5548. The first level, which is the innermost of the inward angels, is the Lord's Alone, and can be called the Lord's dwelling place itself in heaven, for an angel does not know what is taking place there. Nevertheless heaven is being governed by the Lord through the inmost. The second level of the inward angels is what actually does come to their awareness, but just as a person's inward self comes to the awareness of his or her outward self. There is a third level on which these angels are and where their perception takes place; their humanness is there, and their soul is on the second. Just as people on earth form ideas on the level of what is earthly or apprehended by the senses and not on the level of inner understanding, so too those angels have their outer nature on this level, as do all spirits, but it is at rest with them, and they do not know that they have it, so it is like the outer nature of a person when he sleeps. But still this outer nature is the plane of their inner qualities. Through this a communication takes place with those who are in outer things, or, in the spiritual world, through the heavenly-spiritual.
5548. The first degree, which is the inmost one with the internal, is the Lord's alone, and may be said to be the very dwelling-place of the Lord 1in heaven; for what is there transacted the angel does not know, but yet he is ruled by the Lord through it. The second degree with the internal, is one which comes to their perception indeed, like the internal of man does to that of his external. The third degree is the one in which these angels live, and where they have their perception: their human is there, and their soul in the second degree; just as man thinks in his natural and sensual, and not in the internal intellectual. Thus those in that heaven possess an external like all spirits; but it is quiescent with them, and they do not know that they have it: thus, it is quiescent like a man's external when he is asleep. But, still, that external is filled with their internals. Through it occurs the communication with those who are in externals, or in the spiritual world, 2by means of the celestial-spiritual.
Footnotes:
1. The inmost degree of the human mind is so described in Heaven and Hell, no. 39. -ED.
2. The phrase "spiritual world" seems to be employed here in a sense altogether unusual, as designating, namely, the "world," or region, in the other life, which the "spiritual" angels, as distinguished from the "celestial," inhabit. -ED.
5548. Primus gradus, quod est intimum apud internos, est Solius Domini, et dici potest ipsa habitatio Domini in coelo, nam quid ibi peragitur angelus non scit, sed usque per intimum id regitur a Domino, alter gradus apud internos, est quod quidem venit ad perceptionem eorum, sed sicut internum hominis ad externum ejus; tertius gradus est, in quo sunt illi angeli, et ubi habent suam perceptionem, humanum eorum ibi est, et anima eorum in secundo; sicut homo cogitat in suo naturali vel sensuali, et non in interno intellectuali, ita illi in eo habent quoque externum, sicut omnes spiritus, sed id quiescit apud illos, et non sciunt quod habeant, ita quiescit sicut externum hominis cum dormit; sed usque externum illud est planum internis illorum; per id fit communicatio cum illis qui in externis sunt, seu in spirituali mundo, per coelestes spirituales.