together the meaning of the letters was that the Lord is also compassionate
to those who do evil.
The angels told me that the writing in the third heaven consists of
letters that are bent and curved in various ways, each of which contains
some meaning. The vowels in that writing indicate sounds that corre-
spond to different feelings of love. Angels in that heaven cannot pro-
nounce the vowel sounds of “i” and “e,” so instead they use “y” and “eu.”
They do use the vowel sounds of “a,” “o,” and “u” since these give a full
sound. There are some consonantal letters that these angels pronounce as
soft rather than hard. This is why some Hebrew letters have a dot inside
them as a sign to pronounce them as [hard, and no dot as a sign to pro-
nounce them as] soft. They said that pronouncing these letters as hard
was practiced in the spiritual heaven because the angels there focus on
truths and truth allows for hardness. The goodness among angels in the
Lord’s heavenly kingdom (the third heaven) does not allow for hardness.
The angels [with me] said that the written Word they have also has
curved letters with meaningful horns or tips.
All this makes it clear what these sayings of the Lord’s mean: “Not
one little letter or the tip of one letter will pass from the law until all of it
is fulfilled” (Matthew 5 : 18 ); and “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass
away than for the tip of one letter of the law to fall” (Luke 16 : 17 ).
The third memorable occurrence.Seven years ago, when I was remem- 279
bering that Moses mentions two books called The Wars of Jehovahand
The Pronouncements(Numbers 21 ), some angels became present and said
to me that these books were the ancient Word. Its historical portionwas
called The Wars of Jehovahand its prophetical portionwas called The Pro-
nouncements.The angels said that that Word is still preserved in heaven
and is used by ancient peoples there who had had that Word when they
were in the world. Some of the ancient peoples who are still using that
Word in heaven came from the land of Canaan and its neighbors, such as
Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria; Egypt; and Sidon, Tyre,
and Nineveh. The people in all these countries had symbolic worship
and therefore studied correspondences. The wisdom of their times was in
fact based on the study of correspondences. That study gave them inner
awareness and communication with the heavens. The people who knew
the correspondences in that Word were called “the wise” and “the intelli-
gent.” Later they were called “diviners” and “magi.”
[ 2 ] Since that Word was full of correspondences that referred indi-
rectly to heavenly and spiritual realities, and consequently many people
§279 sacred scripture 341