1958. When a communication of inward things is also granted, there is not only the speaking of spirits, but a cognizance of their thoughts, and their feelings, and at the same time an awareness of what these are like, together with a still deeper or more universal thinking.
Then those generals, which have been called containers, are filled up to various degrees, some less and some more fully, as it pleases the Lord, and the inward parts are likewise purified, even until there is communication with angels. Nothing in the inward parts comes distinctly to view, but only that there is something there, in which many, very many elements are contained. Thus they contain countless elements-just so many generals again serving as containers for the understanding of the more inward angels, and so on.
In this manner is the transition from the world of spirits into the angelic heaven. For spirits cannot find out what angels are thinking, unless it is communicated to them according to the Lord's good pleasure. 1748, 14 May.
1958. When a communication of interiors is also given, there is not only a speech of spirits, but a knowledge also of their thoughts and affections, and at the same time a knowledge of their quality, together with a certain thought still more interior and more universal. Thus the common [receptacles], called vessels, are filled, but variously, some more scantily and some more fully, according to the good pleasures of the Lord. The interiors are in like manner purified even to communication with the angels; in which, however, nothing is perceived distinctly, but only that a thing is so and so, and that a vast multitude of such and such things are comprised in it. Thus they contain indefinite things, as do also the common vessels, so to term them, for the comprehension of the more interior angels, etc. In this way, there is a transition made from the world of spirits into the angelic heaven, for spirits are unable to know what the angels think unless it be communicated to them according to the Lord's good pleasure. - 1748, May 14.
1958. Cum interiorum communicatio quoque datur, non solum est loquela spirituum, sed cognitio eorum cogitationum, tum affectionum, et simul cognitio quales sunt, cum quadam cogitatione adhuc interiore ac universaliore 1
; sic implentur communia, quae vocata sunt vasa, varie, et quidem paucius et plenius 2
, secundum beneplacitum Domini, ac interiora similiter purificantur, usque ad communicationem cum angelis, in quibus quidem nihil distincte perspicitur, sed modo quod tale sit, in quo multa et perplurima talia insint; sic ea indefinita continent, totidem iterum communia, quasi vasa, pro comprehensione angelorum intimiorum, et sic porro. Sic transcenditur a mundo spirituum, in coelum angelicum, nam spiritus non scire possunt, quid angeli cogitant, nisi iis communicatur, secundum beneplacitum Domini. 1748, 14 Maj.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has universaliora
2. The Manuscript has plenium