Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
People who think only from nature cannot comprehend that there is light in the heavens. Yet, such is the light in the heavens that it exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world. I have often seen that light even during the evening and night. At first, I marvelled when I heard angels saying that the light of the world is little more than a shadow in comparison with the light of heaven, but, having seen it, I can testify that it is so. The brightness and splendour are such as cannot be described. The things that I have seen in the heavens have been seen in that light, thus more clearly and distinctly than things in this world.The light of heaven is not a natural light like that of the world, but a spiritual light because it is from the Lord as a Sun, and that Sun is the Divine Love, as shown in the previous section. That which goes forth from the Lord as a Sun is called in the heavens Divine Truth although in essence it is Divine Good united to Divine Truth. From this the angels have light and heat, light from Divine Truth, and heat from Divine Good. So, it can be confirmed from this that the light of heaven from such a source is spiritual and not natural, likewise the heat.
The Divine Truth is light to the angels because angels are spiritual and not natural. Spiritual beings see from their Sun and natural beings from theirs. It is from Divine Truth that angels have understanding, and their understanding is their internal sight which flows into and produces their external sight. Therefore, in heaven whatever is seen from the Lord as the Sun appears in light. This being the source of light in heaven, the light there is varied in accordance with the reception of Divine Truth from the Lord, or what is the same, in accordance with the intelligence and wisdom in which the angels are, thus differently in the celestial kingdom and in the spiritual kingdom and differently in each particular society.
In the celestial kingdom, the light appears flaming because the angels there receive light from the Lord as a Sun; but in the spiritual kingdom, the light is white because the angels there receive light from the Lord as a Moon. So, too, the light is not the same in one society as in another. It differs in each society, those in the middle being in greater light and those around them in less light.
In a word, the angels have light in the same degree in which they are receptions of Divine Truth, that is, in intelligence and wisdom from the Lord. This is why the angels of heaven are called angels of light.
As the Lord in the heavens is Divine Truth, and the Divine Truth there is Light, so in the Word the Lord is called the Light, likewise every truth from Him, as in the following passages:
Jesus said, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8: 12.John says of the Lord,
As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. John 9.
Jesus said, Yet a little while is the Light with you. Walk while ye have the Light, lest darkness overtake you. . . . While ye have the Light, believe in the Light that ye may he sons of Light. . . . I have come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. John 12:35, 36, 46.
Light hath come into the world, but men have loved darkness rather than light. John 3:19.
This is the true Light which lighteneth every man. John 1:9.In these and other passages, the Lord is called the Light from the Divine Truth which is from Him, and the truth itself is called light.
The people that sit in darkness have seen a great light, and to them that were sitting in the shadow of death, light is sprung up. Matt. 4:16.
I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the gentiles. Isa. 42:6.
I have established thee for a light of the gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth. Isa. 49: 6.
The nations of them that are saved shall walk in His light. Rev. 21: 24.
Send out Thy Light and Thy Truth; let them lead me. Ps. 43: 3.
As light in the heavens is from the Lord as a Sun, so when He was transfigured before Peter, James and John,
His face appeared as the Sun, and His garments as the light shining and white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can whiten. Mark 20: 3; Matt. 17: 2.The Lord's garments had this appearance because they represented the Divine Truth which is from Him in the heavens. "Garments", in the Word, signify truths, consequently it is said in David,
Jehovah, Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment. Ps. 104: 2.That the light in the heavens is spiritual and moreover that this light is Divine Truth may be inferred from the fact that man also has spiritual light and has enlightenment from that light so far as he is in intelligence and wisdom from Divine Truth. Man's spiritual light is the light of his understanding, and the objects of that light are truths, which he arranges analytically into groups, forms into reasons, and from them draws conclusions in a series.
The natural man does not know that the light from which the understanding sees such things is the real light, for he neither sees it with his eyes nor perceives it in thought. Yet, there are many who recognize this light and distinguish it from the natural light in which those are who think naturally and not spiritually.
Those who take account of the world only, think naturally and attribute all things to nature; while those think spiritually who take account of heaven and attribute all things to the Divine.
It has many times been granted to me to perceive and also to see that there is a true light (lux) that enlightens the mind, wholly distinct from the light called the natural light (lumen). I have been raised up interiorly into that light by degrees, and as I was raised up, my understanding became so enlightened as to enable me to perceive what I did not perceive before, and finally such things as I could not even comprehend by thought from natural light. Sometimes I felt indignant that these things could not be comprehended when yet they were so clearly and plainly perceived in heavenly light. Since the understanding has its light, therefore it is said of it, as of the eye, that it sees and is in light when it perceives, and is in obscurity and shade when it does not perceive, and many similar expressions.
(Heaven and Hell 126-130)