402. Verse 13. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, signifies that the knowledges of good and truth perished. This is evident from the signification of "stars" as being the knowledges of good and truth (See above, n. 72); also from the signification of "falling unto the earth," as being to perish; for when stars fall to the earth they perish. The same is signified by:

The stars shall fall from heaven (Matthew 24:29; and Mark 13:25).

Anyone can see that "stars" here do not mean stars, for these cannot fall from heaven, for they are fixed or established in their place, and cannot fall to the earth, because they are larger than the earth; consequently by them are signified such things as belong to heavenly light, and give light, which are the knowledges of good and truth. Moreover, stars appear in the angelic heaven, but they are appearances from the knowledges of good and truth, therefore they appear about those who are in such knowledges, especially when they turn them over in the mind, and are desirous of knowing them.

123. Since the Lord does appear in heaven as a sun because of the divine love that is in him and from him, all the people there constantly turn toward him. The inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom turn toward him as the sun, while the inhabitants of the spiritual kingdom turn toward him as the moon. In contrast, the inhabitants of hell turn toward the darkness and dimness that are on the opposite side, and therefore turn away from the Lord. This is because all the people who are in the hells are caught up in love for themselves and the world and are therefore opposed to the Lord. The ones who turn toward the darkness that stands for our world's sun are at the back of the hells and are called "demons," while the ones who turn toward the dimness that stands for our moon are in the front of hell and are called "spirits." This is why people in the hells are described as being in darkness and people in the heavens as being in light. "Darkness" means falsity arising from evil, and "light" means truth arising from good.

The reason people turn in this way is that in the other life we all look toward what rules in our deeper natures - toward our own loves, then; and these deeper natures form the faces of angels and spirits. Further, in a spiritual world the cardinal points are not fixed the way they are in a natural world. Instead, they are determined by the way people face.

We ourselves, in spirit, are also turning in the same fashion - away from the Lord if we are caught up in self-love and love of the world, and toward him if we are in a love for him and for our neighbor. We are unaware of this, though, because we are in a natural world where the cardinal points are determined by the sun's rising and setting. Since it is hard for people to grasp this, examples will be given below where we deal with the cardinal points and with space and time in heaven.