The Writings offer a tremendous amount of material on angels. The book "Heaven and Hell" offers detailed discussions as it describes heaven; "Conjugial Love" has much to say about marriage and romantic love in heaven; "Divine Love and Wisdom" offers insight into how angels in their nature reflect the nature of the Lord. So we'll offer some basics here and recommend those books to those who want more detail.

(References: Divine Love and Wisdom 231; Divine Providence 60-67)

Basically, the Writings say that if people in this life open themselves to the Lord, follow the Lord's teachings and let the Lord change their selfish desires into generous loves, they will go to heaven as angels after they die. If they don't, and instead embrace their selfishness, they will go to hell as evil spirits. The Writings also say that this is the only source of angels and evil spirits - they were all once people. There is no separately created race of angels, no fallen angel Lucifer who is now the Devil; that belief is based solely on a few lines of misinterpreted scripture.

This makes sense if you look at it logically. If the Lord could create beings that would live in love and harmony with him with no possibility of evil, why would He have bothered with us? Why not just make more of them? The fact is, such beings would not have any choice in their actions, making them no better than animals. And ultimately, if they were purely good then they would really just be extensions of the Lord, so in loving them He would be loving Himself. The reverse is true of the idea of Satan or "the" Devil. The Lord creates us from love so that he can love us, bring us to heaven and make us happy. For Satan to exist, the Lord would have had to create him, and it would be contrary to His essence to create something that was not intended for heaven, for joy, and for union with the Lord.

So angels were once people, who got to be angels by embracing the idea of being good and followed the Lord's teachings as best they could. The Writings make it clear these people can come from anywhere, from any religious background. Some churches may have doctrine that is closer to the truth than others, but the point of any religion is for people to desire to be good and try to be good using the tools they have.

When those people die, they go first to a place called the "world of spirits." There everyone who has recently died can learn about the Lord and spiritual life and prepare for heaven. There also, people's inner affections start showing on the surface; those who are ultimately evil start losing the ability to cover it up, and the love starts shining through for those who are ultimately good. As this continues and as people learn more, they naturally start congregating with others who have similar loves. This way evil people eventually take themselves to hell, where they can be with others who share their evil. Good people, on the other hand, can be prepared for heaven.

Two important things have to happen for us to truly enter fully into heaven. First, the Lord will push aside our remaining evil desires, so they cannot hurt us or tempt us anymore; angels are in a marvelous state of peace, with no active evil to trouble them. Second, we will each be led by the Lord to the perfect married partner, the one whose soul matches ours, the one we can love blissfully to eternity. All angels are married, because the marriage of a man and a woman represents the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord, and also the marriage of the desire for good and understanding of truth in each of us. Because of this, we can only fully receive and return the Lord's love as married partners, and heaven is suffused with the sphere of marriage and the love of marriage.

The angelic couples will find their way to communities of other angels whose loves match their own, people with whom they can share the deepest friendships imaginable. They will have houses which reflect the character of their loves, and will be given work to do that springs from their loves and fills them with joy. Beyond that, their lives are much as life might be in this world, though free of sickness and aging and boredom and conflict. They have bodies that are human in form - no wings! - but a beauty in face and form that reflects the good loves they have inside. They eat and drink and laugh and sleep and have parties and games; all filled with the delight of mutual love.

The Writings tell us the work angels do is varied far beyond what we can imagine, though they only describe a few aspects. Among other things, angels care for people in this life, passing on to them true ideas and desires for good from the Lord. They also teach those in the World of Spirits, greet those who have just died, raise those who died as children, keep order in hell and do many other things.

We would finally note that there are three degrees of angelic life, based on the loves people embraced in this life. The first, lowest heaven, called the "natural heaven," is filled by those who are in the love of service. Angels there love to do what's right because they know it is right. The second, middle heaven, called the spiritual heaven, is filled by those who are in the love of the neighbor. Angels there love to engage their minds with spiritual questions to gain an ever-deeper understanding of how to be loving to one another. The third, highest heaven, known as celestial, is filled with those who are in love of the Lord Himself. From that love they have such innocence that they look like children, and they instantly perceive what is true, in all its variety, from the light of that love.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 818; Arcana Coelestia 228-233, 454, 1802, 2551, 2572 [3-4], 5470, 6872 [2-3], 8747, 9503 [1-3], 9814 [2], 10604 [2-4]; Conjugial Love 44 [6-10], 52; Divine Love and Wisdom 19, 63, 71, 115, 116, 202, Divine Love and Wisdom 321, 322, 334; Heaven and Hell 75, 133, 266, 267, 304, 311, 415)

115. Still, there is no understanding how the Lord is in an angel and an angel is in the Lord except through knowing what kind of union is involved. It is a union of the Lord with the angel and of the angel with the Lord, so it is a reciprocal union. On the angel's side, it is like this. Angels, like us, simply feel as though they participate in love and wisdom on their own, and therefore that love and wisdom are theirs, their very own. If they did not feel this way there would be no union, so the Lord would not be in them, nor they in the Lord. It cannot happen that the Lord is in any angels or people unless they, as subjects of his presence in love and wisdom, sense and feel this as their own. This enables them not only to accept but also to retain what they have accepted, and to love in response. This, then, is how angels become wise and remain wise. Can people decide to love God and their neighbor, can people decide to gain wisdom, unless they feel and sense that what they love, learn, and gain is their own? Can they retain anything in themselves otherwise? If it were not for this, then the inflowing love and wisdom would have no seat. They would flow right through without making any difference; and as a result angels would not be angels and people would not be human. They would be virtually lifeless.

