5547. There are heavens above heavens, and communication between them. Spirits and angels do not know how the case is with the communication and conjunction, except those who are in the highest heaven. There are seven degrees of these, distinguished, in general, between those who are internal and those who are external. Those who are internal are called celestial, and those who are external are called spiritual. The internal are distinguished into three, and the external into three; and, between the internal ones and the external ones is given a medium for the sake of conjunction. The ones who constitute the medium are called celestial-spiritual. Hence it is that there are seven degrees.
5548. The first degree, which is the inmost one with the internal, is the Lord's
alone, and may be said to be the very dwelling-place of the Lord in heaven; for
what is there transacted the angel does not know, but yet he is ruled by the
Lord through it. The second degree with the internal, is one which comes to
their perception indeed, like the internal of man does to that of his external.
The third degree is the one in which these angels live, and where they have
their perception: their human is there, and their soul in the second degree;
just as man thinks in his natural and sensual, and not in the internal
intellectual. Thus those in that heaven possess an external like all spirits;
but it is quiescent with them, and they do not know that they have it: thus, it
is quiescent like a man's external when he is asleep. But, still, that external
is filled with their internals. Through it occurs the communication with those
who are in externals, or in the spiritual world, by means of the
celestial-spiritual.
5549. The angels who are in the
spiritual heaven, are not in internals but in externals. That external also is
tripartite, namely, into internal, middle and external. The external, which
approaches towards the external sensual in the world, is quiescent In the middle
degree, they live, as to thought and observation. The internal is like a soul to
them. They indeed have the internal which is above, but it is shut up. The
communication [of the Lord] with these occurs through the celestial-spiritual
heaven, across the celestial. Hence it is that spiritual angels are in the
internal of the natural.
5550. From these things it is plain that there are three degrees of heavens, or of angels in the heavens. The same number of degrees, also, are given with men the world who are angels; but, then, they do not know what is transacting in the internals. After death these are opened.
5551. These degrees are altogether distinct for each other; but I doubt whether
the learned of the world can take this in, for the reason that, for the most
part, they have the idea, about externals and internals with man, of continuity
from gross to subtle, without any other distinction.
5552. Man, or the human race, is the ultimate, and what heaven closes in; for
the reason that man has heaven in himself and corresponds to it. His sensual
which stands forth in the world, is the ultimate itself, and therefore, also,
the foundation upon which heaven rests, like a house upon its foundation - for
there is a connection of all things, from firsts to lasts: also, man's sensual
is comparatively fixed. What sort of fixity it is, can only be known by this,
that all things which are on earth, are also in the heavens, but there they are
not fixed; still however, there is the appearance as of fixity. Many things may
be enumerated, as houses, fields, gardens, carriages, animals. It is hence
plain, that, when man lives in the world, he acquires to himself a plane of
fixity, and that this, therefore, cannot be changed; whence it is that man
remains to eternity of the quality he has been in the world. He has this plane
with him, but it is entirely passive. Still, his interiors close in it. Except
he has this correspondence with internals in him, it cannot be well with him. It
is well with him, also, to the extent to which this correspondence prevails. But
he must have his interiors good: if the interiors are evil then he comes into
hell.
5553. In order, therefore, that the Divine might rule all things, both in the heavens and on the earths, from Itself; which happens through all things, through firsts and at the same time through lasts - to this end, the Lord came into the world and put on the human, and rose with the human even to the ultimates, as also He taught the disciples; for thus He was able in the world to subjugate the hells, and, so, afterwards, to rule the heavens and earths, and no otherwise; for, at that time, man had entirely withdrawn from the heavens into [his] ultimates; so that, then, the foundation began to perish.
