The Swedenborg Library Vol 2/Chapter 5
V.
THREE DISTINCT HEAVENS.
HERE are three heavens quite distinct from each other; the inmost or third, the middle or second, and the ultimate or first. They follow in order and are mutually related like the highest part of man, which is called the head; his middle, which is the body; and the lowest, which is the feet; and like the highest, middle and lowest stories of a house. The Divine which proceeds and descends from the Lord is also in similar order. Therefore, from the necessity of order, heaven is threefold.
The interiors of man which belong to his rational and natural mind, are also in similar order. He has an inmost, a middle and an ultimate. For when man was created all things of divine order were collated into him, so that he was made divine order in form, and thence a heaven in miniature. For this reason also he communicates with the heavens as to his interiors, and comes among the angels after death; among those of the inmost, middle or lowest heaven, according to his reception of divine good and truth from the Lord during his life in the world.
It is to be carefully noted that the interiors of the angels are what determine their situation in one or the other of these heavens; for the more their interiors are open to the Lord, the more interior is the heaven in which they dwell. There are three degrees of the interiors with every one, whether angel, spirit or man. They with whom the third degree is open, are in the inmost heaven; they with whom the second degree is open, are in the middle heaven; and they with whom only the first degree is open, are in the lowest heaven.
The interiors are opened by the reception of divine good and divine truth. They who are affected with divine truths, and admit them immediately into the life, that is, into the will and thence into act, are in the inmost or third heaven, and are situated in that heaven according to their reception of good from the affection of truth. But they who do not admit them immediately into the will, but into the memory and thence into the understanding, and from that will and do them, are in the middle or second heaven. While they who live a moral life, and believe in a Divine Being, and care but little about being instructed, are in the lowest or first heaven. Hence it may be manifest that the states of the interiors make heaven, and that heaven is within every one and not without him; as the Lord also teaches where he says, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke xvii. 20, 21.
All perfection also increases toward the interiors and decreases toward the exteriors; because interior things are nearer the Divine, and in themselves purer; but exterior things are more remote from the Divine, and in themselves grosser. Angelic perfection consists in intelligence, wisdom, love and every good, and thence in happiness; but not in happiness without the former; for without them happiness is external and not internal. Since the interiors of the angels of the inmost heaven are open to the third degree, therefore their perfection immensely surpasses that of the angels of the middle heaven, whose interiors are open to the second degree. In like manner the perfection of the angels of the middle heaven surpasses that of the angels of the ultimate heaven.
In consequence of this difference, an angel of one heaven cannot enter in among the angels of another. In other words, one cannot ascend from an inferior heaven, nor descend from a superior one. Whoever ascends from an inferior heaven is seized with painful anxiety; nor can he see those who are there, still less converse with them. And whoever descends from a superior heaven, is deprived of his wisdom, stammers in his speech, and is filled with despair.
Some angels of the ultimate heaven, who had not yet been taught that heaven depends on the state of the interiors, believed that they should come into superior heavenly happiness if they could only come into a heaven of superior angels. They were therefore permitted to enter. But when there they saw no one however they searched, although a great multitude were present; for the interiors of the strangers were not opened in the same degree as the interiors of the angels who lived there; hence neither was their sight. Shortly after they were seized with such intense anguish that they scarcely knew whether they were alive or not. Therefore they quickly returned to the heaven whence they came, glad to come among their own, and promising that they would no more covet higher things than were in agreement with their life. I have also seen some let down from a superior heaven, and so entirely deprived of their wisdom as not to know what their own heaven was.
It is otherwise when the Lord, as frequently happens, elevates angels from an inferior to a superior heaven, that they may see its glory. In such cases they are first prepared and encompassed with intermediate angels, through whom communication is effected. It is evident from these things that the three heavens are most distinct from each other.
Those, however, who belong to the same heaven can hold intercourse with every one there; but the delights of their intercourse are according to their affinities for good.
Although the heavens are so distinct that the angels of one heaven cannot associate with those of another, still the Lord conjoins all of them by immediate and mediate influx; by immediate influx from Himself into all the heavens, and by mediate influx from one heaven into another; and thus He accomplishes his purpose, that the three heavens may be one, that all may be in connection from First to last, and that nothing be unconnected. Whatever is not connected by intermediates with The First, cannot subsist, but is dissipated and becomes nothing.
DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS DEGREES.
He who is unacquainted with the nature of divine order as to degrees, cannot comprehend in what manner the heavens are distinct, nor even what is meant by the internal and external man. Most people have no other idea concerning things interior and exterior, or concerning things superior and inferior, than as of something continuous, or cohering by continuity from purer to grosser: whereas things interior and exterior are not continuous with respect to each other, but discrete.
Degrees are of two kinds; namely, degrees continuous and degrees not continuous. Degrees continuous are as the degrees of the waning light from flame even to its extinction; or as the degrees of the waning sight, from things which are in light to those which are in shade; or as the degrees of the purity of the atmosphere from its lowest to its highest parts. Distances determine these degrees. Whereas degrees not continuous but discrete are distinguished like prior and posterior, like cause and effect, and like what produces and what is produced.
The careful inquirer will discover that in all created things whatsoever, and in every part of them, there are such degrees of production and composition; namely, that from one thing proceeds another, and from that a third, and so on.
Whoever fails to comprehend these degrees cannot possibly understand the distinctions of the heavens, and the distinctions of the interior and exterior faculties of man; nor the distinction between the spiritual world and the natural world; nor the distinction between the spirit of man and his body; and consequently he cannot understand what and whence correspondences and representations are, not what influx is. Sensual men do not comprehend these distinctions, for they make increments and decrements, even according to these degrees, continuous. Hence they are unable to conceive of what is spiritual otherwise than as a purer natural. Therefore they also stand without, and far removed from intelligence.
THE DWELLING-PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH.
Lastly, I am permitted to relate a certain arcanum concerning the angels of the three heavens, which has never before entered the mind of any one, because no one has hitherto understood the subject of degrees.
The arcanum is this: that with every angel and also with every man there is an inmost or supreme degree, or an inmost or supreme something, into which the Divine of the Lord first or proximately flows, and from which it arranges the other interior things which succeed according to the degrees of order with the angel or man.
This inmost or supreme degree may be called the Lord's entrance to angels and men, and His veriest dwelling-place in them. By virtue of this supreme or inmost, man is man, and is distinguished from brute animals; for these do not possess it. Hence it is that man, different from animals, can, as to all the interiors of his rational and natural mind, be elevated by the Lord to Himself, can believe in Him, be affected with love toward Him and thus see Him; and that he can receive intelligence and wisdom, and converse in a rational manner. It is for this reason also that he lives forever. But what is disposed and provided by the Lord in this inmost degree does not come manifestly to the perception of any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom.
These are general truths concerning the three heavens; but in what follows we shall speak of each heaven specifically. (H. H., n. 29-40.)
