124. THE QUARTERS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD ARE NOT FROM THE LORD AS A SUN, BUT FROM THE ANGELS ACCORDING TO RECEPTION.
It has been stated that the angels dwell separate from each other; some in the eastern quarter, some in the western, some in the southern, and some in the northern; and that those who dwell in the eastern quarter are in a higher degree of love; those in the western, in a lower degree of love; those in the southern, in the light of wisdom; and those in the northern, in the shade of wisdom. This diversity of dwelling-places appears as though it were from the Lord as a sun, when, in fact it is from the angels. The Lord is not in a greater and lesser degree of love and wisdom, that is, as a sun He is not in a greater or lesser degree of heat and light with one than with another, for He is everywhere the same. But He is not received by one in the same degree as by another; and this makes them appear to themselves to be more or less distant from one another, and also variously as regards the quarters. From this it follows that quarters - in the spiritual world are nothing else than various receptions of love and wisdom, and thence of heat and light from the Lord as a sun. That this is so is plain from what was shown above (n. 108-112), that in the spiritual world distances are appearances.