In the attempt to picture what the life of heaven might be like, Christians have gone to various extremes. Some have thought that heaven was to be a material paradise planted on earth after this had been purged and renovated by the fire of the last judgment—an abundant paradise in which the elect of God without labor were to enjoy the utmost luxuries after their spirits had been reincarnated in their earthly bodies. Others, rejecting such gross concepts of eternal happiness, have imagined that the souls of the blessed, after death (and possibly to eternity), would remain as unembodied minds in a perpetual state of ecstasy. Both these ideas sprang from an inability to see that the spirit of man after death remains a man, in a spiritual body, having heart and lungs and brain and senses, and thus a complete human life in a complete and permanent spiritual world.¹

The life of heaven is a complete human life, and the blessedness of the angels comes from a love of uses, from a delight in cooperating with other spirits in acts of charity and mutual service.

In its organization and life, an angelic society therefore resembles a human community, and all the angels are engaged in employments and offices much as on earth. In appearance these occupations seem to differ from ours only in their greater perfection. "In heaven every one is in his own occupation (opere) according to correspondence, and the correspondence is not with his occupation but with the use of each occupation . . ."² It is obvious that many occupations could serve no useful purpose in the eternal world. But each man has a use to perform to the spirits of other men, and he may perform this use on earth through services which directly regard only the welfare of the material body and which therefore are not needed in the heavens. There he finds occupations which really correspond to his interior use and express it. And, it is said, "he who in heaven is in a function or work corresponding to his use, is in an altogether similar state as when he was in the world; for the spiritual and the natural act as one through correspondences, with this difference, however, that he is in a more inward joy, because in spiritual life, which is an interior life and therefore more receptive of heavenly blessedness."³

Although offices and manual occupations in the other world thus resemble ours in appearance, we are warned that they are all spiritual, and so utterly different that they cannot be described in the words of human language, except as to external form. Angelic uses cannot be understood except by spiritual ideas which in some measure can fall into the interior rational sight when a man withdraws his mind from ideas of quantities and instead thinks of qualities.⁴

With this in mind, let us note that all the societies of heaven are distinguished by their uses, functions, or goods of charity. Some of the angels mentioned by name in the Word, like Michael and Gabriel, were actually angelic societies who appeared to the open vision of men in a personification, or through a "subject spirit." Michael appeared before Daniel as the champion of Israel against the forces of the world, and to John at Patmos as the defender of the faith in the Lord and the protector of the New Church against the dragon of "faith alone." Gabriel appeared to Daniel several times and later to Zecharias the father of John the Baptist, and to Mary the virgin of Nazareth and probably also to the shepherds at Bethlehem—and always in connection with the prophecy or announcement of the advent or birth of the Lord. And to manifest that Gabriel was an entire spiritual society, it is told that the shepherds first were addressed by the angel and that then "suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host."

But about the general uses of angelic societies we are instructed that "some societies are employed in taking care of little children; others in teaching and educating them while they are growing up; others similarly instruct and educate boys and girls who are of a good disposition from their education in the world, and thence have come into heaven." There are also societies that "teach the simple good from the Christian world and guide them in the way to heaven," while others teach and lead various gentiles. Some societies have as their use to defend newly arrived spirits from infestations by the evil, while other societies attend spirits who are confined in the "lower earth." Some angelic societies attend spirits in the hells and keep them from tormenting each other beyond prescribed limits. Certain societies serve to attend the spirits that are being raised from the dead.⁵

All heavenly societies also send guardian angels to watch over men and ward off the influx of evil affections and thoughts, inspiring them instead, so far as they will receive, with good affections by which men's deeds might be motivated.⁶ While in this office the angels are not aware of the man with whom they are. They mostly act through subject-spirits.⁷ Their use does not involve any personal intercourse with man, for they perceive only the interior affections and thoughts of those with whom they are, and they feel these as their own. Hence they must separate themselves whenever there is an interior disagreement. Yet when serving as guardian angels they do in no case recede altogether from the man,⁸ for if they should intermit their care for a single instant, man would be plunged into irretrievable evils.⁹ They observe what the evil spirits with man are intending and so far as man suffers it they bend what is evil into good.¹⁰ Thus they dissipate influxes of new and alien evils. With those in temptation, the angels instil strength to resist. When with man they assume his interior memory—a thing not permitted to evil spirits.¹¹