It makes sense, then, that if there is to be union, there must be reciprocity.

9836. 'Two shoulders joined together shall it have at its two ends, and it shall be joined together' means an everlasting preservation of good and truth on every side by all exertion and power through a total uniting together. This is clear from the meaning of 'shoulders' as all the force and power, dealt with in 1085, 4931-4937, though the expressions 'placing on the shoulders' and 'carrying on them', used below in reference to the two shoham stones on which the names of the sons of Israel were engraved, mean an everlasting preservation of good and truth (for all forms of good and truths in their entirety are meant by 'the names of the sons of Israel', a subject dealt with further on); from the meaning of 'joined together' as a total uniting; and from the meaning of 'the two ends', or to the right and to the left, as on every side, dealt with in 8613.

[2] The implications of all this are that the ephod, as has been shown above, represented the outermost part of the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Thus the shoulder-pieces, on which the two shoham stones with the names of the sons of Israel had been placed, represented the everlasting preservation of good and truth; and the joining together of the ephod on the shoulders, and also in front of the breast and behind the back, represented a total uniting. This helps to make clear what is meant by the details stated further on regarding the shoulder-pieces and the engravings on them, namely the everlasting preservation of the good and truth present by all exertion and power, thus the preservation of the heavens. The stones with the names of the sons of Israel had been placed on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, which represented the outermost part of the spiritual kingdom, because all preservation is dependent on the condition of what exists on last and lowest levels. For everything within terminates and forms a base for itself there on which to rest and remain in existence. Things on last and lowest levels resemble the soles and the upper parts of the feet on which the entire body stands; they are also like the hands and arms through which the body exercises its powers. Furthermore the strength of the body is concentrated there. This also explains why the hands and arms, the soles and feet too, correspond to the last and lowest parts of heaven. The fact that power and might reside in things which are last and lowest was represented in the Ancient Church by Nazirites and the hair on their head, in which their might resided, as is evident from Samson in Judges 14-16, and also their holiness, 3301. Regarding the hair, which on those men's heads was their Naziriteship, that it corresponds to the lowest levels of good and truth, or good and truth on lowest levels, see 3301, 5247, 6437.

[3] The residing of power in last and lowest things, and also the preservation in these of more internal ones in their proper condition, are matters which may be understood by people who know what the situation is with things in the natural order which follow one another in sequence and consequently exist together with one another. Things which follow in sequence finally come together on the last and lowest level, where they exist side-by-side in the same order. This being so, the things existing together with one another, which are last and lowest, serve those following one another in sequence, which are prior and higher, as corresponding supports on which they rest and are thereby preserved.

[4] 'The shoulders' means all the force and power exerted in offering resistance, breaking, or impelling. This is clear in Ezekiel,

You push with side and shoulder, and butt with your horns all the weak sheep, until you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:21.

In the same prophet,

Egypt has been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of you by the hand, you were broken, and you tore open their whole shoulder. ¹ Ezekiel 29:6-7.

'Tearing open the whole shoulder' stands for depriving of all the power to grasp truths, 'Egypt' being the perverted factual knowledge which causes such deprivation.

[5] In Zechariah,

They refused to listen, and turned ² a stubborn shoulder. Zechariah 7:11.

'Turning a stubborn shoulder' stands for offering resistance. In David,

They thought a wicked deed, [but] they did not prevail; for You will set a shoulder against them. Psalms 21:11-12.

'Setting a shoulder against them' too stands for offering resistance, and so stands for power. The fact that 'shoulder' means power is evident from representatives in the next life, where those who offer resistance are seen setting an opposing shoulder.

[6] Placing onto the shoulders and carrying on them means preserving everlastingly in a state of good and truth through all exertion and power. This is clear in Isaiah,

The nations will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulder. Isaiah 49:22.

This refers to a new Church. 'Sons' means truths, and 'daughters' forms of good; and 'carrying on the shoulder' stands for preserving them. The preservation of good in its proper condition was also represented by the action of the children of Israel, who carried their dough on their shoulder when they were going out of Egypt, Exodus 12:34; and by that of the sons of Kohath, who carried holy things ³ on their shoulder, Numbers 7:9. This explains why the Lord, who spoke by means of correspondences, said that when the lost sheep was found the owner placed it on his shoulder, rejoicing, Luke 15:5. 'The sheep that was lost and found' is good as it resides with someone who comes to his senses.

[7] Since 'carrying on the shoulder' had this meaning it is also said of those who love and preserve gold and silver that they carry them on their shoulder, Isaiah 46:7. Carrying also means holding something in its proper state or condition, see 9500. All this shows what was meant by the engraving of the names of the sons of Israel on the two shoham stones and the placement of them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, and by the injunction that 'Aaron shall bear (or carry) them on his two shoulders for a remembrance', verse 12. 'Carrying on the shoulder', when it has reference to subjection, means servitude, see Genesis 49:15; Psalms 81:6; Isaiah 9:4; 10:27; Matthew 23:4; Zephaniah 3:9. But when it has reference to dominion it means supreme power, Isaiah 9:6; 22:22.

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