919. 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp. This symbolically means that people of the New Church will not be caught up in self-love and their own intelligence and so possess a natural sight only, but from the Word's Divine truth will possess a spiritual light from the Lord alone.

The sun here symbolizes natural love divorced from spiritual love, which is self-love. And the moon symbolizes a natural intelligence and faith divorced from a spiritual intelligence and faith, which is one's native intelligence and a self-made faith. This is the love and the intelligence and faith symbolized by the sun and moon here, which people of the Lord's New Church will have no need of to light their sight.

The glory of God which illumines the city symbolizes the Word's Divine truth (no. 629), and because that illumination or enlightenment comes from the Lord, we are told as well that the Lamb is its lamp.

The symbolism here is similar to that found in the following verses in Isaiah:

You shall call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but Jehovah will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon wane; for Jehovah will be your everlasting light... Your people shall all be righteous. (Isaiah 60:18-21)

The sun and moon that will no longer give light mean self-love and one's native intelligence. And the sun and moon that will no longer go down mean love from the Lord for the Lord, and an intelligence and faith from Him. That Jehovah will be an everlasting light has the same symbolic meaning as what is said here, that the glory of God will illumine the city and the Lamb be its lamp.

That the sun symbolizes love for the Lord, and in an opposite sense self-love, may be seen in nos. 53 and 414 above. And that the moon symbolizes intelligence from the Lord and faith from Him, in nos. 332, 413, 414. Thus the moon in an opposite sense symbolizes one's native intelligence and a self-made faith.

Since the sun in an opposite sense symbolizes self-love, and the moon one's native intelligence and a self-made faith, therefore it was an abomination to worship the sun, moon and stars, as may be seen in Jeremiah 8:1-2.

260. And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able. This symbolically means that no one in the higher heavens or in the lower heavens [had the power].

In heaven, on the earth, and under the earth mean in the higher and lower heavens, as also below in verse 13, where these words occur:

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying... [Revelation 5:13]

Because John heard them all speaking, it is apparent that the speakers were angels and spirits, inasmuch as John was in the spirit, as he himself says in the preceding chapter (4:2), and when he was in that state the only earth that appeared to him was that of the spiritual world. For there are lands there as in the natural world, as can be seen from the description of that world in the book Heaven and Hell, and in The Last Judgment (Supplement) 32-38.

The higher heavens in the spiritual world appear on mountains and hills, the lower heavens on lands below, and the lowest heavens as though underground. For the heavens are expanses, one above another, and each expanse is as ground beneath the feet of its inhabitants. The highest expanse is like a mountaintop, with the second expanse below it, but one spreading more broadly all around, with the lowest expanse being still more broadly spread. And because the last exists below the second, its inhabitants are those who are below ground.

The three heavens also so appear to angels in the higher heavens, because to them there are two heavens below them. To John they appeared likewise, therefore, for he was in the presence of those higher angels, having ascended to them, as is apparent from chapter 4:1, where he is told, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."

Someone who knows nothing of the spiritual world and the lands there cannot possibly know what "under the earth" means, or by the same token what the lower parts of the earth in the Word mean, as in Isaiah,

Sing, O heavens...! Exult, you lower parts of the earth; ring with singing, you mountains...! For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob... (Isaiah 44:23)

And so elsewhere.

Who does not see that the lands of the spiritual world are meant there? For no one lives underground in the natural world.