Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3633

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3633. To themselves all spirits and angels look like men and women, having the same kind of faces and bodies as men and women do, together with organs and limbs. The reason for this is that their inmost being endeavours to produce that form, even as the primitive cell of the human being, which originates in the soul of the parent, strives in the ovum and womb to form the complete human being, though this first cell does not possess the form of a body but another most perfect form known only to the Lord. And because in a similar way the inmost being with every spirit or angel endeavours and strives to produce such a form, all in the spiritual world consequently look like men and women. What is more, the whole of heaven is such that every one is so to speak the focal point of all, for he is the focal point of influxes coming through the heavenly form from all. Consequently the image of heaven is reproduced in everyone, making him a likeness of heaven and so a human being; for the character of the general whole determines that of any part of the general whole, since the parts must be like their general whole if they are to belong to it.


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