98 HEAVEN and HELL §184
a. Angels have towns, palaces, and homes, described: 940 , 941 , 942 , 1116 , 1626 , 1627 , 1628 , 1630 ,
1631 , 4622.
b. Houses, and their contents, mean the things within us that are attributes of our minds, and
therefore mean our more inward natures: 710 , 2233 , 2234 [ 2231 ], 2719 [ 2454 ], 3128 , 3538 , 4973 ,
5023 , 6619 [ 6639 ], 6690 , 7353 , 7848 , 7910 , 7929 , 9150 ; and therefore matters of what is good and
true: 2233 , 2234 [ 2231 ], 2559 , 4982 , 7848 , 7929. Rooms and bedrooms mean the things that are
deeper within: 3900 , 5994 [ 5694 ], 7353. The roof of a house means the inmost: 3652 , 10184. A
wooden house means matters of good, and a stone house matters of truth: 3720.we call homes, but more beautiful. They have chambers, suites, and bed-
rooms in abundance, and courtyards with gardens, fl ower beds, and
lawns around them. Where there is some concentration of people, the
houses are adjoining, one near another, arranged in the form of a city
with streets and lanes and public squares, just like the ones we see in cit-
ies on our earth. I have been allowed to stroll along them and look
around wherever I wished, at times entering people’s homes. This has
happened when I was fully awake, with my inner sight opened.a185 I have seen palaces in heaven that were so splendid as to be beyond
description. Their upper stories shone as though they were made of pure
gold, and their lower ones as though they were made of precious gems.
Each palace seemed more splendid than the last. It was the same inside.
The rooms were graced with such lovely adornments that neither words
nor the arts and sciences are adequate to describe them. On the side that
faced south there were parklands where everything sparkled in the same
way, here and there the leaves like silver and the fruits like gold, while the
fl owers in their beds made virtual rainbows with their colors. On the
horizon of sight there were other palaces that framed the scene. The
architecture of heaven is like this, so that you might call it the very
essence of the art—and small wonder, since the art itself does come to us
from heaven.
Angels tell me that things like this and countless others even more
perfect are presented to their view by the Lord; but that such sights
actually delight their minds more than their eyes because they see cor-
respondences in the details, and through their correspondences they see
things divine.186 On this matter of correspondences, I have also been told that not
only the palaces and the homes but all the little things within and out-
side them correspond to the deeper qualities that they receive from the
Lord. In general terms, their houses correspond to the good that occu-
pies them and the items within their houses to the various things that
constitute that good.b The items that are outside the homes refer to true