60 HEAVEN and HELL §110
d. By reason of correspondence, a garden or paradise means intelligence and wisdom: 100 , 108 ;
from experience: 3220. Everything that corresponds has the same meaning in the Word as well:
2890 [ 2896 ], 2987 , 2989 , 2990 , 2971 [ 2991 ], 3002 , 3225.
e. Trees mean perceptions and experiential knowledge: 103 , 2163 , 2682 , 2722 , 2972 , 7692. So the
early people held their divine worship in groves, under particular trees depending on their corre-
spondence: 2722 , 4552. On the infl ow of heaven into members of the vegetable kingdom; for
example, into trees and small plants: 3648.
f. By reason of correspondence, foods mean the kind of things that nourish our spiritual life:
3114 , 4459 , 4792 , 4976 , 5147 , 5293 , 5340 , 5342 , 5410 , 5426 , 5576 , 5582 , 5588 , 5656 [ 5655 ], 5915 , 6277 ,
8562 , 9003.rams, sheep, male and female goats, male and female lambs, as well as
pigeons and turtledoves were accepted for holy use in the Israelite
church, which was a representative church. They used them for their
sacrifi ces and burnt offerings, and in these uses they did in fact corre-
spond to spiritual realities that are understood in heaven in accord with
their correspondence.
The reason animals are affections, according to their genera and spe-
cies, is that they are alive, and the only source of the life of any creature is
from affection and is in proportion to it. We humans are like animals as
far as our natural person is concerned, which is why we are compared to
them in colloquial usage. For example, we call a gentle person a sheep or
a lamb, a violent one a bear or a wolf, a crafty one a fox or a snake, and
so on.111 There is a similar correspondence with things in the plant kingdom.
A garden, in general terms, corresponds to heaven in respect to intelli-
gence and wisdom, which is why heaven is called the garden of God and
a paradise,d and why we call it a heavenly paradise.
Trees, species by species, correspond to perceptions and fi rsthand
knowledge of what is good and true, which yield intelligence and wis-
dom. So the early people, who were absorbed in the knowledge of corre-
spondences, held their holy worship in groves.e This is why trees are
mentioned so often in the Word and why heaven, the church, and peo-
ple are compared to them—to the vine, for example, the olive, the cedar,
and others—and the good we do is compared to fruit.
Further, the foods we derive from them, especially the ones we get
from crops planted in fi elds, correspond to affections for what is good
and true because they nourish our spiritual life the way earthly foods
nourish our natural life.f
Bread, generally speaking, corresponds to an affection for whatever
is good because it is the mainstay of life and because it is used to mean