§207 form & communication 107
f. Thought fl ows outward into surrounding communities of spirits and angels: 6600 – 6605. Still,
it does not agitate or disturb the thoughts of the communities: 6601 , 6603.
g. What is good recognizes its appropriate truth, and what is true recognizes its good: 2429 , 3101 ,
3102 , 3161 , 3179 , 3180 , 4358 , 5407 [ 5704 ], 5835 , 9637. This is the source of the union of what is
good and what is true: 3834 , 4096 , 4097 , 4301 , 4345 , 4353 , 4364 , 4368 , 5365 , 7623 – 7627 , 7752 –
7762 , 8530 , 9258 , 10555 ; and this happens because of heaven’s infl ow: 9079.
it, but is a communication with the quality in which they participate and
which reaches out from them.f
All the people in heaven are grouped according to spiritual affi nities, 205
which are matters of what is good and true in their pattern—the same
way in the whole heaven as in each community and in each household.
This is why angels who are involved in similar good and true activities
recognize each other the way relatives and kindred spirits do on earth—
just as though they had known each other from infancy.
The good and true elements that make up intelligence and wisdom
are similarly arranged within each individual angel. They recognize each
other in much the same way, and as they recognize each other, they
unite.g
As a result, people in whom things good and true are united accord-
ing to heaven’s form see things that follow in their sequence and how
things fi t together far and wide around them. It is different for people in
whom things good and true are not united according to heaven’s form.
In each heaven, this is the form that determines communication and 206
the outreach of thoughts and affections for angels and therefore determines
their intelligence and wisdom. The communication of one heaven with
another, though, is different—that of the third or inmost heaven with the
second or intermediate, and of these two with the fi rst or outmost. In fact,
the communication between heavens should not be called “communica-
tion” but “infl ow,” which we now need to say something about. On the
three heavens and their differentiation, see the appropriate chapter above
(§§ 29 – 40 ).
We may conclude from the way the heavens are situated in relation to 207
each other that there is not a communication of one heaven with another
but an infl ow. The third or inmost heaven is above, the second or inter-
mediate is lower, and the fi rst or outmost is still lower. It is much the
same for all the communities of each heaven: for example, there are some
in lofty places that look like mountains (see § 188 ), with people from the