The Writings offer a tremendous amount of material on angels. The book "Heaven and Hell" offers detailed discussions as it describes heaven; "Conjugial Love" has much to say about marriage and romantic love in heaven; "Divine Love and Wisdom" offers insight into how angels in their nature reflect the nature of the Lord. So we'll offer some basics here and recommend those books to those who want more detail.

(References: Divine Love and Wisdom 231; Divine Providence 60-67)

Basically, the Writings say that if people in this life open themselves to the Lord, follow the Lord's teachings and let the Lord change their selfish desires into generous loves, they will go to heaven as angels after they die. If they don't, and instead embrace their selfishness, they will go to hell as evil spirits. The Writings also say that this is the only source of angels and evil spirits - they were all once people. There is no separately created race of angels, no fallen angel Lucifer who is now the Devil; that belief is based solely on a few lines of misinterpreted scripture.

This makes sense if you look at it logically. If the Lord could create beings that would live in love and harmony with him with no possibility of evil, why would He have bothered with us? Why not just make more of them? The fact is, such beings would not have any choice in their actions, making them no better than animals. And ultimately, if they were purely good then they would really just be extensions of the Lord, so in loving them He would be loving Himself. The reverse is true of the idea of Satan or "the" Devil. The Lord creates us from love so that he can love us, bring us to heaven and make us happy. For Satan to exist, the Lord would have had to create him, and it would be contrary to His essence to create something that was not intended for heaven, for joy, and for union with the Lord.

So angels were once people, who got to be angels by embracing the idea of being good and followed the Lord's teachings as best they could. The Writings make it clear these people can come from anywhere, from any religious background. Some churches may have doctrine that is closer to the truth than others, but the point of any religion is for people to desire to be good and try to be good using the tools they have.

When those people die, they go first to a place called the "world of spirits." There everyone who has recently died can learn about the Lord and spiritual life and prepare for heaven. There also, people's inner affections start showing on the surface; those who are ultimately evil start losing the ability to cover it up, and the love starts shining through for those who are ultimately good. As this continues and as people learn more, they naturally start congregating with others who have similar loves. This way evil people eventually take themselves to hell, where they can be with others who share their evil. Good people, on the other hand, can be prepared for heaven.

Two important things have to happen for us to truly enter fully into heaven. First, the Lord will push aside our remaining evil desires, so they cannot hurt us or tempt us anymore; angels are in a marvelous state of peace, with no active evil to trouble them. Second, we will each be led by the Lord to the perfect married partner, the one whose soul matches ours, the one we can love blissfully to eternity. All angels are married, because the marriage of a man and a woman represents the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord, and also the marriage of the desire for good and understanding of truth in each of us. Because of this, we can only fully receive and return the Lord's love as married partners, and heaven is suffused with the sphere of marriage and the love of marriage.

The angelic couples will find their way to communities of other angels whose loves match their own, people with whom they can share the deepest friendships imaginable. They will have houses which reflect the character of their loves, and will be given work to do that springs from their loves and fills them with joy. Beyond that, their lives are much as life might be in this world, though free of sickness and aging and boredom and conflict. They have bodies that are human in form - no wings! - but a beauty in face and form that reflects the good loves they have inside. They eat and drink and laugh and sleep and have parties and games; all filled with the delight of mutual love.

The Writings tell us the work angels do is varied far beyond what we can imagine, though they only describe a few aspects. Among other things, angels care for people in this life, passing on to them true ideas and desires for good from the Lord. They also teach those in the World of Spirits, greet those who have just died, raise those who died as children, keep order in hell and do many other things.

We would finally note that there are three degrees of angelic life, based on the loves people embraced in this life. The first, lowest heaven, called the "natural heaven," is filled by those who are in the love of service. Angels there love to do what's right because they know it is right. The second, middle heaven, called the spiritual heaven, is filled by those who are in the love of the neighbor. Angels there love to engage their minds with spiritual questions to gain an ever-deeper understanding of how to be loving to one another. The third, highest heaven, known as celestial, is filled with those who are in love of the Lord Himself. From that love they have such innocence that they look like children, and they instantly perceive what is true, in all its variety, from the light of that love.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 818; Arcana Coelestia 228-233, 454, 1802, 2551, 2572 [3-4], 5470, 6872 [2-3], 8747, 9503 [1-3], 9814 [2], 10604 [2-4]; Conjugial Love 44 [6-10], 52; Divine Love and Wisdom 19, 63, 71, 115, 116, 202, Divine Love and Wisdom 321, 322, 334; Heaven and Hell 75, 133, 266, 267, 304, 311, 415)

267. The reason angels can accept so much wisdom is that their deeper levels are open, and wisdom, like any perfection, increases as one moves toward the deeper levels and as they are opened. ¹

In every angel there are three levels of life corresponding to the three heavens (see 29-40). People whose first level has been opened are in the first or most remote heaven. People whose second level has been opened are in the second or intermediate heaven. People whose third level has been opened are in the third or inmost heaven. The wisdom of angels in heaven is according to these levels; so the wisdom of angels of the third heaven vastly transcends the wisdom of angels of the intermediate heaven, and their wisdom in turn transcends that of angels of the farthest heaven (see above, 209-210, and on the nature of the levels, see 38).

The reason for these differences is that the elements of the higher levels are detailed, and those of the lower are general, the general ones being inclusive of the details. The ratio of details to generalizations is on the order of thousands or ten thousands to one, so this is the ratio between the wisdom of angels of a higher heaven and that of angels of a lower heaven.

However, the wisdom of these latter angels similarly transcends our wisdom, for we are engrossed in our bodies and their sensory operations, and these physical sensory faculties are on the lowest level of all. This fact enables us to see the nature of the wisdom of people who base their thinking on sensory information - that is, the ones we call sense-oriented people. Specifically, they have no access to wisdom, only to information. ² It is different, though, for people whose thoughts are raised above sensory matters, and even more for people whose deeper levels have been opened all the way into heaven's light.

