85.  That there is any other sun than that of the natural world has hitherto been unknown.  The reason is, that the spiritual of man has so far passed over into his natural, that he does not know what the spiritual is, and thus does not know that there is a spiritual world, the abode of spirits and angels, other than and different from the natural world.  Since the spiritual world has lain so deeply hidden from the knowledge of those who are in the natural world, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit, that I might see the things which are in that world, just as I see those in the natural world, and might afterwards describe that world; which has been done in the work Heaven and Hell, in one chapter of which the sun of the spiritual world is treated of.  For that sun has been seen by me; and it appeared of the same size as the sun of the natural world; also fiery like it, but more glowing.  It has also been made known to me that the whole angelic heaven is under that sun; and that angels of the third heaven see it constantly, angels of the second heaven very often, and angels of the first or outmost heaven sometimes.  That all their heat and all their light, as well as all things that are manifest in that world, are from that sun will be seen in what follows.

86.  That sun is not the Lord Himself, but is from the Lord.  It is the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom proceeding from Him that appear as a sun in that world.  And because Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one (as shown in Part I.), that sun is said to be Divine Love; for Divine Wisdom is of Divine Love, consequently is Love.

87.  Since love and fire mutually correspond, that sun appears before the eyes of the angels as fiery; for angels cannot see love with their eyes, but they see in the place of love what corresponds to it.  For angels, equally with men, have an internal and an external; it is their internal that thinks and is wise, and that wills and loves; it is their external that feels, sees, speaks and acts.  All their externals are correspondences of internals; but the correspondences are spiritual, not natural.  Moreover, Divine love is felt as fire by spiritual beings.  For this reason “fire,” when mentioned in the Word, signifies love.  In the Israelitish Church, “holy fire” signified love; and this is why, in prayers to God, it is customary to ask that “heavenly fire,” that is Divine Love, “may kindle the heart.”

88.  With such a difference between the spiritual and the natural (as shown above, n. 83), nothing from the sun of the natural world, that is, nothing of its heat and light, nor anything pertaining to any earthly object, can pass over into the spiritual world.  To the spiritual world the light of the natural world is thick darkness, and its heat is death.  Nevertheless, the heat of the world can be vivified by the influx of heavenly heat, and the light of the world can be illumined by the influx of heavenly light.  Influx is effected by correspondences; and it cannot be effected by continuity.