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A few of the employments of angels can be described in human terms, because men also have uses that are spiritual in essence and purpose—such as the use of teaching and the priestly use. The guardianship of human souls, the government of spirits, the mothering of infant souls, and the preparation of children and newcomers for heaven are clearly spiritual functions. We can also see the propriety of angels assisting in the process of resurrection, and—as is sometimes the case—of serving as media of Divine revelation. But the objection might occur that such uses could be performed by a small number and need not require all the untold and ever increasing hosts of heaven. We might indeed be reminded of the teaching that the Lord acts mediately through heaven "not because He needs their aid, but that the angels there may have functions and offices and consequently a life and a happiness in accordance with their offices and uses."¹²

Yet it is apparent from the doctrine that the angels which perform such uses as have been described, are the subjects or emissaries into which are concentrated the love, interest, attention and enlightenment of entire societies, which thus, as a whole, are occupied in these tasks. For this reason we doubt that heaven will ever be threatened by any unemployment problems. And it is equally true that those who die in the Lord henceforth shall "rest from their labors" even though their works and real uses follow them.

The satisfaction in a use lies, after all, not in the strenuousness or ardor of the work we do (for that rather engenders an unhealthy martyr complex or a proprial pride), but in the feeling that one is actually cooperating in perfecting a good work; not hindering, but as it were aiding, in the accomplishment of the Lord's Divine purposes. And even on earth, a use is not the result of any one individual's enterprise or effort. Behind a task well done there stand organized societies whose representative he is who performs it. A use such as that of the Church is "backed" by numerous persons of varying talents who have an extension of thought into widely different fields of knowledge, intelligence, and use. Their contribution to the spiritual use is not always manifestly spiritual or even intellectual. The essential support they give is that of affection and active interest and love of the use, and thence of thought and labor and wealth; and all this combines to form a background and basis for the spiritual use. Here below, differently from in the heavens, the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. But here, as in the heavens, however many may cooperate in the work, and however few be the souls that are ready to be instructed, the task of bending our efforts towards the common use will bring with it an unending satisfaction to all.

Each man's affection, though directed towards a common use, takes a unique and singular form. Man regenerates through the special uses, forensic and domestic, which he has assumed as the calling or occupation of his life, and through these uses he expresses that "good of charity" which he receives from the Lord.

We are often thrust into our varied occupations by circumstances or necessities, rather than by choice. And sometimes we pause to ask ourselves, what all these routine tasks of earthly life are meant for. No one denies that people must be fed and clothed and housed and provided with such recreation, rest, healing, and enjoyment as bodily life requires. No one seriously questions that the mental life also must be provided for, through instruction and study and social contacts, and the culture of the arts and sciences by which the rational mind can be perfected. And the New Church man knows that the highest group of uses looks to the end that men might receive what is spiritual from the Lord; which necessitates a knowledge of God and eternal life, acquired from parents and teachers and books, the same as other knowledge, and especially from the Word and doctrinal instruction.¹³

But all these uses entail many routine tasks. And because of the dominant loves of self and of worldly possessions and corporeal delights, mankind has forgotten the end for which man should labor. External uses and the tools of living have become so complex and absorbing and obsessive that they have become ends instead of means, and they leave scant room for that life of charity, felicity, contentment and peace of mind which they were intended to secure for mankind: a state when the needs of the body will be sufficiently filled so that they do not disturb or worry the mind; and when the mind will be sufficiently informed so that it can be an intelligent servant of the spirit!

Surely, on reflection, we would admit that the work of our hands and brains, the uses of human society, the material products of its factories and fields, look to nothing else than the states of men's minds and spirits. For apart from these they are meaningless and stupid. The real use a man performs, whether in the machine shop or the farm or the trading mart, the office or the study, is his contribution to the potential happiness of his fellow men and his community, through the fidelity, sincerity, justice, and zeal which he puts into his special function or calling.

