143. Nowadays it may seem strange that 'beasts' and 'animals' in ancient times meant affections and similar things residing with man. But because people had heavenly ideas then, and because such things are also represented in the world of spirits by animals - by such animals in fact as resemble those affections - this alone is what they therefore understood when they spoke in this fashion. And this alone is what is meant in the Word whenever beasts are mentioned in general or in particular. The whole prophetical section of the Word is full of things such as these, and therefore anyone who does not know the particular meaning of any beast cannot possibly understand what the Word contains in the internal sense. But as slated already, there are two kinds of beasts - evil ones, because they are harmful, and good ones, because they are harmless. Good beasts, such as sheep, lambs, and doves, mean good affections. Here, because the subject is the celestial man, or the celestial-spiritual man, the same applies. The fact that 'beasts' in general means affections has been confirmed from several places in the Word quoted already in 45, 46. So there is no need of further confirmation.

6313. When a person is raised up to more internal levels he passes from the dull light on the level of the senses to a quite gentle light. At the same time he is removed from the inflow of what is disgraceful or foul and is brought closer to what is just and fair, because he is brought closer to the angels present with him, thus closer to the light of heaven. This raising up from the level of the senses was well-known to the ancients, and also to gentiles; and that is why the sages among them have said that when the mind is removed from the sensory level, it comes into inner light and at the same time into a state filled with peace and into a kind of heavenly bliss. From this they also made deductions about the immortality of the mind. A person can be raised to even more internal levels; and the further he goes, the clearer is the light that he comes into. At length he is raised up into the light of heaven, a light that is nothing else than wisdom and intelligence from the Lord. With the three heavens nothing else marks off one from another than the internal levels to which it is raised, and so also the degree of light that it possesses. Because it exists at the inmost levels the third heaven is in the greatest light, thus in wisdom far surpassing the wisdom of lower heavens.