296. There are three things in the Lord that are the Lord--a divine element of love, a divine element of wisdom, and a divine element of service. These three things are made visible outside the sun of the spiritual world--the divine element of love through its warmth, the divine element of wisdom through its light, and the divine element of service through the atmospheres that enclose it. On the emanation of warmth and light from the spiritual world's sun--warmth from the Lord's divine love and light from the Lord's divine wisdom--see 89-92 [93-98], 99-102, and 146-150. I now need to note that the third thing that emanates from the sun there is an atmosphere that serves as the vessel of warmth and light, and that it emanates from that divine aspect of the Lord that is called "service."

304. Because of this common origin of everything in the created universe, its smaller components have a similar characteristic. That is, they go from their beginning to their limits, limits that are in a relatively quiet state, in order to come to rest and persist. In the human body, this is how the fibers develop from their first forms until they become tendons, and the fibers together with their smaller vessels develop from their beginnings until they become cartilage and bone, where they become stable and durable.

Because there is this kind of process from beginnings to limits for our human fibers and vessels, there is a similar procession of the states of these fibers and vessels, their states being sensations, thoughts, and feelings. These too go through a sequence from their beginnings, where they are in the light, to their limits, where they are in darkness; or from their beginnings, where they are in warmth, to their limits, where they are not. Since they have this kind of progression, there is a similar progression for love and everything involved in it and for wisdom and everything involved in it. In short, this kind of progression is characteristic of everything in the created universe. This is just what I said in 222-229 above, that there are levels of both kinds in everything that has been created, no matter how large or small.

The reason there are both kinds of level in even the smallest things is that the spiritual sun is the sole substance that gives rise to everything, according to the spiritual concepts of angels (300).