Sometimes men have performed "more excellent uses" from a natural affection and a selfish ambition "than those do who are in the spiritual affection of use."¹⁴ Yet only so far as one acts from a spiritual affection can his work yield a spiritual use which looks to the spiritual happiness of others. Secular uses, having in view the temporal good of the bodies of other men and through this the health and contentment of their rational minds, may thus embody a spiritual use. This is the reason why there are, in the societies of heaven, a profusion of different occupations, of far greater variety than on earth, which at first glance might appear merely secular.

Even with us, the quality of a man's intentions and personal attitudes sometimes seems to shine out in his natural accomplishments or works. But in the other life the inner quality of a spirit is as easily recognized in the sphere of his life and works as the natural excellence of a man's work is discerned here by his fellow-men.

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A chapter in Heaven and Hell (387-394) is devoted to show the employments of the angels. But why should there be any need of employments in heaven? Do not the Writings teach that "everything the angels have need of is given them?" "The houses in which the angels dwell are not erected, as houses are in the world, but are given them gratuitously by the Lord, to every one in accordance with his reception of good and truth."¹⁵ Their garments they receive as gifts, and sometimes they are clothed with them unknowingly, according to their changing states.¹⁶ Their food and drink, in all variety, is "from a spiritual origin, and therefore is not prepared but is given daily" — a table appearing laden with food when there is need, and disappearing when the meal is over. Like the manna of Israel the food cannot be stored up for another day.¹⁷ Moreover, all are fed according to the uses they perform. In short, "everything they have need of is given them.""

What then do the angels do? Can it be that "they sow not, neither do they spin?" Are there no builders in heaven? no tailors? And will our wives get along without cooking or washing dishes? or sewing garments?

In a certain sense, civilization has long had this objective—to reduce the drudgery of those tasks that once were all performed in the home; when each family had to raise its crops and mill its grain and fish and hunt and pick and preserve and brew, and milk its herd and weave its cloth and build its house; and in addition protect itself against wild beasts and marauders. Since the time of the Last Judgment, life has strangely changed in many lands. Each person still has an appointed use — a specialized use. Nothing comes by magic, and generally nothing is given gratis. But by a peculiar system of exchange, and through various inventions, men can live almost unconscious of how their houses were built and heated or their clothes made or their food prepared. The food does not appear on the table (except for those who have servants), but the housewife can find it all ready in the market or kitchen! There is a police department to protect us against robbers. We are blissfully unconscious of the myriads of specialists who continually labor to keep the arteries of commerce throbbing and the hidden mechanism of industry running smoothly. We do not see or know who raised the fruit we eat or who mined the coal we burn or ultimately furnished the credit for our business. Each of us has a special use in the commonwealth and because of that small contribution we are freely benefiting from the uses of all the restl

The uses of heaven make up a Grand Man—an organic whole. And this may remind us that in the human body we are consciously aware of only a small superficial fringe of all the processes that go on to keep us well and able to perform the work we do during our hours of wakefulness. Our conscious life is in fact resting on the interrelations of only a few billion tiny pinpoints—the cortical cells of the cerebrum. By virtue of these, we can seemingly control certain surface muscles and also the tongue. But even this is by the help of involuntary nerves and muscles which govern all the rest of our body without our will or effort. We swallow food, but the digestion goes on without our having anything to do about it. The heart pumps, the blood and lymph circulate, the body cells grow and divide, the germ cells form,—all without our even being aware of it: unless we do something disorderly and we overstrain the patience of nature. It is the soul— the Lord the Creator acting through the soul and then through all the tissues-thai provides as free gifts food and protection and form and substance for each part of the body.¹⁹ Yet each organ and each single cell has its own function and contributes its peculiar use to the whole, while unconscious of the uses of the rest. Each cell receives its necessities gratis, by influx from the soul through other groups of tissues.

The Lord is the Soul or life of the Grand Man of heaven. All uses that are real uses are done by Him, although the angels cooperate in a few things. This should not necessarily imply that there are societies of cooks in heaven, who supply the rest; or a building department which works in secret; or spirits whose use it is to prepare garments. For the teaching is succinct: "The necessary things of life that are bestowed by the Lord gratuitously and that exist in a moment, are food, clothing, and habitation, and these correspond throughout to the use in which the angel is."²⁰ And the same applies to things that are not exactly necessary, but useful and delightful, things that embellish the home, the dress, or the table and give beauty proportionate to the angel's use and splendor commensurate with his affection. And it applies also to "things enjoyable" which are provided for the social life of the angelic partners and their friends. These things are not procured for one's self as in the world, but are provided in a moment.²¹ They are gifts provided, when occasion calls for them, not by prudence, or labor, but by the Lord. They are spiritual-spiritual uses, the very products and forms which spontaneously express spiritual states of friendship, and love, and spiritual hospitality.

