329. We can tell what a useful function is from the goal of the creation of the universe. The goal of the creation of the universe is to bring about an angelic heaven; and since an angelic heaven is the goal, so is humanity or the human race, since that is where heaven comes from. It follows, then, that everything that has been created is an intermediate goal, and that the functions are useful in the sequence, on the level, and in the specific way that they relate to humanity, and through humanity to the Lord.
Divine Love and Wisdom #300
300. We showed in nos. 173-183 above that the spiritual world has atmospheres in it just as the natural world does in it, and we said that the atmospheres of the spiritual world are spiritual, while the atmospheres of the natural world are natural. Now, from the origin of the spiritual atmosphere immediately surrounding the spiritual sun, it can be seen that everything in that atmosphere is in its essence of the same nature as the sun in its essence.
The reality of this is something angels with their spiritual ideas, which are independent of space, have declared, saying that there is one single substance from which springs all else, and that the sun of the spiritual world is that substance. Moreover, because the Divine does not exist in space, and in the greatest and least of things is the same, the like is the case, they have said, with that sun which is the first emanation of the human God. They have also said further that this one single substance, which is their sun, emanating by means of the atmospheres in conformity with continuous degrees or degrees of breadth and at the same time in conformity with discrete degrees or degrees of height, produces the varieties of all that exists in the created universe.
Angels have said that these matters cannot be at all comprehended unless one removes notions of space from his ideas, and that if these notions are not removed, it is inevitable that appearances give rise to misconceptions. Such misconceptions cannot occur, however, as long as one holds to the thought that God is being itself, from which springs all else.
