860. Whose number is as the sand of the sea. This symbolizes the multitude of such people.

The multitude of such people is likened to the sand of the sea, because the sea symbolizes the external component of the church (nos. 402-404, 470), and the sand is something which serves no use in the sea except to compose the bottom.

Because the number of such people is so great, therefore the valley of their burial is called "The Multitude of Gog," and the name of the city where they are, "The Multitude" (Ezekiel 39:15-16).

141. THE FOUR QUARTERS IN HEAVEN.

Both in heaven and in the world there are four quarters, east, south, west, and north, determined in each world by its own sun; in heaven by the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, in the world by the sun of the world. And yet there are great differences between them. In the first place, in the world that is called the south where the sun is in its greatest altitude above the earth, north where it is in its opposite position beneath the earth, east where it rises at an equinox, and west where it then sets. Thus in the world it is from the south that all the quarters are determined. But in heaven that is called the east where the Lord is seen as a sun, opposite to this is the west, at the right is the south in heaven, and at the left the north; and this in whatever direction the face and the body are turned. Thus in heaven it is from the east that all the quarters are determined. That is called the east [oriens] where the Lord is seen as a sun, because all origin [origo] of life is from Him as a sun; moreover, so far as angels receive heat and light or love and intelligence from the Lord He is said to arise [exoriri] upon them. For the same reason the Lord is called the East [Oriens] in the Word. ¹

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