From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Such an order has been instituted by the Lord that higher things inflow into lower ones, and therein present an image of themselves in general, and consequently are together therein in a certain general form, and thus are in order from the Highest, that is, from the Lord.From this it is that the proximate image of the Lord is the inmost heaven, which is the heaven of innocence and peace, where those who are celestial dwell; which heaven, because nearest to the Lord, is called His "likeness."
The next heaven, namely, that which succeeds and is in a lower degree, is an "image" of the Lord, because in this heaven, as in something general, there are simultaneously presented the things which are in the higher heaven.
The ultimate heaven, which succeeds this again, is similarly circumstanced, for the particulars and singulars of the heaven next higher inflow into this heaven, and are therein presented in general, and in a correspondent form.
The case is similar with man, for he has been created and formed to be an image of the three heavens.
In man that which is inmost inflows in like manner into that which is lower; and this in like manner into that which is lowest or last. The natural and corporeal consists of such an influx and concourse into those things which are beneath, and finally into those which are last. In this way there is a connection of the last or ultimate things with the first, without which connection that which is last in order would not subsist a single moment.
Thus it is manifest what is meant by higher things being in the ultimate of order as in their house. Whether we speak of things higher and lower, or interior and exterior, it is the same; for to man's view things interior appear as higher; and for this reason man places heaven on high, when yet it is in what is internal.
(Arcana Coelestia 3739)