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.

9577. 'Which you were given to see on the mountain' means which were seen in heaven with the eyes of the spirit. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing', when it has reference to representatives in heaven, as seeing with the eyes of the spirit, dealt with below; and from the meaning of Mount Sinai as heaven, dealt with in 8805, 9420. The fact that 'seeing', when it has reference to representatives which make their appearance in heaven, means seeing with the eyes of the spirit may be recognized from the consideration that angelic spirits, who inhabit the lowest or first heaven, constantly see patterns or forms of things similar to such objects as exist in the world. They see for instance parks, trees there with fruit on them, flowers, and young plants, also houses and palaces, as well as very many kinds of living creatures, in addition to countless other things that have not been seen in the world. All those sights are representatives of heavenly realities that exist in higher heavens. These realities there manifest themselves in such a form or pattern before the eyes of the spirits below, in order that from it an angelic spirit may be able to know about and gain an insight into particular realities that come to exist in higher heavens; for all things, even the most specific, are representative and carry a spiritual meaning. All this makes clear what should be understood by a representative of heaven and heavenly realities, which are meant by the ark, cherubs, dwelling-place, tables there, and lampstand.

[2] Such sights cannot be seen with the human eye in the world, for the eye has been formed to take in earthly and bodily shapes, thus material objects. The eye therefore is so imperfect that with its vision it cannot even take in the secrets of the natural order, as magnifying glasses go to prove, since it must be supplied with these if it is to see merely the least hidden secrets of the natural order. In short, the eyes are extremely dim, and being like this they cannot possibly see the representatives which make their appearance to spirits in the next life. If these are to make their appearance the inferior light of the world must be taken away from the eyes; and once it has been taken away those things that exist in the light of heaven are seen. For there is the light of heaven and there is the light of the world; the light of heaven exists for a person's spirit and the light of the world for a person's body. The situation is that those things which exist in the light of heaven are in thick darkness when a person looks at them from the light of the world, and conversely those things which exist in the light of the world are in thick darkness when a person looks at them from the light of heaven. So it is that when the light of the world is taken away from the sight of his physical eye the eyes of his spirit are opened, and those things which exist in the light of heaven, thus representative forms or patterns, are seen, as has been stated above.

[3] From all this it may recognized why it is that people at the present day are in thick darkness so far as heavenly matters are concerned. Some are in darkness so thick that they do not even believe in the existence of life after death, nor therefore that they are going to be alive for evermore. For people at the present day are immersed so much in the body, thus in bodily, earthly, and worldly concerns, and consequently in the light of the world which is so imperfect, that heavenly things are complete and utter darkness to them, and therefore the sight of their spirit cannot be enlightened. All this now shows what is meant by seeing with the eyes of the spirit, the eyes with which Moses saw the pattern of the tent on Mount Sinai.