9606. Upon the edge of the one curtain at the extremity in the joining. That this signifies the conjunction of one sphere with the other, is evident from the signification of “the edge of a curtain at the extremity in the joining,” as being where one ceases and the other begins, and thus the common boundary where the two are joined together. That the sphere is what is signified is because in heaven spheres conjoin. For there are spheres which proceed from each angelic society in heaven, and from each angel in a society. These spheres, with everyone, exhale from the life of the affections of truth and of good, and are thence diffused to a distance. From this it is that the quality of spirits and of angels is known at a distance. Angels and angelic societies are conjoined, and are also disjoined, in accordance with these spheres; for similar spheres, that is, similar affections of truth and good, conjoin; and dissimilar spheres disjoin. (But see what has been already shown concerning these spheres in n. 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1520, 1695, 2401, 2489, 4464, 5179, 6206, 6598-6613, 7454, 8630, 8794, 8797, 9490-9492, 9498, 9534.) Whether you say angels and angelic societies, from which the spheres proceed, or truth and good, it is the same; for the spheres are from the affections of truth and good, by virtue of which angels are angels from the Lord. Be it known that insofar as these spheres derive anything from the Lord, so far they conjoin; but insofar as they derive it from the angel’s own, so far they disjoin. From this it is evident that the Lord alone conjoins.

8630. As the inhabitants of the earth Jupiter acquire intelligence by another way than do the inhabitants of our earth, and besides are from their life of a different disposition, they cannot be together; but if they approach they either shun or repel them. There are spheres that are to be called spiritual spheres, which continually emanate, nay, pour forth from every society. These spheres are from the activity of the affections and of the derivative thoughts, thus they are of the life itself (concerning spheres, see n. 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504, 1505, 1507, 1508, 1510-1519, 2401, 4464, 5179, 6206, 7454, 6598-6613, 8063).

[2] All the consociations in the other life are effected in accordance with the spheres; those which agree together are conjoined according to their agreement; those which do not agree are repelled according to their disagreement. Every province in the Grand Man (to which some member or organ in the human body corresponds), has its own sphere distinct from the sphere of any other province; hence the mutual conjunction of those who belong to the same province; and the disjunction of those who belong to some other. The spirits and angels who are from the earth Jupiter bear relation in the Grand Man to the IMAGINATIVE OF THOUGHT, and thus to an active state of the interior parts. But the spirits of our earth bear relation to the various functions of the exterior parts of the body, into which, when they desire to rule, the Imaginative of Thought cannot flow; hence the oppositions between the spheres.