environment and the age in which they had lived. Their spiritual uses also take on outward forms such as they were used to on earth.⁸⁴

The dwellings of the angels of the ultimate heaven are situated in fertile valleys between hills and mountains. The third heaven, which is upon the mountains, apparently does not appear otherwise than as thin bright clouds in the sky.⁸⁵ But when something spiritual, such as the good of charity, is talked about in a higher heaven, this truth may inflow into the first heaven "mediately and immediately," and "is received substantially," appearing as a paradise, or elsewhere as a city with palaces. It was so that the Heavenly Doctrine was presented before John on Pat-mos—descending from the third heaven as a city with golden streets.⁸⁶

Good spirits, when they see such representations as horses, lambs, or other animals or scenes similar to those seen by the prophets, "know perfectly well what they signify, and thus gather from them what the angels are conversing about."⁸⁷ This perception of the meaning of symbolic representations is an eminent faculty which man unknowingly possesses but which comes to full flower in the other life. And it shows one of the ways in which the spiritual angels can convey their thoughts in a general form adapted to the first heaven.

The Heavens "under the Moon"

In treating of spirits who are natural and even sensual, but at the same time in the faith of charity, the Apocalypse Explained informs us that while heaven is divided into two kingdoms, and also into three heavens, yet "there is a further distinction—between those who receive light, that is, intelligence, from the Lord as a Sun, and those who receive the light of intelligence from the Lord as a Moon. Those who receive the light of intelligence from the Lord as a Sun are those with whom the intellectual and its rational have been opened, and who have consequently thought rationally about what should be believed from a spiritual affection of truth; while those who receive light from the Lord as a Moon are those in whom the intellectual and interior rational have not been opened, but only the natural, and who in consequence have thought from the memory about what should be believed; and to think about this from the memory is to think only from such things as have been heard from a teacher or preacher .... If such in the world were also in the faith of charity they are in the heavens under the Lord as a Moon. . . . There is the further difference that those who are under the Lord as a Moon can see nothing in the light that those have who are under the Lord as a Sun, for the reason that their light is not genuine light, but a reflected light, which can receive falsities as well as truths if only there seems to be good in the falsities. . . . All those in the heavens under the Lord as a Moon are natural and sensual. . . .

"Their affection of knowing truth and doing good is, like they themselves, natural, and thus partakes more or less from the glory of being learned and from a reputation that looks to honors and gain as rewards—differing in this from a spiritual affection of knowing truth and doing good ....

"There are three heavens that are under the Lord as a Moon . . . and yet all who are in these heavens are natural. . . . For the natural like the spiritual is divided into three degrees; the exterior natural communicates with the world, the interior with heaven, and the middle conjoins. . . . They cannot enter into the heavens that are under the Lord as a Sun, because their interior sight or understanding has been formed to receive the lunar light, not the solar light. . . . But those who are natural and are not in the faith of charity are in the hells below these heavens . . ."⁸⁸

Every division of man's interiors has a distinct light of its own.⁸⁹Because man's natural mind here on earth becomes immersed in corporeal and shameful things, it comes to view all things in the fatuous light of nature and self. A man cannot be brought out of this valley of shadow unless he is withdrawn, "at least to some small extent," from sensual things, and brought into an interior natural lumen from which he can better judge about the use and quality and cause of sensuous things. "If he is able to think still more interiorly," he may then come into a spiritual-natural light which is partly from the light of heaven within natural light.⁹⁰

The light that is adapted for those in the first heaven, and also in the world of spirits, appears much like the diurnal light in our world, and is called "spiritual-natural" light. The intelligence and wisdom of man or angel depends on the light in which he views all things. "In the spiritual world, where all are spiritual even in respect to their bodies, each one's eyes are formed to see from their own light." Since the understanding is an internal sight, everything intellectual requires spiritual light, and it follows that without it no man can have thought, reflection, attention, rational analysis, judgment, or choice.⁹¹

"The Lord is everywhere present with light, even in the hells; otherwise there would be no faculty of thinking and thence of speaking." The devils see each other, necessarily. But their light is comparatively as from a fire of coals—and is meant in the Word by "the shadow of death."⁹²