136 HEAVEN and HELL §263
specifi c ones. Since one general entity involves countless specifi c ones,
numeric writing enfolds more mysteries than alphabetic writing does.
I could see from this that numbers in the Word mean things just the
way words do. What the simple numbers mean, like 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ,
and 12 , and what the composite ones mean, like 20 , 30 , 50 , 70 , 100 , 144 ,
1000 , 10 , 000 , and 12 , 000 and others, may be seen in Secrets of Heaven,
where such matters are dealt with.
In this kind of writing in heaven the number on which the follow-
ing numbers depend in sequence is always put fi rst, as though it set their
theme; for this number is a kind of title of the matter under consider-
ation, and the numbers that follow serve to delimit the matter more
specifi cally.264 If people have no concept of heaven and do not want any concept of
it other than one of some insubstantial atmosphere in which angels fl y
around like intellectual minds without the senses of hearing and sight,
they cannot believe that angels have language and writing. They locate
the entire presence of everything in matter. Yet the things that one fi nds
in heaven occur with just as much reality as those in our world, and the
angels who are there have everything they need for life, and everything
they need for wisdom.
The Wisdom of Heaven’s Angels
265
THE nature of the wisdom of heaven’s angels is almost beyond com-
prehension because it so transcends human wisdom that there are
no means of comparison, and anything transcendent seems to be noth-
ing at all. Still, there are a few overlooked means that can be used for
description, means which until they are recognized seem like shadows in
the mind and actually obscure the nature of the matter as it is in itself.
Yet they are the kinds of things that can be known, and can be under-
stood once they are known, if only the mind takes delight in them; for
since delight arises from love, it has a light with it; and for people who