A "house" is essentially a container -- for a person, a family, several families or even a large group with shared interests (think of the term "houses of worship.") In the Bible, a "house" is also a container, but for spiritual things rather than natural things. In various uses a "house" can represent part of the mind, the whole mind, a whole person or even a church. The other nuance to the word "house" is that it is generally used in regards to our affections and desires rather than our thoughts and principles. This makes sense; we tend to engage our thoughts and rationality when we are out in the world doing our work, but when we are inside our houses we are driven most by love for our families and the desire to be good to those we love. So "house" tends to represent the things we want and care about -- which are ultimately the things that define us.

8630. Since the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter acquire intelligence in a different way than the inhabitants of our planet, and are in addition of different disposition by virtue of their life, they cannot stay together with them. If any from our planet come near they either flee from them or drive them away. Spheres exist, which must be called spiritual spheres, which constantly emanate from, indeed well out of each community. Those spheres flow from the activity of members' affections and resulting thoughts, and so are emanations of the actual life within them. Regarding spheres, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504, 1505, 1507, 1508, 1510-1519, 2401, 4464, 5179, 6206, 6598-6613, 7454, 8063.

[2] Associations in the next life are determined in every instance by such spheres. Those that agree with one another are fused together in the measure that they agree, and those that disagree are driven apart to the extent that they disagree. Each province in the Grand Man, to which some member or organ in the human body corresponds, has its own sphere, distinct and separate from the sphere of another province. So it is that those who belong to the same province are linked together, and those who belong to different ones are separated. Spirits and angels who come from the planet Jupiter correlate in the Grand Man with THE ABILITY TO FORM MENTAL IMAGES, and so with the state of activity taking place in the interior parts. But spirits belonging to our planet correlate with various functions performed by the exterior parts of the body, into which the ability to form mental images cannot enter, since those spirits wish to be in control. Hence the antagonism between the spheres.