§115 earth corresponds to heaven 63
j. On the spiritual meaning of the Word, see the booklet The White Horse Described in the Book of
Revelation.
k. By reason of correspondence, gold means heavenly good: 113 , 1551 , 1552 , 5658 , 6914 , 6917 , 9510 ,
9874 , 9881. Silver means spiritual good, or truth from a heavenly source: 1551 , 1552 , 2954 , 5648
[ 5658 ]. Bronze means natural good: 425 , 1551. Iron means truth on the lowest level of the design:
425 , 426.
to know hidden treasures in it that we do not see at all in its literal mean-
ing. The Word does in fact have a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning.j
The literal meaning consists of the kind of things that are in our world,
while the spiritual meaning consists of the kind of things that are in
heaven; and since the union of heaven with our world is maintained by
correspondences, we have been given a Word in which the details corre-
spond, even down to the last jot.
I have been taught in heaven that the earliest people on our planet, 115
who were heavenly people, thought on the basis of actual correspon-
dences, and that the natural phenomena of the world that greeted their
eyes served them as means for thinking in this way. Because they were of
this character, they were in the company of angels and talked with them;
and in this way heaven was united to the world through them. There-
fore, that era was called the Golden Age. Classical authors described it as
a time when the inhabitants of heaven dwelt with mortals and kept them
company as friend with friend.
After their era, though, a people came who did not think from actual
correspondences but from a knowledge about correspondences. There
was still a union of heaven with humanity, but not such an intimate one.
Their era was called the Silver Age.
The people who came next were indeed familiar with correspon-
dences but did not do their thinking on the basis of their knowledge of
correspondences. This was because they were engrossed in what is good
on the natural level and not, like their ancestors, on the spiritual level.
Their era was called the Bronze Age.
I have been taught, lastly, that after that era humanity became more
and more externally minded and at last physically minded. Then the
knowledge of correspondences was completely lost, and with it any
awareness of heaven and of its riches.
The names of these ages—Golden, Silver, and Bronze—also come
from correspondence,k because gold, by reason of correspondence, means