Footnotes:

9331. And I will send the hornet before thee. That this signifies the dread felt by those who are in the falsities of evil, is evident from the signification of “hornets,” as being stinging and deadly falsities, and hence such as excite dread. “Terror” is predicated of those who are in evils; and “dread” of those who are in falsities (as regards the terror of the former, see above, n. 9327). That “hornets” signify the dread felt by those who are in falsities, is because they are winged, and furnished with stings, with which they inflict poisoned wounds. For both the larger and the smaller animals signify such things as are of the affections, that is, which bear relation to the will; or else they signify such things as are of the thoughts, that is, which bear relation to the understanding. For all things whatsoever in man bear relation either to his will or to his understanding; and those things which bear no relation either to the one or to the other are not in the man, thus are not of the man. Those animals which walk, and also those which creep, signify the affections in both senses; thus goods or evils, for these are of the affections. But those animals which fly, and also winged insects, signify such things as are of the thoughts in both senses; thus truths or falsities, for these are of the thoughts. That “animals” signify goods, or evils, see n. 9280; that “creeping things” signify the same in the external sensuous, n. 746, 909, 994; that “flying things” signify truths or falsities, n. 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 3219, 5149, 7441; consequently winged insects signify the like things, but in man’s extremes.

[2] But the falsities now treated of are of many kinds; there are falsities which do not injure, there are falsities which injure slightly, there are those which injure grievously, and there are also those which kill. Their kind is known from the evils they spring from; for every falsity that injures, or kills, springs from evil; because falsity from evil is evil appearing in a form. Moreover, in the other life, when such falsities are represented in a visible form, they appear as a swarm of insects and of unclean flying things, the appearance of which is terrible, according to the kind of evil from which they spring. From all this it is evident why “hornets” signify the dread felt by those who are in the falsities of evil. In like manner in Deuteronomy:

Jehovah thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and those hidden before thee, perish (Deuteronomy 7:20).

[3] In the Word throughout mention is made of insects of various kinds, and they everywhere signify falsities or evils in the extremes (that is, in man’s external sensuous), which are evils and falsities arising from the fallacies of the senses, and from various pleasures and appetites in the body, which seduce by their allurements and their appearances, and cause the rational to assent, and thus to be immersed in falsities from evil. (That falsities of this kind are signified by the “noisome flies” of Egypt, see n. 7441; likewise by the “locusts” there, n. 7643; and that by the “frogs” of Egypt are signified reasonings from falsities, n. 7351, 7352, 7384; by the “lice” there, evils of the same kind, n. 7419; and that by “worms” are signified falsities which consume and torment, n. 8481).

[4] Such evils and falsities are also signified by insects of various kinds in the following passages.

In Isaiah:

It shall come to pass in that day that Jehovah shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall all come and rest in the river of desolations and in the clefts of the rocks, and in all shrubs (Isaiah 7:18-19).

The subject here treated of is the coming of the Lord, and the state of the church at that time. “The fly in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt” denotes falsity in the extremes, that is, in man’s external sensuous (n. 7441); “the bee in the land of Assyria” denotes the falsity which perverts the reasonings of the mind, for “Assyria” denotes reasoning (n. 1186); “the river of desolations” denotes falsity reigning everywhere; “the clefts of the rock” denote the truths of faith in obscurity, because removed from the light of heaven (see n. 8581); the “shrubs” denote nascent truths of a similar kind (n. 2682).

[5] In Amos:

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew; your many gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees, hath the caterpillar devoured (Amos 4:9).

That which the caterpillar hath left shall the locust eat; and that which the locust hath left shall the cankerworm eat; and that which the cankerworm hath left shall the bruchus eat. Awake, ye drunkards; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the must which is cut off from your mouth (Joel 1:4-5).

The floors are full of clean grain, the presses overflow with must and oil. And I will compensate to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the bruchus, and the caterpillar, My great army which I have sent among you (Joel 2:24-25).

That falsities and evils in the extremes-that is, in the external sensuous of the man of the church-are signified by the kinds of insects here mentioned, is evident from these various expressions, for the subject treated of is the perversion of the truth and good of the church. (What is signified by the “locust” and the “bruchus,” see n. 7643 and that by “gardens,” “vineyards,” “fig-trees,” “olive-trees,” “wine,” and “must,” which are destroyed by such insects, are signified the goods and truths of the church in general, has often been shown in these explications.)

[6] In David:

He made frogs to creep forth in their land, in the chambers of their kings. He said that there should come filthy swarms, lice in all their border (Psalms 105:30-31);

speaking of Egypt (what is meant by the “frogs” there, see n. 7351, 7352, 7384; and what by the “lice,” n. 7419).

In Moses:

Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but thou shalt not drink the wine, nor gather, for the worm shall eat it (Deuteronomy 28:39);

“the worm” denotes all such falsity and evil in general.

[7] In Isaiah:

Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye dismayed at their revilings; for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the blatta shall eat them like wool (Isaiah 51:7-8);

“the moth” denotes the falsities in man’s extremes; and “the blatta,” the evils therein; for “the garment which the moth shall eat” signifies the lower or more external truths which belong to the sensuous of man (see n. 2576, 5248, 6377, 6918, 9158, 9212), and “the wool which the blatta shall eat” signifies the lower or more external goods which belong to the sensuous of man, as is evident from many passages, and also from the signification of “a sheep,” from which wool comes, as being the good of charity (see n. 4169). (What, and of what quality, are the extremes of the natural man, which are called his sensuous things, see n. 4009, 5077, 5081, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310-6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7645, 7693, 9212, 9216)