268. (Verse 3) And he that sat was in aspect like a jasper and a sardius. That this signifies the appearance of the Lord as to Divine truth translucent from the Divine good of the Divine love is evident from the signification of one sitting upon the throne, as being the Lord as to the Last Judgment, which was treated of just above (n. 267); and from the signification of in aspect like, as being appearance; also from the signification of a jasper stone, as being the spiritual love of truth, of which we shall treat in what follows; and from the signification of a sardine stone, as being the celestial love of good, thus by a jasper and a sardius, to which the Lord appeared like, is signified Divine truth translucent from the Divine good of the Divine love.

[2] That a jasper signifies the Divine love of truth, or Divine truth proceeding is evident from those passages in the Word where it is mentioned, as in Exodus 28:20, and in Ezekiel 28:13; also in the Apocalypse:

"The light" of the holy Jerusalem "was like unto a stone most precious, like to a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (21:11.).

By the light of the holy Jerusalem is signified the Divine truth of the church shining, and by the light truth itself shining, by Jerusalem the church as to doctrine; this is likened to a jasper stone, because jasper has a similar signification. And in another place:

"The building of the wall" of the holy Jerusalem "was of jasper, and the city was pure gold like unto pure glass" (21:18).

The wall of the holy Jerusalem is said to be of jasper, because by wall is signified Divine truth defending; and on account of this signification of wall, the first stone of its foundation is said to be jasper (verse 19), foundation signifying the truth upon which the church is founded.

[3] The sardius is also mentioned, because by that stone is signified good, here Divine good, because it is said of the Lord. It is this stone which is called pyropus; and since it shines as it were from fire, by both is signified the translucence of truth from good. (That all precious stones signify the truths of heaven and of the church derived from good, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 114, 9863, 9865, 9868, 9873. This is why in the breast-plate of Aaron, which is called the Urim and Thummim, were set twelve precious stones, and by them responses were given, and this by their shining forth, and at the same time by perception of the thing inquired about, or by a living voice.)

684. THE COMMUNITIES THAT CONSTITUTE HEAVEN

There are three heavens, the first where good spirits are, the second where angelic spirits are, and the third where angels are. One heaven is interior to and purer than the next, which means that they are entirely distinct and separate from one another. The first heaven divides into countless communities, as do the second and the third, and each community consists of many individuals who, because of the harmony and unanimity that exist among them, in effect constitute one person. At the same time, all the communities in effect constitute one human being. Communities differ in nature from one another according to the way their mutual love and faith in the Lord varies. These differences are so countless that it is not possible to count up even the most general kinds of them. Even the smallest of differences fits into the perfectly ordered arrangement of the whole, and so contributes in perfect unanimity to a general unity, as does the general unity to the unanimity among individuals. Each individual therefore contributes to the happiness of all, and all to that of each individual. Consequently every angel and every community is an image of the whole of heaven and is so to speak heaven in miniature.