Yet unless angels had something to do with the mediation of these gifts of life, they would have no reciprocal part in either the uses or the happiness of heaven. The Lord acts not only immediately from Himself, but also mediately through heaven. He acts through angels—"not because He needs their aid, but in order that the angels may have functions and offices and consequently life and happiness . . ." For happiness is impossible for human beings except through uses in which they appear to act from themselves but have a perception that it is from the Lord.²² The Writings compare the Lord's immediate giving of what angels need to the way the soul provides what is necessary, useful, and enjoyable to every part of the human body. Whatever is needed by any part is drawn from the common good— the blood stream and the vital fluids—through the neighboring tissues. And each part thus contributes something new and shares of its own with the rest. It is by opening and directing the paths of influx from one heaven to another that the Lord provides for angelic needs, so that each heaven may contribute to the needs of the other.²³

This is illustrated by the manner in which the conversation among angels of a higher heaven may cause the angels of a lower heaven to receive the truths broached, not in their abstract form, but "substantially," in the form of a paradise or a palace which is livingly before their sight; and there may be a constant succession of such changing correspondences, or concrete forms of truth.²⁴These are indeed instantaneous spiritual creations by the Lord. Yet they are mediated by the higher angels and presented in forms taken from the lower heaven and thus adapted for reception. It must be the same with food and clothing and with the homes of the angels, which correspond to their more constant states.

Angels have both minds and bodies. They have interiors and exteriors, although both are spiritual. The teaching has been cited that "exterior spiritual things are so created by the Lord as to clothe or invest interior spiritual things."²⁵ But the exterior spiritual things, or the correspondential creations, have a twofold use. Thus the plants in heaven have the external spiritual use of refreshing and stimulating the minds of the angels, while their internal spiritual use is to represent Divine things and cause an elevation of the mind. Those who on earth were skilled in botanical science might "come after death into a knowledge of spiritual uses from the plants in the spiritual world, and cultivate that knowledge with greatest delight."²⁸ It is also told that those who in the world loved their country and its common good more than themselves and have studied the laws of justice, are able to perform similar uses in heaven.²⁷ And those come into the function of preaching and administering ecclesiastical affairs, who on earth had loved the Word and sought for truths from the love of the uses of life, not only for themselves but for others.²⁸

By uses, the angels understand uses and good works of ministry, administration, and employment, with priests and magistrates as well as with merchants and workmen. Good works which are not connected with their occupation they do not call uses, but alms, benefactions, and favors.²⁹

Since the Lord provides the necessities of life, the angelic employments are not inspired by any love of gain for the sake of a living, but by a love of use. When we read in the Writings that there are "negotiations and derivative wealth" in heaven—which implies banking business—and that there are rich merchants there, we must not think of these uses as mere hobbies, nor confuse those uses with the cruder practices which we meet with in the world.³⁰The love of trading is spiritual when for the common good, even though man's personal good is also considered; and it corresponds to the acquisition and communication of knowledge. Those who have love and wisdom more than others, have more dignities and possessions in heaven than others.³¹

The desire for money and gain has of course no place in heaven.³² One who has placed his heart in riches and dignities finds himself after death "like an actor in royal robes when the play is over."³³ And he would be told that "in heaven ... there is no trading, for there is no gold or silver, nor any such things as are traded with in the world."³⁴

Yet it is related that there are coins of gold and silver in the other life also. Whether used for trading or not, they are sometimes given to young people as tokens of diligence and virtue.³⁵

Nothing exists in heaven which is not spiritually significant. Yet angels look at these things with different eyes: the splendor does not blind them, the paradises do not delight them, but the representatives, which aid them to think distinctly of celestial and spiritual things.³⁸

