2763. These considerations now show where the representatives in the Word and the things in it which carry a spiritual meaning have their origin, namely in the representatives that manifest themselves in the next life. It was from the same source that representatives came to members of the Most Ancient Church, who were celestial and who while living on earth were at the same time in the company of spirits and angels. From these people those representatives passed to their descendants, and at length to those who did not know anything about them apart from the mere fact that such things were meant by them. But because those representatives had come down from most ancient times and were included in their Divine worship, they were venerated and treated as holy.

[2] In addition to representatives there are also correspondences, which denote and also mean something altogether different in the spiritual world from what they do in the natural world. The heart, for example, means the affection for good; the eyes, the understanding; the ears, obedience; the hand, power; and there are countless other correspondences besides these. These things are not represented in this manner in the world of spirits but correspond in the way something natural corresponds to something spiritual. This explains why every word within the Word, down to the smallest letter of all, embodies spiritual and celestial matters, and why the Word is inspired in the way it is, that is to say, so inspired that when man is reading it, spirits and angels immediately perceive it spiritually according to the representations and correspondences.

[3] But this knowledge which was developed so extensively and valued so highly by the ancients after the Flood, and which enabled them to think with spirits and angels, has today been completely wiped out, insomuch that scarcely anybody is willing to believe that it exists. And those who believe that it does exist merely refer to it as something mystical which has no practical value, the reason being that mankind has become utterly worldly- and bodily-minded to the point of finding the very mention of what is spiritual and celestial repugnant, and sometimes loathsome, even nauseating. How then will they react in the next life which lasts for ever, where not that which is worldly and bodily but solely that which is spiritual and celestial constitutes life in heaven?