532. To the above I will add the following Memorable Relation: As to my spirit I was once taken up into the angelic heaven and into one of its societies. Some of the wise men there then came to me and asked, "What news from earth?" I told them: "This is new: The Lord has revealed arcana which surpass in excellence the arcana hitherto revealed from the beginning of the Church." To their question, "What are these arcana?" I answered, "They are these:
"1. That in the word, in each and every part thereof, there is a spiritual sense corresponding to the natural sense; that by this sense, the men of the Church have conjunction with the Lord and consociation with angels; and that in it resides the holiness of the word.
"2. The correspondences of which the spiritual sense of the Word consists have been disclosed."
The angels asked, "Did not the inhabitants of the globe know about correspondences before?" I said: "Nothing whatever. They have lain hidden now for some thousands of years, ever since the time of Job. With those who lived at that time and previous thereto, the science of correspondences was the science of sciences from which they had their wisdom, because from it they had knowledge concerning things spiritual, being the things of heaven and hence of the church. But when this science was turned into an idolatrous science, then, of the Lord's Divine Providence it was so obliterated and destroyed that no one saw any sign of it. Still, it has now been disclosed by the Lord in order that men of the church may have conjunction with Him and consociation with angels. This is effected by means of the Word in which each and every thing is a correspondence." Greatly rejoicing that it had pleased the Lord to reveal this great arcanum, so deeply hidden for some thousands of years, the angels said, "This has been done to the end that the Christian Church, which is founded upon the word and is now at its end, may again revive and draw breath through heaven from the Lord." They then asked whether by means of that science t had been now disclosed what is signified by Baptism and the Holy Supper, about which men have hitherto thought so variously. I answered that this is now disclosed.
3. I said further, "A revelation has at this day been made by the Lord respecting the life of men after death." Whereupon the angels said, "Why about life after death? Who does not know that man lives after death?" I replied: "Men know of it and do not know. They say that what lives after death is not the man but his soul; that this lives as a spirit, and of the spirit they cherish an idea as of wind or ether; that men do not live as men until after the day of the last judgment; that their corporeal parts which they had left behind in the world, though eaten up by worms, mice, and fishes, will then be gathered up and again be fitted into a body, and that in this way men will rise again." the angels said: "What is this? Who does not know that after death man lives as a man, with the sole difference that he then lives as a spiritual man? and a spiritual man sees a spiritual man just as a material man a material, nor do they know a single distinction except that they are in a more perfect state?"
4. The angels then asked, "What do they know about our world? and about heaven and hell?" I said: "They have not known anything; but at this day the nature of the spiritual world in which angels and spirits live has been disclosed by the Lord, and thus the nature of heaven and the nature of hell; also that angels and spirits are in conjunction with men, besides many wonderful things about them." The angels were glad that it had pleased the Lord to disclose such things so that man from ignorance may no longer be in uncertainty respecting his immortality.
5. I said further: "At this day it has been revealed by the Lord that in your world there is a sun other than the sun in ours, and that the sun of your world is pure love, and the sun of our world pure fire; that therefore all that proceeds from your sun, this being pure love, partakes of life, and all that proceeds from ours, this being pure fire, takes nothing from life; and that thence is the difference between the spiritual and the natural. This difference, hitherto unknown, has also been disclosed, and thereby, it has been made known whence is the light which enlightens the human understanding with wisdom, and whence the heat which enkindles the human will with love.
6. "Moreover, it has been disclosed that there are three degrees of life, and hence three heavens; that the human mind is distinguished into these degrees, and that man thus corresponds to the three heavens." The angels said, "Did not men know this before?" I answered that they knew of the degrees between greater and less, but nothing of the degrees between the prior and the posterior.
7. The angels then asked whether any other new things had been revealed, and I said: "Many, being things concerning the Last Judgment; concerning the Lord, that He is the God of heaven and earth; that God is one, both in person and in essence, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord; also concerning the New Church to be established by Him, and concerning the doctrine of that Church; concerning the holiness of the Sacred Scripture. Moreover, the Apocalypse has been revealed, and this could not have been revealed, even as to the smallest verse, save by the Lord. Furthermore, revelation has been made concerning the inhabitants of the Planets and concerning the Earths in the Universe; besides many memorable and wonderful things from the spiritual world, whereby much that pertains to wisdom has been disclosed from heaven."