Angels have homes where they live with their eternal partner. There are servants and masters, and domestic duties which are also at times discussed among them.³⁷ Women there as here like to make embroideries and other handwork to present to their friends.³⁸ Artisans fashion objects of beauty, but "in a spiritual manner and with a spiritual significance."³⁹ Scribes make copies of the original writings of the wise, and also copies of the angelic Word. Literary sports are held in some societies. And there are libraries in many societies, carefully divided according to the various sciences.⁴⁰ One specific society seems to be the central reference library of our planet. In it we would find the archives of human literature since the days before "Enoch," and the corre-spondential writings of the Ancients. Swedenborg found vast numbers of scholars studying there; the most ancient sages were in the inmost rooms, where none but they could stand the brilliance of the light. The library was divided into departments, and reading rooms arranged according to the perceptive faculty of the students. Other students throughout the heavens have communication with the scholars of this great society, so as to be instructed in all doubtful matters.⁴¹

Some newcomers were amazed at finding such a library in an angelic society, and exclaimed, "Are there also books in this world? Whence are the parchments and the paper? Whence the pens and the ink?" An elder of the city replied, "We perceive that in the former world you believed that this world was empty, because spiritual! And that you believed this because you entertained an idea of the spiritual as abstract from the material and to you what is abstract from the material appeared as nothing and thus empty, when in truth here is the fulness of all things. All things here are substantial, not material; and material things derive their origin from the substantial. We who are here are spiritual men because substantial and not material. Hence it is that all things which are in the natural world are here in their perfection, even books and writings and many more things."⁴²

The uses of the angels would be futile gestures if the substance of heaven were a mere illusion! And would it not be strange if, in the world of human minds, whence flowed the thoughts now imprisoned in human literature, there were no imperishable record of them in their fullness and completion?

Angelic Marriages and Spiritual Offspring

No uses are more fundamental among angels as well as among men than the uses which converge in marriage. Marriages are spiritual in origin, and therefore holy. In a true marriage we can reach the summit of human happiness, the tenderest depths of love. It might therefore seem strange that—while poets sing their conviction that even death cannot break the bonds of love, yet Christian tradition teaches that angels and the spirits of the departed are sexless beings—neither male nor female. The reason for this ignorance is found in the fact that the minds of men were so sensual that they could not conceive of a pure marriage relation, and that the Lord when on earth therefore withheld the precious truth concerning marriages in heaven. This was among the interior truths to which He referred when He said, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."

When the Lord said that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God,"⁴³He sought to lift the minds of the scoffing Sadducees and His other hearers from an impure concept of marriage. On the other hand, the New Testament often likens the kingdom of heaven to a marriage—the spiritual meaning of which is a conjunction of good and truth or of will and understanding. Such spiritual nuptials must be initiated in each man's life while he is still on earth.⁴⁴

The Writings show that men after death are male and female not only as to soul and mind, but also as to every detail of their bodies, which are also purely spiritual. Thus conjugial partners in heaven can be conjoined even as to bodies.⁴⁵ The marriage of good and truth by which man becomes an image and likeness of God, reaches its full completion only in "the marriage of two minds and two bodies."⁴⁶ They are conjoined not only by their mutual offices, and their community of thoughts and affections and uses to others, but by the cohabitation of marriage with its ultimate delights—which surpass human conception, and are necessary ultimates even for angels.⁴⁷ Angelic pairs in the third heaven, we are told, "pass the night in each other's bosoms as they were created into a one;" and die wife receives the virile semination of the husband. By this appropriation of the forces of his manhood the wife becomes more and more a wife; and by the sphere of her love the partners are conjoined more and more deeply to all eternity, so that while they may be called two when considered as husband and wife, they are "one angel."⁴⁸ Each has the feeling of being in the other "as though united even in the flesh, although they are separate beings."⁴⁹ Those who are in truly conjugial love, in heaven "return to their early manhood and to youth—to the flower and joys of the age when conjugial love begins to exalt the life with new delights . . ."⁵⁰ Women who have died old and worn out with age, if they had lived in faith and charity and in a happy conjugial love with a husband, advance with passing years into the flower of youth and attain a beauty beyond earthly conception.⁵¹ The beauty of an angelic couple from the Golden Age is described by our seer in a narrative from heaven.⁵² It is also said:

