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.