we could pervert the spiritual meaning and even divert it to support
something false. This would be a violent attack on divine truth, and so on
heaven, where divine truth dwells. For this reason if any of us try on our
own, without the Lord, to open the spiritual meaning, heaven closes and
we either see nothing true or we become spiritually insane.
Another reason [why the spiritual meaning will be given only to peo-
ple who have genuine truths from the Lord] is that the Lord teaches us all
through the Word, using the concepts that we already have. He does not
pour new concepts directly into us. Therefore if we do not already have
divine truths, or we have only a few truths along with some falsities, we
are capable of falsifying truths, much the way any heretic does with the
Word’s literal meaning. To prevent any of us from getting into the spiri-
tual meaning and perverting the genuine truth that belongs to it, the Lord
has placed safeguards on that meaning, which are referred to in the Word
as angel guardians.
6. The Word has amazing qualities because of its spiritual meaning.In 209
the physical world, no amazing things happen because of the Word, since
its spiritual meaning does not appear here and the true nature of that
spiritual meaning is not being accepted at any deep level within us. In
the spiritual world, however, amazing things do happen because of the
Word, since all who are there are spiritual, and spiritual things affect spir-
itual people the way physical things affect physical people. There are
many amazing things that happen in the spiritual world because of the
Word; here I will mention just a few.
In the sanctuaries of church buildings in the spiritual world, the
Word itself shines like a giant star before the eyes of the angels. Some-
times it shines like the sun. The glow around it causes exquisitely beauti-
ful kinds of rainbows. This happens as soon as the sanctuary is opened.
[ 2 ] Each and every truth in the Word shines. This has been made
clear to me by the fact that when anyone writes a verse from the Word on
a piece of paper and throws it up in the air, the piece of paper generates a
glowing form that takes the shape of the cut paper. As a result, spirits are
able to use the Word to produce various light-emitting shapes such as
birds and fish.
Something that is even more amazing is that when people rub the
open Word—the writing itself—on their face or hands or the clothing
they have on, their face, hands, or clothing shines as if they themselves
were standing in a star and were surrounded by its light. I have very often
seen this and I have been amazed. This made clear to me why Moses’ face
§209 sacred scripture 287