28. I. HEAVEN IS CONJUNCTION WITH THE LORD. Heaven is not heaven from the angels but from the Lord; for the love and wisdom in which the angels are and which constitute heaven, are not from the angels but from the Lord, and are, in fact, the Lord in them. And since love and wisdom are the Lord's and are the Lord in heaven, and since love and wisdom constitute the life of the angels, it is clear that their life is the Lord's, and in fact is the Lord. The angels themselves confess that they live from the Lord; hence it may be evident that heaven is conjunction with the Lord. Since, however, conjunction with the Lord varies in degree, and heaven accordingly is not the same to one as to another, it also follows that heaven is according to the conjunction with the Lord. It will be seen in the following article that there is conjunction which is closer and closer, and also conjunction which is more and more remote. [2] Something will here be said about this conjunction, how it is effected and what is its nature. It is a conjunction of the Lord with the angels, and of the angels with the Lord, and is therefore reciprocal. The Lord flows into the life's love of the angels, and the angels receive Him in wisdom, and thereby they in turn conjoin themselves to the Lord. It should be clearly understood, however, that while to the angels the appearance is that they conjoin themselves to the Lord by means of wisdom, it is in fact the Lord who conjoins them to Himself by wisdom; for their wisdom is also from the Lord. It is the same if it is said that the Lord conjoins Himself to the angels by means of good, and that the angels in their turn conjoin themselves to the Lord by means of truth; for all good pertains to love, and all truth to wisdom. [3] As this reciprocal conjunction, however, is an arcanum that few can understand without explanation, I will unfold it, as far as possible, by means of such things as are adapted to the comprehension. In the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM (n. 404, 405), it is shown how love conjoins itself to wisdom, namely, through an affection for knowing, from which comes an affection for truth, and through an affection for understanding, from which comes a perception of truth, and through an affection for seeing what is known and understood, from which comes thought. The Lord flows into all these affections, for they spring from the life's love of everyone; and this influx is received by the angels in the perception of truth and in thought; for in these the influx becomes apparent to them, but not in the affections. [4] Now since perceptions and thoughts appear to the angels as if they were their own, although they are from affections which are from the Lord, therefore there is this appearance that the angels conjoin themselves reciprocally to the Lord, although it is the Lord who conjoins them to Himself; for affection itself produces the perceptions and thoughts, as affection, which pertains to love, is their soul. For no one can perceive and think anything without affection, and everyone perceives and thinks according to affection. From this it is clear that the reciprocal conjunction of angels with the Lord is not from the angels, but only seems to be from them. Such also is the conjunction of the Lord with the Church and of the Church with the Lord, which is called the celestial and spiritual marriage.