3612. Flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran. That this signifies to the affection of external or corporeal good, is evident from the representation of Laban, as being the affection of good in the natural man (see n. 3129, 3130, 3160); and from the signification of “Haran,” as being what is external and thence relatively obscure (see n. 1430); but what is here properly signified by “Laban” and “Haran” may be seen from what follows, where mention is made of Laban and Haran, namely, that it is the collateral good of a common stock; for goods and truths have a conjunction among themselves like that of parents, brethren, kinsmen, and relations, in families (see n. 685, 917, 2508, 2524, 2556, 2739). But these things are altogether hidden from the man who is not in the life of good, and who does not even know what good is, and thus not what truth is; if he first knew these, that is, if he did so from doctrine conjoined with life, or from life conjoined with doctrine, he would then know and perceive innumerable things concerning good and truth, and this successively more and more distinctly, and afterwards their mutual and correlative conjunctions with each other, and at last their proximities in their series, and in each proximity again things innumerable; thus lastly heaven in its form, that is, in its beauty and happiness.

685. There are wonderful consociations in the other life which may be compared to relationships on earth: that is to say, they recognize one another as parents, children, brothers, and relations by blood and by marriage, the love being according to such varieties of relationship. These varieties are endless, and the communicable perceptions are so exquisite that they cannot be described. The relationships have no reference at all to the circumstance that those who are there had been parents, children, or kindred by blood and marriage on earth; and they have no respect to person, no matter what anyone may have been. Thus they have no regard to dignities, nor to wealth, nor to any such matters, but solely to varieties of mutual love and of faith, the faculty for the reception of which they had received from the Lord while they had lived in the world.