"In general, married partners [in heaven] have an interior comeliness of face, the man taking from his wife the charming glow of her love, and the wife from the man the lustre of his wisdom. For there, two partners are united as to their souls, and a human fullness is apparent in each. This is in heaven; for nowhere else are there marriages. Below heaven there are only connubial ties which are made and broken."⁵³

Lest we imagine that love truly conjugial is so self-centered that it outlaws a chaste love of the sex, we are instructed that the interior spiritual friendship between men and women surpasses the love of man for man or of woman for woman. An angelic husband sees other women through the eyes of his wife.⁵⁴

The marriage love of the angels is frequently described in the Writings, especially in the work on Conjugial Love, to which we refer the reader for a fuller picture.⁵⁵

But one aspect of heavenly marriages must here be noted. For on earth, the purpose or end of marriage is the procreation of new individual human beings. The first command of God when He created man and "made them male and female" was, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." But the marriage of a love truly conjugial survives when our days on earth are over. Already in middle age, the period of procreation has usually passed; yet conjugial love has not ceased. Old age can mean a lovely companionship of souls and minds, and love can increase even after the care of children has no longer a place in our life, and after external charm and natural usefulness have diminished. Although the procreation of the race is the first end of marriage those who are spiritual in their marriage look to union as a further end, and "in that union to spiritual rest and its pleasantness."⁵⁶

From this union of minds in angelic marriages there are born spiritual offspring; yet "children are not born, but instead of children, goods and truths, and thus wisdom . . ,"⁵⁷ Conjunctions there are conjunctions of minds. For in heaven the wisdom with the husband "feels nothing more delightful than to propagate its own truths, and the love of wisdom with wives feels nothing more pleasing than to receive them as though in a womb, and thus to conceive, carry in the womb, and bring forth."⁵⁸ And such spiritual prolifications are also the origin of natural prolifications with men. For from the universal sphere of generating and propagation which — from the Lord — fills both worlds, the souls of both angels and men are "in a perpetual effort to fructification and to the production of its own likeness."⁵⁹

The love of such spiritual offspring with angel partners is one with their desire to become internal similitudes—to be one with the other in spirit. And each "offspring" of their union is like a new child of their mind — a new state of innocence — a new receptacle which displays new aspects of life and receives life from the Lord in a new individual way. And there is in angelic storge nothing selfish or self-centered.⁶⁰ For every new state of enlightenment thus born is turned into uses toward society and—unconsciously—toward the human race.

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The life of heaven is far from a state of dreamy abstractions. The joys of heaven have nothing in common with an idle, undetermined life without objectives. This would be deadly to the soul. If the angels were in absolute perfection and equal purity, there might of course be no need for them to extend to each other mutual help through uses and occupations. Besides, if all in heaven were directly inspired and led of God, there would be no need for governments and subordinations and for judges and graded courts of justice such as actually exist there. Here again we leave an angel to explain:

"In this world we are instructed and learn what is good and true, and what is just and fair, in like manner as in the natural world; and we learn it, not immediately from God, but mediately through others; and every angel, like every man, thinks truth and does good as if from himself, and this—according to the state of the angel—is mixed and not pure.

"There are also among the angels the simple and the wise; and the wise must judge when the simple from simplicity and ignorance are in doubt about what is just or swerve from it. . ."⁶¹

For angels are still men. And though good reigns universally from their intentions or ends, they may even at times do "something of evil in external form."⁶² Hence there are not only courts of justice, but teachers and preachers. As we have seen, even with the celestial angels, who have truths of judgment written on their hearts, the truths of justice which have to do with life do come into question, and on such matters of enlightenment the less wise consult the wise, and these the Lord.⁶³

Since only the natural mind can be vitiated by hereditary and acquired evils, it might be thought that angels are altogether pure and holy, without any faults. But all angels possess a natural mind which cannot be put off. It remains; yet it is so reduced into submission and "correspondence" with the interior minds that the natural seems as if absent or as transparent. The angels are constantly being perfected by the Lord, and He uses various means to induce this correspondence. But "such is man, such is a spirit, such is an angel," that not to eternity can the Lord effect a correspondence, except in a few most general things. It is by these few things that He keeps them in an angelic life.⁶⁴