Heaven is Divided into Two Kingdoms (20-28)

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20. As in heaven there are infinite varieties and no society is exactly like another nor even one angel like another, heaven is divided in a general, in a specific, and in a particular manner. In general, it is divided into two kingdoms; specifically, into three heavens; and in particular, into innumerable societies. These several divisions shall now be treated of. The general divisions are called kingdoms, because heaven is called the kingdom of God.

21. Some angels receive the Divine Sphere proceeding from the Lord more, and others less inwardly. They who receive it more inwardly are called celestial angels, and they who receive it less inwardly are called spiritual angels. Hence it is that heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one of which is called the Celestial Kingdom and the other the Spiritual Kingdom.

22. The angels who constitute the celestial kingdom, because they receive the Divine Sphere of the Lord more inwardly, are called interior and also higher angels; and consequently the heavens which they constitute are called interior or higher heavens. They are called higher and lower, because these terms are equivalent to interior and exterior.

23. The love of those who are in the celestial kingdom is called celestial love; and the love of those who are in the spiritual kingdom is called spiritual love. Celestial love is love to the Lord, and spiritual love is charity to the neighbour. And as all good has relation to love, (for what any one loves he deems good) the good also of one kingdom is called celestial, and the good of the other spiritual. It is, therefore, evident how these two kingdoms are distinguished from each other, namely, in the same way as the good flowing from love to the Lord and the good flowing from charity to the neighbour; and since the former is interior good and the love of the Lord is interior love, therefore the celestial angels are called interior or higher angels.

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24. The celestial kingdom is also calledl the priestly kingdom of the Lord, and in the Word His “habitation”; and the spiritual kingdom is called His royal kingdom, and in the Word His “throne.” The Lord was called Jesus in the world to denote His Divine Celestial nature, and Christ to denote His Divine Spiritual nature.

25. The angels in the Lord’s celestial kingdom far excel in wisdom and glory the angels who are in His spiritual kingdom, because they receive the Divine Sphere of the Lord more inwardly; for they dwell in love to Him and are therefore nearer and more closely conjoined to Him. They are of this character because they have received and continue to receive Divine truths immediately into their life, and not, like the spiritual, into the memory and thought first; thus they have these truths inscribed on their hearts; they perceive and, as it were, see them within themselves, nor do they ever discuss whether the truth be so or not. They are like those described in Jeremiah: “I will put my law in their mind and write it in their hearts. They shall teach no more every man in his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall al know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them”(31. 33, 34); and they are called in Isaiah, “The taught of Jehovah”(liv. 13). That “taught of Jehovah” are those who are taught by the Lord, He Himself teaches in John (6: 45, 46).

26. It was said that the celestial angels excel the others in wisdom and glory because they have received and continue to receive Divine truths immediately in their life; for as soon as they hear them, they will and act upon them, and do not store them up in the memory and afterwards consider whether they are true. Such angels know at once by the Lord’s divine influence whether what they hear is the truth; for the Lord exercises a direct influence upon man’s will and through his will an indirect influence upon his thought; or, what is the same thing, the Lord exerts a direct influence upon truth; for that is called good which has its abode in the will and thence proceeds into act, but that is called truth which has its seat in the memory and is thence made an object of thought. All truth indeed is transformed into good and implanted in love as soon as it enters the will; but so long as truth is in the memory and thence in the thought, it does possession; for man is man by virtue of his will and of his understanding as thence derived, and not by virtue of his understanding separated from his will.

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27. As there is such a difference between the angels of the celestial kingdom and those of the spiritual kingdom, they neither dwell together nor associate with one another. They are able to communicate only through intermediate angelic societies, called celestial-spiritual, and through them the celestial kingdom influences the spiritual. Hence it is that though heaven is divided into two kingdoms, it still makes one, for the Lord always provides such intermediate angels through whom they communicate and are united with each other.

28. Since much will be said hereafter concerning the angels of both these kingdoms, further particulars are here omitted.