124 HEAVEN and HELL §240
d. There are countless things within a single concept: 1008 , 1869 , 4946 , 6613 , 6614 , 6615 , 6617 ,
6618. Our concepts are opened in the other life, with a vivid visual presentation of their quality:
1869 , 3310 , 5510. What they look like: 6201 [ 6200 ], 8885. The concepts of angels of the inmost
heaven look like the light of a fl ame: 6615. The concepts of angels of the outmost heaven look like
faint, bright clouds: 6614. An angel’s concept was seen from which rays went forth toward the
Lord: 6620. Concepts of thought reach out far and wide on all sides in angelic communities:
6598 – 6613.or fl owing atmosphere in which there are countless elements in their own
pattern, elements of their wisdom that enter into thought at a higher
level and stir the affections. The individual ideas of anyone—whether an
angel or one of us—can be presented visually in heaven’s light when it so
pleases the Lord.d241 Angels who live in the Lord’s heavenly kingdom talk much the same
way as angels who are citizens of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. However,
heavenly angels talk from a deeper level of thought than spiritual angels
do. Further, since heavenly angels are attuned to the good of love for the
Lord, they talk from wisdom, while spiritual angels—being attuned to
the good of thoughtfulness toward their neighbor (which in its essence is
truth, see § 215 )—talk from intelligence. For wisdom comes from what is
good and intelligence from what is true.
The speech of heavenly angels is like a gentle stream, soft and virtu-
ally unbroken, while the speech of spiritual angels is a little more reso-
nant and crisp. Then too, the vowels U and O tend to predominate in
the speech of heavenly angels, while in the speech of spiritual angels it
is the vowels E and I. The vowels stand for the sound and in the sound
there is the affection; for as already noted (§ 236 ), the sound of angels’
speech is responsive to their affection, and the articulations of the
sound, or the words, correspond to the individual ideas that stem from
their affection. For this reason, the vowels do not belong to the lan-
guage but to a raising of its words, by means of sounds, toward various
affections according to the state of each individual. So in Hebrew the
vowels are not written and are also pronounced variously. This enables
angels to recognize what someone’s quality is in respect to affection
and love.
Further still, the language of heavenly angels lacks any hard conso-
nants and rarely puts two consonants together without inserting a word
that begins with a vowel. This is why the little word and is inserted so
often in the Word, as can be determined by people who read the Word