9606. 'On the edge of the one curtain at the end in the joining-place' means of one sphere to the other, that is to say, the joining together of the two. This is clear from the meaning of 'the edge of the curtain at the end in the joining-place' as the place where one ends and the other begins, thus the boundary where the two come together. The reason why a sphere is what is meant is that in heaven spheres come together; for there are spheres that go out from each angelic community in heaven, and from each angel in a community. These spheres from each one emanate from the life of their affections for truth and good; and they spread a long way out. This explains why the character of spirits and angels is recognizable when they are a long way off. Those spheres are what bind angels and angelic communities together and they are also what split them apart; for similar spheres, that is, similar affections for truth and good, come together, and dissimilar ones move apart. But see what has been shown already about those spheres in 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1520, 1695, 2401, 2489, 4464, 5179, 6206 (end), 6598-6613, 7454, 8630, 8794, 8797, 9490-9492, 9498, 9534. Whether you say the angels and angelic communities, or the truth and good, from which the spheres emanate it amounts to the same thing, for the spheres are emanations from affections for truth and good, by virtue of which the angels are angels from the Lord. It should be recognized that to the extent that these spheres originate in the Lord they come together, but to the extent that they originate in the self of an angel they move apart. From this it is evident that the Lord alone brings them together.

1317. That 'this they have started to do' means that they are now starting to become different becomes clear from the train of thought. 'Having started to do' here means their thought or intention, and therefore their end in view, as is clear also from the statement that comes next -'and now they will not be held back from anything which they have thought of doing'. The reason why in the internal sense end in view is meant is that the Lord regards nothing else in man but the end he has in view. Whatever his thoughts and deeds may be, varying in countless ways, they are all good provided the end in view is good. But if the end is bad everything is bad. The end in view controls every single thing a person thinks or does. The angels present with man, being the Lord's, control nothing of the man except his ends. In controlling these they also control his thoughts and deeds, since all of these are determined by the end. A person's end in view is his very life. Everything he thinks and does receives its life from the end, for, as has been stated, it is determined by the end. As is a person's end in view therefore, so is the life within him. His end is nothing else than his love, for nobody can have as his end in view anything other than that which he loves. Even someone who thinks one thing but does another has that which he loves as his end. The presence, or the deceit, holds within itself that end, which is self-love or love of the world, and the resulting delight of his life. From these considerations anyone may deduce that a person's life is such as his love is. These then are the ideas meant by 'having started to do'.