4803. A matter wholly unknown in the world and worthy of mention is this: The states in which good spirits and angels live undergo constant change and perfection. In this way they are conveyed to the more internal parts of the province in which they dwell, and so into more excellent functions. For in heaven purification takes place constantly, which is so to speak a new creation. Yet the situation is that no angel to all eternity can possibly attain complete perfection. The Lord alone is the perfect One, He being the root and the source of all perfection. Those who correspond to the mouth constantly wish to be speaking, for speaking gives them utmost pleasure. While undergoing perfection they are restricted to speaking nothing but that which is beneficial to companions, the community, heaven, and the Lord. The delight they take in speaking in that way grows in the measure that the desire to regard themselves in what they speak and to strive after wisdom from what is properly their own passes away from them.

377. I am about to discuss the correspondence of the heart and the lungs with volition and discernment. Upon this rests the correspondence of everything in the body, called the members of the body as a whole, the sensory organs, and the body's viscera. Further, the correspondence of physical things with spiritual ones has not been recognized even though it was fully demonstrated in two works, one of which is Heaven and Hell and the other of which is on the spiritual meaning of the Word in Genesis and Exodus, titled Secrets of Heaven. For all these reasons, I should like now to point out the sections of these two works where I have written explanations of correspondence.

In Heaven and Hell, there is material on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in us, 87-102; and on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything on earth, 103-115.

In the work on the spiritual meaning of the Word in Genesis and Exodus, titled Secrets of Heaven, there is material on the correspondence of the face and its expressions with the feelings of the mind: 1568, 2988, 2989, 3631, 4796, 4797, 4880 [4800], 5195 [5165], 5168, 5695, 9306;

on the correspondence of the body in its motions and actions with matters of discernment and volition: 2988, 3632, 4215;

on the correspondence of the senses in general: 4318-4330;

on the correspondence of the eyes and their sight: 4403-4420;

on the correspondence of the nostrils and smell: 4624-4634;

on the correspondence of the ears and hearing: 4652-4634 [4652-4659];

on the correspondence of the tongue and taste: 4791-4805;

on the correspondence of the hands, arms, legs, and feet: 4931-4953;

on the correspondence of the groin and the reproductive organs: 5050-5062;

on the correspondence of the inner viscera of the body, particularly the stomach, thymus, the cisterna, the chyle and its ducts and the mesentery: 5171-5180, 5189 [5181];

on the correspondence of the spleen: 9698;

on the correspondence of the peritoneum, kidneys, and bladder: 5377-5396 [5377-5391];

on the correspondence of the liver and the ducts of the liver, of the bladder, and of the pancreas: 5183-5185;

on the correspondence of the intestines: 5392-5395, 5379;

on the correspondence of the bones: 5560-5564;

on the correspondence of the skin: 5552-5573;

on the correspondence of heaven with a person: 911, 1900, 1982 [2162], 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3745, 3884, 4091 [4041], 4279 [4280], 4423 [4323], 4524, 4525, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632;

on the fact that everything in the physical world and its three kingdoms corresponds to something you can see in the spiritual world: 1632, 1881, 2758, 2890-2893 [2990-2993], 2897-3043 [2987-3003], 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649, 4044, 4053, 4156, 4366 [4936], 4939, 5116, 5377, 5428, 4477 [5477], 8211, 9280; that everything you see in heaven is a correspondence: 1521, 1532, 1619-1625, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 3213-3226, 3348, 3350, 3457 [3475], 3485, 3748 [3747], 9481, 9570, 9576, 9577. The correspondence of the literal meaning of the Word with its spiritual meaning is dealt with throughout, and is also treated in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 5-26, 27-69.

8197. 'And it was cloud and darkness [for the former]' means that the falsity arising from evil on the one side was intensified; 'and it lit up the night [for the latter]' means that the truth springing from good on the other side grew brighter. This is clear from the meaning of 'cloud and darkness' as the intensification of falsity arising from evil ('cloud' means falsity, see 1043, 1047, 8137, 8138, as also does 'darkness', 1839, 1860, 4418, 4531, 7688, 7711); and from the meaning of 'lighting up the night' as the brightening of truth springing from good. 'A pillar of fire by night' means a state of dimmed truth, moderated by enlightenment from good, 8108.

[2] With regard to the pillar, that it brought darkness to the Egyptians but light among the children of Israel, the situation is that the Lord's presence, which is meant here by 'the pillar', is heavenly light itself. From this heaven derives its light, a light that is a thousand times brighter than light in the world at midday. Yet the same light turns into thick darkness among the evil, even though they may be in actual light; and it turns to even thicker darkness as the falsity arising from evil among them grows in intensity. The reason for this is that God's truth coming from the Lord appears before angels' eyes as light. But it cannot appear as light to those steeped in falsities arising from evil, only as thick darkness, since falsity is the opposite of truth and snuffs it out. This is why the pillar, which was the Lord's presence, brought cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, 'the Egyptians' meaning those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and lit up the night among the children of Israel, 'the children of Israel' meaning those guided by truth springing from good. The Lord appears to each person in a way suited to the kind of person he is, see 1861(end), 6832.