9673. 'With cherubs' means watchfulness, guarding against the intermingling of the two - of spiritual good and celestial good, and so of the middle heaven and the inmost heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'cherubs' as watchfulness and providence, guarding against access to the Lord except through good and guarding against any harm being done to the good from the Lord which is present in heaven and with a person, dealt with in 9509. The reason why guarding against the intermingling of spiritual good and celestial good, and so of those two heavens, is also meant is that if they did become intermingled they would both suffer harm, harm so serious that those actual heavens would be destroyed, as may be recognized from the difference between the two kinds of good, and so between the two heavens, spoken about in the places referred to above in 9670. For this reason there are intermediate angelic communities, among whom celestial-spiritual good exists and spiritual-celestial good; and through these communities the two heavens are linked together, 9670, 9671. Even with these communities the two forms of good have not been joined together, but exist distinct and separate from each other. From all this it is evident that those communities are guards, protecting both kinds of good from becoming intermingled, and therefore also that this watchfulness and providence which are the Lord's are meant by 'cherubs'.

9671. 'From violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen' means the forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together there. This is clear from the meaning of 'violet' as the celestial love of truth, dealt with in 9466; from the meaning of 'purple' as the celestial love of good, dealt with in 9467; from the meaning of 'twice-dyed scarlet' as spiritual good, dealt with in 4922, 9468; and from the meaning of 'fine twined linen' as truth from a celestial origin, dealt with in 9469. From all this it is evident that those four mean forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together within the uniting intermediary. The implications of this are that those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary represented by the veil have forms of the good of love and forms of the good of faith joined together within themselves. Through the forms of the good of love they are joined to celestial angels who are in the inmost heaven, and through the forms of the good of faith to the spiritual ones who are in the middle heaven. For the good of love to the Lord is called celestial good, and the good of faith in Him is called spiritual good.

[2] Those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary are called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial, the former being represented in the Word by Joseph, the latter by Benjamin. For the meaning of Joseph in the representative sense as the celestial-spiritual, see 4286, 4592, 4963, 5249, 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5869, 5877, 6224, 6526, and Benjamin as the spiritual-celestial, 3969, 4592. Joseph is accordingly the internal uniting intermediary and Benjamin the external uniting intermediary, 4585, 4592, 4594, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 5822. What the celestial-spiritual and the spiritual-celestial are, see 1577, 1824, 2184, 4585, 4592, 4594.

[3] The difference between those in the heavens who are celestial and those who are spiritual may also be recognized from their opposites in the hells. Those in the hells who are the opposites of celestial angels are called genii, while those in them who are the contraries of spiritual angels are called spirits. The genii, the opposites of celestial angels, are at the back, whereas the spirits, the opposites of spiritual ones, are at the front; and those between genii and spirits are at the sides. Being the opposites of celestial angels the genii are steeped in evil more internal than that present with spirits. Regarding spirits and genii, see what has been said about them from experience in 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. The hell of genii has been set completely apart from the hell of spirits, so completely that those in one cannot pass over into the other. For there are intermediate spirits there who link the two together; and these spirits are the opposites of the intermediate angels in the heavens.