210 HEAVEN and HELL §365
knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the
Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the
Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in
pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to
effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the
direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by
the rich in the Word.
[ 4 ] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual
level “the rich” in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into
what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves,
which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10 : 12 , 13 , 14 ; 30 : 6 , 7 ; 45 : 3 ; Jeremiah
17 : 3 ; 47 : 7 [ 48 : 7 ]; 50 : 36 – 37 ; 51 : 13 ; Daniel 5 : 2 – 4 ; Ezekiel 26 : 7 , 12 ; 27 : 1 – 36 ;
Zechariah 9 : 3 – 4 ; Psalms 45 : 12 ; Hosea 12 : 9 ; Revelation 3 : 17 – 18 ; Luke
14 : 33 ; and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do
not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see
Matthew 11 : 5 ; Luke 6 : 20 – 21 ; 14 : 21 ; Isaiah 14 : 30 ; 29 : 19 ; 41 : 17 – 18 ; Zephaniah
3 : 12 , 18 [ 13 ]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages
may be found in § 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.Marriages in Heaven
366
S
INCE heaven comes from the human race, which means that there
are angels of both sexes there, and since by creation itself woman is
for man and man for woman, each for the other, and since this love is
inborn in both sexes, it follows that there are marriages in the heavens
just as there are on earth. However, the marriages in the heavens are very
different from earthly ones. In the following pages I will be explaining
how marriages in the heavens do differ from earthly ones and in what
respects they agree.367 Marriage in the heavens is the union of two people into one mind.
First, I need to explain the nature of this union. The mind consists of
two parts, one called intellect and the other called volition. When these two
parts are acting as one, we call them one mind. In heaven, the husband
plays the role labeled intellect and the wife the role called volition. When
this union—a union of their deeper natures—comes down into their