Responding to the Question: “Separate heaven in 2 kingdoms and 3 levels? Really? Why is that? Just one heaven and everybody there you can have access, and all the places, some places in heaven are better than others and some people are more enlightened than others, but you don’t need to have 3 heavens. What about if your parents went to the first level and you to the second or third, you’ll never see them anymore?”

There are no restrictions, no one saying you aren’t “allowed”

“… after death no one is prevented from coming up into heaven. We are shown the way and given the resources, and we are let in.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 338)

Perhaps “distinct” is a better word than “seperate” – for example, the human body has distinct organs and systems, yet the body itself is one, and each of the organs, though distinct, is essential for the healthy functioning of the whole body. Swedenborg describes the whole of heaven as in the image of a person, the “Universal Human”:

“As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 73)

This is our own form! The human form. WITHIN THAT FORM, there are: Kingdoms and Degrees or levels.

Kingdoms: have reference to a “king” – that is the ruling principle. They are: Love-good-will and Wisdom-truth-understanding. We all operate from a different relationship to the two ruling principles, the “kingdoms”.

Degrees or Levels (“Heavens”): we’re talking about deeper LEVELS of the mind. They correspond to one another, there is a relationship between them, yet higher levels transcends the lower ones. The levels or degrees are:

  • Celestial – Love [Will] – Love to the Lord – End [motivation, goal] – head
  • Spiritual – Wisdom [Understanding] – Love to the neighbour – Cause – body
  • Natural – Use [Action] – Obedience and faith – Effect [manifestation] – legs

What is it like to live from different levels? Can we understand it?

  • Love of doing one’s duty and external morality (honestly, not hypocritically) vs love to the neighbour vs love to the Lord.
  • The Golden rule – the ice cream example.

The natural heaven, though perhaps less “enlightened”, nevertheless performs an essential function in grounding the higher heavens.

These levels are represented in the construction of the temple and the tabernacle:

  • The outer court – the natural – conscious and subconscious, experience Altar and Sea – actions of external religion – offering and self examination
  • The holy place – the spiritual – the furniture speaks of the connection (CORRESPONDENCE) between the levels – Bread and Light (receiving love and wisdom), Incense (offering prayer)
  • The holy of holies – the celestial – the Ark – presence of the Lord
  • Note the three levels of chambers on the outer wall of the temple
  • Taj Mahal, similarly – Joe Vandermeer, Friday 24 November

King David – Building the Lord’s house (2 Samuel 7) – what does that look like? It is the human form – which we all partake of. We have our own, particular place in it, the centre from which we operate. There is a place for everyone: “In My Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2)

Being “more evolved”, attaining a “higher heaven”? In a sense it doesn’t matter what level or kingdom you operate from – we can seek these things from a sense of ego or pride – it is that you are seeking to operate from a heavenly perspective … Which is to be led by the Lord. David didn’t build the house, he had to await the Lord’s plans, but he expressed the wish to do so – reiterated by his son, Solomon.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, They labour in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1a)

Recorded on Sunday 3 December 2023