709. And upon her head a crown of twelve stars.- That this signifies the wisdom and intelligence of those of that church through doctrinals and the knowledges of all things of truth and good from the Word, is evident from the signification of the head, as denoting wisdom and intelligence (concerning which see above, n. 553, 577), here of those who are of that church which is signified by the woman encompassed with the sun, and the moon under her feet; from the signification of a crown, as also denoting wisdom and intelligence (concerning which also see above, n. 126, 218, 272); from the signification of stars, as denoting doctrinals and knowledges of truth and good from the Word (see n. 72, 402, 535); and from the signification of twelve, as denoting all things, and as being said of truths and goods (see n. 430). It is therefore evident that the crown of twelve stars upon the head of the woman signifies the wisdom and intelligence through doctrinals and the knowledges of all things pertaining to truth and good from the Word of those who are of that church. This is said of the woman after she was described as encompassed with the sun and the moon under her feet, because the sun signifies celestial and spiritual love, and the moon, the faith of charity, and from these all wisdom and intelligence flow forth. For from the Lord as the Sun proceed heat and light, and heat is the good of love, and light is truth from that good, and these two constitute wisdom and intelligence with angels and men, for the good of love enters their will, and the truth from that good enters their understanding, and wisdom resides in the will and understanding together.

87. There Is a Correspondence of Everything in Heaven with Everything in the Human Being

People today do not know what "correspondence" is. There are many reasons for this ignorance, the primary one being that we have moved away from heaven because of our love for ourselves and for the world. You see, people who love themselves and the world above all focus on nothing but earthly matters because these provide gratification to their more outward senses and pleasure to their moods. They do not attend to spiritual matters because these offer gratification to their deeper senses and pleasure to their minds. So they set such matters aside, saying that they are too lofty to think about.

The early people behaved differently. For them, knowledge about correspondences was the pearl of all knowledge. By means of it, they gained intelligence and wisdom, and by means of it those who were of the church had a communication with heaven. Knowledge about correspondences is in fact angelic knowledge.

The earliest ones, who were heavenly people, did their thinking from correspondence like angels, so they could even talk with angels. Further, the Lord was quite often visible to them, and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has been so completely lost that people do not know what correspondence is. ¹

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